15 files changed, 64843 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/2857-0.txt b/2857-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25e546e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2857-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10165 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at www.gutenberg.org. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of
+the  country where you are located before using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Yellow God
+
+An Idol of Africa
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: October, 2001 [eBook #2857]
+
+Most recently updated: November 8, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: John Bickers, Dagny, Emma Dudding and David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***
+
+
+
+Illustration]
+
+
+THE YELLOW GOD
+
+
+AN IDOL OF AFRICA
+
+
+By H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I. SAHARA, LIMITED.
+CHAPTER II. THE YELLOW GOD.
+CHAPTER III. JEEKIE TELLS A TALE.
+CHAPTER IV. ALAN AND BARBARA.
+CHAPTER V. BARBARA MAKES A SPEECH.
+CHAPTER VI. MR. HASWELL LOSES HIS TEMPER.
+CHAPTER VII. THE DIARY.
+CHAPTER VIII. THE DWARF FOLK.
+CHAPTER IX. THE DAWN.
+CHAPTER X. BONSA TOWN.
+CHAPTER XI. THE HALL OF THE DEAD.
+CHAPTER XII. THE GOLD HOUSE.
+CHAPTER XIII. THE FEAST OF LITTLE BONSA.
+CHAPTER XIV. THE MOTHER OF JEEKIE.
+CHAPTER XV. ALAN FALLS ILL.
+CHAPTER XVI. WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN.
+CHAPTER XVII. THE END OF THE MUNGANA.
+CHAPTER XVIII. A MEETING IN THE FOREST.
+CHAPTER XIX. THE LAST OF THE ASIKI.
+CHAPTER XX. THE ASIKA’S MESSAGE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SAHARA, LIMITED.
+
+
+Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., M.P., sat in his office in the City of
+London. It  was a very magnificent office, quite one of the finest that
+could be found  within half a mile of the Mansion House. Its exterior
+was built of Aberdeen  granite, a material calculated to impress the
+prospective investor with a  comfortable sense of security. Other
+stucco, or even brick-built, offices might  crumble and fall in an
+actual or a financial sense, but this rock-like edifice  of granite,
+surmounted by a life-sized statue of Justice with her scales,  admired
+from either corner by pleasing effigies of Commerce and of Industry, 
+would surely endure any shock. Earthquake could scarcely shake its
+strong  foundations; panic and disaster would as soon affect the Bank of
+England. That  at least was the impression which it had been designed to
+convey, and not  without success.  
+
+“There is so much in externals,” Mr. Champers-Haswell, Sir
+Robert’s partner, would say in his cheerful voice. “We are all of
+us influenced by them, however unconsciously. Impress the public, my
+dear  Aylward. Let solemnity without suggest opulence within, and the
+bread, or  rather the granite, which you throw upon the waters will come
+back to you after  many days.”
+
+Mr. Aylward, for this conversation occurred before his merits or the
+depth of  his purse had been rewarded by a baronetcy, looked at his
+partner in the  impassive fashion for which he was famous, and answered:
+
+“You mix your metaphors, Haswell, but if you mean that the public are
+fools who must be caught by advertisement, I agree with you. Only this
+particular advertisement is expensive and I do not want to wait many
+days for  my reward. However, £20,000 one way or the other is a small
+matter, so tell  that architect to do the thing in granite.”
+
+Sir Robert Aylward sat in his own quiet room at the back of this
+enduring  building, a very splendid room that any Secretary of State
+might have envied,  but arranged in excellent taste. Its walls were
+panelled with figured teak, a  rich carpet made the footfall noiseless,
+an antique Venus stood upon a marble  pedestal in the corner, and over
+the mantelpiece hung a fine portrait by  Gainsborough, that of a certain
+Miss Aylward, a famous beauty in her day, with  whom, be it added, its
+present owner could boast no connection whatsoever.  
+
+Sir Robert was seated at his ebony desk playing with a pencil, and the
+light  from a cheerful fire fell upon his face.
+
+In its own way it was a remarkable face, as he appeared then in his four
+and  fortieth year; very pale but with a natural pallor, very well cut
+and on the  whole impressive. His eyes were dark, matching his black
+hair and pointed  beard, and his nose was straight and rather prominent.
+Perhaps the mouth was  his weakest feature, for there was a certain
+shiftiness about it, also the lips  were thick and slightly sensuous.
+Sir Robert knew this, and therefore he grew a  moustache to veil them
+somewhat. To a careful observer the general impression  given by this
+face was such as is left by the sudden sight of a waxen mask.  “How
+strong! How lifelike!” he would have said, “but of  course it isn’t
+real. There may be a man behind, or there may be wood,  but that’s only
+a mask.” Many people of perception had felt like  this about Sir Robert
+Aylward, namely, that under the mask of his pale  countenance dwelt a
+different being whom they did not know or appreciate.  
+
+If these had seen him at this moment of the opening of our story, they
+might  have held that Wisdom was justified of her children. For now in
+the solitude of  his splendid office, of a sudden Sir Robert’s mask
+seemed to fall from  him. His face broke up like ice beneath a thaw. He
+rose from his table and  began to walk up and down the room. He talked
+to himself aloud.  
+
+“Great Heavens!” he muttered, “what a game to have played,
+and it will go through. I believe that it will go through.”
+
+He stopped at the table, switched on an electric light and made a rapid
+calculation on the back of a letter with a blue pencil.
+
+“Yes,” he said, “that’s my share, a million and
+seventeen thousand pounds in cash, and two million in ordinary shares
+which can  be worked off at a discount—let us say another seven hundred
+and fifty  thousand, plus what I have got already—put that at only two
+hundred and  fifty thousand net. Two millions in all, which of course
+may or may not be  added to, probably not, unless the ordinaries boom,
+for I don’t mean to  speculate any more. That’s the end of twenty years’
+work, Robert  Aylward. And to think of it, eighteen months ago, although
+I seemed so rich, I  was on the verge of bankruptcy—the very verge, not
+worth five thousand  pounds. Now what did the trick? I wonder what did
+the trick?”  
+
+He walked down the room and stopped opposite the ancient marble, staring
+at  it—
+
+“Not Venus, I think,” he said, with a laugh, “Venus never
+made any man rich.” He turned and retraced his steps to the other end of
+the room, which was veiled in shadow. Here upon a second marble pedestal
+stood  an object that gleamed dimly through the gloom. It was about ten
+inches or a  foot high, but in that place nothing more could be seen of
+it, except that it  was yellow and had the general appearance of a toad.
+For some reason it seemed  to attract Sir Robert Aylward, for he halted
+to stare at it, then stretched out  his hand and switched on another
+lamp, in the hard brilliance of which the  thing upon the pedestal
+suddenly declared itself, leaping out of the darkness  into light. It
+was a terrible object, a monstrosity of indeterminate sex and  nature,
+but surmounted by a woman’s head and face of extraordinary, if  devilish
+loveliness, sunk back between high but grotesquely small shoulders, 
+like to those of a lizard, so that it glared upwards. The workmanship of
+the  thing was rude yet strangely powerful. Whatever there is cruel,
+whatever there  is devilish, whatever there is inhuman in the dark
+places of the world, shone  out of the jewelled eyes which were set in
+that yellow female face, yellow  because its substance was of gold, a
+face which seemed not to belong to the  embryonic legs beneath, for body
+there was none, but to float above them. A  hollow, life-sized mask with
+two tiny frog-like legs, that was the fashion of  it.  
+
+“You are an ugly brute,” muttered Sir Robert, contemplating this
+effigy, “but although I believe in nothing in heaven above or earth
+below, except the abysmal folly of the British public, I am bothered if
+I  don’t believe in you. At any rate from the day when Vernon brought
+you  into my office, my luck turned, and to judge from the smile on your
+sweet  countenance, I don’t think it is done with yet. I wonder what
+those  stones are in your eyes. Opals, I suppose, from the way they
+change colour.  They shine uncommonly to-day, I never remember them so
+bright.  I——”
+
+At this moment a knock came on the door. Sir Robert turned off the lamp
+and  walked back to the fireplace.
+
+“Come in,” he said, and as he spoke once more his pale face grew
+impassive and expressionless.
+
+The door opened and a clerk entered, an imposing-looking clerk with
+iron-grey  hair, who wore an irreproachable frock coat and patent
+leather boots. Advancing  to his master, he stood respectfully silent,
+waiting to be addressed. For quite  a long while Sir Robert looked over
+his head as though he did not see him; it  was a way of his. Then his
+eyes rested on the man dreamily and he remarked in  his cold, clear
+voice:  
+
+“I don’t think I rang, Jeffreys.”
+
+“No, Sir Robert,” answered the clerk, bowing as though he spoke to
+Royalty, “but there is a little matter about that article in _The
+Cynic_.”
+
+“Press business,” said Sir Robert, lifting his eyebrows; “you
+should know by this time that I do not attend to such details. See Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, or Major Vernon.”
+
+“They are both out at the moment, Sir Robert.”
+
+“Go on, then, Jeffreys,” replied the head of the firm with a
+resigned sigh, “only be brief. I am thinking.”
+
+The clerk bowed again.
+
+“The _Cynic_ people have just telephoned through about that article
+we sent them. I think you saw it, sir, and you may remember it
+begins——” and he read from a typewritten copy in his hand
+which was headed “Sahara, Limited”:
+
+“‘We are now privileged to announce that this mighty scheme which
+will turn a desert into a rolling sea bearing the commerce of nations
+and cause  the waste places of the earth to teem with population and to
+blossom like the  rose, has been completed in its necessary if dull
+financial details and will  within a few days be submitted to investors
+among whom it has already caused so  much excitement. These details we
+will deal with fully in succeeding articles,  and therefore now need
+only pause to say that the basis of capitalization  strikes us as
+wonderfully advantageous to the fortunate public who are asked to 
+participate in its vast prospective prosperity. Our present object is to
+speak  of its national and imperial aspects——’”  
+
+Sir Robert lifted his eyes in remonstrance:
+
+“How much more of that exceedingly dull and commonplace puff do you
+propose to read, Jeffreys?” he asked.
+
+“No more, Sir Robert. We are paying _The Cynic_ thirty guineas to
+insert this article, and the point is that they say that if they have to
+put in  the ‘national and imperial’ business they must have twenty
+more.”
+
+“Indeed, Jeffreys? Why?”
+
+“Because, Sir Robert—I will tell you, as you always like to hear
+the truth—their advertisement-editor is of opinion that Sahara Limited
+is  a national and imperial swindle. He says that he won’t drag the
+nation  and the empire into it in an editorial under fifty guineas.”
+
+A faint smile flickered on Sir Robert’s face.
+
+“Does he, indeed?” he asked. “I wonder at his moderation. Had
+I been in his place I should have asked more, for really the style is a
+little  flamboyant. Well, we don’t want to quarrel with them just
+now—feed  the sharks. But surely, Jeffreys, you didn’t come to disturb
+me about  such a trifle?”
+
+“Not altogether, Sir Robert. There is something more important. _The
+Daily Judge_ not only declines to put any article whatsoever, but
+refuses  our advertisement, and states that it means to criticize the
+prospectus  trenchantly.”
+
+“Ah!” said his master after a moment’s thought, “that
+_is_ rather serious, since people believe in the _Judge_ even when it
+is wrong. Offer them the advertisement at treble rates.”
+
+“It has been done, sir, and they still refuse.”
+
+Sir Robert walked to the corner of the room where the yellow object
+squatted on  its pedestal, and contemplated it a while, as a man often
+studies one thing  when he is thinking of another. It seemed to give him
+an idea, for he looked  over his shoulder and said:
+
+“That will do, Jeffreys. When Major Vernon comes in, give him my
+compliments and say that I should be obliged by a word or two with him.”
+
+The clerk bowed and went as noiselessly as he had entered.
+
+“Let’s see,” added Sir Robert to himself. “Old Jackson,
+the editor of _The Judge_, was a great friend of Vernon’s father,
+the late Sir William Vernon, G.C.B. I believe that he was engaged to be
+married  to his sister years ago, only she died or something. So the
+Major ought to be  able to get round him if anybody can. Only the worst
+of it is I don’t  altogether trust that young gentleman. It suited us to
+give him a share in the  business because he is an engineer who knows
+the country, and this Sahara  scheme was his notion, a very good one in
+a way, and for other reasons. Now he  shows signs of kicking over the
+traces, wants to know too much, is developing a  conscience, and so
+forth. As though the promoters of speculative companies had  any
+business with consciences. Ah! here he comes.”  
+
+Sir Robert seated himself at his desk and resumed his calculations upon
+a  half-sheet of note-paper, and that moment a clear, hearty voice was
+heard  speaking to the clerks in the outer office. Then came the sound
+of a strong,  firm footstep, the door opened and Major Alan Vernon
+appeared.  
+
+He was still quite a young man, not more than thirty-two or three years
+of age,  though he lacked the ultra robust and rubicund appearance which
+is typical of  so many Englishmen of his class at this period of life. A
+heavy bout of  blackwater fever acquired on service in West Africa,
+which would have killed  anyone of weaker constitution, had robbed his
+face of its bloom and left it  much sallower, if more interesting than
+once it had been. For in a way there  was interest about the face; also
+a certain charm. It was a good and honest  face with a rather eager,
+rather puzzled look, that of a man who has  imagination and ideas and
+who searches for the truth but fails to find it. As  for the charm, it
+lay for the most part in the pleasant, open smile and in the  frank but
+rather round brown eyes overhung by a somewhat massive forehead which 
+projected a little, or perhaps the severe illness already alluded to had
+caused  the rest of the face to sink. Though thin, the man was bigly
+built, with broad  shoulders and well-developed limbs, measuring a
+trifle under six feet in height.    
+
+Such was the outward appearance of Alan Vernon. As for his mind, it was
+able  enough in certain fashions, for instance those of engineering, and
+the  soldier-like faculties to which it had been trained; frank and
+kindly also, but  in other respects not quick, perhaps from its
+unsuspiciousness. Alan Vernon was  a man slow to discover ill and slower
+still to believe in it even when it  seemed to be discovered, a weakness
+that may have gone far to account for his  presence in the office of
+those eminent and brilliant financiers, Messrs.  Aylward &
+Champers-Haswell. Just now he looked a little worried, like a  fish out
+of water, or rather a fish which has begun to suspect the quality of 
+the water, something in its smell or taste.  
+
+“Jeffreys tells me that you want to see me, Sir Robert,” he said in
+his low and pleasant voice, looking at the baronet rather anxiously.
+
+“Yes, my dear Vernon, I wish to ask you to do something, if you kindly
+will, although it is not quite in your line. Old Jackson, the editor of
+_The  Judge_, is a friend of yours, isn’t he?”
+
+“He was a friend of my father’s, and I used to know him
+slightly.”
+
+“Well, that’s near enough. As I daresay you have heard, he is an
+unreasonable old beggar, and has taken a dislike to our Sahara scheme.
+Someone  has set him against it and he refuses to receive
+advertisements, threatens  criticisms, etc. Now the opposition of _The
+Judge_ or any other paper  won’t kill us, and if necessary we can fight,
+but at the same time it is  always wise to agree with your enemy while
+he is in the way, and in  short—would you mind going down and explaining
+his mistake to him?”  
+
+Before answering Major Vernon walked to the window leisurely and looked
+out.  
+
+“I don’t like asking favours from family friends,” he replied
+at length, “and, as you said, I think it isn’t quite my line.
+Though of course if it has anything to do with the engineering
+possibilities, I  shall be most happy to see him,” he added,
+brightening.  
+
+“I don’t know what it has to do with; that is what I shall be
+obliged if you will find out,” answered Sir Robert with some asperity.
+“One can’t divide a matter of this sort into watertight
+compartments. It is true that in so important a concern each of us has
+charge  of his own division, but the fact remains that we are jointly
+and severally  responsible for the whole. I am not sure that you bear
+this sufficiently in  mind, my dear Vernon,” he added with slow
+emphasis.  
+
+His partner moved quickly; it might almost have been said that he
+shivered,  though whether the movement, or the shiver, was produced by
+the argument of  joint and several liability or by the familiarity of
+the “my dear  Vernon,” remains uncertain. Perhaps it was the latter,
+since although the  elder man was a baronet and the younger only a
+retired Major of Engineers, the  gulf between them, as any one of
+discernment could see, was wide. They were  born, lived, and moved in
+different spheres unbridged by any common element or  impulse.
+
+“I think that I do bear it in mind, especially of late, Sir
+Robert,” answered Alan Vernon slowly.
+
+His partner threw a searching glance on him, for he felt that there was
+meaning  in the words, but only said:
+
+“That’s all right. My motor is outside and will take you to Fleet
+Street in no time. Meanwhile you might tell them to telephone that you
+are  coming, and perhaps you will just look in when you get back. I
+haven’t  got to go to the House to-night, so shall be here till dinner
+time, and so, I  think, will your cousin Haswell. Muzzle that old
+bulldog, Jackson, somehow. No  doubt he has his price like the rest of
+them, in meal or malt, and you  needn’t stick at the figure. We don’t
+want him hanging on our  throat for the next week or two.”
+
+Ten minutes later the splendid, two-thousand guinea motor brougham drew
+up at  the offices of the _Judge_ and the obsequious motor-footman bowed
+Major  Vernon through its rather grimy doorway. Within, a small boy in a
+kind of box  asked his business, and when he heard his name, said that
+the  “Guvnor” had sent down word that he was go up at once—third
+floor, first to the right and second to the left. So up he went, and
+when he  reached the indicated locality was taken possession of by a
+worried-looking  clerk who had evidently been waiting for him, and
+almost thrust through a door  to find himself in a big, worn, untidy
+room. At a huge desk in this room sat an  elderly man, also big, worn,
+and untidy-looking, who waved a long slip of  galley-proof in his hand,
+and was engaged in scolding a sub-editor.  
+
+“Who is that?” he said, wheeling round. “I’m busy,
+can’t see anyone.”
+
+“I beg your pardon,” answered the Major with humility, “your
+people told me to come up. My name is Alan Vernon.”
+
+“Oh! I remember. Sit down for a moment, will you, and—Mr. Thomas,
+oblige me by taking away this rot and rewriting it entirely in the sense
+I have  outlined.”
+
+Mr. Thomas snatched his rejected copy and vanished through another door,
+whereon his chief remarked in an audible voice:
+
+“That man is a perfect fool. Lucky I thought to look at his stuff. Well,
+he is no worse than the rest, in this weary world,” and he burst into a
+hearty laugh and swung his chair round, adding, “Now then, Alan, what is
+it? I have a quarter of an hour at your service. Why, bless me! I was
+forgetting that it’s more than a dozen years since we met; you were
+still  a boy then, and now you have left the army with a D.S.O. and
+gratuity, and  turned financier, which I think wouldn’t have pleased
+your old father.  Come, sit down here and let us talk.”
+
+“I didn’t leave the army, Mr. Jackson,” answered his visitor;
+“it left me; I was invalided out. They said I should never get my health
+back after that last go of fever, but I did.”
+
+“Ah! bad luck, very bad luck, just at the beginning of what should have
+been a big career, for I know they thought highly of you at the War
+Office,  that is, if they can think. Well, you have grown into a
+fine-looking fellow,  like your father, very, and someone else too,” and
+he sighed, running his  fingers through his grizzled hair. “But you
+don’t remember her; she  was before your time. Now let us get to
+business; there’s no time for  reminiscences in this office. What is it,
+Alan, for like other people I suppose  that you want something?”
+
+“It is about that Sahara flotation, Mr. Jackson,” he began rather
+doubtfully.
+
+The old editor’s face darkened. “The Sahara flotation! That
+accursed——” and he ceased abruptly. “What have you, of
+all people in the world, got to do with it? Oh! I remember. Someone told
+me  that you had gone into partnership with Aylward the company
+promoter, and that  little beast, Champers-Haswell, who really is the
+clever one. Well, set it out,  set it out.”
+
+“It seems, Mr. Jackson, that _The Judge_ has refused not only our
+article, but also the advertisement of the company. I don’t know much
+about this side of the affair myself, but Sir Robert asked me if I would
+come  round and see if things couldn’t be arranged.”
+
+“You mean that the man sent you to try and work on me because he knew
+that I used to be intimate with your family. Well, it is a poor errand
+and will  have a poor end. You can’t—no one on earth can, while I sit in
+this  chair, not even my proprietors.”
+
+There was silence broken at last by Alan, who remarked awkwardly:
+
+“If that is so, I must not take up your time any longer.”
+
+“I said that I would give you a quarter of an hour, and you have only
+been here four minutes. Now, Alan Vernon, tell me as your father’s old
+friend, why you have gone to herd with these gilded swine?”
+
+There was something so earnest about the man’s question that it did not
+even occur to his visitor to resent its roughness.
+
+“Of course it is not original,” he answered, “but I had this
+idea about flooding the Desert; I spent a furlough up there a few years
+ago and  employed my time in making some rough surveys. Then I was
+obliged to leave the  Service and went down to Yarleys after my father’s
+death—it’s  mine now, you know, but worth nothing except a shooting
+rent, which just pays  for the repairs. There I met Champers-Haswell,
+who lives near and is a kind of  distant cousin of mine—my mother was a
+Champers—and happened to  mention the thing to him. He took it up at
+once and introduced me to Aylward,  and the end of it was, that they
+offered me a partnership with a small share in  the business, because
+they said I was just the man they wanted.”  
+
+“Just the man they wanted,” repeated the editor after him.
+“Yes, the last of the Vernons, an engineer with an old name in his
+county, a clean record and plenty of ability. Yes, you would be just the
+man  they wanted. And you accepted?”
+
+“Yes. I was on my beam ends with nothing to do; I wanted to make some
+money. You see Yarleys has been in the family for over five hundred
+years, and  it seemed hard to have to sell it. Also—also——” and he
+paused.
+
+“Ever meet Barbara Champers?” asked Mr. Jackson inconsequently.
+“I did once. Wonderfully nice girl, and very good-looking too. But of
+course you know her, and she is her uncle’s ward, and their place
+isn’t far off Yarleys, you say. Must be a connection of yours also.”
+
+Major Vernon started a little at the name and his face seemed to redden.
+
+“Yes,” he said, “I have met her and she is a
+connection.”
+
+“Will be a big heiress one day, I think,” went on Mr. Jackson,
+“unless old Haswell makes off with her money. I think Aylward knows
+that;  at any rate he was hanging about when I saw her.”
+
+Vernon started again, this time very perceptibly.
+
+“Very natural—your going into the business, I mean, under all the
+circumstances,” went on Mr. Jackson. “But now, if you will take my
+advice, you’ll go out of it as soon as you can.”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Because, Alan Vernon, I am sure you don’t want to see your name
+dragged in the dirt, any more than I do.” He fumbled in a drawer and
+produced a typewritten document. “Take that,” he said, “and
+study it at your leisure. It’s a sketch of the financial career of
+Messrs. Aylward and Champers-Haswell, also of the companies which they
+have  promoted and been connected with, and what has happened to them
+and to those  who invested in them. A man got it out for me yesterday
+and I’m going to  use it. As regards this Sahara business, you think it
+all right, and so it may  be from an engineering point of view, but you
+will never live to sail upon that  sea which the British public is going
+to be asked to find so many millions to  make. Look here. We have only
+three minutes more, so I will come to the point  at once. It’s Turkish
+territory, isn’t it, and putting aside  everything else, the security
+for the whole thing is a Firman from the  Sultan?”
+
+“Yes, Sir Robert Aylward and Haswell procured it in Constantinople. I
+have seen the document.”
+
+“Indeed, and are you well acquainted with the Sultan’s signature? I
+know when they were there last autumn that potentate was very
+ill——”
+
+“You mean——” said Major Vernon, looking up.
+
+“I mean, Alan, that I like not the security. I won’t say any more,
+as there is a law of libel in this land. But _The Judge_ has certain
+sources of information. It may be that no protest will be made at once,
+for  baksheesh can stop it for a while, but sooner or later the protest
+or  repudiation will come, and perhaps some international bother; also
+much  scandal. As to the scheme itself, it is shamelessly
+over-capitalized for the  benefit of the promoters—of whom, remember,
+Alan, you will appear as one.  Now time’s up. Perhaps you will take my
+advice, and perhaps you  won’t, but there it is for what it’s worth as
+that of a man of the  world and an old friend of your family. As for
+your puff article and your  prospectus, I wouldn’t put them in _The
+Judge_ if you paid me a  thousand pounds, which I daresay your friend,
+Aylward, would be quite ready to  do. Good-bye. Come and see me again
+sometime, and tell me what has  happened—and, I say”—this last was
+shouted through the  closing door,—“give my kind regards to Miss
+Barbara, for wherever  she happens to live, she is an honest woman.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE YELLOW GOD.
+
+
+Alan Vernon walked thoughtfully down the lead-covered stairs, hustled by
+eager  gentlemen hurrying up to see the great editor, whose bell was
+already ringing  furiously, and was duly ushered by the obsequious
+assistant-chauffeur back into  the luxurious motor. There was an
+electric lamp in this motor, and by the light  of it, his mind being
+perplexed, he began to read the typewritten document  given to him by
+Mr. Jackson, which he still held in his hand.  
+
+As it chanced they were blocked for a quarter of an hour near the
+Mansion  House, so that he found time, if not to master it, at least to
+gather enough of  its contents to make him open his brown eyes very wide
+before the motor pulled  up at the granite doorway of his office. Alan
+descended from the machine, which  departed silently, and stood for a
+moment wondering what he should do. His  impulse was to jump into a bus
+and go straight to his rooms or his club, to  which Sir Robert did not
+belong, but being no coward, he dismissed it from his  mind.
+
+His fate hung in the balance, of that he was well aware. Either he must
+disregard Mr. Jackson’s warning, confirmed as it was by many secret
+fears  and instincts of his own, and say nothing except that he had
+failed in his  mission, or he must take the bull by the horns and break
+with the firm. To do  the latter meant not only a good deal of moral
+courage, but practical ruin,  whereas if he chose the former course,
+probably within a fortnight he would  find himself a rich man. Whatever
+Jackson and a few others might say in its  depreciation, he was certain
+that the Sahara flotation would go through, for it  was underwritten, of
+course upon terms, by responsible people, moreover the  unissued
+preferred shares had already been dealt in at a heavy premium. Now to 
+say nothing of the allotment to which he was entitled upon his holding
+in the  parent Syndicate, the proportion of cash due to him as a
+partner, would amount  to quite a hundred thousand pounds. In other
+words, he, who had so many reasons  for desiring money, would be
+wealthy. After working so hard and undergoing so  much that he felt to
+be humiliating and even degrading, why should he not take  his reward
+and clear out afterwards?    
+
+This he remembered he could do, since probably by some oversight of
+Aylward’s, who left such matters to his lawyers, his deed of partnership
+did not bind him to a fixed term. It could be broken at any moment. To
+this  argument there was only one possible answer, that of his
+conscience. If once he  were convinced that things were not right, it
+would be dishonest to participate  in their profits. And he was
+convinced. Mr. Jackson’s arguments and his  damning document had thrown
+a flood of light upon many matters which he had  suspected but never
+quite understood. He was the partner of, well, adventurers,  and the
+money which he received would, in fact, be filched from the pockets of 
+unsuspecting persons. He would vouch for that of which he was doubtful
+and  receive the price of sharp practice. In other words he, Alan
+Vernon, who had  never uttered a wilful untruth or taken a halfpenny
+that was not his own, would  before the tribunal of his own mind, stand
+convicted as a liar and a thief. The  thing was not to be borne. At
+whatever cost it must be ended. If he were fated  to be a beggar, at
+least he would be an honest beggar.    
+
+With a firm step and a high head he walked straight into Sir Robert’s
+room, without even going through the formality of knocking, to find Mr.
+Champers-Haswell seated at the ebony desk by his partner’s side
+examining  some document through a reading-glass, which on his
+appearance, was folded over  and presently thrust away into a drawer. It
+seemed, Alan noticed, to be of an  unusual shape and written in some
+strange character.  
+
+Mr. Haswell, a stout, jovial-looking little man with a florid complexion
+and  white hair, rose at once to greet him.
+
+“How do you do, Alan,” he said in a cheerful voice, for as a cousin
+by marriage he called him by his Christian name. “I am just this minute
+back from Paris, and you will be glad to learn that they are going to
+support  us very well there; in fact I may say that the Government has
+taken up the  scheme, of course under the rose. You know the French have
+possessions all  along that coast and they won’t be sorry to find an
+opportunity of  stretching out their hand a little further. Our
+difficulties as to capital are  at an end, for a full third of it is
+guaranteed in Paris, and I expect that  small investors and speculators
+for the rise will gobble a lot more. We shall  plant £10,000,000 worth
+of Sahara scrip in sunny France, my boy, and foggy  England has
+underwritten the rest. It will be a case of ‘letters of  allotment and
+regret,’ _and_ regret, Alan, financially the most  successful issue of
+the last dozen years. What do you say to that?” and  in his elation the
+little man puffed out his chest and pursing up his lips,  blew through
+them, making a sound like that of wind among wires.  
+
+“I don’t know, Mr. Haswell. If we are all alive I would prefer to
+answer the question twelve months hence, or later, when we see whether
+the  company is going to be a practical success as well, or not.”
+
+Again Mr. Haswell made the sound of wind among wires, only this time
+there was  a shriller note in it; its mellowness was gone, it was as
+though the air had  suddenly been filled with frost.
+
+“A practical success!” he repeated after him. “That is
+scarcely our affair, is it? Promoters should not bother themselves with
+long  views, Alan. These may be left to the investing public, the
+speculative parson  and the maiden lady who likes a flutter—those props
+of modern enterprise.  But what do you mean? You originated this idea
+and always said that the profits  should be great.”
+
+“Yes, Mr. Haswell, on a moderate capitalization and provided that we are
+sure of the co-operation of the Porte.”
+
+Mr. Haswell looked at him very searchingly and Sir Robert, who had been
+listening, said in his cold voice:
+
+“I think that we thrashed out these points long ago, and to tell you the
+truth I am rather tired of them, especially as it is too late to change
+anything. How did you get on with Jackson, Vernon?”
+
+“I did not get on at all, Sir Robert. He will not touch the thing on any
+terms, and indeed means to oppose it tooth and nail.”
+
+“Then he will find himself in a minority when the articles come out
+to-morrow. Of course it is a bore, but we are strong enough to snap our
+fingers  at him. You see they don’t read _The Judge_ in France, and no
+one  has ever heard of it in Constantinople. Therefore we have nothing
+to  fear—so long as we stick together,” he added meaningly.
+
+Alan felt that the crisis had come. He must speak now or for ever hold
+his  peace; indeed Aylward was already looking round for his hat.
+
+“Sir Robert and Mr. Haswell,” he broke in rather nervously,
+“I have something to say to you, something unpleasant,” and he
+paused.
+
+“Then please say it at once, Vernon. I want to dress for dinner, I am
+going to the theatre to-night and must dine early,” replied Aylward in a
+voice of the utmost unconcern.
+
+“It is, Sir Robert,” went on Alan with a rush, “that I do not
+like the lines upon which this business is being worked, and I wish to
+give up  my interest in it and retire from the firm, as I have a right
+to do under our  deed of partnership.”
+
+“Have you?” said Aylward. “Really, I forget. But, my dear
+fellow, do not think that we should wish to keep you for one moment
+against  your will. Only, might I ask, has that old puritan, Jackson,
+hypnotized you, or  is it a case of sudden madness after influenza?”
+
+“Neither,” answered Alan sternly, for although he might be
+diffident on matters that he did not thoroughly understand, he was not a
+man to  brook trifling or impertinence. “It is what I have said, no more
+nor  less. I am not satisfied either as to the capitalization or as to
+the guarantee  that the enterprise can be really carried out.
+Further”—and he  paused,—“Further, I should like what I have never yet
+been able to  obtain, more information as to that Firman under which the
+concession is  granted.”
+
+For one moment a sort of tremor passed over Sir Robert’s impassive
+countenance, while Mr. Haswell uttered his windy whistle, this time in a
+tone  of plaintive remonstrance.
+
+“As you have formally resigned your membership of the firm, I do not see
+that any useful purpose can be served by discussing such matters. The
+fullest  explanations, of course, we should have been willing to
+give——”
+
+“My dear Alan,” broke in Mr. Champers-Haswell, who was quite upset,
+“I do implore you to reflect for one moment, for your own sake. In a
+single week you would have been a wealthy man; do you really mean to
+throw away  everything for a whim?”
+
+“Perhaps Vernon remembers that he holds over 1700 of the Syndicate
+shares  which we have worked up to £18, and thinks it wiser to capture
+the profit in  sight, generally speaking a very sound principle,”
+interrupted Aylward  sarcastically.
+
+“You are mistaken, Sir Robert,” replied Alan, flushing. “The
+way that those shares have been artificially put up is one of the things
+to  which I most object. I shall only ask for mine the face value which
+I paid for  them.”
+
+Now notwithstanding their experience, both of the senior partners did
+for a  moment look rather scared. Such folly, or such honesty, was
+absolutely  incredible to them. They felt that there must be much
+behind. Sir Robert,  however, recovered instantly.
+
+“Very well,” he said; “it is not for us to dictate to you;
+you must make your own bed and lie on it. To argue or remonstrate would
+only be  rude.” He put out his hand and pushed the button of an electric
+bell,  adding as he did so, “Of course we understand one thing, Vernon,
+namely,  that as a gentleman and a man of honour you will make no public
+use of the  information which you have acquired during your stay in this
+office, either to  our detriment, personal or financial, or to your own
+advantage.”  
+
+“Certainly you may understand that,” replied Vernon. “Unless
+my character is attacked and it becomes necessary for me to defend
+myself, my  lips are sealed.”
+
+“That will never happen—why should it?” said Sir Robert with
+a polite bow.
+
+The door opened and the head clerk, Jeffreys, appeared.
+
+“Mr. Jeffreys,” said Sir Robert, “please find us the deed of
+partnership between Major Vernon and ourselves, and bring it here. One
+moment.  Please make out also a transfer of Major Vernon’s parcel of
+Sahara  Syndicate shares to Mr. Champers-Haswell and myself at par
+value, and fill in a  cheque for the amount. Please remove also Major
+Vernon’s name wherever it  appears in the proof prospectus, and—yes—one
+thing more. Telephone  to Specton—the Right Honourable the Earl of
+Specton, I mean, and say that  after all I have been able to arrange
+that he shall have a seat on the Board  and a block of shares at a very
+moderate figure, and that if he will wire his  assent, his name shall be
+put into the prospectus. You approve, don’t  you, Haswell?—yes—then that
+is all, I think, Jeffreys, only please  be as quick as you can, for I
+want to get away.”  
+
+Jeffreys, the immaculate and the impassive, bowed, and casting one swift
+glance  at Vernon out of the corner of his eye, departed.
+
+What is called an awkward pause ensued; in fact it was a very awkward
+pause.  The die was cast, the matter ended, and what were the principals
+to do until  the ratifications had been exchanged or, a better simile
+perhaps, the _decree  nisi_ pronounced absolute. Mr. Champers-Haswell
+remarked that the weather  was very cold for April, and Alan agreed with
+him, while Sir Robert found his  hat and brushed it with his sleeve.
+Then Mr. Haswell, in desperation, for in  minor matters he was a kindly
+sort of man who disliked scenes and  unpleasantness, muttered something
+as to seeing him—Alan—at his  house, “The Court,” in Hertfordshire, from
+Saturday to Monday.  
+
+“That was the arrangement,” answered Alan bluntly, “but
+possibly after what has happened you will not wish that it should be
+kept.”
+
+“Oh! why not, why not?” said Mr. Haswell. “Sunday is a day of
+rest when we make it a rule not to talk business, and if we did, perhaps
+we  might all change our minds about these matters. Sir Robert is
+coming, and I am  sure that your cousin Barbara will be very
+disappointed if you do not turn up,  for she understands nothing about
+these city things which are Greek to  her.”
+
+At the mention of the name of Barbara Sir Robert Aylward looked up from
+the  papers which he affected to be tidying, and Alan thought that there
+was a kind  of challenge in his eyes. A moment before he had made up his
+mind that no power  on earth would induce him to spend a Sunday with his
+late partners at The  Court. Now, acting upon some instinct or impulse,
+he reversed his opinion.  
+
+“Thanks,” he said, “if that is understood, I shall be happy
+to come. I will drive over from Yarleys in time for dinner to-morrow.
+Perhaps  you will say so to Barbara.”
+
+“She will be glad, I am sure,” answered Mr. Haswell, “for she
+told me the other day that she wants to consult you about some outdoor
+theatricals that she means to get up in July.”
+
+“In July!” answered Alan with a little laugh. “I wonder where
+I shall be in July.”
+
+Then came another pause, which seemed to affect even Sir Robert’s
+nerves,  for, abandoning the papers, he walked down the room till he
+came to the golden  object that has been described, and for the second
+time that day stood there  contemplating it.
+
+“This thing is yours, Vernon,” he said, “and now that our
+relations are at an end, I suppose that you will want to take it away.
+What is  its history? You never told me.”
+
+“Oh! that’s a long story,” answered Alan in an absent voice.
+“My uncle, who was a missionary, brought it from West Africa. I rather
+forget the facts, but Jeekie, my negro servant, knows them all, for as a
+lad my  uncle saved him from sacrifice, or something, in a place where
+they worship  these things, and he has been with us ever since. It is a
+fetish with magical  powers and all the rest of it. I believe they call
+it the Swimming Head and  other names. If you look at it, you will see
+that it seems to swim between the  shoulders, doesn’t it?”
+
+“Yes,” said Sir Robert, “and I admire the beautiful beast.
+She is cruel and artistic, like—like finance. Look here, Vernon, we have
+quarrelled, and of course henceforth are enemies, for it is no use
+mincing  matters, only fools do that. But in a way you are being hardly
+treated. You  could get £10 apiece to-day for those shares of yours in a
+block on the market,  and I am paying you £1. I understand your
+scruples, but there is no reason why  we should not square things. This
+fetish of yours has brought me luck, so  let’s do a deal. Leave it here,
+and instead of a check for £1700, I will  make you one out for £17,000.”
+
+“That’s a very liberal offer,” said Vernon. “Give me a
+moment to think it over.”
+
+Then he also walked into the corner of the room and contemplated the
+golden  mask that seemed to float between the frog-like shoulders. The
+shimmering eyes  drew his eyes, though what he saw in them does not
+matter. Indeed he could  never remember. Only when he straightened
+himself again there was left on his  mind a determination that not for
+seventeen or for seventy thousand pounds  would he part with his
+ownership in this very unique fetish.  
+
+“No, thank you,” he said presently. “I don’t think I
+will sell the Yellow God, as Jeekie calls it. Perhaps you will kindly
+keep her  here for a week or so, until I make up my mind where to stow
+her.”  
+
+Again Mr. Champers-Haswell uttered his windy whistle. That a man should
+refuse  £17,000 for a bit of African gold worth £100 or so, struck him
+as miraculous.  But Sir Robert did not seem in the least surprised, only
+very disappointed.  
+
+“I quite understand your dislike to selling,” he said. “Thank
+you for leaving it here for the present to see us through the
+flotation,”  and he laughed.
+
+At that moment Jeffreys entered the room with the documents. Sir Robert
+handed  the deed of partnership to Alan, and when he had identified it,
+took it from  him again and threw it on the fire, saying that of course
+the formal letter of  release would be posted and the dissolution
+notified in the _Gazette_.  Then the transfer was signed and the cheque
+delivered.  
+
+“Well, good-bye till Saturday,” said Alan when he had received the
+latter, and nodding, to them both, he turned and left the room.
+
+The passage ran past the little room in which Mr. Jeffreys, the head
+clerk, sat  alone. Catching sight of him through the open door, Alan
+entered, shutting it  behind him. Finding his key ring he removed from
+it the keys of his desk and of  the office strongroom, and handed them
+to the clerk who, methodical in  everything, proceeded to write a formal
+receipt.  
+
+“You are leaving us, Major Vernon?” he said interrogatively as he
+signed the paper.
+
+“Yes, Jeffreys,” answered Alan, then prompted by some impulse,
+added, “Are you sorry?”
+
+Mr. Jeffreys looked up and there were traces of unwonted emotion upon
+his hard,  regulated face.
+
+“For myself, yes, Major—for you, on the whole, no.”
+
+“What do you mean, Jeffreys? I do not quite understand.”
+
+“I mean, Major, that I am sorry because you have never tried to shuffle
+off any shady business on to my back and leave me to bear the brunt of
+it; also  because you have always treated me as a gentleman should, not
+as a machine to  be used until a better can be found, and kicked aside
+when it goes out of  order.”
+
+“It is very kind of you to say so, Jeffreys, but I can’t remember
+having done anything particular.”
+
+“No, Major, you can’t remember what comes natural to you. But I and
+the others remember, and that’s why I am sorry. But for yourself I am
+glad, since although Aylward and Haswell have put a big thing through
+and are  going to make a pot of money, this is no place for the likes of
+you, and now  that you are going I will make bold to tell you that I
+always wondered what you  were doing here. By and by, Major, the row
+will come, as it has come more than  once in the past, before your
+time.”  
+
+“And then?” said Alan, for he was anxious to get to the bottom of
+this man’s mind, which hitherto he had always found so secret.
+
+“And then, Major, it won’t matter much to Messrs. Aylward and
+Champers-Haswell, who are used to that kind of thing and will probably
+dissolve  partnership and lie quiet for a bit, and still less to folk
+like myself, who  are only servants. But if you were still here it would
+have mattered a great  deal to you, for it would blacken your name and
+break your heart, and then  what’s the good of the money? I tell you,
+Major,” the clerk went on  with quiet intensity, “though I am nobody and
+nothing, if I could afford  it I would follow your example. But I can’t,
+for I have a sick wife and a  family of delicate children who have to
+live half the year on the south coast,  to say nothing of my old mother,
+and—I was fool enough to be taken in and  back Sir Robert’s last little
+venture, which cost me all I had saved. So  you see I must make a bit
+before the machine is scrapped, Major. But I tell you  this, that if I
+can get £5000 together, as I hope to do out of Saharas before I  am a
+month older, for they had to give me a look-in, as I knew too much, I am
+ off to the country, where I was born, to take a farm there. No more of
+Messrs.  Aylward & Haswell for Thomas Jeffreys. That’s my bell.
+Good-bye,  Major, I’ll take the liberty to write you a line sometimes,
+for I know you  won’t give me away. Good-bye and God bless you, as I am
+sure He will in  the long run,” and stretching out his hand, he took
+that of the  astonished Alan and wrung it warmly.  
+
+When he was gone Alan went also, noticing that the clerks, whom some
+rumour of  these events seemed to have reached, eyed him curiously
+through the glass  screens behind which they sat at their desks, as he
+thought not without regret  and a kind of admiration. Even the
+magnificent be-medalled porter at the door  emerged from the carved teak
+box where he dwelt and touching his cap asked if  he should call a cab.
+
+“No, thank you, Sergeant,” answered Alan, “I will take a bus,
+and, Sergeant, I think I forgot to give you a present last Xmas. Will
+you  accept this?—I wish I could make it more,” and he presented him
+with ten shillings.
+
+The Sergeant drew himself up and saluted.
+
+“Thank you kindly, Major,” he said. “I’d rather take
+that from you than £10 from the other gentlemen. But, Major, I wish we
+were out  on the West Coast again together. It’s a stinking, barbarous
+hole, but  not so bad as this ’ere city.”
+
+For once these two had served as comrades, and it was through Alan that
+the  sergeant obtained his present lucrative but somewhat uncongenial
+post.  
+
+He was outside at last. The massive granite portal vanished behind him
+in the  evening mists, much as a nightmare vanishes. He, Alan Vernon,
+who for a year or  more had been in bondage, was a free man again. All
+his dreams of wealth had  departed; indeed if anything, save in
+experience, he was poorer than when first  the shadow of yonder doorway
+fell upon him. But at least he was safe, safe. The  deed of partnership
+which had been as a chain about his neck, was now white  ashes; his name
+was erased from that fearful prospectus of Sahara Limited,  wherein
+millions which someone would provide were spoken of like silver in the 
+days of Solomon, as things of no account. The bitterest critic could not
+say  that he had made a halfpenny out of the venture, in fact, if
+trouble came, his  voluntary abandonment of the profits due to him must
+go to his credit. He had  plunged into the icy waters of renunciation
+and come up clean if naked. Never  since he was a boy could Alan
+remember feeling so utterly light-hearted and  free from anxiety. Not
+for a million pounds would he have returned to gather  gold in that
+mausoleum of reputations. As for the future, he did not in the  least
+care what happened. There was no one dependent on him, and in this way
+or  in that he could always earn a crust, a nice, honest crust.    
+
+He ran down the street and danced for joy like a child, yes, and
+presented a  crossing-sweeper against whom he butted with a whole
+sixpence in compensation.  Thus he reached the Mansion House, not
+unsuspected of inebriety by the police,  and clambered to the top of a
+bus crowded with weary and anxious-looking City  clerks returning home
+after a long day’s labour at starvation wage. In  that cold company and
+a chilling atmosphere some of his enthusiasm evaporated.  He remembered
+that this step of his meant that sooner or later, within a year  or two
+at most, Yarleys, where his family had dwelt for centuries, must go to 
+the hammer. Why had he not accepted Aylward’s offer and sold that old 
+fetish to him for £17,000? There was no question of share-dealing there,
+and if  a very wealthy man chose to give a fancy price for a curiosity,
+he could take  it without doubt or shame. At least it would have
+sufficed to save Yarleys,  which after all was only mortgaged for
+£20,000. For the life of him he could  not tell. He had acted on
+impulse, a very curious impulse, and there was an end  of it perhaps; it
+might be because his uncle had told him as a boy that the  thing was
+unique, or perhaps because old Jeekie, his negro servant, venerated  it
+so much and swore that it was “lucky.” At any rate he had  declined and
+there was an end.    
+
+But another and a graver matter remained. He had desired wealth to save
+Yarleys, but he desired it still more for a different purpose. Above
+everything  on earth he loved Barbara, his distant cousin and the niece
+of Mr.  Champers-Haswell, who until an hour ago had been his partner.
+Now she was a  great heiress, and without fortune he could not marry
+her, even if she would  marry him, which remained in doubt. For one
+thing her uncle and guardian  Haswell, under her father’s will, had
+absolute discretion in this matter  until she reached the age of
+twenty-five, and for another he was too proud.  Therefore it would seem
+that, in abandoning his business, he had abandoned his  chance of
+Barbara also, which was a truly dreadful thought.  
+
+Well, it was in order that he might see her, that he had agreed to visit
+The  Court on the morrow, even though it meant a meeting with his late
+partners, who  were the last people with whom he desired to foregather
+again so soon. Then and  there he made up his mind that before he bade
+Barbara farewell, he would tell  her the whole story, so that she might
+not misjudge him. After that he would go  off somewhere—to Africa
+perhaps. Meanwhile he was quite tired out, as  tired as though he had
+lain a week in the grip of fever. He must eat some food  and get to bed.
+Sufficient unto the day was the evil thereof, yet on the whole  he
+blessed the name of Jackson, editor of _The Judge_ and his  father’s old
+friend.  
+
+When Alan had left the office Sir Robert turned to Mr. Champers-Haswell
+and  asked him abruptly, “What the devil does this mean?”
+
+Mr. Haswell looked up at the ceiling and whistled in his own peculiar
+fashion,  then answered:
+
+“I cannot say for certain, but our young friend’s strange conduct
+seems to suggest that he has smelt a rat, possibly even that Jackson,
+the old  beast, has shown him a rat—of a large Turkish breed.”
+
+Sir Robert nodded.
+
+“Vernon is a fellow who doesn’t like rats; they seem to haunt his
+sleep,” he said; “but do you think that having seen it, he will
+keep it in the bag?”
+
+“Oh! certainly, certainly,” answered Mr. Haswell with cheerfulness;
+“the man is the soul of honour; he will never give us away. Look how he
+behaved about those shares. Still, I think that perhaps we are well rid
+of him.  Too much honour, like too much zeal, is a very dangerous
+quality in any  business.”
+
+“I don’t know that I agree with you,” answered Sir Robert.
+“I am not sure that in the long run we should not do better for a little
+more of the article. For my part, although it will not hurt us publicly,
+for  the thing will never be noticed, I am sorry that we have lost
+Vernon, very  sorry indeed. I don’t think him a fool, and awkward as
+they may be, I  respect his qualities.”
+
+“So do I, so do I,” answered Mr. Haswell, “and of course we
+have acted against his advice throughout, which must have been annoying
+to him.  The scheme as he suggested it was a fair business proposition
+that might have  paid ten per cent. on a small capital, but what is the
+good of ten per cent. to  you and me? We want millions and we are going
+to get them. Well, he is coming  to The Court to-morrow, and perhaps
+after all we shall be able to arrange  matters. I’ll give Barbara a
+hint; she has great influence with him, and  you might do the same,
+Aylward.”  
+
+“Miss Champers has great influence with everyone who is fortunate enough
+to know her,” answered Sir Robert courteously. “But even if she
+chooses to use it, I doubt if it will avail in this case. Vernon has
+been  making up his mind for a long while. I have watched him and am
+sure of that.  To-night he determined to take the plunge and I do not
+think that we shall see  any more of him in this office. Haswell,” he
+added with sudden energy,  “I tell you that of late our luck has been
+too good to last. The boom,  the real boom, came in with Vernon, and
+with Vernon I think that it will  go.”
+
+“At any rate it must leave something pretty substantial behind it this
+time, Aylward, my friend. Whatever happens, within a week we shall be
+rich,  really rich for life.”
+
+“For life, Haswell, yes, for life. But what is life? A bubble that any
+pin may prick. Oh! I know that you do not like the subject, but it is as
+well  to look it in the face sometimes. I’m no church-goer, but if I
+remember  right we were taught to pray the good Lord to deliver us
+especially ‘in  all times of our wealth,’ which is followed by something
+about  tribulation and sudden death, for when they wrote that prayer the
+wheel of  human fortune went round just as it does to-day. There, let’s
+get out of  this before I grow superstitious, as men who believe in
+nothing sometimes do,  because after all they must believe in something,
+I suppose. Got your hat and  coat? So have I, come on,” and he switched
+off the light, so that the  room was left in darkness except for the
+faint glimmering of the fire.  
+
+His partner grumbled audibly, for in turning he had knocked his hand
+against  the desk.
+
+“Leave me my only economy, Haswell,” he answered with a hard little
+laugh. “Electricity is strength and I hate to see strength burning to
+waste. Why do you mind?” he went on as he stepped towards the door.
+“Is it the contrast? In all times of our wealth, in all times of our
+tribulation, from sickness and from sudden death——”
+
+“Good Lord deliver us,” chimed in Mr. Haswell in a shaking voice
+behind him. “What the devil’s that?”
+
+Sir Robert looked round and saw, or thought that he saw, something very
+strange. From the pillar on which it stood the golden fetish with a
+woman’s face, appeared to have floated. The firelight showed it gliding
+towards them across, but a few inches above the floor of the great room.
+It  came very slowly, but it came. Now it reached them and paused, and
+now it rose  into the air until it attained the height of Mr.
+Champers-Haswell and stayed  there, staring into his face and not a
+hand’s breadth away, just as  though it were a real woman glaring at
+him.  
+
+He uttered a sound, half whistle and half groan, and fell back, as it
+chanced  on to a morocco-covered seat behind him. For a moment or two
+the gleaming,  golden mask floated in the air. Then it turned very
+deliberately, rose a little  way, and moving sidelong to where Sir
+Robert stood, hung in front of _his_  face.
+
+Presently Aylward staggered to the mantelpiece and began to fumble for
+the  switch; in the silence his nails scratching at the panelling made a
+sound like  to that of a gnawing mouse. He found it at last, and next
+instant the office  broke into a blaze of light, showing Mr. Haswell,
+his rubicund face quite pale,  his hat and umbrella on the floor,
+gasping like a dying man upon the couch, and  Sir Robert himself
+clinging to the mantel-shelf as a person might do who had  received a
+mortal wound, while the golden fetish reposed calmly on its pillar,  to
+all appearance as immovable and undisturbed as the antique Venus which 
+matched it at the other end of the room. For a while there was silence.
+Then  Sir Robert, recovering himself, asked:  
+
+“Did you notice anything unusual just now, Haswell?”
+
+“Yes,” whispered his partner. “I thought that hideous African
+thing which Vernon brought here, came sliding across the floor and
+stared into  my face with its glittering eyes, and in the eyes——”
+
+“Well, what was in the eyes?”
+
+“I can’t remember. It was a kind of picture and the meaning of it
+was Sudden Death—oh Lord! Sudden Death. Tell me it was a fancy bred of
+that ill-omened talk of yours?”
+
+“I can’t tell you anything of the sort,” answered Aylward in
+a hollow voice, “for I saw something also.”
+
+“What?” asked his partner.
+
+“Death that wasn’t sudden, and other things.”
+
+Again the silence fell till it was broken by Aylward.
+
+“Come,” he said, “we have been over-working—too much
+strain, and now the reaction. Keep this rubbish to yourself, or they
+will lock  you up in an asylum.”
+
+“Certainly, Aylward, certainly. But can’t you get rid of that
+beastly image?”
+
+“Not on any account, Haswell, even if it haunts us all day. Here it
+shall  stop until the Saharas are floated on Monday, if I have to lock
+it in the  strongroom and throw the keys into the Thames. Afterwards
+Vernon can take it,  as he has a right to do, and I am sure that with it
+will go our luck.”  
+
+“Then the sooner our luck goes, the better,” replied Haswell, with
+a mere ghost of his former whistle. “Life is better than luck,
+and—Aylward, that Yellow God you are so fond of means to murder us. We
+are being fatted for the sacrifice, that is all. I remember now, that
+was one  of the things I saw written in its eyes!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+JEEKIE TELLS A TALE.
+
+
+The Court, Mr. Champers-Haswell’s place, was a very fine house indeed,
+of  a sort. That is, it contained twenty-nine bedrooms, each of them
+with a  bathroom attached, a large number of sitting-rooms, ample
+garages, stables, and  offices, the whole surrounded by several acres of
+newly-planted gardens.  Incidentally it may be mentioned that it was
+built in the most atrocious taste  and looked like a suburban villa seen
+through a magnifying glass.  
+
+It was in this matter of taste that it differed from Sir Robert
+Aylward’s  home, Old Hall, a few miles away. Not that this was old
+either, for the  original house had fallen down or been burnt a hundred
+years before. But Sir  Robert, being gifted with artistic perception,
+had reared up in place of it a  smaller but really beautiful dwelling of
+soft grey stone, long and low, and  built in the Tudor style with many
+gables.  
+
+This house, charming as it was, could not of course compare with
+Yarleys, the  ancient seat of the Vernons in the same neighbourhood.
+Yarleys was pure  Elizabethan, although it contained an oak-roofed hall
+which was said to date  back to the time of King John, a remnant of a
+former house. There was no  electric light or other modern convenience
+at Yarleys, yet it was a place that  everyone went to see because of its
+exceeding beauty and its historical  associations. The moat by which it
+was surrounded, the grass court within, for  it was built on three sides
+of a square, the mullioned windows, the towered  gateway of red brick,
+the low-panelled rooms hung with the portraits of  departed Vernons, the
+sloping park and the splendid oaks that stood about,  singly or in
+groups, were all of them perfect in their way. It was one of the  most
+lovely of English homes, and oddly enough its neglected gardens and the 
+air of decay that pervaded it, added to rather than decreased its charm.
+   
+
+But it is with The Court that we have to do at present, not with
+Yarleys. Mr.  Champers-Haswell had a week-end party. There were ten
+guests, all men, and with  the exception of Alan, who it will be
+remembered was one of them, all rich and  in business. They included two
+French bankers and three Jews, everyone a prop  of the original Sahara
+Syndicate and deeply interested in the forthcoming  flotation. To
+describe them is unnecessary, for they have no part in our story,  being
+only financiers of a certain class, remarkable for the riches they had 
+acquired by means that for the most part would not bear examination. The
+riches  were evident enough. Ever since the morning the owners of this
+wealth had  arrived by ones or twos in their costly motorcars, attended
+by smart chauffeurs  and valets. Their fur coats, their jewelled studs
+and rings, something in their  very faces suggested money, which indeed
+was the bond that brought and held  them together.  
+
+Alan did not come until it was time to dress for dinner, for he knew
+that  Barbara would not appear before that meal, and it was her society
+he sought,  not that of his host or fellow guests. Accompanied by his
+negro servant,  Jeekie, for in a house like this it was necessary to
+have someone to wait upon  him, he drove over from Yarleys, a distance
+of ten miles, arriving about eight  o’clock.
+
+“Mr. Haswell has gone up to dress, Major, and so have the other
+gentlemen,” said the head butler, Mr. Smith, “but Miss Champers
+told me to give you this note and to say that dinner is at half-past
+eight.”
+
+Alan took the note and asked to be shown to his room. Once there,
+although he  had only five-and-twenty minutes, he opened it eagerly,
+while Jeekie unpacked  his bag.
+
+“Dear Alan,” it ran: “Don’t be late for dinner, or I
+may not be able to keep a place next to me. Of course Sir Robert takes
+me in.  They are a worse lot than usual this time, odious—odious!—and I
+can’t stand one on the left hand as well as on the right. Yours,
+
+“B.
+
+“P.S. What _have_ you been doing? Our distinguished guests, to say
+nothing of my uncle, seem to be in a great fuss about you. I overheard
+them  talking when I was pretending to arrange some flowers. One of them
+called you a  sanctimonious prig and an obstinate donkey, and another
+answered—I think  it was Sir Robert —‘No doubt, but obstinate donkeys
+can kick and  have been known to upset other people’s applecarts ere
+now.’ Is the  Sahara Syndicate the applecart? If so, I’ll forgive you.
+
+“P.P.S. Remember that we will walk to church together to-morrow, but
+come  down to breakfast in knickerbockers or something to put them off,
+and  I’ll do the same—I mean I’ll dress as if I were going to
+golf. We can turn into Christians later. If we don’t—dress like
+that, I mean—they’ll guess and all want to come to church, except
+the Jews, which would bring the judgment of Heaven on us.
+
+“P.P.P.S. Don’t be careless and leave this note lying about, for
+the under-footman who waits upon you reads all the letters. He steams
+them over  a kettle. Smith the butler is the only respectable man in
+this house.”  
+
+Alan laughed outright as he finished this peculiar and outspoken
+epistle, which  somehow revived his spirits, that since the previous day
+had been low enough.  It refreshed him. It was like a breath of frosty
+air from an open window  blowing clean and cold into a scented,
+overheated room. He would have liked to  keep it, but remembering
+Barbara’s injunctions and the under-footman,  threw it onto the fire and
+watched it burn. Jeekie coughed to intimate that it  was time for his
+master to dress, and Alan turned and looked at him in an  absent-minded
+fashion.  
+
+He was worth looking at, was Jeekie. Let the reader imagine a very tall
+and  powerfully-built negro with a skin as black as a well-polished
+boot, woolly  hair as white as snow, a little tufted beard also white, a
+hand like a leg of  mutton, but with long delicate fingers and pink,
+filbert-shaped nails, an  immovable countenance, but set in it beneath a
+massive brow, two extraordinary  humorous and eloquent black eyes which
+expressed every emotion passing through  the brain behind them, that is
+when their owner chose to allow them to do so.  Such was Jeekie.
+
+“Shall I unlace your boots, Major?” he said in his full, melodious
+voice and speaking the most perfect English. “I expect that the gong
+will  sound in nine and a half minutes.”
+
+“Then let it sound and be hanged to it,” answered Alan; “no,
+I forgot—I must hurry. Jeekie, put that fire out and open all the
+windows  as soon as I go down. This room is like a hot-house.”
+
+“Yes, Major, the fire shall be extinguished and the sleeping-chamber
+ventilated. The other boot, if you please, Major.”
+
+“Jeekie,” said Alan, “who is stopping in this place? Have you
+heard?”
+
+“I collected some names on my way upstairs, Major. Three of the
+gentlemen  you have never met before, but,” he added suddenly breaking
+away from his  high-flown book-learned English, as was his custom when
+in earnest,  “Jeekie think they just black niggers like the rest, thief
+people. There  ain’t a white man in this house, except you and Miss
+Barbara and me,  Major. Jeekie learnt all that in servant’s hall
+palaver. No, not now,  other time. Everyone tell everything to Jeekie,
+poor old African fool, and he  look up an answer, ‘O law! you don’t say
+so?’ but keep his  eyes and ears open all the same.”
+
+“I’ll be bound you do, Jeekie,” replied Alan, laughing again.
+“Well, go on keeping them open, and give me those trousers.”
+
+“Yes, Major,” answered Jeekie, reassuming his grand manner,
+“I shall continue to collect information which may prove to your
+advantage, but personally I wish that you were clear of the whole
+caboodle,  except Miss Barbara.”
+
+“Hear, hear,” ejaculated Alan, “there goes the gong. Mind you
+come in and help to wait,” and hurrying into his coat he departed
+downstairs.
+
+The guests were gathered in the hall drinking sherry and bitters, a
+proceeding  that to Alan’s mind set a stamp upon the house. His host,
+Mr.  Champers-Haswell, came forward and greeted him with much
+affectionate  enthusiasm, and Alan noticed that he looked very pale,
+also that his thoughts  seemed to be wandering, for he introduced a
+French banker to him as a noted  Jew, and the noted Jew as the French
+banker, although the distinction between  them was obvious and the
+gentlemen concerned evidently resented the mistake.  Sir Robert Aylward,
+catching sight of him, came across the hall in his usual,  direct
+fashion, and shook him by the hand.  
+
+“Glad to see you, Vernon,” he said, fixing his piercing eyes upon
+Alan as though he were trying to read his thoughts. “Pleasant change
+this  from the City and all that eternal business, isn’t it? Ah! you are
+thinking that one is not quite clear of business after all,” and he
+glanced round at the company. “That’s one of your cousin
+Haswell’s faults; he can never shake himself free of the thing, never
+get  any real recreation. I’d bet you a sovereign that he has a
+stenographer  waiting by a telephone in the next room, just in case any
+opportunity should  arise in the course of conversation. That is
+magnificent, but it is not wise.  His heart can’t stand it; it will wear
+him out before his time. Listen,  they are all talking about the Sahara.
+I wish I were there; it must be quiet at  any rate. The sands beneath,
+the eternal stars above. Yes, I wish I were  there,” he repeated with a
+sigh, and Alan noted that although his face  could not be more pallid
+than its natural colour, it looked quite worn and old.  
+
+“So do I,” he answered with enthusiasm.
+
+Then a French gentleman on his left, having discovered that he was the
+engineer  who had formulated the great flooding scheme, began to address
+him as  “Cher maitre,” speaking so rapidly in his own language that
+Alan,  whose French was none of the best, struggled after him in vain.
+Whilst he was  trying to answer a question which he did not understand,
+the door at the end of  the hall opened, and through it appeared Barbara
+Champers.  
+
+It was a large hall and she was a long way off, which caused her to look
+small,  who indeed was only of middle height. Yet even at that distance
+it was  impossible to mistake the dignity of her appearance. A slim
+woman with brown  hair, cheerful brown eyes, a well-modelled face, a
+rounded figure and an  excellent complexion, such was Barbara. Ten
+thousand young ladies could be  found as good, or even better looking,
+yet something about her differentiated  her from the majority of her
+sex. There was determination in her step, and  overflowing health and
+vigour in her every movement. Her eyes had a trick of  looking straight
+into any other eyes they met, not boldly, but with a kind of  virginal
+fearlessness and enterprise that people often found embarrassing. 
+Indeed she was extremely virginal and devoid of the usual fringe of
+feminine  airs and graces, a nymph of the woods and waters, who although
+she was three  and twenty, as yet recked little of men save as
+companions whom she liked or  disliked according to her instincts. For
+the rest she was sweetly dressed in a  white robe with silver on it, and
+wore no ornaments save a row of small pearls  about her throat and some
+lilies of the valley at her breast.    
+
+Barbara came straight onwards, looking neither to the right nor to the
+left,  till she reached her uncle, to whom she nodded. Then she walked
+to Alan and,  offering him her hand, said:
+
+“How do you do! Why did you not come over at lunch time? I wanted to
+play  a round of golf with you this afternoon.”
+
+Alan answered something about being busy at Yarleys.
+
+“Yarleys!” she replied. “I thought that you lived in the City
+now, making money out of speculations, like everyone else that I know.”
+
+“Why, Miss Champers,” broke in Sir Robert reproachfully, “I
+asked you to play a round of golf before tea and you would not.”
+
+“No,” she answered, “because I was waiting for my cousin. We
+are better matched, Sir Robert.”
+
+There was something in her voice, usually so soft and pleasant, as she
+spoke  these words, something of steeliness and defiance that caused
+Alan to feel at  once happy and uncomfortable. Apparently also it caused
+Aylward to feel angry,  for he flashed a glance at Alan over her head of
+which the purport could not be  mistaken, though his pale face remained
+as immovable as ever. “We are  enemies. I hate you,” said that glance.
+Probably Barbara saw it; at any  rate before either of them could speak
+again, she said:  
+
+“Thank goodness, there is dinner at last. Sir Robert, will you take me
+in, and, Alan, will you sit on the other side of me? My uncle will show
+the  rest their places.”
+
+The meal was long and magnificent; the price of each dish of it would
+have kept  a poor family for a month, and on the cost of the exquisite
+wines they might  have lived for a year or two. Also the last were well
+patronized by everyone  except Barbara, who drank water, and Alan, who
+since his severe fever took  nothing but weak whiskey and soda and a
+little claret. Even Aylward, a  temperate person, absorbed a good deal
+of champagne. As a consequence the  conversation grew animated, and
+under cover of it, while Sir Robert was arguing  with his neighbour on
+the left, Barbara asked in a low voice:  
+
+“What is the row, Alan? Tell me, I can’t wait any longer.”
+
+“I have quarrelled with them,” he answered, staring at his mutton
+as though he were criticizing it. “I mean, I have left the firm and have
+nothing more to do with the business.”
+
+Barbara’s eyes lit up as she whispered back:
+
+“Glad of it. Best news I have heard for many a day. But then, may I ask
+why you are here?”
+
+“I came to see you,” he replied humbly—“thought perhaps
+you wouldn’t mind,” and in his confusion he let his knife fall into
+the mutton, whence it rebounded, staining his shirt front.
+
+Barbara laughed, that happy, delightful little laugh of hers, presumably
+at the  accident with the knife. Whether or no she “minded” did not
+appear,  only she handed her handkerchief, a costly, lace-fringed
+trifle, to Alan to  wipe the gravy off his shirt, which he took thinking
+it was a napkin, and as  she did so, touched his hand with a little
+caressing movement of her fingers.  Whether this was done by chance or
+on purpose did not appear either. At least  it made Alan feel extremely
+happy. Also when he discovered what it was, he kept  that gravy-stained
+handkerchief, nor did she ever ask for it back again. Only  once in
+after days when she happened to come across it stuffed away in the 
+corner of a despatch-box, she blushed all over, and said that she had no
+idea  that any man could be so foolish out of a book.  
+
+“Now that _you_ are really clear of it, I am going for them,”
+she said presently when the wiping process was finished. “I have only
+restrained myself for your sake,” and, leaning back in her chair she
+stared at the ceiling, lost in meditation.
+
+Presently there came one of those silences which will fall upon
+dinner-parties  at times, however excellent and plentiful the champagne.
+
+“Sir Robert Aylward,” said Barbara in that clear, carrying voice of
+hers, “will you, as an expert, instruct a very ignorant person? I want a
+little information.”
+
+“Miss Champers,” he answered, “am I not always at your
+service?” and all listened to hear upon what point their hostess desired
+to be enlightened.
+
+“Sir Robert,” she went on calmly, “everyone here is, I
+believe, what is called a financier, that is except myself and Major
+Vernon,  who only tries to be and will, I am sure, fail, since Nature
+made him something  else, a soldier and—what else did Nature make you,
+Alan?”  
+
+As he vouchsafed no answer to this question, although Sir Robert
+muttered an  uncomplimentary one between his lips which Barbara heard,
+or read, she  continued:
+
+“And you are all very rich and successful, are you not, and are going to
+be much richer and much more successful—next week. Now what I want to
+ask  you is—how is it done?”
+
+“Accepting the premises for the sake of argument, Miss Champers,”
+replied Sir Robert, who felt that he could not refuse the challenge,
+“the  answer is that it is done by finance.”
+
+“I am still in the dark,” she said. “Finance, as I have heard
+of it, means floating companies, and companies are floated to earn money
+for  those who invest in them. Now this afternoon as I was dull, I got
+hold of a  book called the Directory of Directors, and looked up all
+your names in it,  except those of the gentlemen from Paris, and the
+companies that you  direct—I found out about those in another book.
+Well, I could not make  out that any of these companies have ever earned
+any money, a dividend,  don’t you call it? Therefore how do you all grow
+so rich, and why do  people invest in them?”
+
+Now Sir Robert frowned, Alan coloured, two or three of the company
+laughed  outright, and one of the French gentlemen who understood
+English and had  already drunk as much as was good for him, remarked
+loudly to his neighbour,  “Ah! she is charming. She do touch the spot,
+like that ointment you give  me to-day. How do we grow rich and why do
+the people invest? _Mon Dieu!_  why do they invest? That is the great
+mystery. I say that _cette belle  demoiselle, votre nièce, est
+ravissante. Elle a d’esprit, mon ami  Haswell._”
+
+Apparently her uncle did not share these sentiments, for he turned as
+red as  any turkey-cock, and said across the great round table:
+
+“My dear Barbara, I wish that you would leave matters which you do not
+understand alone. We are here to dine, not to talk about finance.”
+
+“Certainly, Uncle,” she answered sweetly. “I stand, or rather
+sit, reproved. I suppose that I have put my foot into it as usual, and
+the  worst of it is,” she added, turning to Sir Robert, “that I am just
+as ignorant as I was before.”
+
+“If you want to master these matters, Miss Champers,” said Aylward
+with a rather forced laugh, “you must go into training and worship at
+the  shrine of”—he meant to say Mammon, then thinking that the word
+sounded unpleasant, substituted—“the Yellow God as we do.”
+
+At these words Alan, who had been studying his plate, looked up quickly,
+and  her uncle’s face turned from red to white. But the irrepressible
+Barbara  seized upon them.
+
+“The Yellow God,” she repeated. “Do you mean money or that
+fetish thing of Major Vernon’s with the terrible woman’s face that
+I saw at the office in the City. Well, to change the subject, tell us,
+Alan,  what is that yellow god of yours and where did it come from?”
+
+“My uncle Austin, who was my mother’s brother and a missionary,
+brought it from West Africa a great many years ago. He was the first to
+visit  the tribe who worship it; in fact I do not think that anyone has
+ever visited  them since. But really I do not know all the story. Jeekie
+can tell you about  it if you want to know, for he is one of that people
+and escaped with my  uncle.”
+
+Now Jeekie having left the room, some of the guests wished to send for
+him, but  Mr. Champers-Haswell objected. The end of it was that a
+compromise was  effected, Alan undertaking to produce his retainer
+afterwards when they went to  play billiards or cards.
+
+Dinner was over at length and the diners, who had dined well, were
+gathered in  the billiard room to smoke and amuse themselves as they
+wished. It was a very  large room, sixty feet long indeed, with a wide
+space in the centre between the  two tables, which was furnished as a
+lounge. When the gentlemen entered it they  found Barbara standing by
+the great fireplace in this central space, a little  shape of white and
+silver in its emptiness.  
+
+“Forgive me for intruding on you,” she said, “and please do
+not stop smoking, for I like the smell. I have sat up expressly to hear
+Jeekie’s story of the Yellow God. Alan, produce Jeekie, or I shall go to
+bed at once.”
+
+Her uncle made a movement as though to interfere, but Sir Robert said
+something  to him which appeared to cause him to change his mind, while
+the rest in some  way or another signified an enthusiastic assent. All
+of them were anxious to  see this Jeekie and hear his tale, if he had
+one to tell. So Jeekie was sent  for and presently arrived clad in the
+dress clothes which are common to all  classes in England and America.
+There he stood before them white-headed,  ebony-faced, gigantic,
+imperturbable. There is no doubt that his appearance  produced an
+effect, for it was unusual and indeed striking.  
+
+“You sent for me, Major?” he said, addressing his master, to whom
+he gave a military salute, for he had been Alan’s servant when he was in
+the Army.
+
+“Yes, Jeekie. Miss Barbara here and these gentlemen, wish you to tell
+them all that you know about the Yellow God.”
+
+The negro started and rolled his round eyes upwards till the whites of
+them  showed, then began in his school-book English:
+
+“That is a private subject, Major, upon which I should prefer not to
+discourse before this very public company.”
+
+A chorus of remonstrance arose and one of the Jewish gentlemen
+approaching  Jeekie, slipped a couple of sovereigns into his great hand,
+which he promptly  transferred to his pocket without seeming to notice
+them.  
+
+“Jeekie,” said Barbara, “don’t disappoint me.”
+
+“Very well, miss, I fall in with your wishes. The Yellow God that all
+these gentlemen worship, quite another god to that of which you desire
+that I  should tell you. You know all about him. My god is of female
+sex.”  
+
+At this statement his audience burst into laughter while Jeekie rolled
+his eyes  again and waited till they had finished. “My god,” he went on
+presently, “I mean, gentlemen, the god I used to pray to, for I am a
+good  Christian now, has so much gold that she does not care for any
+more,” and  he paused.
+
+“Then what does she care for?” asked someone.
+
+“Blood,” answered Jeekie. “She is god of Death. Her name is
+Little Bonsa or Small Swimming Head; she is wife of Big Bonsa or Great
+Swimming  Head.”
+
+Again there was laughter, though less general—for instance, neither Sir
+Robert nor Mr. Champers-Haswell laughed. This merriment seemed to excite
+Jeekie. At any rate it caused him to cease his stilted talk and relapse
+into  the strange vernacular that is common to all negroes, tinctured
+with a racy  slang that was all his own.
+
+“You want to hear Yellow God palaver?” he said rapidly. “Very
+well, I tell you, you cocksure white men who think you know everything,
+but  know nothing at all. My people, people of the Asiki, that mean
+people of  Spirits, what you call ghosts and say you no believe in, but
+always look for  behind door, they worship Yellow God, Bonsa Big and
+Bonsa Little, worship both  and call them one; only Little Bonsa on trip
+to this country just now and sit  and think in City office. Yellow God
+live long way up a great river, then turn  to the left and walk six days
+through big forest where dwarf people shoot you  with poisoned arrow.
+Then turn to the right, walk up stream where many wild  beasts. Then
+turn to the left again and go in canoe through swamp where you die  of
+fever, and across lake. Then walk over grassland and mountains. Then in 
+kloof of the mountains where big black trees make a roof and river fall
+like  thunder, find Asiki and gold house of the Yellow God. All that
+mountain gold,  full of gold and beneath gold house Yellow God afloat in
+water. She what you  call Queen, priestess, live there also, always
+there, very beautiful woman  called Asika with face like Yellow God,
+cruel, cruel. She take a husband every  year, and every year he die
+because she always hunt for right man but never  find him.”  
+
+“How does she kill him then?” asked Barbara.
+
+“Oh! no, she no kill him, Miss, he kill himself at end of year, glad to
+get away from Asika and go to spirits. While he live he have a very good
+time,  plenty to eat, plenty wives, fine house, much gold as he like,
+only nothing to  spend it on, pretty necklace, nice paint for face. But
+Asika, little bit by  little bit she eat up his spirit. He see too many
+ghosts. The house where he  sleep with dead men who once have his
+billet, full of ghosts and every night  there come more and sit with
+him, sit all round him, look at him with great  eyes, just like you look
+at me, till at last when Asika finish eating up his  spirit, he go
+crazy, he howl like man in hell, he throw away all the gold they  give
+him, and then, sometimes after one week, sometimes after one month, 
+sometimes after one year if he be strong but never more, he run out at
+night  and jump into canal where Yellow God float and god get him, while
+Asika sit on  the bank and laugh, ’cause she hungry for new man to eat
+up his spirit  too.”  
+
+Jeekie’s big voice died away to a whisper and ceased. There was a
+silence  in the room, for even in the shine of the electric light and
+through the fumes  of champagne, in more than one imagination there rose
+a vision of that haunted  water in which floated the great Yellow God,
+and of some mad being casting  himself to his death beneath the moon,
+while his beautiful witch wife who was  “hungry for more spirits” sat
+upon its edge and laughed. Although  his language was now commonplace
+enough, even ludicrous at times, the negro had  undoubtedly the art of
+narration. His auditors felt that he spoke of what he  knew, or had
+seen, that the very recollection of it frightened him, therefore  he
+frightened them.  
+
+Again Barbara broke the silence which she felt to be awkward.
+
+“Why do more ghosts come very night to sit with the queen’s
+husband, Jeekie?” she asked. “Where do they come from?”
+
+“Out of the dead, miss, dead husbands of Asika from beginning of the
+world; what they call Munganas. Also always they make sacrifice to
+Yellow God.  From far, far away them poor niggers send people to be
+sacrifice that their  house or tribe get luck. Sometimes they send
+kings, sometimes great men,  sometimes doctors, sometimes women what
+have twin babies. Also the Asiki bring  people what is witches, or have
+drunk poison stuff which blacks call  _muavi_ and have not been sick, or
+perhaps son they love best to take  curse off their roof. All these come
+to Yellow God. Then Asiki doctor, they  have Death-palaver. On night of
+full moon they beat drum, and drum go Wow! Wow!  Wow! and doctors pick
+out those to die that month. Once they pick out Jeekie,  oh! good Lord,
+they pick out _me_,” and as he said the words he  gasped and with his
+great hand wiped off the sweat that started from his brow.  “But Yellow
+God no take Jeekie that time, no want him and I escape.”  
+
+“How?” asked Sir Robert.
+
+“With my master, Major’s uncle, Reverend Austin, he who come try to
+make Asiki Christian. He snap his fingers, put on small mask of Yellow
+God  which he prig, Little Bonsa herself, that same face which sit in
+your office  now,” and he pointed to Sir Robert, “like one toad upon a
+stone.  Priests think that god make herself into man, want holiday, take
+me out into  forest to kill me and eat my life. So they let us go by and
+we go just as  though devil kick us—fast, fast, and never see the Asiki
+any more. But  Little Bonsa I bring with me for luck, tell truth I no
+dare leave her behind,  she not stand that; and now she sit in your
+office and think and think and make  magic there. That why you grow
+rich, because she know you worship her.”  
+
+“That’s a nice way for a baptized Christian to talk,” said
+Barbara, adding, “But Jeekie, what do you mean when you say that the god
+did not take you?”
+
+“I mean this, miss; when victim offered to Big Yellow God, priest-men
+bring him to edge of canal where the great god float. Then if Yellow God
+want  him, it turn and swim across water.”
+
+“Swim across water! I thought you said it was only a mask of gold?”
+
+“I don’t know, miss, perhaps man inside the mask, perhaps spirit. I
+say it swim across water in the night, always in the night, and lift
+itself up  and look in victim’s face. Then priest take him and kill him,
+sometimes  one way—sometimes another. Or if he escape and they not kill
+him, all  same for that Johnnie, he die in about one year, always die,
+no one ever live  long if Yellow God swim to him in dark and rise up and
+smile in his face. No  matter if it Big Bonsa or Little Bonsa, for they
+man and wife joined in holy  matrimony and either do trick.”
+
+As these words left Jeekie’s lips Alan became aware of some unusual
+movement on his left and looking round, saw that Mr. Champers-Haswell,
+who  stood by him, had dropped the cigar which he held and, white as a
+sheet, was  swaying to and fro. Indeed in another instant he would have
+fallen had not Alan  caught him in his arms and supported him till
+others came to his assistance,  when between them they carried him to a
+sofa. On their way they passed a table  where spirits and soda water
+were set out, and to his astonishment Alan noticed  that Sir Robert
+Aylward, looking little if at all better than his partner, had  helped
+himself to half a tumbler of cognac, which he was swallowing in great 
+gulps. Then there was confusion and someone went to telephone the
+doctor, while  the deep voice of Jeekie was heard exclaiming:  
+
+“That Yellow God at work—oh yes, Little Bonsa on the job. Jeekie
+Christian man but no doubt she very powerful fetish and can do anything
+she  like to them that worship her, and you see, she sit in office of
+these  gentlemen. ’Spect she make Reverend Austin and me bring her to
+England  because she got eye on firm of Messrs. Aylward & Haswell,
+London, E.C. Oh,  shouldn’t wonder at all, for Bonsa know everything.”
+
+“Oh, confound you and your fetish! Be off, you old donkey,” almost
+shouted Alan.
+
+“Major,” replied the offended Jeekie, assuming his grand manner and
+language, “it was not I who wished to narrate this history of
+blood-stained superstitions of poor African. Mustn’t blame old Jeekie if
+they make Christian gents sick as Channel steamer.”
+
+“Be off!” repeated Alan, stamping his foot.
+
+So Jeekie went, but outside the door, as it chanced, he encountered one
+of the  Jew gentlemen who also appeared to be a little “sick.” An idea
+striking him, he touched his white hair with his finger and said:
+
+“You like Jeekie’s pretty story, sir? Well, Jeekie think that if
+you make little present to him, like your brother in there, it please
+Yellow  God very much, and bring you plenty luck.”
+
+Then acting upon some unaccustomed impulse, that Jew became exceedingly
+generous. In his pocket was a handful of sovereigns which he had been
+prepared  to stake at bridge. He grasped them all and thrust them into
+Jeekie’s  outstretched palm, where they seemed to melt.
+
+“Thank you, sir,” said Jeekie. “Now I sure you have plenty
+luck, just like your grandpa Jacob in Book when he do his brudder in
+eye.”  
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ALAN AND BARBARA.
+
+
+There was no bridge or billiards at the Court that night, where
+ordinarily the  play ran high enough. After Mr. Haswell had been carried
+to his room, some of  the guests, among them Sir Robert Aylward, went to
+bed, remarking that they  could do no good by sitting up, while others,
+more concerned, waited to hear  the verdict of the doctor, who must
+drive from six miles away. He came, and  half an hour later Barbara
+entered the billiard room and told Alan, who was  sitting there smoking,
+that her uncle had recovered from his faint, and that  the doctor, who
+was to stay all night, said that he was in no danger, only  suffering
+from a heart attack brought on apparently by over-work or excitement.  
+
+When Alan woke next morning the first thing that he heard through his
+open  window was the sound of the doctor’s departing dogcart. Then
+Jeekie  appeared and told him that Mr. Haswell was all right again, but
+that all night  he had shaken “like one jelly.” Alan asked what had been
+the matter  with him, but Jeekie only shrugged his shoulders and said
+that he did not  know—“perhaps Yellow God touch him up.”
+
+At breakfast, as in her note she had said she would, Barbara appeared
+wearing a  short skirt. Sir Robert, who was there, looking extremely
+pale even for him  and with black rims round his eyes, asked her if she
+were going to golf, to  which she answered that she would think it over.
+It was a somewhat melancholy  meal, and as though by common consent no
+mention was made of Jeekie’s  tale of the Yellow God, and beyond the
+usual polite inquiries, very little of  their host’s seizure.
+
+As Barbara went out she whispered to Alan, who opened the door for her,
+“Meet me at half-past ten in the kitchen garden.”
+
+Accordingly, having changed his clothes surreptitiously, Alan, avoiding
+the  others, made his way by a circuitous route to this kitchen garden,
+which after  the fashion of modern places was hidden behind a belt of
+trees nearly a quarter  of a mile from the house. Here he wandered about
+till presently he heard  Barbara’s pleasant voice behind him saying:
+
+“Don’t dawdle so, we shall be late for church.”
+
+So they started, somewhat furtively like runaway children. As they went
+Alan  asked how her uncle was.
+
+“All right now,” she answered, “but he has had a bad shake.
+It was that Yellow God story which did it. I know, for I was there when
+he was  coming to, with Sir Robert. He kept talking about it in a
+confused manner,  saying that it was swimming to him across the floor,
+till at last Sir Robert  bent over him and told him to be quiet quite
+sternly. Do you know, Alan, I  believe that your pet fetish has been
+manifesting itself in some unpleasant  fashion up there in the office?”
+
+“Indeed. If so, it must be since I left, for I never heard of anything
+of  the sort, nor are Aylward and your uncle likely people to see
+ghosts. In fact  Sir Robert wished to give me about £17,000 for the
+thing only the day before  yesterday, which doesn’t look as though it
+had been frightening  him.”
+
+“Well, he won’t repeat the offer, Alan, for I heard him promise my
+uncle only this morning that it should be sent back to Yarleys at once.
+But why  did he want to buy it for such a lot of money? Tell me quickly,
+Alan, I am  dying to hear the whole story.”
+
+So he began and told her, omitting nothing, while she listened eagerly
+to every  word, hardly interrupting him at all. As he finished his tale
+they reached the  door of the quaint old village church just as the
+clock was striking eleven.  
+
+“Come in, Alan,” she said gently, “and thank Heaven for all
+its mercies, for you should be a grateful man to-day.”
+
+Then without giving him time to answer she entered the church and they
+took  their places in the great square pew that for generations had been
+occupied by  the owners of the ancient house which Mr. Haswell pulled
+down when he built The  Court. There were their monuments upon the wall
+and their gravestones in the  chancel floor. But now no one except
+Barbara ever sat in their pew; even the  benches set aside for the
+servants were empty, for those who frequented The  Court were not
+church-goers and “like master, like man.” Indeed the  gentle-faced old
+clergyman looked quite pleased and surprised when he saw two 
+inhabitants of that palatial residence amongst his congregation,
+although it is  true that Barbara was his friend and helper.  
+
+The simple service went on; the first lesson was read. It cried woe upon
+them  that joined house to house and field to field, that draw iniquity
+with cords of  vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope; that call
+evil good and good evil,  that put darkness for light and light for
+darkness, that justify the wicked for  reward; that feast full but
+regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider  the operation of His
+hand, for of such it prophesied that their houses great  and fair should
+be without inhabitant and desolate.  
+
+It was very well read, and Alan, listening, thought that the
+denunciations of  the old seer of thousands of years ago were not
+inappropriate to the dwellers  in some houses great and fair of his own
+day, who, whatever they did or left  undone, regarded not the work of
+the Lord, neither considered the operation of  His hand. Perhaps Barbara
+thought so too; at any rate a rather sad little smile  appeared once or
+twice upon her sweet, firm face as the immortal poem echoed  down the
+aisle.  
+
+The peace that passeth understanding was invoked upon their heads, and
+rising  with the rest of the scanty congregation they went away.
+
+“Shall we walk home by the woods, Alan?” asked Barbara. “It
+is three miles round, but we don’t lunch till two.”
+
+He nodded, and presently they were alone in those woods, the beautiful
+woods  through which the breath of spring was breathing, treading upon
+carpets of  bluebell, violet, and primrose; quite alone, unaccompanied
+save by the wild  things that stole across their path, undisturbed save
+by the sound of the  singing birds and of the wind among the trees.
+
+“What did you mean, Barbara, when you said that I should be a grateful
+man to-day?” asked Alan presently.
+
+Barbara looked him in the eyes in that open, virginal fashion of hers
+and  answered in the words of the lesson, “‘Woe unto them that draw
+iniquity with the cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope,
+that lay  house to house,’” and through an opening in the woods she
+pointed  to the roof of The Court standing on one hill, and to the roof
+of Old Hall  standing upon another—“‘and field to field,’” and
+with a sweep of her hand she indicated all the country round, “‘for
+many houses great and fair that have music in their feasts shall be left
+desolate.’” Then turning she said:
+
+“Do you understand now, Alan?”
+
+“I think so,” he answered. “You mean that I have been in bad
+company.”
+
+“Very bad, Alan. One of them is my own uncle, but the truth remains the
+truth. Alan, they are no better than thieves; all this wealth is stolen,
+and I  thank God that you have found it out in time before you became
+one of them in  heart as well as in name.”
+
+“If you refer to the Sahara Syndicate,” he said, “the idea is
+sound enough; indeed, I am responsible for it. The thing can be done,
+great  benefits would result, too long to go into.”
+
+“Yes, yes, Alan, but you know that they never mean to do it, they only
+mean to get the millions from the public. I have lived with my uncle for
+ten  years, ever since my poor father died, and I know the backstairs of
+the  business. There have been half a dozen schemes like this, and
+although they  have had their bad times, very bad times, he and Sir
+Robert have grown richer  and richer. But what has happened to those who
+have invested in them? Oh! let  us drop the subject, it is unpleasant.
+For myself it doesn’t matter,  because although it isn’t under my
+control, I have money of my own. You  know we are a plebeian lot on the
+male side, my grandfather was a draper in a  large way of business, my
+father was a coal-merchant who made a great fortune.  His brother, my
+uncle, in whom my father always believed implicitly, took to  what is
+called Finance, and when my father died he left me, his only child, in 
+his guardianship. Until I am five-and-twenty I cannot even marry or
+touch a  halfpenny without his consent; in fact if I should marry
+against his will the  most of my money goes to him.”  
+
+“I expect that he has got it already,” said Alan.
+
+“No, I think not. I found out that, although it is not mine, it is not
+his. He can’t draw it without my signature, and I steadily refuse to
+sign  anything. Again and again they have brought me documents, and I
+have always  said that I would consider them at five-and-twenty, when I
+came of age under my  father’s will. I went on the sly to a lawyer in
+Kingswell and paid him a  guinea for his advice, and he put me up to
+that. ‘Sign nothing,’ he  said, and I have signed nothing, so, except by
+forgery nothing can have gone.  Still for all that it may have gone. For
+anything I know I am not worth more  than the clothes I stand in,
+although my father was a very rich man.”  
+
+“If so, we are about in the same boat, Barbara,” Alan answered with
+a laugh, “for my present possessions are Yarleys, which brings in about
+£100 a year less than the interest on its mortgages and cost of upkeep,
+and the  £1700 that Aylward paid me back on Friday for my shares. If I
+had stuck to them  I understand that in a week or two I should have been
+worth £100,000, and now  you see, here I am, over thirty years of age
+without a profession, invalided  out of the army and having failed in
+finance, a mere bit of driftwood without  hope and without a trade.”
+
+Barbara’s brown eyes grew soft with sympathy, or was it tears?
+
+“You are a curious creature, Alan,” she said. “Why
+didn’t you take the £17,000 for that fetish of yours? It would have been
+a fair deal and have set you on your legs.”
+
+“I don’t know,” he answered dejectedly. “It went
+against the grain, so what is the use of talking about it? I think my
+old uncle  Austin told me it wasn’t to be parted with—no, perhaps it was
+Jeekie. Bother the Yellow God! it is always cropping up.”
+
+“Yes,” replied Barbara, “the Yellow God is always cropping
+up, especially in this neighbourhood.”
+
+They walked on a while in silence, till suddenly Barbara sat down upon a
+bole  of felled oak and began to cry.
+
+“What is the matter with you?” asked Alan.
+
+“I don’t know,” she answered. “Everything goes wrong. I
+live in a kind of gilded hell. I don’t like my uncle and I loathe the
+men  he brings about the place. I have no friends, I scarcely know a
+woman  intimately, I have troubles I can’t tell you and—I am wretched.
+You  are the only creature I have left to talk to, and I suppose that
+after this row  you must go away too to make your living.”
+
+Alan looked at her there weeping on the log and his heart swelled within
+him,  for he had loved this girl for years.
+
+“Barbara,” he gasped, “please don’t cry, it upsets me.
+You know you are a great heiress——”
+
+“That remains to be proved,” she answered. “But anyway, what
+has it to do with the case?”
+
+“It has everything to do with it, at least so far as I am concerned. If
+it hadn’t been for that I should have asked you to marry me a long while
+ago, because I love you, as I would now, but of course it is
+impossible.”  
+
+Barbara ceased her weeping, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand,
+and  looked up at him.
+
+“Alan,” she said, “I think that you are the biggest fool I
+ever knew—not but that a fool is rather refreshing when one lives among
+knaves.”
+
+“I know I am a fool,” he answered. “If I wasn’t I
+should not have mentioned my misfortune to you, but sometimes things are
+too  much for one. Forget it and forgive me.”
+
+“Oh! yes,” she said; “I forgive you; a woman can generally
+forgive a man for being fond of her. Whatever she may be, she is ready
+to take  a lenient view of his human weakness. But as to forgetting,
+that is a different  matter. I don’t exactly see why I should be so
+anxious to forget, who  haven’t many people to care about me,” and she
+looked at him in  quite a new fashion, one indeed which gave him
+something of a shock, for he had  not thought the nymph-like Barbara
+capable of such a look as that. She and any  sort of passion had always
+seemed so far apart.  
+
+Now after all Alan was very much a man, if a modest one, with all a
+man’s  instincts, and therefore there are appearances of the female face
+which even  such as he could not entirely misinterpret.
+
+“You—don’t—mean,” he said doubtfully, “you
+don’t really mean——” and he stood hesitating before her.
+
+“If you would put your question a little more clearly, Alan, I might be
+able to give you an answer,” she replied, that quaint little smile of
+hers creeping to the corners of her mouth like sunshine through a mist
+of rain.  
+
+“You don’t really mean,” he went on, “that you care
+anything about me, like, like I have cared for you for years?”
+
+“Oh! Alan,” she said, laughing outright, “why in the name of
+goodness shouldn’t I care about you? I don’t say that I do, mind,
+but why shouldn’t I? What is the gulf between us?”
+
+“The old one,” he answered, “that between Dives and
+Lazarus—that between the rich and the poor.”
+
+“Alan,” said Barbara, looking down, “I don’t know what
+has come over me, but for some unexplained and inexplicable reason I am
+inclined to give Lazarus a lead—across that gulf, the first one, I mean,
+not the second!”
+
+Like the glance which preceded it, this was a saying that even Alan
+could not  misunderstand. He sat himself on the log beside her, while
+she, still looking  down, watched him out of the corners of her eyes. He
+went red, he went white,  his heart beat very violently. Then he
+stretched out his big brown hand and  took her small white one, and as
+this familiarity produced no remonstrance, let  it fall, and passing his
+arm about her, drew her to him and embraced her, not  once, but often,
+with such vigour that a squirrel which had been watching these 
+proceedings from a neighbouring tree, bolted round it scandalized and
+was seen  no more.  
+
+“I love you, I love you,” he said huskily.
+
+“So I gather,” she answered in a feeble voice.
+
+“Do you care for me?” he asked.
+
+“It would seem that I must, Alan, otherwise I should scarcely—oh!
+you foolish Alan,” and heedless of her Sunday hat, which never recovered
+from this encounter, but was kept as a holy relic, she let her head fall
+upon  his shoulder and began to cry again, this time for very happiness.
+
+He kissed her tears away; then, as he could think of nothing else to
+say, asked  her if she would marry him.
+
+“It is the general sequel to this kind of thing, I believe,” she
+answered; “or at any rate it ought to be. But if you want a direct
+answer—yes, I will, if my uncle will let me, which he won’t, as you
+have quarrelled with him, or at any rate two years hence, when I am
+five-and-twenty and my own mistress; that is if we have anything to
+marry on,  for one must eat. At present our worldly possessions seem to
+consist chiefly of  a large store of mutual affection, a good stock of
+clothes and one Yellow God,  which after what happened last night, I do
+not think you will get another chance  of turning into cash.”
+
+“I must make money somehow,” he said.
+
+“Yes, Alan, but I am afraid it is not easy to do—honestly. Nobody
+wants people without capital whose only stock in trade is a brief but
+distinguished military career, and a large experience of African fever.”
+
+Alan groaned at this veracious but discouraging remark, and she went on
+quickly:  
+
+“I mean to spend another guinea upon my friend the lawyer at Kingswell.
+Perhaps he can raise the wind, by a post-obit, or something,” she added
+vaguely, “I mean a post-uncle-obit.”
+
+“If he does, Barbara, I can’t live on your money alone, it
+isn’t right.”
+
+“Oh! don’t you trouble about that, Alan. If once I can get hold of
+those dim thousands you will soon be able to make more, for unto him
+that hath  shall be given. But at present they are very dim, and for all
+I know may be  represented by stock in deceased companies. In short, the
+financial position is  extraordinarily depressed, as they say in the
+Market Intelligence in _The  Times_. But that’s no reason why we should
+be depressed also.”  
+
+“No, Barbara, for at any rate we have got each other.”
+
+“Yes,” she answered, springing up, “we have got each other,
+dear, until Death do us part, and somehow I don’t think he’ll do
+that yet awhile; it comes into my heart that he won’t do that, Alan,
+that  you and I are going to live out our days. So what does the rest
+matter? In two  years I shall be a free woman. In fact, if the worst
+comes to the worst,  I’ll defy them all,” and she set her little mouth
+like a rock,  “and marry you straight away, as being over age, I can do,
+even if it  costs me every halfpenny that I’ve got.”
+
+“No, no,” he said, “it would be wrong, wrong to yourself and
+wrong to your descendants.”
+
+“Very well, Alan, then, we will wait, or perhaps luck will come our
+way—why shouldn’t it? At any rate for my part I never felt so happy
+in my life; for, dear Alan, we have found what we were born to find,
+found it  once and for always, and the rest is mere etceteras. What
+would be the use of  all the gold of the Asiki people that Jeekie was
+talking about last night, to  either of us, if we had not each other? We
+can get on without the wealth, but  we couldn’t get on apart, or at
+least I couldn’t and I don’t  mind saying so.”
+
+“No, my darling, no,” he answered, turning white at the very
+thought, “we couldn’t get on apart—now. In fact I don’t
+know how I have done it so long already, except that I was always hoping
+that a  time would come when we shouldn’t be apart. That is why I went
+into that  infernal business, to make enough money to be able to ask you
+to marry me. And  now I have gone out of the business and asked you just
+when I  shouldn’t.”
+
+“Yes, so you see you might as well have done it a year or two ago when
+perhaps things would have been simpler. Well, it is a fine example of
+the  vanity of human plans, and, Alan, we must be going home to lunch.
+If we  don’t, Sir Robert will be organizing a search party to look for
+us; in  fact, I shouldn’t wonder if he is doing that already, in the
+wrong  direction.”
+
+The mention of Sir Robert Aylward’s name fell on them both like a blast
+of cold wind in summer, and for a while they walked in silence.
+
+“You are afraid of that man, Barbara,” said Alan presently,
+guessing her thoughts.
+
+“A little,” she answered, “so far as I can be afraid of
+anything any more. And you?”
+
+“A little also. I think that he will give us trouble. He can be very
+malevolent and resourceful.”
+
+“Resourceful, Alan; well, so can I. I’ll back my wits against his
+any day. He shan’t separate us by anything short of murder, which he
+won’t go in for. Men like that don’t like to break the law; they
+have too much to lose. But no doubt he will make things uncomfortable
+for you,  if he can, for several reasons.”
+
+Again they walked on lost in reflections, when Barbara suddenly saw her
+lover’s face brighten.
+
+“What is it, Alan?” she asked.
+
+“Something that is rare enough with me, Barbara—an idea. You
+remember speaking about that Asiki gold just now. Well, why shouldn’t I
+go and get it?”
+
+She stared at him.
+
+“It sounds a little speculative,” she said; “something like
+one of my uncle’s companies.”
+
+“Not half so speculative as you think. I have no doubt it is there and
+Jeekie knows the way. Also I seem to remember that there is a map and an
+account of the whole thing in Uncle Austin’s diaries, though to tell you
+the truth the old fellow wrote such a fearful hand, that I have never
+taken the  trouble to read it. You see,” he went on with enthusiasm, “it
+is  the kind of business that I can do. I am thoroughly salted to fever,
+I know the  West Coast, where I spent three years on that Boundary
+Commission, I have  studied the natives and can talk several of their
+dialects. Of course there  would be a risk, but there are risks in
+everything, and like you I am not  afraid about that, for I believe that
+we have got our lives before us.”  
+
+“Read up those diaries, Alan, and we will talk the thing over again.
+I’ll pump Jeekie, who will tell me anything by coaxing, and try to get
+at  the truth. Meanwhile what are you going to do about my uncle?”
+
+“Speak to him, of course, and have the row over.”
+
+“Yes,” she answered, “that is the best and the most honest.
+Of course he can turn you out, but he can’t prevent my seeing you. If he
+does, go home to Yarleys and I’ll come over and call. Here we are, let
+us  go in by the back door,” and she pointed to her crushed hat, and
+laughed.  
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+BARBARA MAKES A SPEECH.
+
+
+While Alan and Barbara, on the most momentous occasion of their lives,
+were  seated upon the fallen oak in the woods that thrilled with the
+breath of  spring, another interview was taking place in Mr.
+Champers-Haswell’s  private suite at The Court, the decorations of
+which, as he was wont to inform  his visitors, had cost nearly £2000.
+Sir Robert, whose taste at any rate was  good, thought them so appalling
+that while waiting for his host and partner,  whom he had come to see,
+he took a seat in the bow window of the sitting-room  and studied the
+view that nobody had been able to spoil. Presently Mr. Haswell  emerged
+from his bedroom, wrapped in a dressing gown and looking very pale and 
+shaky.  
+
+“Delighted to see you all right again,” said Sir Robert as he
+wheeled up a chair into which Mr. Haswell sank.
+
+“I am not all right, Aylward,” he answered; “I am not all
+right at all. Never had such an upset in my life; thought I was going to
+die  when that accursed savage told his beastly tale. Aylward, you are a
+man of the  world, tell me, what is the meaning of the thing? You
+remember what we thought  we saw in the office, and then—that story.”
+
+“I don’t know,” he answered; “frankly I don’t
+know. I am a man who has never believed in anything I cannot see and
+test, one  who utterly lacks faith. In my leisure I have examined into
+the various  religious systems and found them to be rubbish. I am
+convinced that we are but  highly-developed mammals born by chance, and
+when our day is done, departing  into the black nothingness out of which
+we came. Everything else, that is, what  is called the higher and
+spiritual part, I attribute to the superstitions  incident to the terror
+of the hideous position in which we find ourselves, that  of gods of a
+sort hemmed in by a few years of fearful and tormented life. But  you
+know the old arguments, so why should I enter on them? And now I am 
+confronted with an experience which I cannot explain. I certainly
+thought that  in the office on Friday evening I saw that gold mask to
+which I had taken so  strange a fancy that I offered to give Vernon
+£17,000 for it because I thought  that it brought us luck, swim across
+the floor of our room and look first into  your face and then into mine.
+Well, the next night that negro tells his story.  What am I to make of
+it?”    
+
+“Can’t tell you,” answered Mr. Champers-Haswell with a groan.
+“All I know is that it nearly made a corpse of me. I am not like you,
+Aylward, I was brought up as an Evangelical, and although I haven’t
+given  much thought to these matters of late years—well, we don’t shake
+them off in a hurry. I daresay there is something somewhere, and when
+the black  man was speaking, that something seemed uncommonly near. It
+got up and gripped  me by the throat, shaking the mortal breath out of
+me, and upon my word,  Aylward, I have been wishing all the morning that
+I had led a different kind of  life, as my old parents and my brother
+John, Barbara’s father, who was a  very religious kind of man, did
+before me.”  
+
+“It is rather late to think of all that now, Haswell,” said Sir
+Robert, shrugging his shoulders. “One takes one’s line and
+there’s an end. Personally I believe that we are overstrained with the
+fearful and anxious work of this flotation, and have been the victims of
+an  hallucination and a coincidence. Although I confess that I came to
+look upon  the thing as a kind of mascot, I put no trust in any fetish.
+How can a bit of  gold move, and how can it know the future? Well, I
+have written to them to  clear it out of the office to-morrow, so it
+won’t trouble us any more.  And now I have come to speak to you on
+another matter.”  
+
+“Not business,” said Mr. Haswell with a sigh. “We have that
+all the week and there will be enough of it on Monday.”
+
+“No,” he answered, “something more important. About your
+niece Barbara.”
+
+Mr. Haswell glanced at him with those little eyes of his which were so
+sharp  that they seemed to bore like gimlets.
+
+“Barbara?” he said. “What of Barbara?”
+
+“Can’t you guess, Haswell? You are pretty good at it, generally.
+Well, it is no use beating about the bush; I want to marry her.”
+
+At this sudden announcement his partner became exceedingly interested.
+Leaning  back in the chair he stared at the decorated ceiling, and
+uttered his favourite  wind-in-the-wires whistle.
+
+“Indeed,” he said. “I never knew that matrimony was in your
+line, Aylward, any more than it has been in mine, especially as you are
+always  preaching against it. Well, has the young lady given her
+consent?”  
+
+“No, I have not spoken to her. I meant to do so this morning, but she
+has  slipped off somewhere, with Vernon, I suppose.”
+
+Mr. Haswell whistled again, but on a new note.
+
+“Pray do stop that noise,” said Sir Robert; “it gets upon my
+nerves, which are shaky this morning. Listen: It is a curious thing, one
+less  to be understood even than the coincidence of the Yellow God, but
+at my present  age of forty-four, for the first time in my life I have
+committed the folly of  what is called falling in love. It is not the
+case of a successful, middle-aged  man wishing to _ranger_ himself and
+settle down with a desirable  _partie_, but of sheer, stark infatuation.
+I adore Barbara; the worse she  treats me the more I adore her. I had
+rather that the Sahara flotation should  fail than that she should
+refuse me. I would rather lose three-quarters of my  fortune than lose
+her. Do you understand?”  
+
+His partner looked at him, pursed up his lips to whistle, then
+remembered and  shook his head instead.
+
+“No,” he answered. “Barbara is a nice girl, but I should not
+have imagined her capable of inspiring such sentiments in a man almost
+old  enough to be her father. I think that you are the victim of a kind
+of mania,  which I have heard of but never experienced. Venus—or is it
+Cupid?—has netted you, my dear Aylward.”
+
+“Oh! pray leave gods and goddesses out of it, we have had enough of them
+already,” he answered, exasperated. “That is my case at any rate,
+and what I want to know now is if I have your support in my suit.
+Remember, I  have something to offer, Haswell, for instance, a large
+fortune of which I will  settle half—it is a good thing to do in our
+business,—and a  baronetcy that will be a peerage before long.”
+
+“A peerage! Have you squared that?”
+
+“I think so. There will be a General Election within the next three
+months, and on such occasions a couple of hundred thousand in cool cash
+come in  useful to a Party that is short of ready money. I think I may
+say that it is  settled. She will be the Lady Aylward, or any other name
+she may fancy, and one  of the richest women in England. Now have I your
+support?”  
+
+“Yes, my dear friend, why not, though Barbara does not want money, for
+she has plenty of her own, in first-class securities that I could never
+persuade her to vary, for she is shrewd in that way and steadily refuses
+to  sign anything. Also she will probably be my heiress—and, Aylward,”
+here a sickly look of alarm spread itself over his face, “I don’t
+know how long I have to live. That infernal doctor examined my heart
+this  morning and told me that it was weak. Weak was his word, but from
+the tone in  which he said it, I believe that he meant more. Aylward, I
+gather that I may  die any day.”
+
+“Nonsense, Haswell, so may we all,” he replied, with an affectation
+of cheerfulness which failed to carry conviction.
+
+Presently Mr. Haswell, who had hidden his face in his hand, looked up
+with a  sigh and said:
+
+“Oh! yes, of course you have my support, for after all she is my only
+relation and I should be glad to see her safely married. Also, as it
+happens,  she can’t marry anyone without my consent, at any rate until
+she is  five-and-twenty, for if she does, under her father’s will all
+her property  goes away, most of it to charities, except a beggarly £200
+a year. You see my  brother John had a great horror of imprudent
+marriages and a still greater  belief in me, which as it chances, is a
+good thing for you.”  
+
+“Had he?” said Sir Robert. “And pray why is it a good thing
+for me?”
+
+“Because, my dear Aylward, unless my observation is at fault, there is
+another Richard in the field, our late partner, Vernon, of whom, by the
+way,  Barbara is extremely fond, though it may only be in a friendly
+fashion. At any  rate she pays more attention to his wishes and opinions
+than to mine and yours  put together.”
+
+At the mention of Alan’s name Aylward started violently.
+
+“I feared it,” he said, “and he is more than ten years my
+junior and a soldier, not a man of business. Also there is no use
+disguising  the truth, although I am a baronet and shall be a peer and
+he is nothing but a  beggarly country gentleman with a D.S.O. tacked on
+to his name, he belongs to a  different class to us, as she does too on
+her mother’s side. Well, I can  smash him up, for you remember I took
+over that mortgage on Yarleys, and  I’ll do it if necessary. Practically
+our friend has not a shilling that  he can call his own. Therefore,
+Haswell, unless you play me false, which I  don’t think you will, for I
+can be a nasty enemy,” he added with a  threat in his voice, “Alan
+Vernon hasn’t much chance in that  direction.”
+
+“I don’t know, Aylward, I don’t know,” replied Haswell,
+shaking his white head. “Barbara is a strong-willed woman and she might
+choose to take the man and let the money go, and then—who can stop her?
+Also I don’t like your idea of smashing Vernon. It isn’t right, and
+it may come back on our own heads, especially yours. I am sorry that he
+has  left us, as you were on Friday night, for somehow he was a good,
+honest stick  to lean on, and we want such a stick. But I am tired now,
+I really can’t  talk any more. The doctor warned me against excitement.
+Get the girl’s  consent, Aylward, and we’ll see. Ah! here comes my soup.
+Good-bye for the  present.”
+
+When Sir Robert came down to luncheon he found Barbara looking
+particularly  radiant and charming, already presiding at that meal and
+conversing in her best  French to the foreign gentlemen, who were paying
+her compliments.  
+
+“Forgive me for being late,” he said; “first of all I have
+been talking to your uncle, and afterwards skimming through the articles
+in  yesterday’s papers on our little venture which comes out to-morrow.
+A  cheerful occupation on the whole, for with one or two exceptions they
+are all  favourable.”
+
+“Mon Dieu,” said the French gentlemen on the right, “seeing
+what they did cost, that is not strange. Your English papers they are so
+expensive; in Paris we have done it for half the money.”
+
+Barbara and some of the guests laughed outright, finding this frankness
+charming.
+
+“But where have you been, Miss Champers? I thought that we were going to
+have a round of golf together. The caddies were there, I was there, the
+greens  had been specially rolled this morning, but there was no You.”
+
+“No,” she answered, “because Major Vernon and I walked to
+church and heard a very good sermon upon the observance of the Sabbath.”
+
+“You are severe,” he said. “Do you think it wrong for men who
+work hard all the week to play a harmless game on Sunday?”
+
+“Not at all, Sir Robert.” Then she looked at him and, coming to a
+sudden decision, added, “If you like I will play you nine holes this
+afternoon and give you a stroke a hole, or would you prefer a foursome?”
+
+“No, let us fight alone and let the best player win.”
+
+“Very well, Sir Robert; but you mustn’t forget that I am
+handicapped.”
+
+“Don’t look angry,” she whispered to Alan as they strolled
+out into the garden after lunch, “I must clear things up and know what
+we  have to face. I’ll be back by tea-time, and we will have it out with
+my  uncle.”
+
+The nine holes had been played, and by a single stroke Barbara had won
+the  match, which pleased her very much, for she had done her best, and
+with such  heavy odds in his favour Sir Robert, who had also done his
+best, was no mean  opponent, even for a player of her skill. Indeed the
+fight had been quite  earnest, for each party knew that it was but a
+prelude to another and more  serious fight, and looked upon the result
+as in some sense an omen.  
+
+“I am conquered,” he said in a voice in which vexation struggled
+with a laugh, “and by a woman over whom I had an advantage. It is
+humiliating, for I confess I do not like being beaten.”
+
+“Don’t you think that women generally win if they mean to?”
+asked Barbara. “I believe that when they fail, which is often enough, it
+is because they don’t care, or can’t make up their minds. A woman
+in earnest is a dangerous antagonist.”
+
+“Yes,” he answered, “or the best of allies.” Then he
+gave the clubs and half-a-crown to the caddies, and when they were out
+of  hearing, added, “Miss Champers, I have been wondering for some time
+whether it is possible that you would become such an ally to me.”
+
+“I know nothing of business, Sir Robert; my tastes do not lie that
+way.”
+
+“You know well that I was not speaking of business, Miss Champers. I was
+speaking of another kind of partnership, that which Nature has ordained
+between  men and women—marriage. Will you accept me as a husband?”
+
+She opened her lips to speak, but he lifted his hand and went on.
+“Listen  before you give that ready answer which it is so hard to
+recall, or smooth  away. I know all my disadvantages, my years, which to
+you may seem many; my  modest origin; my trade, which, not altogether
+without reason, you despise and  dislike. Well, the first two cannot be
+changed except for the worse; the second  can be, and already is, buried
+beneath the gold and ermine of wealth and  titles. What does it matter
+if I am the son of a City clerk who never earned  more than £2 a week
+and was born in a tenement at Battersea, when I am one of  the rich men
+of this rich land and shall die a peer in a palace, leaving  millions
+and honours to my children? As for the third, my occupation, I am 
+prepared to give it up. It has served my turn, and after next week I
+shall have  earned the amount that years ago I determined to earn.
+Thenceforth, set above  the accidents of fortune, I propose to devote
+myself to higher aims, those of  legitimate ambition. So far as my time
+would allow I have already taken some  share in politics as a worker; I
+intend to continue in them as a ruler which I  still have the health and
+ability to do. I mean to be one of the first men in  this Empire, to
+ride to power over the heads of all the nonentities whose only  claim
+upon the confidence of their countrymen is that they were born in a 
+certain class, with money in their pockets and without the need to spend
+the  best of their manhood in work. With you at my side I can do all
+these things  and more, and such is the future that I have to offer
+you.”      
+Again she would have broken in upon his speech and again he stopped her,
+reading the unspoken answer on her lips.
+
+“Listen: I have not told you all. Perhaps I have put first what should
+have come last. I have not told you that I love you earnestly and
+sincerely,  with the settled, unalterable love that sometimes comes to
+men in middle-age  who have never turned their thought that way before.
+I will not attempt the  rhapsodies of passion which at my time of life
+might sound foolish or out of  place; yet it is true that I am filled
+with this passion which has descended on  me and taken possession of me.
+I who often have laughed at such things in other  men, adore you. You
+are a joy to my eyes. If you are not in the room, for me it  is empty. I
+admire the uprightness of your character, and even your prejudices,  and
+to your standard I desire to approximate my own. I think that no man can
+ ever love you quite so well as I do, Barbara Champers. Now speak. I am
+ready to  meet the best or the worst.”  
+
+After her fashion Barbara looked him straight in the face with her
+steady eyes,  and answered gently enough, for the man’s method of
+presenting his case,  elaborate and prepared though it evidently was,
+had touched her.  
+
+“I fear it is the worst, Sir Robert. There are hundreds of women
+superior  to myself in every way who would be glad to give you the help
+and companionship  you ask, with their hearts thrown in. Choose one of
+them, for I cannot do  so.”
+
+He heard and for the first time his face broke, as it were. All this
+while it  had remained masklike and immovable, even when he spoke of his
+love, but now it  broke as ice breaks at the pressure of a sudden flood
+beneath, and she saw the  depths and eddies of his nature and understood
+their strength. Not that he  revealed them in speech, angry or pleading,
+for that remained calm and measured  enough. She did not hear, she saw,
+and even then it was marvellous to her that  a mere change in a man’s
+expression could explain so much.  
+
+“Those are very cruel words,” he said. “Are they
+unalterable?”
+
+“Quite. I do not play in such matters, it would be wicked.”
+
+“May I ask you one question, for if the answer is in the negative, I
+shall still continue to hope? Do you care for any other man?”
+
+Again she looked at him with her fearless eyes and answered:
+
+“Yes, I am engaged to another man.”
+
+“To Alan Vernon?”
+
+She nodded.
+
+“When did that happen? Some years ago?”
+
+“No, this morning.”
+
+“Great Heavens!” he muttered in a hoarse voice turning his head
+away, “this morning. Then last night it might not have been too late,
+and  last night I should have spoken to you, I had arranged it all. Yes,
+if it had  not been for the story of that accursed fetish and your
+uncle’s illness,  I should have spoken to you, and perhaps succeeded.”
+
+“I think not,” she said.
+
+He turned upon her and notwithstanding the tears in his eyes they burned
+like  fire.
+
+“You think—you think,” he gasped, “but I know. Of
+course after this morning it was impossible. But, Barbara, I say that I
+will  win you yet. I have never failed in any object that I set before
+myself, and do  not suppose that I shall fail in this. Although in a way
+I liked and respected  him, I have always felt that Vernon was my enemy,
+one destined to bring grief  and loss upon me, even if he did not intend
+to do so. Now I understand why, and  he shall learn that I am stronger
+than he. God help him! I say.”  
+
+“I think He will,” Barbara answered, calmly. “You are
+speaking wildly, and I understand the reason and hope that you will
+forget your  words, but whether you forget or remember, do not suppose
+that you frighten me.  You men who have made money,” she went on with
+swelling indignation,  “who have made money somehow, and have bought
+honours with the moneys  somehow, think yourselves great, and in your
+little day, your little, little  day that will end with three lines in
+small type in _The Times_, you are  great in this vulgar land. You can
+buy what you want and people creep round you  and ask you for doles and
+favours, and railway porters call you ‘my  Lord’ at every other step.
+But you forget your limitations in this world,  and that which lies
+above you. You say you will do this and that. You should  study a book
+which few of you ever read, where it tells you that you do not  know
+what you will be on the morrow; that your life is even as a vapour 
+appearing for a little time and then vanishing away. You think that you
+can  crush the man to whom I have given my heart because he is honest
+and you are  dishonest, because you are rich and he is poor, and because
+he chances to have  succeeded where you have not. Well, for myself and
+for him I defy you. Do your  worst and fail, and when you have failed,
+in the hour of your extremity  remember my words to-day. If I have given
+you pain by refusing you it is not my  fault and I am sorry, but when
+you threaten the man who has honoured me with  his love and whom I
+honour above every creature upon the earth, then I threaten  back, and
+may the Power that made us all judge between you and me, as judge it 
+will,” and bursting into tears she turned and left him.    
+
+Sir Robert watched her go.
+
+“What a woman!” he said meditatively, “what a woman—to
+have lost. Well she has set the stakes and we will play out the game.
+The cards  all seem to be in my hands, but it would not in the least
+surprise me if she  won the rubber, for the element that I call Chance
+and she would call something  else, may come in. Still, I never refused
+a challenge yet and we will play the  game out without pity to the
+loser.”  
+
+That night the first trick was played. When he got back to The Court Sir
+Robert  ordered his motorcar and departed on urgent business, either to
+his own place,  Old Hall, or to London, saying only that he had been
+summoned away by telegram.  As the 70-horse-power Mercedes glided out of
+the gates a pencilled note was put  into Mr. Haswell’s hand.
+
+It ran: “I have tried and failed—for the present. By ill-luck A.V.
+had been before me, only this morning. If I had not missed my chance
+last night  owing to your illness, it would have been different. I do
+not, however, in the  least abandon my plan, in which of course I rely
+on and expect your support.  Keep V. in the office or let him go as you
+like. Perhaps it would be better if  you could prevail upon him to stop
+there until after the flotation. But  whatever you say at the moment, I
+trust to you to absolutely veto any  engagement between him and your
+niece, and to that end to use all your powers  and authority as her
+guardian. Burn this note.  
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MR. HASWELL LOSES HIS TEMPER.
+
+
+Alan and Barbara sat in Mr. Champers-Haswell’s private sitting-room with
+the awful decorations, and before them by the fire Mr. Champers-Haswell
+reclined upon his couch. Alan in a few, brief, soldier-like words had
+just  informed him of his engagement to Barbara. During the recital of
+this  interesting fact Barbara said nothing, but Mr. Haswell had
+whistled several  times. Now at length he spoke, in that tone of forced
+geniality which he  generally adopted towards his cousin.
+
+“You are asking for the hand of a considerable heiress, Alan my
+boy,” he said, “but you have neglected to inform me of your own
+position.”
+
+“Where is the use of telling you what you know already, Mr. Haswell? I
+have left the firm, therefore I have practically nothing.”
+
+“You have practically nothing, and yet——Well, in my young
+days men were more delicate, they did not like being called
+fortune-hunters,  but of course times have changed.”
+
+Alan bit his lip and Barbara sat up quite straight in her chair,
+observing  which indications, Mr. Haswell went on hurriedly:
+
+“Now if you had stopped in the firm and earned the very handsome
+competence in a small way which would have become due to you this week,
+instead  of throwing us over at the last moment for some quixotic
+reasons of your own,  it might have been a different matter. I do not
+say it would have been, I say  it might have been, and you may remember
+a proverb about winks and nods and  blind horses. So I ask you whether
+you are inclined to withdraw that  resignation of yours and bring up
+this question again let us say, next  Sunday?”
+
+Alan thought a while before he answered. As he understood Mr. Haswell
+practically was promising to assent to the engagement upon these terms.
+The  temptation was enormously great, the fiercest that he had ever been
+called upon  to face. He looked at Barbara. She had closed her eyes and
+made absolutely no  sign. For some reason of her own she had elected
+that he should determine this  vital point without the slightest
+assistance from her. And it must be  determined at once; procrastination
+was impossible. For a moment he hesitated.  On the one side was Barbara,
+on the other his conscience. After long doubts he  had come to a certain
+conclusion which he quite understood to be inconvenient  to his
+partners. Should he throw it over now? Should he even try to make a sure
+ and certain bargain as the price of his surrender? Probably he would
+not suffer  if he did. The flotation was underwritten and bound to go
+through; the scandal  would come afterwards, months or years hence, long
+before which he might get  out, as most of the others meant to do. No,
+he could not. His conscience was  too much for him.  
+
+“I do not see any use in reconsidering that question, Mr. Haswell,”
+he said quietly; “we settled it on Friday night.”
+
+Barbara reopened her brown eyes and stared amiably at the painted
+ceiling, and  Mr. Haswell whistled.
+
+“Then I am afraid,” he said, “that I do not see any use in
+discussing your kind proposal for my niece’s hand. Listen—I will be
+quite open with you. I have other views for Barbara, and as it happens I
+have  the power to enforce them, or at any rate to prevent their
+frustration by you.  If Barbara marries against my will before she is
+five-and-twenty, that is  within the next two years, her entire fortune,
+with the exception of a  pittance, goes elsewhere. This I am sure is a
+fact that will influence you, who  have nothing and even if it did not,
+I presume that you are scarcely so selfish  as to wish to beggar her.”
+
+“No,” answered Alan, “you need not fear that, for it would be
+wrong. I understand that you absolutely refuse to sanction my suit on
+the  ground of my poverty, which under the circumstances is perhaps not
+wonderful.  Well, the only thing to do is to wait for two years, a long
+time, but not  endless, and meanwhile I can try to better my position.”
+
+“Do what you will, Alan,” said Mr. Haswell harshly, for now all his
+_faux bonhomme_ manner had gone, leaving him revealed in his true
+character of an unscrupulous tradesman with dark ends of his own to
+serve.  “Do what you will, but understand that I forbid all
+communication between  you and my niece, and that the sooner you cease
+to trespass upon a hospitality  which you have abused, the better I
+shall be pleased.”  
+
+“I will go at once,” said Alan, rising, “before my temper
+gets the better of me and I tell you some truths that I might regret,
+for after  all you are Barbara’s uncle. But on your part I ask you to
+understand  that I refuse to cut off from my cousin, who is of full age
+and has promised to  be my wife,” and he turned to go.
+
+“Stop a minute, Alan,” said Barbara, who all this while had sat
+silent. “I have something to say which I wish you to hear. You told us
+just now, uncle, that you have other views for me, by which you meant
+that you  wish me to marry Sir Robert Aylward, whom, as you are probably
+aware, I refused  definitely this afternoon. Now I wish to make it clear
+at once that no earthly  power will induce me to take as a husband a man
+whom I dislike, and whose  wealth, of which you think so much, has in my
+opinion been dishonestly  acquired.”
+
+“What are you saying?” broke in her uncle furiously. “He has
+been my partner for years, you are reflecting upon me.”
+
+“I am sorry, uncle, but I withdraw nothing. Even if Alan here were dead,
+I would not marry that man, and perhaps you will make him understand
+this,” she added with emphasis. “Indeed I had sooner die myself.
+You told us also that if I marry against your will, you can take away
+all the  property that my father left to me. Uncle, I shall not give you
+that  satisfaction. I shall wait until I am twenty-five and do what I
+please with  myself and my fortune. Lastly, you said that you forbade us
+to see each other  or to correspond. I answer that I shall both write to
+and see Alan as often as  I like. If you attempt to prevent me from
+doing so, I shall go to the Court of  Chancery, lay all the facts before
+it, as I have been advised that I can  do—not by Alan—please remember,
+_all_ the facts, and ask for  its protection and for a separate
+maintenance out of my estate until I am  twenty-five. I am sure that the
+Court would grant me this and would declare  that considering his
+distinguished family and record Alan is a perfectly proper  person to be
+my affianced husband. I think that is all I have to say.”  
+
+“All you have to say!” gasped Mr. Haswell, “all you have to
+say, you impertinent and ungrateful minx!” Then he fell into a furious
+fit of rage and in language that need not be repeated, poured a stream
+of  threats and abuse upon Alan and herself. Barbara waited until he
+ceased from  exhaustion.
+
+“Uncle,” she said, “you should remember that your heart is
+weak and you must not overexcite yourself, also when you are calmer,
+that if  you speak to me like that again, I shall go to the Court at
+once, for I will  not be sworn at by you or by any other man. I
+apologize to you, Alan; I am  afraid I have brought you into strange
+company. Come, my dear, we will go and  order your dogcart,” and putting
+her arm affectionately through his, she  went with him from the room.
+
+“I wonder who put her up to all this?” gasped Haswell, as the door
+closed behind them. “Some infernal lawyer, I’ll be bound. Well, she
+has got the whip hand of me, and I can’t face an investigation in
+Chancery, especially as the only thing against Vernon is that the value
+of his  land has fallen. But I swear that she shall never marry him
+while I  live,” he ended in a kind of shout and the domed and painted
+ceiling  echoed back his words—“_while I live_” after which the
+room was silent, save for the heavy thumping of his heart.
+
+When Alan reached home that night after his ten-mile drive he sent
+Jeekie to  tell the housekeeper to find him some food. In his mysterious
+African fashion  the negro had already collected much intelligence as to
+the events of the day,  mostly in the servants’ hall, and more
+particularly from the two  golf-caddies, sons of one of the gardeners,
+who it seemed instead of retiring  with the clubs, had taken shelter in
+some tall whins and thence followed the  interview between Barbara and
+Sir Robert with the intensest interest.  Reflecting that this was not
+the time to satisfy his burning curiosity, Jeekie  went and in due
+course returned with some cold mutton and a bottle of claret.  Then came
+his chance, for Alan could scarcely touch the mutton and demanded  toast
+and butter.  
+
+“Very inferior chop”—that was his West African word for
+food—“for a gentleman, Major,” he said, shaking his white
+head sympathetically and pointing to the mutton,—“specially when he
+has unexpectedly departed from magnificent eating of The Court. Why did
+you not  wait till after dinner, Major, before retiring?”
+
+Alan laughed at the man’s inflated English, and answered in a more
+nervous and colloquial style:
+
+“Because I was kicked out, Jeekie.”
+
+“Ah! I gathered that kicking was in the wind, Major. Sir Robert Aylward,
+Bart., he also was kicked out, but by smaller toe.”
+
+Again Alan laughed and, as it was a relief to talk even to Jeekie, asked
+him:  
+
+“How do you know that?”
+
+“I gathered it out of atmosphere, Major; from Sir Robert’s
+gentleman, from two youths who watch Sir Robert and Miss Barbara talking
+upon  golf green No. 9, from the machine driver of Sir Robert whose eyes
+he damn in  public, and last but not least from his own noble
+countenance.”  
+
+“I see that you are observant, Jeekie.”
+
+“Observation, Major, it is art of life. I see Miss Barbara’s eyes
+red like morning sky and I deduct. I see you shot out and gloomy like
+evening  cloud, and I deduct. I listen at door of Mr. Haswell’s room, I
+hear him  curse and swear like holy saint in Book, and you and Miss
+Barbara answer him  not like saint, though what you speak I cannot hear,
+and I deduct. Jeekie  deduct this—that you make love to Miss Barbara in
+proper gentlemanlike,  ’nogamous, Christian fashion such as your late
+Reverend Uncle approve,  and Miss Barbara, she make love to you with ten
+per cent. compound interest,  but old gent with whistle, he _not_
+approve; he say, ‘Where  corresponding cash!’ He say ‘Noble Sir Robert
+have much cash and  interested in identical business. I prefer Sir
+Robert. Get out, you  Cashless.’ Often I see this same thing when boy in
+West Africa, very  common wherever sun shine. I note all these matters
+and I deduct—that  Jeekie’s way and Jeekie seldom wrong.”
+
+Alan laughed for the third time, until the tears ran down his face
+indeed.  
+
+“Jeekie,” he said, “you are a great
+rascal——”
+
+“Yes, yes,” interrupted Jeekie, “great rascal. Best thing to
+be in this world, Major. Honourable Sir Robert, Bart., M.P., and Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, D.L., J.P., they find that out long ago and sit on top
+of  tree of opulent renown. Jeekie great rascal and therefore have
+Savings Bank  account—go on, Major.”
+
+“Well, Jeekie, because if you are a rascal you are kind-hearted and
+because I believe that you care for me——”
+
+“Oh! Major,” broke in Jeekie again, “that most
+’utterably true. Honour bright I love you, Major, better than anyone on
+earth, except my late old woman, now happily dead, gone and forgotten in
+best  oak coffin, £4 10 without fittings but polished, and perhaps your
+holy uncle,  Reverend Mr. Austin, also coffined and departed, who saved
+me from early  extinction in a dark place. Major, I no like graves, I
+see too much of them,  and can’t tell what lie on other side. Though
+everyone say they know,  Jeekie not quite sure. May be all light and
+crowns of glory, may be damp black  hole and no way out. But this at
+least true, that I love you better, yes,  better than Miss Barbara, for
+love of woman very poor, uncertain thing, quick  come, quick go. Jeekie
+find that out—often. Yes, if need be, though death  most nasty, if need
+be I say I die for you, which great unpleasant  sacrifice,” and Jeekie
+in the genuine enthusiasm of his warm heart,  throwing himself upon his
+knees after the African fashion, seized his  master’s hand and kissed
+it.  
+
+“Thanks, Jeekie,” said Alan, “very kind of you, I am sure.
+But we haven’t come to that yet, though no one knows what may happen
+later on. Now sit upon that chair and take a little whisky—not too
+much—for I am going to ask your advice.”
+
+“Major,” said Jeekie, “I obey,” and seizing the whisky
+bottle in a casual manner, he poured out half a tumbler full, for Jeekie
+was  fond of whisky. Indeed before now this taste had brought him into
+conflict with  the local magistrates.
+
+“Put back three parts of that,” said Alan, and Jeekie did so.
+“Now,” he went on, “listen: this is the case, Miss Barbara
+and I are——” and he hesitated.
+
+“Oh! I know; like me and Mrs. Jeekie once,” said Jeekie, gulping
+down some of the neat whisky. “Go on, Major.”
+
+“And Sir Robert Aylward is——”
+
+“Same thing, Major. Continue.”
+
+“And Mr. Haswell has——”
+
+“Those facts all ascertained, Major,” said Jeekie, contemplating
+his glass with a mournful eye. “Now come to the point, Major.”
+
+“Well, the point is, Jeekie, that I am what you called just now
+cashless,  and therefore——”
+
+“Therefore,” interrupted Jeekie again, “stick fast in
+honourable intention towards Miss Barbara owing to obstinate opposition
+of Mr.  Haswell, legal uncle with control of property fomented by noble
+Sir Robert who  desire same girl.”
+
+“Quite right, Jeekie, but if you would talk a little less and let me
+talk  a little more, we might get on better.”
+
+“I henceforth silent, Major,” and lifting his empty tumbler Jeekie
+looked through it as if it were a telescope, a hint that Alan ignored.
+
+“Jeekie, you infernal old fool, I want money.”
+
+“Yes, Major, I understand, Major. Forgive me for breaking conspiracy of
+silence, but if £500 in Savings Bank any use, very much at your service,
+Major;  also £20 more extracted last night from terror of wealthy Jew
+who fear  fetish.”
+
+“Jeekie, you old donkey, I don’t want your £500; I want a great
+deal more, £50,000 or £500,000. Tell me how to get it.”
+
+“City best place, Major. But you chuck City, too much honest man, great
+mistake to be honest in this terrestrial sphere. Often notice that in
+West  Africa.”
+
+“Perhaps, Jeekie, but I have done with the City. As you would say, for
+me  it is ‘wipe out, finish.’”
+
+“Yes, Major, too much pickpocket, too much dirt. Bottom always drop out
+of bucket shop at last. I understand, end in police court and severe
+magistrate, or perhaps even ‘Gentlemen of Jury’; etcetera.”
+
+“Well, Jeekie, then what remains? Now last night when you told us that
+amazing yarn of yours, you said something about a mountain full of gold,
+and  houses full of gold, among your people. Jeekie, do you
+think——” and he paused, looking at him.
+
+Jeekie rolled his black eyes round the room and in a fit of
+absentmindedness  helped himself to some more whisky.
+
+“Do I think, Major, that this useless lucre could be converted into coin
+of gracious King Edward? Not at all, Major, by no one, Major, by no one
+whatsoever, except possibly by Major Alan Vernon, D.S.O., and by one,
+Jeekie,  Christian surname Smith.”
+
+“Proceed, Jeekie,” said Alan, removing the whisky bottle,
+“proceed and explain.”
+
+“Major, thus: The Asiki tribe care nothing about all that gold, it no
+good to them. Dead people who live long, long ago, no one know when, dig
+it up  and store it there and make the great fetish which they call
+Bonsa to keep away  enemy who want to steal. Also old custom when any
+one in country round find big  nugget, or pretty stone, like ladies wear
+on bosom, to bring it as offering to  Bonsa, so that there now great
+plenty of all this stuff. But no one use it for  anything except to set
+on walls of house of Asiki, or to make basin, stool,  table and pot to
+cook with. Once Arab come there and I see the priests give him  weight
+in gold for iron hoe, though afterwards they murder him, not for the 
+gold, but lest he go away and tell their secret.”  
+
+“One might trade with them then, Jeekie?”
+
+He shook his white head doubtfully.
+
+“Yes, perhaps, if you find anything they want buy and can carry it
+Asiki-Land. But I think there only one thing they want, and you got
+that,  Major.”
+
+“I, Jeekie! What have I got?”
+
+The negro leant forward and tapped his master on the knee, saying in a
+portentous whisper:
+
+“You got Little Bonsa, which much more holy than anything, even than Big
+Bonsa her husband, I mean greater, more powerful devil. That Little
+Bonsa sit  in front room Asika’s house, and when she want see things,
+she put it in  big basin of gold, but I no tell you what it float in.
+Also once or twice every  year they take out Little Bonsa; Asika wear it
+on head as mask, and whoever  they meet they kill as offering to Little
+Bonsa, so that spirit come back to  world to be priest of Bonsa. I tell
+you, Major, that Yellow God see many  thousand of people die.”
+
+“Indeed,” said Alan. “A pleasing fetish truly. I should think
+that the Asiki must be glad it is gone.”
+
+“No, not glad, very sorry. No luck for them when Little Bonsa go away,
+but plenty luck for those who got her. That why firm Aylward & Haswell
+make  so much money when you join them and bring her to office. She drop
+green in eye  of public so they no smell rat. That why you so lucky, not
+die of blackwater  fever when you should; get safe out of den of thieves
+in City with good name;  win love of sweet maiden, Miss Barbara. Little
+Bonsa do all those things for  you, and by and by do plenty more, as
+Little Bonsa bring my old master, your  holy uncle, safe out of that
+country because all the Asiki run away when they  see him wear her on
+head, for they think she come sacrifice them after she eat  up my life.”
+
+“I don’t wonder that they ran,” said Alan, laughing, for the
+vision of a missionary with Little Bonsa on his head caught his fancy.
+“But come to the point, you old heathen. What do you mean that I should
+do?”
+
+“Jeekie not heathen now, Major, but plenty other things true in this
+world, besides Christian religion. I no want you do anything, but I say
+this—you go back to Asiki wearing Little Bonsa on head and dressed like
+Reverend uncle whom you very like, for he just your age then thirty
+years ago,  and they give you all the gold you want, if you give them
+back Little Bonsa  whom they love and worship for ever and ever, for
+Little Bonsa very, very  old.”
+
+Alan sat up in his chair and stared at Jeekie, while Jeekie nodded his
+head at  him.
+
+“There is something in it,” he said slowly, speaking more to
+himself than to the negro, “and perhaps that is why I would not sell the
+fetish, for as you say, there are plenty of true things in the world
+besides  those which we believe. But, Jeekie, how should I find the
+way?”  
+
+“No trouble, Major, Little Bonsa find way, want to get back home, very
+hungry by now, much need sacrifice. Think it good thing kill pig to
+Little  Bonsa—or even lamb. She know you do your best, since human being
+not to  be come at in Christian land, and say ‘thank you for life of
+pig.’”
+
+“Stop that rubbish,” said Alan. “I want a guide; if I go,
+will you come with me?”
+
+At this suggestion the negro looked exceedingly uncomfortable.
+
+“Not like to, not like to at all,” he said, rolling his eyes.
+“Asiki-land very funny place for native-born. But,” he added sadly,
+“if you go Jeekie must, for I servant of Little Bonsa and if I stay
+behind, she angry and kill me because I not attend her where she walk.
+But  perhaps if I go and take her to Gold House again, she pleased and
+let me off.  Also I able help you there. Yes, if you and Little Bonsa
+go, think I go  too.”
+
+After this announcement Jeekie rose and walked down the room, carrying
+the cold  mutton in his hand. Then he returned, replaced it on the table
+and standing in  front of Alan, said earnestly:
+
+“Major, I tell you all truth, just this once. Jeekie believe he
+_got_ go with you to Asiki-land. Jeekie have plenty bad dream lately,
+Little Bonsa come in middle of the night and sit on his stomach and
+scratch his  face with her gold leg, and say, ‘Jeekie, Jeekie, you son
+of Bonsa, you  get up quick and take me back Bonsa Town, for I darned
+tired of City fog and  finished all I come here to do. Now I want jolly
+good sacrifice and got plenty  business attend to there at home, things
+you not understand just yet. You take  me back sharp, or I make you sit
+up, Jeekie, my boy;’” and he  paused.
+
+“Indeed,” said Alan; “and did she tell you anything else in
+her midnight visitations?”
+
+“Yes, Major. She say, ‘You take that white master of yours along
+also, for I want come back Asiki-land on his head, and someone wish see
+him  there, old pal what he forgot but what not forget him. You tell him
+Little  Bonsa got score she wants settle with that party and wish use
+him to square  account. You tell him too that she pay him well for trip;
+he lose nothing if he  play her game ’cause she got no score against
+him. But if he not go, that  another matter, then he look out, for
+Little Bonsa very nasty customer if she  riled, as his late partners
+find out one day.’”  
+
+“Oh! shut up, Jeekie. What’s the use of wasting time telling me
+your nightmares?”
+
+“Very well, Major, just as you like, Major. But I got other reasons why
+I  willing go. Jeekie want see his ma.”
+
+“Your ma? I never heard you had a ma. Besides she must be dead long
+ago.”
+
+“No, Major, ’cause she turn up in dream too, very much alive, swear
+at me ’cause I bag her blanket. Also she tough old woman, take lot kill
+her.”
+
+“Perhaps you have a pa too,” suggested Alan.
+
+“Think not, Major, my ma always say she forget him. What she mean, she
+not like talk about him, he such a swell. Why Jeekie so strong, so
+clever and  with such beautiful face? No doubt because he is son of very
+great man. All  this true reason why he want to go with you, Major.
+Still, p’raps poor  old Jeekie make mistake, p’raps he dream ’cause he
+eat too much  supper, p’raps his ma dead, after all. If so, p’raps
+better stay at  home—not know.”
+
+“No,” answered Alan, “not know. What between Little Bonsa and
+one thing and another my head is swimming—like Little Bonsa in the
+water.”
+
+“Big Bonsa swim in water,” interrupted Jeekie. “Little Bonsa
+swim in gold tub.”
+
+“Well, Big Bonsa, or Little Bonsa, I don’t care which. I’m
+going to bed and you had better clear away these things and do the same.
+But,  Jeekie, if you say a word of our talk to anyone, I shall be very
+angry. Do you  understand?”
+
+“Yes, Major, I understand. I understand that if I tell secrets of Little
+Bonsa to anyone except you with whom she live in strange land far away
+from  home, Little Bonsa come at me like one lion, and cut my throat. No
+fear Jeekie  split on Little Bonsa, oh! no fear at all,” and still
+shaking his head  solemnly, for the second time he seized the cold
+mutton and vanished from the  room.
+
+“A farrago of superstitious nonsense,” thought Alan to himself when
+he had gone. “But still there may be something to be made out of it.
+Evidently there is lots of gold in this Asiki country, if only one can
+persuade  the people to deal.”
+
+Then weary of Jeekie and his tribal gods, Alan lit his pipe and sat a
+while  thinking of Barbara and all the events of that tumultuous day.
+Notwithstanding  his rebuff at the hands of Mr. Haswell and the
+difficulties and dangers which  threatened, he felt even then that it
+had been a happy and a fortunate day. For  had he not discovered that
+Barbara loved him with all her heart and soul as he  loved Barbara? And
+as this was so, he did not care a—Little Bonsa about  anything else. The
+future must look to itself, sufficient to the day was the  abiding joy
+thereof.  
+
+So he went to bed and for a while to sleep, but he did not sleep very
+long, for  presently he fell to dreaming, something about Big Bonsa and
+Little Bonsa which  sat, or rather floated on either side of his couch
+and held an interminable  conversation over him, while Jeekie and Sir
+Robert Aylward, perched  respectively at its head and its foot, like the
+symbols of the good and evil  genii on a Mohammedan tomb, acted as a
+kind of insane chorus. He struck his  repeater, it was only one o’clock,
+so he tried to go to sleep again, but  failed utterly. Never had he been
+more painfully awake.  
+
+For an hour or more Alan persevered, then at last in despair he jumped
+out of  bed wondering what he could do to occupy his mind. Suddenly he
+remembered the  diary of his uncle, the Rev. Mr. Austin, which he had
+inherited with the Yellow  God and a few other possessions, but never
+examined. They had been put away in  a box in the library about fifteen
+years before, just at the time he entered  the army, and there doubtless
+they remained. Well, as he could not sleep, why  should he not examine
+them now, and thus get through some of this weary night?  
+
+He lit a candle and went down to the library, an ancient and beautiful
+apartment with black oak panelling between the bookcases, set there in
+the time  of Elizabeth. In this panelling there were cupboards, and in
+one of the  cupboards was the box he sought, made of teak wood. On its
+lid was painted,  “The Reverend Henry Austin. Passenger to Acra,”
+showing that it had  once been his uncle’s cabin box. The key hung from
+the handle, and having  lit more candles, Alan drew it out and unlocked
+it, to be greeted by a smell of  musty documents done up in great
+bundles. One by one he placed them on the  floor. It was a dreary
+occupation alone there in that great, silent room at the  dead of night,
+one indeed with which he was soon satisfied, for somehow it  reminded
+him of rifling coffins in a vault. Before him so carefully put away  lay
+the records of a good if not a distinguished life, and until this moment
+he  had never found the energy even to look through them.  
+
+At length he came to the end of the bundles and saw that beneath lay a
+number  of manuscript books packed closely with their backs upwards,
+marked—“Journal”—and with the year and sometimes the
+place of the author’s residence. As he glanced at them in dismay, for
+they were many, his eye caught the title of one inscribed—as were
+several  others—“West Africa,” and written in brackets
+beneath—“This vol. contains all that is left of the notes of my
+escape with Jeekie from the Asiki Devil-worshippers.”
+
+Alan drew it out, and having refilled and closed the box, bore it off to
+his  room, where he proceeded to read it in bed. As a matter of fact he
+found that  there was not very much to read, for the reason that most of
+the  closely-written volume had been so damaged by water, that the
+pencilled writing  had run and become utterly illegible. The centre
+pages, however, not having  been soaked, could still be deciphered, at
+any rate in part, also there was a  large manuscript map, executed in
+ink, apparently at a later date, on the back  of which was written: “I
+purpose, D.V., to re-write at some convenient  time all the history of
+my visit to the unknown Asiki people, as my original  notes were
+practically destroyed when the canoe overset in the rapids and most  of
+our few possessions were lost, except this book and the gold fetish mask
+ which is called Little Bonsa or Small Swimming Head. This I think I can
+do with  the aid of Jeekie from memory, but as the matter has only a
+personal and no  religious interest, seeing that I was not able even to
+preach the Word among  those benighted and bloodthirsty savages in whose
+country, as I verily  believe, the Devil has one of his principal
+habitations, it must stand over  till a convenient season, such as the
+time of old age or sickness. H.A.”    
+
+“P.S. I ought to add with gratitude that even out of this hell fire I
+was  enabled to snatch one brand from the burning, namely, the negro
+lad, Jeekie, to  whose extraordinary resource and faithfulness I owe my
+escape. After a long  hesitation I have been able to baptize him,
+although I fear that the taint of  heathenism still clings to him. Thus
+not six months ago I caught him  sacrificing a white cock to the image,
+Little Bonsa, in gratitude, as to my  horror he explained, for my having
+been appointed an Honorary Canon of the  Cathedral. I have told him to
+take that ugly mask which has been so often  soaked in human blood, and
+melt it down over the kitchen stove, after picking  out the gems in the
+eyes, that the proceeds may be given to the poor.  _Note._ I had better
+see to this myself, as where Little Bonsa is  concerned, Jeekie is not
+to be trusted. He says (with some excuse) that it has  magic, and that
+if he melts it down, he will melt down too, and so shall I. How  dark
+and ridiculous are the superstitions of the heathen! Perhaps, however, 
+instead of destroying the thing, which is certainly unique, I might sell
+it to  a museum, and thus spare the feelings of that weak vessel,
+Jeekie, who  otherwise would very likely take it into his head to waste
+away and die, as  these Africans do when their nerves are affected by
+terror of their  fetish.”  
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE DIARY.
+
+
+Reflecting that time evidently had made little change in Jeekie, Alan
+studied  this route map with care, and found that it started from Old
+Calabar, in the  Bight of Biafra, on the west coast of Africa, whence it
+ran up to the Great Qua  River, which it followed for a long way. Then
+it struck across country marked  “dense forest,” northwards, and came to
+a river called Katsena,  along the banks of which the route went
+eastwards. Thence it turned northward  again through swamps, and ended
+in mountains called Shaku. In the middle of  these mountains was written
+“Asiki People live here on Raaba River.”  
+
+The map was roughly drawn to scale, and Alan, who was an engineer
+accustomed to  such things, easily calculated that the distance of this
+Raaba River from Old  Calabar was about 350 miles as the crow flies,
+though probably the actual route  to be travelled was nearer five
+hundred miles.  
+
+Having mastered the map, he opened the water-soaked diary. Turning page
+after  page, only here and there could he make out a sentence, such as
+“so I  defied that beautiful but terrific woman. I, a Christian
+minister, the husband  of a heathen priestess! Perish the thought.
+Sooner would I be sacrificed to  Bonsa.”
+
+Then came more illegible pages and again a paragraph that could be
+read—“They gave me ‘The Bean’ in a gold cup, and
+knowing its deadly nature I prepared myself for death. But happily for
+me my  stomach, always delicate, rejected it at once, though I felt
+queer for days  afterwards. Whereon they clapped their hands and said I
+was evidently innocent  and a great medicine man.”
+
+And again, further on—“never did I see so much gold whether in
+dust, nuggets, or worked articles. I imagine it must be worth millions,
+but at  that time gold was the last thing with which I wished to trouble
+myself.”  
+
+After this entry many pages were utterly effaced.
+
+The last legible passage ran as follows—“So guided by the lad
+Jeekie, and wearing the gold mask, Little Bonsa, on my head, I ran
+through them  all, holding him by the hand as though I were dragging him
+away. A strange  spectacle I must have been with my old black
+clergyman’s coat buttoned  about me, my naked legs and the gold mask, as
+pretending to be a devil such as  they worship, I rushed through them in
+the moonlight, blowing the whistle in  the mask and bellowing like a
+bull. . . . Such was the beginning of my dreadful  six months’ journey
+to the coast. Setting aside the mercy of Providence  that preserved me
+for its own purposes, I could never have lived to reach it  had it not
+been for Little Bonsa, since curiously enough I found this fetish  known
+and dreaded for hundreds of miles, and that by people who had never seen
+ it, yes, even by the wild cannibals. Whenever it was produced food,
+bearers,  canoes, or whatever else I might want were forthcoming as
+though by magic.  Great is the fame of Big and Little Bonsa in all that
+part of West Africa,  although, strange as it may seem, the outlying
+tribes seldom mention them by  name. If they must speak of either of
+these images which are supposed to be man  and wife, they call it the
+‘Yellow-God-who-lives-yonder.’”    
+
+Not another word of all this strange history could Alan decipher, so
+with  aching eyes he shut up the stained and tattered volume, and at
+last, just as  the day was breaking, fell asleep.
+
+At eleven o’clock on that same morning, for he had slept late, Alan rose
+from his breakfast and went to smoke his pipe at the open door of the
+beautiful  old hall in Yarleys that was clad with brown Elizabethan oak
+for which any  dealer would have given hundreds of pounds. It was a
+charming morning, one of  those that comes to us sometimes in an English
+April when the air is soft like  that of Italy and the smell of the
+earth rises like that of incense, and little  clouds float idly across a
+sky of tender blue. Standing thus he looked out upon  the park where the
+elms already showed a tinge of green and the ash-buds were  coal black.
+Only the walnuts and the great oaks, some of them pollards of a 
+thousand years of age, remained stark and stern in their winter dress.  
+
+Alan was in a reflective mood and involuntarily began to wonder how many
+of his  forefathers had stood in that same spot upon such April mornings
+and looked out  upon those identical trees wakening in the breath of
+spring. Only the trees and  the landscape knew, those trees which had
+seen every one of them borne to  baptism, to bridal and to burial. The
+men and women themselves were forgotten.  Their portraits, each in the
+garb of his or her generation, hung here and there  upon the walls of
+the ancient house which once they had owned or inhabited, but  who
+remembered anything of them to-day? In many cases their names even were 
+lost, for believing that they, so important in their time, could never
+sink  into oblivion, they had not thought it necessary to record them
+upon their  pictures.  
+
+And now the thing was coming to an end. Unless in this way or in that he
+could  save it, what remained of the old place, for the outlying lands
+had long since  been sold, must go to the hammer and become the property
+of some pushing and  successful person who desired to found a family,
+and perhaps in days to be  would claim these very pictures that hung
+upon the walls as those of his own  ancestors, declaring that he had
+brought in the estate because he was a  relative of the ancient and
+ruined race.  
+
+Well, it was the way of the world, and perhaps it must be so, but the
+thought  of it made Alan Vernon sad. If he could have continued that
+business, it might  have been otherwise. By this hour his late partners,
+Sir Robert Aylward and Mr.  Champers-Haswell, were doubtless sitting in
+their granite office in the City,  probably in consultation with Lord
+Specton, who had taken his place upon the  Board of the great Company
+which was being subscribed that day. No doubt  applications for shares
+were pouring in by the early posts and by telegram, and  from time to
+time Mr. Jeffreys respectfully reported their number and amount,  while
+Sir Robert looked unconcerned and Mr. Haswell rubbed his hands and 
+whistled cheerfully. Almost he could envy them, these men who were
+realizing  great fortunes amidst the bustle and excitement of that
+fierce financial life,  whilst he stood penniless and stared at the
+trees and the ewes which wandered  among them with their lambs, he who,
+after all his work, was but a failure.  With a sigh he turned away to
+fetch his cap and go out walking—there was  a tenant whom he must see, a
+shifty, new-fangled kind of man who was always  clamouring for fresh
+buildings and reductions in his rent. How was he to pay  for more
+buildings? He must put him off, or let him go.    
+
+Just then a sharp sound caught his ear, that of an electric bell. It
+came from  the telephone which, since he had been a member of a City
+firm, he had caused  to be put into Yarleys at considerable expense in
+order that he might be able  to communicate with the office in London.
+“Were they calling him up from  force of habit?” he wondered. He went to
+the instrument which was fixed  in a little room he used as a study, and
+took down the receiver.  
+
+“Who is it?” he asked. “I am Yarleys. Alan Vernon.”
+
+“And I am Barbara,” came the answer. “How are you, dear? Did
+you sleep well?”
+
+“No, very badly.”
+
+“Nerves—Alan, you have got nerves. Now although I had a worse day
+than you did, I went to bed at nine, and protected by a perfect
+conscience,  slumbered till nine this morning, exactly twelve hours.
+Isn’t it clever  of me to think of this telephone, which is more than
+you would ever have done?  My uncle has departed to London vowing that
+no letter from you shall enter this  house, but he forgot that there is
+a telephone in every room, and in fact at  this moment I am speaking
+round by his office within a yard or two of his head.  However, he can’t
+hear, so that doesn’t matter. My blessing be on  the man who invented
+telephones, which hitherto I have always thought an awful  nuisance. Are
+you feeling cheerful, Alan?”  
+
+“Very much the reverse,” he answered; “never was more gloomy
+in my life, not even when I thought I had to die within six hours of
+blackwater  fever. Also I have lots that I want to talk to you about and
+I can’t do  it at the end of this confounded wire that your uncle may be
+tapping.”  
+
+“I thought it might be so,” answered Barbara, “so I just rang
+you up to wish you good-morning and to say that I am coming over in the
+motor  to lunch with my maid Snell as chaperone. All right, don’t
+remonstrate, I  _am coming_ over to lunch—I can’t hear you—never mind
+what people will say. I am coming over to lunch at one o’clock, mind you
+are in. Good-bye, I don’t want much to eat, but have something for Snell
+and the chauffeur. Good-bye.”
+
+Then the wire went dead, nor could all Alan’s “Hello’s”
+and “Are you there’s?” extract another syllable.
+
+Having ordered the best luncheon that his old housekeeper could provide
+Alan  went off for his walk in much better spirits, which were further
+improved by  his success in persuading the tenant to do without the new
+buildings for  another year. In a year, he reflected, anything might
+happen. Then he returned  by the wood where a number of new-felled oaks
+lay ready for barking. This was  not a cheerful sight; it seemed so
+cruel to kill the great trees just as they  were pushing their buds for
+another summer of life. But he consoled himself by  recalling that they
+had been too crowded and that the timber was really needed  on the
+estate. As he reached the house again carrying a bunch of white violets 
+which he had plucked in a sheltered place for Barbara, he perceived a
+motor  travelling at much more than the legal speed up the walnut avenue
+which was the  pride of the place. In it sat that young lady herself,
+and her maid, Snell, a  middle-aged woman with whom, as it chanced, he
+was on very good terms, as once,  at some trouble to himself, he had
+been able to do her a kindness.    
+
+The motor pulled up at the front door and out of it sprang Barbara,
+laughing  pleasantly and looking fresh and charming as the spring
+itself.  
+
+“There will be a row over this, dear,” said Alan, shaking his head
+doubtfully when at last they were alone together in the hall.
+
+“Of course, there’ll be a row,” she answered. “I mean
+that there shall be a row. I mean to have a row every day if necessary,
+until  they leave me alone to follow my own road, and if they won’t, as
+I said,  to go to the Court of Chancery for protection. Oh! by the way,
+I have brought  you a copy of _The Judge_. There’s a most awful article
+in it about  that Sahara flotation, and among other things it announces
+that you have left  the firm and congratulates you upon having done so.”
+
+“They’ll think I have put it in,” groaned Alan as he glanced
+at the head lines, which were almost libellous in their vigour, and the
+summaries of the financial careers of Sir Robert Aylward and Mr.
+Champers-Haswell. “It will make them hate me more than ever, and I say,
+Barbara, we can’t live in an atmosphere of perpetual warfare for the
+next  two years.”
+
+“I can, if need be,” answered that determined young woman.
+“But I admit that it would be trying for you, if you stay here.”
+
+“That’s just the point, Barbara. I must not stay here, I must go
+away, the further the better, until you are your own mistress.”
+
+“Where to, Alan?”
+
+“To West Africa, I think.”
+
+“To West Africa?” repeated Barbara, her voice trembling a little.
+“After that treasure, Alan?”
+
+“Yes, Barbara. But first come and have your lunch, then we will talk. I
+have got lots to tell and show you.”
+
+So they lunched, speaking of indifferent things, for the servant was
+there  waiting on them. Just as they were finishing their meal Jeekie
+entered the room  carrying a box and a large envelope addressed to his
+master, which he said had  been sent by special messenger from the
+office in London.  
+
+“What’s in the box?” asked Alan, looking somewhat nervously
+at the envelope, which was addressed in a writing that he knew.
+
+“Don’t know for certain, Major,” answered Jeekie, “but
+think Little Bonsa; think I smell her through wood.”
+
+“Well, look and see,” replied Alan, while he broke the seal of the
+envelope and drew out its contents. They proved to be sundry documents
+sent by  the firm’s lawyers, among which were a notice of the formal
+dissolution  of partnership to be approved by him before it appeared in
+the _Gazette_,  a second notice calling in a mortgage for fifteen
+thousand and odd pounds on  Yarleys, which as a matter of business had
+been taken over by the firm while he  was a partner; a cash account
+showing a small balance against him, and finally  a receipt for him to
+sign acknowledging the return of the gold image that was  his property.
+
+“You see,” said Alan with a sigh, pushing over the papers to
+Barbara, who read them carefully one by one.
+
+“I see,” she answered presently. “It is war to the knife.
+Alan, I hate the idea of it, but perhaps you had better go away. While
+you are  here they will harass the life out of you.”
+
+Meanwhile with the aid of a big jack-knife and the dining-room poker,
+Jeekie  had prised off the lid of the box. Chancing to look round
+Barbara saw him on  his knees muttering something in a strange tongue,
+and bowing his white head  until it touched an object that lay within
+the box.  
+
+“What are you doing, Jeekie?” she asked.
+
+“Make bow to Little Bonsa, Miss Barbara, tell her how glad I am see her
+come back from town. She like feel welcome. Now you come bow too, Little
+Bonsa  take that as compliment.”
+
+“I won’t bow, but I will look, Jeekie, for although I have heard so
+much about it I have never really examined this Yellow God.”
+
+“Very good, you come look, miss,” and Jeekie propped up the case
+upon the end of the dining-room table. As from its height and position
+she  could not see its contents very well whilst standing above it,
+Barbara knelt  down to get a better view of it.
+
+“My goodness!” she exclaimed, “what a terrible face,
+beautiful too in its way.”
+
+Hardly had the words left her lips when for some reason unexplained that
+probably had to do with the shifting of the centre of gravity, Little
+Bonsa  appeared to glide or fall out of her box with a startling
+suddenness, and  project herself straight at Barbara, who, with a faint
+scream, fearing lest the  precious thing should be injured, caught it in
+her arms and for a moment hugged  it to her breast.
+
+“Saved!” she exclaimed, recovering herself and placing it on the
+table, whereon Jeekie, to their astonishment, began to execute a kind of
+war  dance.
+
+“Oh! yes,” he said, “saved, very much saved. All saved, most
+magnificent omen. Lady kneel to Little Bonsa and Little Bonsa nip out of
+box,  make bow and jump in lady’s arms. That splendid, first-class luck,
+for  miss and everybody. When Little Bonsa do that need fear nothing no
+more. All  come right as rain.”
+
+“Nonsense,” said Barbara, laughing. Then from a cautious distance
+she continued her examination of the fetish.
+
+“See,” said Jeekie, pointing to the misshapen little gold legs
+which were yet so designed that it could be stood up upon them, “when
+anyone wear Little Bonsa, tie her on head behind by these legs; look,
+here same  old leather string. Now I put her on, for she like to be worn
+again,” and  with a quick movement he clapped the mask on to his face,
+manipulated the  greasy black leather thongs and made them fast. Thus
+adorned the great negro  looked no less than terrific.
+
+“I see you, miss,” he said, turning the fixed eyes of opal-like
+stone, bloodshot with little rubies, upon Barbara, “I see you, though
+you no see me, for these eyes made very cunning. But listen, you hear
+me,” and suddenly from the mask, produced by some contrivance set within
+it, there proceeded an awful, howling sound that made her shiver.
+
+“Take that thing off, Jeekie,” said Alan, “we don’t
+want any banshees here.”
+
+“Banshees? Not know him, he poor English fetish p’raps,” said
+Jeekie, as he removed the mask. “This real African god, howl banshee and
+all that sort into middle of next week. This Little Bonsa and no
+mistake, ten  thousand years old and more, eat up lives, so many that no
+one can count them,  and go on eating for ever, yes unto the third and
+fourth generation, as Ten  Commandments lay it down for benefit of
+Christian man, like me. Look at her  again, Miss Barbara.”
+
+Miss Barbara took the hateful, ancient thing in her hands and studied
+it. No  one could doubt its antiquity, for the gold plate of which it
+was made was  literally worn away wherever it had touched the foreheads
+of the high priests  or priestesses who donned it upon festive occasions
+or days of sacrifice,  showing that hundreds and hundreds of them must
+have used it thus in  succession. So was the vocal apparatus within the
+mouth, and so were the little  toad-like feet upon which it was stood
+up. Also the substance of the gold  itself was here and there pitted as
+though with acid or salts, though what  those salts were she did not
+inquire. And yet, so consummate was the art with  which it had
+originally been fashioned, that the battered beautiful face of  Little
+Bonsa still peered at them with the same devilish smile that it had worn
+ when it left the hands of its maker, perhaps before Mohammed preached
+his holy  war, or even earlier.  
+
+“What is all that writing on the back of it?” asked Barbara,
+pointing to the long lines of rune-like characters which were inscribed
+within  it.
+
+“Not know, miss, think they dead tongue cut in the beginning when black
+men could write. But Asiki priests swear they remember every one of
+them, and  that why no one can copy Little Bonsa, for they look inside
+and see if marks  all right. They say they names of those who died for
+Little Bonsa, and when  they all done, Little Bonsa begin again, for
+Little Bonsa never die. But  p’raps priests lie.”
+
+“I daresay,” said Barbara, “but take Little Bonsa away, for
+however lucky she may be, she makes me feel sick.”
+
+“Where I put her, Major?” asked Jeekie of Alan. “In box in
+library where she used to live, or in plate-safe with spoons? Or under
+your bed  where she always keep eye on you?”
+
+“Oh! put her with the spoons,” said Alan angrily, and Jeekie
+departed with his treasure.
+
+“I think, dear,” remarked Barbara as the door closed behind him,
+“that if I come to lunch here any more, I shall bring my own christening
+present with me, for I can’t eat off silver that has been shut up with
+that thing. Now let us get to business—show me the diary and the
+map.”
+
+“Dearest Alan,” wrote Barbara from The Court two days later,
+“I have been thinking everything over, and since you are so set upon it,
+I suppose that you had better go. To me the whole adventure seems
+perfectly  mad, but at the same time I believe in our luck, or rather in
+the Providence  which watches over us, and I don’t believe that you, or
+I either, will  come to any harm. If you stop here, you will only eat
+your heart out and  communication between us must become increasingly
+difficult. My uncle is  furious with you, and since he discovered that
+we were talking over the  telephone, to his own great inconvenience he
+has had the wires cut outside the  house. That horrid letter of his to
+you saying that you had  ‘compromised’ me in pursuance of a ‘mercenary
+scheme’  is all part and parcel of the same thing. How are you to stop
+here and submit  to such insults? I went to see my friend the lawyer,
+and he tells me that of  course we can marry if we like, but in that
+case my father’s will, which  he has consulted at Somerset House, is
+absolutely definite, and if I do so in  opposition to my uncle’s wishes,
+I must lose everything except £200 a  year. Now I am no money-grubber,
+but I will not give my uncle the satisfaction  of robbing me of my
+fortune, which may be useful to both of us by and by. The  lawyer says
+also that he does not think that the Court of Chancery would  interfere,
+having no power to do so as far as the will is concerned, and not  being
+able to make a ward of a person like myself who is over age and has the 
+protection of the common law of the country. So it seems to me that the
+only  thing to do is to be patient, and wait until time unties the knot.
+   
+
+“Meanwhile, if you can make some money in Africa, so much the better. So
+go, Alan, go as soon as you like, for I do not wish to prolong this
+agony, or  to see you exposed daily to all you have to bear. Whenever
+you return you will  find me waiting for you, and if you do not return,
+still I shall wait, as you  in like circumstances will wait for me. But
+I think you will return.”  
+
+Then followed much that need not be written, and at the end a postscript
+which  ran:
+
+“I am glad to hear that you have succeeded in shifting the mortgage on
+Yarleys, although the interest is so high. Write to me whenever you get
+a  chance, to the care of the lawyer, for then the letters will reach
+me, but  never to this house, or they may be stopped. I will do the same
+to you to the  address you give. Good-bye, dearest Alan, my true and
+only lover. I wonder  where and when we shall meet again. God be with us
+both and enable us to bear  our trial.
+
+“P.P.S. I hear that the Sahara flotation was _really_ a success,
+notwithstanding the _Judge_ attacks. Sir Robert and my uncle have made
+millions. I wonder how long they will keep them.”
+
+A week after he received this letter Alan was on the seas heading for
+the  shores of Western Africa.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE DWARF FOLK.
+
+
+It was dawn at last. All night it had rained as it can rain in West
+Africa,  falling on the wide river with a hissing splash, sullen and
+continuous. Now,  towards morning, the rain had ceased and everywhere
+rose a soft and pearly mist  that clung to the face of the waters and
+seemed to entangle itself like strands  of wool among the branches of
+the bordering trees. On the bank of the river at  a spot that had been
+cleared of bush, stood a tent, and out of this tent  emerged a white man
+wearing a sun helmet and grey flannel shirt and trousers.  It was Alan
+Vernon, who in these surroundings looked larger and more commanding 
+than he had done at the London office, or even in his own house of
+Yarleys.  Perhaps the moustache and short brown beard which he had
+grown, or his skin,  already altered and tanned by the tropics, had
+changed his appearance for the  better. At any rate it was changed. So
+were his manner and bearing, whereof all  the diffidence had gone. Now
+they were those of a man accustomed to command who  found himself in his
+right place.    
+
+“Jeekie,” he called, “wake up those fellows and come and
+light the oil-stove. I want my coffee.”
+
+Thereon a deep voice was heard speaking in some native tongue and
+saying:  
+
+“Cease your snoring, you black hogs, and arouse yourselves, for your
+lord  calls you,” an invocation that was followed by the sound of kicks,
+thumps, and muttered curses.
+
+A minute or two later Jeekie himself appeared, and he also was much
+changed in  appearance, for now instead of his smart, European clothes,
+he wore a white  robe and sandals that gave him an air at once dignified
+and patriarchal.  
+
+“Good-morning, Major,” he said cheerfully. “I hope you sleep
+well, Major, in this low-lying and accursed situation, which is more
+than we do  in boat that half full of water, to say nothing of smell of
+black man and  prevalent mosquito. But the rain it over and gone, and
+presently the sun shine  out, so might be much worse, no cause at all
+complain.”  
+
+“I don’t know,” answered Alan, with a shiver. “I
+believe that I am fever proof, but otherwise I should have caught it
+last  night, and—just give me the quinine, I will take five grains for
+luck.”
+
+“Yes, yes, for luck,” answered Jeekie as he opened the medicine
+chest and found the quinine, at the same time glancing anxiously out of
+the  corner of his eye at his master’s face, for he knew that the spot
+where  they had slept was deadly to white men at this season of the
+year. “You  not catch fever, Little Bonsa,” here he dropped his voice
+and looked down  at the box which had served Alan for a pillow, “see to
+that. But quinine  give you appetite for breakfast. Very good chop this
+morning. Which you like  best? Cold ven’son, or fish, or one of them
+ducks you shoot  yesterday?”
+
+“Oh! some of the cold meat, I think. Give the ducks to the boatmen, I
+don’t fancy them in this hot place. By the way, Jeekie, we leave the Qua
+River here, don’t we?”
+
+“Yes, yes, Major, just here. I ’member spot well, for your uncle he
+pray on it one whole hour; I pretend pray too, but in heart give thanks
+to  Little Bonsa, for heathen in those days, quite different now. This
+morning we  begin walk through forest where it rather dark and cool and
+comfortable, that  is if we no see dwarf people from whom good Lord
+deliver us,” and he  bowed towards the box containing Little Bonsa.
+
+“Will those four porters come with us through the forest, Jeekie, as
+they  promised?”
+
+“Yes, yes, they come. Last night they say they not come, too much afraid
+of dwarf. But I settle their hash. I tell them I save up bits of their
+hair and  toe nails when they no thinking, and I mix it with medicine,
+and if they not  come, they die every one before they get home. They
+think me great doctor and  they believe. Perhaps they die if they go on.
+If so, I tell them that because  they want show white feather, and they
+think me greater doctor still. Oh! they  come, they come, no fear, or
+else Jeekie know reason why. Now, here coffee,  Major. Drink him hot
+before you go take tub, but keep in shallow water, because  crocodile he
+very early riser.”  
+
+Alan laughed, and departed to “take tub.” Notwithstanding the
+mosquitoes that buzzed round him in clouds, the water was cool and
+pleasant by  comparison with the hot, sticky air, and the feel of it
+seemed to rid him of  the languor resulting from his disturbed night.
+
+A month had passed since he had left Old Calabar, and owing to the
+incessant  rains the journeying had been hard. Indeed the white men
+there thought that he  was mad to attempt to go up the river at this
+season. Of course he had said  nothing to them of the objects of his
+expedition, hinting only that he wished  to explore and shoot, and
+perhaps prospect for mines. But knowing as they did,  that he was an
+Engineer officer with a good record and much African experience,  they
+soon made up their minds that he had been sent by Government upon some 
+secret mission that for reasons of his own he preferred to keep to
+himself.  This conclusion, which Jeekie zealously fostered behind his
+back, in fact did  Alan a good turn, since owing to it he obtained
+boatmen and servants at a  season when, had he been supposed to be but a
+private person, these would  scarcely have been forthcoming at any
+price. Hitherto his journey had been one  long record of mud,
+mosquitoes, and misery, but otherwise devoid of incident,  except the
+eating of one of his boatmen by a crocodile which was a particularly 
+“early riser,” for it had pulled the poor fellow out of the canoe  in
+which he lay asleep at night. Now, however, the real dangers were about
+to  begin, since at this spot he left the great river and started
+forward through  the forest on foot with Jeekie and the four bearers
+whom he had paid highly to  accompany him.    
+
+He could not conceal from himself that the undertaking seemed somewhat
+desperate. But of this he said nothing in the long letter he had written
+to  Barbara on the previous night, sighing as he sealed it, at the
+thought that it  might well be the last which would ever reach her from
+him, even if the boatmen  got safely back to Calabar and remembered to
+put it in the post. The enterprise  had been begun and must be carried
+through, until it ended in success—or  death.
+
+An hour later they started. First walked Alan as leader of the
+expedition,  carrying a double-barrelled gun that could be used either
+for ball or shot,  about fifty cartridges with brass cases to protect
+them from the damp, a  revolver, a hunting-knife, a cloth mackintosh,
+and lastly, strapped upon his  back like a knapsack, a tin box
+containing the fetish, Little Bonsa, which was  too precious to be
+trusted to anyone else. It was quite a sufficient load for  any white
+man in that climate, but being very wiry, Alan did not feel its  weight,
+at any rate at first.  
+
+After him in single file came the four porters, laden with a small tent,
+some  tinned provisions and brandy, ammunition, a box containing beads,
+watches, etc.  for presents, blankets, spare clothing and so forth.
+These were stalwart  fellows enough, who knew the forest, but their
+dejected air showed that now  they had come face to face with its
+dangers, they heartily wished themselves  anywhere else. Indeed,
+notwithstanding their terror of Jeekie’s medicine,  at the last moment
+they threw down their loads intending to make a wild rush  for the
+departing boat, only to be met by Jeekie himself who, anticipating some 
+such move, was waiting for them on the bank with a shotgun. Here he
+remained  until the canoe was too far out in the stream for them to
+reach it by swimming.  Then he asked them if they wished to sit and
+starve there with the devils he  would leave them for company, of if
+they would carry out their bargain like  honest men?  
+
+The end of it was they took up their loads again and marched, while
+behind them  walked the terrible and gigantic Jeekie, the barrels of the
+shotgun which he  carried at full cock and occasionally used to prod
+them, pointing directly at  their backs. A strange object he looked
+truly, for in addition to the weapons  with which he bristled, several
+cooking-pots were slung about him, to say  nothing of a cork mattress
+and a mackintosh sheet tied in a flat bundle to his  shoulders, a box
+containing medicines and food which he carried on his head,  and
+fastened to the top of it with string like a helmet on a coffin, an 
+enormous solar-tope stuffed full of mosquito netting, of which the ends
+fell  about him like a green veil. When Alan remonstrated with him as to
+the cork  mattress, suggesting that it should be thrown away as too hot
+to wear, Jeekie  replied that he had been cold for thirty years, and
+wished to get warm again.  Guessing that his real reason for declining
+to part with the article, was that  his master should have something to
+lie on, other than the damp ground, Alan  said no more at the time,
+which, as will be seen, was fortunate enough for  Jeekie.  
+
+For a mile or more their road ran through fantastic-looking mangrove
+trees  rooted in the mud, that in the mist resembled, Alan thought,
+many-legged  arboreal octopi feeling for their food, and tall reeds on
+the tops of which sat  crowds of chattering finches. Then just as the
+sun broke out, strongly,  cheering them with its warmth and sucking up
+the vapours, they entered sparse  bush with palms and great cotton trees
+growing here and there, and so at length  came to the borders of the
+mighty forest.  
+
+Oh! dark, dark was that forest; he who entered it from the cheerful
+sunshine  felt as though suddenly and without preparation he had
+wandered out of the  light we know into some dim Hades such as the old
+Greek fancy painted, where  strengthless ghosts flit aimlessly, mourning
+the lost light. Everywhere the  giant boles of trees shooting the height
+of a church tower into the air without  a branch; great rib-rooted
+trees, and beneath them a fierce and hungry growth  of creepers. Where a
+tree had fallen within the last century or so, these  creepers ramped
+upwards in luxuriance, their stems thick as the body of a man,  drinking
+the shaft of light that pierced downwards, drinking it with eagerness 
+ere the boughs above met again and starved them. Where no tree had
+fallen the  creepers were thin and weak; from year to year they lived on
+feebly, biding  their time, but still they lived, knowing that some day
+it would come. And  always it was coming to those expectant parasites,
+since from minute to minute,  somewhere in the vast depths, miles and
+miles away perhaps, a great crash  echoed in the stillness, the crash of
+a tree that, sown when the Saxons ruled  in England, or perhaps before
+Cleopatra bewitched Anthony, came to its end at  last.  
+
+On the second day of their march in the forest Alan chanced to see such
+a tree  fall, and the sight was one that he never could forget. As it
+happened, owing  to the vast spread of its branches which had killed out
+all rivals beneath, for  in its day it had been a very successful tree
+embued with an excellent  constitution by its parent, it stood somewhat
+alone, so that from several  hundred yards away as these six human
+beings crept towards it like ants towards  a sapling in a cornfield, its
+mighty girth and bulk set upon a little mound and  the luxuriant
+greenness of its far-reaching boughs made a kind of landmark.  Then in
+the hot noon when no breath of wind stirred, suddenly the end came. 
+Suddenly that mighty bole seemed to crumble; suddenly those far-reaching
+arms  were thrown together as their support failed, gripping at each
+other like  living things, flogging the air, screaming in their last
+agony, and with an  awful wailing groan sinking, a tumbled ruin, to the
+earth.    
+
+Silence again, and in the midst of the silence Jeekie’s cheerful voice.
+
+“Old tree go flop! Glad he no flop on us, thanks be to Little Bonsa. Get
+on, you lazy nigger dog. Who pay you stand there and snivel? Get on or I
+blow  out your stupid skull,” and he brought the muzzle of the
+full-cocked,  double-barrelled gun into sharp contact with that part of
+the terrified  porter’s anatomy.
+
+Such was the forest. Of their march through it for the first four days,
+there  is nothing to tell. Its depths seemed to be devoid of life,
+although  occasionally they heard the screaming of parrots in the
+treetops a couple of  hundred feet above, or caught sight of the dim
+shapes of monkeys swinging  themselves from bough to bough. That was in
+the daytime, when, although they  could not see it, they knew that the
+sun was shining somewhere. But at night  they heard nothing, since
+beasts of prey do not come where there is no food.  What puzzled Alan
+was that all through these impenetrable recesses there ran a  distinct
+road which they followed. To the right and left rose a wall of 
+creepers, but between them ran this road, an ancient road, for nothing
+grew on  it, and it only turned aside to avoid the biggest of the trees
+which must have  stood there from time immemorial, such a tree as that
+which he had seen fall;  indeed it was one of those round which the road
+ran.    
+
+He asked Jeekie who made the road.
+
+“People who come out Noah’s Ark,” answered Jeekie, “I
+think they run up here to get out of way of water, and sent them two
+elephants  ahead to make path. Or perhaps dwarf people make it. Or
+perhaps those who go up  to Asiki-land to do sacrifice like old Jews.”
+
+“You mean you don’t know,” said Alan.
+
+“No, of course don’t know. Who know about forest path made before
+beginning of world. You ask question, Major, I answer. More lively
+answer than  to shake head and roll eyes like them silly fool porters.”
+
+It was on the fourth night that the trouble began. As usual they had lit
+a huge  fire made of the fallen boughs and rotting tree trunks that lay
+about in  plenty. There was no reason why the fire should be so large,
+since they had  little to cook and the air was hot, but they made it so
+for the same reason  that Jeekie answered questions, for the sake of
+cheerfulness. At least it gave  light in the darkness, leaping up in red
+tongues of flame twenty or thirty feet  high, and its roar and crackle
+were welcome in the primeval silence.  
+
+Alan lay upon the cork mattress in the open, for here there was no need
+to  pitch the tent; if any rain fell above, the canopy of leaves
+absorbed it. He  was amusing himself while he smoked his pipe with
+watching the reflection of  the fire-light against a patch of darkness
+caused probably by some bush about  twenty yards away, and by picturing
+in his own mind the face of Barbara, that  strong, pleasant English
+face, as it might appear on such a background.  Suddenly there, on the
+identical spot he did see a face, though one of a very  different
+character. It was round and small and hideous, resembling in its 
+general outline that of a bloated child. At this distance he could not 
+distinguish the features, except the lips, which were large and
+pendulous, and  between them the flash of white teeth.  
+
+“Look here,” he whispered to Jeekie in English, and Jeekie looked,
+then without saying a word, lifted the shotgun that lay at his side and
+fired  straight at the bush. Instantly there arose a squeaking noise,
+such as might be  made by a wounded animal, and the four porters sprang
+up in alarm.  
+
+“Sit down,” said Jeekie to them in their own tongue, “a
+leopard was stalking us and I fired to frighten it away. Don’t go near
+the place, as it may be wounded and angry, but drag up some boughs and
+make a  fence round the fire, for fear of others.”
+
+The men who dreaded leopards, looking on these animals, indeed, with
+superstitious reverence, obeyed readily enough, and as there was plenty
+of wood  lying within a few yards, soon constructed a _boma_ fence that,
+rough as  it was, would serve for protection.
+
+“Jeekie,” said Alan presently as they laboured at the fence,
+“that was not a leopard, it was a man.”
+
+“No, no, Major, not man, little dwarf devil, him that have poisoned
+arrow. I shoot at once to make him sit up. Think he no come back
+to-night, too  much afraid of shot fetish. But to-morrow, can’t say. Not
+tell those  fellows anything,” and he nodded towards the porters, “or
+perhaps  they bolt.”
+
+“I think you would have done better to leave the dwarf alone,” said
+Alan, “and they might have left us alone. Now they will have a blood
+feud  against us.”
+
+“Not agree, Major, only chance for us put him in blue funk. If I not
+shoot, presently he shoot,” and he made a sound that resembled the
+whistling of an arrow, then added, “Now you go sleep. I not tired, I
+watch, my eyes see in dark better than yours. Only two more days of this
+damn  forest, then open land with tree here and there, where dwarf no
+come because he  afraid of lion and cannibal man, who like eat him.”
+
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan took Jeekie’s advice and in
+time fell fast asleep, nor did he wake again till the faint light which,
+for the  want of a better name, they called dawn, was filtering down to
+them through the  canopy of boughs.
+
+“Been to look,” said Jeekie as he handed him his coffee. “Hit
+that dwarf man, see his blood, but think others carry him away. Jeekie
+very  good shot, stone, spear, arrow, or gun, all same to him. Now get
+off as quick  as we can before porters smell a rat. You eat chop, Major,
+I pack.”  
+
+Presently they started on their trudge through those endless trees, with
+Fear  for a companion. Even the porters, who had been told nothing,
+seemed more  afraid than usual, though whether this was because they
+“smell  rat,” as Jeekie called it, or owing to the progressive breakdown
+of their  nervous systems, Alan did not know. About midday they stopped
+to eat because  the men were too tired to walk further without rest. For
+an hour or more they  had been looking for a comparatively open place,
+but as it chanced could find  none, so were obliged to halt in dense
+forest. Just as they had finished their  meal and were preparing to
+proceed, that which they had feared, happened, since  from somewhere
+behind the tree boles came a volley of reed arrows. One struck a  porter
+in the neck, one fixed itself in Alan’s helmet without touching  him,
+and no less than three hit Jeekie on the back and stuck there, 
+providentially enough in the substance of the cork mattress that he
+still  carried on his shoulders, which the feeble shafts had not the
+strength to  pierce.  
+
+Everybody sprang up and with a curious fascination instead of attempting
+to do  anything, watched the porter who had been hit in the neck
+somewhere in the  region of the jugular vein. The poor man rose to his
+feet with great  deliberation, reminding Alan in some grotesque way of a
+speaker who has  suddenly been called on to address a meeting and seeks
+to gain time for the  gathering of his thoughts. Then he turned towards
+that vast audience of the  trees, stretched out his hand with a
+declamatory gesture, said something in a  composed voice, and fell upon
+his face stone dead! The swift poison had reached  his heart and done
+its work.  
+
+His three companions looked at him for a moment and the next with a yell
+of  terror, rushed off into the forest, hurling down their loads as they
+ran. What  became of them Alan never learned, for he saw them no more,
+and the dwarf  people keep their secrets. At the time indeed he scarcely
+noticed their  departure, for he was otherwise engaged.
+
+One of their hideous little assailants, made bold by success, ventured
+to run  across an open space between two trees, showing himself for a
+moment. Alan had  a gun in his hand, and mad with rage at what had
+happened, he raised it and  swung on him as he would upon a rabbit. He
+was a quick and practised shot and  his skill did not fail him now, for
+just as the dwarf was vanishing behind a  tree, the bullet caught him
+and next instant he was seen rolling over and over  upon its further
+side.  
+
+“That very nice,” said Jeekie reflectively, “very nice
+indeed, but I think we best move out of this.”
+
+“Aren’t you hurt?” gasped Alan. “Your back is full of
+arrows.”
+
+“Don’t feel nothing, Major,” he answered, “best cork
+mattress, 25/3 at Stores, very good for poisoned arrow, but leave him
+behind  now, because perhaps points work through as I run, one scratch
+do trick,”  and as he spoke Jeekie untied a string or several strings,
+letting the little  mattress fall to the ground.
+
+“Great pity leave all those goods,” said Jeekie, surveying the
+loads that the porters had cast away, “but what says Book? Life more
+than  raiment. Also take no thought for morrow. Dwarf people do that for
+us. Come,  Major, make tracks,” and dashing at a bag of cartridges which
+he cast  about his neck, a trifling addition to his other impedimenta,
+and a small case  of potted meats that he hitched under his arm, he
+poked his master in the back  with the muzzle of his full-cocked gun as
+a signal that it was time to start.  
+
+“Keep that cursed thing off me,” said Alan furiously. “How
+often have I told you never to carry firearms at full cock?”
+
+“About one thousand times, Major,” answered Jeekie imperturbably,
+“but on such occasion forget discreetness. My ma just same, it run in
+family, but story too long tell you now. Cut, Major, cut like hell. Them
+dwarfs  be back soon, but,” he puffed, “I think, I think Little Bonsa
+come  square with them one day.”
+
+So Alan “cut” and the huge Jeekie blundered along after him, the
+paraphernalia with which he was hung about rattling like the hoofs of a
+galloping giraffe. Nor for all his load did he ever turn a hair. Whether
+it  were fear within or a desire to save his master, or a belief in the
+virtues of  Little Bonsa, or that his foot was, as it were, once more
+upon his native  heath, the fact remained that notwithstanding the fifty
+years, almost, that had  whitened his wool, Jeekie was absolutely
+inexhaustible. At least at the end of  that fearful chase, which lasted
+all the day, and through the night also, for  they dared not camp, he
+appeared to be nearly as fresh as when he started from  Old Calabar, nor
+did his spirits fail him for one moment.  
+
+When the light came on the following morning, however, they perceived by
+many  signs and tokens that the dwarf people were all about them. Some
+arrows were  shot even, but these fell short.
+
+“Pooh!” said Jeekie, “all right now, they much afraid. Still,
+no time for coffee, we best get on.”
+
+So they got on as they could, till towards midday the forest began to
+thin out.  Now as the light grew stronger they could see the dwarfs, of
+whom there  appeared to be several hundred, keeping a parallel course to
+their own on  either side of them at what they thought to be a safe
+distance.  
+
+“Try one shot, I think,” said Jeekie, kneeling down and letting fly
+at a clump of the little men, which scattered like a covey of
+partridges,  leaving one of its number kicking on the ground. “Ah! my
+boy,”  shouted Jeekie in derision, “how you like bullet in tummy? You
+not know  Paradox guaranteed flat trajectory 250 yard. You remember that
+next time,  sonny.” Then off they went again up a long rise.
+
+“River other side of that rise,” said Jeekie. “Think those
+tree-monkeys no follow us there.”
+
+But the “monkeys” appeared to be angry and determined. They would
+not come any more within the range of the Paradox, but they still
+marched on  either side of the two fugitives, knowing well that at last
+their strength must  fail and they would be able to creep up and murder
+them. So the chase went on  till Alan began to wonder whether it would
+not be better to face the end at  once.
+
+“No, no, if say die, can’t change mind to-morrow morning,”
+gasped Jeekie in a hoarse voice. “Here top rise, much nearer than I
+thought. Oh, my aunt! who those?” and he pointed to a large number of
+big  men armed with spears who were marching up the further side of the
+hill from  the river that ran below.
+
+At the same moment these savages, who were not more than two hundred
+yards  away, caught sight of them and of their pursuers, who just then
+appeared on the  ridge to the right and left. The dwarfs, on perceiving
+these strangers, uttered  a shrill yell of terror, and wheeled about to
+fly to their fastnesses in the  forest, which evidently they regretted
+ever having left. It was too late. With  an answering shout the
+spearsmen, who were extended in a long line, apparently  hunting for
+game, charged after them at full speed. They were fresh and their  legs
+were long. Therefore very soon they overtook the dwarfs and even got in 
+front of them, heading them off from the forest. The end may be 
+guessed,—save a few whom they reserved alive, they killed them 
+mercilessly, and almost without loss to themselves, since the little
+forest  folk were too terrified and exhausted to shoot at them with
+their poisoned  arrows, and they had no other weapons.  
+
+In fact, as Alan discovered afterwards, for generations there had been
+war  between them, since all the other tribes hate the dwarfs, whom they
+look upon  as dangerous human monkeys, and never before had the big men
+found such a  chance of squaring their account.
+
+When Jeekie saw this fearful-looking company, for the first time his
+spirits  seemed to fail him.
+
+“Ogula!” he exclaimed with a groan and sat himself upon a flat
+rock, pulling Alan down beside him. “Ogula! Know them by hair and
+spears,” he repeated. “Up gum tree now, say good-night.”
+
+“Why? Who are they?” gasped Alan.
+
+“Great cannibal, Major, eat man, eat us to-night, or perhaps to-morrow
+morning when we nice and cool. Say prayers, Major, quick no time waste.”
+
+“I think I will shoot an Ogula or two first,” said Alan grimly, as
+he stood up and lifted his gun.
+
+“No, not shoot, no good. Pretend not be afraid, best chance. Let Jeekie
+think, let Jeekie think,” and he slapped his forehead with his large
+hand.  
+
+Apparently the action brought inspiration, for next instant he grabbed
+his  master by the arm and dragged him back behind the shelter of a big
+boulder  which they had just passed. Then with really marvellous
+swiftness he cut the  straps of the tin box that Alan wore upon his
+back, and since there was no time  to find the key and unlock it, seized
+the little padlock with which it was  fastened between his finger and
+thumb, and putting out his great strength, with  a single wrench twisted
+it off.  
+
+“What are you——” began Alan.
+
+“Hold tongue,” he answered savagely, “make you god, I priest.
+Ogula know Little Bonsa. Quick, quick!”
+
+In a minute it was done, the golden mask was clapped on to Alan’s head,
+and the leather thongs were fastened. Moreover, Jeekie himself was
+arrayed in  the solar-tope to which all this while he had clung,
+allowing streams of green  mosquito netting to hang down over his white
+robe.  
+
+“Come out now, Major,” he said, “and play god. You whistle, I
+do palaver.”
+
+Then hand in hand they walked from behind the rock. By this time the
+particular  company of the cannibals that was opposite to them, which
+happened to include  their chief, had climbed the steep slope of the
+hill and arrived within a  distance of twenty yards. Having seen the two
+men and guessed that they had  taken refuge behind the rock, their
+spears were lifted to kill them, since when  he beholds anything
+strange, the first impulse of a savage is to bring it to  its death.
+They looked; they saw. Of a sudden down went the raised spears.  
+
+Some of those who held them fell upon their faces, while others turned
+to fly,  appalled by the vision of this strangely clad man with the head
+of gold. Only  their chief, a great yellow-toothed fellow who wore a
+necklace of baboon claws,  remained erect, staring at them with open
+mouth.  
+
+Alan blew the whistle that was set between the lips of the mask, and
+they  shivered. Then Jeekie spoke to them in some tongue which they
+understood,  saying:
+
+“Do you, O Ogula, dare to offer violence to Little Bonsa and her
+priests?  Say now, why should we not strike you dead with the magic of
+the god which she  has borrowed from the white man?” and he tapped the
+gun he held.  
+
+“This is witchcraft,” answered the chief. “We saw two men
+running, hunted by the dwarfs, not three minutes ago, and now we
+see—what  we see,” and he put his hand before his eyes, then after a
+pause went  on—“As for Little Bonsa, she left this country in my
+father’s  day. He gave her passage upon the head of a white man and the
+Asiki wizards  have mourned her ever since, or so I hear.”
+
+“Fool,” answered Jeekie, “as she went, so she returns, on the
+head of a white man. Yonder I see an elder with grey hair who doubtless
+knew of  Little Bonsa in his youth. Let him come up and look and say
+whether or no this  is the god.”
+
+“Yes, yes,” exclaimed the chief, “go up, old man, go
+up,” and he jabbed at him with his spear until, unwillingly enough, he
+went.
+
+The elder arrived, making obeisance, and when he was near, Alan blew the
+whistle in his face, whereon he fell to his knees.
+
+“It is Little Bonsa,” he said in a trembling voice, “Little
+Bonsa without a doubt. I should know, as my father and my elder brother
+were  sacrificed to her, and I only escaped because she rejected me.
+Down on your  face, Chief, and do honour to the Yellow God before she
+slay you.”  
+
+Instantly every man within hearing prostrated himself and lay still.
+Then  Jeekie strode up and down among them shouting out:
+
+“Little Bonsa has come back and brought to you, Man-eaters, a fat
+offering, an offering of the dwarf-people whom you hate, of the
+treacherous  dwarf-people who when you walk the ancient forest path,
+murder you with their  poisoned arrows. Praise Little Bonsa who delivers
+you from your foes, and  hearken to her bidding. Send on messengers to
+the Asiki saying that Little  Bonsa comes home again from across the
+Black Water bringing the White Preacher,  whom she led away in the day
+of their fathers. Say to them that the Asiki must  send out a company
+that Little Bonsa and the Magician with whom she ran away,  may be
+escorted back to her house with the state which has been hers from the 
+beginning of time. Say to them also that they must prepare a great
+offering of  pure gold out of their store, as much gold as fifty strong
+men can carry, not  one handful less, to be given to the White Magician
+who brings back Small  Swimming Head, for if they withhold such an
+offering, he and Little Bonsa will  vanish never to be seen again, and
+curses and desolation will fall upon their  land. Rise and obey, Chief
+of the Ogula.”    
+
+Then the man scrambled to his feet and answered:
+
+“It shall be done, O Priest of the Yellow God. To-morrow at the dawn
+swift messengers will start for the Gold House of the Asiki. To-night
+they  cannot leave, as we are all very hungry and must eat.”
+
+“What must you eat?” asked Jeekie suspiciously.
+
+“O Priest,” answered the chief with a deprecatory gesture,
+“when first we saw you we hoped that it would be the white man and
+yourself, for we have never tasted white man. But now we fear that you
+will not  consent to this, and as you are holy and the guardian of the
+god, we cannot eat  you without your own consent. Therefore fat dwarf
+must be our food, of which,  however, there will be plenty for you as
+well as us.”  
+
+“You dog!” exclaimed Jeekie in a voice of furious indignation.
+“Do you think that white men and their high-born companions, such as
+myself, were made to fill your vile stomachs? I tell you that a meal of
+the  deadly Bean would agree better with you, for if you dare so much as
+to look on  us, or on any of the white race with hunger, agony shall
+seize your vitals and  you and all your tribe shall die as though by
+poison. Moreover, we do not touch  the flesh of men, nor will we see it
+eaten. It is our  ‘_orunda_,’ it is consecrate to us, it must not pass
+our lips,  nor may our eyes behold it. Therefore we will camp apart from
+you further up  the stream and find our own food. But to-morrow at the
+dawn the messengers must  leave as we have commanded. Also you shall
+provide strong men and a large canoe  to bear Little Bonsa forward
+towards her own home until she finds her people  coming out to greet
+her.  
+
+“It shall be done,” answered the chief humbly, “Everything
+shall be done according to the will of Little Bonsa spoken by her
+priest, that  she may leave a blessing and not a curse upon the heads of
+the tribe of the  Ogula. Say where you wish to camp and men shall run to
+build a house of reeds  for the god to dwell in.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE DAWN.
+
+
+Jeekie looked up and down the river, and saw that in the centre of it
+about half  a mile away, there was an island on which grew some trees.
+
+“Little Bonsa will camp yonder,” he said. “Go, make her house
+ready, light fire and bring canoe to paddle us across. Now leave us, all
+of  you, for if you look too long upon the face of the Yellow God she
+will ask a  sacrifice, and it is not lawful that you should see where
+she hides herself  away.”
+
+At this saying the cannibals departed as one man, and at top speed, some
+to the  canoes and others to warn their fellows who were engaged in the
+congenial work  of hunting and killing the dwarfs, not to dare to
+approach the white man and  his companion. A third party ran to the bank
+of the river that was opposite to  the island to make ready as they had
+been bidden, so that presently Alan and  Jeekie were left quite alone.
+
+“Ah!” said Jeekie, with a gasp of satisfaction, “_that_
+all right, everything arranged quite comfortable. Thought Little Bonsa
+come out  top somehow and score off dirty dwarf monkeys. _They_ never
+get home to  tea anyway—stay and dine with Ogula.”
+
+“Stop chattering, Jeekie, and untie this infernal mask, I am almost
+choked,” broke in Alan in a hollow voice.
+
+“Not say ‘infernal mask,’ Major, say ‘face of
+angel.’ Little Bonsa woman and like it better, also true, if on this
+occasion only, for she save our skins,” said Jeekie as he unknotted the
+thongs and reverently replaced the fetish in its tin box. “My!” he
+added, contemplating his master’s perspiring countenance, “you
+blush like garden carrot; well, gold hot wear in afternoon sun beneath
+Tropic  of Cancer. Now we walk on quietly and I tell you all I arrange
+for  night’s lodging and future progress of joint expedition.”
+
+So gathering together what remained of their few possessions, they
+started  leisurely down the slope towards the island, and as they went
+Jeekie explained  all that had happened, since Ogula was not one of the
+African languages with  which Alan was acquainted and he had only been
+able to understand a word here  and there.
+
+“Look,” said Jeekie when he had finished, and turning, he pointed
+to the cannibals who were driving the few survivors of the dwarfs before
+them  to the spot where their canoes were beached. “Those dwarfs done
+for;  capital business, forest road quite safe to travel home by; Ogula
+best friends  in world; very remarkable escape from delicate situation.”
+
+“Very remarkable indeed,” said Alan; “I shall soon begin to
+believe in the luck of Little Bonsa.”
+
+“Yes, Major, you see she anxious to get home and make path clear.
+But,” he added gloomily, “how she behave when she reach there,
+can’t say.”
+
+“Nor can I, Jeekie, but meanwhile I hope she will provide us with some
+dinner, for I am faint for want of food and all the tinned meat is
+lost.”  
+
+“Food,” repeated Jeekie. “Yes, necessity for human stomach,
+which unhappily built that way, so Ogula find out, and so dwarfs find
+out  presently.” Then he looked about him and in a kind of aimless
+manner  lifted his gun and fired. “There we are,” he said, “Little
+Bonsa understand bodily needs,” and he pointed to a fat buck of the sort
+that in South Africa is called Duiker, which his keen eyes had
+discovered in  its form against a stone where it now lay shot through
+the head and dying.  “No further trouble on score of grub for next three
+day,” he added.  “Come on to camp, Major. I send one savage skin and
+bring that  buck.”
+
+So on they went to the river bank, Alan so tired now that the excitement
+was  over, that he was not sorry to lean upon Jeekie’s arm. Reaching the
+stream they drank deep of its water, and finding that it was shallow at
+this  spot, waded through it to the island without waiting for a canoe
+to ferry them  over. Here they found a party of the cannibals already at
+work clearing reeds  with their large, curved knives, in order to make a
+site for the hut. Another  party under the command of their chief
+himself had gone to the top end of the  island, to cut the stems of a
+willow-like shrub to serve as uprights. These  people stared at Alan,
+which was not strange, as they had never before seen the  face of a
+white man, and were wondering, doubtless, what had become of the 
+ancient and terrible fetish that he had worn. Without entering into 
+explanations Jeekie in a great voice ordered two of them to fetch the
+buck,  which the white man, whom he described as “husband of the
+goddess,”  had “slain by thunder.” When these had departed upon their
+errand,  leaving Jeekie to superintend the building operations, Alan sat
+down upon a  fallen tree, watching one of the savages making fire with a
+pointed stick and  some tinder.  
+
+Just then from the head of the island where the willows were being cut,
+rose  the sound of loud roarings and of men crying out in affright.
+Seizing his gun  Alan ran towards the spot whence the noise came.
+Forcing his way through a  brake of reeds, he saw a curious sight. The
+Ogula in cutting the willows which  grew about some tumbled rocks, had
+disturbed a lioness that had her lair there,  and being fearless
+savages, had tried to kill her with their spears. The brute,  rendered
+desperate by wounds, and the impossibility of escape, for here the 
+surrounding water was deep, had charged them boldly, and as it chanced,
+felled  to the ground their chief, that yellow-toothed man to whom
+Jeekie gave his  orders. Now she was standing over him looking round her
+royally, her great paw  upon his breast, which it seemed almost to
+cover, while the Ogula ran round and  round shouting, for they feared
+that if they tried to attack her, she would  kill the chief. This indeed
+she seemed about to do, for just as Alan arrived  she dropped her head
+as though to tear out the man’s throat. Instantly he  fired. It was a
+snap shot, but as it chanced a good one, for the bullet struck  the
+lioness in the back of the neck just forward of and between the
+shoulders,  severing the spine so that without a sound or any further
+movement she sank  stone dead upon the prostrate cannibal. For a while
+his followers stood  astonished. They might have heard of guns from the
+coast people, but living as  they did in the interior where white folk
+did not dare to travel, they had  never seen their terrible effects.    
+
+“Magic!” they cried. “Magic!”
+
+“Of course,” exclaimed Jeekie, who by now had arrived upon the
+scene. “What else did you expect from the husband of Little Bonsa?
+Magic,  the greatest of magic. Go, roll that beast away before your
+chief is crushed to  death.”
+
+They obeyed, and the man sat up, a fearful spectacle, for he was
+smothered with  the blood of the lion and somewhat cut by her claws,
+though otherwise unhurt.  Then feeling that the life was still whole in
+him, he crept on his hands and  knees to where Alan stood, and kissed
+his feet.  
+
+“Aha!” said Jeekie, “Little Bonsa score again. Cannibal tribe
+our slave henceforth for evermore. Yes, till kingdom come. Come on,
+Major, and  cook supper in perfect peace.”
+
+The supper was cooked and eaten with gratitude, for seldom had two men
+needed a  square meal more, and never did venison taste better. By the
+time that it was  finished darkness had fallen, and before they turned
+in to sleep in the neat  reed hut that the Ogula had built, Alan and
+Jeekie walked up the island to see  if the lioness had been skinned, as
+they directed. This they found was done;  even the carcase itself had
+been removed to serve as meat for these  foul-feeding people. They
+climbed on to the pile of rocks in which the beast  had made her lair,
+and looked down the river to where, two hundred yards away,  the Ogula
+were encamped. From this camp there rose a sound of revelry, and by  the
+light of the great fires that burned there, they perceived that the
+hungry  savages were busy feasting, for some of them sat in circles,
+whilst others,  their naked forms looking at that distance like those of
+imps in the infernal  regions, flitted to and fro against the glowing
+background of the fires,  bearing strange-looking joints on prongs of
+wood.    
+
+“I suppose they are eating the lioness,” said Alan doubtfully.
+
+“No, no, Major, not lioness; eat dwarf by dozen—just like oysters
+at seaside. But for Little Bonsa _we_ sit on those forks now and look
+uncommon small.”
+
+“Beasts!” said Alan in disgust; “they make me feel uncommon
+sick. Let us go to bed. I suppose they won’t murder us in our sleep,
+will  they?”
+
+“Not they, Major, too much afraid. Also we their blood-brothers now,
+because we bring them first-class dinner and save chief from lion’s
+fury.  No blame them too much, Major, good fellows really with gentle
+heart, but grub  like that from generation to generation. Every mother’s
+son of them have  many men inside, that why they so big and strong.
+Ogula people cover great  multitude like Charity in Book. No doubt sent
+by Prov’dence to keep  down extra pop’lation. Not right to think too
+hard of poor fellows who,  as I say, very kind and gentle at heart and
+most loving in family relation,  except to old women whom they eat also,
+so that they no get bored with too  long life.”
+
+Weary and disgusted by this abominable sight though he was, Alan burst
+out  laughing at his retainer’s apology for the sweet-natured Ogula, who
+struck him as the most repulsive blackguards that he had ever met or
+heard of  in all his experience of African savages. Then wishing to see
+and hear no more  of them that night, he retreated rapidly to the hut
+and was soon fast asleep  with his head pillowed on the box that hid the
+charms of Little Bonsa. When he  awoke it was broad daylight. Rising he
+went down to the river to wash, and  never had a bath been more welcome,
+for during all their journey through the  forest no such thing was
+obtainable. On his return he found his garments well  brushed with dry
+reeds and set upon a rock in the hot sun to air, while Jeekie  in a
+cheerful mood, was engaged cooking breakfast in the frying-pan, to which
+ he had clung through all the vicissitudes of their flight.  
+
+“No coffee, Major,” he said regretfully, “that stop in
+forest. But never mind, hot water better for nerve. Ogula messengers
+gone in  little canoe to Asiki at break of day. Travel slow till they
+work off dwarf,  but afterwards go quick. I send lion skin with them as
+present from you to  great high-priestess Asika, also claws for
+necklace. No lions there and she  think much of that. Also it make her
+love mighty man who can kill fierce lion  like Samson in Book. Love of
+head woman very valuable ally among beastly savage  peoples.”
+
+“I am sure I hope it won’t,” said Alan with earnestness,
+“but no doubt it is as well to keep on the soft side of the good lady if
+we can. What time do we start?”
+
+“In one hour, Major. I been to camp already, chosen best canoe and
+finest  men for rowers. Chief—he called Fanny—so grateful that he come
+with  them himself.”
+
+“Indeed. That is very kind of him, but I say, Jeekie, what are these
+fellows going to live on? I can’t stand what you call their
+‘favourite chop.’”
+
+“No, no, Major, that all right. I tell them that when they travel with
+Little Bonsa, they must keep Lent like pious Roman Cath’lic family that
+live near Yarleys. They catch plenty fish in river, and perhaps we shoot
+game,  or rich ’potamus, which they like ’cause he fat.”
+
+Evidently the Ogula chief, Fahni by name, not Fanny, as Jeekie called
+him, was  a man of his word, for before the hour was up he appeared at
+the island in  command of a large canoe manned by twelve
+splendid-looking savages. Springing  to land, he prostrated himself
+before Alan, kissing his feet as he had done on  the previous night, and
+making a long speech.  
+
+“That very good spirit,” exclaimed Jeekie. “Like to see
+heathen in his darkness lick white gentleman’s boot. He say you his lord
+and great magician who save his life, and know all Little Bonsa’s
+secrets, which many and unrepeatable. He say he die for you twice a day
+if need  be, and go on dying to-morrow and all next year. He say he take
+you safe till  you meet Asiki and for your sake, though he hungry, eat
+no man for one whole  month, or perhaps longer. Now we start at once.”
+
+So they started up the river that was called Katsena, Alan and Jeekie
+seated in  a lordly fashion near the stern of the canoe beneath an
+awning made out of some  sticks and a grass mat. In truth after their
+severe toil and adventures in the  forest, this method of journeying
+proved quite luxurious. Except for a rapid  here and there over or round
+which the canoe must be dragged, the river was  broad and the scenery on
+its banks park-like and beautiful. Moreover the  country, perhaps owing
+to the appetites of the Ogula, appeared to be  practically uninhabited
+except by vast herds of every sort of game.  
+
+All day they sat in the canoe which the stalwart rowers propelled, in
+silence  for the most part, since they were terribly afraid of the white
+man, and still  more so of the renowned fetish which they knew he
+carried with him. Then when  evening came they moored their craft to the
+bank and camped till the following  morning. Nor did they lack for food,
+since game being so plentiful, it was only  necessary for Alan to walk a
+few hundred yards and shoot a fat eland, or  hartebeest, or other buck
+which in its ignorance of guns would allow him to  approach quite close.
+Elephants, rhinoceros, and buffalo were also common,  while great herds
+of giraffe might be seen wandering between the scattered  trees, but as
+they were not upon a hunting trip and their ammunition was very 
+limited, with these they did not interfere.  
+
+Having their daily fill of meat which their souls loved, the Ogula
+oarsmen  remained in an excellent mood, indeed the chief, Fahni,
+informed Alan that if  only they had such magic tubes wherewith to
+slaughter game, he and his tribe  would gladly give up
+cannibalism—except on feast days. He added sadly  that soon they would
+be obliged to do so, or die, since in those parts there  were now few
+people left to eat, and they hated vegetables. Moreover, they kept  no
+cattle, it was not the custom of that tribe, except a very few for milk.
+ Alan advised them to increase their herds, since, as he pointed out to
+them,  “dog should not eat dog” or the human being his own kind.  
+
+The chief answered that there was a great deal in what he said, which on
+his  return he would lay before his head men. Indeed Alan, to his
+astonishment,  discovered that Jeekie had been quite right when he
+alleged that these people,  so terrible in their mode of life, were yet
+“kind and gentle at  heart.” They preyed upon mankind because for
+centuries it had been their  custom so to do, but if anyone had been
+there to show them a better way, he  grew sure that they would follow it
+gladly. At least they were brave and loyal  and even after their first
+fear of the white man had worn off, fulfilled their  promises without a
+murmur. Once, indeed, when he chanced to have gone for a  walk unarmed
+and to be charged by a bull elephant, these Ogula ran at the brute  with
+their spears and drove it away, a rescue in which one of them lost his 
+life, for the “rogue” caught and killed him.  
+
+So the days went on while they paddled leisurely up the river, Alan
+employing  the time by taking lessons in the Asiki tongue from Jeekie, a
+language which he  had been studying ever since he left England. The
+task was not easy, as he had  no books and Jeekie himself after some
+thirty years of absence, was doubtful as  to many of its details. Still
+being a linguist by nature and education and  finding in the tongue
+similarities to other African dialects which he knew, he  was now able
+to speak it a little, in a halting fashion.  
+
+On the fifth day of their ascent of the river, they came to a tributary
+that  flowed into it from the north, up which the Ogula said they must
+proceed to  reach Asiki-land. The stream was narrow and sluggish,
+widening out here and  there into great swamps through which it was not
+easy to find a channel. Also  the district was so unhealthy that even
+several of the Ogula contracted fever,  of which Alan cured them by
+heavy doses of quinine, for fortunately his  travelling medicine chest
+remained to him. These cures were effected after  their chief suggested
+that they should be thrown overboard, or left to die in  the swamp as
+useless, with the result that the white man’s magical powers  were
+thenceforth established beyond doubt or cavil. Indeed the poor Ogula now
+ looked on him as a god superior even to Little Bonsa, whose familiar he
+was  supposed to be.  
+
+The journey through that swamp was very trying, since in this wet season
+often  they could find no place on which to sleep at night, but must
+stay in the canoe  tormented by mosquitoes, and in constant danger of
+being upset by the  hippopotami that lived there. Moreover, as no game
+was now available, they were  obliged to live on these beasts, fish when
+they could catch them, and wildfowl,  which sometimes they were unable
+to cook for lack of fuel. This did not trouble  the Ogula, who ate them
+raw, as did Jeekie when he was hungry. But Alan was  obliged to starve
+until they could make a fire. This it was only possible to do  when they
+found drift or other wood, since at that season the rank vegetation  was
+in full growth. Also the fearful thunderstorms which broke continually
+and  in a few minutes half filled their canoe with water, made the reeds
+and the  soil on which they grew, sodden with wet. As Jeekie said:  
+
+“This time of year only fit for duck and crocodile. Human should
+remember  uncontrollable forces of nature and wait till winter come in
+due course, when  quagmire bear sole of his foot.”
+
+This elaborate remark he made to Alan during the progress of a
+particularly  fearful tempest. The lightning blazed in the black sky and
+seemed to strike all  about them like stabbing swords of fire, the
+thunder crashed and bellowed as it  may be supposed that it will do on
+that day when the great earth, worn out at  last, shall reel and stagger
+to its doom. The rain fell in a straight and solid  sheet; the tall
+reeds waved confusedly like millions of dim arms and while they  waved,
+uttered a vast and groaning noise; the scared wildfowl in their terror, 
+with screams and the sough of wings, rushed past them in flocks a
+thousand  strong, now seen and now lost in the vapours. To keep their
+canoe afloat the  poor, naked Ogula oarsmen, shivering with cold and
+fear, baled furiously with  their hands, or bowls of hollowed wood, and
+called back to Alan to save them as  though he were the master of the
+elements. Even Jeekie was depressed and  appeared to be offering up
+petitions, though whether these were directed to  Little Bonsa or
+elsewhere it was impossible to know.    
+
+As for Alan, the heart was out of him. It is true that so far he had
+escaped  fever or other sickness, which in itself was wonderful, but he
+was chilled  through and through and practically had eaten nothing for
+two days, and very  little for a week, since his stomach turned from
+half-cooked hippopotamus fat  and wildfowl. Moreover, they had lost the
+channel and seemed to be wandering  aimlessly through a wilderness of
+reeds broken here and there by lines of  deeper water.
+
+According to the Ogula they should have reached the confines of the
+great lake  several days before and landed on healthful rising ground
+that was part of the  Asiki territory. But this had not happened, and
+now he doubted whether it ever  would happen. It was more likely that
+they would come to their deaths, there in  the marsh, especially as the
+few ball and shot cartridges which they had saved  in their flight were
+now exhausted. Not one was left; nothing was left except  their
+revolvers with some charges, which of course were quite useless for the 
+killing of game. Therefore they were in a fair way to die of hunger, for
+here  if fish existed, they refused to be caught and nought remained for
+them to fill  themselves with except water slugs, and snails which the
+boatmen were already  gathering and crunching up in their great teeth.
+Or, perhaps the Ogula,  forgetting friendship under the pressure of
+necessity, would murder them as  they slept and—revert to their usual
+diet.    
+
+Jeekie was right, he should have remembered the “uncontrollable forces
+of  Nature.” Only a madman would have undertaken such an expedition in
+the  rains. No wonder that the Asiki remained a secret and hidden people
+when their  frontier was protected by such a marsh as this upon the one
+side and, as he  understood, by impassable mountains upon the other.
+
+There came a lull in the tempest and the boatmen began to get the better
+of the  water, which now was up to their knees. Alan asked Jeekie if he
+thought it was  over, but that worthy shook his white head mournfully,
+causing the spray to fly  as from a twirling mop, and replied:
+
+“Can’t say, cats and dogs not tumble so many for present, only pups
+and kitties left, so to speak, but think there plenty more up there,”
+and  he nodded at the portentous fire-laced cloud which seemed to be
+spreading over  them, its black edges visible even through the gloom.
+
+“Bad business, I am afraid, Jeekie. Shouldn’t have brought you
+here, or those poor beggars either,” and he looked at the scared, frozen
+Ogula. “I begin to wonder——”
+
+“Never wonder, Major,” broke in Jeekie in alarm. “If wonder,
+not live, if wonder, not be born, too much wonder about everywhere.
+Can’t  understand nothing, so give it up. Say, ‘Right-O and devil
+hindermost!’ Very good motto for biped in tight place. Better drown here
+than in City bucket shop. But no drown. Should be dead long ago, but
+Little  Bonsa play the game, she not want to sink in stinking swamp when
+so near her  happy home. Come out all right somehow, as from dwarf.
+Every cloud have silver  lining, Major, even that black chap up there.
+Oh! my golly!”  
+
+This last exclamation was wrung from Jeekie’s lips by a sudden
+development of “forces of Nature” which astonished even him.
+Instead of a silver lining the “black chap” exhibited one of gold.
+In an instant it seemed to turn to acres of flame; it was as though the
+heavens  had taken fire. A flash or a thunderbolt struck the water
+within ten yards of  their canoe, causing the boatmen to throw
+themselves upon their faces through  shock or terror. Then came the
+hurricane, which fortunately was so strong that  it permitted no more
+rain to fall. The tall reeds were beaten flat beneath its  breath; the
+canoe was seized in its grip and whirled round and round, then  driven
+forward like an arrow. Only the weight of the men and the water in it 
+prevented it from oversetting. Dense darkness fell upon them and
+although they  could see no star, they knew that it must be night. On
+they rushed, driven by  that shrieking gale, and all about and around
+them this wall of darkness. No  one spoke, for hope was abandoned, and
+if they had, their voices could not have  been heard. The last thing
+that Alan remembered was feeling Jeekie dragging a  grass mat over him
+to protect him a little if he could. Then his senses  wavered, as does a
+dying lamp. He thought that he was back in what Jeekie had  rudely
+called “City bucket shop,” bargaining across the telephone  wire, upon
+which came all the sounds of the infernal regions, with a financial 
+paper for an article on a Little Bonsa Syndicate that he proposed to
+float. He  thought he was in The Court woods with Barbara, only the
+birds in the trees  sang so unnaturally loud that he could not hear her
+voice, and she wore Little  Bonsa on her head as a bonnet. Then she
+departed in flame, leaving him and  Death alone.    
+
+Alan awoke. Above the sun shone hotly, warming him back to life, but in
+front  was a thick wall of mist and rising beyond it in the distance he
+saw the rugged  swelling forms of mountains. Doubtless these had been
+visible before, but the  tall reeds through which they travelled had hid
+the sight of them. He looked  behind him and there in a heap lay the
+Ogula around their chief, insensible or  sleeping. He counted them and
+found that two were gone, lost in the tempest,  how or where no man ever
+learned. He looked forward and saw a peculiar sight,  for in the prow of
+the drifting canoe stood Jeekie clad in the remains of his  white robe
+and wearing on his head the battered helmet and about his shoulders  the
+torn fragments of green mosquito net. While Alan was wondering strangely
+ why he had adopted this ceremonial garb, from out of the mist there
+came a  sound of singing, of wild and solemn singing. Jeekie seemed to
+listen to it;  then he lifted up his great musical voice and sang as
+though in answer. What he  sang Alan could not understand, but he
+recognized that the language which he  used was that of the Asiki
+people.    
+
+A pause and a confused murmuring, and now again the wild song rose and
+again  Jeekie answered.
+
+“What the deuce are you doing? Where are we?” asked Alan faintly.
+
+Jeekie turned and beamed upon him; although his teeth were chattering
+and his  face was hollow, still he beamed.
+
+“You awake, Major?” he said. “Thought good old sun do trick.
+Feel your heart now and find it beat. Pulse, too, strong, though
+temp’rature not normal. Well, good news this morning. Little Bonsa come
+out top as usual. Asiki priests on bank there. Can’t see them, but know
+their song and answer. Same old game as thirty years ago. Asiki never
+change,  which good business when you been away long while.”
+
+“Hang the Asiki,” said Alan feebly, “I think all these poor
+beggars are dead,” and he pointed to the rowers.
+
+“Look like it, Major, but what that matter now since you and I alive?
+Plenty more where they come from. Not dead though, think only sleep, no
+like  cold, like dormouse. But never mind cannibal pig. They serve our
+turn, if they  live, live; if they die, die and God have mercy on souls,
+if cannibal have  soul. Ah! here we are,” and from beneath six inches of
+water he dragged  up the tin box containing Little Bonsa, from which he
+extracted the fetish, wet  but uninjured.
+
+“Put her on now, Major. Put her on at once and come sit in prow of
+canoe.  Must reach Asiki-land in proper style. Priests think it your
+reverend uncle  come back again, just as he leave. Make very good
+impression.”  
+
+“I can’t,” said Alan feebly. “I am played out,
+Jeekie.”
+
+“Oh! buck up, Major, buck up!” he replied imploringly. “One
+kick more and you win race, mustn’t spoil ship for ha’porth of tar.
+You just wear fetish, whistle once on land, and then go to sleep for
+whole week  if you like. I do rest, say it all magic, and so forth—that
+you been dead  and just come out of grave, or anything you like. No
+matter if you turn up as  announced on bill and God bless hurricane that
+blow us here when we expect die.  Come, Major, quick, quick! mist melt
+and soon they see you.” Then without  waiting for an answer Jeekie
+clapped the wet mask on his master’s head,  tied the thongs and led Alan
+to the prow of the canoe, where he set him down on  a little cross
+bench, stood behind supporting him and again began to sing in a  great
+triumphant voice.  
+
+The mist cleared away, rolling up like a curtain and revealing on the
+shore a  number of men and women clad in white robes, who were
+martialled in ranks  there, chanting and staring out at the dim waters
+of the lagoon. Yonder upon  the waters, driven forward by the gentle
+breeze, floated a canoe and lo! in the  prow of that canoe sat a white
+man and on his head the god which they had lost  a whole generation
+gone. On the head of a white man it had departed; on the  head of a
+white man it returned. They saw and fell upon their knees.  
+
+“Blow, Major, blow!” whispered Jeekie, and Alan blew a feeble note
+through the whistle in the mouth of the mask. It was enough, they knew
+it. They  sprang into the water and dragged the canoe to land. They set
+Alan on the shore  and worshipped him. They haled up a lad as though for
+sacrifice, for a priest  flourished a great knife above his head, but
+Jeekie said something that caused  them to let him go. Alan thought it
+was to the effect that Little Bonsa had  changed her habits across the
+Black Water, and wanted no blood, only food. Then  he remembered no
+more; again the darkness fell upon him.  
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BONSA TOWN.
+
+
+When consciousness returned to Alan, the first thing of which he became
+dimly  aware was the slow, swaying motion of a litter. He raised
+himself, for he was  lying at full length, and in so doing felt that
+there was something over his  face.
+
+“That confounded Little Bonsa,” he thought. “Am I expected to
+spend the rest of my life with it on my head like the man in the iron
+mask?”
+
+Then he put up his hand and felt the thing, to find that it was not
+Little  Bonsa, but something made apparently of thin, fine linen, fitted
+to the shape  of his face, for there was a nose on it, and eyeholes
+through which he could  see, yes, and a mouth whereof the lips by some
+ingenious contrivance could be  moved up and down.
+
+“Little Bonsa’s undress uniform, I expect,” he muttered, and
+tried to drag it off. This, however, proved to be impossible, for it was
+fitted  tightly to his head and laced or fastened at the back of his
+neck so securely  that he could not undo it. Being still weak, soon he
+gave up the attempt and  began to look about him.
+
+He was in a litter, a very fine litter hung round with beautifully woven
+and  coloured grass mats, inside of which were a kind of couch and
+cushions of soft  wool or hair, so arranged that he could either sit up
+or lie down. He peeped  between two of these mats and saw that they were
+travelling in a mountainous  country over a well-beaten road or trail,
+and that his litter was borne upon  the shoulders of a double line of
+white-robed men, while all around him marched  numbers of other men.
+They seemed to be soldiers, for they were arranged in  companies and
+carried large spears and shields. Also some of them wore torques  and
+bracelets of yellow metal that might be either brass or gold. Turning 
+himself about he found an eyehole in the back of the litter so contrived
+that  its occupant could see without being seen, and perceived that his
+escort  amounted to a veritable army of splendid-looking, but
+sombre-faced savages of a  somewhat Semitic cast of countenance. Indeed
+many of them had aquiline features  and hair that, although crisped, was
+long and carefully arranged in something  like the old Egyptian fashion.
+Also he saw that about thirty yards behind and  separated from him by a
+bodyguard, was borne a second litter. By means of a  similar aperture in
+front he discovered yet more soldiers, and beyond them, at  the head of
+the procession, was what appeared to be a body of white-robed men  and
+women bearing strange emblems and banners. These he took to be priests
+and  priestesses.    
+
+Having examined everything that was within reach of his eye, Alan sank
+back  upon his cushions and began to realize that he was very faint and
+hungry. It  was just then that the sound of a familiar voice reached his
+ears. It was the  voice of Jeekie, and he did not speak; he chanted in
+English to a melody which  Alan at once recognized as a Gregorian tone,
+apparently from the second litter.  
+
+“Oh, Major,” he sang, “have you yet awoke from refre-e-eshing
+sleep? If so, please answer me in same tone of voice, for remember that
+you  de-e-evil of a swell, Lord of the Little Bonsa, and must not speak
+like  co-o-ommon cad.”
+
+Feeble as he was Alan nearly burst out laughing, then remembering that
+probably  he was expected not to laugh, chanted his answer as directed,
+which having a  good tenor voice, he did with some effect, to the
+evident awe and delight of  all the escort within hearing.
+
+“I am awake, most excellent Jee-e-ekie, and feel the need of food, if
+you  have such a thing abou-ou-out you and it is lawful for the Lord of
+Little Bonsa  to take nu-tri-ment.”
+
+Instantly Jeekie’s deep voice rose in reply.
+
+“That good tidings upon the mountain tops, Ma-ajor. Can’t come out
+to bring you chop because too i-i-infra dig, for now I also biggish bug,
+the  little bird what sit upon the rose, as poet sa-a-ays. I tell these
+Johnnies  bring you grub, which you eat without qualm, for Asiki A1
+coo-o-ook.”  
+
+Then followed loud orders issued by Jeekie to his immediate _entourage_,
+and some confusion.
+
+As a result presently Alan’s litter was halted, the curtains were opened
+and kneeling women thrust through them platters of wood upon which,
+wrapped up  in leaves, were the dismembered limbs of a bird which he
+took to be chicken or  guinea-fowl, and a gold cup containing water
+pleasantly flavoured with some  essence. This cup interested him very
+much both on account of its shape and  workmanship, which if rude, was
+striking in design, resembling those drinking  vessels that have been
+found in Mycenian graves. Also it proved to him that  Jeekie’s stories
+of the abundance of the precious metal among the Asiki  had not been
+exaggerated. If it were not very plentiful, they would scarcely,  he
+thought, make their travelling cups of gold. Evidently there was wealth
+in  the land.  
+
+After the food had been handed to him the litter went on again, and
+seated upon  his cushions, he ate and drank heartily enough, for now
+that the worst of his  fatigue had passed away, his hunger was great. In
+some absurd fashion this meal  reminded him of that which a traveller
+makes out of a luncheon basket upon a  railway line in Europe or
+America. Only there the cups are not of gold and  among the Asiki were
+no paper napkins, no salt and mustard, and no three and  sixpence or
+dollar to pay. Further, until he got used to it, luncheon in a  linen
+mask with a moveable mouth was not easy. This difficulty he overcame at 
+last by propping the imitation lips apart with a piece of bone, after
+which  things were easier.  
+
+When he had finished he threw the platter and the remains out of the
+litter,  retaining the cup for further examination, and recommenced his
+intoned and  poetical converse with Jeekie.
+
+To set it out at length would be wearisome, but in the course of an hour
+or so  he collected a good deal of information. Thus he learned that
+they were due to  arrive at the Asiki city, which was called Bonsa Town,
+by nightfall, or a  little after. Also he was informed that the mask he
+wore was, as he had  guessed, a kind of undress uniform without which he
+must never appear, since  for anyone except the Asika herself to look
+upon the naked countenance of an  individual so mysteriously mixed up
+with Little Bonsa, was sacrilege of the  worst sort. Indeed Jeekie
+assured him that the priests who had put on the  head-dress when he was
+insensible were first blindfolded.  
+
+This news depressed Alan very much, since the prospect of living in a
+linen  mask for an indefinite period was not cheerful. Recovering, he
+chanted a query  as to the fate of the Ogula crew and their chief Fahni.
+
+“Not de-ad,” intoned Jeekie in reply, “and not gone back.
+A-all alive-O, somewhere behind there. Fanny very sick about it, for he
+think  Asiki bring them along for sacrifice, poo-or beg-gars.”
+
+Finally he inquired where Little Bonsa was and was answered that he
+himself as  its lawful guardian, was sitting on the fetish in its tin
+box, tidings that he  was able to verify by groping beneath the
+cushions.  
+
+After this his voice gave out, though Jeekie continued to sing items of
+interesting news from time to time. Indeed there were other things that
+absorbed Alan’s attention. Looking through the peepholes and cracks in
+the curtains, he saw that at last they had reached the crest of a ridge
+up  which they had been climbing for hours. Before them lay a vast and
+fertile  valley, much of which seemed to be under cultivation, and down
+it flowed a  broad and placid river. Opposite to him and facing west a
+great tongue of land  ran up to a wall of mountains with stark
+precipices of black rock that seemed  to be hundreds, or even thousands,
+of feet high, and at the tip of this tongue  a mighty waterfall rushed
+over the precipice, looking at that distance like a  cascade of smoke.
+This torrent, which he remembered was called Raaba, fell into  a great
+pool and there divided itself into two rushing branches that enclosed 
+an ellipse of ground, surrounded on all sides by water, for on its
+westernmost  extremity the branches met again and after flowing a while
+as one river,  divided once more and wound away quietly to north and
+south further than the  eye could reach. On the island thus formed,
+which may have been three miles  long by two in breadth, stood thousands
+of straw-roofed, square-built huts with  verandas, neatly arranged in
+blocks and lines and having between them streets  that were edged with
+palms.    
+
+On the hither side of the pool was what looked like a park, for here
+grew  great, black trees, which from their flat shape Alan took to be
+some variety of  cedar, and standing alone in the midst of this park
+where no other habitations  could be discovered, was a large, low
+building with dark-coloured walls and  gabled roofs that flashed like
+fire.  
+
+“The Gold House!” said Alan to himself with a gasp. “So it is
+not a dream or a lie.”
+
+The details at that distance he could not discover, nor did he try to do
+so,  for the general glory of the scene held him in its grip. At this
+evening hour,  for a little while, the level rays of the setting sun
+poured straight up the  huge, water-hollowed kloof. They struck upon the
+face of the fall, staining it  and the clouds of mist that hung above,
+to a hundred glorious hues; indeed the  substance of the foaming water
+seemed to be interlaced with rainbows whereof  the arch reached their
+crest and the feet were lost in the sullen blackness of  the pool
+beneath. Beautiful too was the valley, glowing in the quiet light of 
+evening, and even the native town thus gilded and glorified, looked like
+some  happy home of peace.  
+
+The sun was sinking rapidly, and before the litter reached the foot of
+the hill  and began to cross the rich valley, all the glory had departed
+and only the  cataract showed white and ghost-like through the gloom.
+But still the light,  which seemed to gather to itself, gleamed upon
+that golden roof amid the cedar  trees; then the moon rose and the gold
+was turned to silver. Alan lay back upon  his cushions full of wonder,
+almost of awe. It was a marvellous thing that he  should have lived to
+reach this secret place hidden in the heart of Africa and  defended by
+swamps, mountains and savages to which, so far as he knew, only one 
+white man had ever penetrated. And to think of it! That white man, his
+own  uncle, had never even held it worth while to make public any
+account of its  wonders, which apparently had seemed to him of no
+importance. Or perhaps he  thought that if he did he would not be
+believed. Well, there they were before  and about him, and now the
+question was, what would be his fate in this Gold  House where the great
+fetish dwelt with its priestess?    
+
+Ah! that priestess! Somehow he shivered a little when he thought of her;
+it was  as though her influence were over him already. Next moment he
+forgot her for a  while, for they had come to the river brink and the
+litter was being carried on  to a barge or ferry, about which were
+gathered many armed men. Evidently the  Gold House was well defended
+both by Nature and otherwise. The ferry was pulled  or rowed across the
+river, he could not see which, and they passed through a  gateway into
+the town and up a broad street where hundreds of people watched  his
+advent. They did not seem to speak, or if they spoke their voices were
+lost  in the sound of the thunder of the great cataract which dominated
+the place  with its sullen, continuous roar. It took Alan days to become
+accustomed to  that roar, but by the inhabitants of Asiki-land
+apparently it was not noticed;  their ears and voices were attuned to
+overcome its volume which their fathers  had known from the beginning.  
+
+Presently they were through the town and a wooden gate in an inner wall
+which  surrounded the park where the cedars grew. At this spot Alan
+noted that  everybody left them except the bearers and a few men whom he
+took to be  priests. On they stole like ghosts beneath the mighty trees,
+from whose limbs  hung long festoons of moss. It was very dark there,
+only in places where a  bough was broken the moonlight lay in white
+gules upon the ground. Another wall  and another gate, and suddenly the
+litter was set down. Its curtains opened,  torches flashed, women
+appeared clad in white robes, veiled and mysterious, who  bowed before
+him, then half led and half lifted him from his litter. He could  feel
+their eyes on him through their veils, but he could not see their faces.
+ He could see nothing except their naked, copper-coloured arms and long
+thin  hands stretched out to assist him.  
+
+Alan descended from the litter as slowly as he could, for somehow he
+shrank  from the quaint, carved portal which he saw before him. He did
+not wish to pass  it; its aspect filled him with reluctance. The women
+drew him on, their hands  pulled at his arms, their shoulders pressed
+him from behind. Still he hung  back, looking about him, till to his
+delight he saw the other litter arrive and  out of it emerge Jeekie,
+still wearing his sun-helmet with its fringe of  tattered mosquito
+curtain.  
+
+“Here we are, Major,” he said in his cheerful voice, “turned
+up all right like a bad ha’penny, but in odd situation.”
+
+“Very odd,” echoed Alan. “Could you persuade these ladies to
+let go of me?”
+
+“Don’t know,” answered Jeekie. “’Spect they
+doubtfully your wives; ’spect you have lots of wives here; don’t
+get white man every day, so make most of him. Best thing you do, kick
+out and  teach them place. Rub nose in dirt at once and make them good,
+that first-class  plan with female. I no like interfere in such delicate
+matter.”  
+
+Terrified by this information, Alan put out his strength and shook the
+women  off him, whereon without seeming to take any offence, they drew
+back to a little  distance and began to bow, like automata. Then Jeekie
+addressed them in their  own language, asking them what they meant by
+defiling this mighty lord, born of  the Heavens, with the touch of their
+hands, whereat they went on bowing more  humbly than before. Next he
+threw aside the cushions of the litter and finding  the tin box
+containing Little Bonsa, held it before him in both hands and bade  the
+women lead on.  
+
+The march began, a bewildering march. It was like a nightmare. Veiled
+women  with torches before and behind, Jeekie stalking ahead carrying
+the battered tin  box, long passages lined with gold, a vision of black
+water edged with a wide  promenade, and finally a large lamp-lit room
+whereof the roof was supported by  gilded columns, and in the room
+couches of cushions, wooden stools inlaid with  ivory, vessels of water,
+great basins made of some black, hard wood, and in the  centre a block
+of stone that looked like an altar.  
+
+Jeekie set down the tin box upon the altar-like stone, then he turned to
+the  crowd of women and said, “Bring food.” Instantly they departed,
+closing the door of the room behind them.
+
+“Now for a wash,” said Alan, “unlace this confounded mask,
+Jeekie.”
+
+“Mustn’t, Major, mustn’t. Priests tell me that. If those
+girls see you without mask, perhaps they kill them. Wait till they gone
+after  supper, then take it off. No one allowed see you without mask
+except Asika  herself.”
+
+Alan stepped to one of the wooden bowls full of water which stood under
+a lamp,  and gazed at his own reflection. The mask was gilded; the sham
+lips were  painted red and round the eye-holes were black lines.
+
+“Why, it is horrible,” he exclaimed, starting back. “I look
+like a devil crossed with Guy Fawkes. Do you mean to tell me that I have
+got to  live in this thing?”
+
+“Afraid so, Major, upon all public occasion. At least they say that. You
+holy, not lawful see your sacred face.”
+
+“Who do the Asiki think I am, then, Jeekie?”
+
+“They think you your reverend uncle come back after many, many year. You
+see, Major, they not believe uncle run away with Little Bonsa; they
+believe  Little Bonsa run away with uncle just for change of air and so
+on, and that  now, when she tired of strange land, she bring him back
+again. That why you so  holy, favourite of Little Bonsa who live with
+you all this time and keep you  just same age, bloom of youth.”
+
+“In Heaven’s name,” asked Alan, exasperated, “what is
+Little Bonsa, beyond an ancient and ugly gold fetish?”
+
+“Hush,” said Jeekie, “mustn’t call her names here in
+her own house. Little Bonsa much more than fetish, Little Bonsa alive,
+or  so,” he added doubtfully, “these silly niggers say. She wife of Big
+Bonsa, who you see, to-morrow p’raps. But their story this, that she get
+dead sick of Big Bonsa and bolt with white Medicine man, who dare preach
+she  nothing but heathen idol. She want show him whether or no she only
+idol. That  the yarn, priests tell it me to-day. They always watch for
+her there by the  edge of the lake. They always sure Little Bonsa come
+back. Not at all  surprised, but as she love you once, you stop holy;
+and I holy also, thank  goodness, because she take me too as servant.
+Therefore we sleep in peace, for  they not cut our throats, at any rate
+at present, though I think,” he  added mournfully, “they not let us go
+either.”  
+
+Alan sat down on a stool and groaned at the appalling prospect suggested
+by  this information.
+
+“Cheer up, Major,” said Jeekie sympathetically. “Perhaps
+manage hook it somehow, and meanwhile make best of bad business and have
+high  old time. You see you want to come Asiki-land, though I tell you
+it rum place,  and,” he added with certitude and a circular sweep of his
+hand, “by  Jingo! you here now and I daresay they give you all the gold
+you want.”  
+
+“What’s the good of gold unless one can get away with it?
+What’s the good of anything if we are prisoners among these devils?”
+
+“Perhaps time show, Major. Hush! here come dinner. You sit still on
+stool  and look holy.”
+
+The door opened and through it appeared four of the women bearing dishes
+and  cups full of drink, fashioned of gold like that which had been
+given to Alan in  the litter. He noticed at once that they had removed
+their veils and outer  garments, if indeed they were the same women, and
+now, like many other  Africans, were but lightly clad in linen capes
+open in front that hung over  their shoulders, short petticoats or
+skirts about their middles, and sandals.  Such was their attire which,
+scanty as it might be, was yet becoming enough and  extremely rich. Thus
+the cape was fastened with a brooch of worked gold, so  were the sandal
+straps, while the petticoat was adorned with beads of gold that  jingled
+as they walked, and amongst them strings of other beads of various and 
+beautiful colours, that might be glass or might be precious stones.
+Moreover,  these women were young and handsome, having splendid figures
+and well-cut  features, soft, dark eyes and rather long hair worn in the
+formal and  attractive fashion that has been described.  
+
+Advancing to Alan two of them knelt before him, holding out the trays
+upon  which was the food. So they remained while he ate, like bronze
+statues, nor  would they consent to change their posture even when he
+told them in their  language to be pleased to go away. On hearing
+themselves addressed in the Asiki  language, they seemed surprised, for
+their faces changed a little, but go they  would not. The result was
+that Alan grew extremely nervous and ate and drank so  rapidly that he
+scarcely noted what he was putting into his mouth. Then before  Jeekie,
+to whom the women did not kneel, had half finished his dinner, Alan 
+rose and walked away, whereon two of the women gathered up everything, 
+including the dishes that had been given to Jeekie, and in spite of his 
+remonstrances carried them out of the room.  
+
+“I say, Major,” said Jeekie, “if you gobble chop so fast you
+go ill inside. Poor nigger like me can’t keep up with you and sleep
+hungry to-night.”
+
+“I am sorry, Jeekie,” said Alan with a little laugh, “but I
+can’t eat off living tables, especially when they stare at one like
+that.  You tell them that to-morrow we will breakfast alone.”
+
+“Oh, yes, I tell them, Major, but I don’t know if they listen. They
+mean it great compliment and only think you not like those girls and
+send  others.”
+
+“Look here, Jeekie,” exclaimed Alan, turning his masked face
+towards the two who remained, “let us come to an understanding at once.
+Clear them out. Tell them I am so holy that Little Bonsa is enough for
+me. Say  I can’t bear the sight of females, and that if they stop here I
+will  sacrifice them. Say anything you like, only get rid of them and
+lock the  door.”
+
+Thus adjured, Jeekie began to reason with the women, and as they treated
+his  remarks with lofty disdain, at last seized first one and then the
+other by the  elbows and literally ran them out of the room.
+
+“There,” he said, “baggage gone since you make such fuss
+about it, though I ’spect they try to give me Bean for this job”
+(here he spoke not in figurative English slang, but of the Calabar bean,
+which  is a favourite native poison). “Well, dinner gone and girls gone,
+and we  tired, so best go to bed. Think we all private here now, though
+in Gold House  never can be sure,” and he looked round him suspiciously,
+adding,  “rummy place, Gold House, full of all sort of holes made by old
+fellows  thousand year ago, which no one know but Bonsa priests. Still,
+best risk it and  take off your face so that you have decent wash,” and
+he began to unlace  the mask on his master’s head.
+
+Never has a City clerk dressed up for a fancy ball in the armour of a
+Norman  knight, been more glad to get rid of his costume than was Alan
+of that hateful  head-dress. At length it was gone with his other
+garments and the much-needed  wash accomplished, after which he clothed
+himself in a kind of linen gown which  apparently had been provided for
+him, and lay down on one of the couches,  placing his revolver by his
+side.  
+
+“Will those lamps burn all night, Jeekie?” he asked.
+
+“Hope so, Major, as we haven’t got no match. Not fond of dark in
+Gold House,” answered Jeekie sleepily. Then he began to snore.
+
+Alan fell asleep, but was too excited and tired to rest very soundly.
+All sorts  of dreams came to him, one of which he remembered on
+awakening, perhaps because  it was the last. He dreamed that he heard
+some noise and opened his eyes, to  see that they were no longer alone
+in the room. The oil lamps had burned quite  low, indeed some of them
+were out, but by the light of those that remained he  saw a tall figure
+which seemed to appear at the edge of the surrounding  blackness, a
+woman’s figure. It walked forward to the altar-like stone  upon which
+lay the tin box containing Little Bonsa, and after several rather 
+awkward attempts, succeeded in opening it, thereby making a noise which,
+in his  dream, finally awoke Alan. For a while the figure gazed at the
+fetish. Then it  shut the box, glided to his bed and bent down as though
+to study him. Out of  the corners of his eyes he peered up at it,
+pretending all the while to be fast  asleep.  
+
+It was that of a woman wonderfully clad in gold-spangled, veil-like
+garments  with round bosses shaped to the breast, covered with thin
+plates of gold  fashioned like the scales of a fish which showed off the
+extraordinary elegance  of her lithe form. The low lamp-light shone upon
+her face and the coronet of  gold set upon her dark hair. What a face it
+was! Never in all his days had he  seen its like for evil loveliness.
+The great, languid, oblong eyes, the rich  red lips bent like a bow, the
+cruel smile of the mouth, the broad forehead on  which the hair grew
+low, the delicately arched eyebrows and the long curving  lashes of the
+heavy lids beneath them, the rounded cheeks, smooth as a ripe  fruit,
+the firm, shapely chin, the snake-like poise of the head, the long 
+bending neck, and the feline smile; all of these combined made such a 
+dream-vision as he had never seen before, and to tell the truth, 
+notwithstanding its beauty, for that could not be doubted, never wished
+to see  again. Somehow he felt that if Satan should happen to have a
+copper-coloured  wife, the exact picture of that lady had projected
+itself upon his sleeping  senses.  
+
+She seemed to study him very earnestly, with a kind of passionate
+eagerness,  indeed, moving a little now and again to let the light fall
+upon some part that  was in shadow. Once even she stretched out her
+rounded arm and just lifted the  edge of the blanket so as to expose his
+hand, the left. As it chanced on the  little finger of this hand Alan
+wore a plain gold ring which Barbara had given  him; once it had been
+her grandfather’s signet. This ring, which had a  coat of arms cut upon
+its bezel seemed to interest her very much as she  examined it for a
+long while. Then she drew off from her own finger another  ring of gold
+fashioned of two snakes curiously intertwined, and gently, so  gently
+that in his sleep he scarcely felt it, slipped it on to his finger above
+ Barbara’s ring.  
+
+After this she seemed to vanish away, and Alan slept soundly until the
+morning,  when he awoke to find the light of the sun pouring into the
+room through the  high-set latticed window places.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE HALL OF THE DEAD.
+
+
+Alan rose and stretched himself, and hearing him, Jeekie, who had a
+dog’s  faculty of instantly awaking from what seemed to be the deepest
+sleep, sat up  also.
+
+“You rest well, Major? No dream, eh?” he asked curiously.
+
+“Not very,” answered Alan, “and I had a dream, of a woman who
+stood over me and vanished away, as dreams do.”
+
+“Ah!” said Jeekie. “But where you find that new ring on
+finger, Major?”
+
+Alan stared at his hand and started, for there set on it above that of
+Barbara,  was the little circlet formed of twisted snakes which he had
+seen in his sleep.  
+
+“Then it must have been true,” he said in a low and rather
+frightened voice. “But how did she come and go?”
+
+“Funny place, Gold House. I tell you that yesterday, Major. People come
+up through hole, like rat. Never quite sure you alone in Gold House. But
+what  this lady like?”
+
+Alan described his visitor to the best of his ability.
+
+“Ah!” said Jeekie, “pretty girl. Big eyes, gold crown, gold
+stays which fit tight in front, very nice and decent; sort of
+night-shirt with  little gold stars all over—by Jingo! I think that
+Asika herself. If  so—great compliment.”
+
+“Confound the compliment, I think it great cheek,” answered Alan
+angrily. “What does she mean by poking about here at night and putting
+rings on my finger?”
+
+“Don’t know, Major, but p’raps she wish make you understand
+that she like cut of your jib. Find out by and by. Meanwhile you wear
+ring, for  while that on finger no one do you any harm.”
+
+“You told me that this Asika is a married woman, did you not?”
+remarked Alan gloomily.
+
+“Oh, yes, Major, always married; one down, other come on, you see. But
+she not always like her husband, and then she make him sit up, poor
+devil, and  he die double quick. Great honour to be Asika’s husband, but
+soon all  finished. P’raps——”
+
+Then he checked himself and suggested that Alan should have a bath while
+he  cleaned his clothes, an attention that they needed.
+
+Scarcely had Alan finished his toilet, donned the Arab-looking linen
+robe over  his own fragmentary flannels, and above it the hateful mask
+which Jeekie  insisted he must wear, when there came a knocking on the
+door. Motioning to  Alan to take his seat upon a stool, Jeekie undid the
+bars, and as before women  appeared with food and waited while they ate,
+which this time, having overcome  his nervousness, Alan did more
+leisurely. Their meal done, one of the women  asked Jeekie, for to his
+master they did not seem to dare to speak, whether the  white lord did
+not wish to walk in the garden. Without waiting for an answer  she led
+him to the end of the large room and, unbarring another door that they 
+had not noticed, revealed a passage, beyond which appeared trees and
+flowers.  Then she and her companions went away with the fragments of
+the meal.    
+
+“Come on,” said Alan, taking up the box containing Little Bonsa,
+which he did not dare to leave behind, “and let us get into the
+air.”
+
+So they went down the passage and at the end of it through gates of
+copper or  gold, they knew not which, that had evidently been left open
+for them, into the  garden. It was a large place, a good many acres in
+extent indeed, and kept with  some care, for there were paths in it and
+flowers that seemed to have been  planted. Also here grew certain of the
+mighty cedar trees that they had seen  from far off, beneath whose
+spreading boughs twilight reigned, while beyond,  not more than half a
+mile away, the splendid river-fall thundered down the  precipice. For
+the rest they could find no exit to that garden which on one  side was
+enclosed by a sheer cliff of living rock, and on the others with steep 
+stone walls beyond which ran a torrent, and by the buildings of the Gold
+House  itself.  
+
+For a while they walked up and down the rough paths, till at last
+Jeekie,  wearying of this occupation, remarked:
+
+“Melancholy hole this, Major. Remind me of Westminster Abbey in London
+fog, where your uncle of blessed mem’ry often take me pray and look at
+fusty tomb of king. S’pose we go back Gold House and see what happen.
+Anything better than stand about under cursed old cedar tree.”
+
+“All right,” said Alan, who through the eyeholes of his mask had
+been studying the walls to seek a spot in them that could be climbed if
+necessary, and found none.
+
+So they returned to the room, which had been swept and garnished in
+their  absence. No sooner had they entered it than the door opened and
+through it came  long lines of Asiki priests, each of whom staggered
+beneath the weight of a  hide bag that he bore upon his shoulder, which
+bags they piled up about the  stone altar. Then, as though at some
+signal, each priest opened the mouth of  his bag and Alan saw that they
+wee filled with gold, gold in dust, gold in  nuggets, gold in vessels
+perfect or broken; more gold than Alan had ever seen  before.
+
+“Why do they bring all this stuff here?” he asked, and Jeekie
+translated his question.
+
+“It is an offering to the lord of Little Bonsa,” answered the head
+priest, bowing, “a gift from the Asika. The heaven-born white man sent
+word by his Ogula messengers that he desired gold. Here is the gold that
+he  desired.”
+
+Alan stared at the treasure, which after all was what he had come to
+seek. If  only he had it safe in England, he would be a rich man and his
+troubles ended.  But how could he get it to England? Here it was
+worthless as mud.  
+
+“I thank the Asika,” he said. “I ask for porters to bear her
+gift back to my own country, since it is too heavy for me and my servant
+to  carry alone.”
+
+At these words the priest smiled a little, then said that the Asika
+desired to  see the white lord and to receive from him Little Bonsa in
+return for the gold,  and that he could proffer his request to her.
+
+“Good,” replied Alan, “lead me to the Asika.”
+
+Then they started, Alan bearing the box containing Little Bonsa, and
+Jeekie  following after him. They went down passages and through sundry
+doors till at  length they came to a long and narrow hall that seemed to
+be lined with plates  of gold. At the end of this hall was a large chair
+of black wood and ivory  placed upon a daïs, and sitting in this chair
+with the light pouring on her  from some opening above, was the woman of
+Alan’s dream, beautiful to look  on in her crown and glittering
+garments. Upon a stool at the foot of the daïs  sat a man, a handsome
+and melancholy man. His hair was tied behind his head in  a pigtail and
+gilded, his face was painted red, white and yellow; he wore ropes  of
+bright-coloured stones about his neck, middle, arms and ankles, and held
+a  kind of sceptre in his hand.  
+
+“Who is that creature?” asked Alan over his shoulder to Jeekie.
+“The Court fool?”
+
+“That husband of Asika, Major. He not fool, very big gun, but look a
+little low now because his time soon up. Come on, Major, Asika beckon
+us. Get  on stomach and crawl; that custom here,” he added, going down
+on to his  hands and knees, as did all the priests who followed them.
+
+“I’ll see her hanged first,” answered Alan in English.
+
+Then, accompanied by the creeping Jeekie and the train of prostrate
+priests, he  marched up the long hall to the edge of the daïs and there
+stood still and  bowed to the woman in the chair.
+
+“Greeting, white man,” she said in a low voice when she had studied
+him for a while. “Do you understand my tongue?”
+
+“A little,” he answered in Asiki, “moreover, my servant here
+knows it well and can translate.”
+
+“I am glad,” she said. “Tell me then, in your country do not
+people go on to their knees before their queen, and if not, how do they
+greet  her?”
+
+“No,” answered Alan with the help of Jeekie. “They greet her
+by raising their head-dress or kissing her hand.”
+
+“Ah!” she said. “Well, you have no head-dress, so kiss
+_my_ hand,” and she stretched it out towards him, at the same time
+prodding the man whom Jackie had said was her husband, in the back with
+her  foot, apparently to make him get out of the way.
+
+Not knowing what else to do, Alan stepped on to the daïs, the painted
+man  scowling at him as he passed. Then he halted and said:
+
+“How can I kiss your hand through this mask, Asika?”
+
+“True,” she answered, then considered a little and added,
+“White man, you have brought back Little Bonsa, have you not, Little
+Bonsa who ran away with you a great many years ago?”
+
+“I have,” he said, ignoring the rest of the question.
+
+“Your messengers said that you required a present of gold in return for
+Little Bonsa. I have sent you one, is it sufficient? If not, you can
+have  more.”
+
+“I cannot say, O Asika, I have not examined it. But I thank you for the
+present and desire porters to enable me to carry it away.”
+
+“You desire porters,” she repeated meditatively. “We will
+talk of that when you have rested here a moon or two. Meanwhile, give me
+Little  Bonsa that she may be restored to her own place.”
+
+Alan opened the tin box and lifting out the fetish, gave it to the
+priestess,  who took it and with a serpentine movement of extraordinary
+grace glided from  her chair on to her knees, holding the mask above her
+head in both hands, then  thrice covered her face with it. This done,
+she called to the priests, bidding  them take Little Bonsa to her own
+place and give notice throughout the land  that she was back again. She
+added that the ancient Feast of Little Bonsa would  be held on the night
+of the full moon within three days, and that all  preparations must be
+made for it as she had commanded.  
+
+Then the head medicine-man, raising himself upon his knees, crept on to
+the  daïs, took the fetish from her hands, and breaking into a wild song
+of triumph,  he and his companions crawled down the hall and vanished
+through the door,  leaving them alone save for the Asika’s husband.
+
+When they had gone the Asika looked at this man in a reflective way, and
+Alan  looked at him also through the eyeholes of his mask, finding him
+well worth  studying. As has been said, notwithstanding his paint and
+grotesque  decorations, he was very good-looking for a native, with
+well-cut features of  an Arab type. Also he was tall and muscular and
+not more than thirty years of  age. What struck Alan most, however, was
+none of these things, nor his jewelled  chains, nor even his gilded
+pigtail, but his eyes, which were full of terrors.  Seeing them, Alan
+remembered Jeekie’s story, which he had told to Mr.  Haswell’s guests at
+The Court, of how the husband of the Asika was driven  mad by ghosts.
+
+Just then she spoke to the man, addressing him by name and saying:
+
+“Leave us alone, Mungana, I wish to speak with this white lord.”
+
+He did not seem to hear her words, but continued to stare at Alan.
+
+“Hearken!” she exclaimed in a voice of ice. “Do my bidding
+and begone, or you shall sleep alone to-night in a certain chamber that
+you  know of.”
+
+Then Mungana rose, looked at her as a dog sometimes does at a cruel
+master who  is about to beat it, yes, with just that same expression,
+put his hands before  his eyes for a little while, and turning, left the
+hall by a side door which  closed behind him. The Asika watched him go,
+laughed musically and said:  
+
+“It is a very dull thing to be married,—but how are you named,
+white man?”
+
+“Vernon,” he answered.
+
+“Vernoon, Vernoon,” she repeated, for she could not pronounce the O
+as we do. “Are _you_ married, Vernoon?”
+
+He shook his head.
+
+“Have you been married?”
+
+“No,” he answered, “never, but I am going to be.”
+
+“Yes,” she repeated, “you are going to be. You remember that
+you were near to it many years ago, when Little Bonsa got jealous and
+ran away  with you. Well, she won’t do that again, for doubtless she is
+tired of  you now, and besides,” she added with a flash of ferocity,
+“I’d melt her with fire first and set her spirit free.”
+
+While Jeekie was trying to explain this mysterious speech to Alan, the
+Asika  broke in, asking:
+
+“Do you always want to wear that mask?”
+
+He answered, “Certainly not,” whereon she bade Jeekie take it off,
+which he did.
+
+“Understand me,” she said, fixing her great languid eyes upon his
+in a fashion that made him exceedingly uncomfortable, “understand,
+Vernoon, that if you go out anywhere, it must be in your mask, which you
+can  only put off when you are alone with _me._”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Because, Vernoon, I do not choose that any other woman should see your
+face. If a woman looks upon your uncovered face, remember that she
+dies—not nicely.”
+
+Alan stared at her blankly, being unable to find appropriate Asiki words
+in  which to reply to this threat. But the Asika only leaned back in her
+chair and  laughed at his evident confusion and dismay, till a new
+thought struck her.  
+
+“Your lips are free now,” she said; “kiss my hand after the
+fashion of your own country,” and she stretched it out to Alan, leaving
+him no choice but to obey her.
+
+“Why,” she went on mischievously, taking his hand and in turn
+touching it with her red lips, “why, are you a thief, Vernoon? That ring
+was mine and you have stolen it. How did you steal that ring?”
+
+“I don’t know,” he answered, through Jeekie, “I found
+it on my finger. I cannot understand how it came there. I understand
+nothing of  all this talk.”
+
+“Well, well, keep it, Vernoon, only give me that other ring of yours in
+exchange.”
+
+“I cannot,” he replied, colouring. “I promised to wear it
+always.”
+
+“Whom did you promise?” she asked with a flash of rage. “Was
+it a woman? Nay, I see, it is a man’s ring, and that is well, for
+otherwise I would bring a curse on her, however far off she may be
+dwelling.  Say no more and forgive my anger. A vow is a vow—keep your
+ring. But  where is that one you used to wear in bygone days? I recall
+that it had a cross  upon it, not this star and figure of an eagle.”
+
+Now Alan remembered that his uncle owned such a ring with a cross upon
+it, and  was frightened, for how did this woman know these things?
+
+“Jeekie,” he said, “ask the Asika if I am mad, or if she is.
+How can she know what I used to wear, seeing that I was never in this
+place  till yesterday, and certainly I have not met her anywhere else.”
+
+“She mean when you your reverend uncle,” said Jeekie, wagging his
+great head, “she think you identical man.”
+
+“What troubles you, Vernoon,” the Asika asked softly, then added
+anything but softly to Jeekie, “Translate, you dog, and be swift.”
+
+So Jeekie translated in a great hurry, telling her what Alan had said,
+and  adding on his own account that he, silly white man that he was,
+could not  understand how, as she was quite a young woman, she could
+have seen him before  she was born. If that were so, she would be old
+and ugly now, not beautiful as  she was.
+
+“I never saw you before, and you never saw me, Lady, yet you talk as
+though we had been friends,” broke in Alan in his halting Asiki.
+
+“So we were in the spirit, Vernoon. It was she who went before me who
+loved that white man whose face was as your face is, but her ghost lives
+on in  me and tells me the tale. There have been many Asikas, for
+thousands of years  they have ruled in this land, yet but one spirit
+belongs to them all; it is the  string upon which the beads of their
+lives are threaded. White man, I, whom you  think young, know everything
+back to the beginning of the world, back to the  time when I was a
+monkey woman sitting in those cedar trees, and if you wish, I  can tell
+it you.”  
+
+“I should like to hear it very much indeed,” answered Alan, when he
+had mastered her meaning, “though it is strange that none of the rest of
+us remember such things. Meanwhile, O Asika, I will tell you that I
+desire to  return to my own land, taking with me that gift of gold that
+you have given me.  When will it please you to allow me to return?”
+
+“Not yet a while, I think,” she said, smiling at him weirdly, for
+no other word will describe that smile. “My spirit remembers that it was
+always thus. Those wanderers who came hither always wished to return
+again to  their own country, like the birds in spring. Once there was a
+white man among  them, that was more than twenty hundred years ago; he
+was a native of a country  called Roma, and wore a helmet. He wished to
+return, but my mother of that day,  she kept him and by and by I will
+show him to you if you like. Before that  there was a brown man who came
+from a land where a great river overflows its  banks every year. He was
+a prince of his own country, who had fled from his  king and the desert
+folk made a slave of him, and so he drifted hither. He  wished to return
+also, for my mother of that day, or my spirit that dwelt in  her, showed
+to him that if he could but be there they would make him king in  his
+own land. But my mother of that day, she would not let him go, and by
+and  by I will show him to you, if you wish.”  
+
+Bewildered, amazed, Alan listened to her. Evidently the woman was mad,
+or else  she played some mystical part for reasons of her own.
+
+“When will you let me go, O Asika?” he repeated.
+
+“Not yet a while, I think,” she said again. “You are too
+comely and I like you,” and she smiled at him. There was nothing coarse
+in the smile, indeed it had a certain spiritual quality which thrilled
+him.  “I like you,” she went on in her dreamy voice, “I would keep
+you with me until your spirit is drawn up into my spirit, making it
+strong and  rich as all the spirits that went before have done, those
+spirits that my  mothers loved from the beginning, which dwell in me
+to-day.”  
+
+Now Alan grew alarmed, desperate even.
+
+“Queen,” he said, “but just now your husband sat here, is it
+right then that you should talk to me thus?”
+
+“My husband,” she answered, laughing. “Why, that man is but a
+slave who plays the part of husband to satisfy an ancient law. Never has
+he so  much as kissed my finger tips; my women—those who waited on you
+last  night—are his wives, not I,—or may be, if he will. Soon he will
+die  of love for me, and then when he is dead, though not before, I may
+take another  husband, any husband that I choose, and I think that no
+black man shall be my  lord, who have other, purer blood in me. Vernoon,
+five centuries have gone by  since an Asika was really wed to a foreign
+man who wore a green turban and  called himself a son of the Prophet, a
+man with a hooked nose and flashing  eyes, who reviled our gods until
+they slew him, even though he was the beloved  of their priestess. She
+who went before me also would have married that white  man whose face
+was like your face, but he fled with Little Bonsa, or rather  Little
+Bonsa fled with him. So she passed away unwed, and in her place I 
+came.”  
+
+“How did you come, if she whom you call your mother was not your
+mother?” asked Alan.
+
+“What is that to you, white man?” she replied haughtily. “I
+am here, as my spirit has been here from the first. Oh! I see you think
+I lie  to you, come then, come, and I will show you those who from the
+beginning have  been the husbands of the Asika,” and rising from her
+chair she took him  by the hand.
+
+They went through doors and by long, half-lit passages till they came to
+great  gates guarded by old priests armed with spears. As they drew near
+to these  priests the Asika loosed a scarf that she wore over her
+breast-plate of gold  fish scales, and threw the star-spangled thing
+over Alan’s head, that  even these priests should not see his face. Then
+she spoke a word to them and  they opened the gates. Here Jeekie evinced
+a disposition to remain, remarking  to his master that he thought that
+place, into which he had never entered,  “much too holy for poor nigger
+like him.”  
+
+The Asika asked him what he had said and he explained his sense of
+unworthiness  in her own tongue.
+
+“Come, fellow,” she exclaimed, “to translate my words and to
+bear witness that no trick is played upon your lord.”
+
+Still Jeekie lingered bashfully, whereon at a sign from her, one of the
+priests  pricked him behind with his great spear, and uttering a low
+howl he sprang  forward.
+
+The Asika led the way down a passage, which they saw ended in a big hall
+lit  with lamps. Now they were in it and Alan became aware that they had
+entered the  treasure house of the Asiki, since here were piled up great
+heaps of gold, gold  in ingots, gold in nuggets, in stone jars filled
+with dust, in vessels plain or  embossed with monstrous shapes in
+fetishes and in little squares and discs that  looked as though they had
+served as coins. Never had he seen so much gold  before.
+
+“You are rich here, Lady,” he said, gazing at the piles astonished.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. “Yes, as I have heard that some people count
+wealth. These are the offerings brought to our gods from the beginning;
+also  all the gold found in the mountains belongs to the gods, and there
+is much of  it there. The gift I sent to you was taken from this heap,
+but in truth it is  but a poor gift, seeing that although this stuff is
+bright and serves for cups  and other things, it has no use at all and
+is only offered to the gods because  it is harder to come by than other
+metals. Look, these are prettier than the  gold,” and from a stone table
+she picked up at hazard a long necklace of  large, uncut stones, red and
+white in colour and set alternatively, that Alan  judged to be crystals
+and spinels.  
+
+“Take it,” she said, “and examine it at your leisure. It is
+very old. For hundreds of years no more of these necklaces have been
+made,” and with a careless movement she threw the chain over his head so
+that it hung upon his shoulders.
+
+Alan thanked her, then remembered that the man called Mungana, who was
+the  husband, real or official, of this priestess, had been somewhat
+similarly  adorned, and shivered a little as though at a presage of
+advancing fate. Still  he did not return the thing, fearing lest he
+should give offence.  
+
+At this moment his attention was taken from the treasure by the sound of
+a  groan behind him. Turning round he perceived Jeekie, his great eyes
+rolling as  though in an extremity of fear.
+
+“Oh my golly! Major,” he ejaculated, pointing to the wall,
+“look there.”
+
+Alan looked, but at first in that dim light could only discover long
+rows of  gleaming objects which reached from the floor to the roof.
+
+“Come and see,” said the Asika, and taking a lamp from that table
+on which lay the gems, she led him past the piles of gold to one side of
+the  vault or hall. Then he saw, and although he did not show it, like
+Jeekie he was  afraid.
+
+For there, each in his own niche and standing one above the other, were
+what  looked like hundreds of golden men with gleaming eyes. At first
+until the utter  stillness undeceived him, he thought that they _must_
+be men. Then he  understood that this was what they had been; now they
+were corpses wrapped in  sheets of thin gold and wearing golden masks
+with eyes of crystal, each mask  being beaten out to a hideous
+representation of the man in life.  
+
+“All these are the husbands of my spirit,” said the priestess,
+waving the lamp in front of the lowest row of them, “Munganas who were
+married to the Asikas in the past. Look, here is he who said that he
+ought to  be king of that rich land where year after year the river
+overflows its  banks,” and going to one of the first of the figures in
+the bottom row,  she drew out a fastening and suffered the gold mask to
+fall forward on a hinge,  exposing the face within.
+
+Although it had evidently been treated with some preservative, this head
+now  was little more than a skull still covered with dark hair, but set
+upon its  brow appeared an object that Alan recognized at once, a simple
+band of plain  gold, and rising from it the head of an asp. Without
+doubt it was the  _uraeus_, that symbol which only the royalties of Old
+Egypt dared to wear.  Without doubt also either this man had brought it
+with him from the Nile, or in  memory of his rank and home he had
+fashioned it of the gold that was so  plentiful in the place of his
+captivity. So this woman’s story was true,  an ancient Egyptian had once
+been husband to the Asika of his day.  
+
+Meanwhile his guide had passed a long way down the line and halting in
+front of  another gold-wrapped figure, opened its mask.
+
+“This is that man,” she said, “who told us he came from a
+land called Roma. Look, the helmet still rests upon his head, though
+time has  eaten into it, and that ring upon your hand was taken from his
+finger. I have a  head-dress made upon the model of that helmet which I
+wear sometimes in memory  of this man who, my soul remembers, was brave
+and pleasant and a gallant  lover.”
+
+“Indeed,” answered Alan, looking at the sunken face above which a
+rim of curls appeared beneath the rusting helmet. “Well, he doesn’t
+look very gallant now, does he?” Then he peered down between the body
+and  its gold casing and saw that in his bony hand the man still held a
+short Roman  sword, lifted as though in salute. So she had not lied in
+this matter either.  
+
+Meanwhile the Asika had glided on to the end of the hall behind the
+heaps of  treasure.
+
+“There is one more white man,” she said, “though we know
+little of him, for he was fierce and barbarous and died without learning
+our  tongue, after killing a great number of the priests of that day
+because they  would not let him go; yes, died cutting them down with a
+battle-axe and singing  some wild song of his own country. Come hither,
+slave, and bend yourself so,  resting your hands upon the ground.”
+
+Jeekie obeyed, and actively as a cat the priestess leaped on to his
+back, and  reaching up opened the mask of a corpse in the second row and
+held her lamp  before its face.
+
+It was better preserved than the others, so that its features remained
+comparatively perfect, and about them hung a tangle of golden hair.
+Moreover, a  broad battle-axe appeared resting on the shoulder.
+
+“A viking,” thought Alan. “I wonder how _he_ came
+here.”
+
+When he had looked the Asika leaped from Jeekie’s back to the ground
+and,  waving her arm around her, began to talk so rapidly that Alan
+could understand  nothing of her words, and asked Jeekie to translate
+them.  
+
+“She say,” explained Jeekie between his chattering teeth,
+“that all rest these Johnnies very poor crew, natives and that lot
+except  one who worship false Prophet and cut throat of Asika of that
+time, because she  infidel and he teach her better; also eat his dinner
+out of Little Bonsa and  chuck her into water. Very wild man, that Arab,
+but priests catch him at last  and fill him with hot gold before Little
+Bonsa because he no care a damn for  ghosts. So he die saying Hip, hip,
+hurrah! for houri and green field of Prophet  and to hell with Asika and
+Bonsa, Big and Little! Now he sit up there and at  night time worst
+ghost of all the crowd, always come to finish off Mungana.  That all she
+say, and quite enough too. Come on quick, she want you and no like 
+wait.”  
+
+By now the Asika had passed almost round the hall, and was standing
+opposite to  an empty niche beyond and above which there were perhaps a
+score of bodies  gold-plated in the usual fashion.
+
+“That is your place, Vernoon,” she said gently, contemplating him
+with her soft and heavy eyes, “for it was prepared for the white man
+with  whom Little Bonsa fled away, and since then, as you see, there
+have been many  Munganas, some of whom belong to me; indeed, that one,”
+and she touched a  corpse on which the gold looked very fresh, “only
+left me last year. But  we always knew that Little Bonsa would bring you
+back again, and so you see, we  have kept your place empty.”
+
+“Indeed,” remarked Alan, “that is very kind of you,”
+and feeling that he would faint if he stayed longer in this horrible and
+haunted vault, he pushed past her with little ceremony and walked out
+through  the gates into the passage beyond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE GOLD HOUSE.
+
+
+“How you like Asiki-land, Major?” asked Jeekie, who had followed
+him and was now leaning against a wall fanning himself feebly with his
+great  hand. “Funny place, isn’t it, Major? I tell you so before you
+come,  but you no believe me.”
+
+“Very funny,” answered Alan, “so funny that I want to get
+out.”
+
+“Ah! Major, that what eel say in trap where he go after lob-worm, but he
+only get out into frying pan after cook skin him alive-o. Ah! here come
+cook—I mean Asika. She only stop shut up those stiff ’uns, who all
+love lob-worm one day. Very pretty woman, Asika, but thank God she not
+set cap  at me, who like to be buried in open like Christian man.”
+
+“If you don’t stop it, Jeekie,” replied Alan in a
+concentrated rage, “I’ll see that you are buried just where you
+are.”
+
+“No offence, Major, no offence, my heart full and bubble up. I wonder
+what Miss Barbara say if she see you mooing and cooing with dark-eyed
+girl in  gold snake skin?”
+
+Just then the Asika arrived and by way of excuse for his flight, Alan
+remarked  to her that the treasure-hall was hot.
+
+“I did not notice it,” she answered, “but he who is called my
+husband, the Mungana, says the same. The Mungana is guardian of the
+dead,”  she explained, “and when he is required so to do, he sleeps in
+the Place  of the Treasure and gathers wisdom from the spirits of those
+Munganas who were  before him.”
+
+“Indeed. And does he like that bed-chamber?”
+
+“The Mungana likes what I like, not what he likes,” she replied
+haughtily. “Where I send him to sleep, there he sleeps. But come,
+Vernoon, and I will show you the Holy Water where Big Bonsa dwells; also
+the  house in which I have my home, where you shall visit me when you
+please.”  
+
+“Who built this place?” asked Alan as she led him through more dark
+and tortuous passages. “It is very great.”
+
+“My spirit does not remember when it was built, Vernoon, so old is it,
+but I think that the Asiki were once a big and famous people who traded
+to the  water upon the west, and even to the water on the east, and that
+was how those  white men became their slaves and the Munganas of their
+queens. Now they are  small and live only by the might and fame of Big
+and Little Bonsa, not half  filling the rich land which is theirs. But,”
+she added reflectively and  looking at him, “I think also that this is
+because in the past fools have  been thrust upon my spirit as Munganas.
+What it needs is the wisdom of the  white man, such wisdom as yours,
+Vernoon. If that were added to my magic, then  the Asiki would grow
+great again, seeing that they have in such plenty the gold  which you
+have shown me the white man loves. Yes, they would grow great, and  from
+coast to coast the people should bow at the name of Bonsa and send him 
+their sons for sacrifice. Perhaps you will live to see that day,
+Vernoon.  Slave,” she added, addressing Jeekie, “set the mask upon your 
+lord’s head, for we come where women are.”  
+
+Alan objected, but she stamped her foot and said it must be so, having
+once  worn Little Bonsa, as her people told her he had done, his naked
+face might not  be seen. So Alan submitted to the hideous head-dress and
+they entered the  Asika’s house by some back entrance.
+
+It was a place with many rooms in it, but they were all remarkable for
+extreme  simplicity. With a single exception no gilding or gold was to
+be seen, although  the food vessels were made of this material here as
+everywhere. The chambers,  including those in which the Asika lived and
+slept, were panelled, or rather  boarded with cedar wood that was almost
+black with age, and their scanty  furniture was mostly made of ebony.
+They were very insufficiently lighted, like  his own room, by means of
+barred openings set high in the wall. Indeed gloom  and mystery were the
+keynotes of this place, amongst the shadows of which  handsome,
+half-naked servants or priestesses flitted to and fro at their tasks, 
+or peered at them out of dark corners. The atmosphere seemed heavy with
+secret  sin; Alan felt that in those rooms unnameable crimes and
+cruelties had been  committed for hundreds or perhaps thousands of
+years, and that the place was  yet haunted by the ghosts of them. At any
+rate it struck a chill to his healthy  blood, more even than had that
+Hall of the Dead and of heaped-up golden  treasure.  
+
+“Does my house please you?” the Asika asked of him.
+
+“Not altogether,” he answered, “I think it is dark.”
+
+“From the beginning my spirit has ever loved the dark, Vernoon. I think
+that it was shaped in some black midnight.”
+
+They passed through the chief entrance of the house which had pillars of
+woodwork grotesquely carved, down some steps into a walled and roofed-in
+yard  where the shadows were even more dense than in the house they had
+left. Only at  one spot was there light flowing down through a hole in
+the roof, as it did  apparently in that hall where Alan had found the
+Asika sitting in state. The  light fell on to a pedestal or column made
+of gold which was placed behind an  object like a large Saxon font, also
+made of gold. The shape of this column  reminded Alan of something,
+namely of a very similar column, although fashioned  of a different
+material which stood in the granite-built office of Messrs.  Aylward &
+Haswell in the City of London. Nor did this seem wonderful to  him,
+since on top of it, squatting on its dwarf legs, stood a horrid but 
+familiar thing, namely Little Bonsa herself come home at last. There she
+sat  smiling cruelly, as she had smiled from the beginning, forgetful
+doubtless of  her wanderings in strange lands, while round her stood a
+band of priests armed  with spears.  
+
+Followed by the Asika and Jeekie, Alan walked up and looked her in the
+face, and  to his excited imagination she appeared to grin at him in
+answer. Then while  the priests prostrated themselves, he examined the
+golden basin or laver, and  saw that at the further side of it was a
+little platform approached by steps.  On the top of these golden steps
+were two depressions such as might have been  worn out in the course of
+ages by persons kneeling there. Also the flat edge of  the basin which
+stood about thirty inches above the level of the topmost step,  was
+scored as though by hundreds of sword cuts which had made deep lines in
+the  pure metal. The basin itself was empty.  
+
+Seeing that these things interested him, the Asika volunteered the
+information  through Jeekie, that this was a divining-bowl, and that if
+those who went  before her had wished to learn the future, they caused
+Little Bonsa to float in  it and found out all they wanted to know by
+her movements. She, however, she  added, had other and better methods of
+learning things that were predestined.  
+
+“Where does the water come from?” asked Alan thoughtlessly
+searching the bowl for some tap or inlet.
+
+“Out of the hearts of men,” she answered with a low and dreadful
+laugh. “These marks are those of swords and every one of them means a
+life.” Then seeing that he looked incredulous she added, “Stay, I
+will show you. Little Bonsa must be thirsty who has fasted so long, also
+there  are matters that I desire to know. Come hither—you, and you,” and
+she pointed at hazard to the two priests who knelt nearest to her, “and
+do you bid the executioner bring his axe,” she went on to a third.
+
+The dark faces of the men turned ashen, but they made no effort to
+escape their  doom. One of them crept up the steps and laid his neck
+upon the edge of gold,  while the other, uttering no word, threw himself
+on his face at the foot of  them, waiting his turn. Then a door opened
+and there appeared a great and  brutal-looking fellow, naked except for
+a loin cloth, who bore in his hand a  huge weapon, half knife and half
+axe.  
+
+First he looked at the Asika, who nodded almost imperceptibly, then
+sprang on  to a prolongation of the golden steps, bowed to Little Bonsa
+on her column  behind and heaved up his knife.
+
+Now for the first time Alan really understood what was about to happen,
+and  that what he had imagined a stage rehearsal, was to become a
+hideous murder.  
+
+“Stop!” he shouted in English, being unable to remember the native
+word.
+
+The executioner paused with his axe poised in mid-air; the victim turned
+his  head and looked, as though surprised; the second victim and the
+priests their  companions looked also. Jeekie fell on to his knees and
+burst into fervent  prayer addressed apparently to Little Bonsa. The
+Asika smiled and did nothing.  
+
+Again the weapon was lifted and as he felt that words were no longer of
+any  use, even if he could find them, Alan took refuge in action.
+Springing on to  the other side of the little platform, he hit out with
+all his strength across  the kneeling man. Catching the executioner on
+the point of the chin, he knocked  him straight backwards in such
+fashion that his head struck upon the floor  before any other portion of
+his body, so that he lay there either dead or  stunned. Alan never
+learned which, since the matter was not thought of  sufficient
+importance to be mentioned.  
+
+At this sight the Asika burst into a low laugh, then asked Alan why he
+had  felled the executioner. He answered because he would not stand by
+and see two  innocent men butchered.
+
+“Why not,” she said in an astonished voice; “if Little Bonsa,
+whose priests they are, needs them, and I, who am the Mouth of the gods
+declare  that they should die? Still, she has been in your keeping for a
+long while and  you may know her will, so if you wish it, let them live.
+Or perhaps you require  other victims,” and she fixed her eyes upon
+Jeekie with a glance of  suggestive hope.
+
+“Oh my golly!” gasped Jeekie in English, “tell her not for
+Joe, Major, tell her most improper. Say Yellow God my dearest friend and
+go mad  as hatter if my throat cut——”
+
+Alan stopped his protestations with a secret kick.
+
+“I choose no victims,” he broke in, “nor will I see
+man’s blood shed—to me it is _orunda_—unholy; I may not
+look on human blood, and if you cause me to do so, Asika, I shall hate
+you  because you make me break my oath.”
+
+The Asika reflected for a moment, while Jeekie behind muttered between
+his  chattering teeth:
+
+“Good missionary talk that, Major. Keep up word in season, Major. If she
+make Christian martyr of Jeekie, who get you out of this confounded
+hole?”  
+
+Then the Asika spoke.
+
+“Be it as you will, for I desire neither that you should hate me, nor
+that you should look on that which is unlawful for your eyes to see. The
+feasts  and ceremonies you must attend, but if I can help it, no victim
+shall be slain  in your presence, not even that whimpering hound, your
+servant,” she  added with a contemptuous glance at Jeekie, “who it
+seems, fears to give  his life for the glory of the god, but who because
+he is yours, is safe now and  always.”
+
+“That _very_ satisfactory,” said Jeekie, rising from his
+knees, his face wreathed in smiles, for he knew well that a decree of
+the Asika  could not be broken. Then he began to explain to the
+priestess that it was not  fear of losing his own life that had moved
+him, but the certainty that this  occurrence would disagree morally with
+Little Bonsa, whose entire confidence he  possessed.
+
+Taking no notice of his words, with a slight reverence to the fetish,
+she  passed on, beckoning to Alan. As he went by the two prostrate
+priests whose  lives he had saved, lifted their heads a little and
+looked at him with  heartfelt gratitude in their eyes; indeed one of
+them kissed the place where  his foot had trodden. Jeekie, following,
+gave him a kick to intimate that he  was taking a liberty, but at the
+same time stooped down and asked the man his  name. It occurred to him
+that these rescued priests might some day be useful.  
+
+Alan followed her through a kind of swing door which opened into another
+of the  endless halls, but when he looked for her there she was nowhere
+to be seen. A  priest who was waiting beyond the door bowed and informed
+him that the Asika  had gone to her own place, and would see him that
+evening. Then bowing again he  led them back by various passages to the
+room where they had slept.  
+
+“Jeekie,” said Alan after their food had been brought to them, this
+time, he observed, by men, for it was now past midday, “you were born in
+Asiki-land; tell me the truth of this business. What does that woman
+mean when  she talks about her spirit having been here from the
+beginning.”  
+
+“She mean, Major, that every time she die her soul go into someone else,
+whom priests find out by marks. Also Asika always die young, they never
+let her  become old woman, but how she die and where they bury her, no
+one know  ’cept priests. Sometimes she have girl child who become Asika
+after her,  but if they have boy child, they kill him. I think this
+Asika daughter of her  who make love to your reverend uncle. All that
+story ’bout her mother not  being married, lies, and all her story lies
+too, she often marry.”  
+
+“But how about the spirit coming back, Jeekie?”
+
+“’Spect that lie too, Major, though she think it solemn fact.
+Priests teach her all those old things. Still,” he added doubtfully,
+“Asika great medicine-woman, and know a lot we don’t know,
+can’t say how. Very awkward customer, Major.”
+
+“Quite so, Jeekie, I agree with you. But to come to the point, what is
+her game with me?”
+
+“Oh! Major,” he answered with a grin, “_that_ simple
+enough. She tired of black man, want change, mean to marry you according
+to  law, that is when Mungana dies, and he die jolly quick now. She
+mustn’t  kill him, but polish him off all the same, stick him to sleep
+with those dead  ’uns, till he go like drunk man and see things and
+drown himself. Then  she marry you. But till he dead, you all right, she
+only talk and make eyes,  ’cause of Asiki law, not ’cause she want to
+stop there.”  
+
+“Indeed, Jeekie, and how long do you think that Mungana will last?”
+
+“Perhaps three months, Major, and perhaps two. Think not more than two.
+Strong man, but he look devilish dicky this morning. Think he begin see
+snakes.”
+
+“Very well, Jeekie. Now listen to me—you’ve got to get us out
+of Asiki-land by this day two months. If you don’t, that lady will do
+anything to oblige me and no doubt there are more executioners left.”
+
+“Oh! Major, don’t talk like silly fool. Jeekie always hate fools
+and suffer them badly—like holy first missionary bishop. You know very
+well this no place for ultra-Christian man like Jeekie, who only come
+here to  please you. Both in same bag, Major, if I die, you die and
+leave Miss Barbara  up gum tree. I get you out if I can. But this stuff
+the trouble,” and he  pointed to the bags of gold. “Not want to leave
+all that behind after  such arduous walk. No, no, I try get you out,
+meanwhile you play game.”  
+
+“The game! What game, Jeekie?”
+
+“What game? Why, Asika-game of course. If she sigh, you sigh; if she
+look  at you, you look at her; if she squeeze hand, you squeeze hand; if
+she kiss,  you kiss.”
+
+“I am hanged if I do, Jeekie.”
+
+“Must, Major; must or never get out of Asiki-land. What all that
+matter?” he added confidentially. “Miss Barbara never know. Jeekie
+doesn’t split, also quite necessary in situation, and you can’t be
+married till that Mungana dead. All matter business, Major; make time
+pass  pleasant as well. Asika jolly enough if you stroke her fur right
+way, but if  you put her back up—oh Lor’! No trouble, sit and smile and
+say,  ‘Oh, ducky, how beautiful you are!’ _that_ not hurt
+anybody.”
+
+In spite of himself Alan burst out laughing.
+
+“But how about the Mungana?” he asked.
+
+“Mungana, he got take that with rest. Also I try make friends with that
+poor devil. Tell him it all my eye. Perhaps he believe me—not sure. If
+he  me, I no believe _him_. Mungana,” he added oracularly,
+“Mungana take his chance. What matter? In two months’ time he
+nothing but gold figure, No. 2403; just like one mummy in museum. Now I
+try  catch my ma. I hear she alive somewhere. They tell me she used keep
+lodging  house for Bonsa pilgrim, but steal grub, say it cat, all that
+sort of thing,  and get run in as thief. Afraid my ma come down very
+much in world, not society  lady now, shut up long way off in suburb.
+Still p’raps she useful so best  send her message by p’liceman, say how
+much I love her; say her dear  little Jeekie turn up again just to see
+her sweet face. Only don’t know  if she swallow that or if they let her
+out prison unless I pay for all she  prig.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE FEAST OF LITTLE BONSA.
+
+
+It was the night of full moon and of the great feast of the return of
+Little  Bonsa. Alan sat in his chamber waiting to be summoned to take
+part in this  ceremony and listening the while to that _Wow! Wow! Wow!_
+of the death  drums, whereof Jeekie had once spoken in England, which
+could be clearly heard  even above the perpetual boom of the cataract
+tumbling down its cliff behind  the town. By now he had recovered from
+the fatigue of his journey and his  health was good, but the same could
+not be said of his spirits, for never in  his life had he felt more
+downhearted, not even when he was sickening for  blackwater fever, or
+lay in bondage in the City, expecting every morning to  wake up and find
+his reputation blasted. He was a prisoner in this dreadful,  gloomy
+place where he must live like a second Man in the Iron Mask, without 
+recreation or exercise other than he could find in the walled garden
+where grew  the black cedar trees, and, so far as he could see, a
+prisoner without hope of  escape.  
+
+Moreover, he could no longer disguise from himself the truth; Jeekie was
+right.  The Asika had fallen in love with him, or at any rate made up
+her mind that he  should be her next husband. He hated the sight of the
+woman and her sinuous,  evil beauty, but to be free of her was
+impossible, and to offend her, death.  All day long she kept him about
+her, and from his sleep he would wake up and as  on the night of his
+arrival, distinguish her leaning over him studying his face  by the
+light of the faintly-burning lamps, as a snake studies the bird it is 
+about to strike. He dared not stir or give the slightest sign that he
+saw her.  Nor indeed did he always see her, for he kept his eyes closely
+shut. But even  in his heaviest slumber some warning sense told him of
+her presence, and then  above Jeekie’s snores (for on these occasions
+Jeekie always snored his  loudest) he would hear a soft footfall, as
+cat-like, she crept towards him, or  the sweep of her spangled robe, or
+the tinkling of the scales of her golden  breastplate. For a long while
+she would stand there, examining him greedily and  even the few little
+belongings that remained to him, and then with a hungry  sigh glide away
+and vanish in the shadows. How she came or how she vanished  Alan could
+not discover. Clearly she did not use the door, and he could find no 
+other entrance to the room. Indeed at times he thought he must be
+suffering  from delusion, but Jeekie shook his great head and did not
+agree with him.      
+“She there right enough,” he said. “She walk over me as
+though I log and I smell stuff she put on hair, but I think she come and
+go by  magic. Asika do that if she please.”
+
+“Then I wish she would teach me the secret, Jeekie. I should soon be out
+of Asiki-land, I can tell you.”
+
+All that day Alan had been in her company, answering her endless
+questions  about his past, the lands that he had visited, and especially
+the women that he  had known. He had the tact to tell her that none of
+these were half so  beautiful as she was, which was true in a sense and
+pleased her very much, for  in whatever respects she differed from them,
+in common with the rest of her sex  she loved a compliment. Emboldened
+by her good humour, he had ventured to  suggest that being rested and
+having restored Little Bonsa, he would be glad to  return with her gifts
+to his own country. Next instant he was sorry, for as  soon as she
+understood his meaning she grew almost white with rage.  
+
+“What!” she said; “you desire to leave me? Know, Vernoon,
+that I will see you dead first and myself also, for then we shall be
+born again  together and can never more be separated.”
+
+Nor was this all, for she burst into weeping, threw her arms about him,
+drew  him to her, kissed him on the forehead, and then thrust him away,
+saying:  
+
+“Curses on the priests’ law that makes us wait so long, and curses
+on that Mungana who will not die and may not be killed. Well, he shall
+pay for  it and within two months, Vernoon, oh! within two months——”
+and she stretched out her arms with a gesture of infinite passion, then
+turned  and left him.
+
+“My!” said Jeekie afterwards, for he had watched all this scene
+open-mouthed, “my! but she mean business. Mrs. Jeekie never kiss me like
+that, nor any other female either. She dead nuts on you, Major. Very
+great  compliment! ’Spect when you Mungana, she keep you alive a long
+time, four  or five years perhaps, if no other white man come this way.
+Pity you  can’t take it on a bit, Major,” he added insidiously,
+“because then she grow careless and make you chief and we get chance
+scoop out that gold house and bolt with bally lot. Miss Barbara sensible
+woman,  when she see all that cash she not mind, she say ‘Bravo, old
+boy, quite  right spoil Lady Potiphar in land of bondage, but Jeekie
+must have ten per  cent. because he show you how do it.’”
+
+Alan was so depressed, and indeed terrified by this demonstration on the
+part  of his fearful hostess, that he could neither laugh at Jeekie, nor
+swear at  him. He only sat still and groaned, feeling that bad as things
+were they were  bound to become worse.
+
+Above the perpetual booming of the death drums rose a sound of wild
+music. The  door burst open, and through it came a number of priests,
+their nearly naked  bodies hideously painted and on their heads the most
+devilish-looking masks.  Some of them clashed cymbals, some blew horns
+and some beat little drums all to  time which was given to them by a
+bandmaster with a golden rod. In front of  them with painted face and
+decked in his gorgeous apparel, walked the Mungana  himself.
+
+“They come to take us to Bonsa worship,” explained Jeekie.
+“Cheer up, Major, very exciting business, no go to sleep there, as in
+English church. See the god all time and no sermon.”
+
+Alan, who wore a linen robe over the remains of his European garments,
+and  whose mask was already on his head, rose listlessly and bowed to
+the gorgeous  Mungana who, poor man, answered him with a stare of hate,
+knowing that this  wanderer was destined to fill his place. Then they
+started, Jeekie accompanying  them, and walked a long way through
+various halls and passages, bearing first  to the left and then to the
+right again, till suddenly through some side door  they emerged upon a
+marvellous scene. The first impressions that reached  Alan’s mind were
+those of a long stretch of water, very black and still  and not more
+than eighty feet in width. On the hither edge of this canal,  seated
+upon a raised daïs in the midst of a great open space of polished rock, 
+was the Asika, or so he gathered from her gold breastplate and sparkling
+ garments, for her fierce and beautiful features were hid beneath an
+object  familiar enough to him, the yellow, crystal-eyed mask of Little
+Bonsa. Arranged  in companies about and behind her were hundreds of
+people, male and female,  clad in hideous costumes to resemble demons,
+with masks to match. Some of these  masks were semi-human and some of
+them bore a likeness to the heads of animals  and had horns on them,
+while their wearers were adorned with skins and tails.  To describe them
+in their infinite variety would be impossible; indeed the  recollection
+that Alan carried away was one of a mediæval hell as it is  occasionally
+to be found portrayed upon “Doom pictures” in old  churches.  
+
+On the further side of the water the entire Asiki people seemed to be
+gathered;  at least there were thousands of them seated upon a rising
+rocky slope as in an  amphitheatre, clad only in the ordinary costume of
+the Western African native,  and in some instances in linen cloaks. This
+great amphitheatre was surrounded  by a high wall with gates, but in the
+moonlight he found it difficult to  discern its exact limits.
+
+Jeekie nudged Alan and pointed to the centre of the canal or pool. He
+looked  and saw floating there a huge and hideous golden head, twenty
+times as large as  life perhaps, with great prominent eyes that glared
+up to the sky. Its  appearance was quite unlike anything else in the
+world, more loathsome, more  horrible, man, fish and animal, all seemed
+to have their part in it, human  mouth and teeth, fish-like eyes and
+snout, bestial expression.  
+
+“Big Bonsa,” whispered Jeekie. “Just the same as when I sweet
+little boy.—He live here for thousand of years.”
+
+Preceded by the Mungana and followed by Jeekie and the priests, the band
+bringing up the rear, Alan was marched down a lane left open for him
+till he  came to some steps leading to the daïs, upon which in addition
+to that occupied  by the Asika, stood two empty chairs. These steps the
+Mungana motioned him to  mount, but when Jeekie tried to follow him he
+turned and struck him  contemptuously in the face. At once the Asika,
+who was watching Vernon’s  approach through the eye-holes in the Little
+Bonsa mask, said fiercely:  
+
+“Who bade you strike the servant of my guest, O Mungana? Let him come
+also, that he may stand behind us and interpret.”
+
+Her wretched husband, who knew that this public slight was put upon him
+purposely, but did not dare to protest against it, bowed his head. Then
+all  three of them climbed to the daïs, the priests and the musicians
+remaining  below.
+
+“Welcome, Vernoon,” said the Asika through the lips of the mask,
+which to Alan, notwithstanding the dreadful cruelty of its expression,
+looked  less hateful than the lovely, tigerish face it hid. “Welcome and
+be  seated here on my left hand, since on my right you may not sit—as
+yet.”
+
+He bowed and took the chair to which she pointed, while her husband
+placed  himself in the other chair upon her right, and Jeekie stood
+behind, his great  shape towering above them all.
+
+“This is a festival of my people, Vernoon,” she went on,
+“such a festival as has not been seen for years, celebrated because
+Little Bonsa has come back to them.”
+
+“What is to happen?” he asked uneasily. “I have told you,
+Lady, that blood is _orunda_ to me. I must not witness it.”
+
+“I know, be not afraid,” she answered. “Sacrifice there must
+be, since it is the custom and we may not defraud the gods, but you
+shall not  see the deed. Judge from this, Vernoon, how greatly I desire
+to please  you.”
+
+Now Alan, looking about him, saw that immediately beneath the daïs and
+between  them and the edge of the water, were gathered his cannibal
+friends, the Ogula  and Fahni their chief who had rowed him to
+Asiki-land, and with them the  messengers whom they had sent on ahead.
+Also he saw that their arms were tied  behind them and that they were
+guarded by men dressed like devils and armed  with spears.
+
+“Ask Fahni why he and his people are bound, Jeekie,” said Alan,
+“and why have they not returned to their own country.”
+
+Jeekie obeyed, putting the question in the Ogula language, whereon the
+poor men  turned and began to implore Alan to save their lives, Fahni
+adding that he had  been told they were to be killed that night.
+
+“Why are these men to be slain?” asked Alan of the Asika.
+
+“Because I have learned that they attacked you in their own country,
+Vernoon,” she answered, “and would have killed you had it not been
+for Little Bonsa. It is therefore right that they should die as an
+offering to  you.”
+
+“I refuse the offering since afterwards they dealt well with me. Set
+them  free and let them return to their own land, Asika.”
+
+“That cannot be,” she replied coldly. “Here they are and here
+they remain. Still, their lives are yours to take or to spare, so keep
+them as  your servants if you will,” and bending down she issued a
+command which  was instantly obeyed, for the men dressed like devils cut
+the bonds of the  Ogula and brought them round to the back of the daïs,
+where they stood blessing  Alan loudly in their own tongue.
+
+Then the ceremonies began with a kind of infernal ballet. On the smooth
+space  between them and the water’s edge appeared male and female bands
+of  dancers who emerged from the shadows. For the most part they were
+dressed up  like animals and imitated the cries of the beasts that they
+represented,  although some of them wore little or no clothing. To the
+sound of wild music of  horns and drums these creatures danced a kind of
+insane quadrille which seemed  to suggest everything that is cruel and
+vile upon the earth. They danced and  danced in the moonlight till the
+madness spread from them to the thousands who  were gathered upon the
+farther side of the water, for presently all of these  began to dance
+also. Nor did it stop there, since at length the Asika rose from  her
+chair upon the daïs and joined in the performance with the Mungana her 
+husband. Even Jeekie began to prance and shout behind, so that at last
+Alan and  the Ogula alone remained still and silent in the midst of a
+scene and a noise  which might have been that of hell let loose.  
+
+Leaving go of her husband, the Asika bounded up to Alan and tried to
+drag him  from his chair, thrusting her gold mask against his mask. He
+refused to move  and after a while she left him and returned to Mungana.
+Louder and louder  brayed the music and beat the drums, wilder and
+wilder grew the shrieks.  Individuals fell exhausted and were thrown
+into the water where they sank or  floated away on the slow moving
+stream, as part of some inexplicable play that  was being enacted.
+
+Then suddenly the Asika stood still and threw up her arms, whereon all
+the thousands present stood still also. Again she threw up her arms and
+they  fell upon their faces and lay as though they were dead. A third
+time she threw  up her arms and they rose and remained so silent that
+the only sound to be  heard was that of their thick breathing. Then she
+spoke, or rather screamed,  saying:
+
+“Little Bonsa has come back again, bringing with her the white man whom
+she led away,” and all the audience answered, “Little Bonsa has
+come back again. Once more we see her on the head of the Asika as our
+fathers  did. Give her a sacrifice. Give her the white man.”
+
+“Nay,” she screamed back, “the white man is mine. I name him
+as the next Mungana.”
+
+“Oho!” roared the audience, “Oho! she names him as the next
+Mungana. Good-bye, old Mungana! Greeting, new Mungana! When will be the
+marriage feast?”
+
+“Tell us, Mungana, tell us,” cried the Asika, patting her wretched
+husband on the cheek. “Tell us when you mean to die, as you are bound to
+do.”
+
+“On the night of the second full moon from now,” he answered with a
+terrible groan that seemed to be wrung out of his heavy heart; “on that
+night my soul will be eaten up and my day done. But till then I am lord
+of the  Asika, and if she forgets it, death shall be her portion,
+according to the  ancient law.”
+
+“Yes, yes,” shouted the multitude, “death shall be her
+portion, and her lover we will sacrifice. Die in honour, Mungana, as all
+those  died that went before you.”
+
+“Thank Heaven!” muttered Alan to himself, “I am safe from
+that witch for the next two months,” and through the eye-holes of his
+mask he contemplated her with loathing and alarm.
+
+At the moment, indeed, she was not a pleasing spectacle, for in the heat
+and  excitement of her mad dance she had cast off her gold breast-plate
+or  stomacher, leaving herself naked except for her kirtle and the thin,
+gold-spangled robe upon her shoulders over which streamed her black,
+disordered  hair. Contrasting strangely in the silver moonlight with her
+glistening,  copper-coloured body, the mask of Little Bonsa on her head
+glared round with  its fixed crystal eyes and fiendish smile as she
+turned her long neck from side  to side. Seen thus she scarcely looked
+human, and Alan’s heart was filled  with pity for the poor bedizened
+wretch she named her husband, who had just  been forced to announce the
+date of his own suicide.  
+
+Soon, however, he forgot it, for a new act in the drama had begun. Two
+priests  clad in horns and tails leapt on to the daïs and at a signal
+unlaced the mask  of Little Bonsa. Now the Asika lifted it from her
+streaming face and held it on  high, then she lowered it to the level of
+her breast, and holding it in both  hands, walked to the edge of the
+daïs, whereon priests, disguised as fiends,  began to leap at it,
+striving to reach it with their fingers and snatch it from  her grasp.
+One by one they leapt with the most desperate energy, each man being 
+allowed to make three attempts, and Alan noted that this novel jumping 
+competition was watched with the deepest interest by all the audience,
+at the  time he knew not why.  
+
+The first two, who were evidently elderly men, who failed to come
+anywhere near  the mark. Their failure was received with shouts of
+derision. They sank  exhausted to the ground and from the motion of his
+body Alan could see that one  of them was weeping, while the other
+remained sullenly silent. Then a younger  man advanced and at the third
+try almost grasped the fetish. Indeed he would  have grasped it had he
+not met with foul play, for the Asika, seeing that he  was about to
+succeed, lifted it an inch or two, so that he also missed and with  a
+groan joined the band of the defeated. Next appeared a fourth priest,
+even  more horribly arrayed than those before him, but Alan noticed that
+his mask was  of the lightest, and that his garments consisted chiefly
+of paint, the main  idea of his make-up being that of a skeleton. He was
+a thin active fellow, and  all the watching thousands greeted him with a
+shout. For a few seconds he stood  back gazing at the mask as a wolf
+might at an unapproachable bone. Then  suddenly he ran forward and
+sprang into the air. Such an amazing jump Alan had  never seen before.
+So high was it indeed that his head came level with that of  the fetish,
+which he snatched with both hands tearing it from Asika’s  grasp. Coming
+to the ground again with a thud, he began to caper to and fro,  kissing
+the mask, while the audience shouted:    
+
+“Little Bonsa has chosen. What fate for the fallen? Ask her,
+priest?”
+
+The man stopped his capering and held the mouth of Little Bonsa to his
+ear,  nodding from time to time as though she were speaking to him and
+he heard what  she said. Then he passed round the daïs where Alan could
+not see him, and  presently reappeared holding Little Bonsa in his right
+hand and in his left a  great gold cup. A silence fell upon the place.
+He advanced to the first man who  had jumped and offered him the cup. He
+turned his head away, but a thousand  voices thundered “Drink!” Then he
+took it and drank, passing it to  a companion in misfortune, who in turn
+drank also and gave it to the third  priest, he who would have snatched
+the mask had not the Asika lifted it out of  his reach.
+
+This man drained it to the dregs, and with an exclamation of rage dashed
+the  empty vessel into the face of the chosen priest with such fury that
+the man  rolled upon the ground and for a while lay there stunned. Now
+he who had drunk  first began to spring about in a ludicrous fashion,
+and presently was joined in  his dance by the other two. So absurd were
+their motions and tumblings and  clownlike grimaces, for they had
+dragged off their masks, that roars of brutal  laughter rose from the
+audience, in which the Asika joined.  
+
+At first Alan thought that the thing was a joke, and that the men had
+merely  been made mad drunk, till catching sight of their eyes in the
+moonlight, he  perceived that they were in great pain and turned
+indignantly to remonstrate  with the Asika.
+
+“Be silent, Vernoon,” she said savagely, “blood is your
+_orunda_ and I respect it. Therefore by decree of the god these die of
+poison,” and again she fell to laughing at the contortions of the
+victims.  
+
+Alan shut his eyes, and when at length, drawn by some fearful
+fascination, he  opened them once more, it was to see that the three
+poor creatures had thrown  themselves into the water, where they rolled
+over and over like wounded  porpoises, till presently they sank and
+vanished there.  
+
+This farce, for so they considered it, being ended and the stage, so to
+speak,  cleared, the audience having laughed itself hoarse, set itself
+to watch the  proceedings of the newly chosen high-priest of Little
+Bonsa, who by now had  recovered from the blow dealt to him by one of
+the murdered men. With the help  of some other priests he was engaged in
+binding the fetish on to a little raft  of reeds. This done he laid
+himself flat upon a broad plank which had been made  ready for him at
+the edge of the water, placing the mask in front of him and  with a few
+strokes of his feet that hung over the sides of the plank, paddled 
+himself out to the centre of the canal where the god called Big Bonsa
+floated,  or was anchored. Having reached it he pushed the little raft
+off the plank into  the water, and in some way that Alan could not see,
+made it fast to Big Bonsa,  so that now the two of them floated one
+behind the other. Then while the people  cheered, shouting out that
+husband and wife had come together again at last, he  paddled his plank
+back to the water’s edge, sat down and waited.    
+
+Meanwhile, at a sign from the Asika, all the scores of priests and
+priestesses  who were dressed as devils had filed off to right and left,
+and vanished,  presumably to cross the water by bridges or boats that
+were out of sight. At  any rate now they began to appear upon its
+further side and to wind their way  singly among the thousands of the
+Asiki people who were gathered upon the rocky  slope beyond in order to
+witness this fearsome entertainment. Alan observed  that the spectators
+did not appear to appreciate the arrival amongst them of  these priests,
+from whom they seemed to edge away. Indeed many of them rose and  tried
+to depart altogether, only to be driven back to their places by a double
+ line of soldiers armed with spears, who now for the first time became
+visible,  ringing in the audience. Also other soldiers and with them
+bodies of men who  looked like executioners, showed themselves upon the
+further brink of the water  and then marched off, disappearing to left
+and right.    
+
+“What’s the matter now?” Alan asked of Jeekie over his
+shoulder.
+
+“All in blue funk,” whispered Jeekie back, “joke done. Get to
+business now. Silly fools forget that when they laugh so much. Both
+Bonsas very  hungry and Asika want wipe out old scores. Presently you
+see.”  
+
+Presently Alan did see, for at some preconcerted signal the devil
+priests, each  of them, jumped with a yell at a person near to them,
+gripping him or her by  the hair, whereon assistants rushed in and
+dragged them down to the bank of the  canal. Here to the number of a
+hundred or more, a wailing, struggling mass,  they were confined in a
+pen like sheep. Then a bar was lifted and one of them  allowed to
+escape, only to find himself in a kind of gangway which ran down  into
+shallow water. Being forced along this he came to an open space of water
+ exactly opposite to the floating fetishes, and there was kept a while
+by men  armed with spears. As nothing happened they lifted their spears
+and the man  bolted up an incline and was lost among the thousands of
+spectators.    
+
+The next one, evidently a person of rank, was not so fortunate. Jumping
+into  the pool off the gangway, he stood there like a sheep about to be
+washed, the  water reaching up to his middle. Then Alan saw a terrifying
+thing, for suddenly  the horrid, golden head of Big Bonsa, towing Little
+Bonsa behind it, began to  swim with a deliberate motion across the
+stream until, reaching the man, it  seemed to rear itself up and poke
+him with its snout in the chest as a turtle  might do. Then it sank
+again into the water and slowly floated back to its  station, directed
+by some agency or power that Alan could not discover.  
+
+At the touch of the fetish the man screamed like a horse in pain or
+terror, and  soldiers leaping on him with a savage shout, dragged him up
+another gangway  opposite to that by which he had descended, whereon, to
+all appearances more  dead than alive, he departed into the shadows. The
+horns and drums set up a  bray of triumph, the Asika clapped her hands
+approvingly, the spectators  cheered, and another victim was bundled
+down the gangway and submitted to the  judgment of the Bonsas, which
+came at him like hungry pikes at a frog. Then  followed more and more,
+some being chosen and some let go, till at last,  growing weary, the
+priests directed the soldiers to drive the prisoners down in  batches
+until the pen in the water was full as though with huddled sheep. If 
+the horrible golden masks swam at them and touched one of their number,
+they  were all dragged away; if these remained quiescent they were let
+go.    
+
+So the thing went on until at length Alan could bear no more of it.
+
+“Lady,” he said to the Asika when she paused for a moment from her
+hand-clapping, “I am weary, I would sleep.”
+
+“What!” she exclaimed, “do you wish to sleep on such a
+glorious night when so many evil doers are coming to their just doom?
+Well,  well, go if you will, for then my promise is off me and I can
+hasten this  business and deal with the wicked before the people
+according to our custom.  Good-night to you, Vernoon, to-morrow we will
+meet,” and she called to  some priests to lead him away, and with him
+the Ogula cannibals whom she had  given to him as servants.
+
+Alan went thankfully enough. As he plunged into one of the passages the
+sound  of frightful yelling reached his ears, followed by loud,
+triumphant shouts.  
+
+“Now you gone they kill those who Bonsa smell out,” said Jeekie.
+“Why you no wait and see? Very interesting sight.”
+
+“Hold your tongue,” answered Alan savagely. “Did you think so
+years ago when you were put into that pen to be butchered?”
+
+“No, Major,” replied the unabashed Jeekie, “not think at all
+then, too far gone. But see other people in there and know it not _you_,
+quite different matter.”
+
+They reached their room. At the door of it Fahni and his followers were
+led off  to some quarters near by, blessing Alan as they went because he
+had saved their  lives.
+
+“Jeekie,” he said when they were alone, “tell me, what makes
+that hellish idol swim about in the water picking out some people and
+leaving  others alone?”
+
+“Major, I not know, no one know except top priest and Asika. Perhaps
+there man underneath, perhaps they pull string, or perhaps fetish alive
+and he  do what he like. Please don’t call him names, Major, or he
+remember and  come after us one time, and that bad job,” and Jeekie
+shivered visibly.  
+
+“Bosh!” answered Alan, but all the same he shivered also.
+“Jeekie,” he asked again, “what happens to those people whom
+the Bonsas smell out?”
+
+“Case of good-bye, Major. Sometimes they chop off nut, sometimes they
+spiflicate in gold tub, sometimes priest-man make hole in what white
+doctor  call _diagram_—and shake hands with heart.—All matter of
+taste, Major, just as Asika please. If she like victim or they old
+friends,  chop off head; if she not like him—do worse things.”
+
+More than satisfied with his information Alan went to bed. For hour
+after hour  that night he lay tossing and turning, haunted by the
+recollections of the  dreadful sights that he had seen and of the
+horrible Asika, beautiful and  half-naked, glaring at him amorously
+through the crystal eyes of Little Bonsa.  When at last he fell asleep
+it was to dream that he was alone in the water with  the god which
+pursued him as a shark pursues a shipwrecked sailor. Never did he 
+experience a nightmare that was half so awful. Only one thing could be
+more  awful, the reality itself.  
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE MOTHER OF JEEKIE.
+
+
+“Jeekie,” said Alan next morning, “I tell you again that I
+have had enough of this place, I want to get out.”
+
+“Yes, Major, that just what mouse say when he finish cheese in trap, but
+missus come along, call him ‘Pretty, pretty,’ and drown him all the
+same,” and he nodded in the direction of the Asika’s house.
+
+“Jeekie, it has got to be done—do you hear me? I had rather die
+trying to get away than stop here till the next two months are up. If I
+am here  on the night of the next full moon but one, I shall shoot that
+Asika and then  shoot myself, and you must take your chance. Do you
+understand?”  
+
+“Understand that foolish game and poor lookout for Jeekie, Major, but
+can’t think of any plan.” Then he rubbed his big nose reflectively
+and added, “Fahni and his people your slaves now, ’spose we have
+talk with him. I tell priests to bring him along when they come with
+breakfast.  Leave it to me, Major.”
+
+Alan did leave it to him, with the result that after long argument the
+priests  consented or obtained permission to produce Fahni and his
+followers, and a  little while after the great men arrived looking very
+dejected, and saluted  Alan humbly. Bidding the rest of them be seated,
+he called Fahni to the end of  the room and asked him through Jeekie if
+he and his men did not wish to return  home.
+
+“Indeed we do, white lord,” answered the old chief, “but how
+can we? The Asika has a grudge against our tribe and but for you would
+have  killed every one of us last night. We are snared and must stop
+here till we  die.”
+
+“Would not your people help you if they knew, Fahni?”
+
+“Yes, lord, I think so. But how can I tell them who doubtless believe us
+dead? Nor can I send a messenger, for this place is guarded and he would
+be  killed at once. We came here for your sake because you had Little
+Bonsa, a god  that is known in the east and the west, in the north and
+the south, and because  you saved me from the lion, and here, alas! we
+must perish.”  
+
+“Jeekie,” said Alan, “can you not find a messenger? Have you,
+who were born of this people, no friend among them at all?”
+
+Jeekie shook his white head and rolled his eyes. Then suddenly an idea
+struck  him.
+
+“Yes,” he said, “I think one, p’raps. I mean my
+ma.”
+
+“Your ma!” said Alan. “Oh! I remember. Have you heard
+anything more about her?”
+
+“Yes, Major. Very old girl now, but strong on leg, so they say. Believe
+she glad go anywhere, because she public nuisance; they tired of her in
+prison  and there no workhouse here, so they want turn her out starve,
+which of course  break my heart. Perhaps she take message. Some use that
+way. Only think she  afraid go Ogula-land because they nasty cannibal
+and eat old woman.”  
+
+When all this was translated to Fahni he assured Jeekie with earnestness
+that  nothing would induce the Ogula people to eat his mother; moreover,
+that for her  sake they would never look carnivorously on another old
+woman, fat or thin.  
+
+“Well,” said Jeekie, “I try again to get hold of old lady and
+we see. I pray priests, whom you save other day, let her out of chokey
+as I  sick to fall upon bosom, which quite true, only so much to think
+of that no  time to attend to domestic relation till now.”
+
+That very afternoon, on returning to his room from walking in the dismal
+cedar  garden, Alan’s ears were greeted by a sound of shrill
+quarrelling.  Looking up he saw an extraordinary sight. A tall, gaunt,
+withered female who  might have been of any age between sixty and a
+hundred, had got Jeekie’s  ear in one hand, and with the other was
+slapping him in the face while she  exclaimed:
+
+“O thief, whom by the curse of Bonsa I brought into the world, what have
+you done with my blanket? Was it not enough that you, my only son,
+should leave  me to earn my own living? Must you also take my best
+blanket with you, for  which reason I have been cold ever since. Where
+is it, thief, where is  it?”
+
+“Worn out, my mother, worn out,” he answered, trying to free
+himself. “You forget, honourable mother, that I grow old and you should
+have been dead years ago. How can you expect a blanket to last so long?
+Leave  go of my ear, beloved mother, and I will give you another. I have
+travelled  across the world to find you and I want to hear news of your
+husband.”  
+
+“My husband, thief, which husband? Do you mean your father, the one with
+the broken nose, who was sacrificed because you ran away with the white
+man  whom Bonsa loved? Well, you look out for him when you get into the
+world of  ghosts, for he said that he was going to wait for you there
+with the biggest  stick that he could find. Why I haven’t thought of him
+for years, but  then I have had three other husbands since his time, bad
+enough, but better  than he was, so who would? And now Bonsa has got the
+lot, and I have no  children alive, and they say I am to be driven out
+of the prison to starve next  week as they won’t feed me any longer, I
+who can still work against any  one of them, and—you’ve got my blanket,
+you ugly old rascal,”  and collapsing beneath the weight of her recited
+woes, the hag burst into a  melancholy howl.
+
+“Peace, my mother,” said Jeekie, patting her on the head. “Do
+what I tell you and you shall have more blankets than you can wear and,
+as you  are still so handsome, another husband too if you like, and a
+garden and slaves  to work for you and plenty to eat.”
+
+“How shall I get all these things, my son?” asked the old woman,
+looking up. “Will you take me to your home and support me, or will that
+white lord marry me? They told me that the Asika had named him as the
+Mungana,  and she is very jealous, the most jealous Asika that I have
+ever known.”  
+
+“No, mother, he would like to, but he dare not, and I cannot support you
+as I should wish, as here I have no house or property. You will get all
+this by  taking a walk and holding your tongue. You see this man here,
+he is Fahni, king  of a great tribe, the Ogula. He wants you to carry a
+message for him, and by  and by he will marry you, won’t you, Fahni?”
+
+“Oh! yes, yes,” said Fahni; “I will do anything she likes. No
+one shall be so rich and honoured in my country, and for her sake we
+will never  eat another old woman, whereas if she stays here she will be
+driven to the  mountains to starve in a week.”
+
+“Set out the matter,” said the mother of Jeekie, who was by no
+means so foolish as she seemed.
+
+So they told her what she must do, namely, travel down to the Ogula and
+tell  them of the plight of their chief, bidding them muster all their
+fighting men  and when the swamps were dry enough, advance as near as
+they dared to the Asiki  country and, if they could not attack it, wait
+till they had further news.  
+
+The end of it was that the mother of Jeekie, who knew her case to be
+desperate  at home, where she was in no good repute, promised to attempt
+the journey in  consideration of advantages to be received. Since she
+was to be turned adrift  to meet her fate with as much food as she could
+carry, this she could do  without exciting any suspicion, for who would
+trouble about the movements of a  useless old thief? Meanwhile Jeekie
+gave her one of the robes which the Asika  had provided for Alan, also
+various articles which she desired and, having  learned Fahni’s message
+by heart and announced that she considered  herself his affianced bride,
+the gaunt old creature departed happy enough after  exchanging embraces
+with her long lost son.  
+
+“She will tell somebody all about it and we shall only get our throats
+cut,” said Alan wearily, for the whole thing seemed to him a foolish
+farce.
+
+“No, no, Major. I make her swear not split on ghosts of all her husbands
+and by Big Bonsa hisself. She sit tight as wax, because she think they
+haunt  her if she don’t and I too by and by when I dead. P’raps she get
+to  Ogula country and p’raps not. If she don’t, can’t help it and
+no harm done. Break my heart, but only one old woman less. Anyhow she
+hold  tongue, that main point, and I really very glad find my ma, who
+never hoped to  see again. Heaven very kind to Jeekie, give him back to
+family bosom,” he  added, unctuously.
+
+That day there were no excitements, and to Alan’s intense relief he saw
+nothing of the Asika. After its orgy of witchcraft and bloodshed on the
+previous night, weariness and silence seemed to have fallen upon the
+town. At  any rate no sound came from it that could be heard above the
+low, constant  thunder of the great waterfall rushing down its
+precipice, and in the  cedar-shadowed garden where Alan walked till he
+was weary, attended by Jeekie  and the Ogula savages, not a soul was to
+be seen.  
+
+On the following morning, when he was sitting moodily in his room, two
+priests  came to conduct him to the Asika. Having no choice, followed by
+Jeekie, he  accompanied them to her house, masked as usual, for without
+this hateful  disguise he was not allowed to stir. He found her lying
+upon a pile of cushions  in a small room that he had never seen before,
+which was better lighted than  most in that melancholy abode, and seemed
+to serve as her private chamber. In  front of her lay the skin of the
+lion that he had sent as a present, and about  her throat hung a
+necklace made of its claws, heavily set in gold, with which  she was
+playing idly.  
+
+At the opening of the door she looked up with a swift smile that turned
+to a  frown when she saw that he was followed by Jeekie.
+
+“Say, Vernoon,” she asked in her languorous voice, “can you
+not stir a yard without that ugly black dog at your heels? Do you bring
+him to  protect your back? If so, what is the need? Have I not sworn
+that you are safe  in my land?”
+
+Alan made Jeekie interpret this speech, then answered that the reason
+was that  he knew but little of her tongue.
+
+“Can I not teach it to you alone, then, without this low fellow hearing
+all my words? Well, it will not be for long,” and she looked at Jeekie
+in  a way that made him feel very uncomfortable. “Get behind us, dog,
+and  you, Vernoon, come sit on these cushions at my side. Nay, not
+there, I said  upon the cushions—so. Now I will take off that ugly mask
+of yours, for I  would look into your eyes. I find them pleasant,
+Vernoon,” and, without  waiting for his permission, she sat up and did
+so. “Ah!” she went  on, “we shall be happy when we are married, shall we
+not? Do not be  afraid, Vernoon, I will not eat out your heart as I have
+those of the men that  went before you. We will live together until we
+are old, and die together at  last, and together be born again, and so
+on and on till the end which even I  cannot foresee. Why do you not
+smile, Vernoon, and say that you are pleased,  and that you will be
+happy with me who loved you from the moment that my eyes  fell upon you
+in sleep? Speak, Vernoon, lest I should grow angry with  you.”
+
+“I don’t know what to say,” answered Alan despairingly
+through Jeekie, “the honour is too great for me, who am but a wandering
+trader who came here to barter Little Bonsa against the gold I
+need”—to support my wife and family, he was about to add, then
+remembering that this statement might not be well received, substituted,
+“to support my old parents and eight brothers and sisters who are
+dependent upon me, and remain hungry until I return to them.”
+
+“Then I think they will remain hungry a long time, Vernoon, for while I
+live you shall never return. Much as I love you I would kill you first,”
+and her eyes glittered as she said the words. “Still,” she added,
+noting the fall in his face, “if it is gold that they need, you shall
+send it them. Yes, my people shall take all that I gave you down to the
+coast,  and there it can be put in a big canoe and carried across the
+water. See to the  packing of the stuff, you black dog,” she said to
+Jeekie over her  shoulder, “and when it is ready I will send it hence.”
+
+Alan began to thank her, though he thought it more than probable that
+even if  she kept her word, this bullion would never get to Old Calabar,
+and much less  to England. But she waived the matter aside as one in
+which she was not  interested.
+
+“Tell me,” she asked; “would you have me other than I am?
+First, do you think me beautiful?”
+
+“Yes,” answered Alan honestly, “very beautiful when you are
+quiet as now, not when you are dancing as you did the other night
+without your  robes.”
+
+When she understood what he meant the Asika actually blushed a little.
+
+“I am sorry,” she answered in a voice that for her was quite
+humble. “I forget that it might seem strange in your eyes. It has always
+been the custom for the Asika to do as I did at feasts and sacrifices,
+but  perhaps that is not the fashion among your women; perhaps they
+always remain  veiled, as I have heard the worshippers of the Prophet
+do, and therefore you  thought me immodest. I am very, very sorry,
+Vernoon. I pray you to forgive me  who am ignorant and only do what I
+have been taught.”  
+
+“Yes, they always remain veiled,” stammered Alan, though he was not
+referring to their faces, and as the words passed his lips he wondered
+what the  Asika would think if she could see a ballet at a London
+music-hall.  
+
+“Is there anything else wrong?” she went on gently. “If so,
+tell me that I may set it right.”
+
+“I do not like cruelty or sacrifices, O Asika. I have told you that
+bloodshed is _orunda_ to me, and at the feast those men were poisoned
+and  you mocked them in their pain; also many others were taken away to
+be killed  for no crime.”
+
+She opened her beautiful eyes and stared at him, answering:
+
+“But, Vernoon, all this is not my fault; they were sacrifices to the
+gods, and if I did not sacrifice, I should be sacrificed by the priests
+and  wizards who live to sacrifice. Yes, myself I should be made to
+drink the poison  and be mocked at while I died like a snake with a
+broken back. Or even if I  escaped the vengeance of the people, the gods
+themselves would kill me and  raise up another in my place. Do they not
+sacrifice in your country,  Vernoon?”
+
+“No, Asika, they fight if necessary and kill those who commit murder.
+But  they have no fetish that asks for blood, and the law they have from
+heaven is a  law of mercy.”
+
+She stared at him again.
+
+“All this is strange to me,” she said. “I was taught
+otherwise. Gods are devils and must be appeased, lest they bring
+misfortune on  us; men must be ruled by terror, or they would rebel and
+pull down the great  House; doctors must learn magic, or how could they
+avert spells? wizards must  be killed, or the people would perish in
+their net. May not we who live in a  hell, strive to beat back its flame
+with the wisdom our forefathers have handed  on to us? Tell me, Vernoon,
+for I would know.”  
+
+“You make your own hell,” answered Alan when with the help of
+Jeekie he understood her talk.
+
+She pondered over his words for a while, then said:
+
+“I must think. The thing is big. I wander in blackness; I will speak
+with  you again. Say now, what else is wrong with me?”
+
+Now Alan thought that he saw opportunity for a word in season and made a
+great  mistake.
+
+“I think that you treat your husband, that man whom you call Mungana,
+very badly. Why should you drive him to his death?”
+
+At these words the Asika leapt up in a rage, and seeking something to
+vent her  temper on, violently boxed Jeekie’s ears and kicked him with
+her  sandalled foot.
+
+“The Mungana!” she exclaimed, “that beast! What have I to do
+with him? I hate him, as I hated the others. The priests thrust him on
+me. He  has had his day, let him go. In your country do they make women
+live with men  whom they loathe? I love _you_, Bonsa himself knows why.
+Perhaps because  you have a white skin and white thoughts. But I hate
+that man. What is the use  of being Asika if I cannot take what I love
+and reject what I hate? Go away,  Vernoon, go away, you have angered me,
+and if it were not for what you have  said about that new law of mercy,
+I think that I would cut your throat,”  and again she boxed Jeekie’s
+ears and kicked him in the shins.  
+
+Alan rose and bowed himself towards the door while she stood with her
+back  towards him, sobbing. As he was about to pass it she wheeled
+round, wiping the  tears from her eyes with her hand, and said:
+
+“I forgot, I sent for you to thank you for your presents; that,”
+and she pointed to the lion skin, “which they tell me you killed with
+some kind of thunder to save the life of that old cannibal, and this,”
+and she pulled off the necklace of claws, then added, “as I am too bad
+to  wear it, you had better take it back again,” and she threw it with
+all  her strength straight into Jeekie’s face.
+
+Fearing worse things, the much maltreated Jeekie uttered a howl and
+bolted  through the door, while Alan, picking up the necklace, returned
+it to her with  a bow. She took it.
+
+“Stop,” she said. “You are leaving the room without your mask
+and my women are outside. Come here,” and she tied the thing upon his
+head, setting it all awry, then pushed him from the place.
+
+“Very poor joke, Major, very poor indeed,” said Jeekie when they
+had reached their own apartment. “Lady make love to _you_;
+_you_ play prig and lecture lady about holy customs of her country and
+she  box _my_ ear till head sing, also kick me all over and throw sharp
+claws  in face. Please you do it no more. The next time, who knows? she
+stick knife in  _my_ gizzard, then kiss _you_ afterward and say she so
+sorry and hope  she no hurt _you_. But how that help poor departed
+Jeekie who get all  kicks, while you have ha’pence?”
+
+“Oh! be quiet,” said Alan; “you are welcome to the halfpence
+if you would only leave me the kicks. The question is, how am I to get
+out of  this mess? While she was a beautiful savage devil one could deal
+with the  thing, but if she is going to become human it is another
+matter.”  
+
+Jeekie looked at him with pity in his eyes.
+
+“Always thought white man mad at bottom,” he said, shaking his big
+head. “To benighted black nigger thing so very simple. All you got to
+do,  make love and cut when you get chance. Then she pleased as Punch,
+everything go  smooth and Jeekie get no more kicks. Christian religion
+business very good, but  won’t wash in Asiki-land. Your reverend uncle
+find out that.”  
+
+Not wishing to pursue the argument, Alan changed the subject by asking
+his  indignant retainer if he thought that the Asika had meant what she
+said when  she offered to send the gold down to the coast.
+
+“Why not, Major? That good lady always mean what she say, and what she
+do  too,” and he dabbed wrathfully at the scratches made by the lion’s
+claws on his face, then added, “She know her own mind, not like
+shilly-shally, see-saw white woman, who get up one thing and go to bed
+another.  If she love she love, if she hate she hate. If she say she
+send gold, she send  it, though pity to part with all that cash, because
+’spect someone bag  it.”
+
+Alan reflected a while.
+
+“Don’t you see, Jeekie, that here is a chance, if a very small one,
+of getting a message to the coast. Also it is quite clear that if we are
+ever  able to escape, it will be impossible for us to carry this heavy
+stuff, whereas  if we send it on ahead, perhaps some of it might get
+through. We will pack it  up, Jeekie, at any rate it will be something
+to do. Go now and send a message  to the Asika, and ask her to let us
+have some carpenters, and a lot of  well-seasoned wood.”
+
+The message was sent and an hour later a dozen of the native craftsmen
+arrived  with their rude tools and a supply of planks cut from a kind of
+iron-wood or  ebony tree. They prostrated themselves to Alan, then the
+master of them rising,  instantly began to measure Jeekie with a marked
+reed. That worthy sprang back  and asked what in the name of Bonsa, Big
+and Little, they were doing, whereon  the man explained with humility
+that the Asika had said that she thought the  white lord wanted the wood
+to make a box to bury his servant in, as he, the  said servant, had
+offended her that morning, and doubtless the white lord  wished to kill
+him on that account, or perhaps to put him away under ground  alive.
+
+“Oh, my golly!” said Jeekie, shaking till his great knees knocked
+together, “oh! my golly! here pretty go. She think you want bury me all
+alive. That mean she want to be rid of Jeekie, because he got sit there
+and  play gooseberry when she wish talk alone with you. Oh, yes! I see
+her little  game.”
+
+“Well, Jeekie,” said Alan, bursting into such a roar of laughter
+that he nearly shook off his mask, “you had better be careful, for you
+just told me that the Asika is not like a see-saw white woman and never
+changes  her mind. Say to this man that he must tell the Asika there is
+a mistake, and  that however much I should like to oblige her, I can’t
+bury you because  it has been prophesied to me that on the day you are
+buried, I shall be buried  also, and that therefore you must be kept
+alive.”  
+
+“Capital notion that, Major,” said Jeekie, much relieved.
+“She not want bury you just at present; next year perhaps, but not now.
+I  tell him.” And he did with much vigour.
+
+This slight misconception having been disposed of, they explained to the
+carpenters what was wanted. First, all the gold was emptied out of the
+sacks in  which it remained as the priests had brought it, and divided
+into heaps, each  of which weighed about forty pounds, a weight that
+with its box Alan considered  would be a good load for a porter. Of
+these heaps there proved to be  fifty-three, their total value, Alan
+reckoned, amounting to about £100,000  sterling. Then the carpenters
+were set to work to make a model box, which they  did quickly enough and
+with great ingenuity, cutting the wood with their native  saws,
+dovetailing it as a civilized craftsman would do, and finally securing
+it  everywhere with ebony pegs, driven into holes which they bored with
+a hot iron.  The result was a box that would stand any amount of rough
+usage and when  finally pegged down, one that could only be opened with
+a hammer and a cold  chisel.  
+
+This box-making went on for two whole days. As each of them was filled
+and  pegged down, the gold within being packed in sawdust to keep it
+from rattling,  Alan amused himself in adding an address with a feather
+brush and a supply of  red paint such as the Asiki priests used to
+decorate their bodies. At first he  was puzzled to know what address to
+put, but finally decided upon the following:  
+
+_Major A. Vernon, care of Miss Champers, The Court, near Kingswell,
+England._ Adding in the corner, _From A. V., Asiki Land, Africa._
+
+It was all childish enough, he knew, yet when it was done he regarded
+his  handiwork with a sort of satisfaction. For, reflected Alan, if but
+one of those  boxes should chance to get through to England, it would
+tell Barbara a great  deal, and if it were addressed to himself, her
+uncle could scarcely dare to  take possession of it.
+
+Then he bethought him of sending a letter, but was obliged to abandon
+the idea,  as he had neither pen, pencil, ink, nor paper left to him.
+Whatever arts  remained to them, that of any form of writing was now
+totally unknown to the  Asiki, although marks that might be writing, it
+will be remembered, did appear  on the inner side of the Little Bonsa
+mask, an evidence of its great antiquity.  Even in the days when they
+had wrapped up the Egyptian, the Roman, and other  early Munganas in
+sheets of gold and set them in their treasure-house,  apparently they
+had no knowledge of it, for not even an hieroglyph or a rune  appeared
+upon the imperishable metal shrouds. Since that time they had  evidently
+decreased, not advanced, in learning till at the present day, except 
+for these relics and some dim and meaningless survival of rites that
+once had  been religious and were still offered to the same ancient
+idols, there was  little to distinguish them from other tribes of
+Central African savages. Still  Alan did something, for obtaining a
+piece of white wood, which he smoothed as  well as he was able with a
+knife, he painted on it this message:    
+
+“Messrs. Aston, Old Calabar. Please forward accompanying fifty-three
+packages, or as many as arrive, and cable as follows (all costs will be
+remitted): Miss Champers, Kingswell, England. Prisoner among Asiki. No
+present  prospect of escape, but hope for best. Jeekie and I well.
+Allowed send this,  but perhaps no future message possible. Good-bye.
+Alan.”  
+
+As it happened just as Alan was finishing this scrawl with a sad heart,
+he  heard a movement and glancing up, perceived standing at his side the
+Asika, of  whom he had seen nothing since the interview when she had
+beaten Jeekie:  
+
+“What are those marks that you make upon the board, Vernoon?” she
+asked suspiciously.
+
+With the assistance of Jeekie, who kept at a respectful distance, he
+informed  her that they were a message in writing to tell the white men
+at the coast to  forward the gold to his starving family.
+
+“Oh!” she said, “I never heard of writing. You shall teach it
+me. It will serve to pass the time till we are married, though it will
+not be  of much use afterwards, as we shall never be separated any more
+and words are  better than marks upon a board. But,” she added
+cheerfully, “I can  send away this black dog of yours,” and she looked
+at Jeekie, “and  he can write to us. No, I cannot, for an accident might
+happen to him, and they  tell me you say that if he dies, you die also,
+so he must stop here always.  What have you in those little boxes?”
+
+“The gold you gave me, Asika, packed in loads.”
+
+“A small gift enough,” she answered contemptuously; “would
+you not like more, since you value that stuff? Well, another time you
+shall  send all you want. Meanwhile the porters are waiting, fifty men
+and three, as  you sent me word, and ten spare ones to take the place of
+any who die. But how  they will find their way, I know not, since none
+of them have ever been to the  coast.”
+
+An idea occurred to Alan, who had small faith in Jeekie’s
+“ma” as a messenger.
+
+“The Ogula prisoners could show them,” he said; “at any rate
+as far as the forest, and after that they could find out. May they not
+go,  Asika?”
+
+“If you will,” she answered carelessly. “Let them be ready to
+start to-morrow at the dawn, all except their chief, Fahni, who must
+stop here  as a hostage. I do not trust those Ogula, who more than once
+have threatened to  make war upon us,” she added, then turned and bade
+the priests bring in  the bearers to receive their instructions.
+
+Presently they came, picked men all of them, under the command of an
+Asiki  captain, and with them the Ogula, whom she summoned also.
+
+“Go where the white lord sends you,” she said in an indifferent
+voice, “carrying with you these packages. I do not know where it is, but
+these man-eaters will show you some of the way, and if you fail in the
+business  but live to come back again, you shall be sacrificed to Bonsa
+at the next  feast; if you run away then your wives and children will be
+sacrificed. Food  shall be given you for your journey, and gold to buy
+more when it is gone. Now,  Vernoon, tell them what they have to do.”
+
+So Alan, or rather Jeekie, told them, and these directions were so long
+and  minute, that before they were finished the Asika grew tired of
+listening and  went away, saying as she passed the captain of the
+company:  
+
+“Remember my words, man, succeed or die, but of your land and its
+secrets  say nothing.”
+
+“I hear,” answered the captain, prostrating himself.
+
+That night Alan summoned the Ogula and spoke to them through Jeekie in
+their  own language. At first they declared that they would not leave
+their chief,  preferring to stay and die with him.
+
+“Not so,” said Fahni; “go, my children, that I may live. Go
+and gather the tribe, all the thousands of them who are men and can
+fight, and  bring them up to attack Asiki-land, to rescue me if I still
+live, or to avenge  me if I am dead. As for these bearers, do them no
+harm, but send them on to the  coast with the white man’s goods.”
+
+So in the end the Ogula said that they would go, and when Alan woke up
+on the  following morning, he was informed that they and the Asiki
+porters had already  departed upon their journey. Then he dismissed the
+matter from his mind, for to  tell the truth he never expected to hear
+of them any more.  
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+ALAN FALLS ILL.
+
+
+After the departure of the messengers a deep melancholy fell upon Alan,
+who was  sure that he had now no further hope of communicating with the
+outside world.  Bitterly did he reproach himself for his folly in having
+ever journeyed to this  hateful place in order to secure—what? About
+£100,000 worth of gold which  of course he never could secure, as it
+would certainly vanish or be stolen on  its way to the coast. For this
+gold he had become involved in a dreadful  complication which must cost
+him much misery, and sooner or later life itself,  since he could not
+marry that beautiful savage Asika, and if he refused her she  would
+certainly kill him in her outraged pride and fury.  
+
+Day by day she sent for him, and when he came, assumed a new character,
+that of  a woman humbled by a sense of her own ignorance, which she was
+anxious to  amend. So he must play the role of tutor to her, telling her
+of civilized  peoples, their laws, customs and religions, and
+instructing her how to write  and read. She listened and learned
+submissively enough, but all the while Alan  felt as one might who is
+called upon to teach tricks to a drugged panther. The  drug in this case
+was her passion for him, which appeared to be very genuine.  But when it
+passed off, or when he was obliged to refuse her, what, he  wondered,
+would happen then?  
+
+Anxiety and confinement told on him far more than all the hardships of
+his  journey. His health ran down, he began to fall ill. Then as bad
+luck would have  it, walking in that damp, unwholesome cedar garden, out
+of which he might not  stray, he contracted the germ of some kind of
+fever which in autumn was very  common in this poisonous climate. Three
+days later he became delirious, and for  a week after that hung between
+life and death. Well was it for him that his  medicine-chest still
+remained intact, and that recognizing his own symptoms  before his head
+gave way, he was able to instruct Jeekie what drugs to give him  at the
+different stages of the disease.  
+
+For the rest his memories of that dreadful illness always remained very
+vague.  He had visions of Jeekie and of a robed woman whom he knew to be
+the Asika,  bending over him continually. Also it seemed to him that
+from time to time he  was talking with Barbara, which even then he knew
+must be absurd, for how could  they talk across thousands of miles of
+land and sea.  
+
+At length his mind cleared suddenly, and he awoke as from a nightmare to
+find  himself lying in the hall or room where he had always been,
+feeling quite cool  and without pain, but so weak that it was an effort
+to him to lift his hand. He  stared about him and was astonished to see
+the white head of Jeekie rolling  uneasily to and fro upon the cushions
+of another bed near by.  
+
+“Jeekie,” he said, “are you ill too, Jeekie?”
+
+At the sound of that voice his retainer started up violently.
+
+“What, Major, you awake?” he said. “Thanks be to all gods,
+white and black, yes, and yellow too, for I thought your goose cooked.
+No, no,  Major, I not ill, only Asika say so. You go to bed, so she make
+me go to bed.  You get worse, she treat me cruel; you seem better, she
+stuff me with food till  I burst. All because you tell her that you and
+I die same day. Oh, Lord! poor  Jeekie think his end very near just now,
+for he know quite well that she not  let him breathe ten minutes after
+you peg out. Jeekie never pray so hard for  anyone before as he pray
+this week for you, and by Jingo! I think he do the  trick, he and that
+medicine stuff which make him feel very bad in  stomach,” and he groaned
+under the weight of his many miseries.  
+
+Weak as he was Alan began to laugh, and that laugh seemed to do him more
+good  than anything that he could remember, for after it he was sure
+that he would  recover.
+
+Just then an agonized whisper reached him from Jeekie.
+
+“Look out!” it said, “here come Asika. Go sleep and seem
+better, Major, please, or I catch it hot.”
+
+So Alan almost shut his eyes and lay still. In another moment she was
+standing  over him and he noticed that her hair was dishevelled and her
+eyes were red as  though with weeping. She scanned him intently for a
+little while, then passed  round to where Jeekie lay, and appeared to
+pinch his ear so hard that he  wriggled and uttered a stifled groan.
+
+“How is your lord, dog?” she whispered.
+
+“Better, O Asika, I think that last medicine do us good, though it make
+me very sick inside. Just now he spoke to me and said that he hoped that
+your  heart was not sad because of him and that all this time in his
+dreams he had  seen and thought of nobody but you, O Asika.”
+
+“Did he?” asked that lady, becoming intensely interested.
+“Then tell me, dog, why is he ever calling upon one Bar-bar-a? Surely
+that is a woman’s name?”
+
+“Yes, O Asika, that is the name of his mother, also of one of his
+sisters, whom, after you, he loves best of anyone in the whole world.
+When you  are here he talks of them, but when you are not here he talks
+of no one but  you. Although he is so sick he remembers white man’s
+custom, which tells  him that it is very wrong to say sweet things to
+lady’s face till he is  quite married to her. After _that_ they say them
+always.”  
+
+She looked at him suspiciously and muttering, “Here it is otherwise. For
+your own sake, man, I trust that you do not lie,” left him, and drawing
+a  stool up beside Alan’s bed, sat herself down and examined him
+carefully,  touching his face and hands with her long thin fingers. Then
+noting how white  and wasted he was, of a sudden she began to weep,
+saying between her sobs:  
+
+“Oh! if you should die, Vernoon, I will die also and be born again not
+as  Asika, as I have been for so many generations, but as a white woman
+that I may  be with you. Only first,” she added, setting her teeth, “I
+will  sacrifice every wizard in this land, for they have brought the
+sickness on you  by their magic, and I will burn Bonsa Town and cast its
+gods to melt in the  flames, and the Mungana with them. And then amid
+their ashes I will let out my  life,” and again she began to weep very
+piteously and to call him by  endearing names and pray him that he would
+not die.  
+
+Now Alan thought it time to wake up. He opened his eyes, stared at her
+vacantly, and asked if it were raining, which indeed it might have been,
+for  her big tears were falling on his face. She uttered a gasp of joy.
+
+“No, no,” she answered, “the weather is very fine. It is
+I—I who have rained because I thought you die.” She wiped his
+forehead with the soft linen of her robe, then went on, “But you will
+not  die; say that you will live, say that you will live for me,
+Vernoon.”  
+
+He looked at her, and feeble though he was, the awfulness of the
+situation sank  into his soul.
+
+“I hope that I shall live,” he answered. “I am hungry, please
+give me some food.”
+
+Next instant there was a tumult near by, and when Alan looked up again
+it was  to see Jeekie, very lightly clad, risen from his bed of
+sympathetic sickness  and flying through the door.
+
+“It will be here presently,” she said. “Oh! if you knew what
+I have suffered, if you only knew. Now you will recover whom I thought
+dead,  for this fever passes quickly, and there shall be such a
+sacrifice—no, I  forgot, you hate sacrifices—there shall be no
+sacrifice, there shall be a  thanksgiving, and every woman in the land
+shall break her bonds to husband or  to lover and take him whom she
+desires without reproach or loss. I will do as I  would be done by, that
+is the law you taught me, is it not?”  
+
+This novel interpretation of a sacred doctrine, worthy of Jeekie
+himself, so  paralyzed Alan’s enfeebled brain that he could make no
+answer, nor do  anything except wonder what would happen in Asiki-land
+when the decree of its  priestess took effect. Then Jeekie arrived with
+something to drink which he  swallowed with the eagerness of the
+convalescent and almost immediately went to  sleep in good earnest.
+
+Alan’s recovery was rapid, since as the Asika had told him, if a patient
+lives through it, the kind of fever that he had taken did not last long
+enough  to exhaust his vital forces. When she asked him if he needed
+anything to make  him well, he answered:
+
+“Yes, air and exercise.”
+
+She replied that he should have both, and next morning his hated mask
+was put  upon his face and he was supported by priests to a door where a
+litter, or  rather litters were waiting, one for himself and another for
+Jeekie who,  although in robust health, was still supposed to be
+officially ill and not  allowed to walk upon his own legs. They entered
+these litters and were borne  off till presently they met a third litter
+of particularly gorgeous design  carried by masked bearers, wherein was
+the Asika herself, wearing her coronet  and a splendid robe.
+
+Into this litter, which was fitted with a second seat, Alan was
+transferred,  the Mungana, for whom it was designed, being placed in
+that vacated by Alan,  which either by accident or otherwise, was no
+more seen that day. They went up  the mountain side and to the edge of
+the great fall and watched the waters  thunder down, though the crest of
+them they could not reach. Next they wandered  off into the huge forests
+that clothed the slopes of the hills and there halted  and ate. Then as
+the sun sank they returned to the gloomy Bonsa Town beneath  them.
+
+For Alan, notwithstanding his weakness and anxieties, it was a heavenly
+day.  The Asika was passive, some new mood being on her, and scarcely
+troubled him at  all except to call his attention to a tree, a flower,
+or a prospect of the  scenery. Here on the mountain side, too, the air
+was sweet, and for the  rest—well, he who had been so near to death, was
+escaped for an hour from  that gloomy home of bloodshed and
+superstition, and saw God’s sky again.  
+
+This journey was the first of many. Every day the litters were waiting
+and they  visited some new place, although into the town itself they
+never went.  Moreover, if they passed through outlying villages, though
+Alan was forced to  wear his mask, their inhabitants had been warned to
+absent themselves, so that  they saw no one. The crops were left
+untended and the cattle and sheep lowed  hungrily in their kraals. On
+certain days, at Alan’s request, they were  taken to the spots where the
+gold was found in the gravel bed of an almost dry  stream that during
+the rains was a torrent.  
+
+He descended from the litter and with the help of the Asika and Jeekie,
+dug a  little in this gravel, not without reward, for in it they found
+several  nuggets. Above, too, where they went afterwards, was a huge
+quartz reef denuded  by water, which evidently had been worked in past
+ages and was still so rich  that in it they saw plenty of visible gold.
+Looking at it Alan bethought him of  his City days and of the hundreds
+of thousands of pounds capital with which  this unique proposition might
+have been floated. Afterwards they were carried  to the places where the
+gems were found, stuck about in the clay, like plums in  a pudding,
+though none ever sought them now. But all these things interested  the
+Asika not at all.  
+
+“What is the good of gold,” she asked of Alan, “except to
+make things of, or the bright stones except to play with? What is the
+good of  anything except food to eat and power and wisdom that can open
+the secret doors  of knowledge, of things seen and things unseen, and
+love that brings the lover  joy and forgetfulness of self and takes away
+the awful loneliness of the soul,  if only for a little while?”
+
+Not wishing to drift into discussion on the matter of love, Alan asked
+the  priestess to define her “soul,” whence it came and whither she
+believed it to be going.
+
+“My soul is I, Vernoon,” she answered, “and already very,
+very old. Thus it has ruled amongst this people for thousands of years.”
+
+“How is that?” he asked, “seeing that the Asika dies?”
+
+“Oh! no, Vernoon, she does not die; she only changes. The old body dies,
+the spirit enters into another body which is waiting. Thus until I was
+fourteen  I was but a common girl, the daughter of a headman of that
+village yonder, at  least so they tell me, for of this time I have no
+memory. Then the Asika died  and as I had the secret marks and the
+beauty that is hers the priests burnt her  body before Big Bonsa and
+suffocated me, the child, in the smoke of the  burning. But I awoke
+again and when I awoke the past was gone and the soul of  the Asika
+filled me, bringing with it its awful memories, its gathered wisdom, 
+its passion of love and hate, and its power to look backward and
+before.”    
+
+“Do you ever do these things?” asked Alan.
+
+“Backward, yes, before very little; since you came, not at all, because
+my heart is a coward and I fear what I might see. Oh! Vernoon, Vernoon,
+I know  you and your thoughts. You think me a beautiful beast who loves
+like a beast,  who loves you because you are white and different from
+our men. Well, what  there is of the beast in me the gods of my people
+gave, for they are devils and  I am their servant. But there is more
+than that, there is good also which I  have won for myself. I knew you
+would come even before I had seen your face, I  knew you would come,”
+she went on passionately, “and that is why I  was yours already. But
+what would befall after you came, that I neither knew,  nor know,
+because I will not seek, who could learn it all.”  
+
+He looked at her and she saw the doubt in his eyes.
+
+“You do not believe me, Vernoon. Very well, this night you shall see,
+you  and that black dog of yours, that you may know I do not trick you,
+and he shall  tell me what you see, for he being but a low-born pig will
+speak the truth, not  minding if it hurts me, whereas you are gentle and
+might spare, and myself I  have sworn not to search the future by an
+oath that I may not break.”  
+
+“What of the past?” asked Alan.
+
+“We will not waste time on it, for I know it all. Vernoon, have you no
+memories of Asiki-land? Do you think you never visited it before?”
+
+“Never,” said Alan; “it was my uncle who came and ran away
+with Little Bonsa on his head.”
+
+“That is news indeed,” she replied mockingly. “Did you then
+think that I believed it to be you, though it is true that she who went
+before,  or my spirit that was in her, fell into error for an hour, and
+thought that  fool-uncle of yours was _the Man_. When she found her
+mistake she let him  go, and bade the god go with him that it might
+bring back the appointed Man, as  it has done; yes, that Little Bonsa,
+who knew him of old, might search him out  from among all the millions
+of men, born or unborn, and bring him back to me.  Therefore also she
+chose a young black dog who would live for many years, and  bade the god
+to take him with her, and told him of the wealth of our people  that it
+might be a bait upon the hook. Do you see, Vernoon, that yellow dirt 
+was the bait, that I—I am the hook? Well, you have felt it before, so it
+ should not gall you overmuch.”  
+
+Now Alan was more frightened than he had been since he set foot in
+Asiki-land,  for of a sudden this woman became terrible to him. He felt
+that she knew things  which were hidden from him. For the first time he
+believed in her, believed,  that she was more than a mere passionate
+savage set by chance to rule over a  bloodthirsty tribe; that she was
+one who had a part in his destiny.  
+
+“Felt the hook?” he muttered. “I do not understand.”
+
+“You are very forgetful,” she answered. “Vernoon, we have
+lived and loved before, who were twin souls from the first. That man
+now, whom  I told you lived once on the great river called the Nile,
+have you no memory of  him? Well, well, let it be, I will tell you
+afterwards. Here we are at the Gold  House again, to-night when I am
+ready I will send for you, and this I promise,  you shall leave me wiser
+than you were.”  
+
+When they were alone in their room Alan told Jeekie of the expected
+entertainment of crystal gazing, or whatever it might be, and the part
+that he  was to play in it.
+
+“You say that again, Major,” said Jeekie.
+
+Alan repeated the information, giving every detail that he could
+remember.  
+
+“Oh!” said Jeekie, “I see Asika show us things, ’cause
+she afraid to look at them herself, or take oath, or can’t, or
+something.  She no ask you tell her what she see, because you too kind
+hurt her feeling, if  happen to be something beastly. But Jeekie just
+tell her because he so truthful  and not care curse about her feeling.
+Well, that all right, Jeekie tell her  sure enough. Only, Major, don’t
+you interrupt. Quite possible these magic  things, I see one show, you
+see another. So don’t you go say,  ‘Jeekie, that a lie,’ and give me
+away to Asika just because you  think you see different, ‘cause if so
+you put me into dirty hole, and of  course I catch it afterwards. You
+promise, Major?”  
+
+“Oh! yes, I promise. But, Jeekie, do you really think we are going to
+see  anything?”
+
+“Can’t say, Major,” and he shook his head gloomily.
+“P’raps all put up job. But lots of rum things in world, Major,
+specially among beastly African savage who very curious and always ready
+pay  blood to bad Spirit. Hope Asika not get this into her head, because
+no one know  what happen. P’raps we see too much and scared all our
+lives; but  p’raps all tommy rot.”
+
+“That’s it—tommy rot,” answered Alan, who was not
+superstitious. “Well, I suppose that we must go through with it. But oh!
+Jeekie, I wish you would tell me how to get out of this.”
+
+“Don’t know, Major, p’raps never get out; p’raps learn
+how to-night. Have to do something soon if want to go. Mungana’s time
+nearly up, and then—oh my eye!”
+
+It was night, about ten o’clock indeed, the hour at which Alan generally
+went to bed. No message had come and he began to hope that the Asika had
+forgotten, or changed her mind, and was just going to say so to Jeekie
+when a  light coming from behind him attracted his attention and he
+turned to see her  standing in a corner of the great room, holding a
+lamp in her hand and looking  towards him. Her gold breastplate and
+crown were gone, with every other  ornament, and she was clad, or rather
+muffled in robes of pure white fitted  with a kind of nun’s hood which
+lay back upon her shoulders. Also on her  arm she carried a shawl or
+veil. Standing thus, all undecked, with her long  hair fastened in a
+simple knot, she still looked very beautiful, more so than  she had ever
+been, thought Alan, for the cruelty of her face had faded and was 
+replaced by a mystery very strange to see. She did not seem quite like a
+ natural woman, and that was the reason, perhaps, that Alan for the
+first time  felt attracted by her. Hitherto she had always repelled him,
+but this night it  was otherwise.  
+
+“How did you come here?” he asked in a more gentle voice than he
+generally used towards her.
+
+Noting the change in his tone, she smiled shyly and even coloured a
+little,  then answered:
+
+“This house has many secrets, Vernoon. When you are lord of it you shall
+learn them all, till then I may not tell them to you. But, come, there
+are  other secrets which I hope you shall see to-night, and, Jeekie,
+come you also,  for you shall be the mouth of your lord, so that you may
+tell me what perhaps  he would hide.”
+
+“I will tell you everything, everything, O Asika,” answered Jeekie,
+stretching out his hands and bowing almost to the ground.
+
+Then they started and following many long passages as before, although
+whether  they were the same or others Alan could not tell, came at last
+to a door which  he recognized, that of the Treasure House. As they
+approached this door it  opened and through it, like a hunted thing, ran
+the bedizened Mungana, husband  of the Asika, terror, or madness,
+shining in his eyes. Catching sight of his  wife, who bore the lamp, he
+threw himself upon his knees and snatching at her  robe, addressed some
+petition to her, speaking so rapidly that Alan could not  follow his
+words.  
+
+For a moment she listened, then dragged her dress from his hand and
+spurned him  with her foot. There was something so cruel in the gesture
+and the action, so  full of deadly hate and loathing, that Alan, who
+witnessed it, experienced a  new revulsion of feeling towards the Asika.
+What kind of a woman must she be,  he wondered, who could treat a
+discarded lover thus in the presence of his  successor?
+
+With a groan or a sob, it was difficult to say which, the poor man rose
+and  perceived Alan, whose face he now beheld for the first time, since
+the Asika  had told him not to mask himself as they would meet no one.
+The sight of it  seemed to fill him with jealous fury; at any rate he
+leapt at his rival,  intending, apparently, to catch him by the throat.
+Alan, who was watching him,  stepped aside, so that he came into violent
+contact with the wall of the  passage and, half-stunned by the shock,
+reeled onwards into the darkness.  
+
+“The hog!” said the Asika, or rather she hissed it, “the hog,
+who dared to touch me and to strike at you. Well, his time is
+short—would  that I could make it shorter! Did you hear what he sought
+of me?”  
+
+Alan, who wished for no confidences, replied by asking what the Mungana
+was  doing in the Treasure House, to which she answered that the spirits
+who dwelt  there were eating up his soul, and when they had devoured it
+all he would go  quite mad and kill himself.
+
+“Does this happen to all Munganas?” inquired Alan.
+
+“Yes, Vernoon, if the Asika hates them, but if she loves them it is
+otherwise. Come, let us forget the wretch, who would kill you if he
+could,” and she led the way into the hall and up it, passing between the
+heaps of gold.
+
+On the table where lay the necklaces of gems she set down her lamp,
+whereof the  light, all there was in that great place, flickered feebly
+upon the mask of  Little Bonsa, which had been moved here apparently for
+some ceremonial purpose,  and still more feebly upon the hideous, golden
+countenances and winding sheets  of the ancient, yellow dead who stood
+around in scores placed one above the  other, each in his appointed
+niche. It was an awesome scene and one that  oppressed Jeekie very much,
+for he murmured to Alan:  
+
+“Oh my! Major, family vault child’s play to this hole, just
+like——” here his comparison came to an end, for the Asika cut
+it short with a single glance.
+
+“Sit here in front of me,” she said to Alan, “and you,
+Jeekie, sit at your lord’s side, and be silent till I bid you
+speak.”
+
+Then she crouched down in a heap behind them, threw the cloth or veil
+she  carried over her head, and in some way that they did not see,
+suddenly  extinguished the lamp.
+
+Now they were in deep darkness, the darkness of death, and in utter
+silence,  the silence of the dead. No glimmer of light, and yet to Alan
+it seemed as  though he could feel the flash of the crystal eyes of
+Little Bonsa, and of all  the other eyes set in the masks of those
+departed men who once had been the  husbands of the blood-stained
+priestess of the Asiki, till one by one, as she  wearied of them, they
+were bewitched to madness and to doom. In that utter  quiet he thought
+even that he could hear them stir within their winding sheets,  or it
+may have been that the Asika had risen and moved among them on some 
+errand of her own. Far away something fell to the floor, a very light
+object,  such as a flake of rock or a scale of gold. Yet the noise of it
+struck his  nerves loud as a clap of thunder, and those of Jeekie also,
+for he felt him  start at his side and heard the sudden hammerlike beat
+of his heart.    
+
+What was the woman doing in this dreadful place, he wondered. Well, it
+was easy  to guess. Doubtless she had brought them here to scare and
+impress them.  Presently a voice, that of some hidden priest, would
+speak to them, and they  would be asked to believe it a message from the
+spirit world, or a spirit  itself might be arranged—what could be easier
+in their mood and these  surroundings?
+
+Now the Asika was speaking behind them in a muffled voice. From the tone
+of it  she appeared to be engaged in argument or supplication in some
+strange tongue.  At any rate Alan could not understand a word of what
+she said. The argument, or  prayer, went on for a long while, with
+pauses as though for answers. Then  suddenly it ceased and once more
+they were plunged into that unfathomable  silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN.
+
+
+It seemed to Alan that he went to sleep and dreamed.
+
+He dreamed that it was late autumn in England. Leaves drifted down from
+the  trees beneath the breath of a strong, damp wind, and ran or floated
+along the  road till they vanished into a ditch, or caught against a
+pile of stones that  had been laid ready for its repair. He knew the
+road well enough; he even knew  the elm tree beneath which he seemed to
+stand on the crest of a hill. It was  that which ran from Mr.
+Champers-Haswell’s splendid house, The Court, to  the church; he could
+see them both, the house to the right, the church to the  left, and his
+eyesight seemed to have improved, since he was able to observe  that at
+either place there was bustle and preparation as though for some big 
+ceremony.  
+
+Now the big gates of The Court opened and through them came a funeral.
+It  advanced toward him with unnatural swiftness, as though it floated
+upon air,  the whole melancholy procession of it. In a few seconds it
+had come and gone  and yet during those seconds he suffered agony, for
+there arose in his mind a  horrible terror that this was Barbara’s
+burying. He could not have  endured it for another moment; he would have
+cried out or died, only now the  mourners passed him, following the
+coffin, and in the first carriage he saw  Barbara seated, looking sad
+and somewhat troubled, but well. A little further  down the line came
+another carriage, and in it was Sir Robert Aylward, staring  before him
+with cold, impassive face.  
+
+In his dream Alan thought to himself that he must have borrowed this
+carriage,  which would not be strange, as he generally used motors, for
+there was a  peer’s coronet upon the panels and the silver-mounted
+harness.  
+
+The funeral passed and suddenly vanished into the churchyard gates,
+leaving  Alan wondering why his cousin Haswell was not seated at
+Barbara’s side.  Then it occurred to him that it might be because he was
+in the coffin, and at  that moment in his dream he heard the Asika
+asking Jeekie what he saw; heard  Jeekie answering also, “A burying in
+the country called England.”  
+
+“Of whom, Jeekie?” Then after some hesitation, the answer:
+
+“Of a lady whom my lord loves very much. They bury her.”
+
+“What was her name, Jeekie?”
+
+“Her name was Barbara.”
+
+“Bar-bara, why that you told me was the name of his mother and his
+sister. Which of them is buried?”
+
+“Neither, O Asika. It was another lady who loved him very much and
+wanted  to marry him, and that was why he ran away to Africa. But now
+she is dead and  buried.”
+
+“Are all women in England called Bar-bara, Jeekie?”
+
+“Yes, O Asika, Barbara means woman.”
+
+“If your lord loved this Barbara, why then did he run away from her?
+Well, it matters not since she is dead and buried, for whatever their
+spirits  may feel, no man cares for a woman that is dead until she
+clothes herself in  flesh again. That was a good vision and I will
+reward you for it.”  
+
+“I have earned nothing, O Asika,” answered Jeekie modestly,
+“who only tell you what I see as I must. Yet, O Asika,” he added
+with a note of anxiety in his voice, “why do you not read these magic
+writings for yourself?”
+
+“Because I dare not, or rather because I can not,” she answered
+fiercely. “Be silent, slave, for now the power of the good broods upon
+my  soul.”
+
+The dream went on. A great forest appeared, such a forest as they had
+passed  before they met the cannibals, and set beneath one of the trees,
+a tent and in  that tent Barbara, Barbara weeping. Someone began to lift
+the flap of the tent.  She sprang up, snatching at a pistol that lay
+beside her, turning its muzzle  towards her breast. A man entered the
+tent. Alan saw his face, it was his own.  Barbara let fall the pistol
+and fell backwards as though a bullet from it had  pierced her heart. He
+leapt towards her, but before he came to where she lay  everything had
+vanished and he heard Jeekie droning out his lies to the Asika,  telling
+her that the vision he had seen was one of her and his master seated 
+with their arms about each other in a chamber of the Golden House.  
+
+A third time the dream descended on Alan like a cloud. It seemed to him
+that he  was borne beyond the flaming borders of the world. Everything
+around was new  and unfamiliar, vast, changing, lovely, terrible. He
+stood alone upon a pearly  plain and the sky above him was lit with red
+moons, many and many of them that  hung there like lamps. Spirits began
+to pass him. He could catch something of  their splendour as they sped
+by with incredible swiftness; he could hear the  music of their
+laughter. One rose up at his side. It was the Asika, only a  thousand
+times more splendid; clothed in all the glory of hell. Majestically  she
+bent towards him, her glowing eyes held his, the deadly perfume of her 
+breath beat upon his brow and made him drunken.  
+
+She spoke to him and her voice sounded like distant bells.
+
+“Through many a life, through many a life,” she said, “bought
+with much blood, paid for with a million tears, but mine at last, the
+soul that  I have won to comfort my soul in the eternal day. Come to the
+place I have made  ready for you, the hell that shall turn to heaven at
+your step, come, you by  whom I am redeemed, and drive away those gods
+that torture me because I was  their servant that I might win you.”
+
+So she spoke, and though all his soul revolted, yet the fearful strength
+that  was in her seemed to draw him onward whither she would go. Then a
+light shone,  and that light was the face of Barbara, and with a
+suddenness which was almost  awful, the wild dream came to an end.
+
+Alan was in his own room again, though how he got there he did not
+recollect.  
+
+“Jeekie,” he said, “what has happened? I seem to have had a
+very curious dream, there in the Treasure-place, and to have heard you
+telling  the Asika a string of incredible falsehoods.”
+
+“Oh! no, Major, Jeekie can’t lie, too good Christian; he tell her
+what _he_ see, or what he think she see if she look, ’cause though
+p’raps he see nothing, she never believe that. And,” he added with
+a burst of confidence, “what the dickens it matter what he tell her, so
+long as she swallow same and keep quiet? Nasty things always make women
+like  Asika quite outrageous. Give them sweet to suck, say Jeekie, and
+if they ill  afterwards, that no fault of his. They had sweet.”
+
+“Quite so, Jeekie, quite so, only I should advise you not to play too
+many tricks upon the Asika, lest she should happen to find you out. How
+did I  get back here?”
+
+“Like man that walk in his sleep, Major. She go first, you follow, just
+as little lamb after Mary in hymn.”
+
+“Jeekie, did you really see anything at all?”
+
+“No, Major, nothing partic’lar, except ghost of Mrs. Jeekie and of
+your reverend uncle, both of them very angry. That magic all stuff,
+Major.  Asika put something in your grub make you drunk, so that you
+think her very  wise. Don’t think of it no more, Major, or you go off
+your chump. If  Jeekie see nothing, depend on it there nothing to see.”
+
+“Perhaps so, Jeekie, but I wish I could be sure you had seen nothing.
+Listen to me; we must get out of this place somehow, or as you say, I
+shall go  off my chump. It’s haunted, Jeekie, it’s haunted, and I think
+that  Asika is a devil, not a woman.”
+
+“That what priests say, Major, very old devil—part of Bonsa,”
+he answered, looking at his master anxiously. “Well, don’t you
+fret, Jeekie not afraid of devils, Jeekie get you out in good time. Go
+to bed  and leave it all to Jeekie.”
+
+Fifteen more days had gone by, and it was the eve of the night of the
+second  full moon when Alan was destined to become the husband of the
+Asika. She had  sent for him that morning and he found her radiant with
+happiness. Whether or  no she believed Jeekie’s interpretation of the
+visions she had called up,  it seemed quite certain that her mind was
+void of fears and doubts. She was  sure that Alan was about to become
+her husband, and had summoned all the people  of the Asiki to be present
+at the ceremony of their marriage, and incidentally  of the death of the
+Mungana who, poor wretch, was to be forced to kill himself  upon that
+occasion.  
+
+Before they parted she had spoken to Alan sweetly enough.
+
+“Vernoon,” she said, “I know that you do not love me as I
+love you, but the love will come, since for your sake I will change
+myself. I  will grow gentle; I will shed no more blood; that of the
+Mungana shall be the  last, and even him I would spare if I could, only
+while he lives I may not  marry you; it is the one law that is stronger
+than I am, and if I broke it I  and you would die at once. You shall
+even teach me your faith, if you will, for  what is good to you is
+henceforth good to me. Ask what you wish of me, and as  an earnest I
+will do it if I can.”  
+
+Now Alan looked at her. There was one thing that he wished above all
+others—that she would let him go. But this he did not dare to ask;
+moreover, it would have been utterly useless. After all, if the Asika’s
+love was terrible, what would be the appearance of her outraged hate?
+What  could he ask? More gold? He hated the very name of the stuff, for
+it had  brought him here. He remembered the old cannibal chief, Fahni,
+who, like  himself, languished a prisoner, daily expecting death. Only
+that morning he had  implored him to obtain his liberty.
+
+“I thank you, Asika,” he said. “Now, if your words are true,
+set Fahni free and let him return to his own country, for if he stays
+here he  will die.”
+
+“Surely, Vernoon, that is a small thing,” she answered, smiling,
+“though it is true that when he gets there he will probably make war
+upon  us. Well, let him, let him.” Then she clapped her hands and
+summoned  priests, whom she bade go at once and conduct Fahni out of
+Bonsa Town. Also she  bade them loose certain slaves who were of the
+Ogula tribe, that they might  accompany him laden with provisions, and
+send on orders to the outposts that  Fahni and his party should be
+furnished with a canoe and pass unmolested from  the land.
+
+This done, she began to talk to Alan about many matters, however little
+he  might answer her. Indeed it seemed almost as though she feared to
+let him leave  her side; as though some presentiment of loss oppressed
+her.  
+
+At length, to Alan’s great relief, the time came when they must part,
+since it was necessary for her to attend a secret ceremony of
+preparation or  purification that was called “Putting-off-the-Past.”
+Although she  had been thrice summoned, still she would not let him go.
+
+“They call you, Asika,” said Alan.
+
+“Yes, yes, they call me,” she replied, springing up. “Leave
+me, Vernoon, till we meet to-morrow to part no more. Oh! why is my heart
+so  heavy in me? That black dog of yours read the visions that I
+summoned but might  not look on, and they were good visions. They showed
+that the woman who loved  you is dead; they showed us wedded, and other
+deeper things. Surely he would  not dare to lie to me, knowing that if
+he did I would flay him living and throw  him to the vultures. Why,
+then, is my heart so heavy in me? Would you escape  me, Vernoon? Nay,
+you are not so cruel, nor could you do it except by death.  Moreover,
+man, know that even in death you cannot escape me, for there be sure  I
+shall follow you and claim you, to whose side my spirit has toiled for
+ages,  and what is there so strong that it can snatch you from my hand?”
+   
+
+She looked at him a moment, then of a sudden burst into a flood of
+tears, and,  seizing his hand threw herself upon her knees and kissed it
+again and again.  
+
+“Go now,” she said, “go, and let my love go with you, through
+lives and deaths, and all the dreams beyond, oh! let my love go with
+you, as it  shall, Vernoon.”
+
+So he went, leaving her weeping on her knees.
+
+During the dark hours that followed Alan and madness were not far apart.
+What  could he do? Escape was utterly impossible. For weeks he and
+Jeekie had  considered it in vain. Even if they could win out of the
+Gold House fortress,  what hope had they of making their way through the
+crowded, tortuous town  where, after the African fashion, peopled walked
+about all night, every one of  whom would recognize the white man,
+whether he were masked or no? Besides,  beyond the town were the river
+and the guarded walls and gates and beyond them  open country where they
+would be cut off or run down. No, to attempt escape was  suicide.
+Suicide! That gave him an idea, why should he not kill himself? It 
+would be easy enough, for he still had his revolver and a few
+cartridges, and  surely it was better than to enter on such a life as
+awaited him as the  plaything of a priestess of a tribe of
+fetish-worshipping savages.    
+
+But if he killed himself, how about Barbara and how about poor old
+Jeekie, who  would certainly be killed also? Besides, it was not the
+right thing to do, and  while there is life there is always hope.
+
+Alan paused in his walk up and down the room and looked at Jeekie, who
+sat upon  the floor with his back resting against the stone altar,
+reflectively pulling  down his thick under-lip and letting it fly back,
+negro-fashion.  
+
+“Jeekie,” he said, “time’s up. What am I to do?”
+
+“Do, Major?” he replied with affected cheerfulness. “Oh! that
+quite simple. Jeekie arrange everything. You marry Asika and by and by,
+when  you master here and tired of her, you give her slip. Very
+interesting  experience; no white man ever have such luck before. Asika
+not half bad,  _if_ she fond of you; she like little girl in song, when
+she good, she  very, very good. At any rate, nothing else to do. Marry
+Asika or spiflicate,  which mean, Major, that Jeekie spiflicate too,
+and,” he added, shaking  his white head sadly, “he no like _that_. One
+or two little things  on his mind that no get time to square up yet.
+Daren’t pray like  Christian here, ’cause afraid of Bonsas, and Bonsas
+come even with him by  and by, ’cause he been Christian, so poor Jeekie
+fall down bump between  two stools. ’Postles kick him out of heaven and
+Bonsas kick him out of  hell, and where Jeekie go to then?”
+
+“Don’t know, I am sure,” answered Alan, smiling a little in
+spite of his sorrow, “but I think the Bonsas might find a corner for you
+somewhere. Look here, Jeekie, you old scamp, I am sorry for you, for you
+have  been a good friend to me and we are fond of each other. But just
+understand  this, I am not going to marry that woman if I can help it.
+It’s against  my principles. So I shall wait till to-morrow and then I
+shall walk out of this  place. If the guards try to stop me I shall
+shoot them while I have any  cartridges. Then I shall go on until they
+kill me.”  
+
+“Oh! But Major, they not kill you—never; they chuck blanket over
+your head and take you back to Asika. It Jeekie they kill, skin him
+alive-o,  and all the rest of it.”
+
+“Hope not, Jeekie, because they think we shall die the same day. But if
+so, I can’t help it. To-morrow morning I shall walk out, and now
+that’s settled. I am tired and going to sleep,” and he threw
+himself down upon the bed and, being worn out with weariness and
+anxiety, soon  fell fast asleep.
+
+But Jeekie did not sleep, although he too lay down upon his bed. On the
+contrary, he remained wide awake and reflected, more deeply perhaps than
+he had  ever done before, being sure the superstition as to the
+dependence of  Alan’s life upon his own was now worn very thin, and that
+his hour was at  hand. He thought of making Alan’s wild attempt to
+depart impossible by  the simple method of warning the Asika, but,
+notwithstanding his native  selfishness, was too loyal to let that idea
+take root in his mind. No, there  was nothing to be done; if the Major
+wished to start, the Major must start, and  he, Jeekie, must pay the
+price. Well, he deserved it, who had been fool enough  to listen to the
+secret promptings of Little Bonsa and conduct him to  Asiki-land.
+
+Thus he passed several hours, for the most part in melancholy
+speculations as  to the exact fashion of his end, until at length
+weariness overcame him also  and, shutting his eyes, Jeekie began to
+doze. Suddenly he grew aware of the  presence of some other person in
+the room, but thinking that it was only the  Asika prowling about in her
+uncanny fashion, or perhaps her spirit, for how her  body entered the
+place he could not guess, he did not stir, but lay breathing  heavily
+and watching out of the corner of his eye.  
+
+Presently a figure emerged from the shadows into the faint light thrown
+by the  single lamp that burned above, and though it was wrapped in a
+dark cloak,  Jeekie knew at once that it was not the Asika. Very
+stealthily the figure crept  towards him, as a leopard might creep, and
+bent down to examine him. The  movement caused the cloak to slip a
+little, and for an instant Jeekie caught  sight of the wasted,
+half-crazed face of the Mungana, and of a long, curved  knife that
+glittered in his hand. Paralyzed with fear, he lay quite still,  knowing
+that should he show the slightest sign of consciousness that knife 
+would pierce his heart.  
+
+The Mungana watched him a while, then satisfied that he slept, turned
+round  and, bending himself almost double, glided with infinite
+precautions towards  Alan’s bed, which stood some twelve or fourteen
+feet away. Silently as a  snake that uncoils itself, Jeekie slipped from
+between his blankets and crept  after him, his naked feet making no
+noise upon the mat-strewn floor. So intent  was the Mungana upon the
+deed which he had come to do that he never looked  back, and thus it
+happened that the two of them reached the bed one immediately  behind
+the other.  
+
+Alan was lying on his back with his throat exposed, a very easy victim.
+For a  moment the Mungana stared. Then he erected himself like a snake
+about to  strike, and lifted the great curved knife, taking aim at
+Alan’s naked  breast. Jeekie erected himself also, and even as the knife
+began to fall, with  one hand he caught the arm that drove it and with
+the other the  murderer’s throat. The Mungana fought like a wild-cat,
+but Jeekie was too  strong for him. His fingers held the man’s windpipe
+like a vise. He  choked and weakened; the knife fell from his hand. He
+sank to the ground and  lay there helpless, whereon Jeekie knelt upon
+his chest and, possessing himself  of the knife, held it within an inch
+of his heart.  
+
+It was at this juncture that Alan woke up and asked sleepily what was
+the  matter.
+
+“Nothing, Major,” answered Jeekie in low and cheerful tones.
+“Snake just going to bite you and I catch him, that all,” and he
+gave an extra squeeze to the Mungana’s throat, who turned black in the
+face and rolled his eyes.
+
+“Be careful, Jeekie, or you will kill the man,” exclaimed Alan,
+recognizing the Mungana and taking in the situation.
+
+“Why not, Major? He want kill you, and me too afterwards. Good riddance
+of bad rubbish, as Book say.”
+
+“I am not so sure, Jeekie. Give him air and let me think. Tell him that
+if he makes any noise, he dies.”
+
+Jeekie obeyed, and the Mungana’s darkening eyes grew bright again as he
+drew his breath in great sobs.
+
+“Now, friend,” said Alan in Asiki, “why did you wish to stab
+me?”
+
+“Because I hate you,” answered the man, “who to-morrow will
+take my place and the wife I love.”
+
+“As a year or two ago you took someone else’s place, eh? Well,
+suppose now that I don’t want either your place or your wife.”
+
+“What would that matter even it if were true, white man, since she wants
+you?”
+
+“I am thinking, friend, that there is someone else she will want when
+she  hears of this. How do you suppose that you will die to-morrow? Not
+so easily as  you hope, perhaps.”
+
+The Mungana’s eyes seemed to sink into his head, and his face to sicken
+with terror. That shaft had gone home.
+
+“Suppose I make a bargain with you,” went on Alan slowly.
+“Supposing I say: ‘Mungana, show me the way out of this place, as
+you can, now at once. Or if you prefer it, refuse and be given up to the
+Asika?’ Come, you are not too mad to understand. Answer—and
+quickly.”
+
+“Would you kill me afterwards?” he asked.
+
+“Not I. Why should I wish to kill you? You can come with us and go where
+you will. Or you can stay here and die as the Asika directs.”
+
+“I cannot believe you, white man. It is not possible that you should
+wish  to run away from so much love and glory, or to spare one who would
+have slain  you. Also it would be difficult to get you out of Bonsa
+Town.”  
+
+“Jeekie,” said Alan, “this fellow is mad after all, I think
+you had better go to the door and shout for the priests.”
+
+“No, no, lord,” begged the wretched creature, “I will trust
+you; I will try, though it is you who must be mad.”
+
+“Very good. Stand over him, Jeekie, while I put on my things and, yes,
+give me that mask. If he stirs, kill him at once.”
+
+So Alan made himself ready. Then he mounted guard over the Mungana, as
+did  Jeekie, although he shook his head over their prospect of escape.
+
+“No go,” he muttered, “no go! If we get past priests, Asika
+catch us with her magic. When I bolt with your reverend uncle last time,
+Little  Bonsa arrange business because she go abroad fetch you. Now
+likely as not she  bowl you out, and then good-bye Jeekie.”
+
+Alan sternly bade him be quiet and stop behind if he did not wish to
+come.  
+
+“No, no, Major,” he answered, “I come all right. Asika very
+prejudiced beggar, and if she find me here alone—oh my! Better die
+double  after all, Two’s company, Major. Now, all ready, _March!_” and
+he gave the unfortunate Mungana a fearful kick as a hint to proceed,
+adding  reflectively “Everything come square in end, Major. You ’member
+once  this chap bump Jeekie’s head at feast of Little Bonsa. Well, now I
+bump  his tail,” and he kicked him again.
+
+So utterly crushed was the poor wretch that even this insult did not
+stir him  to resentment.
+
+“Follow me, white man,” he said, “and if you desire to live,
+be silent. Throw your cloaks about your heads.”
+
+They did so, and holding their revolvers in their right hands, glided
+after the  Mungana. In the corner of the big room they came to a little
+stair. How it  opened in that place where no stair had been, they could
+not see or even guess,  for it was too dark, only now they knew the
+means by which the Asika had been  able to visit them at night.
+
+The Mungana went first down the stair. Jeekie followed, grasping him by
+the arm  with one hand, while in the other he kept his own knife ready
+to stab him at  the first sign of treachery. Alan brought up the rear,
+keeping hold of  Jeekie’s cloak. They passed down twelve steps of stair,
+then turned to  the right along a tunnel, then to the left, then to the
+right again. In the  pitch darkness it was an awful journey, since they
+knew not whither they were  being led, and expected that every moment
+would be their last. At length, quite  of a sudden, they emerged into
+moonlight.  
+
+Alan looked about him and knew the place. It was where the feast had
+been held  two months before, when the priests were poisoned and the
+Bonsas chose the  victims for sacrifice. Already it was prepared for the
+great festival of  to-morrow, when the Mungana should drown himself and
+Alan be married to the  Asika. There on the daïs were the gold chairs in
+which they were to sit, and  green branches of trees mixed with curious
+flags decked the vast amphitheatre  beyond. Moreover, there was the
+broad canal, and floating in the midst of it  the hideous gold fetish,
+Big Bonsa. The moon shone on its glaring, deathly  eyes, its fish-like
+snout and its huge, pale teeth. Alan looked at it and  shivered, for the
+thing was horrid and uncanny, and the utter loneliness in  which it lay
+staring up at the moon, seemed to accentuate the horror.  
+
+The Mungana noticed his fear and whispered:
+
+“We must swim the water. If you have a god, white man, pray him to
+protect you from Bonsa.”
+
+“Lead on,” answered Alan, “I do not dread a foul fetish, only
+the look of it. But is there no way round?”
+
+The Mungana shook his head and began to enter the canal. Jeekie, whose
+teeth  were chattering, hung back, but Alan pushed him from behind, so
+sharply that he  stumbled and made a splash. Then Alan followed, and as
+the cold, black water  rose to his chest, looked again at Big Bonsa.
+
+It seemed to him that the thing had turned round and was staring at
+them.  Surely a few seconds ago its snout pointed the other way. No,
+that must be  fancy. He was swimming now, they were all swimming, Alan
+and Jeekie holding  their pistols and little stock of cartridges above
+their heads to keep them  dry. The gold head of Big Bonsa appeared to be
+lifting itself up in the water,  as a reptile might, in order to get a
+better view of these proceedings, but  doubtless it was the ripples that
+they caused which gave it this appearance.  Only why did the ripples
+make it come towards them, quite gently, like an  investigating fish?
+
+It was about ten yards off and they were in the middle of the canal. The
+Mungana had passed it. It was in a line with Alan’s head. Oh Heavens! a
+sudden smother of foam, a rush like that of a torpedo, and set low down
+between  two curving waves, a flash of gold. Then a gurgling, inhuman
+laugh and a weight  upon his back. Down went Alan, down and down!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE END OF THE MUNGANA.
+
+
+The moonlight above vanished. Alan was alone in the depths with this
+devil, or  whatever it might be. He could feel hands and feet gripping
+and treading on  him, but they did not seem to be human, for there were
+too many of them. Also  they were very cold. He gave himself up for dead
+and thought of Barbara.  
+
+Then something flashed into his mind. In his hand he still held the
+revolver.  He pressed it upwards against the thing that was smothering
+him, and pulled the  trigger. Again he pulled it, and again, for it was
+a self-cocking weapon, and  even there deep down in the water he heard
+the thud of the explosion of the  damp-proof copper cartridges. His
+lungs were bursting, his senses reeled, only  enough of them remained to
+tell him that he was free of that strangling grip  and floating upwards.
+His head rose above the surface, and through the mouth of  his mask he
+drew in the sweet air with quick gasps. Down below him in the clear 
+water he saw the yellow head of Big Bonsa rocking and quivering like a
+great  reflected moon, saw too that it was beginning to rise. Yet he
+could not swim  away from it, the fetish seemed to have hypnotized him.
+He heard Jeekie calling  to him from the shallow water near the further
+bank, but still he floated there  like a log and stared down at Big
+Bonsa wallowing beneath.    
+
+Jeekie plunged back into the canal and with a few strong strokes reached
+him,  gripped him by the arm and began to tow him to the shore. Before
+they came  there Big Bonsa rose like a huge fish and tried to follow
+them, but could not,  or so it seemed. At any rate it only whirled round
+and round upon the surface,  while from it poured a white fluid that
+turned the black water to the hue of  milk. Then it began to scream,
+making a thin and dreadful sound more like that  of an infant in pain
+than anything they had ever heard, a very sickening sound  that Alan
+never could forget. He staggered to the bank and stood staring at it 
+where it bled, rolled and shrieked, but because of the milky foam could
+make  nothing out in that light.  
+
+“What is it, Jeekie?” he said with an idiotic laugh. “What is
+it?”
+
+“Oh! don’t know. Devil and all, perhaps. Come on, Major, before it
+catch us.”
+
+“I don’t think it will catch anyone just at present. Devil or not
+hollow-nosed bullets don’t agree with it. Shall I give it another,
+Jeekie?” and he lifted the pistol.
+
+“No, no, Major, don’t play tomfool,” and Jeekie grabbed him
+by the arm and dragged him away.
+
+A few paces further on stood the Mungana like a man transfixed, and even
+then  Alan noticed that he regarded him with something akin to awe.
+
+“Stronger than the god,” he muttered, “stronger than the
+god,” and bounded forward.
+
+Following the path that ran beside the canal, they plunged into a
+tunnel,  holding each other as before. In a few minutes they were
+through it and in a  place full of cedar trees outside the wall of the
+Gold House, under which  evidently the tunnel passed, for there it rose
+behind them. Beneath these cedar  trees they flitted like ghosts, now in
+the moonlight and now in the shadow.  
+
+The great fall to the back of the town was on their left, and in front
+of them  lay one of the arms of the river, at this spot a raging torrent
+not much more  than a hundred feet in width, spanned by a narrow
+suspension bridge which  seemed to be supported by two fibre ropes. On
+the hither side of this bridge  stood a guard hut, and to their dismay
+out of this hut ran three men armed with  spears, evidently to cut them
+off. One of these men sped across the bridge and  took his stand at the
+further end, while the other two posted themselves in  their path at the
+entrance to it.  
+
+The Mungana slacked his speed and said one word—“Finished!”
+and Jeekie also hesitated, then turned and pointed behind them.
+
+Alan looked back and flitting in and out between the cedar trees, saw
+the white  robes of the priests of Bonsa. Then despair seized them all,
+and they rushed at  the bridge. Jeekie reached it first and dodging
+beneath the spears of the two  guards, plunged his knife into the breast
+of one of them, and butted the other  with his great head, so that he
+fell over the side of the bridge on to the  rocks below.
+
+“Cut, Major, cut!” he said to Alan, who pushed past him. “All
+right now.”
+
+They were on the narrow swaying bridge—it was but a single
+plank—Alan first, then the Mungana, then Jeekie. When they were half way
+across Alan looked before him and saw a sight he could never forget.
+
+The third guard at the further side was sawing through one of the fibre
+ropes  with his spear. There they were on the middle of the bridge with
+the torrent  raving fifty feet beneath them, and the man had nearly
+severed the rope! To get  over before it parted was impossible; behind
+were the priests; beneath the  roaring river. All three of them stopped
+as though paralyzed, for all three had  seen. Something struck against
+Alan’s leg, it was his pistol that still  remained fastened to his wrist
+by its leather thong. He cocked and lifted it,  took aim and fired. The
+shot missed, which was not wonderful considering the  light and the
+platform on which the shooter stood. It missed, but the man, 
+astonished, for he had never seen or heard such a thing before, stopped
+his  sawing for a moment, and stared at them. Then as he began again
+Alan fired once  more, and this time by good fortune the bullet struck
+the man somewhere in the  body. He fell, and as he fell grasped the
+nearly separated rope and hung to it.    
+
+“Get hold of the other rope and come on,” yelled Alan, and once
+more they bounded forward.
+
+“My God! it’s going!” he yelled again. “Hold fast,
+Jeekie, hold fast!”
+
+Next instant the rope parted and the man vanished. The bridge tipped
+over, and  supported by the remaining rope, hung edgeways up. To this
+rope the three of  them clung desperately, resting their feet upon the
+edge of the swaying plank.  For a few seconds they remained thus, afraid
+to stir, then Jeekie called out:  
+
+“Climb on, Major, climb on like one monkey. Look bad, but quite safe
+really.”
+
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan began to climb, shifting his
+feet  along the plank edge and his hands along the rope, which creaked
+and stretched  beneath their threefold weight.
+
+It was a horrible journey, and in his imagination took at least an hour.
+Yet  they accomplished it, for at last they found themselves huddled
+together but  safe upon the further bank. The sweat pouring down from
+his head almost blinded  Alan; a deadly nausea worked within him, sickly
+tremors shot up and down his  spine; his brain swam. Yet he could hear
+Jeekie, in whom excitement always took  the form of speech, saying
+loudly:  
+
+“Think that man no liar what say our great papas was monkeys. Never look
+down on monkey no more. Wake up, Major, those priests monkey-men too,
+for we  all brothers, you know. Wait a bit, I stop their little game,”
+and  springing up with three or four cuts of the big curved knife, he
+severed the  remaining rope just as their pursuers reached the further
+side of the chasm.  
+
+They shouted with rage as the long bridge swung back against the rock,
+the cut  end of it falling into the torrent, and waved their spears
+threateningly. To  this demonstration Jeekie replied with gestures of
+contempt such as are known  to street Arabs. Then he looked at the
+Mungana, who lay upon the ground a  melancholy and dilapidated
+spectacle, for the perspiration had washed lines of  paint off his face
+and patches of dye from his hair, also his gorgeous robes  were
+water-stained and his gem necklaces broken. Having studied him a while 
+Jeekie kicked him meditatively till he got up, then asked him to set out
+the  exact situation. The Mungana answered that they were safe for a
+while, since  that torrent could only be crossed by the broken bridge
+and was too rapid to  swim. The Asiki, he added, must go a long journey
+round through the city in  order to come at them, though doubtless they
+would hunt them down in time.    
+
+Here Jeekie cut him short, since he knew all that country well and only
+wished  to learn whether any more bridges had been built across the
+torrent since he  was a boy.
+
+“Now, Major,” he said, “you get up and follow me, for I know
+every inch of ground, also by and by good short cut over mountains. You
+see  Jeekie very clever boy, and when he herd sheep and goat he made
+note of  everything and never forget nothing. He pull you out of this
+hole, never  fear.”
+
+“Glad to hear it, I am sure,” answered Alan as he rose. “But
+what’s to become of the Mungana?”
+
+“Don’t know and don’t care,” said Jeekie; “no
+more good to us. Can go and see how Big Bonsa feel, if he like,” and
+stretching out his big hand as though in a moment of abstraction, he
+removed  the costly necklaces from their guide’s neck and thrust them
+into the  pouch he wore. Also he picked up the gilded linen mask which
+Alan had removed  from his head and placed it in the same receptacle,
+remarking, that he  “always taught that it wicked to waste anything when
+so many poor in the  world.”
+
+Then they started, the Mungana following them. Jeekie paused and waved
+him off,  but the poor wretch still came on, whereon Jeekie produced the
+big, crooked  knife, Mungana’s own knife.
+
+“What are you going to do?” said Alan, awaking to the situation.
+
+“Cut off head of that cocktail man, Major, and so save him lot of
+trouble. Also we got no grub, and if we find any he want eat a lot. Chop
+what  do for two p’raps, make very short commons for three. Also he
+might play  dirty trick, so much best dead.”
+
+“Nonsense,” said Alan sternly; “let the poor devil come along
+if he likes. One good turn deserves another.”
+
+“Just so, Major; that hello-swello want cut our throats, so I want cut
+his—one good turn deserve another, as wise king say in Book, when he
+give  half baby to woman what wouldn’t have it. Well, so be, Major,
+specially  as it no matter, for he not stop with us long.”
+
+“You mean that he will run away, Jeekie?”
+
+“Oh! no, he not run away, he in too blue funk for that. But something
+run  away with him, because he ought die to-morrow night. Oh! yes, you
+see, you see,  and Jeekie hope that something not run away with you too,
+Major, because you  ought be married at same time.”
+
+“Hope not, I am sure,” answered Alan, and bethinking him of Big
+Bonsa wallowing and screaming on the water and bleeding out white blood,
+he  shivered a little.
+
+By this time, advancing at a trot, the Mungana running after them like a
+dog,  they had entered the bush pierced with a few wandering paths.
+Along these paths  they sped for hour after hour, Jeekie leading them
+without a moment’s  hesitation. They met no man and heard nothing,
+except occasional weird sounds  which Alan put down to wild beasts, but
+Jeekie and the Mungana said were  produced by ghosts. Indeed it appeared
+that all this jungle was supposed to be  haunted, and no Asiki would
+enter it at night, or unless he were very bold and  protected by many
+charms, by day either. Therefore it was an excellent place  for
+fugitives who sorely needed a good start.  
+
+At length the day began to dawn just as they reached the main road where
+it  crossed the hills, whence on his journey thither Alan had his first
+view of  Bonsa Town. Peering from the edge of the bush, they perceived a
+fire burning  near the road and round it five or six men, who seemed to
+be asleep. Their  first thought was to avoid them, but the Mungana,
+creeping up to Alan, for  Jeekie he would not approach, whispered:
+
+“Not Asiki, Ogula chief and slaves who left Bonsa Town yesterday.”
+
+They crept nearer the fire and saw that this was so. Then rejoicing
+exceedingly, they awoke the old chief, Fahni, who at first thought they
+must be  spirits. But when he recognized Alan, he flung himself on his
+knees and kissed  his hand, because to him he owed his liberty.
+
+“No time for all that, Fahni,” said Alan. “Give us
+food.”
+
+Now of this as it chanced there was plenty, since by the Asika’s orders
+the slaves had been laden with as much as they could carry. They ate of
+it  ravenously, and while they ate, told Fahni something of the story of
+their  escape. The old chief listened amazed, but like Jeekie asked Alan
+why he had  not killed the Mungana, who would have killed him.
+
+Alan, who was in no mood for long explanations, answered that he had
+kept him  with them because he might be useful.
+
+“Yes, yes, friend, I see,” exclaimed the old cannibal,
+“although he is so thin he will always make a meal or two at a pinch.
+Truly white men are wise and provident. Like the ants, you take thought
+for the  morrow.”
+
+As soon as they had swallowed their food they started all together, for
+although Alan pointed out to Fahni that he might be safer apart, the old
+chief  who had a real affection for him, would not be persuaded to leave
+him.  
+
+“Let us live or die together,” he said.
+
+Now Jeekie, abandoning the main road, led them up a stream, walking in
+the  water so that their footsteps might leave no trace, and thus away
+into the  barren mountains which rose between them and the great swamp.
+On the crest of  these mountains Alan turned and looked back towards
+Bonsa Town. There far  across the fertile valley was the hateful,
+river-encircled place. There fell  the great cataract in the roar of
+which he had lived for so many weeks. There  were the black cedars and
+there gleamed the roofs of the Gold House, his prison  where dwelt the
+Asika and the dreadful fetishes of which she was the priestess.  To him
+it was like the vision of a nightmare, he could scarcely think it real. 
+And yet by this time doubtless they sought him far and wide. What mood,
+he  wondered, would the Asika be in when she learned of his escape and
+the fashion  of it, and how would she greet him if he were recaptured
+and taken back to her?  Well, he would not be recaptured. He had still
+some cartridges and he would  fight till they killed him, or failing
+that, save the last of them for himself.  Never, never could he endure
+to be dragged back to Bonsa Town there to live and  die.  
+
+They went on across the mountains, till in the afternoon once more they
+saw the  road running beneath them like a ribbon, and at the end of it
+the lagoon. Now  they rested a while and held a consultation while they
+ate. Across that lagoon  they could not escape without a canoe.
+
+“Lord,” said the Mungana presently, “yesterday when these
+cannibals were let go a swift runner was sent forward, commanding that a
+good  boat should be provisioned and made ready for them, and by now
+doubtless this  has been done. Let them descend to the road, walk on to
+the bay and ask for the  boat. Look, yonder, far away a tongue of land
+covered with trees juts out into  the lake. We will make our way thither
+and after nightfall this chief can row  back to it and take us into the
+canoe.”  
+
+Alan said that the plan was good, but Jeekie shook his head, asking what
+would  happen if Fahni, finding himself safe upon the water, thought it
+wisest not to  come to fetch them.
+
+Alan translated his words to the old chief, whereon Fahni wanted to
+fight  Jeekie because of the slur that he had cast upon his honour. This
+challenge  Jeekie resolutely declined, saying that already there were
+plenty of ways to  die in Asiki-land without adding another to them.
+Then Fahni swore by his  tribal god and by the spirit of every man he
+had ever eaten, that he would come  to that promontory after dark, if he
+were still alive.  
+
+So they separated, Fahni and his men slipping down to the road, which
+they did  without being seen by anyone, while Alan, Jeekie and the
+Mungana bore away to  the right towards the promontory. The road was
+long and rough and, though by  good fortune they met no one, since the
+few who dwelt in these wild parts had  gone up to Bonsa Town to be
+present at the great feast, the sun was sinking  before ever they
+reached the place. Moreover, this promontory proved to be  covered with
+dense thorn scrub, through which they must force a way in the  gathering
+darkness, not without hurt and difficulty. Still they accomplished it 
+and at length, quite exhausted, crept to the very point, where they hid 
+themselves between some stones at the water’s edge.  
+
+Here they waited for three long hours, but no boat came.
+
+“All up a gum-tree now, Major,” said Jeekie. “Old blackguard,
+Fanny, bolt and leave us here. _He_ play hookey-walker, and to-morrow
+morning Asika nobble _us._ Better have gone down to bay, steal his boat
+and leave him behind, because Asika no want _him_. That only common
+sense.”
+
+Alan made no answer. He was too tired, and although he trusted Fahni, it
+seemed  likely enough that Jeekie was right, or perhaps the cannibals
+had not been able  to get the boat. Well, he had done his best, and if
+Fate overtook them it was  no fault of his. He began to doze, for even
+their imminent peril could not keep  his eyes open, then presently awoke
+with a start, for in his sleep he thought  he heard the sounds of
+paddles beating the quiet water. Yes, there dimly seen  through the
+mist, was a canoe, and seated in the stern of it Fahni. So that  danger
+had gone by also.  
+
+He woke his companions, who slept at his side, and very silently they
+rose,  stepping from rock to rock till they reached the canoe and
+entered it. It was  not a large craft, barely big enough to hold them
+all indeed, but they found  room, and then at a sign from Fahni the
+oarsmen gave way so heartily that  within half an hour they had lost
+sight of the accursed shores of Asiki-land,  although presently its
+mountains showed up clearly beneath the moon.  
+
+Meanwhile Fahni had told his tale. It appeared that when he reached the
+bay he  found the Asiki headman who dwelt there, and those under him, in
+a state of  considerable excitement.
+
+Rumours had reached them that someone had escaped from Bonsa Town; they
+thought  it was the Mungana. Fahni asked who had brought the rumour,
+whereon the headman  answered that it came “in a dream,” and would say
+no more. Then he  demanded the canoe which had been promised to him and
+his people, and the  headman admitted that it was ready in accordance
+with orders received from the  Asika, but demurred to letting him have
+it. A long argument followed, in the  midst of which Fahni and his men
+got into the canoe, the headman apparently not  daring to use force to
+prevent him. Just as they were pushing off a messenger  arrived from
+Bonsa Town, reeling with exhaustion and his tongue hanging from  his
+jaws, who called out that it was the white man who had escaped with his 
+servant and the Mungana, and that although they were believed to be
+still  hidden in the holy woods near Bonsa Town, none were to be allowed
+to leave the  bay. So the headman shouted to Fahni to return, but he
+pretended not to hear  and rowed away, nor did anyone attempt to follow
+him. Still it was only after  nightfall that he dared to put the boat
+about and return to the headland to  pick up Alan and the others as he
+had promised. That was all he had to say.    
+
+Alan thanked him heartily for his faithfulness and they paddled on
+steadily,  putting mile after mile of water between them and Asiki-land.
+He wondered  whether he had seen the last of that country and its
+inhabitants. Something  within him answered No. He was sure that the
+Asika would not allow him to  depart in peace without making some
+desperate effort to recapture him. Far as  he was away, it seemed to him
+that he could feel her fury hanging over him like  a cloud, a cloud that
+would burst in a rain of blood. Doubtless it would have  burst already
+had it not been for the accident that he and his companions were  still
+supposed to be hiding in the woods. But that error must be discovered, 
+and then would come the pursuit.  
+
+He looked at the full moon shining upon him and reflected that at this
+very  hour he should have been seated upon the chair of state, wedding,
+or rather  being wedded by the Asika in the presence of Big and Little
+Bonsa and all the  people. His eye fell upon the Mungana, who had also
+been destined to play a  prominent part in that ceremony. At once he saw
+that there was something wrong  with the man. A curious change had come
+over his emaciated face. It was working  like that of a maniac. Foam
+appeared upon his dyed lips, his haunted eyes  rolled, his thin hands
+gripped the side of the canoe and he began to sing, or  rather howl like
+a dog baying at the stars. Jeekie hit him on the head and bade  him be
+silent, but he took no notice, even when he hit him again more heavily. 
+Presently came the climax. The man sprang up in the canoe, causing it to
+rock  from side to side. He pointed to the full moon above and howled
+more loudly  than before; he pointed to something that he seemed to see
+in the air near by  and gibbered as though in terror. Then his eyes
+fixed themselves upon the water  at which he stared.  
+
+Harder and harder he stared, his head sinking lower every moment, till
+at  length without another sound, very quietly and unexpectedly he went
+over the  side of the boat. For a few seconds they saw his
+bright-coloured garments  sinking to the depths, then he vanished.
+
+They waited a while, expecting that he would rise again. But he never
+rose. A  shot-weighted corpse could not have disappeared more finally
+and completely.  The thing was very awful, and for a while there was
+silence, which as usual was  broken by Jeekie.
+
+“That gay dog gone,” he said in a reflective voice. “All
+those old ghosts come to fetch him at proper time. No good run away from
+ghosts; they travel too quick; one jump, and pop up where you no expect.
+Well,  more place for Jeekie now,” and he spread himself out comfortably
+in the  empty seat, adding, “like hello-swello’s room much better than
+company, he go in scent-bath every day and stink too much, all that
+water never  wash _him_ clean.”
+
+Thus died the Mungana, and such was the poor wretch’s requiem. With a
+shiver Alan reflected that had it not been for him and his insane
+jealousy, he  too might have been expected to go into that same
+scent-bath and have his face  painted like a chorus girl. Only would he
+escape the spell that had destroyed  his predecessor in the affections
+of the priestess of the Bonsas? Or would some  dim power such as had
+drawn Mungana to the death drag him back to the arms of  the Asika or to
+the torture pit of “Great Swimming Head.” He  remembered his dream in
+the Treasure Hall and shuddered at the very thought of  it, for all he
+had undergone and seen made him superstitious; then bade the men  paddle
+faster, ever faster.  
+
+All that night they rowed on, taking turns to rest, except Alan and
+Jeekie, who  slept a good deal and as a consequence awoke at dawn much
+refreshed. When the  sun rose they found themselves across the lagoon,
+over thirty miles from the  borders of Asiki-land, almost at the spot
+where the river up which they had  travelled some months before, flowed
+out of the lake. Whether by chance or  skill Fahni had steered a
+wonderfully straight course. Now, however, they were  face to face with
+a new trouble, for scarcely had they begun to descend the  river when
+they discovered that at this dry season of the year it was in many 
+places too shallow to allow the canoe to pass over the sand and mud
+banks.  Evidently there was but one thing to be done—abandon it and
+walk.    
+
+So they landed, ate from their store of food and began a terrible and
+toilsome  journey. On either side of the river lay desiccated swamp
+covered with dead  reeds ten or twelve feet high. Doubtless beyond the
+swamp there was high land,  but in order to reach this, if it existed,
+they would be obliged to force a  path through miles of reeds. Therefore
+they thought it safer to follow the  river bank. Their progress was very
+slow, since continually they must make  detours to avoid a quicksand or
+a creek, also the stones and scrubby growth  delayed them so that
+fifteen or at most twenty miles was a good day’s  march.
+
+Still they went on steadily, seeing no man, and when their food was
+exhausted,  living on the fish which they caught in plenty in the
+shallows, and on young  flapper ducks that haunted the reeds. So at
+length they came to the main river  into which this tributary flowed,
+and camped there thankfully, believing that  if any pursuit of them had
+been undertaken, it was abandoned. At least Alan and  the rest believed
+this, but Jeekie did not.  
+
+On the following morning, shortly after dawn, Jeekie awoke his master.
+
+“Come here, Major,” he said in a solemn voice, “I got
+something pretty show you,” and he led him to the foot of an old willow
+tree, adding, “now up you go, Major, and look.”
+
+So Alan went up and from the topmost fork of that tree saw a sight at
+which his  blood turned cold. For there, not five miles behind them, on
+either side of the  river bank, the light gleaming on their spears,
+marched two endless columns of  men, who from their head-dresses he took
+to be Asiki. For a minute he looked,  then descended the tree and
+approaching the others, asked what was to be done.  
+
+“Hook, scoot, bolt, leg it!” exclaimed Jeekie emphatically; then he
+licked his finger, held it up to the wind, and added, “but first fire
+reeds and make it hot for Bonsa crowd.”
+
+This was a good suggestion and one on which they acted without delay.
+Taking  red embers, they blew them into a flame and lit torches, which
+they applied to  the reeds over a width of several hundred yards. The
+strong northward wind soon  did the rest; indeed with a quarter of an
+hour a vast sheet of flame twenty or  thirty feet in height was rushing
+towards the Asiki columns. Then they began  their advance along the
+river bank, running at a steady trot, for here the  ground was open.
+
+All that day they ran, pausing at intervals to get their breath, and at
+night  rested because they must. When the light came upon the following
+morning they  looked back from a little hill and saw the outposts of the
+Asiki advancing not  a mile behind. Doubtless some of the army had been
+burned, but the rest,  guessing their route, had forced a way through
+the reeds and cut across  country. So they began to run again harder
+than before, and kept their lead  during the morning. But when afternoon
+came the Asika gained on them. Now they  were breasting a long rise, the
+river running in the cleft beneath, and Jeekie,  who seemed to be
+absolutely untiring, held Alan by the hand, Fahni following  close
+behind. Two of their men had fallen down and been abandoned, and the
+rest  straggled.  
+
+“No go, Jeekie,” gasped Alan, “they will catch us at the top
+of the hill.”
+
+“Never say die, Major, never say die,” puffed Jeekie; “they
+get blown too, and who know what other side of hill?”
+
+Somehow they struggled to the crest and behold! there beneath them was a
+great  army of men.
+
+“Ogula!” yelled Jeekie, “Ogula! Just what I tell you, Major,
+who know what other side of _any_ hill.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A MEETING IN THE FOREST.
+
+
+In five minutes more Alan and Jeekie were among the Ogula, who, having
+recognized their chief while he was yet some way off, greeted him with
+rapturous cheers and the clapping of hands. Then as there was no time
+for  explanation, they retreated across a little stream which ran down
+the valley,  four thousand or more of them, and prepared for battle.
+That evening, however,  there was no fighting, for when the first of the
+Asiki reached the top of the  rise and saw that the fugitives had
+escaped to the enemy, who were in strength,  they halted and finally
+retired.  
+
+Now Alan, and Fahni also, hoped that the pursuit was abandoned, but
+again  Jeekie shook his big head, saying:
+
+“Not at all, Major, I know Asiki and their little ways. While one of
+them  alive, not dare go back to Asika without _you_, Major.”
+
+“Perhaps she is with them herself,” suggested Alan, “and we
+might treat with her.”
+
+“No, Major, Asika never leave Bonsa Town, that against law, and if she
+do  so, priests make another Asika and kill her when they catch her.”
+
+After this a council of war was held, and it was decided to camp there
+that  night, since the position was good to meet an attack if one should
+be made, and  the Ogula were afraid of being caught on the march with
+their backs towards the  enemy. Alan was glad enough to hear this
+decision, for he was quite worn out  and ready to take any risk for a
+few hours’ rest. At this council he  learned also that the Asiki bearers
+carrying his gold with their Ogula guides  had arrived safely among the
+Ogula, who had mustered in answer to their  chief’s call and were
+advancing towards Asiki-land, though the business  was one that did not
+please them. As for these Asiki bearers, it seemed that  they had gone
+on into the forest with the gold, and nothing more had been heard  of
+them.  
+
+As they were leaving the council Alan asked Jeekie if he had any tidings
+of his  mother, who had been their first messenger.
+
+“No, Major,” he answered gloomily, “can’t learn nothing
+of my ma, don’t know where she is. Ogula camp no place for old girl if
+they short of chop and hungry. But p’raps she never get there; I nose
+round and find out.”
+
+Apparently Jeekie did “nose round” to some purpose, for just as
+Alan was dropping off to sleep in his bough shelter a most fearful din
+arose  without, through which he recognized the vociferations of Jeekie.
+Running out  of the shelter he discovered his retainer and a great Ogula
+whom he knew again  as the headman who had been imprisoned with him and
+freed by the Asika to guide  the bearers, rolling over and over on the
+ground, watched by a curious crowd.  Just as he arrived Jeekie, who,
+notwithstanding his years, was a man of enormous  strength, got the
+better of the Ogula and kneeling on his stomach, was  proceeding to
+throttle him. Rushing at him, Alan dragged him off and asked what  was
+the matter.  
+
+“Matter, Major!” yelled the indignant Jeekie. “My ma inside
+this black villain, _that_ the matter. Dirty cannibal got digestion of
+one  ostrich and eat her up with all his mates, all except one who not
+like her  taste and tell me. They catch poor old lady asleep by road so
+stop and lunch at  once when Asiki bearers not looking. Let me get at
+him, Major, let me get at  him. If I can’t bury my ma, as all good son
+ought to do, I bury him,  which next best thing.”
+
+“Jeekie, Jeekie,” said Alan, “exercise a Christian spirit and
+let bygones be bygones. If you don’t, you will make a quarrel between us
+and the Ogula, and they will give us up to the Asiki. Perhaps the man
+did not  eat your mother; I understand that he denies it, and when you
+remember what she  was like, it seems incredible. At any rate he has a
+right to a trial, and I  will speak to Fahni about it to-morrow.”
+
+So they were separated, but as it chanced that case never came on, for
+next  morning this Ogula was killed in the fighting together with two of
+his  companions, while the others involved in the charge kept themselves
+out of  sight. Whether Jeekie’s “ma” was or was not eaten by the
+Ogula no one ever learned for certain. At least she was never heard of
+any more.  
+
+Alan was sleeping heavily when a sound of rushing feet and of strange,
+thrilling battle-cries awoke him. He sprang up, snatching at a spear and
+shield  which Jeekie had provided for him, and ran out to find from the
+position of the  moon that dawn was near.
+
+“Come on, Major,” said Jeekie, “Asiki make night attack; they
+always like do everything at night who love darkness, because their eye
+evil.  Come on quick, Major,” and he began to drag him off toward the
+rear.  
+
+“But that’s the wrong way,” said Alan presently. “They
+are attacking over there.”
+
+“Do you think Jeekie fool, Major, that he don’t know that? He take
+you where they _not_ attacking. Plenty Ogula to be killed, but not
+_many_ white men like you, and in all world only _one_ Jeekie!”
+
+“You cold-blooded old scoundrel!” ejaculated Alan as he turned and
+bolted back towards the noise of fighting, followed by his reluctant
+servant.  
+
+By the time that he reached the first ranks, which were some way off,
+the worst  of the attack was over. It had been short and sharp, for the
+Asiki had hoped to  find the Ogula unprepared and to take their camp
+with a rush. But the Ogula,  who knew their habits, were waiting for
+them, so that presently they withdrew,  carrying off their wounded and
+leaving about fifty dead upon the ground. As  soon as he was quite sure
+that the enemy were all gone, Jeekie, armed with a  large battle-axe,
+went off to inspect these fallen soldiers. Alan, who was  helping the
+Ogula wounded, wondered why he took so much interest in them. Half  an
+hour later his curiosity was satisfied, for Jeekie returned with over
+twenty  heavy gold rings, torques, and bracelets slung over his
+shoulder.    
+
+“Where did you get those, Jeekie?” he asked.
+
+“Off poor chaps that peg out just now, Major. Remember Asiki soldiers
+nearly always wear these things, and that filthy lucre no more use where
+they  gone to, ’cause they melt there. But if ever he get out of this
+Jeekie  want spend his old age in respectable peace. So he fetch them.
+Hard work,  though, for rings all in one bit and Asiki very tough to
+chop. Don’t look  cross, Major; you remember what ’postle say, that he
+who no provide for  his own self worse than cannibal.” 
+
+Just then Fahni came up and announced that the Asiki general had sent a
+messenger into the camp proposing terms of peace.
+
+“What terms?” asked Alan.
+
+“These, white man: that we should surrender you and your servant and go
+our way unharmed.”
+
+“Indeed, Fahni, and what did you answer?”
+
+“White man, I refused; but I tell you,” he added warningly,
+“that my captains wished to accept. They said that I had come back to
+them safe and that they fear the Asiki, who are devils, not men, and who
+will  bring the curse of Bonsa on us if we go on fighting with them.
+Still I refused,  saying that if they gave you up I would go with you,
+who saved my life from the  lion and afterwards from the priests of
+Bonsa. So the messenger went back and,  white man, we march at once, and
+I pray you always to keep close to me that I  may watch over you.”
+
+Then began that long tramp down the river, which Alan always thought
+afterwards  tried him more than any of the terrible events of his
+escape. For although  there was but little fighting, only rearguard
+actions indeed, every day the  Asiki sent messengers renewing their
+offers of peace on the sole condition of  the surrender of himself and
+Jeekie. At last one evening they came to that  place where Alan first
+met the Ogula, and once more he camped upon the island  on which he had
+shot the lion. At nightfall, after he had eaten, Fahni visited  him here
+and Alan boded evil from his face.  
+
+“White man,” he said, “I can protect you no longer. The Asiki
+messengers have been with us again and they say that unless we give you
+up  to-morrow at the dawn, their army will push on ahead of us and
+destroy my town,  which is two days’ march down the river, and all the
+women and children  in it, and that afterwards they will fight a great
+battle with us. Therefore my  people say that I must give you up, or
+that if I do not they will elect another  chief and do so themselves.”
+
+“Then you will give up a dead man, Fahni.”
+
+“Friend,” said the old chief in a low voice, “the night is
+dark and the forest not so far away. Moreover, I have set no guards on
+that  side of the river, and Jeekie here does not forget a road that he
+has  travelled. Lastly, I have heard it said that there are some other
+white people  with soldiers camped in the edge of the forest. Now, if
+you were not here in  the morning, how could I give you up?”
+
+“I understand, Fahni. You have done your best for me, and now,
+good-night. Jeekie and I are going to take a walk. Sometimes you will
+think of  the months we spent together in Bonsa Town, will you not?”
+
+“Yes, and of you also, white man, for so long as I shall live. Walk fast
+and far, for the Asiki are clever at following a spoor. Good-night,
+Friend, and  to you, Jeekie the cunning, good-night also. I go to tell
+my captains that I  will surrender you at dawn,” and without more words
+he vanished out of  their sight and out of their lives.
+
+Meanwhile Jeekie, foreseeing the issue of this talk, was already engaged
+in  doing up their few belongings, including the gold rings, some food,
+and a  native cooking pot, in a bundle surrounded by a couple of bark
+blankets.  
+
+“Come on, Major,” he said, handing Alan one spear and taking
+another himself. “Old cannibal quite right, very nice night for a walk.
+Come on, Major, river shallow just here. I think this happen and try it
+before  dark. You just follow Jeekie, that all you got to do.”
+
+So leaving the fire burning in front of their bough shelter, they waded
+the  stream and started up the opposing slope, meeting no man. Dark as
+it was,  Jeekie seemed to have no difficulty in finding the way, for as
+Fahni said, a  native does not forget the path he has once travelled.
+All night long they  walked rapidly, and when dawn broke found
+themselves at the edge of the forest.  
+
+“Jeekie,” said Alan, “what did Fahni mean by that tale about
+white people?”
+
+“Don’t know, Major, think perhaps he lie to let you down easy. My
+golly! what that?”
+
+As he spoke a distant echo reached their ears, the echo of a rifle shot.
+“Think Fanny not lie after all,” went on Jeekie; “that white
+man’s gun, sharp crack, smokeless powder, but wonder how he come in this
+place. Well, we soon find out. Come on, Major.”
+
+Tired as they were they broke into a run; the prospect of seeing a white
+face  again was too much for them. Half a mile or so further on they
+caught sight of  a figure evidently engaged in stalking game among the
+trees, or so they judged  from his cautious movements.
+
+“White man!” said Jeekie, and Alan nodded.
+
+They crept forward silently and with care, for who knew what this white
+man  might be after, keeping a great tree between them and the man, till
+at length,  passing round its bole, they found themselves face to face
+with him and not  five yards away. Notwithstanding his unaccustomed
+tropical dress and his face  burnt copper colour by the sun, Alan knew
+the man at once.  
+
+“Aylward!” he gasped; “Aylward! You here?”
+
+He started. He stared at Alan. Then his countenance changed. Its
+habitual calm  broke up as it was wont to do in moments of deep emotion.
+It became very evil,  as though some demon of hate and jealousy were at
+work behind it. The thin lips  quivered, the eyes glared, and without
+spoken word or warning, he lifted the  rifle and fired straight at Alan.
+The bullet missed him, for the aim was high.  Passing over Alan’s head,
+it cut a neat groove through the hair of the  taller Jeekie who was
+immediately behind him.  
+
+Next instant, with a spring like that of a tiger Jeekie was on Aylward.
+The  weight of his charge knocked him backwards to the ground, and there
+he lay,  pinned fast.
+
+“What for you do that?” exclaimed the indignant Jeekie. “What
+for you shoot through wool of respectable nigger, Sir Robert Aylward,
+Bart.?  Now I throttle you, you dirty hog-swine. No Magistrates’ Court
+here in  Dwarf Forest,” and he began to suit the action to the word.
+
+“Let him go, Jeekie. Take his rifle and let him go,” exclaimed
+Alan, who all this while had stood amazed. “There must be some mistake,
+he cannot have meant to murder me.”
+
+“Don’t know what he mean, but know his bullet go through my hair,
+Major, and give me new parting,” grumbled Jeekie as he obeyed.
+
+“Of course it was a mistake, Vernon, for I suppose it is Vernon,”
+said Aylward, as he rose. “I do not wonder that your servant is angry,
+but the truth is that your sudden appearance frightened me out of my
+wits and I  fired automatically. We have been living in some danger
+here, and my nerves are  not as strong as they used to be.”
+
+“Indeed,” answered Alan. “No, Jeekie will carry the rifle for
+you; yes, and I think that pistol also, every ounce makes a difference
+walking  in a hot climate, and I remember that you always were dangerous
+with firearms.  There, you will be more comfortable so. And now, who do
+you mean by  ‘we’?”
+
+“I mean Barbara and myself,” he answered slowly.
+
+Alan’s jaw dropped, he shook upon his feet.
+
+“Barbara and yourself!” he said. “Do I
+understand——”
+
+“Don’t you understand nothing, Major,” broke in Jeekie.
+“Don’t you believe one word what this pig dog say. If Miss Barbara
+marry him he no want shoot you; he ask you to tea to see the Missus and
+how  much she love him, ducky! We just go on and call on Miss Barbara
+and hear the  news. Walk up, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., and show us
+which way.”  
+
+“I do not choose to receive you and your impertinent servant at my
+camp,” said Aylward, grinding his teeth.
+
+“We quite understand that, Sir Robert Aylward——”
+
+“Lord Aylward, if you please, Major Vernon.”
+
+“I beg your pardon—Lord Aylward. I was aware of the contemplated
+purchase of that title, I did not know that it had been completed. I was
+about  to add that all the same we mean to go to that camp, and that if
+any violence  towards us is attempted as we approach it, you will
+remember that you are in  our hands.”
+
+“Yes, my Lord,” added Jeekie, bowing, “and that monkeys
+don’t tell no tales, my Lord, and that here there ain’t no twelve
+Good-Trues to sit on noble corpse unhappily deceased, my Lord, and to
+bring in  Crowner’s verdict of done to death lawful or unlawful,
+according as  evidence may show when got, my Lord. So march on, for we
+no breakfast yet. No,  not that way, round here to left, where I think I
+hear kettle sing.”  
+
+So having no choice, Aylward came, marching between the other two and
+saying  nothing. When they had gone a couple of hundred yards Alan also
+heard  something, and to him it sounded like a man crying out in pain.
+Then suddenly  they passed round some great trees and reached a glade in
+the forest where  there was a spring of water which Alan remembered. In
+this glade the camp had  been built, surrounded by a “boma” or palisade
+of rough wood,  within which stood two tents and some native shelters
+made of tall grass and  boughs. Outside of this camp a curious and
+unpleasant scene was in progress.  
+
+To a small tree that grew there was tied a man, whom from the fashion of
+his  hair Alan knew to belong to the Coast negroes, while two great
+fellows,  evidently of another tribe, flogged him unmercifully with hide
+whips.  
+
+“Ah!” exclaimed Jeekie, “that the kettle I hear sing. Think
+you better taken him off the fire, my Lord, or he boil over. Also his
+brothers  no seem like that music,” and he pointed to a number of other
+men who  were standing round watching the scene with sullen
+dissatisfaction.  
+
+“A matter of camp discipline,” muttered Aylward. “This man
+has disobeyed orders.”
+
+By now Jeekie was shouting something to the natives in an unknown
+tongue, which  they seemed to understand well enough. At any rate the
+flogging ceased, the two  fellows who were inflicting it slunk away, and
+the other men ran towards them,  shouting back as they came.
+
+“All right, Major. You please stop here one minute with my Lord, late
+Bart. of Bloody Hand. Some of these chaps friends of mine, I meet them
+Old  Calabar while we get ready to march last rains. Now I have little
+talk with  them and find out thing or two.”
+
+Aylward began to bluster about interference with his servants and so
+forth.  Jeekie turned on him with a very ugly grin, and showing his
+white teeth, as was  his fashion when he grew fierce.
+
+“Beg pardon, Right Honourable Lord,” he said, or rather snarled,
+“you do what I tell you just to please Jeekie. Jeekie no one in England,
+but Jeekie damn big Lord too out here, great medicine man, pal of Little
+Bonsa.  You remember Little Bonsa, eh! These chaps think it great honour
+to meet  Jeekie, so, Major, if he stir, please shoot him through head;
+Jeekie  ’sponsible, not you. Or if you not like do it, I come back and
+see to job  myself and don’t think those fellows cry very much.”
+
+There was something about Jeekie’s manner that frightened Aylward, who
+understood for the first time that beneath all the negro’s grotesque
+talk  lay some dreadful, iron purpose, as courage lay under his affected
+cowardice  and under his veneer of selfishness, fidelity. At any rate he
+halted with Alan,  who stood beside him, the revolver of which Aylward
+had been relieved by  Jeekie, in his hand. Meanwhile Jeekie, who held
+the rifle which he had  reloaded, went on and met the natives about
+twenty yards away.  
+
+“We always disliked each other, Vernon, but I must say that I never
+thought a day would come when you proposed to murder me in my own camp,”
+said Aylward.
+
+“Odd thing,” answered Alan, “but a very similar idea was in
+my mind. I never thought, Lord Aylward, that however unscrupulous you
+might  be—financially—a day would come when you would attempt to shoot
+down an unarmed man in an African forest. Oh! don’t waste breath in
+lying; I saw you recognize me, aim, and fire, after which Jeekie would
+have had  the other barrel, and who then would have remained to tell the
+story, Lord  Aylward?”
+
+Aylward made no answer, but Alan felt that if wishes could kill him he
+would  not live long. His eye fell upon a long, unmistakable mound of
+fresh earth,  beneath a tree. He calculated its length, and with a
+thrill of terror noticed  that it was too small for a negro.
+
+“Who is buried there?” he asked.
+
+“Find out for yourself,” was the sneering answer.
+
+“Don’t be afraid, Lord Aylward; I shall find out everything in
+time.”
+
+The conversation between Jeekie and the natives proceeded, their heads
+were  close together; it grew animated. They seemed to be coming to some
+decision.  Presently one of them ran and cut the lashings of the man who
+had been bound to  the tree, and he staggered towards them and joined in
+the talk, pointing to his  wounds. Then the two fellows who had been
+engaged in flogging him, accompanied  by eight companions of the same
+type—they appeared to be soldiers, for  they carried guns—swaggered
+towards the group who were being addressed by  Jeekie, of whom Alan
+counted twenty-three. As they approached Jeekie made some  suggestion
+which, after one hesitating moment, the others seemed to accept, for 
+they nodded their heads and separated out a little.  
+
+Jeekie stepped forward and asked a question of the guards, to which they
+replied with a derisive shout. Then without a word of warning he lifted
+Aylward’s express rifle which he carried, and fired first one barrel and
+then the other, shooting the two leading soldiers dead. Their companions
+halted  amazed, but before they could lift their guns, Jeekie and those
+with him rushed  at them and began stabbing them with spears and
+striking them with sticks. In  three minutes it was over without another
+shot being fired. Most of them were  despatched, and the others,
+throwing down their guns, had fled wounded into the  forest.
+
+Now, shouting in jubilation, some of the men began to drag away the dead
+bodies, while others collected the rifles and the remainder, headed by
+Jeekie,  advanced towards Alan and Aylward, waving their red spears.
+Alan stood staring,  for he did not in the least understand the meaning
+of what had happened, but  Aylward, who had turned very pale, addressed
+Jeekie, saying:  
+
+“I suppose that you have come to murder me also, you black villain.”
+
+“No, no, my Lord,” answered Jeekie politely, “not at present.
+Also that wrong word, execute, not murder, just what you do to some of
+these  poor devils,” and he pointed to the mob of porters. “Besides,
+mustn’t kill holy white man, poor black chap don’t matter, plenty
+more where he come from. Think we all go see Miss Barbara now. You come
+too, my  Lord Bart., but p’raps best tie your hands behind you first; if
+you want  scratch head, I do it for you. That only fair, you scratch
+mine this  morning.”
+
+Then at a word from Jeekie some of the natives sprang on Aylward and
+tied his  hands behind his back.
+
+“Is Miss Barbara alive?” said Alan to Jeekie in an agonized
+whisper, at the same time nodding towards the grave that was so
+ominously short.  
+
+“Hope so, think so, these cards say so, but God He know alone,”
+answered Jeekie. “Go and look, that best way to find out.”
+
+So they advanced into the camp through a narrow gateway made of a
+V-shaped  piece of wood, to where the two tents were placed in its inner
+division. Of  these tents, the first was open, whereas the second was
+closed. As the open  tent was obviously empty, they went to the second,
+whereof Jeekie began to  loosen the lashings of the flap. It was a long
+business, for they seemed to  have been carefully knotted inside; indeed
+at last, growing impatient, Jeekie  cut the cord, using the curved knife
+with which the Mungana had tried to kill  Alan.
+
+Meanwhile Alan was suffering torments, being convinced that Barbara was
+dead  and buried in that new-made grave beneath the trees. He could not
+speak, he  could scarcely stand, and yet a picture began to form in his
+numb mind. He saw  himself seated in the dark in the Treasure House at
+Bonsa Town; he saw a vision  in the air before him.
+
+Lo! the tent door opened and that vision reappeared.
+
+There was the pale Barbara seated, weeping. There again, as he entered
+she  sprang up and snatching the pistol that lay beside her, turned it
+to her  breast. Then she perceived him and the pistol sank downwards
+till from her  relaxed hand it dropped to the ground. She threw up her
+arms and without a  sound fell backwards, or would have fallen, had he
+not caught her.  
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE LAST OF THE ASIKI.
+
+
+Barbara had recovered. She sat upon her bed in the tent and by her sat
+Alan,  holding her hand, while before them stood Aylward like a prisoner
+in the dock,  and behind him the armed Jeekie.
+
+“Tell me the story, Barbara,” said Alan, “and tell it
+briefly, for I cannot bear much more of this.”
+
+She looked at him and began in a slow, even voice:
+
+“After you had gone, dear, things went on as usual for a month or two.
+Then came the great Sahara Company trouble. First there were rumours and
+the  shares began to go down. My uncle bought them in by tens and
+hundreds of  thousands, to hold up the market, because he was being
+threatened, but of  course he did not know then that Lord Aylward—for I
+forgot to tell you,  he had become a lord somehow—was secretly one of
+the principal sellers,  let him deny it if he can. At last the Ottoman
+Government, through the English  ambassador, published its repudiation
+of the concession, which it seems was a  forgery, actually executed or
+obtained in Constantinople by my uncle. Well,  there was a fearful
+smash. Writs were taken out against my uncle, but before  they could be
+served, he died suddenly of heart disease. I was with him at the  time,
+and he kept saying he saw that gold mask which Jeekie calls Bonsa, the 
+thing you took back to Africa. He had a fine funeral, for what he had
+done was  not publicly known, and when his will was opened I found that
+he had left me  his fortune, but made Lord Aylward there my trustee
+until I came to the full  age of twenty-five under my father’s will.
+Alan, don’t force me to  tell you what sort of a guardian he was to me;
+also there was no fortune, it  had all gone; also I had very, very
+little left, for almost all my own money  had gone too. In his despair
+he had forged papers to get it in order to support  those Sahara
+Syndicate shares. Still I managed to borrow about £2000 from that 
+little lawyer out of the £5000 that remain to me, an independent sum
+which he  was unable to touch, and, Alan, with it I came to find you.   
+  
+“Alan, Lord Aylward followed me; although everybody else was ruined, he
+remained rich, very, very rich, they say, and his fancy was to marry me,
+also I  think it was not comfortable for him in England. It is a long
+tale, but I got  up here with about five-and-twenty servants, and Snell,
+my maid, whom you  remember. Then we were both taken ill with some
+dreadful fever and had it not  been for those good black people, I
+should have died, for I have been very  sick, Alan. But they nursed me
+and I recovered; it was poor Snell who died,  they buried her a few days
+ago. I thought that she would live, but she had a  relapse. Next Lord
+Aylward appeared with twelve soldiers and some porters who,  I believe,
+have run away now,—oh! you can guess, you can guess. He wanted  my
+people to carry me off somewhere, to the coast, I suppose, but they were
+ faithful to me and would not. Then he set his soldiers on to maltreat
+them.  They shot several of them and flogged them on every opportunity;
+they were  flogging one of them just now, I heard them. Well, the poor
+men made me  understand that they could bear it no longer and must do
+what he told them.    
+
+“And so, Alan, as I was quite hopeless and helpless, I made up my mind
+to  kill myself, hoping that God would forgive me and that I should find
+you  somewhere, perhaps after sleeping a while, for it was better to die
+than to be  given into the power—of that man. I thought that he was
+coming for me  just now and I was about to do it, but it was you
+instead, Alan, _you_,  and only just in time. That is all the story, and
+I hope you will not think  that I have acted very foolishly, but I did
+it for the best. If you only knew  what I have suffered, Alan, what I
+have gone through in one way and another, I  am sure that you would not
+judge me harshly; also I kept dreaming that you were  in trouble and
+wanted me to come to you, and of course I knew where you were  gone and
+had that map. Send him away, Alan, for I am still so weak and I cannot 
+bear the sight of his face. If you knew everything, you would
+understand.”    
+
+Alan turned on Aylward and in a cold, quiet voice asked him what he had
+to say  to this story.
+
+“I have to say, Major Vernon, that it is a clever mixture of truth and
+falsehood. It is true that your cousin, Champers-Haswell, had been
+proved  guilty of some very shameful conduct. For instance, it appears
+that he did  forge, or rather cause to be forged that Firman from the
+Sultan, although I  knew nothing of this until it was publicly
+repudiated. It is also true that  fearing exposure he entirely lost his
+head and spent not only his own great  fortune but that of Miss Champers
+also, in trying to support Sahara shares. I  admit also that I sold many
+hundreds of thousands of those shares in the  ordinary way, having made
+up my mind to retire from business when I was raised  to the peerage. I
+admit further, what you knew before, that I was attached to  Miss
+Champers and wished to marry her. Why should I not, especially as I had
+a  good deal to offer to a lady who has been proved to be almost without
+fortune?    
+
+“For the rest she set out secretly on this mad journey to Africa,
+whither  both my duty as her trustee and my affection prompted me to
+follow her. I found  her here recovering from an illness, and since she
+has dwelt upon the point, in  self-defence I must tell you that whatever
+has taken place between us, has been  with her full consent and
+encouragement. Of course I allude only to those  affectionate amenities
+which are common between people who purpose to marry as  soon as
+opportunity may offer.”  
+
+At this declaration poor Barbara gasped and leaned back against her
+pillow.  Alan stood silent, though his lips turned white, while Jeekie
+thrust his big  head through the tent opening and stared upwards.
+
+“What are you looking at, Jeekie?” asked Alan irritably.
+
+“Seem to want air, Major, also look to see if clouds tumble. Believe
+partickler big lie do that sometimes. Please go on, O good Lord, for
+Jeekie  want his breakfast.”
+
+“As regards the execution of two of Miss Champers’ bearers and the
+flogging of some others, these punishments were inflicted for mutiny,”
+went on Aylward. “It was obviously necessary that she should be moved
+back to the coast, but I found out that they were trying to desert her
+in a  body and to tamper with my own servants, and so was obliged to
+take strong  measures.”
+
+“Sure those clouds come down now,” soliloquized Jeekie, “or
+least something rummy happen.”
+
+“I have only to add, Major Vernon, that unless you make away with me
+first, as I daresay you will, as soon as we reach civilization again I
+shall  proceed against you and this fellow for the cold-blooded murder
+of my men, in  punishment of which I hope yet to live to see you hanged.
+Meanwhile, I have  much pleasure in releasing Miss Champers from her
+engagement to me which,  whatever she may have said to you in England,
+she was glad enough to enter on  here in Africa, a country of which I
+have been told the climate frequently  deteriorates the moral
+character.”  
+
+“Hear, hear!” ejaculated Jeekie, “he say something true at
+last; by accident, I think, like pig what find pearl in muck-heap.”
+
+“Hold your tongue, Jeekie,” said Alan. “I do not intend to
+kill you, Lord Aylward, or to do you any harm——”
+
+“Nor I neither,” broke in Jeekie, “all I do to my Lord just
+for my Lord’s good; who Jeekie that he wish to hurt noble British
+’ristocrat?”
+
+“But I do intend that it shall be impossible that Miss Champers should
+be  forced to listen to more of your insults,” went on Alan, “and to
+make sure that your gun does not go off again as it did this morning.
+So, Lord  Aylward, until we have settled what we are going to do, I must
+keep you under  arrest. Take him to his tent, Jeekie, and put a guard
+over him.”  
+
+“Yes, Major, certainly, Major. Right turn, march! my Lord, and quick,
+please, since poor, common Jeekie not want dirty his black finger
+touching  you.”
+
+Aylward obeyed, but at the door of the tent swung round and favoured
+Alan with  a very evil look.
+
+“Luck is with you for the moment, Major Vernon,” he said,
+“but if you are wise you will remember that you never have been and
+never  will be my match. It will turn again, I have no doubt, and then
+you may look to  yourself, for I warn you I am a bad enemy.”
+
+Alan did not answer, but for the first time Barbara sprang to her feet
+and  spoke.
+
+“You mean that you are a bad man, Lord Aylward, and a coward too, or
+otherwise you would not have tortured me as you have done. Well, when it
+seemed  impossible that I should escape from you except in one way, I
+was saved by  another way of which I never dreamed. Now I tell you that
+I do not fear you any  more. But I think,” she added slowly, “that you
+would do well to  fear for yourself. I don’t know why, but it comes into
+my mind that  though neither Alan nor I shall lift a finger against you,
+you have a great  deal of which to be afraid. Remember what I said to
+you months ago when you  were angry because I would not marry you. I
+believe it is all coming true, Lord  Aylward.”
+
+Then Barbara turned her back upon him, and that was the last time that
+either  she or Alan ever saw his face.
+
+He was gone, and Barbara, her head upon her lover’s shoulder and her
+sweet eyes filled with tears of joy and gratitude, was beginning to tell
+him  everything that had befallen her when suddenly they heard a loud
+cough outside  the tent.
+
+“It’s that confounded Jeekie,” said Alan, and he called to
+him to come in.
+
+“What’s the matter now?” he asked crossly.
+
+“Breakfast, Major. His lordship got plenty good stores, borrow some from
+him and give him chit. Coming in one minute—hot coffee, kipper herring,
+rasher bacon, also butter (best Danish), and Bath Oliver biscuit.”
+
+“Very well,” said Alan, but Jeekie did not move.
+
+“Very well,” repeated Alan.
+
+“No, Major, not very well, very ill. Thought those lies bring down
+clouds.”
+
+“What do you mean, Jeekie?”
+
+“Mean, Major, that Asiki smelling about this camp. Porter-man what go to
+fetch water see them. Also believe they catch rest of those soldier
+chaps and  polish them, for porter-man hear the row.”
+
+Alan sprang up with an exclamation; in his new-found joy he had
+forgotten all  about the Asiki.
+
+“Keep hair on, Major,” said Jeekie cheerfully; “don’t
+think they attack yet, plenty of time for breakfast first. When they
+come we  make it very hot for them, lots of rifle and cartridge now.”
+
+“Can’t we run away?” asked Barbara.
+
+“No, Missy, can’t run; must stop here and do best. Camp well built,
+open all round, don’t think they take it. You leave everything to
+Jeekie,  he see you through, but p’raps you like come breakfast outside,
+where you  know all that go on.”
+
+Barbara did like, but as it happened they were allowed to consume their
+meal in  peace, since no Asiki appeared. As soon as it was swallowed she
+returned to her  tent, while Alan and Jeekie set to work to strengthen
+the defences of the  little camp as well as they were able, and to make
+ready and serve out the arms  and ammunition.
+
+About midday a man whom they had posted in a tree that grew inside the
+camp  announced that he saw the enemy, and next moment a company of them
+rushed  towards them across the open and were greeted by a volley which
+killed and  wounded several men. At this exhibition of miraculous power,
+for none of these  soldiers had ever heard the report of firearms or
+seen their effect, they  retreated rapidly, uttering shouts of dismay
+and carrying their dead and  wounded with them.
+
+“Do you suppose they have gone, Jeekie?” asked Alan anxiously.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+“Think not, Major, think they frightened, by big bullet magic, and go
+consult priest. Also only a few of them here, rest of army come later
+and try  rush us to-morrow morning before dawn. That Asiki custom.”
+
+“Then what shall we do, Jeekie? Run for it or stop here?”
+
+“Think must stop here, Major. If we bolt, carrying Miss Barbara, who
+can’t walk much, they follow on spoor and catch us. Best stick inside
+this fence and see what happen. Also once outside p’raps porters desert
+and leave us.”
+
+So as there was nothing else to do they stayed, labouring all day at the
+strengthening of their fortifications till at length the boma or fence
+of  boughs, supported by earth, was so high and thick that while any
+were left to  fire through the loopholes, it would be very difficult to
+storm by men armed  with spears.
+
+It was a dreadful and arduous day for Alan, who now had Barbara’s safety
+to think of, Barbara with whom as yet he had scarcely found time to
+exchange a  word. By sunset indeed he was so worn out with toil and
+anxiety that he could  scarcely stand upon his feet. Jeekie, who all
+that afternoon had been strangely  quiet and reflective, surveyed him
+critically, then said:  
+
+“You have good drink and go sleep a bit, Major. Very good little shelter
+there by Miss Barbara’s tent, and you hold her hand if you like
+underneath the canvas, which comforting and all correct. Jeekie never
+get  tired, he keep good lookout and let you know if anything happen,
+and then you  jump up quite fresh and fight like tom-cat in corner.”
+
+At first Alan refused to listen, but when Barbara added her entreaties
+to those  of Jeekie he gave way, and ten minutes later was as soundly
+asleep as he had  ever been in his life.
+
+“Keep eye on him, Miss Barbara, and call me if he wake. Now I go give
+noble lord his supper and see that he quite comfortable. Jeekie seem
+very busy  to-night, just like when Major have dinner-party at Yarleys
+and old cook get  drunk in kitchen.”
+
+If Barbara could have followed Jeekie’s movements for the next few
+hours,  she would probably have agreed that he was busy. First he went
+to  Aylward’s tent, and as he had said he would, gave him his supper,
+and  with it half a bottle of whisky from the stores which he had been
+carrying  about with him for some time, as he said, to prevent the
+porters from getting  at it. Aylward would drink little, though as his
+arms were tied to the  tent-pole, Jeekie sat beside him and fed him like
+a baby, conversing pleasantly  with him all the while, informing him
+amongst other things that he had better  say “big prayer,” because the
+Asiki would probably cut his throat  before morning.
+
+Aylward, who was in a state of sullen fury, scarcely replied to this
+talk,  except to say that if so, there was one comfort, they would cut
+his and his  master’s also.
+
+“Yes, Lord,” answered Jeekie, “that quite true, so drink
+to next meeting, though I think you go different place to me, and when
+you got  tail and I wing, you horn and I crown of glory, of course we
+not talk much  together,” and he held a mug of whisky and water—a great
+deal of  whisky and a very little water—to his prisoner’s mouth.
+
+Aylward drained it, feeling a need for stimulant.
+
+“There,” said Jeekie, holding it upside down, “you drink
+every drop and not offer one to poor old Jeekie. Well, he turned
+teetotaller,  so no matter. Good-night, my Lord, I call you if Asiki
+come.”  
+
+“Who are the Asiki?” asked Aylward drowsily.
+
+“Oh! you want to know? I tell you,” and he began a long, rambling
+story.
+
+Before he ever came to the end of it Aylward had fallen on his side and
+was  fast asleep.
+
+“Dear me!” said Jeekie, contemplating him, “that whisky very
+strong, though bottle say same as they drink in House of Common. That
+whisky so  strong I think I pour away rest of it,” and he did to the
+last drop, even  taking the trouble to wash out the bottle with water.
+“Now you no tempt  anyone,” he said, addressing the said bottle with a
+very peculiar smile,  “or if you tempt, at least do no harm—like kiss
+down  telephone!” Then he laid down the bottle on its side and left the
+tent.  
+
+Outside of it three of the head porters, who appeared to be friends of
+his,  were waiting for him, and with these men he engaged in low and
+earnest  conversation. Next, after they had arrived at some agreement,
+which they seemed  to ratify by a curious oath that involved their
+crossing and clasping hands in  an odd fashion, and other symbols known
+to West African secret societies,  Jeekie went the round of the camp to
+see that everyone was at his post. Then he  did what most people would
+have thought a very curious and strange thing,  namely climbed the fence
+and vanished into the forest, where presently a sound  was heard as of
+an owl hooting.  
+
+A little while later and another owl began to hoot in the distance,
+whereat the  three head porters nudged each other. Perhaps they had
+heard such owls hoot  before at night, and perhaps they knew that
+Jeekie, who had “passed  Bonsa,” could only be harmed by the direct
+command of Bonsa speaking  through the mouth of the Asika herself. Still
+they might have been interested  in the nocturnal conversation of those
+two owls, which, as is common with such  magical fowl in West Africa,
+had transformed themselves into human shapes, the  shape of Jeekie and
+the shape of an Asiki priest, who was, as it happened, a  blood relation
+of Jeekie.  
+
+“Very good, Brother,” said Owl No. 1; “all you want is this
+white man whom the Asika desires for a husband. Well, I have done my
+best for  him, but I must think of myself and others, and he goes to
+great happiness. I  have given him something to make him sleep; do you
+come presently with eight  men, no more, or we shall kill you, to the
+fence of the camp, and we will hand  over the white man, Vernoon, to you
+to take back to the Asika, who will give  you a wonderful reward, such a
+reward as you have never imagined. Now let me  hear your word.”
+
+Then Owl No. 2 answered:
+
+“Brother, I make the bargain on behalf of the army, and swear to it by
+the double Swimming Head of Bonsa. We will come and take the white man,
+Vernoon, who is to be Mungana, and carry him away. In return we promise
+not to  follow or molest you, or any others in your camp. Indeed, why
+should we, who do  not desire to be killed by the dreadful magic that
+you have, a magic that makes  a noise and pierces through our bodies
+from afar? What were the words of the  Asika? ’Bring back Vernoon, or
+perish. I care for nothing else, bring  back Vernoon to be my husband.’”
+
+“Good,” said Owl No. 1, “within the half of an hour Vernoon
+shall be ready for you.”
+
+“Good,” answered Owl No. 2, “within half an hour eight of us
+will be without the east face of your camp to receive him.”
+
+“Silently?”
+
+“Silently, my brother in Bonsa. If he cries out we will gag him. Fear
+not, none shall know your part in this matter.”
+
+“Good, my brother in Bonsa. By the way, how is Big Bonsa? I fear that
+the  white man, Vernoon, hurt him very much, and that is why I give him
+up—because of his sacrilege.”
+
+“When I left the god was very sick and all the people mourned, but
+doubtless he is immortal.”
+
+“Doubtless he is immortal, my brother, a little hard magic in his
+stomach—if he has one—cannot hurt _him_. Farewell, dear
+brother in Bonsa, I wish that I were you to get the great reward that
+the Asika  will give to you. Farewell, farewell.”
+
+Then the two owls flitted apart again, hooting as they went, till they
+came to  their respective camps.
+
+Jeekie was in the tent performing a strange toilet upon the sleeping
+Aylward by  the light of a single candle. From his pouch he produced the
+mask of linen  painted with gold that Alan used to be forced to wear,
+and tied it securely  over Aylward’s face, murmuring:
+
+“You always love gold, my Lord Aylward, and Jeekie promise you see
+plenty  of it now.”
+
+Then he proceeded to remove his coat, his waistcoat, his socks, and his
+boots  and to replace these articles of European attire by his own worn
+Asiki sandals  and his own dirty Asiki robe.
+
+“There,” he said, “think that do,” and he studied him
+by the light of the candle. “Same height, same colour hair, same dirty
+clothes, and as Asiki never see Major’s face because he always wear mask
+in public, like as two peas on shovel. Oh my! Jeekie clever chap, Jeekie
+devilish clever chap. But when Asika pull off that mask to give him true
+lover  kiss, OH MY! wonder that happen then? Think whole of Bonsa Town
+bust up; think  big waterfall run backwards; think she not quite
+pleased; think my good Lord  find himself in false position; think
+Jeekie glad to be on coast; think he not  go back to Bonsa Town no more.
+Oh my aunt! no, he stop in England and go church  twice on Sunday,” and,
+pressing his big hands on the pit of his stomach he  rocked and rolled
+in fierce, silent laughter.  
+
+Then an owl hooted again immediately beneath the fence and Jeekie,
+blowing out  the candle, opened the flap of the tent and tapped the head
+porter, who stood  outside, on the shoulder. He crept in and between
+them they lifted the  senseless Aylward and bore him to the V-shaped
+entrance of the boma which was  immediately opposite to the tent and,
+oddly enough, half open. Here the two  other porters with whom Jeekie
+had performed some ceremony, chanced to be on  guard, the rest of their
+company being stationed at a distance. Jeekie and the  head porter went
+through the gap like men carrying a corpse to midnight burial,  and
+presently in the darkness without two owls began to hoot.  
+
+Now Aylward was laid upon a litter that had been prepared, and eight
+white-robed Asiki bearers stared at his gold mask in the faint
+starlight.  
+
+“I suppose he is not dead, brother,” said Owl No. 2 doubtfully.
+
+“Nay, brother,” said Owl No. 1, “feel his heart and his
+pulse. Not dead, only drunk. He will wake up by daylight, by which time
+you  should be far upon your way. Be good and gentle to the white man
+Vernoon, who  has been my master. Be careful, too, that he does not
+escape you, brother, for  as you know he is very strong and cunning. Say
+to the Asika that Jeekie her  servant makes his reverence to her, and
+hopes that she will have many, many  happy years with the husband that
+he sends her; also that she will remember  him whom she called ‘black
+dog,’ and whose face she often smacked,  in her prayers to the gods and
+spirits of our people.”  
+
+“It shall be done, brother, but why do you not return with us?”
+
+“Because, brother, I have ties across the Black Water—dear
+children, almost white—whom I love so much that I cannot leave them.
+Farewell, brethren, the blessings of the Bonsas be on you, and may you
+grow fat  and prosper in the love and favour of our lady the Asika.”
+
+“Farewell,” they murmured in answer. “Good fortune be your
+bedfellow.”
+
+Another minute and they had lifted up the litter and vanished at a
+swinging  trot into the shadow of the trees. Jeekie returned to the camp
+and ordered the  three men to re-stop the gateway with thorns, muttering
+in their ears:  
+
+“Remember, brethren, one word of this and you die, all of you, as those
+die who break the oath.”
+
+“Have we not sworn?” they whispered, as they went back to their
+posts.
+
+Jeekie stood a while in front of the empty tent and if any had been
+there to  note him, they might have seen a shadow as of compunction
+creep over his  powerful black face.
+
+“When he wake up he won’t know where he are,” he reflected,
+“and when he get to Bonsa Town he’ll wonder where he is, and when
+he meet Asika! Well, he very big blackguard; try to murder Major, whom
+Jeekie  nurse as baby, the only thing that Jeekie care
+for—except—Jeekie;  try to make love to Miss Barbara against will when
+he catch her alone in  forest, which not playing game. Jeekie self not
+such big blackguard as that  dirt-born noble Lord; Jeekie never murder
+no one—not quite; Jeekie never  make love to girl what not want him—no
+need, so many what do that he have  to shove them off, like good
+Christian man. Mrs. Jeekie see to that while she  live. Also better that
+mean white man go call on Bonsas than Major and Missy  Barbara and all
+porters, and Jeekie—specially Jeekie—get throat  cut. No, no, Jeekie
+nothing to be ashamed of, Jeekie do good day’s work,  though Jeekie keep
+it tight as wax since white folk such silly people, and when  Major in a
+rage, he very nasty customer and see everything upside down. Now, 
+Jeekie quite tired, so say his prayers and have nap. No, think not in
+tent,  though very comfortable. Major might wake up, poke his nose in
+there, and if he  see black face instead of white one, ask ugly
+question, which if Jeekie half  asleep he no able to answer nice and
+neat. Still he just arrange things a  little so they look all right.”  
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE ASIKA’S MESSAGE.
+
+
+Dawn began to break in the forest, and Alan woke in his shelter and
+stretched  himself. He had slept soundly all the night, so soundly that
+the innocent  Jeekie wondered much whether by any chance he also had
+taken a tot out of that  particular whisky bottle, as indeed he had
+recommended him to do. People who  drink whisky after long abstinence
+from spirits are apt to sleep long, he  reflected.
+
+Alan crept out of the shelter and gazed affectionately at the tent in
+which  Barbara slumbered. Thank Heaven she was safe so far, as for some
+unknown  reason, evidently the Asiki had postponed their attack. Just
+then a clamour  arose in the air, and he perceived Jeekie striding
+towards him waving one arm  in an excited fashion, while with the other
+he dragged along the captain of the  porters, who appeared to be praying
+for mercy.  
+
+“Here pretty go, Major,” he shouted, “devil and all to pay!
+That my Lord, he gone and bolted. This silly fool say that three hours
+ago he  hear something break through fence and think it only hyæna what
+come to steal,  so take no notice. Well, that hyæna, you guess who he
+is. You come look,  Major, you come look, and then we tie this fellow up
+and flog him.”  
+
+Alan ran to Aylward’s tent, to find it empty.
+
+“Look,” said Jeekie, who had followed, “see how he do
+business, that jolly clever hyæna,” and he pointed to a broken whisky
+bottle and some severed cords. “You see he manage break bottle and rub
+rope against cut glass till it come in two. Then he do hyæna dodge and
+hook  it.”
+
+Alan inspected the articles, nor did any shadow of doubt enter his mind.
+
+“Certainly he managed very well,” he said, “especially for a
+London-bred man, but, Jeekie, what can have been his object?”
+
+“Oh! who know, Major? Mind of man very strange and various thing;
+p’raps he no bear to see you and Miss Barbara together; p’raps he
+bolt coast, get ear of local magistrate before you; p’raps he sit up
+tree  to shoot you; p’raps nasty temper make him mad. But he gone
+anyway, and  I hope he no meet Asiki, poor fellow, ’cause if so, who
+know?  P’raps they knock him on head, or if they think him you, they
+make him  prisoner and keep him quite long while before they let him go
+again.”  
+
+“Well,” said Alan, “he has gone of his own free will, so we
+have no responsibility in the matter, and I can’t pretend that I am
+sorry  to see the last of him, at any rate for the present. Let that
+poor beggar  loose, there seems to have been enough flogging in this
+place, and after all he  isn’t much to blame.”
+
+Jeekie obeyed, apparently with much reluctance, and just then they saw
+one of  their own people running towards the camp.
+
+“’Fraid he going to tell us Asiki come attack,” said Jeekie,
+shaking his head. “Hope they give us time breakfast first.”
+
+“No doubt,” answered Alan nervously, for he feared the result of
+that attack.
+
+Then the man arrived breathless and began to gasp out his news, which
+filled  Alan with delight and caused a look of utter amazement to appear
+upon the broad  face of Jeekie. It was to the effect that he had climbed
+a high tree as he had  been bidden to do, and from the top of that tree
+by the light of the first rays  of the rising sun, miles away on the
+plain beyond the forest, he had seen the  Asiki army in full retreat.
+
+“Thank God!” exclaimed Alan.
+
+“Yes, Major, but that very rum story. Jeekie can’t swallow it all
+at once. Must send out see none of them left behind. P’raps they play
+trick, but if they really gone, ’spose it ’cause guns frightens
+them so much. Always think powder very great ’vention, especially when
+enemy hain’t got none, and quite sure of it now. Jeekie very, very
+seldom  wrong. Soon believe,” he added with a burst of confidence, “that
+Jeekie never wrong at all. He look for truth so long that at last he
+find it  _always_.”
+
+Something more than a month had gone by and Major and Mrs. Vernon, the
+latter  fully restored to health and the most sweet and beautiful of
+brides, stood upon  the steamship _Benin_, and as the sun sank, looked
+their last upon the  coast of Western Africa.
+
+“Yes, dear,” Alan was saying to his wife, “from first to last
+it has been a very queer story, but I really think that our getting that
+Asiki  gold after all was one of the queerest parts of it; also
+uncommonly convenient,  as things have turned out.”
+
+“Namely that you have got a little pauper for a wife instead of a great
+heiress, Alan. But tell me again about the gold. I have had so much to
+think of  during the last few days,” and she blushed, “that I never
+quite  took it all in.”
+
+“Well, love, there isn’t much to tell. When that forwarding agent,
+Mr. Aston, knew that we were in the town, he came to me and said that he
+had  about fifty cases full of something heavy, as he supposed samples
+of ore,  addressed to me to your care in England which he was proposing
+to ship on by  the _Benin_. I answered ‘Yes, that was all right,’ and
+did not  undeceive him about their contents. Then I asked how they had
+arrived, and if  he had not received a letter with them. He replied that
+one morning before the  warehouse was open, some natives had brought
+them down in a canoe, and dumped  them at the door, telling the watchman
+that they had been paid to deliver them  there by some other natives
+whom they met a long way up the river. Then they  went away without
+leaving any letter or message. Well, I thanked Aston and paid  his
+charges and there’s an end of the matter. Those fifty-three cases are 
+now in the hold invoiced as ore samples and, as I inspected them myself
+and am  sure that they have not been tampered with, besides the value of
+the necklace  the Asika gave me we’ve got £100,000 to begin our married
+life upon with  something over for old Jeekie, and I daresay we shall do
+very well on  that.”  
+
+“Yes, Alan, very well indeed.” Then she reflected a while, for the
+mention of Jeekie’s name seemed to have made her thoughtful, and added,
+“Alan, what _do_ you think became of Lord Aylward?”
+
+“I am sure I don’t know. Jeekie and I and some of the porters went
+to see the Old Calabar officials and made affidavits as to the
+circumstances of  his disappearance. We couldn’t do any more, could we?”
+
+“No, Alan. But do you think that Jeekie quite understands the meaning of
+an oath? I mean it seems so strange that we should never have found the
+slightest trace of him, and, Alan, I don’t know if you noticed it, but
+why did Jeekie appear that morning wearing Lord Aylward’s socks and
+boots?”
+
+“He ought to know all about oaths, he has heard enough of them in
+Magistrates’ Courts, but as regards the boots, I am sure I can’t
+say, dear,” answered Alan uneasily. “Here he comes, we will ask
+him,” and he did.
+
+“Sock and boot,” replied Jeekie, with a surprised air, “why,
+Mrs. Major, if that good lord go mad and cut off into forest leaving
+them  behind, of course I put them on, as they no more use to him, and I
+just burn my  dirty old Asiki dress and sandal and got nothing to keep
+jigger out of toe.  Don’t you sit up here in this damp, cold, Mrs.
+Major, else you get more  fever. You go down and dress dinner, which at
+half-past six to-night. I just  come tell you that.”
+
+So Barbara went, leaving the other two talking about various matters,
+for they  were alone together on the deck, all the passengers, of whom
+there were but  few, having gone below.
+
+The short African twilight had come, a kind of soft blue haze that made
+the  ship look mysterious and unnatural. By degrees their conversation
+died away.  They lapsed into a silence, which Alan was the first to
+break.  
+
+“What are you thinking of, Jeekie?” he asked nervously.
+
+“Thinking of Asika, Major,” he answered in a scared whisper.
+“Seem to me that she about somewhere, just as she use pop up in room in
+Gold House; seem to me I feel her all down my back, likewise in head
+wool,  which stand up.”
+
+“It’s very odd, Jeekie,” replied Alan, “but so do
+I.”
+
+“Well, Major, ’spect she thinking of us, specially of you, and just
+throw what she think at us, like boy throw stones at bird what fly away
+out of  cage. Asika do all that, you know, she not quite human, full of
+plenty Bonsa  devil, from gen’ration to gen’rations, amen! P’raps she
+just  find out something what make her mad.”
+
+“What could she find out after all this time, Jeekie?”
+
+“Oh, don’t know. How I know? Jeekie can’t guess. Find out you
+marry Miss Barbara, p’raps. Very sick that she lose you for this time,
+p’raps. Kill herself that she keep near you, p’raps, while she wait
+till you come round again, p’raps. Asika can do all these things if she
+like, Major.”
+
+“Stuff and rubbish,” answered Alan uneasily, for Jeekie’s
+suggestions were most uncomfortable, “I believe in none of your West
+Coast superstitions.”
+
+“Quite right, Major, nor don’t I. Only you ’member, Major,
+what she show us there in Treasure-place—Mr. Haswell being buried, eh?
+Miss Barbara in tent, eh? t’other job what hasn’t come off yet, eh?
+Oh! my golly! Major, just you look behind you and say you see nothing,
+please,” and the eyes of Jeekie grew large as Maltese oranges, while
+with  chattering teeth he pointed over the bulwark of the vessel.
+
+Alan turned and saw.
+
+This was what he saw or seemed to see: The figure of the Asika in her
+robes and  breastplate of gold, standing upon the air, just beyond the
+ship, as though on  it she might set no foot. Her waving black hair hung
+about her shoulders, but  the sharp wind did not seem to stir it nor did
+her white dress flutter, and on  her beautiful face was stamped a look
+of awful rage and agony, the rage of  betrayal, the agony of loss. In
+her right hand she held a knife, and from a  wound in her breast the red
+blood ran down her golden corselet. She pointed to  Jeekie with the
+knife, she opened her arms to Alan as though in unutterable  longing,
+then slowly raised them upwards towards the fading glory of the sky 
+above—and was gone.  
+
+Jeekie sat down upon the deck, mopping his brow with a red handkerchief,
+while  Alan, who felt faint, clung to the bulwarks.
+
+“Tell you, Major, that Asika can do all that kind of thing. Never know
+where you find her next. ’Spect she come to live with us in England and
+just call in now and again when it dark. Tell you, she very awkward
+customer,  think p’raps you done better stop there and marry her. Well,
+she gone  now, thank Heaven! seem to drop in sea and hope she stay
+there.”  
+
+“Jeekie,” said Alan, recovering himself, “listen to me; this
+is all infernal nonsense; we have gone through a great deal and the
+nerves of  both of us are overstrained. We think we saw what we did not
+see, and if you  dare to say a single word of it to your mistress, I’ll
+break your neck.  Do you understand?”
+
+“Yes, Major, think so. All ’fernal nonsense, nerves strained,
+didn’t see what we see, and say nothing of what did see to Mrs. Major,
+if  either do say anything, t’other one break his neck. That all right,
+quite  understand. Anything else, Major?”
+
+“Yes, Jeekie. We have had some wonderful adventures, but they are past
+and done with and the less we talk or even think about them the better,
+for  there is a lot that would be rather difficult to explain, and that
+if explained  would scarcely be believed.”
+
+“Yes, Major, for instance, very difficult explain Mrs. Barbara how Asika
+so fond of you if you only tell her, ‘Go away, go away!’ all the
+time, like old saint-gentleman to pretty girl in picture. P’raps she
+smell rat.”
+
+“Stop your ribald talk,” said Alan in a stern voice. “It
+would be better if instead of making jokes you gave thanks to Providence
+for  bringing both of us alive and well out of very dreadful dangers.
+Now I am going  to dress for dinner,” and with an anxious glance seaward
+into the  gathering darkness, he turned and went.
+
+Jeekie stood alone upon the empty deck, wagging his great white head to
+and fro  and soliloquizing thus:
+
+“Wonder if Major see what under lady Asika’s feet when she stand
+out there over nasty deep. Think not or he say something. That noble
+lord not  look nice. No, private view for Jeekie only, free ticket and
+nothing to pay and  me hope it no come back when I go to bed. Major know
+nothing about it, so he  not see, but Jeekie know a lot. Hope that
+Aylward not write any letters home,  or if he write, hope no one post
+them. Ghost bad enough, but murder, oh  my!”
+
+He paused a while, then went on:
+
+“Jeekie do big sacrifice to Bonsa when he reach Yarleys, get lamb in
+back  kitchen at night, or if ghost come any more, calf in wood outside.
+Not steal  it, pay for it himself. Then think Jeekie turn Cath’lic;
+confess his  sins, they say them priest chaps not split, and after they
+got his sins, they  tackle Asika and Bonsas too,” and he uttered a
+series of penitent groans,  turning slowly round and round to be sure
+that nothing was behind him.  
+
+Just then the full moon appeared out of a bank of clouds, and as it rose
+higher, flooding the world with light, Jeekie’s spirits rose also.
+
+“Asika never come in moonshine,” he said, “that not the game,
+against rule, and after all, what Jeekie done bad? He very good fellow
+really.  Aylward great villain, serve him jolly well right if Asika
+spiflicate him, that  not Jeekie’s fault. What Jeekie do, he do to save
+master and missus who  he love. Care nothing for his self, ready to die
+any day. Keep it dark to save  them too, ’cause they no like the story.
+If once they know, it always  leave taste in mouth, same as bad oyster.
+Also Jeekie manage very well, take  Major safe Asiki-land (’cause Little
+Bonsa make him), give him very  interesting time there, get him plenty
+gold, nurse him when he sick, nobble  Mungana, bring him out again, find
+Miss Barbara, catch hated rival and  bamboozle all Asiki army, bring
+happy pair to coast and marry them, arrange  first-class honeymoon on
+ship—Jeekie do all these things, and lots more  he could tell, if he
+vain and not poor humble nigger.”  
+
+Once more he paused a while, lost in the contemplation of his own
+modesty and  virtues, then continued:
+
+“This very ungrateful world. Major there, he not say, ‘Thank you,
+Jeekie, Jeekie, you great, wonderful man. Brave Jeekie, artful Jeekie.
+Jeekie  smart as paint who make all world believe just what he like, and
+one too many  for Asika herself.’ No, no, he say nothing like that. He
+say ‘thank  Prov’dence,’ not ‘Jeekie,’ as though Prov’dence
+do all them things. White folk think they clever, but great fools,
+really,  don’t know nothing. Prov’dence all very well in his
+way—p’raps, but Prov’dence not a patch on Jeekie.
+
+“Hullo! moon get behind cloud and there second bell; think Jeekie go
+down  and wait dinner; lonely up here and sure Asika never stand
+’lectric  light.”
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
+be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the
+United States without permission and without paying copyright
+royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
+of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
+and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
+the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
+of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
+copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
+easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
+of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
+Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may
+do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
+by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
+license, especially commercial redistribution.
+
+START: FULL LICENSE
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
+destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
+possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
+Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
+by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
+person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
+1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
+agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
+Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
+of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
+works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
+States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
+United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
+displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
+all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
+that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
+free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
+works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
+comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
+you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
+in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
+check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
+agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
+distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
+other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
+representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
+country other than the United States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
+immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
+prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
+on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
+
+  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
+  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
+  United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
+  you are located before using this eBook.
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
+derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
+contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
+the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
+redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
+either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
+obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
+additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
+will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
+posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
+beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
+any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
+to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
+other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
+Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
+full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+provided that:
+
+* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
+  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+  Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
+  works.
+
+* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+  receipt of the work.
+
+* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
+from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
+the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
+forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
+other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
+cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
+with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
+with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
+lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
+or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
+opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
+the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
+OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
+damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
+violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
+agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
+limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
+unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
+accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
+production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
+including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
+or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
+Defect you cause.
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
+exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
+from people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
+generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
+Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
+www.gutenberg.org
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
+Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
+to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website
+and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without
+widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
+state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
+freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
+distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
+volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
+the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+edition.
+
+Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
+facility: www.gutenberg.org
+
+This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
diff --git a/2857-0.zip b/2857-0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f1e0b07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2857-0.zip
diff --git a/2857-h.zip b/2857-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2903f44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2857-h.zip
diff --git a/2857-h/2857-h.htm b/2857-h/2857-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cfc52ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2857-h/2857-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,13074 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard</title>
+<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
+<style type="text/css">
+
+body { margin-left: 20%;
+       margin-right: 20%;
+       text-align: justify; }
+
+h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight:
+normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;}
+
+h1 {font-size: 300%;
+    margin-top: 0.6em;
+    margin-bottom: 0.6em;
+    letter-spacing: 0.12em;
+    word-spacing: 0.2em;
+    text-indent: 0em;}
+h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
+h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;}
+h4 {font-size: 120%;}
+h5 {font-size: 110%;}
+
+.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */
+
+div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;}
+
+hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;}
+
+p {text-indent: 1em;
+   margin-top: 0.25em;
+   margin-bottom: 0.25em; }
+
+div.fig { display:block;
+          margin:0 auto;
+          text-align:center;
+          margin-top: 1em;
+          margin-bottom: 1em;}
+
+a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none}
+a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none}
+a:hover {color:red}
+
+</style>
+
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Yellow God<br />
+An Idol of Africa</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: H. Rider Haggard</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: October, 2001 [eBook #2857]<br />
+[Most recently updated: November 8, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: John Bickers, Dagny, Emma Dudding and David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:55%;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>THE YELLOW GOD</h1>
+
+<h3>AN IDOL OF AFRICA</h3>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">By H. Rider Haggard</h2>
+
+<hr></hr>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. SAHARA, LIMITED.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. THE YELLOW GOD.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. JEEKIE TELLS A TALE.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. ALAN AND BARBARA.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. BARBARA MAKES A SPEECH.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. MR. HASWELL LOSES HIS TEMPER.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. THE DIARY.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. THE DWARF FOLK.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. THE DAWN.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. BONSA TOWN.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. THE HALL OF THE DEAD.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. THE GOLD HOUSE.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII. THE FEAST OF LITTLE BONSA.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV. THE MOTHER OF JEEKIE.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV. ALAN FALLS ILL.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI. WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII. THE END OF THE MUNGANA.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII. A MEETING IN THE FOREST.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX. THE LAST OF THE ASIKI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap20">CHAPTER XX. THE ASIKA&rsquo;S MESSAGE.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+SAHARA, LIMITED.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., M.P., sat in his office in the City of London. It
+was a very magnificent office, quite one of the finest that could be found
+within half a mile of the Mansion House. Its exterior was built of Aberdeen
+granite, a material calculated to impress the prospective investor with a
+comfortable sense of security. Other stucco, or even brick-built, offices might
+crumble and fall in an actual or a financial sense, but this rock-like edifice
+of granite, surmounted by a life-sized statue of Justice with her scales,
+admired from either corner by pleasing effigies of Commerce and of Industry,
+would surely endure any shock. Earthquake could scarcely shake its strong
+foundations; panic and disaster would as soon affect the Bank of England. That
+at least was the impression which it had been designed to convey, and not
+without success.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is so much in externals,&rdquo; Mr. Champers-Haswell, Sir
+Robert&rsquo;s partner, would say in his cheerful voice. &ldquo;We are all of
+us influenced by them, however unconsciously. Impress the public, my dear
+Aylward. Let solemnity without suggest opulence within, and the bread, or
+rather the granite, which you throw upon the waters will come back to you after
+many days.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Aylward, for this conversation occurred before his merits or the depth of
+his purse had been rewarded by a baronetcy, looked at his partner in the
+impassive fashion for which he was famous, and answered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mix your metaphors, Haswell, but if you mean that the public are
+fools who must be caught by advertisement, I agree with you. Only this
+particular advertisement is expensive and I do not want to wait many days for
+my reward. However, &pound;20,000 one way or the other is a small matter, so tell
+that architect to do the thing in granite.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Robert Aylward sat in his own quiet room at the back of this enduring
+building, a very splendid room that any Secretary of State might have envied,
+but arranged in excellent taste. Its walls were panelled with figured teak, a
+rich carpet made the footfall noiseless, an antique Venus stood upon a marble
+pedestal in the corner, and over the mantelpiece hung a fine portrait by
+Gainsborough, that of a certain Miss Aylward, a famous beauty in her day, with
+whom, be it added, its present owner could boast no connection whatsoever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Robert was seated at his ebony desk playing with a pencil, and the light
+from a cheerful fire fell upon his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In its own way it was a remarkable face, as he appeared then in his four and
+fortieth year; very pale but with a natural pallor, very well cut and on the
+whole impressive. His eyes were dark, matching his black hair and pointed
+beard, and his nose was straight and rather prominent. Perhaps the mouth was
+his weakest feature, for there was a certain shiftiness about it, also the lips
+were thick and slightly sensuous. Sir Robert knew this, and therefore he grew a
+moustache to veil them somewhat. To a careful observer the general impression
+given by this face was such as is left by the sudden sight of a waxen mask.
+&ldquo;How strong! How lifelike!&rdquo; he would have said, &ldquo;but of
+course it isn&rsquo;t real. There may be a man behind, or there may be wood,
+but that&rsquo;s only a mask.&rdquo; Many people of perception had felt like
+this about Sir Robert Aylward, namely, that under the mask of his pale
+countenance dwelt a different being whom they did not know or appreciate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If these had seen him at this moment of the opening of our story, they might
+have held that Wisdom was justified of her children. For now in the solitude of
+his splendid office, of a sudden Sir Robert&rsquo;s mask seemed to fall from
+him. His face broke up like ice beneath a thaw. He rose from his table and
+began to walk up and down the room. He talked to himself aloud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Great Heavens!&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;what a game to have played,
+and it will go through. I believe that it will go through.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He stopped at the table, switched on an electric light and made a rapid
+calculation on the back of a letter with a blue pencil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s my share, a million and
+seventeen thousand pounds in cash, and two million in ordinary shares which can
+be worked off at a discount&mdash;let us say another seven hundred and fifty
+thousand, plus what I have got already&mdash;put that at only two hundred and
+fifty thousand net. Two millions in all, which of course may or may not be
+added to, probably not, unless the ordinaries boom, for I don&rsquo;t mean to
+speculate any more. That&rsquo;s the end of twenty years&rsquo; work, Robert
+Aylward. And to think of it, eighteen months ago, although I seemed so rich, I
+was on the verge of bankruptcy&mdash;the very verge, not worth five thousand
+pounds. Now what did the trick? I wonder what did the trick?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He walked down the room and stopped opposite the ancient marble, staring at
+it&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not Venus, I think,&rdquo; he said, with a laugh, &ldquo;Venus never
+made any man rich.&rdquo; He turned and retraced his steps to the other end of
+the room, which was veiled in shadow. Here upon a second marble pedestal stood
+an object that gleamed dimly through the gloom. It was about ten inches or a
+foot high, but in that place nothing more could be seen of it, except that it
+was yellow and had the general appearance of a toad. For some reason it seemed
+to attract Sir Robert Aylward, for he halted to stare at it, then stretched out
+his hand and switched on another lamp, in the hard brilliance of which the
+thing upon the pedestal suddenly declared itself, leaping out of the darkness
+into light. It was a terrible object, a monstrosity of indeterminate sex and
+nature, but surmounted by a woman&rsquo;s head and face of extraordinary, if
+devilish loveliness, sunk back between high but grotesquely small shoulders,
+like to those of a lizard, so that it glared upwards. The workmanship of the
+thing was rude yet strangely powerful. Whatever there is cruel, whatever there
+is devilish, whatever there is inhuman in the dark places of the world, shone
+out of the jewelled eyes which were set in that yellow female face, yellow
+because its substance was of gold, a face which seemed not to belong to the
+embryonic legs beneath, for body there was none, but to float above them. A
+hollow, life-sized mask with two tiny frog-like legs, that was the fashion of
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are an ugly brute,&rdquo; muttered Sir Robert, contemplating this
+effigy, &ldquo;but although I believe in nothing in heaven above or earth
+below, except the abysmal folly of the British public, I am bothered if I
+don&rsquo;t believe in you. At any rate from the day when Vernon brought you
+into my office, my luck turned, and to judge from the smile on your sweet
+countenance, I don&rsquo;t think it is done with yet. I wonder what those
+stones are in your eyes. Opals, I suppose, from the way they change colour.
+They shine uncommonly to-day, I never remember them so bright.
+I&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this moment a knock came on the door. Sir Robert turned off the lamp and
+walked back to the fireplace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come in,&rdquo; he said, and as he spoke once more his pale face grew
+impassive and expressionless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The door opened and a clerk entered, an imposing-looking clerk with iron-grey
+hair, who wore an irreproachable frock coat and patent leather boots. Advancing
+to his master, he stood respectfully silent, waiting to be addressed. For quite
+a long while Sir Robert looked over his head as though he did not see him; it
+was a way of his. Then his eyes rested on the man dreamily and he remarked in
+his cold, clear voice:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I rang, Jeffreys.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Sir Robert,&rdquo; answered the clerk, bowing as though he spoke to
+Royalty, &ldquo;but there is a little matter about that article in <i>The
+Cynic</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Press business,&rdquo; said Sir Robert, lifting his eyebrows; &ldquo;you
+should know by this time that I do not attend to such details. See Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, or Major Vernon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are both out at the moment, Sir Robert.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go on, then, Jeffreys,&rdquo; replied the head of the firm with a
+resigned sigh, &ldquo;only be brief. I am thinking.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The clerk bowed again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The <i>Cynic</i> people have just telephoned through about that article
+we sent them. I think you saw it, sir, and you may remember it
+begins&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and he read from a typewritten copy in his hand
+which was headed &ldquo;Sahara, Limited&rdquo;:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;We are now privileged to announce that this mighty scheme which
+will turn a desert into a rolling sea bearing the commerce of nations and cause
+the waste places of the earth to teem with population and to blossom like the
+rose, has been completed in its necessary if dull financial details and will
+within a few days be submitted to investors among whom it has already caused so
+much excitement. These details we will deal with fully in succeeding articles,
+and therefore now need only pause to say that the basis of capitalization
+strikes us as wonderfully advantageous to the fortunate public who are asked to
+participate in its vast prospective prosperity. Our present object is to speak
+of its national and imperial aspects&mdash;&mdash;&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Robert lifted his eyes in remonstrance:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How much more of that exceedingly dull and commonplace puff do you
+propose to read, Jeffreys?&rdquo; he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No more, Sir Robert. We are paying <i>The Cynic</i> thirty guineas to
+insert this article, and the point is that they say that if they have to put in
+the &lsquo;national and imperial&rsquo; business they must have twenty
+more.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed, Jeffreys? Why?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because, Sir Robert&mdash;I will tell you, as you always like to hear
+the truth&mdash;their advertisement-editor is of opinion that Sahara Limited is
+a national and imperial swindle. He says that he won&rsquo;t drag the nation
+and the empire into it in an editorial under fifty guineas.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A faint smile flickered on Sir Robert&rsquo;s face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does he, indeed?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I wonder at his moderation. Had
+I been in his place I should have asked more, for really the style is a little
+flamboyant. Well, we don&rsquo;t want to quarrel with them just now&mdash;feed
+the sharks. But surely, Jeffreys, you didn&rsquo;t come to disturb me about
+such a trifle?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not altogether, Sir Robert. There is something more important. <i>The
+Daily Judge</i> not only declines to put any article whatsoever, but refuses
+our advertisement, and states that it means to criticize the prospectus
+trenchantly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said his master after a moment&rsquo;s thought, &ldquo;that
+<i>is</i> rather serious, since people believe in the <i>Judge</i> even when it
+is wrong. Offer them the advertisement at treble rates.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It has been done, sir, and they still refuse.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Robert walked to the corner of the room where the yellow object squatted on
+its pedestal, and contemplated it a while, as a man often studies one thing
+when he is thinking of another. It seemed to give him an idea, for he looked
+over his shoulder and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That will do, Jeffreys. When Major Vernon comes in, give him my
+compliments and say that I should be obliged by a word or two with him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The clerk bowed and went as noiselessly as he had entered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s see,&rdquo; added Sir Robert to himself. &ldquo;Old Jackson,
+the editor of <i>The Judge</i>, was a great friend of Vernon&rsquo;s father,
+the late Sir William Vernon, G.C.B. I believe that he was engaged to be married
+to his sister years ago, only she died or something. So the Major ought to be
+able to get round him if anybody can. Only the worst of it is I don&rsquo;t
+altogether trust that young gentleman. It suited us to give him a share in the
+business because he is an engineer who knows the country, and this Sahara
+scheme was his notion, a very good one in a way, and for other reasons. Now he
+shows signs of kicking over the traces, wants to know too much, is developing a
+conscience, and so forth. As though the promoters of speculative companies had
+any business with consciences. Ah! here he comes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Robert seated himself at his desk and resumed his calculations upon a
+half-sheet of note-paper, and that moment a clear, hearty voice was heard
+speaking to the clerks in the outer office. Then came the sound of a strong,
+firm footstep, the door opened and Major Alan Vernon appeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was still quite a young man, not more than thirty-two or three years of age,
+though he lacked the ultra robust and rubicund appearance which is typical of
+so many Englishmen of his class at this period of life. A heavy bout of
+blackwater fever acquired on service in West Africa, which would have killed
+anyone of weaker constitution, had robbed his face of its bloom and left it
+much sallower, if more interesting than once it had been. For in a way there
+was interest about the face; also a certain charm. It was a good and honest
+face with a rather eager, rather puzzled look, that of a man who has
+imagination and ideas and who searches for the truth but fails to find it. As
+for the charm, it lay for the most part in the pleasant, open smile and in the
+frank but rather round brown eyes overhung by a somewhat massive forehead which
+projected a little, or perhaps the severe illness already alluded to had caused
+the rest of the face to sink. Though thin, the man was bigly built, with broad
+shoulders and well-developed limbs, measuring a trifle under six feet in height.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the outward appearance of Alan Vernon. As for his mind, it was able
+enough in certain fashions, for instance those of engineering, and the
+soldier-like faculties to which it had been trained; frank and kindly also, but
+in other respects not quick, perhaps from its unsuspiciousness. Alan Vernon was
+a man slow to discover ill and slower still to believe in it even when it
+seemed to be discovered, a weakness that may have gone far to account for his
+presence in the office of those eminent and brilliant financiers, Messrs.
+Aylward &amp; Champers-Haswell. Just now he looked a little worried, like a
+fish out of water, or rather a fish which has begun to suspect the quality of
+the water, something in its smell or taste.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeffreys tells me that you want to see me, Sir Robert,&rdquo; he said in
+his low and pleasant voice, looking at the baronet rather anxiously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, my dear Vernon, I wish to ask you to do something, if you kindly
+will, although it is not quite in your line. Old Jackson, the editor of <i>The
+Judge</i>, is a friend of yours, isn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He was a friend of my father&rsquo;s, and I used to know him
+slightly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s near enough. As I daresay you have heard, he is an
+unreasonable old beggar, and has taken a dislike to our Sahara scheme. Someone
+has set him against it and he refuses to receive advertisements, threatens
+criticisms, etc. Now the opposition of <i>The Judge</i> or any other paper
+won&rsquo;t kill us, and if necessary we can fight, but at the same time it is
+always wise to agree with your enemy while he is in the way, and in
+short&mdash;would you mind going down and explaining his mistake to him?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before answering Major Vernon walked to the window leisurely and looked out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like asking favours from family friends,&rdquo; he replied
+at length, &ldquo;and, as you said, I think it isn&rsquo;t quite my line.
+Though of course if it has anything to do with the engineering possibilities, I
+shall be most happy to see him,&rdquo; he added, brightening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it has to do with; that is what I shall be
+obliged if you will find out,&rdquo; answered Sir Robert with some asperity.
+&ldquo;One can&rsquo;t divide a matter of this sort into watertight
+compartments. It is true that in so important a concern each of us has charge
+of his own division, but the fact remains that we are jointly and severally
+responsible for the whole. I am not sure that you bear this sufficiently in
+mind, my dear Vernon,&rdquo; he added with slow emphasis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His partner moved quickly; it might almost have been said that he shivered,
+though whether the movement, or the shiver, was produced by the argument of
+joint and several liability or by the familiarity of the &ldquo;my dear
+Vernon,&rdquo; remains uncertain. Perhaps it was the latter, since although the
+elder man was a baronet and the younger only a retired Major of Engineers, the
+gulf between them, as any one of discernment could see, was wide. They were
+born, lived, and moved in different spheres unbridged by any common element or
+impulse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that I do bear it in mind, especially of late, Sir
+Robert,&rdquo; answered Alan Vernon slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His partner threw a searching glance on him, for he felt that there was meaning
+in the words, but only said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all right. My motor is outside and will take you to Fleet
+Street in no time. Meanwhile you might tell them to telephone that you are
+coming, and perhaps you will just look in when you get back. I haven&rsquo;t
+got to go to the House to-night, so shall be here till dinner time, and so, I
+think, will your cousin Haswell. Muzzle that old bulldog, Jackson, somehow. No
+doubt he has his price like the rest of them, in meal or malt, and you
+needn&rsquo;t stick at the figure. We don&rsquo;t want him hanging on our
+throat for the next week or two.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ten minutes later the splendid, two-thousand guinea motor brougham drew up at
+the offices of the <i>Judge</i> and the obsequious motor-footman bowed Major
+Vernon through its rather grimy doorway. Within, a small boy in a kind of box
+asked his business, and when he heard his name, said that the
+&ldquo;Guvnor&rdquo; had sent down word that he was go up at once&mdash;third
+floor, first to the right and second to the left. So up he went, and when he
+reached the indicated locality was taken possession of by a worried-looking
+clerk who had evidently been waiting for him, and almost thrust through a door
+to find himself in a big, worn, untidy room. At a huge desk in this room sat an
+elderly man, also big, worn, and untidy-looking, who waved a long slip of
+galley-proof in his hand, and was engaged in scolding a sub-editor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is that?&rdquo; he said, wheeling round. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m busy,
+can&rsquo;t see anyone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I beg your pardon,&rdquo; answered the Major with humility, &ldquo;your
+people told me to come up. My name is Alan Vernon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! I remember. Sit down for a moment, will you, and&mdash;Mr. Thomas,
+oblige me by taking away this rot and rewriting it entirely in the sense I have
+outlined.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Thomas snatched his rejected copy and vanished through another door,
+whereon his chief remarked in an audible voice:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That man is a perfect fool. Lucky I thought to look at his stuff. Well,
+he is no worse than the rest, in this weary world,&rdquo; and he burst into a
+hearty laugh and swung his chair round, adding, &ldquo;Now then, Alan, what is
+it? I have a quarter of an hour at your service. Why, bless me! I was
+forgetting that it&rsquo;s more than a dozen years since we met; you were still
+a boy then, and now you have left the army with a D.S.O. and gratuity, and
+turned financier, which I think wouldn&rsquo;t have pleased your old father.
+Come, sit down here and let us talk.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t leave the army, Mr. Jackson,&rdquo; answered his visitor;
+&ldquo;it left me; I was invalided out. They said I should never get my health
+back after that last go of fever, but I did.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! bad luck, very bad luck, just at the beginning of what should have
+been a big career, for I know they thought highly of you at the War Office,
+that is, if they can think. Well, you have grown into a fine-looking fellow,
+like your father, very, and someone else too,&rdquo; and he sighed, running his
+fingers through his grizzled hair. &ldquo;But you don&rsquo;t remember her; she
+was before your time. Now let us get to business; there&rsquo;s no time for
+reminiscences in this office. What is it, Alan, for like other people I suppose
+that you want something?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is about that Sahara flotation, Mr. Jackson,&rdquo; he began rather
+doubtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old editor&rsquo;s face darkened. &ldquo;The Sahara flotation! That
+accursed&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and he ceased abruptly. &ldquo;What have you, of
+all people in the world, got to do with it? Oh! I remember. Someone told me
+that you had gone into partnership with Aylward the company promoter, and that
+little beast, Champers-Haswell, who really is the clever one. Well, set it out,
+set it out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It seems, Mr. Jackson, that <i>The Judge</i> has refused not only our
+article, but also the advertisement of the company. I don&rsquo;t know much
+about this side of the affair myself, but Sir Robert asked me if I would come
+round and see if things couldn&rsquo;t be arranged.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mean that the man sent you to try and work on me because he knew
+that I used to be intimate with your family. Well, it is a poor errand and will
+have a poor end. You can&rsquo;t&mdash;no one on earth can, while I sit in this
+chair, not even my proprietors.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was silence broken at last by Alan, who remarked awkwardly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If that is so, I must not take up your time any longer.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I said that I would give you a quarter of an hour, and you have only
+been here four minutes. Now, Alan Vernon, tell me as your father&rsquo;s old
+friend, why you have gone to herd with these gilded swine?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was something so earnest about the man&rsquo;s question that it did not
+even occur to his visitor to resent its roughness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course it is not original,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;but I had this
+idea about flooding the Desert; I spent a furlough up there a few years ago and
+employed my time in making some rough surveys. Then I was obliged to leave the
+Service and went down to Yarleys after my father&rsquo;s death&mdash;it&rsquo;s
+mine now, you know, but worth nothing except a shooting rent, which just pays
+for the repairs. There I met Champers-Haswell, who lives near and is a kind of
+distant cousin of mine&mdash;my mother was a Champers&mdash;and happened to
+mention the thing to him. He took it up at once and introduced me to Aylward,
+and the end of it was, that they offered me a partnership with a small share in
+the business, because they said I was just the man they wanted.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Just the man they wanted,&rdquo; repeated the editor after him.
+&ldquo;Yes, the last of the Vernons, an engineer with an old name in his
+county, a clean record and plenty of ability. Yes, you would be just the man
+they wanted. And you accepted?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes. I was on my beam ends with nothing to do; I wanted to make some
+money. You see Yarleys has been in the family for over five hundred years, and
+it seemed hard to have to sell it. Also&mdash;also&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and he
+paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ever meet Barbara Champers?&rdquo; asked Mr. Jackson inconsequently.
+&ldquo;I did once. Wonderfully nice girl, and very good-looking too. But of
+course you know her, and she is her uncle&rsquo;s ward, and their place
+isn&rsquo;t far off Yarleys, you say. Must be a connection of yours also.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Major Vernon started a little at the name and his face seemed to redden.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I have met her and she is a
+connection.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will be a big heiress one day, I think,&rdquo; went on Mr. Jackson,
+&ldquo;unless old Haswell makes off with her money. I think Aylward knows that;
+at any rate he was hanging about when I saw her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Vernon started again, this time very perceptibly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very natural&mdash;your going into the business, I mean, under all the
+circumstances,&rdquo; went on Mr. Jackson. &ldquo;But now, if you will take my
+advice, you&rsquo;ll go out of it as soon as you can.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because, Alan Vernon, I am sure you don&rsquo;t want to see your name
+dragged in the dirt, any more than I do.&rdquo; He fumbled in a drawer and
+produced a typewritten document. &ldquo;Take that,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and
+study it at your leisure. It&rsquo;s a sketch of the financial career of
+Messrs. Aylward and Champers-Haswell, also of the companies which they have
+promoted and been connected with, and what has happened to them and to those
+who invested in them. A man got it out for me yesterday and I&rsquo;m going to
+use it. As regards this Sahara business, you think it all right, and so it may
+be from an engineering point of view, but you will never live to sail upon that
+sea which the British public is going to be asked to find so many millions to
+make. Look here. We have only three minutes more, so I will come to the point
+at once. It&rsquo;s Turkish territory, isn&rsquo;t it, and putting aside
+everything else, the security for the whole thing is a Firman from the
+Sultan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Sir Robert Aylward and Haswell procured it in Constantinople. I
+have seen the document.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed, and are you well acquainted with the Sultan&rsquo;s signature? I
+know when they were there last autumn that potentate was very
+ill&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mean&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; said Major Vernon, looking up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I mean, Alan, that I like not the security. I won&rsquo;t say any more,
+as there is a law of libel in this land. But <i>The Judge</i> has certain
+sources of information. It may be that no protest will be made at once, for
+baksheesh can stop it for a while, but sooner or later the protest or
+repudiation will come, and perhaps some international bother; also much
+scandal. As to the scheme itself, it is shamelessly over-capitalized for the
+benefit of the promoters&mdash;of whom, remember, Alan, you will appear as one.
+Now time&rsquo;s up. Perhaps you will take my advice, and perhaps you
+won&rsquo;t, but there it is for what it&rsquo;s worth as that of a man of the
+world and an old friend of your family. As for your puff article and your
+prospectus, I wouldn&rsquo;t put them in <i>The Judge</i> if you paid me a
+thousand pounds, which I daresay your friend, Aylward, would be quite ready to
+do. Good-bye. Come and see me again sometime, and tell me what has
+happened&mdash;and, I say&rdquo;&mdash;this last was shouted through the
+closing door,&mdash;&ldquo;give my kind regards to Miss Barbara, for wherever
+she happens to live, she is an honest woman.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+THE YELLOW GOD.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Alan Vernon walked thoughtfully down the lead-covered stairs, hustled by eager
+gentlemen hurrying up to see the great editor, whose bell was already ringing
+furiously, and was duly ushered by the obsequious assistant-chauffeur back into
+the luxurious motor. There was an electric lamp in this motor, and by the light
+of it, his mind being perplexed, he began to read the typewritten document
+given to him by Mr. Jackson, which he still held in his hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it chanced they were blocked for a quarter of an hour near the Mansion
+House, so that he found time, if not to master it, at least to gather enough of
+its contents to make him open his brown eyes very wide before the motor pulled
+up at the granite doorway of his office. Alan descended from the machine, which
+departed silently, and stood for a moment wondering what he should do. His
+impulse was to jump into a bus and go straight to his rooms or his club, to
+which Sir Robert did not belong, but being no coward, he dismissed it from his
+mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His fate hung in the balance, of that he was well aware. Either he must
+disregard Mr. Jackson&rsquo;s warning, confirmed as it was by many secret fears
+and instincts of his own, and say nothing except that he had failed in his
+mission, or he must take the bull by the horns and break with the firm. To do
+the latter meant not only a good deal of moral courage, but practical ruin,
+whereas if he chose the former course, probably within a fortnight he would
+find himself a rich man. Whatever Jackson and a few others might say in its
+depreciation, he was certain that the Sahara flotation would go through, for it
+was underwritten, of course upon terms, by responsible people, moreover the
+unissued preferred shares had already been dealt in at a heavy premium. Now to
+say nothing of the allotment to which he was entitled upon his holding in the
+parent Syndicate, the proportion of cash due to him as a partner, would amount
+to quite a hundred thousand pounds. In other words, he, who had so many reasons
+for desiring money, would be wealthy. After working so hard and undergoing so
+much that he felt to be humiliating and even degrading, why should he not take
+his reward and clear out afterwards?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This he remembered he could do, since probably by some oversight of
+Aylward&rsquo;s, who left such matters to his lawyers, his deed of partnership
+did not bind him to a fixed term. It could be broken at any moment. To this
+argument there was only one possible answer, that of his conscience. If once he
+were convinced that things were not right, it would be dishonest to participate
+in their profits. And he was convinced. Mr. Jackson&rsquo;s arguments and his
+damning document had thrown a flood of light upon many matters which he had
+suspected but never quite understood. He was the partner of, well, adventurers,
+and the money which he received would, in fact, be filched from the pockets of
+unsuspecting persons. He would vouch for that of which he was doubtful and
+receive the price of sharp practice. In other words he, Alan Vernon, who had
+never uttered a wilful untruth or taken a halfpenny that was not his own, would
+before the tribunal of his own mind, stand convicted as a liar and a thief. The
+thing was not to be borne. At whatever cost it must be ended. If he were fated
+to be a beggar, at least he would be an honest beggar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a firm step and a high head he walked straight into Sir Robert&rsquo;s
+room, without even going through the formality of knocking, to find Mr.
+Champers-Haswell seated at the ebony desk by his partner&rsquo;s side examining
+some document through a reading-glass, which on his appearance, was folded over
+and presently thrust away into a drawer. It seemed, Alan noticed, to be of an
+unusual shape and written in some strange character.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Haswell, a stout, jovial-looking little man with a florid complexion and
+white hair, rose at once to greet him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How do you do, Alan,&rdquo; he said in a cheerful voice, for as a cousin
+by marriage he called him by his Christian name. &ldquo;I am just this minute
+back from Paris, and you will be glad to learn that they are going to support
+us very well there; in fact I may say that the Government has taken up the
+scheme, of course under the rose. You know the French have possessions all
+along that coast and they won&rsquo;t be sorry to find an opportunity of
+stretching out their hand a little further. Our difficulties as to capital are
+at an end, for a full third of it is guaranteed in Paris, and I expect that
+small investors and speculators for the rise will gobble a lot more. We shall
+plant &pound;10,000,000 worth of Sahara scrip in sunny France, my boy, and foggy
+England has underwritten the rest. It will be a case of &lsquo;letters of
+allotment and regret,&rsquo; <i>and</i> regret, Alan, financially the most
+successful issue of the last dozen years. What do you say to that?&rdquo; and
+in his elation the little man puffed out his chest and pursing up his lips,
+blew through them, making a sound like that of wind among wires.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, Mr. Haswell. If we are all alive I would prefer to
+answer the question twelve months hence, or later, when we see whether the
+company is going to be a practical success as well, or not.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Mr. Haswell made the sound of wind among wires, only this time there was
+a shriller note in it; its mellowness was gone, it was as though the air had
+suddenly been filled with frost.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A practical success!&rdquo; he repeated after him. &ldquo;That is
+scarcely our affair, is it? Promoters should not bother themselves with long
+views, Alan. These may be left to the investing public, the speculative parson
+and the maiden lady who likes a flutter&mdash;those props of modern enterprise.
+But what do you mean? You originated this idea and always said that the profits
+should be great.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Mr. Haswell, on a moderate capitalization and provided that we are
+sure of the co-operation of the Porte.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Haswell looked at him very searchingly and Sir Robert, who had been
+listening, said in his cold voice:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that we thrashed out these points long ago, and to tell you the
+truth I am rather tired of them, especially as it is too late to change
+anything. How did you get on with Jackson, Vernon?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I did not get on at all, Sir Robert. He will not touch the thing on any
+terms, and indeed means to oppose it tooth and nail.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then he will find himself in a minority when the articles come out
+to-morrow. Of course it is a bore, but we are strong enough to snap our fingers
+at him. You see they don&rsquo;t read <i>The Judge</i> in France, and no one
+has ever heard of it in Constantinople. Therefore we have nothing to
+fear&mdash;so long as we stick together,&rdquo; he added meaningly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan felt that the crisis had come. He must speak now or for ever hold his
+peace; indeed Aylward was already looking round for his hat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sir Robert and Mr. Haswell,&rdquo; he broke in rather nervously,
+&ldquo;I have something to say to you, something unpleasant,&rdquo; and he
+paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then please say it at once, Vernon. I want to dress for dinner, I am
+going to the theatre to-night and must dine early,&rdquo; replied Aylward in a
+voice of the utmost unconcern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is, Sir Robert,&rdquo; went on Alan with a rush, &ldquo;that I do not
+like the lines upon which this business is being worked, and I wish to give up
+my interest in it and retire from the firm, as I have a right to do under our
+deed of partnership.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you?&rdquo; said Aylward. &ldquo;Really, I forget. But, my dear
+fellow, do not think that we should wish to keep you for one moment against
+your will. Only, might I ask, has that old puritan, Jackson, hypnotized you, or
+is it a case of sudden madness after influenza?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Neither,&rdquo; answered Alan sternly, for although he might be
+diffident on matters that he did not thoroughly understand, he was not a man to
+brook trifling or impertinence. &ldquo;It is what I have said, no more nor
+less. I am not satisfied either as to the capitalization or as to the guarantee
+that the enterprise can be really carried out. Further&rdquo;&mdash;and he
+paused,&mdash;&ldquo;Further, I should like what I have never yet been able to
+obtain, more information as to that Firman under which the concession is
+granted.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For one moment a sort of tremor passed over Sir Robert&rsquo;s impassive
+countenance, while Mr. Haswell uttered his windy whistle, this time in a tone
+of plaintive remonstrance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As you have formally resigned your membership of the firm, I do not see
+that any useful purpose can be served by discussing such matters. The fullest
+explanations, of course, we should have been willing to
+give&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My dear Alan,&rdquo; broke in Mr. Champers-Haswell, who was quite upset,
+&ldquo;I do implore you to reflect for one moment, for your own sake. In a
+single week you would have been a wealthy man; do you really mean to throw away
+everything for a whim?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps Vernon remembers that he holds over 1700 of the Syndicate shares
+which we have worked up to &pound;18, and thinks it wiser to capture the profit in
+sight, generally speaking a very sound principle,&rdquo; interrupted Aylward
+sarcastically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are mistaken, Sir Robert,&rdquo; replied Alan, flushing. &ldquo;The
+way that those shares have been artificially put up is one of the things to
+which I most object. I shall only ask for mine the face value which I paid for
+them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now notwithstanding their experience, both of the senior partners did for a
+moment look rather scared. Such folly, or such honesty, was absolutely
+incredible to them. They felt that there must be much behind. Sir Robert,
+however, recovered instantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;it is not for us to dictate to you;
+you must make your own bed and lie on it. To argue or remonstrate would only be
+rude.&rdquo; He put out his hand and pushed the button of an electric bell,
+adding as he did so, &ldquo;Of course we understand one thing, Vernon, namely,
+that as a gentleman and a man of honour you will make no public use of the
+information which you have acquired during your stay in this office, either to
+our detriment, personal or financial, or to your own advantage.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly you may understand that,&rdquo; replied Vernon. &ldquo;Unless
+my character is attacked and it becomes necessary for me to defend myself, my
+lips are sealed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That will never happen&mdash;why should it?&rdquo; said Sir Robert with
+a polite bow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The door opened and the head clerk, Jeffreys, appeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mr. Jeffreys,&rdquo; said Sir Robert, &ldquo;please find us the deed of
+partnership between Major Vernon and ourselves, and bring it here. One moment.
+Please make out also a transfer of Major Vernon&rsquo;s parcel of Sahara
+Syndicate shares to Mr. Champers-Haswell and myself at par value, and fill in a
+cheque for the amount. Please remove also Major Vernon&rsquo;s name wherever it
+appears in the proof prospectus, and&mdash;yes&mdash;one thing more. Telephone
+to Specton&mdash;the Right Honourable the Earl of Specton, I mean, and say that
+after all I have been able to arrange that he shall have a seat on the Board
+and a block of shares at a very moderate figure, and that if he will wire his
+assent, his name shall be put into the prospectus. You approve, don&rsquo;t
+you, Haswell?&mdash;yes&mdash;then that is all, I think, Jeffreys, only please
+be as quick as you can, for I want to get away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeffreys, the immaculate and the impassive, bowed, and casting one swift glance
+at Vernon out of the corner of his eye, departed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What is called an awkward pause ensued; in fact it was a very awkward pause.
+The die was cast, the matter ended, and what were the principals to do until
+the ratifications had been exchanged or, a better simile perhaps, the <i>decree
+nisi</i> pronounced absolute. Mr. Champers-Haswell remarked that the weather
+was very cold for April, and Alan agreed with him, while Sir Robert found his
+hat and brushed it with his sleeve. Then Mr. Haswell, in desperation, for in
+minor matters he was a kindly sort of man who disliked scenes and
+unpleasantness, muttered something as to seeing him&mdash;Alan&mdash;at his
+house, &ldquo;The Court,&rdquo; in Hertfordshire, from Saturday to Monday.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That was the arrangement,&rdquo; answered Alan bluntly, &ldquo;but
+possibly after what has happened you will not wish that it should be
+kept.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! why not, why not?&rdquo; said Mr. Haswell. &ldquo;Sunday is a day of
+rest when we make it a rule not to talk business, and if we did, perhaps we
+might all change our minds about these matters. Sir Robert is coming, and I am
+sure that your cousin Barbara will be very disappointed if you do not turn up,
+for she understands nothing about these city things which are Greek to
+her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the mention of the name of Barbara Sir Robert Aylward looked up from the
+papers which he affected to be tidying, and Alan thought that there was a kind
+of challenge in his eyes. A moment before he had made up his mind that no power
+on earth would induce him to spend a Sunday with his late partners at The
+Court. Now, acting upon some instinct or impulse, he reversed his opinion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thanks,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if that is understood, I shall be happy
+to come. I will drive over from Yarleys in time for dinner to-morrow. Perhaps
+you will say so to Barbara.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She will be glad, I am sure,&rdquo; answered Mr. Haswell, &ldquo;for she
+told me the other day that she wants to consult you about some outdoor
+theatricals that she means to get up in July.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In July!&rdquo; answered Alan with a little laugh. &ldquo;I wonder where
+I shall be in July.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then came another pause, which seemed to affect even Sir Robert&rsquo;s nerves,
+for, abandoning the papers, he walked down the room till he came to the golden
+object that has been described, and for the second time that day stood there
+contemplating it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This thing is yours, Vernon,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and now that our
+relations are at an end, I suppose that you will want to take it away. What is
+its history? You never told me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! that&rsquo;s a long story,&rdquo; answered Alan in an absent voice.
+&ldquo;My uncle, who was a missionary, brought it from West Africa. I rather
+forget the facts, but Jeekie, my negro servant, knows them all, for as a lad my
+uncle saved him from sacrifice, or something, in a place where they worship
+these things, and he has been with us ever since. It is a fetish with magical
+powers and all the rest of it. I believe they call it the Swimming Head and
+other names. If you look at it, you will see that it seems to swim between the
+shoulders, doesn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Sir Robert, &ldquo;and I admire the beautiful beast.
+She is cruel and artistic, like&mdash;like finance. Look here, Vernon, we have
+quarrelled, and of course henceforth are enemies, for it is no use mincing
+matters, only fools do that. But in a way you are being hardly treated. You
+could get &pound;10 apiece to-day for those shares of yours in a block on the market,
+and I am paying you &pound;1. I understand your scruples, but there is no reason why
+we should not square things. This fetish of yours has brought me luck, so
+let&rsquo;s do a deal. Leave it here, and instead of a check for &pound;1700, I will
+make you one out for &pound;17,000.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a very liberal offer,&rdquo; said Vernon. &ldquo;Give me a
+moment to think it over.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he also walked into the corner of the room and contemplated the golden
+mask that seemed to float between the frog-like shoulders. The shimmering eyes
+drew his eyes, though what he saw in them does not matter. Indeed he could
+never remember. Only when he straightened himself again there was left on his
+mind a determination that not for seventeen or for seventy thousand pounds
+would he part with his ownership in this very unique fetish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, thank you,&rdquo; he said presently. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I
+will sell the Yellow God, as Jeekie calls it. Perhaps you will kindly keep her
+here for a week or so, until I make up my mind where to stow her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Mr. Champers-Haswell uttered his windy whistle. That a man should refuse
+&pound;17,000 for a bit of African gold worth &pound;100 or so, struck him as miraculous.
+But Sir Robert did not seem in the least surprised, only very disappointed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I quite understand your dislike to selling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Thank
+you for leaving it here for the present to see us through the flotation,&rdquo;
+and he laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that moment Jeffreys entered the room with the documents. Sir Robert handed
+the deed of partnership to Alan, and when he had identified it, took it from
+him again and threw it on the fire, saying that of course the formal letter of
+release would be posted and the dissolution notified in the <i>Gazette</i>.
+Then the transfer was signed and the cheque delivered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, good-bye till Saturday,&rdquo; said Alan when he had received the
+latter, and nodding, to them both, he turned and left the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The passage ran past the little room in which Mr. Jeffreys, the head clerk, sat
+alone. Catching sight of him through the open door, Alan entered, shutting it
+behind him. Finding his key ring he removed from it the keys of his desk and of
+the office strongroom, and handed them to the clerk who, methodical in
+everything, proceeded to write a formal receipt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are leaving us, Major Vernon?&rdquo; he said interrogatively as he
+signed the paper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Jeffreys,&rdquo; answered Alan, then prompted by some impulse,
+added, &ldquo;Are you sorry?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Jeffreys looked up and there were traces of unwonted emotion upon his hard,
+regulated face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For myself, yes, Major&mdash;for you, on the whole, no.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What do you mean, Jeffreys? I do not quite understand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I mean, Major, that I am sorry because you have never tried to shuffle
+off any shady business on to my back and leave me to bear the brunt of it; also
+because you have always treated me as a gentleman should, not as a machine to
+be used until a better can be found, and kicked aside when it goes out of
+order.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is very kind of you to say so, Jeffreys, but I can&rsquo;t remember
+having done anything particular.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Major, you can&rsquo;t remember what comes natural to you. But I and
+the others remember, and that&rsquo;s why I am sorry. But for yourself I am
+glad, since although Aylward and Haswell have put a big thing through and are
+going to make a pot of money, this is no place for the likes of you, and now
+that you are going I will make bold to tell you that I always wondered what you
+were doing here. By and by, Major, the row will come, as it has come more than
+once in the past, before your time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And then?&rdquo; said Alan, for he was anxious to get to the bottom of
+this man&rsquo;s mind, which hitherto he had always found so secret.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And then, Major, it won&rsquo;t matter much to Messrs. Aylward and
+Champers-Haswell, who are used to that kind of thing and will probably dissolve
+partnership and lie quiet for a bit, and still less to folk like myself, who
+are only servants. But if you were still here it would have mattered a great
+deal to you, for it would blacken your name and break your heart, and then
+what&rsquo;s the good of the money? I tell you, Major,&rdquo; the clerk went on
+with quiet intensity, &ldquo;though I am nobody and nothing, if I could afford
+it I would follow your example. But I can&rsquo;t, for I have a sick wife and a
+family of delicate children who have to live half the year on the south coast,
+to say nothing of my old mother, and&mdash;I was fool enough to be taken in and
+back Sir Robert&rsquo;s last little venture, which cost me all I had saved. So
+you see I must make a bit before the machine is scrapped, Major. But I tell you
+this, that if I can get &pound;5000 together, as I hope to do out of Saharas before I
+am a month older, for they had to give me a look-in, as I knew too much, I am
+off to the country, where I was born, to take a farm there. No more of Messrs.
+Aylward &amp; Haswell for Thomas Jeffreys. That&rsquo;s my bell. Good-bye,
+Major, I&rsquo;ll take the liberty to write you a line sometimes, for I know you
+won&rsquo;t give me away. Good-bye and God bless you, as I am sure He will in
+the long run,&rdquo; and stretching out his hand, he took that of the
+astonished Alan and wrung it warmly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he was gone Alan went also, noticing that the clerks, whom some rumour of
+these events seemed to have reached, eyed him curiously through the glass
+screens behind which they sat at their desks, as he thought not without regret
+and a kind of admiration. Even the magnificent be-medalled porter at the door
+emerged from the carved teak box where he dwelt and touching his cap asked if
+he should call a cab.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, thank you, Sergeant,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;I will take a bus,
+and, Sergeant, I think I forgot to give you a present last Xmas. Will you
+accept this?&mdash;I wish I could make it more,&rdquo; and he presented him
+with ten shillings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Sergeant drew himself up and saluted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you kindly, Major,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather take
+that from you than &pound;10 from the other gentlemen. But, Major, I wish we were out
+on the West Coast again together. It&rsquo;s a stinking, barbarous hole, but
+not so bad as this &rsquo;ere city.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For once these two had served as comrades, and it was through Alan that the
+sergeant obtained his present lucrative but somewhat uncongenial post.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was outside at last. The massive granite portal vanished behind him in the
+evening mists, much as a nightmare vanishes. He, Alan Vernon, who for a year or
+more had been in bondage, was a free man again. All his dreams of wealth had
+departed; indeed if anything, save in experience, he was poorer than when first
+the shadow of yonder doorway fell upon him. But at least he was safe, safe. The
+deed of partnership which had been as a chain about his neck, was now white
+ashes; his name was erased from that fearful prospectus of Sahara Limited,
+wherein millions which someone would provide were spoken of like silver in the
+days of Solomon, as things of no account. The bitterest critic could not say
+that he had made a halfpenny out of the venture, in fact, if trouble came, his
+voluntary abandonment of the profits due to him must go to his credit. He had
+plunged into the icy waters of renunciation and come up clean if naked. Never
+since he was a boy could Alan remember feeling so utterly light-hearted and
+free from anxiety. Not for a million pounds would he have returned to gather
+gold in that mausoleum of reputations. As for the future, he did not in the
+least care what happened. There was no one dependent on him, and in this way or
+in that he could always earn a crust, a nice, honest crust.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He ran down the street and danced for joy like a child, yes, and presented a
+crossing-sweeper against whom he butted with a whole sixpence in compensation.
+Thus he reached the Mansion House, not unsuspected of inebriety by the police,
+and clambered to the top of a bus crowded with weary and anxious-looking City
+clerks returning home after a long day&rsquo;s labour at starvation wage. In
+that cold company and a chilling atmosphere some of his enthusiasm evaporated.
+He remembered that this step of his meant that sooner or later, within a year
+or two at most, Yarleys, where his family had dwelt for centuries, must go to
+the hammer. Why had he not accepted Aylward&rsquo;s offer and sold that old
+fetish to him for &pound;17,000? There was no question of share-dealing there, and if
+a very wealthy man chose to give a fancy price for a curiosity, he could take
+it without doubt or shame. At least it would have sufficed to save Yarleys,
+which after all was only mortgaged for &pound;20,000. For the life of him he could
+not tell. He had acted on impulse, a very curious impulse, and there was an end
+of it perhaps; it might be because his uncle had told him as a boy that the
+thing was unique, or perhaps because old Jeekie, his negro servant, venerated
+it so much and swore that it was &ldquo;lucky.&rdquo; At any rate he had
+declined and there was an end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But another and a graver matter remained. He had desired wealth to save
+Yarleys, but he desired it still more for a different purpose. Above everything
+on earth he loved Barbara, his distant cousin and the niece of Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, who until an hour ago had been his partner. Now she was a
+great heiress, and without fortune he could not marry her, even if she would
+marry him, which remained in doubt. For one thing her uncle and guardian
+Haswell, under her father&rsquo;s will, had absolute discretion in this matter
+until she reached the age of twenty-five, and for another he was too proud.
+Therefore it would seem that, in abandoning his business, he had abandoned his
+chance of Barbara also, which was a truly dreadful thought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, it was in order that he might see her, that he had agreed to visit The
+Court on the morrow, even though it meant a meeting with his late partners, who
+were the last people with whom he desired to foregather again so soon. Then and
+there he made up his mind that before he bade Barbara farewell, he would tell
+her the whole story, so that she might not misjudge him. After that he would go
+off somewhere&mdash;to Africa perhaps. Meanwhile he was quite tired out, as
+tired as though he had lain a week in the grip of fever. He must eat some food
+and get to bed. Sufficient unto the day was the evil thereof, yet on the whole
+he blessed the name of Jackson, editor of <i>The Judge</i> and his
+father&rsquo;s old friend.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Alan had left the office Sir Robert turned to Mr. Champers-Haswell and
+asked him abruptly, &ldquo;What the devil does this mean?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Haswell looked up at the ceiling and whistled in his own peculiar fashion,
+then answered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot say for certain, but our young friend&rsquo;s strange conduct
+seems to suggest that he has smelt a rat, possibly even that Jackson, the old
+beast, has shown him a rat&mdash;of a large Turkish breed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Robert nodded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Vernon is a fellow who doesn&rsquo;t like rats; they seem to haunt his
+sleep,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;but do you think that having seen it, he will
+keep it in the bag?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! certainly, certainly,&rdquo; answered Mr. Haswell with cheerfulness;
+&ldquo;the man is the soul of honour; he will never give us away. Look how he
+behaved about those shares. Still, I think that perhaps we are well rid of him.
+Too much honour, like too much zeal, is a very dangerous quality in any
+business.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that I agree with you,&rdquo; answered Sir Robert.
+&ldquo;I am not sure that in the long run we should not do better for a little
+more of the article. For my part, although it will not hurt us publicly, for
+the thing will never be noticed, I am sorry that we have lost Vernon, very
+sorry indeed. I don&rsquo;t think him a fool, and awkward as they may be, I
+respect his qualities.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So do I, so do I,&rdquo; answered Mr. Haswell, &ldquo;and of course we
+have acted against his advice throughout, which must have been annoying to him.
+The scheme as he suggested it was a fair business proposition that might have
+paid ten per cent. on a small capital, but what is the good of ten per cent. to
+you and me? We want millions and we are going to get them. Well, he is coming
+to The Court to-morrow, and perhaps after all we shall be able to arrange
+matters. I&rsquo;ll give Barbara a hint; she has great influence with him, and
+you might do the same, Aylward.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Miss Champers has great influence with everyone who is fortunate enough
+to know her,&rdquo; answered Sir Robert courteously. &ldquo;But even if she
+chooses to use it, I doubt if it will avail in this case. Vernon has been
+making up his mind for a long while. I have watched him and am sure of that.
+To-night he determined to take the plunge and I do not think that we shall see
+any more of him in this office. Haswell,&rdquo; he added with sudden energy,
+&ldquo;I tell you that of late our luck has been too good to last. The boom,
+the real boom, came in with Vernon, and with Vernon I think that it will
+go.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At any rate it must leave something pretty substantial behind it this
+time, Aylward, my friend. Whatever happens, within a week we shall be rich,
+really rich for life.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For life, Haswell, yes, for life. But what is life? A bubble that any
+pin may prick. Oh! I know that you do not like the subject, but it is as well
+to look it in the face sometimes. I&rsquo;m no church-goer, but if I remember
+right we were taught to pray the good Lord to deliver us especially &lsquo;in
+all times of our wealth,&rsquo; which is followed by something about
+tribulation and sudden death, for when they wrote that prayer the wheel of
+human fortune went round just as it does to-day. There, let&rsquo;s get out of
+this before I grow superstitious, as men who believe in nothing sometimes do,
+because after all they must believe in something, I suppose. Got your hat and
+coat? So have I, come on,&rdquo; and he switched off the light, so that the
+room was left in darkness except for the faint glimmering of the fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His partner grumbled audibly, for in turning he had knocked his hand against
+the desk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Leave me my only economy, Haswell,&rdquo; he answered with a hard little
+laugh. &ldquo;Electricity is strength and I hate to see strength burning to
+waste. Why do you mind?&rdquo; he went on as he stepped towards the door.
+&ldquo;Is it the contrast? In all times of our wealth, in all times of our
+tribulation, from sickness and from sudden death&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good Lord deliver us,&rdquo; chimed in Mr. Haswell in a shaking voice
+behind him. &ldquo;What the devil&rsquo;s that?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Robert looked round and saw, or thought that he saw, something very
+strange. From the pillar on which it stood the golden fetish with a
+woman&rsquo;s face, appeared to have floated. The firelight showed it gliding
+towards them across, but a few inches above the floor of the great room. It
+came very slowly, but it came. Now it reached them and paused, and now it rose
+into the air until it attained the height of Mr. Champers-Haswell and stayed
+there, staring into his face and not a hand&rsquo;s breadth away, just as
+though it were a real woman glaring at him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He uttered a sound, half whistle and half groan, and fell back, as it chanced
+on to a morocco-covered seat behind him. For a moment or two the gleaming,
+golden mask floated in the air. Then it turned very deliberately, rose a little
+way, and moving sidelong to where Sir Robert stood, hung in front of <i>his</i>
+face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently Aylward staggered to the mantelpiece and began to fumble for the
+switch; in the silence his nails scratching at the panelling made a sound like
+to that of a gnawing mouse. He found it at last, and next instant the office
+broke into a blaze of light, showing Mr. Haswell, his rubicund face quite pale,
+his hat and umbrella on the floor, gasping like a dying man upon the couch, and
+Sir Robert himself clinging to the mantel-shelf as a person might do who had
+received a mortal wound, while the golden fetish reposed calmly on its pillar,
+to all appearance as immovable and undisturbed as the antique Venus which
+matched it at the other end of the room. For a while there was silence. Then
+Sir Robert, recovering himself, asked:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you notice anything unusual just now, Haswell?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; whispered his partner. &ldquo;I thought that hideous African
+thing which Vernon brought here, came sliding across the floor and stared into
+my face with its glittering eyes, and in the eyes&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, what was in the eyes?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t remember. It was a kind of picture and the meaning of it
+was Sudden Death&mdash;oh Lord! Sudden Death. Tell me it was a fancy bred of
+that ill-omened talk of yours?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you anything of the sort,&rdquo; answered Aylward in
+a hollow voice, &ldquo;for I saw something also.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What?&rdquo; asked his partner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Death that wasn&rsquo;t sudden, and other things.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again the silence fell till it was broken by Aylward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we have been over-working&mdash;too much
+strain, and now the reaction. Keep this rubbish to yourself, or they will lock
+you up in an asylum.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly, Aylward, certainly. But can&rsquo;t you get rid of that
+beastly image?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not on any account, Haswell, even if it haunts us all day. Here it shall
+stop until the Saharas are floated on Monday, if I have to lock it in the
+strongroom and throw the keys into the Thames. Afterwards Vernon can take it,
+as he has a right to do, and I am sure that with it will go our luck.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then the sooner our luck goes, the better,&rdquo; replied Haswell, with
+a mere ghost of his former whistle. &ldquo;Life is better than luck,
+and&mdash;Aylward, that Yellow God you are so fond of means to murder us. We
+are being fatted for the sacrifice, that is all. I remember now, that was one
+of the things I saw written in its eyes!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+JEEKIE TELLS A TALE.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The Court, Mr. Champers-Haswell&rsquo;s place, was a very fine house indeed, of
+a sort. That is, it contained twenty-nine bedrooms, each of them with a
+bathroom attached, a large number of sitting-rooms, ample garages, stables, and
+offices, the whole surrounded by several acres of newly-planted gardens.
+Incidentally it may be mentioned that it was built in the most atrocious taste
+and looked like a suburban villa seen through a magnifying glass.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in this matter of taste that it differed from Sir Robert Aylward&rsquo;s
+home, Old Hall, a few miles away. Not that this was old either, for the
+original house had fallen down or been burnt a hundred years before. But Sir
+Robert, being gifted with artistic perception, had reared up in place of it a
+smaller but really beautiful dwelling of soft grey stone, long and low, and
+built in the Tudor style with many gables.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This house, charming as it was, could not of course compare with Yarleys, the
+ancient seat of the Vernons in the same neighbourhood. Yarleys was pure
+Elizabethan, although it contained an oak-roofed hall which was said to date
+back to the time of King John, a remnant of a former house. There was no
+electric light or other modern convenience at Yarleys, yet it was a place that
+everyone went to see because of its exceeding beauty and its historical
+associations. The moat by which it was surrounded, the grass court within, for
+it was built on three sides of a square, the mullioned windows, the towered
+gateway of red brick, the low-panelled rooms hung with the portraits of
+departed Vernons, the sloping park and the splendid oaks that stood about,
+singly or in groups, were all of them perfect in their way. It was one of the
+most lovely of English homes, and oddly enough its neglected gardens and the
+air of decay that pervaded it, added to rather than decreased its charm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it is with The Court that we have to do at present, not with Yarleys. Mr.
+Champers-Haswell had a week-end party. There were ten guests, all men, and with
+the exception of Alan, who it will be remembered was one of them, all rich and
+in business. They included two French bankers and three Jews, everyone a prop
+of the original Sahara Syndicate and deeply interested in the forthcoming
+flotation. To describe them is unnecessary, for they have no part in our story,
+being only financiers of a certain class, remarkable for the riches they had
+acquired by means that for the most part would not bear examination. The riches
+were evident enough. Ever since the morning the owners of this wealth had
+arrived by ones or twos in their costly motorcars, attended by smart chauffeurs
+and valets. Their fur coats, their jewelled studs and rings, something in their
+very faces suggested money, which indeed was the bond that brought and held
+them together.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan did not come until it was time to dress for dinner, for he knew that
+Barbara would not appear before that meal, and it was her society he sought,
+not that of his host or fellow guests. Accompanied by his negro servant,
+Jeekie, for in a house like this it was necessary to have someone to wait upon
+him, he drove over from Yarleys, a distance of ten miles, arriving about eight
+o&rsquo;clock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mr. Haswell has gone up to dress, Major, and so have the other
+gentlemen,&rdquo; said the head butler, Mr. Smith, &ldquo;but Miss Champers
+told me to give you this note and to say that dinner is at half-past
+eight.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan took the note and asked to be shown to his room. Once there, although he
+had only five-and-twenty minutes, he opened it eagerly, while Jeekie unpacked
+his bag.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Dear Alan,&rdquo; it ran: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be late for dinner, or I
+may not be able to keep a place next to me. Of course Sir Robert takes me in.
+They are a worse lot than usual this time, odious&mdash;odious!&mdash;and I
+can&rsquo;t stand one on the left hand as well as on the right. Yours,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;B.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;P.S. What <i>have</i> you been doing? Our distinguished guests, to say
+nothing of my uncle, seem to be in a great fuss about you. I overheard them
+talking when I was pretending to arrange some flowers. One of them called you a
+sanctimonious prig and an obstinate donkey, and another answered&mdash;I think
+it was Sir Robert &mdash;&lsquo;No doubt, but obstinate donkeys can kick and
+have been known to upset other people&rsquo;s applecarts ere now.&rsquo; Is the
+Sahara Syndicate the applecart? If so, I&rsquo;ll forgive you.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;P.P.S. Remember that we will walk to church together to-morrow, but come
+down to breakfast in knickerbockers or something to put them off, and
+I&rsquo;ll do the same&mdash;I mean I&rsquo;ll dress as if I were going to
+golf. We can turn into Christians later. If we don&rsquo;t&mdash;dress like
+that, I mean&mdash;they&rsquo;ll guess and all want to come to church, except
+the Jews, which would bring the judgment of Heaven on us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;P.P.P.S. Don&rsquo;t be careless and leave this note lying about, for
+the under-footman who waits upon you reads all the letters. He steams them over
+a kettle. Smith the butler is the only respectable man in this house.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan laughed outright as he finished this peculiar and outspoken epistle, which
+somehow revived his spirits, that since the previous day had been low enough.
+It refreshed him. It was like a breath of frosty air from an open window
+blowing clean and cold into a scented, overheated room. He would have liked to
+keep it, but remembering Barbara&rsquo;s injunctions and the under-footman,
+threw it onto the fire and watched it burn. Jeekie coughed to intimate that it
+was time for his master to dress, and Alan turned and looked at him in an
+absent-minded fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was worth looking at, was Jeekie. Let the reader imagine a very tall and
+powerfully-built negro with a skin as black as a well-polished boot, woolly
+hair as white as snow, a little tufted beard also white, a hand like a leg of
+mutton, but with long delicate fingers and pink, filbert-shaped nails, an
+immovable countenance, but set in it beneath a massive brow, two extraordinary
+humorous and eloquent black eyes which expressed every emotion passing through
+the brain behind them, that is when their owner chose to allow them to do so.
+Such was Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Shall I unlace your boots, Major?&rdquo; he said in his full, melodious
+voice and speaking the most perfect English. &ldquo;I expect that the gong will
+sound in nine and a half minutes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then let it sound and be hanged to it,&rdquo; answered Alan; &ldquo;no,
+I forgot&mdash;I must hurry. Jeekie, put that fire out and open all the windows
+as soon as I go down. This room is like a hot-house.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, the fire shall be extinguished and the sleeping-chamber
+ventilated. The other boot, if you please, Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;who is stopping in this place? Have you
+heard?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I collected some names on my way upstairs, Major. Three of the gentlemen
+you have never met before, but,&rdquo; he added suddenly breaking away from his
+high-flown book-learned English, as was his custom when in earnest,
+&ldquo;Jeekie think they just black niggers like the rest, thief people. There
+ain&rsquo;t a white man in this house, except you and Miss Barbara and me,
+Major. Jeekie learnt all that in servant&rsquo;s hall palaver. No, not now,
+other time. Everyone tell everything to Jeekie, poor old African fool, and he
+look up an answer, &lsquo;O law! you don&rsquo;t say so?&rsquo; but keep his
+eyes and ears open all the same.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be bound you do, Jeekie,&rdquo; replied Alan, laughing again.
+&ldquo;Well, go on keeping them open, and give me those trousers.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, reassuming his grand manner,
+&ldquo;I shall continue to collect information which may prove to your
+advantage, but personally I wish that you were clear of the whole caboodle,
+except Miss Barbara.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hear, hear,&rdquo; ejaculated Alan, &ldquo;there goes the gong. Mind you
+come in and help to wait,&rdquo; and hurrying into his coat he departed
+downstairs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The guests were gathered in the hall drinking sherry and bitters, a proceeding
+that to Alan&rsquo;s mind set a stamp upon the house. His host, Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, came forward and greeted him with much affectionate
+enthusiasm, and Alan noticed that he looked very pale, also that his thoughts
+seemed to be wandering, for he introduced a French banker to him as a noted
+Jew, and the noted Jew as the French banker, although the distinction between
+them was obvious and the gentlemen concerned evidently resented the mistake.
+Sir Robert Aylward, catching sight of him, came across the hall in his usual,
+direct fashion, and shook him by the hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Glad to see you, Vernon,&rdquo; he said, fixing his piercing eyes upon
+Alan as though he were trying to read his thoughts. &ldquo;Pleasant change this
+from the City and all that eternal business, isn&rsquo;t it? Ah! you are
+thinking that one is not quite clear of business after all,&rdquo; and he
+glanced round at the company. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of your cousin
+Haswell&rsquo;s faults; he can never shake himself free of the thing, never get
+any real recreation. I&rsquo;d bet you a sovereign that he has a stenographer
+waiting by a telephone in the next room, just in case any opportunity should
+arise in the course of conversation. That is magnificent, but it is not wise.
+His heart can&rsquo;t stand it; it will wear him out before his time. Listen,
+they are all talking about the Sahara. I wish I were there; it must be quiet at
+any rate. The sands beneath, the eternal stars above. Yes, I wish I were
+there,&rdquo; he repeated with a sigh, and Alan noted that although his face
+could not be more pallid than its natural colour, it looked quite worn and old.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So do I,&rdquo; he answered with enthusiasm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then a French gentleman on his left, having discovered that he was the engineer
+who had formulated the great flooding scheme, began to address him as
+&ldquo;Cher maitre,&rdquo; speaking so rapidly in his own language that Alan,
+whose French was none of the best, struggled after him in vain. Whilst he was
+trying to answer a question which he did not understand, the door at the end of
+the hall opened, and through it appeared Barbara Champers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a large hall and she was a long way off, which caused her to look small,
+who indeed was only of middle height. Yet even at that distance it was
+impossible to mistake the dignity of her appearance. A slim woman with brown
+hair, cheerful brown eyes, a well-modelled face, a rounded figure and an
+excellent complexion, such was Barbara. Ten thousand young ladies could be
+found as good, or even better looking, yet something about her differentiated
+her from the majority of her sex. There was determination in her step, and
+overflowing health and vigour in her every movement. Her eyes had a trick of
+looking straight into any other eyes they met, not boldly, but with a kind of
+virginal fearlessness and enterprise that people often found embarrassing.
+Indeed she was extremely virginal and devoid of the usual fringe of feminine
+airs and graces, a nymph of the woods and waters, who although she was three
+and twenty, as yet recked little of men save as companions whom she liked or
+disliked according to her instincts. For the rest she was sweetly dressed in a
+white robe with silver on it, and wore no ornaments save a row of small pearls
+about her throat and some lilies of the valley at her breast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Barbara came straight onwards, looking neither to the right nor to the left,
+till she reached her uncle, to whom she nodded. Then she walked to Alan and,
+offering him her hand, said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How do you do! Why did you not come over at lunch time? I wanted to play
+a round of golf with you this afternoon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan answered something about being busy at Yarleys.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yarleys!&rdquo; she replied. &ldquo;I thought that you lived in the City
+now, making money out of speculations, like everyone else that I know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, Miss Champers,&rdquo; broke in Sir Robert reproachfully, &ldquo;I
+asked you to play a round of golf before tea and you would not.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;because I was waiting for my cousin. We
+are better matched, Sir Robert.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was something in her voice, usually so soft and pleasant, as she spoke
+these words, something of steeliness and defiance that caused Alan to feel at
+once happy and uncomfortable. Apparently also it caused Aylward to feel angry,
+for he flashed a glance at Alan over her head of which the purport could not be
+mistaken, though his pale face remained as immovable as ever. &ldquo;We are
+enemies. I hate you,&rdquo; said that glance. Probably Barbara saw it; at any
+rate before either of them could speak again, she said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank goodness, there is dinner at last. Sir Robert, will you take me
+in, and, Alan, will you sit on the other side of me? My uncle will show the
+rest their places.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The meal was long and magnificent; the price of each dish of it would have kept
+a poor family for a month, and on the cost of the exquisite wines they might
+have lived for a year or two. Also the last were well patronized by everyone
+except Barbara, who drank water, and Alan, who since his severe fever took
+nothing but weak whiskey and soda and a little claret. Even Aylward, a
+temperate person, absorbed a good deal of champagne. As a consequence the
+conversation grew animated, and under cover of it, while Sir Robert was arguing
+with his neighbour on the left, Barbara asked in a low voice:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is the row, Alan? Tell me, I can&rsquo;t wait any longer.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have quarrelled with them,&rdquo; he answered, staring at his mutton
+as though he were criticizing it. &ldquo;I mean, I have left the firm and have
+nothing more to do with the business.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Barbara&rsquo;s eyes lit up as she whispered back:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Glad of it. Best news I have heard for many a day. But then, may I ask
+why you are here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I came to see you,&rdquo; he replied humbly&mdash;&ldquo;thought perhaps
+you wouldn&rsquo;t mind,&rdquo; and in his confusion he let his knife fall into
+the mutton, whence it rebounded, staining his shirt front.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Barbara laughed, that happy, delightful little laugh of hers, presumably at the
+accident with the knife. Whether or no she &ldquo;minded&rdquo; did not appear,
+only she handed her handkerchief, a costly, lace-fringed trifle, to Alan to
+wipe the gravy off his shirt, which he took thinking it was a napkin, and as
+she did so, touched his hand with a little caressing movement of her fingers.
+Whether this was done by chance or on purpose did not appear either. At least
+it made Alan feel extremely happy. Also when he discovered what it was, he kept
+that gravy-stained handkerchief, nor did she ever ask for it back again. Only
+once in after days when she happened to come across it stuffed away in the
+corner of a despatch-box, she blushed all over, and said that she had no idea
+that any man could be so foolish out of a book.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now that <i>you</i> are really clear of it, I am going for them,&rdquo;
+she said presently when the wiping process was finished. &ldquo;I have only
+restrained myself for your sake,&rdquo; and, leaning back in her chair she
+stared at the ceiling, lost in meditation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently there came one of those silences which will fall upon dinner-parties
+at times, however excellent and plentiful the champagne.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sir Robert Aylward,&rdquo; said Barbara in that clear, carrying voice of
+hers, &ldquo;will you, as an expert, instruct a very ignorant person? I want a
+little information.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Miss Champers,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;am I not always at your
+service?&rdquo; and all listened to hear upon what point their hostess desired
+to be enlightened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sir Robert,&rdquo; she went on calmly, &ldquo;everyone here is, I
+believe, what is called a financier, that is except myself and Major Vernon,
+who only tries to be and will, I am sure, fail, since Nature made him something
+else, a soldier and&mdash;what else did Nature make you, Alan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he vouchsafed no answer to this question, although Sir Robert muttered an
+uncomplimentary one between his lips which Barbara heard, or read, she
+continued:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And you are all very rich and successful, are you not, and are going to
+be much richer and much more successful&mdash;next week. Now what I want to ask
+you is&mdash;how is it done?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Accepting the premises for the sake of argument, Miss Champers,&rdquo;
+replied Sir Robert, who felt that he could not refuse the challenge, &ldquo;the
+answer is that it is done by finance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am still in the dark,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Finance, as I have heard
+of it, means floating companies, and companies are floated to earn money for
+those who invest in them. Now this afternoon as I was dull, I got hold of a
+book called the Directory of Directors, and looked up all your names in it,
+except those of the gentlemen from Paris, and the companies that you
+direct&mdash;I found out about those in another book. Well, I could not make
+out that any of these companies have ever earned any money, a dividend,
+don&rsquo;t you call it? Therefore how do you all grow so rich, and why do
+people invest in them?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Sir Robert frowned, Alan coloured, two or three of the company laughed
+outright, and one of the French gentlemen who understood English and had
+already drunk as much as was good for him, remarked loudly to his neighbour,
+&ldquo;Ah! she is charming. She do touch the spot, like that ointment you give
+me to-day. How do we grow rich and why do the people invest? <i>Mon Dieu!</i>
+why do they invest? That is the great mystery. I say that <i>cette belle
+demoiselle, votre ni&egrave;ce, est ravissante. Elle a d&rsquo;esprit, mon ami
+Haswell.</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Apparently her uncle did not share these sentiments, for he turned as red as
+any turkey-cock, and said across the great round table:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My dear Barbara, I wish that you would leave matters which you do not
+understand alone. We are here to dine, not to talk about finance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly, Uncle,&rdquo; she answered sweetly. &ldquo;I stand, or rather
+sit, reproved. I suppose that I have put my foot into it as usual, and the
+worst of it is,&rdquo; she added, turning to Sir Robert, &ldquo;that I am just
+as ignorant as I was before.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you want to master these matters, Miss Champers,&rdquo; said Aylward
+with a rather forced laugh, &ldquo;you must go into training and worship at the
+shrine of&rdquo;&mdash;he meant to say Mammon, then thinking that the word
+sounded unpleasant, substituted&mdash;&ldquo;the Yellow God as we do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At these words Alan, who had been studying his plate, looked up quickly, and
+her uncle&rsquo;s face turned from red to white. But the irrepressible Barbara
+seized upon them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Yellow God,&rdquo; she repeated. &ldquo;Do you mean money or that
+fetish thing of Major Vernon&rsquo;s with the terrible woman&rsquo;s face that
+I saw at the office in the City. Well, to change the subject, tell us, Alan,
+what is that yellow god of yours and where did it come from?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My uncle Austin, who was my mother&rsquo;s brother and a missionary,
+brought it from West Africa a great many years ago. He was the first to visit
+the tribe who worship it; in fact I do not think that anyone has ever visited
+them since. But really I do not know all the story. Jeekie can tell you about
+it if you want to know, for he is one of that people and escaped with my
+uncle.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Jeekie having left the room, some of the guests wished to send for him, but
+Mr. Champers-Haswell objected. The end of it was that a compromise was
+effected, Alan undertaking to produce his retainer afterwards when they went to
+play billiards or cards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dinner was over at length and the diners, who had dined well, were gathered in
+the billiard room to smoke and amuse themselves as they wished. It was a very
+large room, sixty feet long indeed, with a wide space in the centre between the
+two tables, which was furnished as a lounge. When the gentlemen entered it they
+found Barbara standing by the great fireplace in this central space, a little
+shape of white and silver in its emptiness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Forgive me for intruding on you,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and please do
+not stop smoking, for I like the smell. I have sat up expressly to hear
+Jeekie&rsquo;s story of the Yellow God. Alan, produce Jeekie, or I shall go to
+bed at once.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her uncle made a movement as though to interfere, but Sir Robert said something
+to him which appeared to cause him to change his mind, while the rest in some
+way or another signified an enthusiastic assent. All of them were anxious to
+see this Jeekie and hear his tale, if he had one to tell. So Jeekie was sent
+for and presently arrived clad in the dress clothes which are common to all
+classes in England and America. There he stood before them white-headed,
+ebony-faced, gigantic, imperturbable. There is no doubt that his appearance
+produced an effect, for it was unusual and indeed striking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You sent for me, Major?&rdquo; he said, addressing his master, to whom
+he gave a military salute, for he had been Alan&rsquo;s servant when he was in
+the Army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Jeekie. Miss Barbara here and these gentlemen, wish you to tell
+them all that you know about the Yellow God.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The negro started and rolled his round eyes upwards till the whites of them
+showed, then began in his school-book English:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is a private subject, Major, upon which I should prefer not to
+discourse before this very public company.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A chorus of remonstrance arose and one of the Jewish gentlemen approaching
+Jeekie, slipped a couple of sovereigns into his great hand, which he promptly
+transferred to his pocket without seeming to notice them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Barbara, &ldquo;don&rsquo;t disappoint me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well, miss, I fall in with your wishes. The Yellow God that all
+these gentlemen worship, quite another god to that of which you desire that I
+should tell you. You know all about him. My god is of female sex.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this statement his audience burst into laughter while Jeekie rolled his eyes
+again and waited till they had finished. &ldquo;My god,&rdquo; he went on
+presently, &ldquo;I mean, gentlemen, the god I used to pray to, for I am a good
+Christian now, has so much gold that she does not care for any more,&rdquo; and
+he paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then what does she care for?&rdquo; asked someone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Blood,&rdquo; answered Jeekie. &ldquo;She is god of Death. Her name is
+Little Bonsa or Small Swimming Head; she is wife of Big Bonsa or Great Swimming
+Head.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again there was laughter, though less general&mdash;for instance, neither Sir
+Robert nor Mr. Champers-Haswell laughed. This merriment seemed to excite
+Jeekie. At any rate it caused him to cease his stilted talk and relapse into
+the strange vernacular that is common to all negroes, tinctured with a racy
+slang that was all his own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You want to hear Yellow God palaver?&rdquo; he said rapidly. &ldquo;Very
+well, I tell you, you cocksure white men who think you know everything, but
+know nothing at all. My people, people of the Asiki, that mean people of
+Spirits, what you call ghosts and say you no believe in, but always look for
+behind door, they worship Yellow God, Bonsa Big and Bonsa Little, worship both
+and call them one; only Little Bonsa on trip to this country just now and sit
+and think in City office. Yellow God live long way up a great river, then turn
+to the left and walk six days through big forest where dwarf people shoot you
+with poisoned arrow. Then turn to the right, walk up stream where many wild
+beasts. Then turn to the left again and go in canoe through swamp where you die
+of fever, and across lake. Then walk over grassland and mountains. Then in
+kloof of the mountains where big black trees make a roof and river fall like
+thunder, find Asiki and gold house of the Yellow God. All that mountain gold,
+full of gold and beneath gold house Yellow God afloat in water. She what you
+call Queen, priestess, live there also, always there, very beautiful woman
+called Asika with face like Yellow God, cruel, cruel. She take a husband every
+year, and every year he die because she always hunt for right man but never
+find him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How does she kill him then?&rdquo; asked Barbara.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! no, she no kill him, Miss, he kill himself at end of year, glad to
+get away from Asika and go to spirits. While he live he have a very good time,
+plenty to eat, plenty wives, fine house, much gold as he like, only nothing to
+spend it on, pretty necklace, nice paint for face. But Asika, little bit by
+little bit she eat up his spirit. He see too many ghosts. The house where he
+sleep with dead men who once have his billet, full of ghosts and every night
+there come more and sit with him, sit all round him, look at him with great
+eyes, just like you look at me, till at last when Asika finish eating up his
+spirit, he go crazy, he howl like man in hell, he throw away all the gold they
+give him, and then, sometimes after one week, sometimes after one month,
+sometimes after one year if he be strong but never more, he run out at night
+and jump into canal where Yellow God float and god get him, while Asika sit on
+the bank and laugh, &rsquo;cause she hungry for new man to eat up his spirit
+too.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie&rsquo;s big voice died away to a whisper and ceased. There was a silence
+in the room, for even in the shine of the electric light and through the fumes
+of champagne, in more than one imagination there rose a vision of that haunted
+water in which floated the great Yellow God, and of some mad being casting
+himself to his death beneath the moon, while his beautiful witch wife who was
+&ldquo;hungry for more spirits&rdquo; sat upon its edge and laughed. Although
+his language was now commonplace enough, even ludicrous at times, the negro had
+undoubtedly the art of narration. His auditors felt that he spoke of what he
+knew, or had seen, that the very recollection of it frightened him, therefore
+he frightened them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Barbara broke the silence which she felt to be awkward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why do more ghosts come very night to sit with the queen&rsquo;s
+husband, Jeekie?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;Where do they come from?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Out of the dead, miss, dead husbands of Asika from beginning of the
+world; what they call Munganas. Also always they make sacrifice to Yellow God.
+From far, far away them poor niggers send people to be sacrifice that their
+house or tribe get luck. Sometimes they send kings, sometimes great men,
+sometimes doctors, sometimes women what have twin babies. Also the Asiki bring
+people what is witches, or have drunk poison stuff which blacks call
+<i>muavi</i> and have not been sick, or perhaps son they love best to take
+curse off their roof. All these come to Yellow God. Then Asiki doctor, they
+have Death-palaver. On night of full moon they beat drum, and drum go Wow! Wow!
+Wow! and doctors pick out those to die that month. Once they pick out Jeekie,
+oh! good Lord, they pick out <i>me</i>,&rdquo; and as he said the words he
+gasped and with his great hand wiped off the sweat that started from his brow.
+&ldquo;But Yellow God no take Jeekie that time, no want him and I escape.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How?&rdquo; asked Sir Robert.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;With my master, Major&rsquo;s uncle, Reverend Austin, he who come try to
+make Asiki Christian. He snap his fingers, put on small mask of Yellow God
+which he prig, Little Bonsa herself, that same face which sit in your office
+now,&rdquo; and he pointed to Sir Robert, &ldquo;like one toad upon a stone.
+Priests think that god make herself into man, want holiday, take me out into
+forest to kill me and eat my life. So they let us go by and we go just as
+though devil kick us&mdash;fast, fast, and never see the Asiki any more. But
+Little Bonsa I bring with me for luck, tell truth I no dare leave her behind,
+she not stand that; and now she sit in your office and think and think and make
+magic there. That why you grow rich, because she know you worship her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a nice way for a baptized Christian to talk,&rdquo; said
+Barbara, adding, &ldquo;But Jeekie, what do you mean when you say that the god
+did not take you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I mean this, miss; when victim offered to Big Yellow God, priest-men
+bring him to edge of canal where the great god float. Then if Yellow God want
+him, it turn and swim across water.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Swim across water! I thought you said it was only a mask of gold?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, miss, perhaps man inside the mask, perhaps spirit. I
+say it swim across water in the night, always in the night, and lift itself up
+and look in victim&rsquo;s face. Then priest take him and kill him, sometimes
+one way&mdash;sometimes another. Or if he escape and they not kill him, all
+same for that Johnnie, he die in about one year, always die, no one ever live
+long if Yellow God swim to him in dark and rise up and smile in his face. No
+matter if it Big Bonsa or Little Bonsa, for they man and wife joined in holy
+matrimony and either do trick.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As these words left Jeekie&rsquo;s lips Alan became aware of some unusual
+movement on his left and looking round, saw that Mr. Champers-Haswell, who
+stood by him, had dropped the cigar which he held and, white as a sheet, was
+swaying to and fro. Indeed in another instant he would have fallen had not Alan
+caught him in his arms and supported him till others came to his assistance,
+when between them they carried him to a sofa. On their way they passed a table
+where spirits and soda water were set out, and to his astonishment Alan noticed
+that Sir Robert Aylward, looking little if at all better than his partner, had
+helped himself to half a tumbler of cognac, which he was swallowing in great
+gulps. Then there was confusion and someone went to telephone the doctor, while
+the deep voice of Jeekie was heard exclaiming:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That Yellow God at work&mdash;oh yes, Little Bonsa on the job. Jeekie
+Christian man but no doubt she very powerful fetish and can do anything she
+like to them that worship her, and you see, she sit in office of these
+gentlemen. &rsquo;Spect she make Reverend Austin and me bring her to England
+because she got eye on firm of Messrs. Aylward &amp; Haswell, London, E.C. Oh,
+shouldn&rsquo;t wonder at all, for Bonsa know everything.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, confound you and your fetish! Be off, you old donkey,&rdquo; almost
+shouted Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Major,&rdquo; replied the offended Jeekie, assuming his grand manner and
+language, &ldquo;it was not I who wished to narrate this history of
+blood-stained superstitions of poor African. Mustn&rsquo;t blame old Jeekie if
+they make Christian gents sick as Channel steamer.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be off!&rdquo; repeated Alan, stamping his foot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Jeekie went, but outside the door, as it chanced, he encountered one of the
+Jew gentlemen who also appeared to be a little &ldquo;sick.&rdquo; An idea
+striking him, he touched his white hair with his finger and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You like Jeekie&rsquo;s pretty story, sir? Well, Jeekie think that if
+you make little present to him, like your brother in there, it please Yellow
+God very much, and bring you plenty luck.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then acting upon some unaccustomed impulse, that Jew became exceedingly
+generous. In his pocket was a handful of sovereigns which he had been prepared
+to stake at bridge. He grasped them all and thrust them into Jeekie&rsquo;s
+outstretched palm, where they seemed to melt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank you, sir,&rdquo; said Jeekie. &ldquo;Now I sure you have plenty
+luck, just like your grandpa Jacob in Book when he do his brudder in eye.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+ALAN AND BARBARA.</h2>
+
+<p>
+There was no bridge or billiards at the Court that night, where ordinarily the
+play ran high enough. After Mr. Haswell had been carried to his room, some of
+the guests, among them Sir Robert Aylward, went to bed, remarking that they
+could do no good by sitting up, while others, more concerned, waited to hear
+the verdict of the doctor, who must drive from six miles away. He came, and
+half an hour later Barbara entered the billiard room and told Alan, who was
+sitting there smoking, that her uncle had recovered from his faint, and that
+the doctor, who was to stay all night, said that he was in no danger, only
+suffering from a heart attack brought on apparently by over-work or excitement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Alan woke next morning the first thing that he heard through his open
+window was the sound of the doctor&rsquo;s departing dogcart. Then Jeekie
+appeared and told him that Mr. Haswell was all right again, but that all night
+he had shaken &ldquo;like one jelly.&rdquo; Alan asked what had been the matter
+with him, but Jeekie only shrugged his shoulders and said that he did not
+know&mdash;&ldquo;perhaps Yellow God touch him up.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At breakfast, as in her note she had said she would, Barbara appeared wearing a
+short skirt. Sir Robert, who was there, looking extremely pale even for him
+and with black rims round his eyes, asked her if she were going to golf, to
+which she answered that she would think it over. It was a somewhat melancholy
+meal, and as though by common consent no mention was made of Jeekie&rsquo;s
+tale of the Yellow God, and beyond the usual polite inquiries, very little of
+their host&rsquo;s seizure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As Barbara went out she whispered to Alan, who opened the door for her,
+&ldquo;Meet me at half-past ten in the kitchen garden.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accordingly, having changed his clothes surreptitiously, Alan, avoiding the
+others, made his way by a circuitous route to this kitchen garden, which after
+the fashion of modern places was hidden behind a belt of trees nearly a quarter
+of a mile from the house. Here he wandered about till presently he heard
+Barbara&rsquo;s pleasant voice behind him saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t dawdle so, we shall be late for church.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they started, somewhat furtively like runaway children. As they went Alan
+asked how her uncle was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right now,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;but he has had a bad shake.
+It was that Yellow God story which did it. I know, for I was there when he was
+coming to, with Sir Robert. He kept talking about it in a confused manner,
+saying that it was swimming to him across the floor, till at last Sir Robert
+bent over him and told him to be quiet quite sternly. Do you know, Alan, I
+believe that your pet fetish has been manifesting itself in some unpleasant
+fashion up there in the office?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed. If so, it must be since I left, for I never heard of anything of
+the sort, nor are Aylward and your uncle likely people to see ghosts. In fact
+Sir Robert wished to give me about &pound;17,000 for the thing only the day before
+yesterday, which doesn&rsquo;t look as though it had been frightening
+him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, he won&rsquo;t repeat the offer, Alan, for I heard him promise my
+uncle only this morning that it should be sent back to Yarleys at once. But why
+did he want to buy it for such a lot of money? Tell me quickly, Alan, I am
+dying to hear the whole story.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So he began and told her, omitting nothing, while she listened eagerly to every
+word, hardly interrupting him at all. As he finished his tale they reached the
+door of the quaint old village church just as the clock was striking eleven.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come in, Alan,&rdquo; she said gently, &ldquo;and thank Heaven for all
+its mercies, for you should be a grateful man to-day.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then without giving him time to answer she entered the church and they took
+their places in the great square pew that for generations had been occupied by
+the owners of the ancient house which Mr. Haswell pulled down when he built The
+Court. There were their monuments upon the wall and their gravestones in the
+chancel floor. But now no one except Barbara ever sat in their pew; even the
+benches set aside for the servants were empty, for those who frequented The
+Court were not church-goers and &ldquo;like master, like man.&rdquo; Indeed the
+gentle-faced old clergyman looked quite pleased and surprised when he saw two
+inhabitants of that palatial residence amongst his congregation, although it is
+true that Barbara was his friend and helper.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The simple service went on; the first lesson was read. It cried woe upon them
+that joined house to house and field to field, that draw iniquity with cords of
+vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope; that call evil good and good evil,
+that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that justify the wicked for
+reward; that feast full but regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider
+the operation of His hand, for of such it prophesied that their houses great
+and fair should be without inhabitant and desolate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was very well read, and Alan, listening, thought that the denunciations of
+the old seer of thousands of years ago were not inappropriate to the dwellers
+in some houses great and fair of his own day, who, whatever they did or left
+undone, regarded not the work of the Lord, neither considered the operation of
+His hand. Perhaps Barbara thought so too; at any rate a rather sad little smile
+appeared once or twice upon her sweet, firm face as the immortal poem echoed
+down the aisle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The peace that passeth understanding was invoked upon their heads, and rising
+with the rest of the scanty congregation they went away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Shall we walk home by the woods, Alan?&rdquo; asked Barbara. &ldquo;It
+is three miles round, but we don&rsquo;t lunch till two.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He nodded, and presently they were alone in those woods, the beautiful woods
+through which the breath of spring was breathing, treading upon carpets of
+bluebell, violet, and primrose; quite alone, unaccompanied save by the wild
+things that stole across their path, undisturbed save by the sound of the
+singing birds and of the wind among the trees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What did you mean, Barbara, when you said that I should be a grateful
+man to-day?&rdquo; asked Alan presently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Barbara looked him in the eyes in that open, virginal fashion of hers and
+answered in the words of the lesson, &ldquo;&lsquo;Woe unto them that draw
+iniquity with the cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope, that lay
+house to house,&rsquo;&rdquo; and through an opening in the woods she pointed
+to the roof of The Court standing on one hill, and to the roof of Old Hall
+standing upon another&mdash;&ldquo;&lsquo;and field to field,&rsquo;&rdquo; and
+with a sweep of her hand she indicated all the country round, &ldquo;&lsquo;for
+many houses great and fair that have music in their feasts shall be left
+desolate.&rsquo;&rdquo; Then turning she said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you understand now, Alan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think so,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;You mean that I have been in bad
+company.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very bad, Alan. One of them is my own uncle, but the truth remains the
+truth. Alan, they are no better than thieves; all this wealth is stolen, and I
+thank God that you have found it out in time before you became one of them in
+heart as well as in name.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you refer to the Sahara Syndicate,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the idea is
+sound enough; indeed, I am responsible for it. The thing can be done, great
+benefits would result, too long to go into.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes, Alan, but you know that they never mean to do it, they only
+mean to get the millions from the public. I have lived with my uncle for ten
+years, ever since my poor father died, and I know the backstairs of the
+business. There have been half a dozen schemes like this, and although they
+have had their bad times, very bad times, he and Sir Robert have grown richer
+and richer. But what has happened to those who have invested in them? Oh! let
+us drop the subject, it is unpleasant. For myself it doesn&rsquo;t matter,
+because although it isn&rsquo;t under my control, I have money of my own. You
+know we are a plebeian lot on the male side, my grandfather was a draper in a
+large way of business, my father was a coal-merchant who made a great fortune.
+His brother, my uncle, in whom my father always believed implicitly, took to
+what is called Finance, and when my father died he left me, his only child, in
+his guardianship. Until I am five-and-twenty I cannot even marry or touch a
+halfpenny without his consent; in fact if I should marry against his will the
+most of my money goes to him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I expect that he has got it already,&rdquo; said Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, I think not. I found out that, although it is not mine, it is not
+his. He can&rsquo;t draw it without my signature, and I steadily refuse to sign
+anything. Again and again they have brought me documents, and I have always
+said that I would consider them at five-and-twenty, when I came of age under my
+father&rsquo;s will. I went on the sly to a lawyer in Kingswell and paid him a
+guinea for his advice, and he put me up to that. &lsquo;Sign nothing,&rsquo; he
+said, and I have signed nothing, so, except by forgery nothing can have gone.
+Still for all that it may have gone. For anything I know I am not worth more
+than the clothes I stand in, although my father was a very rich man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If so, we are about in the same boat, Barbara,&rdquo; Alan answered with
+a laugh, &ldquo;for my present possessions are Yarleys, which brings in about
+&pound;100 a year less than the interest on its mortgages and cost of upkeep, and the
+&pound;1700 that Aylward paid me back on Friday for my shares. If I had stuck to them
+I understand that in a week or two I should have been worth &pound;100,000, and now
+you see, here I am, over thirty years of age without a profession, invalided
+out of the army and having failed in finance, a mere bit of driftwood without
+hope and without a trade.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Barbara&rsquo;s brown eyes grew soft with sympathy, or was it tears?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are a curious creature, Alan,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Why
+didn&rsquo;t you take the &pound;17,000 for that fetish of yours? It would have been
+a fair deal and have set you on your legs.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he answered dejectedly. &ldquo;It went
+against the grain, so what is the use of talking about it? I think my old uncle
+Austin told me it wasn&rsquo;t to be parted with&mdash;no, perhaps it was
+Jeekie. Bother the Yellow God! it is always cropping up.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied Barbara, &ldquo;the Yellow God is always cropping
+up, especially in this neighbourhood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They walked on a while in silence, till suddenly Barbara sat down upon a bole
+of felled oak and began to cry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is the matter with you?&rdquo; asked Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;Everything goes wrong. I
+live in a kind of gilded hell. I don&rsquo;t like my uncle and I loathe the men
+he brings about the place. I have no friends, I scarcely know a woman
+intimately, I have troubles I can&rsquo;t tell you and&mdash;I am wretched. You
+are the only creature I have left to talk to, and I suppose that after this row
+you must go away too to make your living.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan looked at her there weeping on the log and his heart swelled within him,
+for he had loved this girl for years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Barbara,&rdquo; he gasped, &ldquo;please don&rsquo;t cry, it upsets me.
+You know you are a great heiress&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That remains to be proved,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;But anyway, what
+has it to do with the case?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It has everything to do with it, at least so far as I am concerned. If
+it hadn&rsquo;t been for that I should have asked you to marry me a long while
+ago, because I love you, as I would now, but of course it is impossible.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Barbara ceased her weeping, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and
+looked up at him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Alan,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I think that you are the biggest fool I
+ever knew&mdash;not but that a fool is rather refreshing when one lives among
+knaves.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know I am a fool,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;If I wasn&rsquo;t I
+should not have mentioned my misfortune to you, but sometimes things are too
+much for one. Forget it and forgive me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I forgive you; a woman can generally
+forgive a man for being fond of her. Whatever she may be, she is ready to take
+a lenient view of his human weakness. But as to forgetting, that is a different
+matter. I don&rsquo;t exactly see why I should be so anxious to forget, who
+haven&rsquo;t many people to care about me,&rdquo; and she looked at him in
+quite a new fashion, one indeed which gave him something of a shock, for he had
+not thought the nymph-like Barbara capable of such a look as that. She and any
+sort of passion had always seemed so far apart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now after all Alan was very much a man, if a modest one, with all a man&rsquo;s
+instincts, and therefore there are appearances of the female face which even
+such as he could not entirely misinterpret.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You&mdash;don&rsquo;t&mdash;mean,&rdquo; he said doubtfully, &ldquo;you
+don&rsquo;t really mean&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and he stood hesitating before her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you would put your question a little more clearly, Alan, I might be
+able to give you an answer,&rdquo; she replied, that quaint little smile of
+hers creeping to the corners of her mouth like sunshine through a mist of rain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t really mean,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;that you care
+anything about me, like, like I have cared for you for years?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! Alan,&rdquo; she said, laughing outright, &ldquo;why in the name of
+goodness shouldn&rsquo;t I care about you? I don&rsquo;t say that I do, mind,
+but why shouldn&rsquo;t I? What is the gulf between us?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The old one,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;that between Dives and
+Lazarus&mdash;that between the rich and the poor.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Alan,&rdquo; said Barbara, looking down, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what
+has come over me, but for some unexplained and inexplicable reason I am
+inclined to give Lazarus a lead&mdash;across that gulf, the first one, I mean,
+not the second!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Like the glance which preceded it, this was a saying that even Alan could not
+misunderstand. He sat himself on the log beside her, while she, still looking
+down, watched him out of the corners of her eyes. He went red, he went white,
+his heart beat very violently. Then he stretched out his big brown hand and
+took her small white one, and as this familiarity produced no remonstrance, let
+it fall, and passing his arm about her, drew her to him and embraced her, not
+once, but often, with such vigour that a squirrel which had been watching these
+proceedings from a neighbouring tree, bolted round it scandalized and was seen
+no more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I love you, I love you,&rdquo; he said huskily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So I gather,&rdquo; she answered in a feeble voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you care for me?&rdquo; he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It would seem that I must, Alan, otherwise I should scarcely&mdash;oh!
+you foolish Alan,&rdquo; and heedless of her Sunday hat, which never recovered
+from this encounter, but was kept as a holy relic, she let her head fall upon
+his shoulder and began to cry again, this time for very happiness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He kissed her tears away; then, as he could think of nothing else to say, asked
+her if she would marry him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is the general sequel to this kind of thing, I believe,&rdquo; she
+answered; &ldquo;or at any rate it ought to be. But if you want a direct
+answer&mdash;yes, I will, if my uncle will let me, which he won&rsquo;t, as you
+have quarrelled with him, or at any rate two years hence, when I am
+five-and-twenty and my own mistress; that is if we have anything to marry on,
+for one must eat. At present our worldly possessions seem to consist chiefly of
+a large store of mutual affection, a good stock of clothes and one Yellow God,
+which after what happened last night, I do not think you will get another chance
+of turning into cash.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I must make money somehow,&rdquo; he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Alan, but I am afraid it is not easy to do&mdash;honestly. Nobody
+wants people without capital whose only stock in trade is a brief but
+distinguished military career, and a large experience of African fever.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan groaned at this veracious but discouraging remark, and she went on quickly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I mean to spend another guinea upon my friend the lawyer at Kingswell.
+Perhaps he can raise the wind, by a post-obit, or something,&rdquo; she added
+vaguely, &ldquo;I mean a post-uncle-obit.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If he does, Barbara, I can&rsquo;t live on your money alone, it
+isn&rsquo;t right.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! don&rsquo;t you trouble about that, Alan. If once I can get hold of
+those dim thousands you will soon be able to make more, for unto him that hath
+shall be given. But at present they are very dim, and for all I know may be
+represented by stock in deceased companies. In short, the financial position is
+extraordinarily depressed, as they say in the Market Intelligence in <i>The
+Times</i>. But that&rsquo;s no reason why we should be depressed also.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Barbara, for at any rate we have got each other.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she answered, springing up, &ldquo;we have got each other,
+dear, until Death do us part, and somehow I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;ll do
+that yet awhile; it comes into my heart that he won&rsquo;t do that, Alan, that
+you and I are going to live out our days. So what does the rest matter? In two
+years I shall be a free woman. In fact, if the worst comes to the worst,
+I&rsquo;ll defy them all,&rdquo; and she set her little mouth like a rock,
+&ldquo;and marry you straight away, as being over age, I can do, even if it
+costs me every halfpenny that I&rsquo;ve got.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it would be wrong, wrong to yourself and
+wrong to your descendants.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well, Alan, then, we will wait, or perhaps luck will come our
+way&mdash;why shouldn&rsquo;t it? At any rate for my part I never felt so happy
+in my life; for, dear Alan, we have found what we were born to find, found it
+once and for always, and the rest is mere etceteras. What would be the use of
+all the gold of the Asiki people that Jeekie was talking about last night, to
+either of us, if we had not each other? We can get on without the wealth, but
+we couldn&rsquo;t get on apart, or at least I couldn&rsquo;t and I don&rsquo;t
+mind saying so.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, my darling, no,&rdquo; he answered, turning white at the very
+thought, &ldquo;we couldn&rsquo;t get on apart&mdash;now. In fact I don&rsquo;t
+know how I have done it so long already, except that I was always hoping that a
+time would come when we shouldn&rsquo;t be apart. That is why I went into that
+infernal business, to make enough money to be able to ask you to marry me. And
+now I have gone out of the business and asked you just when I
+shouldn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, so you see you might as well have done it a year or two ago when
+perhaps things would have been simpler. Well, it is a fine example of the
+vanity of human plans, and, Alan, we must be going home to lunch. If we
+don&rsquo;t, Sir Robert will be organizing a search party to look for us; in
+fact, I shouldn&rsquo;t wonder if he is doing that already, in the wrong
+direction.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mention of Sir Robert Aylward&rsquo;s name fell on them both like a blast
+of cold wind in summer, and for a while they walked in silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are afraid of that man, Barbara,&rdquo; said Alan presently,
+guessing her thoughts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A little,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;so far as I can be afraid of
+anything any more. And you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A little also. I think that he will give us trouble. He can be very
+malevolent and resourceful.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Resourceful, Alan; well, so can I. I&rsquo;ll back my wits against his
+any day. He shan&rsquo;t separate us by anything short of murder, which he
+won&rsquo;t go in for. Men like that don&rsquo;t like to break the law; they
+have too much to lose. But no doubt he will make things uncomfortable for you,
+if he can, for several reasons.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again they walked on lost in reflections, when Barbara suddenly saw her
+lover&rsquo;s face brighten.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is it, Alan?&rdquo; she asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Something that is rare enough with me, Barbara&mdash;an idea. You
+remember speaking about that Asiki gold just now. Well, why shouldn&rsquo;t I
+go and get it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She stared at him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It sounds a little speculative,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;something like
+one of my uncle&rsquo;s companies.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not half so speculative as you think. I have no doubt it is there and
+Jeekie knows the way. Also I seem to remember that there is a map and an
+account of the whole thing in Uncle Austin&rsquo;s diaries, though to tell you
+the truth the old fellow wrote such a fearful hand, that I have never taken the
+trouble to read it. You see,&rdquo; he went on with enthusiasm, &ldquo;it is
+the kind of business that I can do. I am thoroughly salted to fever, I know the
+West Coast, where I spent three years on that Boundary Commission, I have
+studied the natives and can talk several of their dialects. Of course there
+would be a risk, but there are risks in everything, and like you I am not
+afraid about that, for I believe that we have got our lives before us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Read up those diaries, Alan, and we will talk the thing over again.
+I&rsquo;ll pump Jeekie, who will tell me anything by coaxing, and try to get at
+the truth. Meanwhile what are you going to do about my uncle?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Speak to him, of course, and have the row over.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;that is the best and the most honest.
+Of course he can turn you out, but he can&rsquo;t prevent my seeing you. If he
+does, go home to Yarleys and I&rsquo;ll come over and call. Here we are, let us
+go in by the back door,&rdquo; and she pointed to her crushed hat, and laughed.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+BARBARA MAKES A SPEECH.</h2>
+
+<p>
+While Alan and Barbara, on the most momentous occasion of their lives, were
+seated upon the fallen oak in the woods that thrilled with the breath of
+spring, another interview was taking place in Mr. Champers-Haswell&rsquo;s
+private suite at The Court, the decorations of which, as he was wont to inform
+his visitors, had cost nearly &pound;2000. Sir Robert, whose taste at any rate was
+good, thought them so appalling that while waiting for his host and partner,
+whom he had come to see, he took a seat in the bow window of the sitting-room
+and studied the view that nobody had been able to spoil. Presently Mr. Haswell
+emerged from his bedroom, wrapped in a dressing gown and looking very pale and
+shaky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Delighted to see you all right again,&rdquo; said Sir Robert as he
+wheeled up a chair into which Mr. Haswell sank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am not all right, Aylward,&rdquo; he answered; &ldquo;I am not all
+right at all. Never had such an upset in my life; thought I was going to die
+when that accursed savage told his beastly tale. Aylward, you are a man of the
+world, tell me, what is the meaning of the thing? You remember what we thought
+we saw in the office, and then&mdash;that story.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he answered; &ldquo;frankly I don&rsquo;t
+know. I am a man who has never believed in anything I cannot see and test, one
+who utterly lacks faith. In my leisure I have examined into the various
+religious systems and found them to be rubbish. I am convinced that we are but
+highly-developed mammals born by chance, and when our day is done, departing
+into the black nothingness out of which we came. Everything else, that is, what
+is called the higher and spiritual part, I attribute to the superstitions
+incident to the terror of the hideous position in which we find ourselves, that
+of gods of a sort hemmed in by a few years of fearful and tormented life. But
+you know the old arguments, so why should I enter on them? And now I am
+confronted with an experience which I cannot explain. I certainly thought that
+in the office on Friday evening I saw that gold mask to which I had taken so
+strange a fancy that I offered to give Vernon &pound;17,000 for it because I thought
+that it brought us luck, swim across the floor of our room and look first into
+your face and then into mine. Well, the next night that negro tells his story.
+What am I to make of it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t tell you,&rdquo; answered Mr. Champers-Haswell with a groan.
+&ldquo;All I know is that it nearly made a corpse of me. I am not like you,
+Aylward, I was brought up as an Evangelical, and although I haven&rsquo;t given
+much thought to these matters of late years&mdash;well, we don&rsquo;t shake
+them off in a hurry. I daresay there is something somewhere, and when the black
+man was speaking, that something seemed uncommonly near. It got up and gripped
+me by the throat, shaking the mortal breath out of me, and upon my word,
+Aylward, I have been wishing all the morning that I had led a different kind of
+life, as my old parents and my brother John, Barbara&rsquo;s father, who was a
+very religious kind of man, did before me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is rather late to think of all that now, Haswell,&rdquo; said Sir
+Robert, shrugging his shoulders. &ldquo;One takes one&rsquo;s line and
+there&rsquo;s an end. Personally I believe that we are overstrained with the
+fearful and anxious work of this flotation, and have been the victims of an
+hallucination and a coincidence. Although I confess that I came to look upon
+the thing as a kind of mascot, I put no trust in any fetish. How can a bit of
+gold move, and how can it know the future? Well, I have written to them to
+clear it out of the office to-morrow, so it won&rsquo;t trouble us any more.
+And now I have come to speak to you on another matter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not business,&rdquo; said Mr. Haswell with a sigh. &ldquo;We have that
+all the week and there will be enough of it on Monday.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;something more important. About your
+niece Barbara.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Haswell glanced at him with those little eyes of his which were so sharp
+that they seemed to bore like gimlets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Barbara?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What of Barbara?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t you guess, Haswell? You are pretty good at it, generally.
+Well, it is no use beating about the bush; I want to marry her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this sudden announcement his partner became exceedingly interested. Leaning
+back in the chair he stared at the decorated ceiling, and uttered his favourite
+wind-in-the-wires whistle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I never knew that matrimony was in your
+line, Aylward, any more than it has been in mine, especially as you are always
+preaching against it. Well, has the young lady given her consent?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, I have not spoken to her. I meant to do so this morning, but she has
+slipped off somewhere, with Vernon, I suppose.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Haswell whistled again, but on a new note.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Pray do stop that noise,&rdquo; said Sir Robert; &ldquo;it gets upon my
+nerves, which are shaky this morning. Listen: It is a curious thing, one less
+to be understood even than the coincidence of the Yellow God, but at my present
+age of forty-four, for the first time in my life I have committed the folly of
+what is called falling in love. It is not the case of a successful, middle-aged
+man wishing to <i>ranger</i> himself and settle down with a desirable
+<i>partie</i>, but of sheer, stark infatuation. I adore Barbara; the worse she
+treats me the more I adore her. I had rather that the Sahara flotation should
+fail than that she should refuse me. I would rather lose three-quarters of my
+fortune than lose her. Do you understand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His partner looked at him, pursed up his lips to whistle, then remembered and
+shook his head instead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;Barbara is a nice girl, but I should not
+have imagined her capable of inspiring such sentiments in a man almost old
+enough to be her father. I think that you are the victim of a kind of mania,
+which I have heard of but never experienced. Venus&mdash;or is it
+Cupid?&mdash;has netted you, my dear Aylward.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! pray leave gods and goddesses out of it, we have had enough of them
+already,&rdquo; he answered, exasperated. &ldquo;That is my case at any rate,
+and what I want to know now is if I have your support in my suit. Remember, I
+have something to offer, Haswell, for instance, a large fortune of which I will
+settle half&mdash;it is a good thing to do in our business,&mdash;and a
+baronetcy that will be a peerage before long.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A peerage! Have you squared that?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think so. There will be a General Election within the next three
+months, and on such occasions a couple of hundred thousand in cool cash come in
+useful to a Party that is short of ready money. I think I may say that it is
+settled. She will be the Lady Aylward, or any other name she may fancy, and one
+of the richest women in England. Now have I your support?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, my dear friend, why not, though Barbara does not want money, for
+she has plenty of her own, in first-class securities that I could never
+persuade her to vary, for she is shrewd in that way and steadily refuses to
+sign anything. Also she will probably be my heiress&mdash;and, Aylward,&rdquo;
+here a sickly look of alarm spread itself over his face, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t
+know how long I have to live. That infernal doctor examined my heart this
+morning and told me that it was weak. Weak was his word, but from the tone in
+which he said it, I believe that he meant more. Aylward, I gather that I may
+die any day.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nonsense, Haswell, so may we all,&rdquo; he replied, with an affectation
+of cheerfulness which failed to carry conviction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently Mr. Haswell, who had hidden his face in his hand, looked up with a
+sigh and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes, of course you have my support, for after all she is my only
+relation and I should be glad to see her safely married. Also, as it happens,
+she can&rsquo;t marry anyone without my consent, at any rate until she is
+five-and-twenty, for if she does, under her father&rsquo;s will all her property
+goes away, most of it to charities, except a beggarly &pound;200 a year. You see my
+brother John had a great horror of imprudent marriages and a still greater
+belief in me, which as it chances, is a good thing for you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Had he?&rdquo; said Sir Robert. &ldquo;And pray why is it a good thing
+for me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because, my dear Aylward, unless my observation is at fault, there is
+another Richard in the field, our late partner, Vernon, of whom, by the way,
+Barbara is extremely fond, though it may only be in a friendly fashion. At any
+rate she pays more attention to his wishes and opinions than to mine and yours
+put together.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the mention of Alan&rsquo;s name Aylward started violently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I feared it,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and he is more than ten years my
+junior and a soldier, not a man of business. Also there is no use disguising
+the truth, although I am a baronet and shall be a peer and he is nothing but a
+beggarly country gentleman with a D.S.O. tacked on to his name, he belongs to a
+different class to us, as she does too on her mother&rsquo;s side. Well, I can
+smash him up, for you remember I took over that mortgage on Yarleys, and
+I&rsquo;ll do it if necessary. Practically our friend has not a shilling that
+he can call his own. Therefore, Haswell, unless you play me false, which I
+don&rsquo;t think you will, for I can be a nasty enemy,&rdquo; he added with a
+threat in his voice, &ldquo;Alan Vernon hasn&rsquo;t much chance in that
+direction.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, Aylward, I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; replied Haswell,
+shaking his white head. &ldquo;Barbara is a strong-willed woman and she might
+choose to take the man and let the money go, and then&mdash;who can stop her?
+Also I don&rsquo;t like your idea of smashing Vernon. It isn&rsquo;t right, and
+it may come back on our own heads, especially yours. I am sorry that he has
+left us, as you were on Friday night, for somehow he was a good, honest stick
+to lean on, and we want such a stick. But I am tired now, I really can&rsquo;t
+talk any more. The doctor warned me against excitement. Get the girl&rsquo;s
+consent, Aylward, and we&rsquo;ll see. Ah! here comes my soup. Good-bye for the
+present.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Sir Robert came down to luncheon he found Barbara looking particularly
+radiant and charming, already presiding at that meal and conversing in her best
+French to the foreign gentlemen, who were paying her compliments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Forgive me for being late,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;first of all I have
+been talking to your uncle, and afterwards skimming through the articles in
+yesterday&rsquo;s papers on our little venture which comes out to-morrow. A
+cheerful occupation on the whole, for with one or two exceptions they are all
+favourable.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mon Dieu,&rdquo; said the French gentlemen on the right, &ldquo;seeing
+what they did cost, that is not strange. Your English papers they are so
+expensive; in Paris we have done it for half the money.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Barbara and some of the guests laughed outright, finding this frankness
+charming.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But where have you been, Miss Champers? I thought that we were going to
+have a round of golf together. The caddies were there, I was there, the greens
+had been specially rolled this morning, but there was no You.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;because Major Vernon and I walked to
+church and heard a very good sermon upon the observance of the Sabbath.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are severe,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Do you think it wrong for men who
+work hard all the week to play a harmless game on Sunday?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not at all, Sir Robert.&rdquo; Then she looked at him and, coming to a
+sudden decision, added, &ldquo;If you like I will play you nine holes this
+afternoon and give you a stroke a hole, or would you prefer a foursome?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, let us fight alone and let the best player win.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well, Sir Robert; but you mustn&rsquo;t forget that I am
+handicapped.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t look angry,&rdquo; she whispered to Alan as they strolled
+out into the garden after lunch, &ldquo;I must clear things up and know what we
+have to face. I&rsquo;ll be back by tea-time, and we will have it out with my
+uncle.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The nine holes had been played, and by a single stroke Barbara had won the
+match, which pleased her very much, for she had done her best, and with such
+heavy odds in his favour Sir Robert, who had also done his best, was no mean
+opponent, even for a player of her skill. Indeed the fight had been quite
+earnest, for each party knew that it was but a prelude to another and more
+serious fight, and looked upon the result as in some sense an omen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am conquered,&rdquo; he said in a voice in which vexation struggled
+with a laugh, &ldquo;and by a woman over whom I had an advantage. It is
+humiliating, for I confess I do not like being beaten.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you think that women generally win if they mean to?&rdquo;
+asked Barbara. &ldquo;I believe that when they fail, which is often enough, it
+is because they don&rsquo;t care, or can&rsquo;t make up their minds. A woman
+in earnest is a dangerous antagonist.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;or the best of allies.&rdquo; Then he
+gave the clubs and half-a-crown to the caddies, and when they were out of
+hearing, added, &ldquo;Miss Champers, I have been wondering for some time
+whether it is possible that you would become such an ally to me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know nothing of business, Sir Robert; my tastes do not lie that
+way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You know well that I was not speaking of business, Miss Champers. I was
+speaking of another kind of partnership, that which Nature has ordained between
+men and women&mdash;marriage. Will you accept me as a husband?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She opened her lips to speak, but he lifted his hand and went on. &ldquo;Listen
+before you give that ready answer which it is so hard to recall, or smooth
+away. I know all my disadvantages, my years, which to you may seem many; my
+modest origin; my trade, which, not altogether without reason, you despise and
+dislike. Well, the first two cannot be changed except for the worse; the second
+can be, and already is, buried beneath the gold and ermine of wealth and
+titles. What does it matter if I am the son of a City clerk who never earned
+more than &pound;2 a week and was born in a tenement at Battersea, when I am one of
+the rich men of this rich land and shall die a peer in a palace, leaving
+millions and honours to my children? As for the third, my occupation, I am
+prepared to give it up. It has served my turn, and after next week I shall have
+earned the amount that years ago I determined to earn. Thenceforth, set above
+the accidents of fortune, I propose to devote myself to higher aims, those of
+legitimate ambition. So far as my time would allow I have already taken some
+share in politics as a worker; I intend to continue in them as a ruler which I
+still have the health and ability to do. I mean to be one of the first men in
+this Empire, to ride to power over the heads of all the nonentities whose only
+claim upon the confidence of their countrymen is that they were born in a
+certain class, with money in their pockets and without the need to spend the
+best of their manhood in work. With you at my side I can do all these things
+and more, and such is the future that I have to offer you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again she would have broken in upon his speech and again he stopped her,
+reading the unspoken answer on her lips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Listen: I have not told you all. Perhaps I have put first what should
+have come last. I have not told you that I love you earnestly and sincerely,
+with the settled, unalterable love that sometimes comes to men in middle-age
+who have never turned their thought that way before. I will not attempt the
+rhapsodies of passion which at my time of life might sound foolish or out of
+place; yet it is true that I am filled with this passion which has descended on
+me and taken possession of me. I who often have laughed at such things in other
+men, adore you. You are a joy to my eyes. If you are not in the room, for me it
+is empty. I admire the uprightness of your character, and even your prejudices,
+and to your standard I desire to approximate my own. I think that no man can
+ever love you quite so well as I do, Barbara Champers. Now speak. I am ready to
+meet the best or the worst.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After her fashion Barbara looked him straight in the face with her steady eyes,
+and answered gently enough, for the man&rsquo;s method of presenting his case,
+elaborate and prepared though it evidently was, had touched her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I fear it is the worst, Sir Robert. There are hundreds of women superior
+to myself in every way who would be glad to give you the help and companionship
+you ask, with their hearts thrown in. Choose one of them, for I cannot do
+so.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He heard and for the first time his face broke, as it were. All this while it
+had remained masklike and immovable, even when he spoke of his love, but now it
+broke as ice breaks at the pressure of a sudden flood beneath, and she saw the
+depths and eddies of his nature and understood their strength. Not that he
+revealed them in speech, angry or pleading, for that remained calm and measured
+enough. She did not hear, she saw, and even then it was marvellous to her that
+a mere change in a man&rsquo;s expression could explain so much.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Those are very cruel words,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Are they
+unalterable?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite. I do not play in such matters, it would be wicked.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;May I ask you one question, for if the answer is in the negative, I
+shall still continue to hope? Do you care for any other man?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again she looked at him with her fearless eyes and answered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, I am engaged to another man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To Alan Vernon?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She nodded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When did that happen? Some years ago?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, this morning.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Great Heavens!&rdquo; he muttered in a hoarse voice turning his head
+away, &ldquo;this morning. Then last night it might not have been too late, and
+last night I should have spoken to you, I had arranged it all. Yes, if it had
+not been for the story of that accursed fetish and your uncle&rsquo;s illness,
+I should have spoken to you, and perhaps succeeded.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think not,&rdquo; she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned upon her and notwithstanding the tears in his eyes they burned like
+fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You think&mdash;you think,&rdquo; he gasped, &ldquo;but I know. Of
+course after this morning it was impossible. But, Barbara, I say that I will
+win you yet. I have never failed in any object that I set before myself, and do
+not suppose that I shall fail in this. Although in a way I liked and respected
+him, I have always felt that Vernon was my enemy, one destined to bring grief
+and loss upon me, even if he did not intend to do so. Now I understand why, and
+he shall learn that I am stronger than he. God help him! I say.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think He will,&rdquo; Barbara answered, calmly. &ldquo;You are
+speaking wildly, and I understand the reason and hope that you will forget your
+words, but whether you forget or remember, do not suppose that you frighten me.
+You men who have made money,&rdquo; she went on with swelling indignation,
+&ldquo;who have made money somehow, and have bought honours with the moneys
+somehow, think yourselves great, and in your little day, your little, little
+day that will end with three lines in small type in <i>The Times</i>, you are
+great in this vulgar land. You can buy what you want and people creep round you
+and ask you for doles and favours, and railway porters call you &lsquo;my
+Lord&rsquo; at every other step. But you forget your limitations in this world,
+and that which lies above you. You say you will do this and that. You should
+study a book which few of you ever read, where it tells you that you do not
+know what you will be on the morrow; that your life is even as a vapour
+appearing for a little time and then vanishing away. You think that you can
+crush the man to whom I have given my heart because he is honest and you are
+dishonest, because you are rich and he is poor, and because he chances to have
+succeeded where you have not. Well, for myself and for him I defy you. Do your
+worst and fail, and when you have failed, in the hour of your extremity
+remember my words to-day. If I have given you pain by refusing you it is not my
+fault and I am sorry, but when you threaten the man who has honoured me with
+his love and whom I honour above every creature upon the earth, then I threaten
+back, and may the Power that made us all judge between you and me, as judge it
+will,&rdquo; and bursting into tears she turned and left him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Robert watched her go.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What a woman!&rdquo; he said meditatively, &ldquo;what a woman&mdash;to
+have lost. Well she has set the stakes and we will play out the game. The cards
+all seem to be in my hands, but it would not in the least surprise me if she
+won the rubber, for the element that I call Chance and she would call something
+else, may come in. Still, I never refused a challenge yet and we will play the
+game out without pity to the loser.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night the first trick was played. When he got back to The Court Sir Robert
+ordered his motorcar and departed on urgent business, either to his own place,
+Old Hall, or to London, saying only that he had been summoned away by telegram.
+As the 70-horse-power Mercedes glided out of the gates a pencilled note was put
+into Mr. Haswell&rsquo;s hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It ran: &ldquo;I have tried and failed&mdash;for the present. By ill-luck A.V.
+had been before me, only this morning. If I had not missed my chance last night
+owing to your illness, it would have been different. I do not, however, in the
+least abandon my plan, in which of course I rely on and expect your support.
+Keep V. in the office or let him go as you like. Perhaps it would be better if
+you could prevail upon him to stop there until after the flotation. But
+whatever you say at the moment, I trust to you to absolutely veto any
+engagement between him and your niece, and to that end to use all your powers
+and authority as her guardian. Burn this note.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+MR. HASWELL LOSES HIS TEMPER.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Alan and Barbara sat in Mr. Champers-Haswell&rsquo;s private sitting-room with
+the awful decorations, and before them by the fire Mr. Champers-Haswell
+reclined upon his couch. Alan in a few, brief, soldier-like words had just
+informed him of his engagement to Barbara. During the recital of this
+interesting fact Barbara said nothing, but Mr. Haswell had whistled several
+times. Now at length he spoke, in that tone of forced geniality which he
+generally adopted towards his cousin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are asking for the hand of a considerable heiress, Alan my
+boy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but you have neglected to inform me of your own
+position.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where is the use of telling you what you know already, Mr. Haswell? I
+have left the firm, therefore I have practically nothing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have practically nothing, and yet&mdash;&mdash;Well, in my young
+days men were more delicate, they did not like being called fortune-hunters,
+but of course times have changed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan bit his lip and Barbara sat up quite straight in her chair, observing
+which indications, Mr. Haswell went on hurriedly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now if you had stopped in the firm and earned the very handsome
+competence in a small way which would have become due to you this week, instead
+of throwing us over at the last moment for some quixotic reasons of your own,
+it might have been a different matter. I do not say it would have been, I say
+it might have been, and you may remember a proverb about winks and nods and
+blind horses. So I ask you whether you are inclined to withdraw that
+resignation of yours and bring up this question again let us say, next
+Sunday?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan thought a while before he answered. As he understood Mr. Haswell
+practically was promising to assent to the engagement upon these terms. The
+temptation was enormously great, the fiercest that he had ever been called upon
+to face. He looked at Barbara. She had closed her eyes and made absolutely no
+sign. For some reason of her own she had elected that he should determine this
+vital point without the slightest assistance from her. And it must be
+determined at once; procrastination was impossible. For a moment he hesitated.
+On the one side was Barbara, on the other his conscience. After long doubts he
+had come to a certain conclusion which he quite understood to be inconvenient
+to his partners. Should he throw it over now? Should he even try to make a sure
+and certain bargain as the price of his surrender? Probably he would not suffer
+if he did. The flotation was underwritten and bound to go through; the scandal
+would come afterwards, months or years hence, long before which he might get
+out, as most of the others meant to do. No, he could not. His conscience was
+too much for him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not see any use in reconsidering that question, Mr. Haswell,&rdquo;
+he said quietly; &ldquo;we settled it on Friday night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Barbara reopened her brown eyes and stared amiably at the painted ceiling, and
+Mr. Haswell whistled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then I am afraid,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that I do not see any use in
+discussing your kind proposal for my niece&rsquo;s hand. Listen&mdash;I will be
+quite open with you. I have other views for Barbara, and as it happens I have
+the power to enforce them, or at any rate to prevent their frustration by you.
+If Barbara marries against my will before she is five-and-twenty, that is
+within the next two years, her entire fortune, with the exception of a
+pittance, goes elsewhere. This I am sure is a fact that will influence you, who
+have nothing and even if it did not, I presume that you are scarcely so selfish
+as to wish to beggar her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;you need not fear that, for it would be
+wrong. I understand that you absolutely refuse to sanction my suit on the
+ground of my poverty, which under the circumstances is perhaps not wonderful.
+Well, the only thing to do is to wait for two years, a long time, but not
+endless, and meanwhile I can try to better my position.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do what you will, Alan,&rdquo; said Mr. Haswell harshly, for now all his
+<i>faux bonhomme</i> manner had gone, leaving him revealed in his true
+character of an unscrupulous tradesman with dark ends of his own to serve.
+&ldquo;Do what you will, but understand that I forbid all communication between
+you and my niece, and that the sooner you cease to trespass upon a hospitality
+which you have abused, the better I shall be pleased.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will go at once,&rdquo; said Alan, rising, &ldquo;before my temper
+gets the better of me and I tell you some truths that I might regret, for after
+all you are Barbara&rsquo;s uncle. But on your part I ask you to understand
+that I refuse to cut off from my cousin, who is of full age and has promised to
+be my wife,&rdquo; and he turned to go.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stop a minute, Alan,&rdquo; said Barbara, who all this while had sat
+silent. &ldquo;I have something to say which I wish you to hear. You told us
+just now, uncle, that you have other views for me, by which you meant that you
+wish me to marry Sir Robert Aylward, whom, as you are probably aware, I refused
+definitely this afternoon. Now I wish to make it clear at once that no earthly
+power will induce me to take as a husband a man whom I dislike, and whose
+wealth, of which you think so much, has in my opinion been dishonestly
+acquired.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What are you saying?&rdquo; broke in her uncle furiously. &ldquo;He has
+been my partner for years, you are reflecting upon me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am sorry, uncle, but I withdraw nothing. Even if Alan here were dead,
+I would not marry that man, and perhaps you will make him understand
+this,&rdquo; she added with emphasis. &ldquo;Indeed I had sooner die myself.
+You told us also that if I marry against your will, you can take away all the
+property that my father left to me. Uncle, I shall not give you that
+satisfaction. I shall wait until I am twenty-five and do what I please with
+myself and my fortune. Lastly, you said that you forbade us to see each other
+or to correspond. I answer that I shall both write to and see Alan as often as
+I like. If you attempt to prevent me from doing so, I shall go to the Court of
+Chancery, lay all the facts before it, as I have been advised that I can
+do&mdash;not by Alan&mdash;please remember, <i>all</i> the facts, and ask for
+its protection and for a separate maintenance out of my estate until I am
+twenty-five. I am sure that the Court would grant me this and would declare
+that considering his distinguished family and record Alan is a perfectly proper
+person to be my affianced husband. I think that is all I have to say.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All you have to say!&rdquo; gasped Mr. Haswell, &ldquo;all you have to
+say, you impertinent and ungrateful minx!&rdquo; Then he fell into a furious
+fit of rage and in language that need not be repeated, poured a stream of
+threats and abuse upon Alan and herself. Barbara waited until he ceased from
+exhaustion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Uncle,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;you should remember that your heart is
+weak and you must not overexcite yourself, also when you are calmer, that if
+you speak to me like that again, I shall go to the Court at once, for I will
+not be sworn at by you or by any other man. I apologize to you, Alan; I am
+afraid I have brought you into strange company. Come, my dear, we will go and
+order your dogcart,&rdquo; and putting her arm affectionately through his, she
+went with him from the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wonder who put her up to all this?&rdquo; gasped Haswell, as the door
+closed behind them. &ldquo;Some infernal lawyer, I&rsquo;ll be bound. Well, she
+has got the whip hand of me, and I can&rsquo;t face an investigation in
+Chancery, especially as the only thing against Vernon is that the value of his
+land has fallen. But I swear that she shall never marry him while I
+live,&rdquo; he ended in a kind of shout and the domed and painted ceiling
+echoed back his words&mdash;&ldquo;<i>while I live</i>&rdquo; after which the
+room was silent, save for the heavy thumping of his heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Alan reached home that night after his ten-mile drive he sent Jeekie to
+tell the housekeeper to find him some food. In his mysterious African fashion
+the negro had already collected much intelligence as to the events of the day,
+mostly in the servants&rsquo; hall, and more particularly from the two
+golf-caddies, sons of one of the gardeners, who it seemed instead of retiring
+with the clubs, had taken shelter in some tall whins and thence followed the
+interview between Barbara and Sir Robert with the intensest interest.
+Reflecting that this was not the time to satisfy his burning curiosity, Jeekie
+went and in due course returned with some cold mutton and a bottle of claret.
+Then came his chance, for Alan could scarcely touch the mutton and demanded
+toast and butter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very inferior chop&rdquo;&mdash;that was his West African word for
+food&mdash;&ldquo;for a gentleman, Major,&rdquo; he said, shaking his white
+head sympathetically and pointing to the mutton,&mdash;&ldquo;specially when he
+has unexpectedly departed from magnificent eating of The Court. Why did you not
+wait till after dinner, Major, before retiring?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan laughed at the man&rsquo;s inflated English, and answered in a more
+nervous and colloquial style:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I was kicked out, Jeekie.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! I gathered that kicking was in the wind, Major. Sir Robert Aylward,
+Bart., he also was kicked out, but by smaller toe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again Alan laughed and, as it was a relief to talk even to Jeekie, asked him:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How do you know that?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I gathered it out of atmosphere, Major; from Sir Robert&rsquo;s
+gentleman, from two youths who watch Sir Robert and Miss Barbara talking upon
+golf green No. 9, from the machine driver of Sir Robert whose eyes he damn in
+public, and last but not least from his own noble countenance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I see that you are observant, Jeekie.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Observation, Major, it is art of life. I see Miss Barbara&rsquo;s eyes
+red like morning sky and I deduct. I see you shot out and gloomy like evening
+cloud, and I deduct. I listen at door of Mr. Haswell&rsquo;s room, I hear him
+curse and swear like holy saint in Book, and you and Miss Barbara answer him
+not like saint, though what you speak I cannot hear, and I deduct. Jeekie
+deduct this&mdash;that you make love to Miss Barbara in proper gentlemanlike,
+&rsquo;nogamous, Christian fashion such as your late Reverend Uncle approve,
+and Miss Barbara, she make love to you with ten per cent. compound interest,
+but old gent with whistle, he <i>not</i> approve; he say, &lsquo;Where
+corresponding cash!&rsquo; He say &lsquo;Noble Sir Robert have much cash and
+interested in identical business. I prefer Sir Robert. Get out, you
+Cashless.&rsquo; Often I see this same thing when boy in West Africa, very
+common wherever sun shine. I note all these matters and I deduct&mdash;that
+Jeekie&rsquo;s way and Jeekie seldom wrong.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan laughed for the third time, until the tears ran down his face indeed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you are a great
+rascal&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; interrupted Jeekie, &ldquo;great rascal. Best thing to
+be in this world, Major. Honourable Sir Robert, Bart., M.P., and Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, D.L., J.P., they find that out long ago and sit on top of
+tree of opulent renown. Jeekie great rascal and therefore have Savings Bank
+account&mdash;go on, Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, Jeekie, because if you are a rascal you are kind-hearted and
+because I believe that you care for me&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! Major,&rdquo; broke in Jeekie again, &ldquo;that most
+&rsquo;utterably true. Honour bright I love you, Major, better than anyone on
+earth, except my late old woman, now happily dead, gone and forgotten in best
+oak coffin, &pound;4 10 without fittings but polished, and perhaps your holy uncle,
+Reverend Mr. Austin, also coffined and departed, who saved me from early
+extinction in a dark place. Major, I no like graves, I see too much of them,
+and can&rsquo;t tell what lie on other side. Though everyone say they know,
+Jeekie not quite sure. May be all light and crowns of glory, may be damp black
+hole and no way out. But this at least true, that I love you better, yes,
+better than Miss Barbara, for love of woman very poor, uncertain thing, quick
+come, quick go. Jeekie find that out&mdash;often. Yes, if need be, though death
+most nasty, if need be I say I die for you, which great unpleasant
+sacrifice,&rdquo; and Jeekie in the genuine enthusiasm of his warm heart,
+throwing himself upon his knees after the African fashion, seized his
+master&rsquo;s hand and kissed it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thanks, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;very kind of you, I am sure.
+But we haven&rsquo;t come to that yet, though no one knows what may happen
+later on. Now sit upon that chair and take a little whisky&mdash;not too
+much&mdash;for I am going to ask your advice.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;I obey,&rdquo; and seizing the whisky
+bottle in a casual manner, he poured out half a tumbler full, for Jeekie was
+fond of whisky. Indeed before now this taste had brought him into conflict with
+the local magistrates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Put back three parts of that,&rdquo; said Alan, and Jeekie did so.
+&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;listen: this is the case, Miss Barbara
+and I are&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and he hesitated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! I know; like me and Mrs. Jeekie once,&rdquo; said Jeekie, gulping
+down some of the neat whisky. &ldquo;Go on, Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And Sir Robert Aylward is&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Same thing, Major. Continue.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And Mr. Haswell has&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Those facts all ascertained, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, contemplating
+his glass with a mournful eye. &ldquo;Now come to the point, Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, the point is, Jeekie, that I am what you called just now cashless,
+and therefore&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Therefore,&rdquo; interrupted Jeekie again, &ldquo;stick fast in
+honourable intention towards Miss Barbara owing to obstinate opposition of Mr.
+Haswell, legal uncle with control of property fomented by noble Sir Robert who
+desire same girl.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite right, Jeekie, but if you would talk a little less and let me talk
+a little more, we might get on better.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I henceforth silent, Major,&rdquo; and lifting his empty tumbler Jeekie
+looked through it as if it were a telescope, a hint that Alan ignored.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie, you infernal old fool, I want money.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, I understand, Major. Forgive me for breaking conspiracy of
+silence, but if &pound;500 in Savings Bank any use, very much at your service, Major;
+also &pound;20 more extracted last night from terror of wealthy Jew who fear
+fetish.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie, you old donkey, I don&rsquo;t want your &pound;500; I want a great
+deal more, &pound;50,000 or &pound;500,000. Tell me how to get it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;City best place, Major. But you chuck City, too much honest man, great
+mistake to be honest in this terrestrial sphere. Often notice that in West
+Africa.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps, Jeekie, but I have done with the City. As you would say, for me
+it is &lsquo;wipe out, finish.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, too much pickpocket, too much dirt. Bottom always drop out
+of bucket shop at last. I understand, end in police court and severe
+magistrate, or perhaps even &lsquo;Gentlemen of Jury&rsquo;; etcetera.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, Jeekie, then what remains? Now last night when you told us that
+amazing yarn of yours, you said something about a mountain full of gold, and
+houses full of gold, among your people. Jeekie, do you
+think&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and he paused, looking at him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie rolled his black eyes round the room and in a fit of absentmindedness
+helped himself to some more whisky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do I think, Major, that this useless lucre could be converted into coin
+of gracious King Edward? Not at all, Major, by no one, Major, by no one
+whatsoever, except possibly by Major Alan Vernon, D.S.O., and by one, Jeekie,
+Christian surname Smith.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Proceed, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, removing the whisky bottle,
+&ldquo;proceed and explain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Major, thus: The Asiki tribe care nothing about all that gold, it no
+good to them. Dead people who live long, long ago, no one know when, dig it up
+and store it there and make the great fetish which they call Bonsa to keep away
+enemy who want to steal. Also old custom when any one in country round find big
+nugget, or pretty stone, like ladies wear on bosom, to bring it as offering to
+Bonsa, so that there now great plenty of all this stuff. But no one use it for
+anything except to set on walls of house of Asiki, or to make basin, stool,
+table and pot to cook with. Once Arab come there and I see the priests give him
+weight in gold for iron hoe, though afterwards they murder him, not for the
+gold, but lest he go away and tell their secret.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;One might trade with them then, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He shook his white head doubtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, perhaps, if you find anything they want buy and can carry it
+Asiki-Land. But I think there only one thing they want, and you got that,
+Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I, Jeekie! What have I got?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The negro leant forward and tapped his master on the knee, saying in a
+portentous whisper:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You got Little Bonsa, which much more holy than anything, even than Big
+Bonsa her husband, I mean greater, more powerful devil. That Little Bonsa sit
+in front room Asika&rsquo;s house, and when she want see things, she put it in
+big basin of gold, but I no tell you what it float in. Also once or twice every
+year they take out Little Bonsa; Asika wear it on head as mask, and whoever
+they meet they kill as offering to Little Bonsa, so that spirit come back to
+world to be priest of Bonsa. I tell you, Major, that Yellow God see many
+thousand of people die.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;A pleasing fetish truly. I should think
+that the Asiki must be glad it is gone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, not glad, very sorry. No luck for them when Little Bonsa go away,
+but plenty luck for those who got her. That why firm Aylward &amp; Haswell make
+so much money when you join them and bring her to office. She drop green in eye
+of public so they no smell rat. That why you so lucky, not die of blackwater
+fever when you should; get safe out of den of thieves in City with good name;
+win love of sweet maiden, Miss Barbara. Little Bonsa do all those things for
+you, and by and by do plenty more, as Little Bonsa bring my old master, your
+holy uncle, safe out of that country because all the Asiki run away when they
+see him wear her on head, for they think she come sacrifice them after she eat
+up my life.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wonder that they ran,&rdquo; said Alan, laughing, for the
+vision of a missionary with Little Bonsa on his head caught his fancy.
+&ldquo;But come to the point, you old heathen. What do you mean that I should
+do?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie not heathen now, Major, but plenty other things true in this
+world, besides Christian religion. I no want you do anything, but I say
+this&mdash;you go back to Asiki wearing Little Bonsa on head and dressed like
+Reverend uncle whom you very like, for he just your age then thirty years ago,
+and they give you all the gold you want, if you give them back Little Bonsa
+whom they love and worship for ever and ever, for Little Bonsa very, very
+old.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan sat up in his chair and stared at Jeekie, while Jeekie nodded his head at
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is something in it,&rdquo; he said slowly, speaking more to
+himself than to the negro, &ldquo;and perhaps that is why I would not sell the
+fetish, for as you say, there are plenty of true things in the world besides
+those which we believe. But, Jeekie, how should I find the way?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No trouble, Major, Little Bonsa find way, want to get back home, very
+hungry by now, much need sacrifice. Think it good thing kill pig to Little
+Bonsa&mdash;or even lamb. She know you do your best, since human being not to
+be come at in Christian land, and say &lsquo;thank you for life of
+pig.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stop that rubbish,&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;I want a guide; if I go,
+will you come with me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this suggestion the negro looked exceedingly uncomfortable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not like to, not like to at all,&rdquo; he said, rolling his eyes.
+&ldquo;Asiki-land very funny place for native-born. But,&rdquo; he added sadly,
+&ldquo;if you go Jeekie must, for I servant of Little Bonsa and if I stay
+behind, she angry and kill me because I not attend her where she walk. But
+perhaps if I go and take her to Gold House again, she pleased and let me off.
+Also I able help you there. Yes, if you and Little Bonsa go, think I go
+too.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this announcement Jeekie rose and walked down the room, carrying the cold
+mutton in his hand. Then he returned, replaced it on the table and standing in
+front of Alan, said earnestly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Major, I tell you all truth, just this once. Jeekie believe he
+<i>got</i> go with you to Asiki-land. Jeekie have plenty bad dream lately,
+Little Bonsa come in middle of the night and sit on his stomach and scratch his
+face with her gold leg, and say, &lsquo;Jeekie, Jeekie, you son of Bonsa, you
+get up quick and take me back Bonsa Town, for I darned tired of City fog and
+finished all I come here to do. Now I want jolly good sacrifice and got plenty
+business attend to there at home, things you not understand just yet. You take
+me back sharp, or I make you sit up, Jeekie, my boy;&rsquo;&rdquo; and he
+paused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; said Alan; &ldquo;and did she tell you anything else in
+her midnight visitations?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major. She say, &lsquo;You take that white master of yours along
+also, for I want come back Asiki-land on his head, and someone wish see him
+there, old pal what he forgot but what not forget him. You tell him Little
+Bonsa got score she wants settle with that party and wish use him to square
+account. You tell him too that she pay him well for trip; he lose nothing if he
+play her game &rsquo;cause she got no score against him. But if he not go, that
+another matter, then he look out, for Little Bonsa very nasty customer if she
+riled, as his late partners find out one day.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! shut up, Jeekie. What&rsquo;s the use of wasting time telling me
+your nightmares?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well, Major, just as you like, Major. But I got other reasons why I
+willing go. Jeekie want see his ma.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your ma? I never heard you had a ma. Besides she must be dead long
+ago.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Major, &rsquo;cause she turn up in dream too, very much alive, swear
+at me &rsquo;cause I bag her blanket. Also she tough old woman, take lot kill
+her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps you have a pa too,&rdquo; suggested Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Think not, Major, my ma always say she forget him. What she mean, she
+not like talk about him, he such a swell. Why Jeekie so strong, so clever and
+with such beautiful face? No doubt because he is son of very great man. All
+this true reason why he want to go with you, Major. Still, p&rsquo;raps poor
+old Jeekie make mistake, p&rsquo;raps he dream &rsquo;cause he eat too much
+supper, p&rsquo;raps his ma dead, after all. If so, p&rsquo;raps better stay at
+home&mdash;not know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;not know. What between Little Bonsa and
+one thing and another my head is swimming&mdash;like Little Bonsa in the
+water.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Big Bonsa swim in water,&rdquo; interrupted Jeekie. &ldquo;Little Bonsa
+swim in gold tub.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, Big Bonsa, or Little Bonsa, I don&rsquo;t care which. I&rsquo;m
+going to bed and you had better clear away these things and do the same. But,
+Jeekie, if you say a word of our talk to anyone, I shall be very angry. Do you
+understand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, I understand. I understand that if I tell secrets of Little
+Bonsa to anyone except you with whom she live in strange land far away from
+home, Little Bonsa come at me like one lion, and cut my throat. No fear Jeekie
+split on Little Bonsa, oh! no fear at all,&rdquo; and still shaking his head
+solemnly, for the second time he seized the cold mutton and vanished from the
+room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A farrago of superstitious nonsense,&rdquo; thought Alan to himself when
+he had gone. &ldquo;But still there may be something to be made out of it.
+Evidently there is lots of gold in this Asiki country, if only one can persuade
+the people to deal.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then weary of Jeekie and his tribal gods, Alan lit his pipe and sat a while
+thinking of Barbara and all the events of that tumultuous day. Notwithstanding
+his rebuff at the hands of Mr. Haswell and the difficulties and dangers which
+threatened, he felt even then that it had been a happy and a fortunate day. For
+had he not discovered that Barbara loved him with all her heart and soul as he
+loved Barbara? And as this was so, he did not care a&mdash;Little Bonsa about
+anything else. The future must look to itself, sufficient to the day was the
+abiding joy thereof.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So he went to bed and for a while to sleep, but he did not sleep very long, for
+presently he fell to dreaming, something about Big Bonsa and Little Bonsa which
+sat, or rather floated on either side of his couch and held an interminable
+conversation over him, while Jeekie and Sir Robert Aylward, perched
+respectively at its head and its foot, like the symbols of the good and evil
+genii on a Mohammedan tomb, acted as a kind of insane chorus. He struck his
+repeater, it was only one o&rsquo;clock, so he tried to go to sleep again, but
+failed utterly. Never had he been more painfully awake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For an hour or more Alan persevered, then at last in despair he jumped out of
+bed wondering what he could do to occupy his mind. Suddenly he remembered the
+diary of his uncle, the Rev. Mr. Austin, which he had inherited with the Yellow
+God and a few other possessions, but never examined. They had been put away in
+a box in the library about fifteen years before, just at the time he entered
+the army, and there doubtless they remained. Well, as he could not sleep, why
+should he not examine them now, and thus get through some of this weary night?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He lit a candle and went down to the library, an ancient and beautiful
+apartment with black oak panelling between the bookcases, set there in the time
+of Elizabeth. In this panelling there were cupboards, and in one of the
+cupboards was the box he sought, made of teak wood. On its lid was painted,
+&ldquo;The Reverend Henry Austin. Passenger to Acra,&rdquo; showing that it had
+once been his uncle&rsquo;s cabin box. The key hung from the handle, and having
+lit more candles, Alan drew it out and unlocked it, to be greeted by a smell of
+musty documents done up in great bundles. One by one he placed them on the
+floor. It was a dreary occupation alone there in that great, silent room at the
+dead of night, one indeed with which he was soon satisfied, for somehow it
+reminded him of rifling coffins in a vault. Before him so carefully put away
+lay the records of a good if not a distinguished life, and until this moment he
+had never found the energy even to look through them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length he came to the end of the bundles and saw that beneath lay a number
+of manuscript books packed closely with their backs upwards,
+marked&mdash;&ldquo;Journal&rdquo;&mdash;and with the year and sometimes the
+place of the author&rsquo;s residence. As he glanced at them in dismay, for
+they were many, his eye caught the title of one inscribed&mdash;as were several
+others&mdash;&ldquo;West Africa,&rdquo; and written in brackets
+beneath&mdash;&ldquo;This vol. contains all that is left of the notes of my
+escape with Jeekie from the Asiki Devil-worshippers.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan drew it out, and having refilled and closed the box, bore it off to his
+room, where he proceeded to read it in bed. As a matter of fact he found that
+there was not very much to read, for the reason that most of the
+closely-written volume had been so damaged by water, that the pencilled writing
+had run and become utterly illegible. The centre pages, however, not having
+been soaked, could still be deciphered, at any rate in part, also there was a
+large manuscript map, executed in ink, apparently at a later date, on the back
+of which was written: &ldquo;I purpose, D.V., to re-write at some convenient
+time all the history of my visit to the unknown Asiki people, as my original
+notes were practically destroyed when the canoe overset in the rapids and most
+of our few possessions were lost, except this book and the gold fetish mask
+which is called Little Bonsa or Small Swimming Head. This I think I can do with
+the aid of Jeekie from memory, but as the matter has only a personal and no
+religious interest, seeing that I was not able even to preach the Word among
+those benighted and bloodthirsty savages in whose country, as I verily
+believe, the Devil has one of his principal habitations, it must stand over
+till a convenient season, such as the time of old age or sickness. H.A.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;P.S. I ought to add with gratitude that even out of this hell fire I was
+enabled to snatch one brand from the burning, namely, the negro lad, Jeekie, to
+whose extraordinary resource and faithfulness I owe my escape. After a long
+hesitation I have been able to baptize him, although I fear that the taint of
+heathenism still clings to him. Thus not six months ago I caught him
+sacrificing a white cock to the image, Little Bonsa, in gratitude, as to my
+horror he explained, for my having been appointed an Honorary Canon of the
+Cathedral. I have told him to take that ugly mask which has been so often
+soaked in human blood, and melt it down over the kitchen stove, after picking
+out the gems in the eyes, that the proceeds may be given to the poor.
+<i>Note.</i> I had better see to this myself, as where Little Bonsa is
+concerned, Jeekie is not to be trusted. He says (with some excuse) that it has
+magic, and that if he melts it down, he will melt down too, and so shall I. How
+dark and ridiculous are the superstitions of the heathen! Perhaps, however,
+instead of destroying the thing, which is certainly unique, I might sell it to
+a museum, and thus spare the feelings of that weak vessel, Jeekie, who
+otherwise would very likely take it into his head to waste away and die, as
+these Africans do when their nerves are affected by terror of their
+fetish.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+THE DIARY.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Reflecting that time evidently had made little change in Jeekie, Alan studied
+this route map with care, and found that it started from Old Calabar, in the
+Bight of Biafra, on the west coast of Africa, whence it ran up to the Great Qua
+River, which it followed for a long way. Then it struck across country marked
+&ldquo;dense forest,&rdquo; northwards, and came to a river called Katsena,
+along the banks of which the route went eastwards. Thence it turned northward
+again through swamps, and ended in mountains called Shaku. In the middle of
+these mountains was written &ldquo;Asiki People live here on Raaba River.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The map was roughly drawn to scale, and Alan, who was an engineer accustomed to
+such things, easily calculated that the distance of this Raaba River from Old
+Calabar was about 350 miles as the crow flies, though probably the actual route
+to be travelled was nearer five hundred miles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having mastered the map, he opened the water-soaked diary. Turning page after
+page, only here and there could he make out a sentence, such as &ldquo;so I
+defied that beautiful but terrific woman. I, a Christian minister, the husband
+of a heathen priestess! Perish the thought. Sooner would I be sacrificed to
+Bonsa.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then came more illegible pages and again a paragraph that could be
+read&mdash;&ldquo;They gave me &lsquo;The Bean&rsquo; in a gold cup, and
+knowing its deadly nature I prepared myself for death. But happily for me my
+stomach, always delicate, rejected it at once, though I felt queer for days
+afterwards. Whereon they clapped their hands and said I was evidently innocent
+and a great medicine man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And again, further on&mdash;&ldquo;never did I see so much gold whether in
+dust, nuggets, or worked articles. I imagine it must be worth millions, but at
+that time gold was the last thing with which I wished to trouble myself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this entry many pages were utterly effaced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The last legible passage ran as follows&mdash;&ldquo;So guided by the lad
+Jeekie, and wearing the gold mask, Little Bonsa, on my head, I ran through them
+all, holding him by the hand as though I were dragging him away. A strange
+spectacle I must have been with my old black clergyman&rsquo;s coat buttoned
+about me, my naked legs and the gold mask, as pretending to be a devil such as
+they worship, I rushed through them in the moonlight, blowing the whistle in
+the mask and bellowing like a bull. . . . Such was the beginning of my dreadful
+six months&rsquo; journey to the coast. Setting aside the mercy of Providence
+that preserved me for its own purposes, I could never have lived to reach it
+had it not been for Little Bonsa, since curiously enough I found this fetish
+known and dreaded for hundreds of miles, and that by people who had never seen
+it, yes, even by the wild cannibals. Whenever it was produced food, bearers,
+canoes, or whatever else I might want were forthcoming as though by magic.
+Great is the fame of Big and Little Bonsa in all that part of West Africa,
+although, strange as it may seem, the outlying tribes seldom mention them by
+name. If they must speak of either of these images which are supposed to be man
+and wife, they call it the &lsquo;Yellow-God-who-lives-yonder.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not another word of all this strange history could Alan decipher, so with
+aching eyes he shut up the stained and tattered volume, and at last, just as
+the day was breaking, fell asleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At eleven o&rsquo;clock on that same morning, for he had slept late, Alan rose
+from his breakfast and went to smoke his pipe at the open door of the beautiful
+old hall in Yarleys that was clad with brown Elizabethan oak for which any
+dealer would have given hundreds of pounds. It was a charming morning, one of
+those that comes to us sometimes in an English April when the air is soft like
+that of Italy and the smell of the earth rises like that of incense, and little
+clouds float idly across a sky of tender blue. Standing thus he looked out upon
+the park where the elms already showed a tinge of green and the ash-buds were
+coal black. Only the walnuts and the great oaks, some of them pollards of a
+thousand years of age, remained stark and stern in their winter dress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan was in a reflective mood and involuntarily began to wonder how many of his
+forefathers had stood in that same spot upon such April mornings and looked out
+upon those identical trees wakening in the breath of spring. Only the trees and
+the landscape knew, those trees which had seen every one of them borne to
+baptism, to bridal and to burial. The men and women themselves were forgotten.
+Their portraits, each in the garb of his or her generation, hung here and there
+upon the walls of the ancient house which once they had owned or inhabited, but
+who remembered anything of them to-day? In many cases their names even were
+lost, for believing that they, so important in their time, could never sink
+into oblivion, they had not thought it necessary to record them upon their
+pictures.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now the thing was coming to an end. Unless in this way or in that he could
+save it, what remained of the old place, for the outlying lands had long since
+been sold, must go to the hammer and become the property of some pushing and
+successful person who desired to found a family, and perhaps in days to be
+would claim these very pictures that hung upon the walls as those of his own
+ancestors, declaring that he had brought in the estate because he was a
+relative of the ancient and ruined race.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, it was the way of the world, and perhaps it must be so, but the thought
+of it made Alan Vernon sad. If he could have continued that business, it might
+have been otherwise. By this hour his late partners, Sir Robert Aylward and Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, were doubtless sitting in their granite office in the City,
+probably in consultation with Lord Specton, who had taken his place upon the
+Board of the great Company which was being subscribed that day. No doubt
+applications for shares were pouring in by the early posts and by telegram, and
+from time to time Mr. Jeffreys respectfully reported their number and amount,
+while Sir Robert looked unconcerned and Mr. Haswell rubbed his hands and
+whistled cheerfully. Almost he could envy them, these men who were realizing
+great fortunes amidst the bustle and excitement of that fierce financial life,
+whilst he stood penniless and stared at the trees and the ewes which wandered
+among them with their lambs, he who, after all his work, was but a failure.
+With a sigh he turned away to fetch his cap and go out walking&mdash;there was
+a tenant whom he must see, a shifty, new-fangled kind of man who was always
+clamouring for fresh buildings and reductions in his rent. How was he to pay
+for more buildings? He must put him off, or let him go.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then a sharp sound caught his ear, that of an electric bell. It came from
+the telephone which, since he had been a member of a City firm, he had caused
+to be put into Yarleys at considerable expense in order that he might be able
+to communicate with the office in London. &ldquo;Were they calling him up from
+force of habit?&rdquo; he wondered. He went to the instrument which was fixed
+in a little room he used as a study, and took down the receiver.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I am Yarleys. Alan Vernon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And I am Barbara,&rdquo; came the answer. &ldquo;How are you, dear? Did
+you sleep well?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, very badly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nerves&mdash;Alan, you have got nerves. Now although I had a worse day
+than you did, I went to bed at nine, and protected by a perfect conscience,
+slumbered till nine this morning, exactly twelve hours. Isn&rsquo;t it clever
+of me to think of this telephone, which is more than you would ever have done?
+My uncle has departed to London vowing that no letter from you shall enter this
+house, but he forgot that there is a telephone in every room, and in fact at
+this moment I am speaking round by his office within a yard or two of his head.
+However, he can&rsquo;t hear, so that doesn&rsquo;t matter. My blessing be on
+the man who invented telephones, which hitherto I have always thought an awful
+nuisance. Are you feeling cheerful, Alan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very much the reverse,&rdquo; he answered; &ldquo;never was more gloomy
+in my life, not even when I thought I had to die within six hours of blackwater
+fever. Also I have lots that I want to talk to you about and I can&rsquo;t do
+it at the end of this confounded wire that your uncle may be tapping.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thought it might be so,&rdquo; answered Barbara, &ldquo;so I just rang
+you up to wish you good-morning and to say that I am coming over in the motor
+to lunch with my maid Snell as chaperone. All right, don&rsquo;t remonstrate, I
+<i>am coming</i> over to lunch&mdash;I can&rsquo;t hear you&mdash;never mind
+what people will say. I am coming over to lunch at one o&rsquo;clock, mind you
+are in. Good-bye, I don&rsquo;t want much to eat, but have something for Snell
+and the chauffeur. Good-bye.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the wire went dead, nor could all Alan&rsquo;s &ldquo;Hello&rsquo;s&rdquo;
+and &ldquo;Are you there&rsquo;s?&rdquo; extract another syllable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having ordered the best luncheon that his old housekeeper could provide Alan
+went off for his walk in much better spirits, which were further improved by
+his success in persuading the tenant to do without the new buildings for
+another year. In a year, he reflected, anything might happen. Then he returned
+by the wood where a number of new-felled oaks lay ready for barking. This was
+not a cheerful sight; it seemed so cruel to kill the great trees just as they
+were pushing their buds for another summer of life. But he consoled himself by
+recalling that they had been too crowded and that the timber was really needed
+on the estate. As he reached the house again carrying a bunch of white violets
+which he had plucked in a sheltered place for Barbara, he perceived a motor
+travelling at much more than the legal speed up the walnut avenue which was the
+pride of the place. In it sat that young lady herself, and her maid, Snell, a
+middle-aged woman with whom, as it chanced, he was on very good terms, as once,
+at some trouble to himself, he had been able to do her a kindness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The motor pulled up at the front door and out of it sprang Barbara, laughing
+pleasantly and looking fresh and charming as the spring itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There will be a row over this, dear,&rdquo; said Alan, shaking his head
+doubtfully when at last they were alone together in the hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course, there&rsquo;ll be a row,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;I mean
+that there shall be a row. I mean to have a row every day if necessary, until
+they leave me alone to follow my own road, and if they won&rsquo;t, as I said,
+to go to the Court of Chancery for protection. Oh! by the way, I have brought
+you a copy of <i>The Judge</i>. There&rsquo;s a most awful article in it about
+that Sahara flotation, and among other things it announces that you have left
+the firm and congratulates you upon having done so.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They&rsquo;ll think I have put it in,&rdquo; groaned Alan as he glanced
+at the head lines, which were almost libellous in their vigour, and the
+summaries of the financial careers of Sir Robert Aylward and Mr.
+Champers-Haswell. &ldquo;It will make them hate me more than ever, and I say,
+Barbara, we can&rsquo;t live in an atmosphere of perpetual warfare for the next
+two years.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can, if need be,&rdquo; answered that determined young woman.
+&ldquo;But I admit that it would be trying for you, if you stay here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s just the point, Barbara. I must not stay here, I must go
+away, the further the better, until you are your own mistress.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where to, Alan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To West Africa, I think.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;To West Africa?&rdquo; repeated Barbara, her voice trembling a little.
+&ldquo;After that treasure, Alan?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Barbara. But first come and have your lunch, then we will talk. I
+have got lots to tell and show you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they lunched, speaking of indifferent things, for the servant was there
+waiting on them. Just as they were finishing their meal Jeekie entered the room
+carrying a box and a large envelope addressed to his master, which he said had
+been sent by special messenger from the office in London.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s in the box?&rdquo; asked Alan, looking somewhat nervously
+at the envelope, which was addressed in a writing that he knew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know for certain, Major,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, &ldquo;but
+think Little Bonsa; think I smell her through wood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, look and see,&rdquo; replied Alan, while he broke the seal of the
+envelope and drew out its contents. They proved to be sundry documents sent by
+the firm&rsquo;s lawyers, among which were a notice of the formal dissolution
+of partnership to be approved by him before it appeared in the <i>Gazette</i>,
+a second notice calling in a mortgage for fifteen thousand and odd pounds on
+Yarleys, which as a matter of business had been taken over by the firm while he
+was a partner; a cash account showing a small balance against him, and finally
+a receipt for him to sign acknowledging the return of the gold image that was
+his property.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You see,&rdquo; said Alan with a sigh, pushing over the papers to
+Barbara, who read them carefully one by one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I see,&rdquo; she answered presently. &ldquo;It is war to the knife.
+Alan, I hate the idea of it, but perhaps you had better go away. While you are
+here they will harass the life out of you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile with the aid of a big jack-knife and the dining-room poker, Jeekie
+had prised off the lid of the box. Chancing to look round Barbara saw him on
+his knees muttering something in a strange tongue, and bowing his white head
+until it touched an object that lay within the box.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What are you doing, Jeekie?&rdquo; she asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Make bow to Little Bonsa, Miss Barbara, tell her how glad I am see her
+come back from town. She like feel welcome. Now you come bow too, Little Bonsa
+take that as compliment.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t bow, but I will look, Jeekie, for although I have heard so
+much about it I have never really examined this Yellow God.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very good, you come look, miss,&rdquo; and Jeekie propped up the case
+upon the end of the dining-room table. As from its height and position she
+could not see its contents very well whilst standing above it, Barbara knelt
+down to get a better view of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My goodness!&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;what a terrible face,
+beautiful too in its way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hardly had the words left her lips when for some reason unexplained that
+probably had to do with the shifting of the centre of gravity, Little Bonsa
+appeared to glide or fall out of her box with a startling suddenness, and
+project herself straight at Barbara, who, with a faint scream, fearing lest the
+precious thing should be injured, caught it in her arms and for a moment hugged
+it to her breast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Saved!&rdquo; she exclaimed, recovering herself and placing it on the
+table, whereon Jeekie, to their astonishment, began to execute a kind of war
+dance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;saved, very much saved. All saved, most
+magnificent omen. Lady kneel to Little Bonsa and Little Bonsa nip out of box,
+make bow and jump in lady&rsquo;s arms. That splendid, first-class luck, for
+miss and everybody. When Little Bonsa do that need fear nothing no more. All
+come right as rain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nonsense,&rdquo; said Barbara, laughing. Then from a cautious distance
+she continued her examination of the fetish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;See,&rdquo; said Jeekie, pointing to the misshapen little gold legs
+which were yet so designed that it could be stood up upon them, &ldquo;when
+anyone wear Little Bonsa, tie her on head behind by these legs; look, here same
+old leather string. Now I put her on, for she like to be worn again,&rdquo; and
+with a quick movement he clapped the mask on to his face, manipulated the
+greasy black leather thongs and made them fast. Thus adorned the great negro
+looked no less than terrific.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I see you, miss,&rdquo; he said, turning the fixed eyes of opal-like
+stone, bloodshot with little rubies, upon Barbara, &ldquo;I see you, though
+you no see me, for these eyes made very cunning. But listen, you hear
+me,&rdquo; and suddenly from the mask, produced by some contrivance set within
+it, there proceeded an awful, howling sound that made her shiver.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take that thing off, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;we don&rsquo;t
+want any banshees here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Banshees? Not know him, he poor English fetish p&rsquo;raps,&rdquo; said
+Jeekie, as he removed the mask. &ldquo;This real African god, howl banshee and
+all that sort into middle of next week. This Little Bonsa and no mistake, ten
+thousand years old and more, eat up lives, so many that no one can count them,
+and go on eating for ever, yes unto the third and fourth generation, as Ten
+Commandments lay it down for benefit of Christian man, like me. Look at her
+again, Miss Barbara.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miss Barbara took the hateful, ancient thing in her hands and studied it. No
+one could doubt its antiquity, for the gold plate of which it was made was
+literally worn away wherever it had touched the foreheads of the high priests
+or priestesses who donned it upon festive occasions or days of sacrifice,
+showing that hundreds and hundreds of them must have used it thus in
+succession. So was the vocal apparatus within the mouth, and so were the little
+toad-like feet upon which it was stood up. Also the substance of the gold
+itself was here and there pitted as though with acid or salts, though what
+those salts were she did not inquire. And yet, so consummate was the art with
+which it had originally been fashioned, that the battered beautiful face of
+Little Bonsa still peered at them with the same devilish smile that it had worn
+when it left the hands of its maker, perhaps before Mohammed preached his holy
+war, or even earlier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is all that writing on the back of it?&rdquo; asked Barbara,
+pointing to the long lines of rune-like characters which were inscribed within
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not know, miss, think they dead tongue cut in the beginning when black
+men could write. But Asiki priests swear they remember every one of them, and
+that why no one can copy Little Bonsa, for they look inside and see if marks
+all right. They say they names of those who died for Little Bonsa, and when
+they all done, Little Bonsa begin again, for Little Bonsa never die. But
+p&rsquo;raps priests lie.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I daresay,&rdquo; said Barbara, &ldquo;but take Little Bonsa away, for
+however lucky she may be, she makes me feel sick.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where I put her, Major?&rdquo; asked Jeekie of Alan. &ldquo;In box in
+library where she used to live, or in plate-safe with spoons? Or under your bed
+where she always keep eye on you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! put her with the spoons,&rdquo; said Alan angrily, and Jeekie
+departed with his treasure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think, dear,&rdquo; remarked Barbara as the door closed behind him,
+&ldquo;that if I come to lunch here any more, I shall bring my own christening
+present with me, for I can&rsquo;t eat off silver that has been shut up with
+that thing. Now let us get to business&mdash;show me the diary and the
+map.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Dearest Alan,&rdquo; wrote Barbara from The Court two days later,
+&ldquo;I have been thinking everything over, and since you are so set upon it,
+I suppose that you had better go. To me the whole adventure seems perfectly
+mad, but at the same time I believe in our luck, or rather in the Providence
+which watches over us, and I don&rsquo;t believe that you, or I either, will
+come to any harm. If you stop here, you will only eat your heart out and
+communication between us must become increasingly difficult. My uncle is
+furious with you, and since he discovered that we were talking over the
+telephone, to his own great inconvenience he has had the wires cut outside the
+house. That horrid letter of his to you saying that you had
+&lsquo;compromised&rsquo; me in pursuance of a &lsquo;mercenary scheme&rsquo;
+is all part and parcel of the same thing. How are you to stop here and submit
+to such insults? I went to see my friend the lawyer, and he tells me that of
+course we can marry if we like, but in that case my father&rsquo;s will, which
+he has consulted at Somerset House, is absolutely definite, and if I do so in
+opposition to my uncle&rsquo;s wishes, I must lose everything except &pound;200 a
+year. Now I am no money-grubber, but I will not give my uncle the satisfaction
+of robbing me of my fortune, which may be useful to both of us by and by. The
+lawyer says also that he does not think that the Court of Chancery would
+interfere, having no power to do so as far as the will is concerned, and not
+being able to make a ward of a person like myself who is over age and has the
+protection of the common law of the country. So it seems to me that the only
+thing to do is to be patient, and wait until time unties the knot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Meanwhile, if you can make some money in Africa, so much the better. So
+go, Alan, go as soon as you like, for I do not wish to prolong this agony, or
+to see you exposed daily to all you have to bear. Whenever you return you will
+find me waiting for you, and if you do not return, still I shall wait, as you
+in like circumstances will wait for me. But I think you will return.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then followed much that need not be written, and at the end a postscript which
+ran:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am glad to hear that you have succeeded in shifting the mortgage on
+Yarleys, although the interest is so high. Write to me whenever you get a
+chance, to the care of the lawyer, for then the letters will reach me, but
+never to this house, or they may be stopped. I will do the same to you to the
+address you give. Good-bye, dearest Alan, my true and only lover. I wonder
+where and when we shall meet again. God be with us both and enable us to bear
+our trial.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;P.P.S. I hear that the Sahara flotation was <i>really</i> a success,
+notwithstanding the <i>Judge</i> attacks. Sir Robert and my uncle have made
+millions. I wonder how long they will keep them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A week after he received this letter Alan was on the seas heading for the
+shores of Western Africa.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+THE DWARF FOLK.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was dawn at last. All night it had rained as it can rain in West Africa,
+falling on the wide river with a hissing splash, sullen and continuous. Now,
+towards morning, the rain had ceased and everywhere rose a soft and pearly mist
+that clung to the face of the waters and seemed to entangle itself like strands
+of wool among the branches of the bordering trees. On the bank of the river at
+a spot that had been cleared of bush, stood a tent, and out of this tent
+emerged a white man wearing a sun helmet and grey flannel shirt and trousers.
+It was Alan Vernon, who in these surroundings looked larger and more commanding
+than he had done at the London office, or even in his own house of Yarleys.
+Perhaps the moustache and short brown beard which he had grown, or his skin,
+already altered and tanned by the tropics, had changed his appearance for the
+better. At any rate it was changed. So were his manner and bearing, whereof all
+the diffidence had gone. Now they were those of a man accustomed to command who
+found himself in his right place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he called, &ldquo;wake up those fellows and come and
+light the oil-stove. I want my coffee.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereon a deep voice was heard speaking in some native tongue and saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cease your snoring, you black hogs, and arouse yourselves, for your lord
+calls you,&rdquo; an invocation that was followed by the sound of kicks,
+thumps, and muttered curses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A minute or two later Jeekie himself appeared, and he also was much changed in
+appearance, for now instead of his smart, European clothes, he wore a white
+robe and sandals that gave him an air at once dignified and patriarchal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good-morning, Major,&rdquo; he said cheerfully. &ldquo;I hope you sleep
+well, Major, in this low-lying and accursed situation, which is more than we do
+in boat that half full of water, to say nothing of smell of black man and
+prevalent mosquito. But the rain it over and gone, and presently the sun shine
+out, so might be much worse, no cause at all complain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; answered Alan, with a shiver. &ldquo;I
+believe that I am fever proof, but otherwise I should have caught it last
+night, and&mdash;just give me the quinine, I will take five grains for
+luck.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes, for luck,&rdquo; answered Jeekie as he opened the medicine
+chest and found the quinine, at the same time glancing anxiously out of the
+corner of his eye at his master&rsquo;s face, for he knew that the spot where
+they had slept was deadly to white men at this season of the year. &ldquo;You
+not catch fever, Little Bonsa,&rdquo; here he dropped his voice and looked down
+at the box which had served Alan for a pillow, &ldquo;see to that. But quinine
+give you appetite for breakfast. Very good chop this morning. Which you like
+best? Cold ven&rsquo;son, or fish, or one of them ducks you shoot
+yesterday?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! some of the cold meat, I think. Give the ducks to the boatmen, I
+don&rsquo;t fancy them in this hot place. By the way, Jeekie, we leave the Qua
+River here, don&rsquo;t we?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes, Major, just here. I &rsquo;member spot well, for your uncle he
+pray on it one whole hour; I pretend pray too, but in heart give thanks to
+Little Bonsa, for heathen in those days, quite different now. This morning we
+begin walk through forest where it rather dark and cool and comfortable, that
+is if we no see dwarf people from whom good Lord deliver us,&rdquo; and he
+bowed towards the box containing Little Bonsa.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will those four porters come with us through the forest, Jeekie, as they
+promised?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes, they come. Last night they say they not come, too much afraid
+of dwarf. But I settle their hash. I tell them I save up bits of their hair and
+toe nails when they no thinking, and I mix it with medicine, and if they not
+come, they die every one before they get home. They think me great doctor and
+they believe. Perhaps they die if they go on. If so, I tell them that because
+they want show white feather, and they think me greater doctor still. Oh! they
+come, they come, no fear, or else Jeekie know reason why. Now, here coffee,
+Major. Drink him hot before you go take tub, but keep in shallow water, because
+crocodile he very early riser.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan laughed, and departed to &ldquo;take tub.&rdquo; Notwithstanding the
+mosquitoes that buzzed round him in clouds, the water was cool and pleasant by
+comparison with the hot, sticky air, and the feel of it seemed to rid him of
+the languor resulting from his disturbed night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A month had passed since he had left Old Calabar, and owing to the incessant
+rains the journeying had been hard. Indeed the white men there thought that he
+was mad to attempt to go up the river at this season. Of course he had said
+nothing to them of the objects of his expedition, hinting only that he wished
+to explore and shoot, and perhaps prospect for mines. But knowing as they did,
+that he was an Engineer officer with a good record and much African experience,
+they soon made up their minds that he had been sent by Government upon some
+secret mission that for reasons of his own he preferred to keep to himself.
+This conclusion, which Jeekie zealously fostered behind his back, in fact did
+Alan a good turn, since owing to it he obtained boatmen and servants at a
+season when, had he been supposed to be but a private person, these would
+scarcely have been forthcoming at any price. Hitherto his journey had been one
+long record of mud, mosquitoes, and misery, but otherwise devoid of incident,
+except the eating of one of his boatmen by a crocodile which was a particularly
+&ldquo;early riser,&rdquo; for it had pulled the poor fellow out of the canoe
+in which he lay asleep at night. Now, however, the real dangers were about to
+begin, since at this spot he left the great river and started forward through
+the forest on foot with Jeekie and the four bearers whom he had paid highly to
+accompany him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He could not conceal from himself that the undertaking seemed somewhat
+desperate. But of this he said nothing in the long letter he had written to
+Barbara on the previous night, sighing as he sealed it, at the thought that it
+might well be the last which would ever reach her from him, even if the boatmen
+got safely back to Calabar and remembered to put it in the post. The enterprise
+had been begun and must be carried through, until it ended in success&mdash;or
+death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An hour later they started. First walked Alan as leader of the expedition,
+carrying a double-barrelled gun that could be used either for ball or shot,
+about fifty cartridges with brass cases to protect them from the damp, a
+revolver, a hunting-knife, a cloth mackintosh, and lastly, strapped upon his
+back like a knapsack, a tin box containing the fetish, Little Bonsa, which was
+too precious to be trusted to anyone else. It was quite a sufficient load for
+any white man in that climate, but being very wiry, Alan did not feel its
+weight, at any rate at first.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After him in single file came the four porters, laden with a small tent, some
+tinned provisions and brandy, ammunition, a box containing beads, watches, etc.
+for presents, blankets, spare clothing and so forth. These were stalwart
+fellows enough, who knew the forest, but their dejected air showed that now
+they had come face to face with its dangers, they heartily wished themselves
+anywhere else. Indeed, notwithstanding their terror of Jeekie&rsquo;s medicine,
+at the last moment they threw down their loads intending to make a wild rush
+for the departing boat, only to be met by Jeekie himself who, anticipating some
+such move, was waiting for them on the bank with a shotgun. Here he remained
+until the canoe was too far out in the stream for them to reach it by swimming.
+Then he asked them if they wished to sit and starve there with the devils he
+would leave them for company, of if they would carry out their bargain like
+honest men?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The end of it was they took up their loads again and marched, while behind them
+walked the terrible and gigantic Jeekie, the barrels of the shotgun which he
+carried at full cock and occasionally used to prod them, pointing directly at
+their backs. A strange object he looked truly, for in addition to the weapons
+with which he bristled, several cooking-pots were slung about him, to say
+nothing of a cork mattress and a mackintosh sheet tied in a flat bundle to his
+shoulders, a box containing medicines and food which he carried on his head,
+and fastened to the top of it with string like a helmet on a coffin, an
+enormous solar-tope stuffed full of mosquito netting, of which the ends fell
+about him like a green veil. When Alan remonstrated with him as to the cork
+mattress, suggesting that it should be thrown away as too hot to wear, Jeekie
+replied that he had been cold for thirty years, and wished to get warm again.
+Guessing that his real reason for declining to part with the article, was that
+his master should have something to lie on, other than the damp ground, Alan
+said no more at the time, which, as will be seen, was fortunate enough for
+Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a mile or more their road ran through fantastic-looking mangrove trees
+rooted in the mud, that in the mist resembled, Alan thought, many-legged
+arboreal octopi feeling for their food, and tall reeds on the tops of which sat
+crowds of chattering finches. Then just as the sun broke out, strongly,
+cheering them with its warmth and sucking up the vapours, they entered sparse
+bush with palms and great cotton trees growing here and there, and so at length
+came to the borders of the mighty forest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh! dark, dark was that forest; he who entered it from the cheerful sunshine
+felt as though suddenly and without preparation he had wandered out of the
+light we know into some dim Hades such as the old Greek fancy painted, where
+strengthless ghosts flit aimlessly, mourning the lost light. Everywhere the
+giant boles of trees shooting the height of a church tower into the air without
+a branch; great rib-rooted trees, and beneath them a fierce and hungry growth
+of creepers. Where a tree had fallen within the last century or so, these
+creepers ramped upwards in luxuriance, their stems thick as the body of a man,
+drinking the shaft of light that pierced downwards, drinking it with eagerness
+ere the boughs above met again and starved them. Where no tree had fallen the
+creepers were thin and weak; from year to year they lived on feebly, biding
+their time, but still they lived, knowing that some day it would come. And
+always it was coming to those expectant parasites, since from minute to minute,
+somewhere in the vast depths, miles and miles away perhaps, a great crash
+echoed in the stillness, the crash of a tree that, sown when the Saxons ruled
+in England, or perhaps before Cleopatra bewitched Anthony, came to its end at
+last.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the second day of their march in the forest Alan chanced to see such a tree
+fall, and the sight was one that he never could forget. As it happened, owing
+to the vast spread of its branches which had killed out all rivals beneath, for
+in its day it had been a very successful tree embued with an excellent
+constitution by its parent, it stood somewhat alone, so that from several
+hundred yards away as these six human beings crept towards it like ants towards
+a sapling in a cornfield, its mighty girth and bulk set upon a little mound and
+the luxuriant greenness of its far-reaching boughs made a kind of landmark.
+Then in the hot noon when no breath of wind stirred, suddenly the end came.
+Suddenly that mighty bole seemed to crumble; suddenly those far-reaching arms
+were thrown together as their support failed, gripping at each other like
+living things, flogging the air, screaming in their last agony, and with an
+awful wailing groan sinking, a tumbled ruin, to the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Silence again, and in the midst of the silence Jeekie&rsquo;s cheerful voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Old tree go flop! Glad he no flop on us, thanks be to Little Bonsa. Get
+on, you lazy nigger dog. Who pay you stand there and snivel? Get on or I blow
+out your stupid skull,&rdquo; and he brought the muzzle of the full-cocked,
+double-barrelled gun into sharp contact with that part of the terrified
+porter&rsquo;s anatomy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the forest. Of their march through it for the first four days, there
+is nothing to tell. Its depths seemed to be devoid of life, although
+occasionally they heard the screaming of parrots in the treetops a couple of
+hundred feet above, or caught sight of the dim shapes of monkeys swinging
+themselves from bough to bough. That was in the daytime, when, although they
+could not see it, they knew that the sun was shining somewhere. But at night
+they heard nothing, since beasts of prey do not come where there is no food.
+What puzzled Alan was that all through these impenetrable recesses there ran a
+distinct road which they followed. To the right and left rose a wall of
+creepers, but between them ran this road, an ancient road, for nothing grew on
+it, and it only turned aside to avoid the biggest of the trees which must have
+stood there from time immemorial, such a tree as that which he had seen fall;
+indeed it was one of those round which the road ran.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He asked Jeekie who made the road.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;People who come out Noah&rsquo;s Ark,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, &ldquo;I
+think they run up here to get out of way of water, and sent them two elephants
+ahead to make path. Or perhaps dwarf people make it. Or perhaps those who go up
+to Asiki-land to do sacrifice like old Jews.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mean you don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, of course don&rsquo;t know. Who know about forest path made before
+beginning of world. You ask question, Major, I answer. More lively answer than
+to shake head and roll eyes like them silly fool porters.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was on the fourth night that the trouble began. As usual they had lit a huge
+fire made of the fallen boughs and rotting tree trunks that lay about in
+plenty. There was no reason why the fire should be so large, since they had
+little to cook and the air was hot, but they made it so for the same reason
+that Jeekie answered questions, for the sake of cheerfulness. At least it gave
+light in the darkness, leaping up in red tongues of flame twenty or thirty feet
+high, and its roar and crackle were welcome in the primeval silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan lay upon the cork mattress in the open, for here there was no need to
+pitch the tent; if any rain fell above, the canopy of leaves absorbed it. He
+was amusing himself while he smoked his pipe with watching the reflection of
+the fire-light against a patch of darkness caused probably by some bush about
+twenty yards away, and by picturing in his own mind the face of Barbara, that
+strong, pleasant English face, as it might appear on such a background.
+Suddenly there, on the identical spot he did see a face, though one of a very
+different character. It was round and small and hideous, resembling in its
+general outline that of a bloated child. At this distance he could not
+distinguish the features, except the lips, which were large and pendulous, and
+between them the flash of white teeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look here,&rdquo; he whispered to Jeekie in English, and Jeekie looked,
+then without saying a word, lifted the shotgun that lay at his side and fired
+straight at the bush. Instantly there arose a squeaking noise, such as might be
+made by a wounded animal, and the four porters sprang up in alarm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sit down,&rdquo; said Jeekie to them in their own tongue, &ldquo;a
+leopard was stalking us and I fired to frighten it away. Don&rsquo;t go near
+the place, as it may be wounded and angry, but drag up some boughs and make a
+fence round the fire, for fear of others.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The men who dreaded leopards, looking on these animals, indeed, with
+superstitious reverence, obeyed readily enough, and as there was plenty of wood
+lying within a few yards, soon constructed a <i>boma</i> fence that, rough as
+it was, would serve for protection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan presently as they laboured at the fence,
+&ldquo;that was not a leopard, it was a man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, Major, not man, little dwarf devil, him that have poisoned
+arrow. I shoot at once to make him sit up. Think he no come back to-night, too
+much afraid of shot fetish. But to-morrow, can&rsquo;t say. Not tell those
+fellows anything,&rdquo; and he nodded towards the porters, &ldquo;or perhaps
+they bolt.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think you would have done better to leave the dwarf alone,&rdquo; said
+Alan, &ldquo;and they might have left us alone. Now they will have a blood feud
+against us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not agree, Major, only chance for us put him in blue funk. If I not
+shoot, presently he shoot,&rdquo; and he made a sound that resembled the
+whistling of an arrow, then added, &ldquo;Now you go sleep. I not tired, I
+watch, my eyes see in dark better than yours. Only two more days of this damn
+forest, then open land with tree here and there, where dwarf no come because he
+afraid of lion and cannibal man, who like eat him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan took Jeekie&rsquo;s advice and in
+time fell fast asleep, nor did he wake again till the faint light which, for the
+want of a better name, they called dawn, was filtering down to them through the
+canopy of boughs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Been to look,&rdquo; said Jeekie as he handed him his coffee. &ldquo;Hit
+that dwarf man, see his blood, but think others carry him away. Jeekie very
+good shot, stone, spear, arrow, or gun, all same to him. Now get off as quick
+as we can before porters smell a rat. You eat chop, Major, I pack.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently they started on their trudge through those endless trees, with Fear
+for a companion. Even the porters, who had been told nothing, seemed more
+afraid than usual, though whether this was because they &ldquo;smell
+rat,&rdquo; as Jeekie called it, or owing to the progressive breakdown of their
+nervous systems, Alan did not know. About midday they stopped to eat because
+the men were too tired to walk further without rest. For an hour or more they
+had been looking for a comparatively open place, but as it chanced could find
+none, so were obliged to halt in dense forest. Just as they had finished their
+meal and were preparing to proceed, that which they had feared, happened, since
+from somewhere behind the tree boles came a volley of reed arrows. One struck a
+porter in the neck, one fixed itself in Alan&rsquo;s helmet without touching
+him, and no less than three hit Jeekie on the back and stuck there,
+providentially enough in the substance of the cork mattress that he still
+carried on his shoulders, which the feeble shafts had not the strength to
+pierce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Everybody sprang up and with a curious fascination instead of attempting to do
+anything, watched the porter who had been hit in the neck somewhere in the
+region of the jugular vein. The poor man rose to his feet with great
+deliberation, reminding Alan in some grotesque way of a speaker who has
+suddenly been called on to address a meeting and seeks to gain time for the
+gathering of his thoughts. Then he turned towards that vast audience of the
+trees, stretched out his hand with a declamatory gesture, said something in a
+composed voice, and fell upon his face stone dead! The swift poison had reached
+his heart and done its work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His three companions looked at him for a moment and the next with a yell of
+terror, rushed off into the forest, hurling down their loads as they ran. What
+became of them Alan never learned, for he saw them no more, and the dwarf
+people keep their secrets. At the time indeed he scarcely noticed their
+departure, for he was otherwise engaged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of their hideous little assailants, made bold by success, ventured to run
+across an open space between two trees, showing himself for a moment. Alan had
+a gun in his hand, and mad with rage at what had happened, he raised it and
+swung on him as he would upon a rabbit. He was a quick and practised shot and
+his skill did not fail him now, for just as the dwarf was vanishing behind a
+tree, the bullet caught him and next instant he was seen rolling over and over
+upon its further side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That very nice,&rdquo; said Jeekie reflectively, &ldquo;very nice
+indeed, but I think we best move out of this.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you hurt?&rdquo; gasped Alan. &ldquo;Your back is full of
+arrows.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t feel nothing, Major,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;best cork
+mattress, 25/3 at Stores, very good for poisoned arrow, but leave him behind
+now, because perhaps points work through as I run, one scratch do trick,&rdquo;
+and as he spoke Jeekie untied a string or several strings, letting the little
+mattress fall to the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Great pity leave all those goods,&rdquo; said Jeekie, surveying the
+loads that the porters had cast away, &ldquo;but what says Book? Life more than
+raiment. Also take no thought for morrow. Dwarf people do that for us. Come,
+Major, make tracks,&rdquo; and dashing at a bag of cartridges which he cast
+about his neck, a trifling addition to his other impedimenta, and a small case
+of potted meats that he hitched under his arm, he poked his master in the back
+with the muzzle of his full-cocked gun as a signal that it was time to start.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Keep that cursed thing off me,&rdquo; said Alan furiously. &ldquo;How
+often have I told you never to carry firearms at full cock?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;About one thousand times, Major,&rdquo; answered Jeekie imperturbably,
+&ldquo;but on such occasion forget discreetness. My ma just same, it run in
+family, but story too long tell you now. Cut, Major, cut like hell. Them dwarfs
+be back soon, but,&rdquo; he puffed, &ldquo;I think, I think Little Bonsa come
+square with them one day.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Alan &ldquo;cut&rdquo; and the huge Jeekie blundered along after him, the
+paraphernalia with which he was hung about rattling like the hoofs of a
+galloping giraffe. Nor for all his load did he ever turn a hair. Whether it
+were fear within or a desire to save his master, or a belief in the virtues of
+Little Bonsa, or that his foot was, as it were, once more upon his native
+heath, the fact remained that notwithstanding the fifty years, almost, that had
+whitened his wool, Jeekie was absolutely inexhaustible. At least at the end of
+that fearful chase, which lasted all the day, and through the night also, for
+they dared not camp, he appeared to be nearly as fresh as when he started from
+Old Calabar, nor did his spirits fail him for one moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the light came on the following morning, however, they perceived by many
+signs and tokens that the dwarf people were all about them. Some arrows were
+shot even, but these fell short.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Pooh!&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;all right now, they much afraid. Still,
+no time for coffee, we best get on.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they got on as they could, till towards midday the forest began to thin out.
+Now as the light grew stronger they could see the dwarfs, of whom there
+appeared to be several hundred, keeping a parallel course to their own on
+either side of them at what they thought to be a safe distance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Try one shot, I think,&rdquo; said Jeekie, kneeling down and letting fly
+at a clump of the little men, which scattered like a covey of partridges,
+leaving one of its number kicking on the ground. &ldquo;Ah! my boy,&rdquo;
+shouted Jeekie in derision, &ldquo;how you like bullet in tummy? You not know
+Paradox guaranteed flat trajectory 250 yard. You remember that next time,
+sonny.&rdquo; Then off they went again up a long rise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;River other side of that rise,&rdquo; said Jeekie. &ldquo;Think those
+tree-monkeys no follow us there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the &ldquo;monkeys&rdquo; appeared to be angry and determined. They would
+not come any more within the range of the Paradox, but they still marched on
+either side of the two fugitives, knowing well that at last their strength must
+fail and they would be able to creep up and murder them. So the chase went on
+till Alan began to wonder whether it would not be better to face the end at
+once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, if say die, can&rsquo;t change mind to-morrow morning,&rdquo;
+gasped Jeekie in a hoarse voice. &ldquo;Here top rise, much nearer than I
+thought. Oh, my aunt! who those?&rdquo; and he pointed to a large number of big
+men armed with spears who were marching up the further side of the hill from
+the river that ran below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the same moment these savages, who were not more than two hundred yards
+away, caught sight of them and of their pursuers, who just then appeared on the
+ridge to the right and left. The dwarfs, on perceiving these strangers, uttered
+a shrill yell of terror, and wheeled about to fly to their fastnesses in the
+forest, which evidently they regretted ever having left. It was too late. With
+an answering shout the spearsmen, who were extended in a long line, apparently
+hunting for game, charged after them at full speed. They were fresh and their
+legs were long. Therefore very soon they overtook the dwarfs and even got in
+front of them, heading them off from the forest. The end may be
+guessed,&mdash;save a few whom they reserved alive, they killed them
+mercilessly, and almost without loss to themselves, since the little forest
+folk were too terrified and exhausted to shoot at them with their poisoned
+arrows, and they had no other weapons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In fact, as Alan discovered afterwards, for generations there had been war
+between them, since all the other tribes hate the dwarfs, whom they look upon
+as dangerous human monkeys, and never before had the big men found such a
+chance of squaring their account.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Jeekie saw this fearful-looking company, for the first time his spirits
+seemed to fail him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ogula!&rdquo; he exclaimed with a groan and sat himself upon a flat
+rock, pulling Alan down beside him. &ldquo;Ogula! Know them by hair and
+spears,&rdquo; he repeated. &ldquo;Up gum tree now, say good-night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why? Who are they?&rdquo; gasped Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Great cannibal, Major, eat man, eat us to-night, or perhaps to-morrow
+morning when we nice and cool. Say prayers, Major, quick no time waste.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think I will shoot an Ogula or two first,&rdquo; said Alan grimly, as
+he stood up and lifted his gun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, not shoot, no good. Pretend not be afraid, best chance. Let Jeekie
+think, let Jeekie think,&rdquo; and he slapped his forehead with his large hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Apparently the action brought inspiration, for next instant he grabbed his
+master by the arm and dragged him back behind the shelter of a big boulder
+which they had just passed. Then with really marvellous swiftness he cut the
+straps of the tin box that Alan wore upon his back, and since there was no time
+to find the key and unlock it, seized the little padlock with which it was
+fastened between his finger and thumb, and putting out his great strength, with
+a single wrench twisted it off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What are you&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; began Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hold tongue,&rdquo; he answered savagely, &ldquo;make you god, I priest.
+Ogula know Little Bonsa. Quick, quick!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a minute it was done, the golden mask was clapped on to Alan&rsquo;s head,
+and the leather thongs were fastened. Moreover, Jeekie himself was arrayed in
+the solar-tope to which all this while he had clung, allowing streams of green
+mosquito netting to hang down over his white robe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come out now, Major,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and play god. You whistle, I
+do palaver.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then hand in hand they walked from behind the rock. By this time the particular
+company of the cannibals that was opposite to them, which happened to include
+their chief, had climbed the steep slope of the hill and arrived within a
+distance of twenty yards. Having seen the two men and guessed that they had
+taken refuge behind the rock, their spears were lifted to kill them, since when
+he beholds anything strange, the first impulse of a savage is to bring it to
+its death. They looked; they saw. Of a sudden down went the raised spears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some of those who held them fell upon their faces, while others turned to fly,
+appalled by the vision of this strangely clad man with the head of gold. Only
+their chief, a great yellow-toothed fellow who wore a necklace of baboon claws,
+remained erect, staring at them with open mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan blew the whistle that was set between the lips of the mask, and they
+shivered. Then Jeekie spoke to them in some tongue which they understood,
+saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you, O Ogula, dare to offer violence to Little Bonsa and her priests?
+Say now, why should we not strike you dead with the magic of the god which she
+has borrowed from the white man?&rdquo; and he tapped the gun he held.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This is witchcraft,&rdquo; answered the chief. &ldquo;We saw two men
+running, hunted by the dwarfs, not three minutes ago, and now we see&mdash;what
+we see,&rdquo; and he put his hand before his eyes, then after a pause went
+on&mdash;&ldquo;As for Little Bonsa, she left this country in my father&rsquo;s
+day. He gave her passage upon the head of a white man and the Asiki wizards
+have mourned her ever since, or so I hear.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Fool,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, &ldquo;as she went, so she returns, on the
+head of a white man. Yonder I see an elder with grey hair who doubtless knew of
+Little Bonsa in his youth. Let him come up and look and say whether or no this
+is the god.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; exclaimed the chief, &ldquo;go up, old man, go
+up,&rdquo; and he jabbed at him with his spear until, unwillingly enough, he
+went.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The elder arrived, making obeisance, and when he was near, Alan blew the
+whistle in his face, whereon he fell to his knees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is Little Bonsa,&rdquo; he said in a trembling voice, &ldquo;Little
+Bonsa without a doubt. I should know, as my father and my elder brother were
+sacrificed to her, and I only escaped because she rejected me. Down on your
+face, Chief, and do honour to the Yellow God before she slay you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly every man within hearing prostrated himself and lay still. Then
+Jeekie strode up and down among them shouting out:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Little Bonsa has come back and brought to you, Man-eaters, a fat
+offering, an offering of the dwarf-people whom you hate, of the treacherous
+dwarf-people who when you walk the ancient forest path, murder you with their
+poisoned arrows. Praise Little Bonsa who delivers you from your foes, and
+hearken to her bidding. Send on messengers to the Asiki saying that Little
+Bonsa comes home again from across the Black Water bringing the White Preacher,
+whom she led away in the day of their fathers. Say to them that the Asiki must
+send out a company that Little Bonsa and the Magician with whom she ran away,
+may be escorted back to her house with the state which has been hers from the
+beginning of time. Say to them also that they must prepare a great offering of
+pure gold out of their store, as much gold as fifty strong men can carry, not
+one handful less, to be given to the White Magician who brings back Small
+Swimming Head, for if they withhold such an offering, he and Little Bonsa will
+vanish never to be seen again, and curses and desolation will fall upon their
+land. Rise and obey, Chief of the Ogula.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the man scrambled to his feet and answered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It shall be done, O Priest of the Yellow God. To-morrow at the dawn
+swift messengers will start for the Gold House of the Asiki. To-night they
+cannot leave, as we are all very hungry and must eat.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What must you eat?&rdquo; asked Jeekie suspiciously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;O Priest,&rdquo; answered the chief with a deprecatory gesture,
+&ldquo;when first we saw you we hoped that it would be the white man and
+yourself, for we have never tasted white man. But now we fear that you will not
+consent to this, and as you are holy and the guardian of the god, we cannot eat
+you without your own consent. Therefore fat dwarf must be our food, of which,
+however, there will be plenty for you as well as us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You dog!&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie in a voice of furious indignation.
+&ldquo;Do you think that white men and their high-born companions, such as
+myself, were made to fill your vile stomachs? I tell you that a meal of the
+deadly Bean would agree better with you, for if you dare so much as to look on
+us, or on any of the white race with hunger, agony shall seize your vitals and
+you and all your tribe shall die as though by poison. Moreover, we do not touch
+the flesh of men, nor will we see it eaten. It is our
+&lsquo;<i>orunda</i>,&rsquo; it is consecrate to us, it must not pass our lips,
+nor may our eyes behold it. Therefore we will camp apart from you further up
+the stream and find our own food. But to-morrow at the dawn the messengers must
+leave as we have commanded. Also you shall provide strong men and a large canoe
+to bear Little Bonsa forward towards her own home until she finds her people
+coming out to greet her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It shall be done,&rdquo; answered the chief humbly, &ldquo;Everything
+shall be done according to the will of Little Bonsa spoken by her priest, that
+she may leave a blessing and not a curse upon the heads of the tribe of the
+Ogula. Say where you wish to camp and men shall run to build a house of reeds
+for the god to dwell in.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+THE DAWN.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie looked up and down the river, and saw that in the centre of it about half
+a mile away, there was an island on which grew some trees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Little Bonsa will camp yonder,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Go, make her house
+ready, light fire and bring canoe to paddle us across. Now leave us, all of
+you, for if you look too long upon the face of the Yellow God she will ask a
+sacrifice, and it is not lawful that you should see where she hides herself
+away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this saying the cannibals departed as one man, and at top speed, some to the
+canoes and others to warn their fellows who were engaged in the congenial work
+of hunting and killing the dwarfs, not to dare to approach the white man and
+his companion. A third party ran to the bank of the river that was opposite to
+the island to make ready as they had been bidden, so that presently Alan and
+Jeekie were left quite alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Jeekie, with a gasp of satisfaction, &ldquo;<i>that</i>
+all right, everything arranged quite comfortable. Thought Little Bonsa come out
+top somehow and score off dirty dwarf monkeys. <i>They</i> never get home to
+tea anyway&mdash;stay and dine with Ogula.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stop chattering, Jeekie, and untie this infernal mask, I am almost
+choked,&rdquo; broke in Alan in a hollow voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not say &lsquo;infernal mask,&rsquo; Major, say &lsquo;face of
+angel.&rsquo; Little Bonsa woman and like it better, also true, if on this
+occasion only, for she save our skins,&rdquo; said Jeekie as he unknotted the
+thongs and reverently replaced the fetish in its tin box. &ldquo;My!&rdquo; he
+added, contemplating his master&rsquo;s perspiring countenance, &ldquo;you
+blush like garden carrot; well, gold hot wear in afternoon sun beneath Tropic
+of Cancer. Now we walk on quietly and I tell you all I arrange for
+night&rsquo;s lodging and future progress of joint expedition.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So gathering together what remained of their few possessions, they started
+leisurely down the slope towards the island, and as they went Jeekie explained
+all that had happened, since Ogula was not one of the African languages with
+which Alan was acquainted and he had only been able to understand a word here
+and there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look,&rdquo; said Jeekie when he had finished, and turning, he pointed
+to the cannibals who were driving the few survivors of the dwarfs before them
+to the spot where their canoes were beached. &ldquo;Those dwarfs done for;
+capital business, forest road quite safe to travel home by; Ogula best friends
+in world; very remarkable escape from delicate situation.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very remarkable indeed,&rdquo; said Alan; &ldquo;I shall soon begin to
+believe in the luck of Little Bonsa.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, you see she anxious to get home and make path clear.
+But,&rdquo; he added gloomily, &ldquo;how she behave when she reach there,
+can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nor can I, Jeekie, but meanwhile I hope she will provide us with some
+dinner, for I am faint for want of food and all the tinned meat is lost.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Food,&rdquo; repeated Jeekie. &ldquo;Yes, necessity for human stomach,
+which unhappily built that way, so Ogula find out, and so dwarfs find out
+presently.&rdquo; Then he looked about him and in a kind of aimless manner
+lifted his gun and fired. &ldquo;There we are,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;Little
+Bonsa understand bodily needs,&rdquo; and he pointed to a fat buck of the sort
+that in South Africa is called Duiker, which his keen eyes had discovered in
+its form against a stone where it now lay shot through the head and dying.
+&ldquo;No further trouble on score of grub for next three day,&rdquo; he added.
+&ldquo;Come on to camp, Major. I send one savage skin and bring that
+buck.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So on they went to the river bank, Alan so tired now that the excitement was
+over, that he was not sorry to lean upon Jeekie&rsquo;s arm. Reaching the
+stream they drank deep of its water, and finding that it was shallow at this
+spot, waded through it to the island without waiting for a canoe to ferry them
+over. Here they found a party of the cannibals already at work clearing reeds
+with their large, curved knives, in order to make a site for the hut. Another
+party under the command of their chief himself had gone to the top end of the
+island, to cut the stems of a willow-like shrub to serve as uprights. These
+people stared at Alan, which was not strange, as they had never before seen the
+face of a white man, and were wondering, doubtless, what had become of the
+ancient and terrible fetish that he had worn. Without entering into
+explanations Jeekie in a great voice ordered two of them to fetch the buck,
+which the white man, whom he described as &ldquo;husband of the goddess,&rdquo;
+had &ldquo;slain by thunder.&rdquo; When these had departed upon their errand,
+leaving Jeekie to superintend the building operations, Alan sat down upon a
+fallen tree, watching one of the savages making fire with a pointed stick and
+some tinder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then from the head of the island where the willows were being cut, rose
+the sound of loud roarings and of men crying out in affright. Seizing his gun
+Alan ran towards the spot whence the noise came. Forcing his way through a
+brake of reeds, he saw a curious sight. The Ogula in cutting the willows which
+grew about some tumbled rocks, had disturbed a lioness that had her lair there,
+and being fearless savages, had tried to kill her with their spears. The brute,
+rendered desperate by wounds, and the impossibility of escape, for here the
+surrounding water was deep, had charged them boldly, and as it chanced, felled
+to the ground their chief, that yellow-toothed man to whom Jeekie gave his
+orders. Now she was standing over him looking round her royally, her great paw
+upon his breast, which it seemed almost to cover, while the Ogula ran round and
+round shouting, for they feared that if they tried to attack her, she would
+kill the chief. This indeed she seemed about to do, for just as Alan arrived
+she dropped her head as though to tear out the man&rsquo;s throat. Instantly he
+fired. It was a snap shot, but as it chanced a good one, for the bullet struck
+the lioness in the back of the neck just forward of and between the shoulders,
+severing the spine so that without a sound or any further movement she sank
+stone dead upon the prostrate cannibal. For a while his followers stood
+astonished. They might have heard of guns from the coast people, but living as
+they did in the interior where white folk did not dare to travel, they had
+never seen their terrible effects.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Magic!&rdquo; they cried. &ldquo;Magic!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie, who by now had arrived upon the
+scene. &ldquo;What else did you expect from the husband of Little Bonsa? Magic,
+the greatest of magic. Go, roll that beast away before your chief is crushed to
+death.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They obeyed, and the man sat up, a fearful spectacle, for he was smothered with
+the blood of the lion and somewhat cut by her claws, though otherwise unhurt.
+Then feeling that the life was still whole in him, he crept on his hands and
+knees to where Alan stood, and kissed his feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aha!&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;Little Bonsa score again. Cannibal tribe
+our slave henceforth for evermore. Yes, till kingdom come. Come on, Major, and
+cook supper in perfect peace.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The supper was cooked and eaten with gratitude, for seldom had two men needed a
+square meal more, and never did venison taste better. By the time that it was
+finished darkness had fallen, and before they turned in to sleep in the neat
+reed hut that the Ogula had built, Alan and Jeekie walked up the island to see
+if the lioness had been skinned, as they directed. This they found was done;
+even the carcase itself had been removed to serve as meat for these
+foul-feeding people. They climbed on to the pile of rocks in which the beast
+had made her lair, and looked down the river to where, two hundred yards away,
+the Ogula were encamped. From this camp there rose a sound of revelry, and by
+the light of the great fires that burned there, they perceived that the hungry
+savages were busy feasting, for some of them sat in circles, whilst others,
+their naked forms looking at that distance like those of imps in the infernal
+regions, flitted to and fro against the glowing background of the fires,
+bearing strange-looking joints on prongs of wood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I suppose they are eating the lioness,&rdquo; said Alan doubtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, Major, not lioness; eat dwarf by dozen&mdash;just like oysters
+at seaside. But for Little Bonsa <i>we</i> sit on those forks now and look
+uncommon small.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Beasts!&rdquo; said Alan in disgust; &ldquo;they make me feel uncommon
+sick. Let us go to bed. I suppose they won&rsquo;t murder us in our sleep, will
+they?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not they, Major, too much afraid. Also we their blood-brothers now,
+because we bring them first-class dinner and save chief from lion&rsquo;s fury.
+No blame them too much, Major, good fellows really with gentle heart, but grub
+like that from generation to generation. Every mother&rsquo;s son of them have
+many men inside, that why they so big and strong. Ogula people cover great
+multitude like Charity in Book. No doubt sent by Prov&rsquo;dence to keep
+down extra pop&rsquo;lation. Not right to think too hard of poor fellows who,
+as I say, very kind and gentle at heart and most loving in family relation,
+except to old women whom they eat also, so that they no get bored with too
+long life.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Weary and disgusted by this abominable sight though he was, Alan burst out
+laughing at his retainer&rsquo;s apology for the sweet-natured Ogula, who
+struck him as the most repulsive blackguards that he had ever met or heard of
+in all his experience of African savages. Then wishing to see and hear no more
+of them that night, he retreated rapidly to the hut and was soon fast asleep
+with his head pillowed on the box that hid the charms of Little Bonsa. When he
+awoke it was broad daylight. Rising he went down to the river to wash, and
+never had a bath been more welcome, for during all their journey through the
+forest no such thing was obtainable. On his return he found his garments well
+brushed with dry reeds and set upon a rock in the hot sun to air, while Jeekie
+in a cheerful mood, was engaged cooking breakfast in the frying-pan, to which
+he had clung through all the vicissitudes of their flight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No coffee, Major,&rdquo; he said regretfully, &ldquo;that stop in
+forest. But never mind, hot water better for nerve. Ogula messengers gone in
+little canoe to Asiki at break of day. Travel slow till they work off dwarf,
+but afterwards go quick. I send lion skin with them as present from you to
+great high-priestess Asika, also claws for necklace. No lions there and she
+think much of that. Also it make her love mighty man who can kill fierce lion
+like Samson in Book. Love of head woman very valuable ally among beastly savage
+peoples.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am sure I hope it won&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Alan with earnestness,
+&ldquo;but no doubt it is as well to keep on the soft side of the good lady if
+we can. What time do we start?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In one hour, Major. I been to camp already, chosen best canoe and finest
+men for rowers. Chief&mdash;he called Fanny&mdash;so grateful that he come with
+them himself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed. That is very kind of him, but I say, Jeekie, what are these
+fellows going to live on? I can&rsquo;t stand what you call their
+&lsquo;favourite chop.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, Major, that all right. I tell them that when they travel with
+Little Bonsa, they must keep Lent like pious Roman Cath&rsquo;lic family that
+live near Yarleys. They catch plenty fish in river, and perhaps we shoot game,
+or rich &rsquo;potamus, which they like &rsquo;cause he fat.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Evidently the Ogula chief, Fahni by name, not Fanny, as Jeekie called him, was
+a man of his word, for before the hour was up he appeared at the island in
+command of a large canoe manned by twelve splendid-looking savages. Springing
+to land, he prostrated himself before Alan, kissing his feet as he had done on
+the previous night, and making a long speech.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That very good spirit,&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie. &ldquo;Like to see
+heathen in his darkness lick white gentleman&rsquo;s boot. He say you his lord
+and great magician who save his life, and know all Little Bonsa&rsquo;s
+secrets, which many and unrepeatable. He say he die for you twice a day if need
+be, and go on dying to-morrow and all next year. He say he take you safe till
+you meet Asiki and for your sake, though he hungry, eat no man for one whole
+month, or perhaps longer. Now we start at once.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they started up the river that was called Katsena, Alan and Jeekie seated in
+a lordly fashion near the stern of the canoe beneath an awning made out of some
+sticks and a grass mat. In truth after their severe toil and adventures in the
+forest, this method of journeying proved quite luxurious. Except for a rapid
+here and there over or round which the canoe must be dragged, the river was
+broad and the scenery on its banks park-like and beautiful. Moreover the
+country, perhaps owing to the appetites of the Ogula, appeared to be
+practically uninhabited except by vast herds of every sort of game.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All day they sat in the canoe which the stalwart rowers propelled, in silence
+for the most part, since they were terribly afraid of the white man, and still
+more so of the renowned fetish which they knew he carried with him. Then when
+evening came they moored their craft to the bank and camped till the following
+morning. Nor did they lack for food, since game being so plentiful, it was only
+necessary for Alan to walk a few hundred yards and shoot a fat eland, or
+hartebeest, or other buck which in its ignorance of guns would allow him to
+approach quite close. Elephants, rhinoceros, and buffalo were also common,
+while great herds of giraffe might be seen wandering between the scattered
+trees, but as they were not upon a hunting trip and their ammunition was very
+limited, with these they did not interfere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having their daily fill of meat which their souls loved, the Ogula oarsmen
+remained in an excellent mood, indeed the chief, Fahni, informed Alan that if
+only they had such magic tubes wherewith to slaughter game, he and his tribe
+would gladly give up cannibalism&mdash;except on feast days. He added sadly
+that soon they would be obliged to do so, or die, since in those parts there
+were now few people left to eat, and they hated vegetables. Moreover, they kept
+no cattle, it was not the custom of that tribe, except a very few for milk.
+Alan advised them to increase their herds, since, as he pointed out to them,
+&ldquo;dog should not eat dog&rdquo; or the human being his own kind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chief answered that there was a great deal in what he said, which on his
+return he would lay before his head men. Indeed Alan, to his astonishment,
+discovered that Jeekie had been quite right when he alleged that these people,
+so terrible in their mode of life, were yet &ldquo;kind and gentle at
+heart.&rdquo; They preyed upon mankind because for centuries it had been their
+custom so to do, but if anyone had been there to show them a better way, he
+grew sure that they would follow it gladly. At least they were brave and loyal
+and even after their first fear of the white man had worn off, fulfilled their
+promises without a murmur. Once, indeed, when he chanced to have gone for a
+walk unarmed and to be charged by a bull elephant, these Ogula ran at the brute
+with their spears and drove it away, a rescue in which one of them lost his
+life, for the &ldquo;rogue&rdquo; caught and killed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the days went on while they paddled leisurely up the river, Alan employing
+the time by taking lessons in the Asiki tongue from Jeekie, a language which he
+had been studying ever since he left England. The task was not easy, as he had
+no books and Jeekie himself after some thirty years of absence, was doubtful as
+to many of its details. Still being a linguist by nature and education and
+finding in the tongue similarities to other African dialects which he knew, he
+was now able to speak it a little, in a halting fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the fifth day of their ascent of the river, they came to a tributary that
+flowed into it from the north, up which the Ogula said they must proceed to
+reach Asiki-land. The stream was narrow and sluggish, widening out here and
+there into great swamps through which it was not easy to find a channel. Also
+the district was so unhealthy that even several of the Ogula contracted fever,
+of which Alan cured them by heavy doses of quinine, for fortunately his
+travelling medicine chest remained to him. These cures were effected after
+their chief suggested that they should be thrown overboard, or left to die in
+the swamp as useless, with the result that the white man&rsquo;s magical powers
+were thenceforth established beyond doubt or cavil. Indeed the poor Ogula now
+looked on him as a god superior even to Little Bonsa, whose familiar he was
+supposed to be.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The journey through that swamp was very trying, since in this wet season often
+they could find no place on which to sleep at night, but must stay in the canoe
+tormented by mosquitoes, and in constant danger of being upset by the
+hippopotami that lived there. Moreover, as no game was now available, they were
+obliged to live on these beasts, fish when they could catch them, and wildfowl,
+which sometimes they were unable to cook for lack of fuel. This did not trouble
+the Ogula, who ate them raw, as did Jeekie when he was hungry. But Alan was
+obliged to starve until they could make a fire. This it was only possible to do
+when they found drift or other wood, since at that season the rank vegetation
+was in full growth. Also the fearful thunderstorms which broke continually and
+in a few minutes half filled their canoe with water, made the reeds and the
+soil on which they grew, sodden with wet. As Jeekie said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This time of year only fit for duck and crocodile. Human should remember
+uncontrollable forces of nature and wait till winter come in due course, when
+quagmire bear sole of his foot.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This elaborate remark he made to Alan during the progress of a particularly
+fearful tempest. The lightning blazed in the black sky and seemed to strike all
+about them like stabbing swords of fire, the thunder crashed and bellowed as it
+may be supposed that it will do on that day when the great earth, worn out at
+last, shall reel and stagger to its doom. The rain fell in a straight and solid
+sheet; the tall reeds waved confusedly like millions of dim arms and while they
+waved, uttered a vast and groaning noise; the scared wildfowl in their terror,
+with screams and the sough of wings, rushed past them in flocks a thousand
+strong, now seen and now lost in the vapours. To keep their canoe afloat the
+poor, naked Ogula oarsmen, shivering with cold and fear, baled furiously with
+their hands, or bowls of hollowed wood, and called back to Alan to save them as
+though he were the master of the elements. Even Jeekie was depressed and
+appeared to be offering up petitions, though whether these were directed to
+Little Bonsa or elsewhere it was impossible to know.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for Alan, the heart was out of him. It is true that so far he had escaped
+fever or other sickness, which in itself was wonderful, but he was chilled
+through and through and practically had eaten nothing for two days, and very
+little for a week, since his stomach turned from half-cooked hippopotamus fat
+and wildfowl. Moreover, they had lost the channel and seemed to be wandering
+aimlessly through a wilderness of reeds broken here and there by lines of
+deeper water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to the Ogula they should have reached the confines of the great lake
+several days before and landed on healthful rising ground that was part of the
+Asiki territory. But this had not happened, and now he doubted whether it ever
+would happen. It was more likely that they would come to their deaths, there in
+the marsh, especially as the few ball and shot cartridges which they had saved
+in their flight were now exhausted. Not one was left; nothing was left except
+their revolvers with some charges, which of course were quite useless for the
+killing of game. Therefore they were in a fair way to die of hunger, for here
+if fish existed, they refused to be caught and nought remained for them to fill
+themselves with except water slugs, and snails which the boatmen were already
+gathering and crunching up in their great teeth. Or, perhaps the Ogula,
+forgetting friendship under the pressure of necessity, would murder them as
+they slept and&mdash;revert to their usual diet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie was right, he should have remembered the &ldquo;uncontrollable forces of
+Nature.&rdquo; Only a madman would have undertaken such an expedition in the
+rains. No wonder that the Asiki remained a secret and hidden people when their
+frontier was protected by such a marsh as this upon the one side and, as he
+understood, by impassable mountains upon the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There came a lull in the tempest and the boatmen began to get the better of the
+water, which now was up to their knees. Alan asked Jeekie if he thought it was
+over, but that worthy shook his white head mournfully, causing the spray to fly
+as from a twirling mop, and replied:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t say, cats and dogs not tumble so many for present, only pups
+and kitties left, so to speak, but think there plenty more up there,&rdquo; and
+he nodded at the portentous fire-laced cloud which seemed to be spreading over
+them, its black edges visible even through the gloom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bad business, I am afraid, Jeekie. Shouldn&rsquo;t have brought you
+here, or those poor beggars either,&rdquo; and he looked at the scared, frozen
+Ogula. &ldquo;I begin to wonder&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never wonder, Major,&rdquo; broke in Jeekie in alarm. &ldquo;If wonder,
+not live, if wonder, not be born, too much wonder about everywhere. Can&rsquo;t
+understand nothing, so give it up. Say, &lsquo;Right-O and devil
+hindermost!&rsquo; Very good motto for biped in tight place. Better drown here
+than in City bucket shop. But no drown. Should be dead long ago, but Little
+Bonsa play the game, she not want to sink in stinking swamp when so near her
+happy home. Come out all right somehow, as from dwarf. Every cloud have silver
+lining, Major, even that black chap up there. Oh! my golly!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This last exclamation was wrung from Jeekie&rsquo;s lips by a sudden
+development of &ldquo;forces of Nature&rdquo; which astonished even him.
+Instead of a silver lining the &ldquo;black chap&rdquo; exhibited one of gold.
+In an instant it seemed to turn to acres of flame; it was as though the heavens
+had taken fire. A flash or a thunderbolt struck the water within ten yards of
+their canoe, causing the boatmen to throw themselves upon their faces through
+shock or terror. Then came the hurricane, which fortunately was so strong that
+it permitted no more rain to fall. The tall reeds were beaten flat beneath its
+breath; the canoe was seized in its grip and whirled round and round, then
+driven forward like an arrow. Only the weight of the men and the water in it
+prevented it from oversetting. Dense darkness fell upon them and although they
+could see no star, they knew that it must be night. On they rushed, driven by
+that shrieking gale, and all about and around them this wall of darkness. No
+one spoke, for hope was abandoned, and if they had, their voices could not have
+been heard. The last thing that Alan remembered was feeling Jeekie dragging a
+grass mat over him to protect him a little if he could. Then his senses
+wavered, as does a dying lamp. He thought that he was back in what Jeekie had
+rudely called &ldquo;City bucket shop,&rdquo; bargaining across the telephone
+wire, upon which came all the sounds of the infernal regions, with a financial
+paper for an article on a Little Bonsa Syndicate that he proposed to float. He
+thought he was in The Court woods with Barbara, only the birds in the trees
+sang so unnaturally loud that he could not hear her voice, and she wore Little
+Bonsa on her head as a bonnet. Then she departed in flame, leaving him and
+Death alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan awoke. Above the sun shone hotly, warming him back to life, but in front
+was a thick wall of mist and rising beyond it in the distance he saw the rugged
+swelling forms of mountains. Doubtless these had been visible before, but the
+tall reeds through which they travelled had hid the sight of them. He looked
+behind him and there in a heap lay the Ogula around their chief, insensible or
+sleeping. He counted them and found that two were gone, lost in the tempest,
+how or where no man ever learned. He looked forward and saw a peculiar sight,
+for in the prow of the drifting canoe stood Jeekie clad in the remains of his
+white robe and wearing on his head the battered helmet and about his shoulders
+the torn fragments of green mosquito net. While Alan was wondering strangely
+why he had adopted this ceremonial garb, from out of the mist there came a
+sound of singing, of wild and solemn singing. Jeekie seemed to listen to it;
+then he lifted up his great musical voice and sang as though in answer. What he
+sang Alan could not understand, but he recognized that the language which he
+used was that of the Asiki people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A pause and a confused murmuring, and now again the wild song rose and again
+Jeekie answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What the deuce are you doing? Where are we?&rdquo; asked Alan faintly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie turned and beamed upon him; although his teeth were chattering and his
+face was hollow, still he beamed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You awake, Major?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Thought good old sun do trick.
+Feel your heart now and find it beat. Pulse, too, strong, though
+temp&rsquo;rature not normal. Well, good news this morning. Little Bonsa come
+out top as usual. Asiki priests on bank there. Can&rsquo;t see them, but know
+their song and answer. Same old game as thirty years ago. Asiki never change,
+which good business when you been away long while.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hang the Asiki,&rdquo; said Alan feebly, &ldquo;I think all these poor
+beggars are dead,&rdquo; and he pointed to the rowers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look like it, Major, but what that matter now since you and I alive?
+Plenty more where they come from. Not dead though, think only sleep, no like
+cold, like dormouse. But never mind cannibal pig. They serve our turn, if they
+live, live; if they die, die and God have mercy on souls, if cannibal have
+soul. Ah! here we are,&rdquo; and from beneath six inches of water he dragged
+up the tin box containing Little Bonsa, from which he extracted the fetish, wet
+but uninjured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Put her on now, Major. Put her on at once and come sit in prow of canoe.
+Must reach Asiki-land in proper style. Priests think it your reverend uncle
+come back again, just as he leave. Make very good impression.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Alan feebly. &ldquo;I am played out,
+Jeekie.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! buck up, Major, buck up!&rdquo; he replied imploringly. &ldquo;One
+kick more and you win race, mustn&rsquo;t spoil ship for ha&rsquo;porth of tar.
+You just wear fetish, whistle once on land, and then go to sleep for whole week
+if you like. I do rest, say it all magic, and so forth&mdash;that you been dead
+and just come out of grave, or anything you like. No matter if you turn up as
+announced on bill and God bless hurricane that blow us here when we expect die.
+Come, Major, quick, quick! mist melt and soon they see you.&rdquo; Then without
+waiting for an answer Jeekie clapped the wet mask on his master&rsquo;s head,
+tied the thongs and led Alan to the prow of the canoe, where he set him down on
+a little cross bench, stood behind supporting him and again began to sing in a
+great triumphant voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mist cleared away, rolling up like a curtain and revealing on the shore a
+number of men and women clad in white robes, who were martialled in ranks
+there, chanting and staring out at the dim waters of the lagoon. Yonder upon
+the waters, driven forward by the gentle breeze, floated a canoe and lo! in the
+prow of that canoe sat a white man and on his head the god which they had lost
+a whole generation gone. On the head of a white man it had departed; on the
+head of a white man it returned. They saw and fell upon their knees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Blow, Major, blow!&rdquo; whispered Jeekie, and Alan blew a feeble note
+through the whistle in the mouth of the mask. It was enough, they knew it. They
+sprang into the water and dragged the canoe to land. They set Alan on the shore
+and worshipped him. They haled up a lad as though for sacrifice, for a priest
+flourished a great knife above his head, but Jeekie said something that caused
+them to let him go. Alan thought it was to the effect that Little Bonsa had
+changed her habits across the Black Water, and wanted no blood, only food. Then
+he remembered no more; again the darkness fell upon him.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+BONSA TOWN.</h2>
+
+<p>
+When consciousness returned to Alan, the first thing of which he became dimly
+aware was the slow, swaying motion of a litter. He raised himself, for he was
+lying at full length, and in so doing felt that there was something over his
+face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That confounded Little Bonsa,&rdquo; he thought. &ldquo;Am I expected to
+spend the rest of my life with it on my head like the man in the iron
+mask?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he put up his hand and felt the thing, to find that it was not Little
+Bonsa, but something made apparently of thin, fine linen, fitted to the shape
+of his face, for there was a nose on it, and eyeholes through which he could
+see, yes, and a mouth whereof the lips by some ingenious contrivance could be
+moved up and down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Little Bonsa&rsquo;s undress uniform, I expect,&rdquo; he muttered, and
+tried to drag it off. This, however, proved to be impossible, for it was fitted
+tightly to his head and laced or fastened at the back of his neck so securely
+that he could not undo it. Being still weak, soon he gave up the attempt and
+began to look about him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was in a litter, a very fine litter hung round with beautifully woven and
+coloured grass mats, inside of which were a kind of couch and cushions of soft
+wool or hair, so arranged that he could either sit up or lie down. He peeped
+between two of these mats and saw that they were travelling in a mountainous
+country over a well-beaten road or trail, and that his litter was borne upon
+the shoulders of a double line of white-robed men, while all around him marched
+numbers of other men. They seemed to be soldiers, for they were arranged in
+companies and carried large spears and shields. Also some of them wore torques
+and bracelets of yellow metal that might be either brass or gold. Turning
+himself about he found an eyehole in the back of the litter so contrived that
+its occupant could see without being seen, and perceived that his escort
+amounted to a veritable army of splendid-looking, but sombre-faced savages of a
+somewhat Semitic cast of countenance. Indeed many of them had aquiline features
+and hair that, although crisped, was long and carefully arranged in something
+like the old Egyptian fashion. Also he saw that about thirty yards behind and
+separated from him by a bodyguard, was borne a second litter. By means of a
+similar aperture in front he discovered yet more soldiers, and beyond them, at
+the head of the procession, was what appeared to be a body of white-robed men
+and women bearing strange emblems and banners. These he took to be priests and
+priestesses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having examined everything that was within reach of his eye, Alan sank back
+upon his cushions and began to realize that he was very faint and hungry. It
+was just then that the sound of a familiar voice reached his ears. It was the
+voice of Jeekie, and he did not speak; he chanted in English to a melody which
+Alan at once recognized as a Gregorian tone, apparently from the second litter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, Major,&rdquo; he sang, &ldquo;have you yet awoke from refre-e-eshing
+sleep? If so, please answer me in same tone of voice, for remember that you
+de-e-evil of a swell, Lord of the Little Bonsa, and must not speak like
+co-o-ommon cad.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Feeble as he was Alan nearly burst out laughing, then remembering that probably
+he was expected not to laugh, chanted his answer as directed, which having a
+good tenor voice, he did with some effect, to the evident awe and delight of
+all the escort within hearing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am awake, most excellent Jee-e-ekie, and feel the need of food, if you
+have such a thing abou-ou-out you and it is lawful for the Lord of Little Bonsa
+to take nu-tri-ment.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instantly Jeekie&rsquo;s deep voice rose in reply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That good tidings upon the mountain tops, Ma-ajor. Can&rsquo;t come out
+to bring you chop because too i-i-infra dig, for now I also biggish bug, the
+little bird what sit upon the rose, as poet sa-a-ays. I tell these Johnnies
+bring you grub, which you eat without qualm, for Asiki A1 coo-o-ook.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then followed loud orders issued by Jeekie to his immediate <i>entourage</i>,
+and some confusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a result presently Alan&rsquo;s litter was halted, the curtains were opened
+and kneeling women thrust through them platters of wood upon which, wrapped up
+in leaves, were the dismembered limbs of a bird which he took to be chicken or
+guinea-fowl, and a gold cup containing water pleasantly flavoured with some
+essence. This cup interested him very much both on account of its shape and
+workmanship, which if rude, was striking in design, resembling those drinking
+vessels that have been found in Mycenian graves. Also it proved to him that
+Jeekie&rsquo;s stories of the abundance of the precious metal among the Asiki
+had not been exaggerated. If it were not very plentiful, they would scarcely,
+he thought, make their travelling cups of gold. Evidently there was wealth in
+the land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the food had been handed to him the litter went on again, and seated upon
+his cushions, he ate and drank heartily enough, for now that the worst of his
+fatigue had passed away, his hunger was great. In some absurd fashion this meal
+reminded him of that which a traveller makes out of a luncheon basket upon a
+railway line in Europe or America. Only there the cups are not of gold and
+among the Asiki were no paper napkins, no salt and mustard, and no three and
+sixpence or dollar to pay. Further, until he got used to it, luncheon in a
+linen mask with a moveable mouth was not easy. This difficulty he overcame at
+last by propping the imitation lips apart with a piece of bone, after which
+things were easier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he had finished he threw the platter and the remains out of the litter,
+retaining the cup for further examination, and recommenced his intoned and
+poetical converse with Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To set it out at length would be wearisome, but in the course of an hour or so
+he collected a good deal of information. Thus he learned that they were due to
+arrive at the Asiki city, which was called Bonsa Town, by nightfall, or a
+little after. Also he was informed that the mask he wore was, as he had
+guessed, a kind of undress uniform without which he must never appear, since
+for anyone except the Asika herself to look upon the naked countenance of an
+individual so mysteriously mixed up with Little Bonsa, was sacrilege of the
+worst sort. Indeed Jeekie assured him that the priests who had put on the
+head-dress when he was insensible were first blindfolded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This news depressed Alan very much, since the prospect of living in a linen
+mask for an indefinite period was not cheerful. Recovering, he chanted a query
+as to the fate of the Ogula crew and their chief Fahni.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not de-ad,&rdquo; intoned Jeekie in reply, &ldquo;and not gone back.
+A-all alive-O, somewhere behind there. Fanny very sick about it, for he think
+Asiki bring them along for sacrifice, poo-or beg-gars.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Finally he inquired where Little Bonsa was and was answered that he himself as
+its lawful guardian, was sitting on the fetish in its tin box, tidings that he
+was able to verify by groping beneath the cushions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this his voice gave out, though Jeekie continued to sing items of
+interesting news from time to time. Indeed there were other things that
+absorbed Alan&rsquo;s attention. Looking through the peepholes and cracks in
+the curtains, he saw that at last they had reached the crest of a ridge up
+which they had been climbing for hours. Before them lay a vast and fertile
+valley, much of which seemed to be under cultivation, and down it flowed a
+broad and placid river. Opposite to him and facing west a great tongue of land
+ran up to a wall of mountains with stark precipices of black rock that seemed
+to be hundreds, or even thousands, of feet high, and at the tip of this tongue
+a mighty waterfall rushed over the precipice, looking at that distance like a
+cascade of smoke. This torrent, which he remembered was called Raaba, fell into
+a great pool and there divided itself into two rushing branches that enclosed
+an ellipse of ground, surrounded on all sides by water, for on its westernmost
+extremity the branches met again and after flowing a while as one river,
+divided once more and wound away quietly to north and south further than the
+eye could reach. On the island thus formed, which may have been three miles
+long by two in breadth, stood thousands of straw-roofed, square-built huts with
+verandas, neatly arranged in blocks and lines and having between them streets
+that were edged with palms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the hither side of the pool was what looked like a park, for here grew
+great, black trees, which from their flat shape Alan took to be some variety of
+cedar, and standing alone in the midst of this park where no other habitations
+could be discovered, was a large, low building with dark-coloured walls and
+gabled roofs that flashed like fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Gold House!&rdquo; said Alan to himself with a gasp. &ldquo;So it is
+not a dream or a lie.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The details at that distance he could not discover, nor did he try to do so,
+for the general glory of the scene held him in its grip. At this evening hour,
+for a little while, the level rays of the setting sun poured straight up the
+huge, water-hollowed kloof. They struck upon the face of the fall, staining it
+and the clouds of mist that hung above, to a hundred glorious hues; indeed the
+substance of the foaming water seemed to be interlaced with rainbows whereof
+the arch reached their crest and the feet were lost in the sullen blackness of
+the pool beneath. Beautiful too was the valley, glowing in the quiet light of
+evening, and even the native town thus gilded and glorified, looked like some
+happy home of peace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sun was sinking rapidly, and before the litter reached the foot of the hill
+and began to cross the rich valley, all the glory had departed and only the
+cataract showed white and ghost-like through the gloom. But still the light,
+which seemed to gather to itself, gleamed upon that golden roof amid the cedar
+trees; then the moon rose and the gold was turned to silver. Alan lay back upon
+his cushions full of wonder, almost of awe. It was a marvellous thing that he
+should have lived to reach this secret place hidden in the heart of Africa and
+defended by swamps, mountains and savages to which, so far as he knew, only one
+white man had ever penetrated. And to think of it! That white man, his own
+uncle, had never even held it worth while to make public any account of its
+wonders, which apparently had seemed to him of no importance. Or perhaps he
+thought that if he did he would not be believed. Well, there they were before
+and about him, and now the question was, what would be his fate in this Gold
+House where the great fetish dwelt with its priestess?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! that priestess! Somehow he shivered a little when he thought of her; it was
+as though her influence were over him already. Next moment he forgot her for a
+while, for they had come to the river brink and the litter was being carried on
+to a barge or ferry, about which were gathered many armed men. Evidently the
+Gold House was well defended both by Nature and otherwise. The ferry was pulled
+or rowed across the river, he could not see which, and they passed through a
+gateway into the town and up a broad street where hundreds of people watched
+his advent. They did not seem to speak, or if they spoke their voices were lost
+in the sound of the thunder of the great cataract which dominated the place
+with its sullen, continuous roar. It took Alan days to become accustomed to
+that roar, but by the inhabitants of Asiki-land apparently it was not noticed;
+their ears and voices were attuned to overcome its volume which their fathers
+had known from the beginning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently they were through the town and a wooden gate in an inner wall which
+surrounded the park where the cedars grew. At this spot Alan noted that
+everybody left them except the bearers and a few men whom he took to be
+priests. On they stole like ghosts beneath the mighty trees, from whose limbs
+hung long festoons of moss. It was very dark there, only in places where a
+bough was broken the moonlight lay in white gules upon the ground. Another wall
+and another gate, and suddenly the litter was set down. Its curtains opened,
+torches flashed, women appeared clad in white robes, veiled and mysterious, who
+bowed before him, then half led and half lifted him from his litter. He could
+feel their eyes on him through their veils, but he could not see their faces.
+He could see nothing except their naked, copper-coloured arms and long thin
+hands stretched out to assist him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan descended from the litter as slowly as he could, for somehow he shrank
+from the quaint, carved portal which he saw before him. He did not wish to pass
+it; its aspect filled him with reluctance. The women drew him on, their hands
+pulled at his arms, their shoulders pressed him from behind. Still he hung
+back, looking about him, till to his delight he saw the other litter arrive and
+out of it emerge Jeekie, still wearing his sun-helmet with its fringe of
+tattered mosquito curtain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here we are, Major,&rdquo; he said in his cheerful voice, &ldquo;turned
+up all right like a bad ha&rsquo;penny, but in odd situation.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very odd,&rdquo; echoed Alan. &ldquo;Could you persuade these ladies to
+let go of me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; answered Jeekie. &ldquo;&rsquo;Spect they
+doubtfully your wives; &rsquo;spect you have lots of wives here; don&rsquo;t
+get white man every day, so make most of him. Best thing you do, kick out and
+teach them place. Rub nose in dirt at once and make them good, that first-class
+plan with female. I no like interfere in such delicate matter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Terrified by this information, Alan put out his strength and shook the women
+off him, whereon without seeming to take any offence, they drew back to a little
+distance and began to bow, like automata. Then Jeekie addressed them in their
+own language, asking them what they meant by defiling this mighty lord, born of
+the Heavens, with the touch of their hands, whereat they went on bowing more
+humbly than before. Next he threw aside the cushions of the litter and finding
+the tin box containing Little Bonsa, held it before him in both hands and bade
+the women lead on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The march began, a bewildering march. It was like a nightmare. Veiled women
+with torches before and behind, Jeekie stalking ahead carrying the battered tin
+box, long passages lined with gold, a vision of black water edged with a wide
+promenade, and finally a large lamp-lit room whereof the roof was supported by
+gilded columns, and in the room couches of cushions, wooden stools inlaid with
+ivory, vessels of water, great basins made of some black, hard wood, and in the
+centre a block of stone that looked like an altar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie set down the tin box upon the altar-like stone, then he turned to the
+crowd of women and said, &ldquo;Bring food.&rdquo; Instantly they departed,
+closing the door of the room behind them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now for a wash,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;unlace this confounded mask,
+Jeekie.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mustn&rsquo;t, Major, mustn&rsquo;t. Priests tell me that. If those
+girls see you without mask, perhaps they kill them. Wait till they gone after
+supper, then take it off. No one allowed see you without mask except Asika
+herself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan stepped to one of the wooden bowls full of water which stood under a lamp,
+and gazed at his own reflection. The mask was gilded; the sham lips were
+painted red and round the eye-holes were black lines.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, it is horrible,&rdquo; he exclaimed, starting back. &ldquo;I look
+like a devil crossed with Guy Fawkes. Do you mean to tell me that I have got to
+live in this thing?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Afraid so, Major, upon all public occasion. At least they say that. You
+holy, not lawful see your sacred face.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who do the Asiki think I am, then, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They think you your reverend uncle come back after many, many year. You
+see, Major, they not believe uncle run away with Little Bonsa; they believe
+Little Bonsa run away with uncle just for change of air and so on, and that
+now, when she tired of strange land, she bring him back again. That why you so
+holy, favourite of Little Bonsa who live with you all this time and keep you
+just same age, bloom of youth.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In Heaven&rsquo;s name,&rdquo; asked Alan, exasperated, &ldquo;what is
+Little Bonsa, beyond an ancient and ugly gold fetish?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hush,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;mustn&rsquo;t call her names here in
+her own house. Little Bonsa much more than fetish, Little Bonsa alive, or
+so,&rdquo; he added doubtfully, &ldquo;these silly niggers say. She wife of Big
+Bonsa, who you see, to-morrow p&rsquo;raps. But their story this, that she get
+dead sick of Big Bonsa and bolt with white Medicine man, who dare preach she
+nothing but heathen idol. She want show him whether or no she only idol. That
+the yarn, priests tell it me to-day. They always watch for her there by the
+edge of the lake. They always sure Little Bonsa come back. Not at all
+surprised, but as she love you once, you stop holy; and I holy also, thank
+goodness, because she take me too as servant. Therefore we sleep in peace, for
+they not cut our throats, at any rate at present, though I think,&rdquo; he
+added mournfully, &ldquo;they not let us go either.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan sat down on a stool and groaned at the appalling prospect suggested by
+this information.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cheer up, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie sympathetically. &ldquo;Perhaps
+manage hook it somehow, and meanwhile make best of bad business and have high
+old time. You see you want to come Asiki-land, though I tell you it rum place,
+and,&rdquo; he added with certitude and a circular sweep of his hand, &ldquo;by
+Jingo! you here now and I daresay they give you all the gold you want.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the good of gold unless one can get away with it?
+What&rsquo;s the good of anything if we are prisoners among these devils?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps time show, Major. Hush! here come dinner. You sit still on stool
+and look holy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The door opened and through it appeared four of the women bearing dishes and
+cups full of drink, fashioned of gold like that which had been given to Alan in
+the litter. He noticed at once that they had removed their veils and outer
+garments, if indeed they were the same women, and now, like many other
+Africans, were but lightly clad in linen capes open in front that hung over
+their shoulders, short petticoats or skirts about their middles, and sandals.
+Such was their attire which, scanty as it might be, was yet becoming enough and
+extremely rich. Thus the cape was fastened with a brooch of worked gold, so
+were the sandal straps, while the petticoat was adorned with beads of gold that
+jingled as they walked, and amongst them strings of other beads of various and
+beautiful colours, that might be glass or might be precious stones. Moreover,
+these women were young and handsome, having splendid figures and well-cut
+features, soft, dark eyes and rather long hair worn in the formal and
+attractive fashion that has been described.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Advancing to Alan two of them knelt before him, holding out the trays upon
+which was the food. So they remained while he ate, like bronze statues, nor
+would they consent to change their posture even when he told them in their
+language to be pleased to go away. On hearing themselves addressed in the Asiki
+language, they seemed surprised, for their faces changed a little, but go they
+would not. The result was that Alan grew extremely nervous and ate and drank so
+rapidly that he scarcely noted what he was putting into his mouth. Then before
+Jeekie, to whom the women did not kneel, had half finished his dinner, Alan
+rose and walked away, whereon two of the women gathered up everything,
+including the dishes that had been given to Jeekie, and in spite of his
+remonstrances carried them out of the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I say, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;if you gobble chop so fast you
+go ill inside. Poor nigger like me can&rsquo;t keep up with you and sleep
+hungry to-night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am sorry, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan with a little laugh, &ldquo;but I
+can&rsquo;t eat off living tables, especially when they stare at one like that.
+You tell them that to-morrow we will breakfast alone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes, I tell them, Major, but I don&rsquo;t know if they listen. They
+mean it great compliment and only think you not like those girls and send
+others.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look here, Jeekie,&rdquo; exclaimed Alan, turning his masked face
+towards the two who remained, &ldquo;let us come to an understanding at once.
+Clear them out. Tell them I am so holy that Little Bonsa is enough for me. Say
+I can&rsquo;t bear the sight of females, and that if they stop here I will
+sacrifice them. Say anything you like, only get rid of them and lock the
+door.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus adjured, Jeekie began to reason with the women, and as they treated his
+remarks with lofty disdain, at last seized first one and then the other by the
+elbows and literally ran them out of the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;baggage gone since you make such fuss
+about it, though I &rsquo;spect they try to give me Bean for this job&rdquo;
+(here he spoke not in figurative English slang, but of the Calabar bean, which
+is a favourite native poison). &ldquo;Well, dinner gone and girls gone, and we
+tired, so best go to bed. Think we all private here now, though in Gold House
+never can be sure,&rdquo; and he looked round him suspiciously, adding,
+&ldquo;rummy place, Gold House, full of all sort of holes made by old fellows
+thousand year ago, which no one know but Bonsa priests. Still, best risk it and
+take off your face so that you have decent wash,&rdquo; and he began to unlace
+the mask on his master&rsquo;s head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Never has a City clerk dressed up for a fancy ball in the armour of a Norman
+knight, been more glad to get rid of his costume than was Alan of that hateful
+head-dress. At length it was gone with his other garments and the much-needed
+wash accomplished, after which he clothed himself in a kind of linen gown which
+apparently had been provided for him, and lay down on one of the couches,
+placing his revolver by his side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will those lamps burn all night, Jeekie?&rdquo; he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hope so, Major, as we haven&rsquo;t got no match. Not fond of dark in
+Gold House,&rdquo; answered Jeekie sleepily. Then he began to snore.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan fell asleep, but was too excited and tired to rest very soundly. All sorts
+of dreams came to him, one of which he remembered on awakening, perhaps because
+it was the last. He dreamed that he heard some noise and opened his eyes, to
+see that they were no longer alone in the room. The oil lamps had burned quite
+low, indeed some of them were out, but by the light of those that remained he
+saw a tall figure which seemed to appear at the edge of the surrounding
+blackness, a woman&rsquo;s figure. It walked forward to the altar-like stone
+upon which lay the tin box containing Little Bonsa, and after several rather
+awkward attempts, succeeded in opening it, thereby making a noise which, in his
+dream, finally awoke Alan. For a while the figure gazed at the fetish. Then it
+shut the box, glided to his bed and bent down as though to study him. Out of
+the corners of his eyes he peered up at it, pretending all the while to be fast
+asleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was that of a woman wonderfully clad in gold-spangled, veil-like garments
+with round bosses shaped to the breast, covered with thin plates of gold
+fashioned like the scales of a fish which showed off the extraordinary elegance
+of her lithe form. The low lamp-light shone upon her face and the coronet of
+gold set upon her dark hair. What a face it was! Never in all his days had he
+seen its like for evil loveliness. The great, languid, oblong eyes, the rich
+red lips bent like a bow, the cruel smile of the mouth, the broad forehead on
+which the hair grew low, the delicately arched eyebrows and the long curving
+lashes of the heavy lids beneath them, the rounded cheeks, smooth as a ripe
+fruit, the firm, shapely chin, the snake-like poise of the head, the long
+bending neck, and the feline smile; all of these combined made such a
+dream-vision as he had never seen before, and to tell the truth,
+notwithstanding its beauty, for that could not be doubted, never wished to see
+again. Somehow he felt that if Satan should happen to have a copper-coloured
+wife, the exact picture of that lady had projected itself upon his sleeping
+senses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She seemed to study him very earnestly, with a kind of passionate eagerness,
+indeed, moving a little now and again to let the light fall upon some part that
+was in shadow. Once even she stretched out her rounded arm and just lifted the
+edge of the blanket so as to expose his hand, the left. As it chanced on the
+little finger of this hand Alan wore a plain gold ring which Barbara had given
+him; once it had been her grandfather&rsquo;s signet. This ring, which had a
+coat of arms cut upon its bezel seemed to interest her very much as she
+examined it for a long while. Then she drew off from her own finger another
+ring of gold fashioned of two snakes curiously intertwined, and gently, so
+gently that in his sleep he scarcely felt it, slipped it on to his finger above
+Barbara&rsquo;s ring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this she seemed to vanish away, and Alan slept soundly until the morning,
+when he awoke to find the light of the sun pouring into the room through the
+high-set latticed window places.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+THE HALL OF THE DEAD.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Alan rose and stretched himself, and hearing him, Jeekie, who had a dog&rsquo;s
+faculty of instantly awaking from what seemed to be the deepest sleep, sat up
+also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You rest well, Major? No dream, eh?&rdquo; he asked curiously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not very,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;and I had a dream, of a woman who
+stood over me and vanished away, as dreams do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Jeekie. &ldquo;But where you find that new ring on
+finger, Major?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan stared at his hand and started, for there set on it above that of Barbara,
+was the little circlet formed of twisted snakes which he had seen in his sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then it must have been true,&rdquo; he said in a low and rather
+frightened voice. &ldquo;But how did she come and go?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Funny place, Gold House. I tell you that yesterday, Major. People come
+up through hole, like rat. Never quite sure you alone in Gold House. But what
+this lady like?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan described his visitor to the best of his ability.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;pretty girl. Big eyes, gold crown, gold
+stays which fit tight in front, very nice and decent; sort of night-shirt with
+little gold stars all over&mdash;by Jingo! I think that Asika herself. If
+so&mdash;great compliment.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Confound the compliment, I think it great cheek,&rdquo; answered Alan
+angrily. &ldquo;What does she mean by poking about here at night and putting
+rings on my finger?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know, Major, but p&rsquo;raps she wish make you understand
+that she like cut of your jib. Find out by and by. Meanwhile you wear ring, for
+while that on finger no one do you any harm.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You told me that this Asika is a married woman, did you not?&rdquo;
+remarked Alan gloomily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, yes, Major, always married; one down, other come on, you see. But
+she not always like her husband, and then she make him sit up, poor devil, and
+he die double quick. Great honour to be Asika&rsquo;s husband, but soon all
+finished. P&rsquo;raps&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he checked himself and suggested that Alan should have a bath while he
+cleaned his clothes, an attention that they needed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scarcely had Alan finished his toilet, donned the Arab-looking linen robe over
+his own fragmentary flannels, and above it the hateful mask which Jeekie
+insisted he must wear, when there came a knocking on the door. Motioning to
+Alan to take his seat upon a stool, Jeekie undid the bars, and as before women
+appeared with food and waited while they ate, which this time, having overcome
+his nervousness, Alan did more leisurely. Their meal done, one of the women
+asked Jeekie, for to his master they did not seem to dare to speak, whether the
+white lord did not wish to walk in the garden. Without waiting for an answer
+she led him to the end of the large room and, unbarring another door that they
+had not noticed, revealed a passage, beyond which appeared trees and flowers.
+Then she and her companions went away with the fragments of the meal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come on,&rdquo; said Alan, taking up the box containing Little Bonsa,
+which he did not dare to leave behind, &ldquo;and let us get into the
+air.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they went down the passage and at the end of it through gates of copper or
+gold, they knew not which, that had evidently been left open for them, into the
+garden. It was a large place, a good many acres in extent indeed, and kept with
+some care, for there were paths in it and flowers that seemed to have been
+planted. Also here grew certain of the mighty cedar trees that they had seen
+from far off, beneath whose spreading boughs twilight reigned, while beyond,
+not more than half a mile away, the splendid river-fall thundered down the
+precipice. For the rest they could find no exit to that garden which on one
+side was enclosed by a sheer cliff of living rock, and on the others with steep
+stone walls beyond which ran a torrent, and by the buildings of the Gold House
+itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a while they walked up and down the rough paths, till at last Jeekie,
+wearying of this occupation, remarked:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Melancholy hole this, Major. Remind me of Westminster Abbey in London
+fog, where your uncle of blessed mem&rsquo;ry often take me pray and look at
+fusty tomb of king. S&rsquo;pose we go back Gold House and see what happen.
+Anything better than stand about under cursed old cedar tree.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said Alan, who through the eyeholes of his mask had
+been studying the walls to seek a spot in them that could be climbed if
+necessary, and found none.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they returned to the room, which had been swept and garnished in their
+absence. No sooner had they entered it than the door opened and through it came
+long lines of Asiki priests, each of whom staggered beneath the weight of a
+hide bag that he bore upon his shoulder, which bags they piled up about the
+stone altar. Then, as though at some signal, each priest opened the mouth of
+his bag and Alan saw that they wee filled with gold, gold in dust, gold in
+nuggets, gold in vessels perfect or broken; more gold than Alan had ever seen
+before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why do they bring all this stuff here?&rdquo; he asked, and Jeekie
+translated his question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is an offering to the lord of Little Bonsa,&rdquo; answered the head
+priest, bowing, &ldquo;a gift from the Asika. The heaven-born white man sent
+word by his Ogula messengers that he desired gold. Here is the gold that he
+desired.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan stared at the treasure, which after all was what he had come to seek. If
+only he had it safe in England, he would be a rich man and his troubles ended.
+But how could he get it to England? Here it was worthless as mud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thank the Asika,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I ask for porters to bear her
+gift back to my own country, since it is too heavy for me and my servant to
+carry alone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At these words the priest smiled a little, then said that the Asika desired to
+see the white lord and to receive from him Little Bonsa in return for the gold,
+and that he could proffer his request to her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good,&rdquo; replied Alan, &ldquo;lead me to the Asika.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then they started, Alan bearing the box containing Little Bonsa, and Jeekie
+following after him. They went down passages and through sundry doors till at
+length they came to a long and narrow hall that seemed to be lined with plates
+of gold. At the end of this hall was a large chair of black wood and ivory
+placed upon a da&iuml;s, and sitting in this chair with the light pouring on her
+from some opening above, was the woman of Alan&rsquo;s dream, beautiful to look
+on in her crown and glittering garments. Upon a stool at the foot of the da&iuml;s
+sat a man, a handsome and melancholy man. His hair was tied behind his head in
+a pigtail and gilded, his face was painted red, white and yellow; he wore ropes
+of bright-coloured stones about his neck, middle, arms and ankles, and held a
+kind of sceptre in his hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is that creature?&rdquo; asked Alan over his shoulder to Jeekie.
+&ldquo;The Court fool?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That husband of Asika, Major. He not fool, very big gun, but look a
+little low now because his time soon up. Come on, Major, Asika beckon us. Get
+on stomach and crawl; that custom here,&rdquo; he added, going down on to his
+hands and knees, as did all the priests who followed them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll see her hanged first,&rdquo; answered Alan in English.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, accompanied by the creeping Jeekie and the train of prostrate priests, he
+marched up the long hall to the edge of the da&iuml;s and there stood still and
+bowed to the woman in the chair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Greeting, white man,&rdquo; she said in a low voice when she had studied
+him for a while. &ldquo;Do you understand my tongue?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A little,&rdquo; he answered in Asiki, &ldquo;moreover, my servant here
+knows it well and can translate.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am glad,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Tell me then, in your country do not
+people go on to their knees before their queen, and if not, how do they greet
+her?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered Alan with the help of Jeekie. &ldquo;They greet her
+by raising their head-dress or kissing her hand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Well, you have no head-dress, so kiss
+<i>my</i> hand,&rdquo; and she stretched it out towards him, at the same time
+prodding the man whom Jackie had said was her husband, in the back with her
+foot, apparently to make him get out of the way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not knowing what else to do, Alan stepped on to the da&iuml;s, the painted man
+scowling at him as he passed. Then he halted and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How can I kiss your hand through this mask, Asika?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;True,&rdquo; she answered, then considered a little and added,
+&ldquo;White man, you have brought back Little Bonsa, have you not, Little
+Bonsa who ran away with you a great many years ago?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have,&rdquo; he said, ignoring the rest of the question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your messengers said that you required a present of gold in return for
+Little Bonsa. I have sent you one, is it sufficient? If not, you can have
+more.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot say, O Asika, I have not examined it. But I thank you for the
+present and desire porters to enable me to carry it away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You desire porters,&rdquo; she repeated meditatively. &ldquo;We will
+talk of that when you have rested here a moon or two. Meanwhile, give me Little
+Bonsa that she may be restored to her own place.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan opened the tin box and lifting out the fetish, gave it to the priestess,
+who took it and with a serpentine movement of extraordinary grace glided from
+her chair on to her knees, holding the mask above her head in both hands, then
+thrice covered her face with it. This done, she called to the priests, bidding
+them take Little Bonsa to her own place and give notice throughout the land
+that she was back again. She added that the ancient Feast of Little Bonsa would
+be held on the night of the full moon within three days, and that all
+preparations must be made for it as she had commanded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the head medicine-man, raising himself upon his knees, crept on to the
+da&iuml;s, took the fetish from her hands, and breaking into a wild song of triumph,
+he and his companions crawled down the hall and vanished through the door,
+leaving them alone save for the Asika&rsquo;s husband.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When they had gone the Asika looked at this man in a reflective way, and Alan
+looked at him also through the eyeholes of his mask, finding him well worth
+studying. As has been said, notwithstanding his paint and grotesque
+decorations, he was very good-looking for a native, with well-cut features of
+an Arab type. Also he was tall and muscular and not more than thirty years of
+age. What struck Alan most, however, was none of these things, nor his jewelled
+chains, nor even his gilded pigtail, but his eyes, which were full of terrors.
+Seeing them, Alan remembered Jeekie&rsquo;s story, which he had told to Mr.
+Haswell&rsquo;s guests at The Court, of how the husband of the Asika was driven
+mad by ghosts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then she spoke to the man, addressing him by name and saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Leave us alone, Mungana, I wish to speak with this white lord.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He did not seem to hear her words, but continued to stare at Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hearken!&rdquo; she exclaimed in a voice of ice. &ldquo;Do my bidding
+and begone, or you shall sleep alone to-night in a certain chamber that you
+know of.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Mungana rose, looked at her as a dog sometimes does at a cruel master who
+is about to beat it, yes, with just that same expression, put his hands before
+his eyes for a little while, and turning, left the hall by a side door which
+closed behind him. The Asika watched him go, laughed musically and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is a very dull thing to be married,&mdash;but how are you named,
+white man?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Vernon,&rdquo; he answered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Vernoon, Vernoon,&rdquo; she repeated, for she could not pronounce the O
+as we do. &ldquo;Are <i>you</i> married, Vernoon?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you been married?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;never, but I am going to be.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she repeated, &ldquo;you are going to be. You remember that
+you were near to it many years ago, when Little Bonsa got jealous and ran away
+with you. Well, she won&rsquo;t do that again, for doubtless she is tired of
+you now, and besides,&rdquo; she added with a flash of ferocity,
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;d melt her with fire first and set her spirit free.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While Jeekie was trying to explain this mysterious speech to Alan, the Asika
+broke in, asking:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you always want to wear that mask?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He answered, &ldquo;Certainly not,&rdquo; whereon she bade Jeekie take it off,
+which he did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Understand me,&rdquo; she said, fixing her great languid eyes upon his
+in a fashion that made him exceedingly uncomfortable, &ldquo;understand,
+Vernoon, that if you go out anywhere, it must be in your mask, which you can
+only put off when you are alone with <i>me.</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because, Vernoon, I do not choose that any other woman should see your
+face. If a woman looks upon your uncovered face, remember that she
+dies&mdash;not nicely.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan stared at her blankly, being unable to find appropriate Asiki words in
+which to reply to this threat. But the Asika only leaned back in her chair and
+laughed at his evident confusion and dismay, till a new thought struck her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your lips are free now,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;kiss my hand after the
+fashion of your own country,&rdquo; and she stretched it out to Alan, leaving
+him no choice but to obey her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why,&rdquo; she went on mischievously, taking his hand and in turn
+touching it with her red lips, &ldquo;why, are you a thief, Vernoon? That ring
+was mine and you have stolen it. How did you steal that ring?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he answered, through Jeekie, &ldquo;I found
+it on my finger. I cannot understand how it came there. I understand nothing of
+all this talk.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, well, keep it, Vernoon, only give me that other ring of yours in
+exchange.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot,&rdquo; he replied, colouring. &ldquo;I promised to wear it
+always.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Whom did you promise?&rdquo; she asked with a flash of rage. &ldquo;Was
+it a woman? Nay, I see, it is a man&rsquo;s ring, and that is well, for
+otherwise I would bring a curse on her, however far off she may be dwelling.
+Say no more and forgive my anger. A vow is a vow&mdash;keep your ring. But
+where is that one you used to wear in bygone days? I recall that it had a cross
+upon it, not this star and figure of an eagle.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Alan remembered that his uncle owned such a ring with a cross upon it, and
+was frightened, for how did this woman know these things?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;ask the Asika if I am mad, or if she is.
+How can she know what I used to wear, seeing that I was never in this place
+till yesterday, and certainly I have not met her anywhere else.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She mean when you your reverend uncle,&rdquo; said Jeekie, wagging his
+great head, &ldquo;she think you identical man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What troubles you, Vernoon,&rdquo; the Asika asked softly, then added
+anything but softly to Jeekie, &ldquo;Translate, you dog, and be swift.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Jeekie translated in a great hurry, telling her what Alan had said, and
+adding on his own account that he, silly white man that he was, could not
+understand how, as she was quite a young woman, she could have seen him before
+she was born. If that were so, she would be old and ugly now, not beautiful as
+she was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I never saw you before, and you never saw me, Lady, yet you talk as
+though we had been friends,&rdquo; broke in Alan in his halting Asiki.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So we were in the spirit, Vernoon. It was she who went before me who
+loved that white man whose face was as your face is, but her ghost lives on in
+me and tells me the tale. There have been many Asikas, for thousands of years
+they have ruled in this land, yet but one spirit belongs to them all; it is the
+string upon which the beads of their lives are threaded. White man, I, whom you
+think young, know everything back to the beginning of the world, back to the
+time when I was a monkey woman sitting in those cedar trees, and if you wish, I
+can tell it you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should like to hear it very much indeed,&rdquo; answered Alan, when he
+had mastered her meaning, &ldquo;though it is strange that none of the rest of
+us remember such things. Meanwhile, O Asika, I will tell you that I desire to
+return to my own land, taking with me that gift of gold that you have given me.
+When will it please you to allow me to return?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not yet a while, I think,&rdquo; she said, smiling at him weirdly, for
+no other word will describe that smile. &ldquo;My spirit remembers that it was
+always thus. Those wanderers who came hither always wished to return again to
+their own country, like the birds in spring. Once there was a white man among
+them, that was more than twenty hundred years ago; he was a native of a country
+called Roma, and wore a helmet. He wished to return, but my mother of that day,
+she kept him and by and by I will show him to you if you like. Before that
+there was a brown man who came from a land where a great river overflows its
+banks every year. He was a prince of his own country, who had fled from his
+king and the desert folk made a slave of him, and so he drifted hither. He
+wished to return also, for my mother of that day, or my spirit that dwelt in
+her, showed to him that if he could but be there they would make him king in
+his own land. But my mother of that day, she would not let him go, and by and
+by I will show him to you, if you wish.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bewildered, amazed, Alan listened to her. Evidently the woman was mad, or else
+she played some mystical part for reasons of her own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When will you let me go, O Asika?&rdquo; he repeated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not yet a while, I think,&rdquo; she said again. &ldquo;You are too
+comely and I like you,&rdquo; and she smiled at him. There was nothing coarse
+in the smile, indeed it had a certain spiritual quality which thrilled him.
+&ldquo;I like you,&rdquo; she went on in her dreamy voice, &ldquo;I would keep
+you with me until your spirit is drawn up into my spirit, making it strong and
+rich as all the spirits that went before have done, those spirits that my
+mothers loved from the beginning, which dwell in me to-day.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Alan grew alarmed, desperate even.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Queen,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but just now your husband sat here, is it
+right then that you should talk to me thus?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My husband,&rdquo; she answered, laughing. &ldquo;Why, that man is but a
+slave who plays the part of husband to satisfy an ancient law. Never has he so
+much as kissed my finger tips; my women&mdash;those who waited on you last
+night&mdash;are his wives, not I,&mdash;or may be, if he will. Soon he will die
+of love for me, and then when he is dead, though not before, I may take another
+husband, any husband that I choose, and I think that no black man shall be my
+lord, who have other, purer blood in me. Vernoon, five centuries have gone by
+since an Asika was really wed to a foreign man who wore a green turban and
+called himself a son of the Prophet, a man with a hooked nose and flashing
+eyes, who reviled our gods until they slew him, even though he was the beloved
+of their priestess. She who went before me also would have married that white
+man whose face was like your face, but he fled with Little Bonsa, or rather
+Little Bonsa fled with him. So she passed away unwed, and in her place I
+came.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How did you come, if she whom you call your mother was not your
+mother?&rdquo; asked Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is that to you, white man?&rdquo; she replied haughtily. &ldquo;I
+am here, as my spirit has been here from the first. Oh! I see you think I lie
+to you, come then, come, and I will show you those who from the beginning have
+been the husbands of the Asika,&rdquo; and rising from her chair she took him
+by the hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They went through doors and by long, half-lit passages till they came to great
+gates guarded by old priests armed with spears. As they drew near to these
+priests the Asika loosed a scarf that she wore over her breast-plate of gold
+fish scales, and threw the star-spangled thing over Alan&rsquo;s head, that
+even these priests should not see his face. Then she spoke a word to them and
+they opened the gates. Here Jeekie evinced a disposition to remain, remarking
+to his master that he thought that place, into which he had never entered,
+&ldquo;much too holy for poor nigger like him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Asika asked him what he had said and he explained his sense of unworthiness
+in her own tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come, fellow,&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;to translate my words and to
+bear witness that no trick is played upon your lord.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still Jeekie lingered bashfully, whereon at a sign from her, one of the priests
+pricked him behind with his great spear, and uttering a low howl he sprang
+forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Asika led the way down a passage, which they saw ended in a big hall lit
+with lamps. Now they were in it and Alan became aware that they had entered the
+treasure house of the Asiki, since here were piled up great heaps of gold, gold
+in ingots, gold in nuggets, in stone jars filled with dust, in vessels plain or
+embossed with monstrous shapes in fetishes and in little squares and discs that
+looked as though they had served as coins. Never had he seen so much gold
+before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are rich here, Lady,&rdquo; he said, gazing at the piles astonished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She shrugged her shoulders. &ldquo;Yes, as I have heard that some people count
+wealth. These are the offerings brought to our gods from the beginning; also
+all the gold found in the mountains belongs to the gods, and there is much of
+it there. The gift I sent to you was taken from this heap, but in truth it is
+but a poor gift, seeing that although this stuff is bright and serves for cups
+and other things, it has no use at all and is only offered to the gods because
+it is harder to come by than other metals. Look, these are prettier than the
+gold,&rdquo; and from a stone table she picked up at hazard a long necklace of
+large, uncut stones, red and white in colour and set alternatively, that Alan
+judged to be crystals and spinels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take it,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and examine it at your leisure. It is
+very old. For hundreds of years no more of these necklaces have been
+made,&rdquo; and with a careless movement she threw the chain over his head so
+that it hung upon his shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan thanked her, then remembered that the man called Mungana, who was the
+husband, real or official, of this priestess, had been somewhat similarly
+adorned, and shivered a little as though at a presage of advancing fate. Still
+he did not return the thing, fearing lest he should give offence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this moment his attention was taken from the treasure by the sound of a
+groan behind him. Turning round he perceived Jeekie, his great eyes rolling as
+though in an extremity of fear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh my golly! Major,&rdquo; he ejaculated, pointing to the wall,
+&ldquo;look there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan looked, but at first in that dim light could only discover long rows of
+gleaming objects which reached from the floor to the roof.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come and see,&rdquo; said the Asika, and taking a lamp from that table
+on which lay the gems, she led him past the piles of gold to one side of the
+vault or hall. Then he saw, and although he did not show it, like Jeekie he was
+afraid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For there, each in his own niche and standing one above the other, were what
+looked like hundreds of golden men with gleaming eyes. At first until the utter
+stillness undeceived him, he thought that they <i>must</i> be men. Then he
+understood that this was what they had been; now they were corpses wrapped in
+sheets of thin gold and wearing golden masks with eyes of crystal, each mask
+being beaten out to a hideous representation of the man in life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All these are the husbands of my spirit,&rdquo; said the priestess,
+waving the lamp in front of the lowest row of them, &ldquo;Munganas who were
+married to the Asikas in the past. Look, here is he who said that he ought to
+be king of that rich land where year after year the river overflows its
+banks,&rdquo; and going to one of the first of the figures in the bottom row,
+she drew out a fastening and suffered the gold mask to fall forward on a hinge,
+exposing the face within.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Although it had evidently been treated with some preservative, this head now
+was little more than a skull still covered with dark hair, but set upon its
+brow appeared an object that Alan recognized at once, a simple band of plain
+gold, and rising from it the head of an asp. Without doubt it was the
+<i>uraeus</i>, that symbol which only the royalties of Old Egypt dared to wear.
+Without doubt also either this man had brought it with him from the Nile, or in
+memory of his rank and home he had fashioned it of the gold that was so
+plentiful in the place of his captivity. So this woman&rsquo;s story was true,
+an ancient Egyptian had once been husband to the Asika of his day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile his guide had passed a long way down the line and halting in front of
+another gold-wrapped figure, opened its mask.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This is that man,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;who told us he came from a
+land called Roma. Look, the helmet still rests upon his head, though time has
+eaten into it, and that ring upon your hand was taken from his finger. I have a
+head-dress made upon the model of that helmet which I wear sometimes in memory
+of this man who, my soul remembers, was brave and pleasant and a gallant
+lover.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; answered Alan, looking at the sunken face above which a
+rim of curls appeared beneath the rusting helmet. &ldquo;Well, he doesn&rsquo;t
+look very gallant now, does he?&rdquo; Then he peered down between the body and
+its gold casing and saw that in his bony hand the man still held a short Roman
+sword, lifted as though in salute. So she had not lied in this matter either.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile the Asika had glided on to the end of the hall behind the heaps of
+treasure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There is one more white man,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;though we know
+little of him, for he was fierce and barbarous and died without learning our
+tongue, after killing a great number of the priests of that day because they
+would not let him go; yes, died cutting them down with a battle-axe and singing
+some wild song of his own country. Come hither, slave, and bend yourself so,
+resting your hands upon the ground.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie obeyed, and actively as a cat the priestess leaped on to his back, and
+reaching up opened the mask of a corpse in the second row and held her lamp
+before its face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was better preserved than the others, so that its features remained
+comparatively perfect, and about them hung a tangle of golden hair. Moreover, a
+broad battle-axe appeared resting on the shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A viking,&rdquo; thought Alan. &ldquo;I wonder how <i>he</i> came
+here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he had looked the Asika leaped from Jeekie&rsquo;s back to the ground and,
+waving her arm around her, began to talk so rapidly that Alan could understand
+nothing of her words, and asked Jeekie to translate them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She say,&rdquo; explained Jeekie between his chattering teeth,
+&ldquo;that all rest these Johnnies very poor crew, natives and that lot except
+one who worship false Prophet and cut throat of Asika of that time, because she
+infidel and he teach her better; also eat his dinner out of Little Bonsa and
+chuck her into water. Very wild man, that Arab, but priests catch him at last
+and fill him with hot gold before Little Bonsa because he no care a damn for
+ghosts. So he die saying Hip, hip, hurrah! for houri and green field of Prophet
+and to hell with Asika and Bonsa, Big and Little! Now he sit up there and at
+night time worst ghost of all the crowd, always come to finish off Mungana.
+That all she say, and quite enough too. Come on quick, she want you and no like
+wait.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By now the Asika had passed almost round the hall, and was standing opposite to
+an empty niche beyond and above which there were perhaps a score of bodies
+gold-plated in the usual fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is your place, Vernoon,&rdquo; she said gently, contemplating him
+with her soft and heavy eyes, &ldquo;for it was prepared for the white man with
+whom Little Bonsa fled away, and since then, as you see, there have been many
+Munganas, some of whom belong to me; indeed, that one,&rdquo; and she touched a
+corpse on which the gold looked very fresh, &ldquo;only left me last year. But
+we always knew that Little Bonsa would bring you back again, and so you see, we
+have kept your place empty.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; remarked Alan, &ldquo;that is very kind of you,&rdquo;
+and feeling that he would faint if he stayed longer in this horrible and
+haunted vault, he pushed past her with little ceremony and walked out through
+the gates into the passage beyond.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+THE GOLD HOUSE.</h2>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How you like Asiki-land, Major?&rdquo; asked Jeekie, who had followed
+him and was now leaning against a wall fanning himself feebly with his great
+hand. &ldquo;Funny place, isn&rsquo;t it, Major? I tell you so before you come,
+but you no believe me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very funny,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;so funny that I want to get
+out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! Major, that what eel say in trap where he go after lob-worm, but he
+only get out into frying pan after cook skin him alive-o. Ah! here come
+cook&mdash;I mean Asika. She only stop shut up those stiff &rsquo;uns, who all
+love lob-worm one day. Very pretty woman, Asika, but thank God she not set cap
+at me, who like to be buried in open like Christian man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t stop it, Jeekie,&rdquo; replied Alan in a
+concentrated rage, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll see that you are buried just where you
+are.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No offence, Major, no offence, my heart full and bubble up. I wonder
+what Miss Barbara say if she see you mooing and cooing with dark-eyed girl in
+gold snake skin?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then the Asika arrived and by way of excuse for his flight, Alan remarked
+to her that the treasure-hall was hot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I did not notice it,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;but he who is called my
+husband, the Mungana, says the same. The Mungana is guardian of the dead,&rdquo;
+she explained, &ldquo;and when he is required so to do, he sleeps in the Place
+of the Treasure and gathers wisdom from the spirits of those Munganas who were
+before him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed. And does he like that bed-chamber?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Mungana likes what I like, not what he likes,&rdquo; she replied
+haughtily. &ldquo;Where I send him to sleep, there he sleeps. But come,
+Vernoon, and I will show you the Holy Water where Big Bonsa dwells; also the
+house in which I have my home, where you shall visit me when you please.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who built this place?&rdquo; asked Alan as she led him through more dark
+and tortuous passages. &ldquo;It is very great.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My spirit does not remember when it was built, Vernoon, so old is it,
+but I think that the Asiki were once a big and famous people who traded to the
+water upon the west, and even to the water on the east, and that was how those
+white men became their slaves and the Munganas of their queens. Now they are
+small and live only by the might and fame of Big and Little Bonsa, not half
+filling the rich land which is theirs. But,&rdquo; she added reflectively and
+looking at him, &ldquo;I think also that this is because in the past fools have
+been thrust upon my spirit as Munganas. What it needs is the wisdom of the
+white man, such wisdom as yours, Vernoon. If that were added to my magic, then
+the Asiki would grow great again, seeing that they have in such plenty the gold
+which you have shown me the white man loves. Yes, they would grow great, and
+from coast to coast the people should bow at the name of Bonsa and send him
+their sons for sacrifice. Perhaps you will live to see that day, Vernoon.
+Slave,&rdquo; she added, addressing Jeekie, &ldquo;set the mask upon your
+lord&rsquo;s head, for we come where women are.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan objected, but she stamped her foot and said it must be so, having once
+worn Little Bonsa, as her people told her he had done, his naked face might not
+be seen. So Alan submitted to the hideous head-dress and they entered the
+Asika&rsquo;s house by some back entrance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a place with many rooms in it, but they were all remarkable for extreme
+simplicity. With a single exception no gilding or gold was to be seen, although
+the food vessels were made of this material here as everywhere. The chambers,
+including those in which the Asika lived and slept, were panelled, or rather
+boarded with cedar wood that was almost black with age, and their scanty
+furniture was mostly made of ebony. They were very insufficiently lighted, like
+his own room, by means of barred openings set high in the wall. Indeed gloom
+and mystery were the keynotes of this place, amongst the shadows of which
+handsome, half-naked servants or priestesses flitted to and fro at their tasks,
+or peered at them out of dark corners. The atmosphere seemed heavy with secret
+sin; Alan felt that in those rooms unnameable crimes and cruelties had been
+committed for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years, and that the place was
+yet haunted by the ghosts of them. At any rate it struck a chill to his healthy
+blood, more even than had that Hall of the Dead and of heaped-up golden
+treasure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does my house please you?&rdquo; the Asika asked of him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not altogether,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;I think it is dark.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;From the beginning my spirit has ever loved the dark, Vernoon. I think
+that it was shaped in some black midnight.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They passed through the chief entrance of the house which had pillars of
+woodwork grotesquely carved, down some steps into a walled and roofed-in yard
+where the shadows were even more dense than in the house they had left. Only at
+one spot was there light flowing down through a hole in the roof, as it did
+apparently in that hall where Alan had found the Asika sitting in state. The
+light fell on to a pedestal or column made of gold which was placed behind an
+object like a large Saxon font, also made of gold. The shape of this column
+reminded Alan of something, namely of a very similar column, although fashioned
+of a different material which stood in the granite-built office of Messrs.
+Aylward &amp; Haswell in the City of London. Nor did this seem wonderful to
+him, since on top of it, squatting on its dwarf legs, stood a horrid but
+familiar thing, namely Little Bonsa herself come home at last. There she sat
+smiling cruelly, as she had smiled from the beginning, forgetful doubtless of
+her wanderings in strange lands, while round her stood a band of priests armed
+with spears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Followed by the Asika and Jeekie, Alan walked up and looked her in the face, and
+to his excited imagination she appeared to grin at him in answer. Then while
+the priests prostrated themselves, he examined the golden basin or laver, and
+saw that at the further side of it was a little platform approached by steps.
+On the top of these golden steps were two depressions such as might have been
+worn out in the course of ages by persons kneeling there. Also the flat edge of
+the basin which stood about thirty inches above the level of the topmost step,
+was scored as though by hundreds of sword cuts which had made deep lines in the
+pure metal. The basin itself was empty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Seeing that these things interested him, the Asika volunteered the information
+through Jeekie, that this was a divining-bowl, and that if those who went
+before her had wished to learn the future, they caused Little Bonsa to float in
+it and found out all they wanted to know by her movements. She, however, she
+added, had other and better methods of learning things that were predestined.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where does the water come from?&rdquo; asked Alan thoughtlessly
+searching the bowl for some tap or inlet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Out of the hearts of men,&rdquo; she answered with a low and dreadful
+laugh. &ldquo;These marks are those of swords and every one of them means a
+life.&rdquo; Then seeing that he looked incredulous she added, &ldquo;Stay, I
+will show you. Little Bonsa must be thirsty who has fasted so long, also there
+are matters that I desire to know. Come hither&mdash;you, and you,&rdquo; and
+she pointed at hazard to the two priests who knelt nearest to her, &ldquo;and
+do you bid the executioner bring his axe,&rdquo; she went on to a third.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dark faces of the men turned ashen, but they made no effort to escape their
+doom. One of them crept up the steps and laid his neck upon the edge of gold,
+while the other, uttering no word, threw himself on his face at the foot of
+them, waiting his turn. Then a door opened and there appeared a great and
+brutal-looking fellow, naked except for a loin cloth, who bore in his hand a
+huge weapon, half knife and half axe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+First he looked at the Asika, who nodded almost imperceptibly, then sprang on
+to a prolongation of the golden steps, bowed to Little Bonsa on her column
+behind and heaved up his knife.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now for the first time Alan really understood what was about to happen, and
+that what he had imagined a stage rehearsal, was to become a hideous murder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; he shouted in English, being unable to remember the native
+word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The executioner paused with his axe poised in mid-air; the victim turned his
+head and looked, as though surprised; the second victim and the priests their
+companions looked also. Jeekie fell on to his knees and burst into fervent
+prayer addressed apparently to Little Bonsa. The Asika smiled and did nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again the weapon was lifted and as he felt that words were no longer of any
+use, even if he could find them, Alan took refuge in action. Springing on to
+the other side of the little platform, he hit out with all his strength across
+the kneeling man. Catching the executioner on the point of the chin, he knocked
+him straight backwards in such fashion that his head struck upon the floor
+before any other portion of his body, so that he lay there either dead or
+stunned. Alan never learned which, since the matter was not thought of
+sufficient importance to be mentioned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this sight the Asika burst into a low laugh, then asked Alan why he had
+felled the executioner. He answered because he would not stand by and see two
+innocent men butchered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why not,&rdquo; she said in an astonished voice; &ldquo;if Little Bonsa,
+whose priests they are, needs them, and I, who am the Mouth of the gods declare
+that they should die? Still, she has been in your keeping for a long while and
+you may know her will, so if you wish it, let them live. Or perhaps you require
+other victims,&rdquo; and she fixed her eyes upon Jeekie with a glance of
+suggestive hope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh my golly!&rdquo; gasped Jeekie in English, &ldquo;tell her not for
+Joe, Major, tell her most improper. Say Yellow God my dearest friend and go mad
+as hatter if my throat cut&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan stopped his protestations with a secret kick.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I choose no victims,&rdquo; he broke in, &ldquo;nor will I see
+man&rsquo;s blood shed&mdash;to me it is <i>orunda</i>&mdash;unholy; I may not
+look on human blood, and if you cause me to do so, Asika, I shall hate you
+because you make me break my oath.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Asika reflected for a moment, while Jeekie behind muttered between his
+chattering teeth:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good missionary talk that, Major. Keep up word in season, Major. If she
+make Christian martyr of Jeekie, who get you out of this confounded hole?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the Asika spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be it as you will, for I desire neither that you should hate me, nor
+that you should look on that which is unlawful for your eyes to see. The feasts
+and ceremonies you must attend, but if I can help it, no victim shall be slain
+in your presence, not even that whimpering hound, your servant,&rdquo; she
+added with a contemptuous glance at Jeekie, &ldquo;who it seems, fears to give
+his life for the glory of the god, but who because he is yours, is safe now and
+always.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That <i>very</i> satisfactory,&rdquo; said Jeekie, rising from his
+knees, his face wreathed in smiles, for he knew well that a decree of the Asika
+could not be broken. Then he began to explain to the priestess that it was not
+fear of losing his own life that had moved him, but the certainty that this
+occurrence would disagree morally with Little Bonsa, whose entire confidence he
+possessed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Taking no notice of his words, with a slight reverence to the fetish, she
+passed on, beckoning to Alan. As he went by the two prostrate priests whose
+lives he had saved, lifted their heads a little and looked at him with
+heartfelt gratitude in their eyes; indeed one of them kissed the place where
+his foot had trodden. Jeekie, following, gave him a kick to intimate that he
+was taking a liberty, but at the same time stooped down and asked the man his
+name. It occurred to him that these rescued priests might some day be useful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan followed her through a kind of swing door which opened into another of the
+endless halls, but when he looked for her there she was nowhere to be seen. A
+priest who was waiting beyond the door bowed and informed him that the Asika
+had gone to her own place, and would see him that evening. Then bowing again he
+led them back by various passages to the room where they had slept.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan after their food had been brought to them, this
+time, he observed, by men, for it was now past midday, &ldquo;you were born in
+Asiki-land; tell me the truth of this business. What does that woman mean when
+she talks about her spirit having been here from the beginning.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She mean, Major, that every time she die her soul go into someone else,
+whom priests find out by marks. Also Asika always die young, they never let her
+become old woman, but how she die and where they bury her, no one know
+&rsquo;cept priests. Sometimes she have girl child who become Asika after her,
+but if they have boy child, they kill him. I think this Asika daughter of her
+who make love to your reverend uncle. All that story &rsquo;bout her mother not
+being married, lies, and all her story lies too, she often marry.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how about the spirit coming back, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&rsquo;Spect that lie too, Major, though she think it solemn fact.
+Priests teach her all those old things. Still,&rdquo; he added doubtfully,
+&ldquo;Asika great medicine-woman, and know a lot we don&rsquo;t know,
+can&rsquo;t say how. Very awkward customer, Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite so, Jeekie, I agree with you. But to come to the point, what is
+her game with me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! Major,&rdquo; he answered with a grin, &ldquo;<i>that</i> simple
+enough. She tired of black man, want change, mean to marry you according to
+law, that is when Mungana dies, and he die jolly quick now. She mustn&rsquo;t
+kill him, but polish him off all the same, stick him to sleep with those dead
+&rsquo;uns, till he go like drunk man and see things and drown himself. Then
+she marry you. But till he dead, you all right, she only talk and make eyes,
+&rsquo;cause of Asiki law, not &rsquo;cause she want to stop there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed, Jeekie, and how long do you think that Mungana will last?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps three months, Major, and perhaps two. Think not more than two.
+Strong man, but he look devilish dicky this morning. Think he begin see
+snakes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well, Jeekie. Now listen to me&mdash;you&rsquo;ve got to get us out
+of Asiki-land by this day two months. If you don&rsquo;t, that lady will do
+anything to oblige me and no doubt there are more executioners left.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! Major, don&rsquo;t talk like silly fool. Jeekie always hate fools
+and suffer them badly&mdash;like holy first missionary bishop. You know very
+well this no place for ultra-Christian man like Jeekie, who only come here to
+please you. Both in same bag, Major, if I die, you die and leave Miss Barbara
+up gum tree. I get you out if I can. But this stuff the trouble,&rdquo; and he
+pointed to the bags of gold. &ldquo;Not want to leave all that behind after
+such arduous walk. No, no, I try get you out, meanwhile you play game.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The game! What game, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What game? Why, Asika-game of course. If she sigh, you sigh; if she look
+at you, you look at her; if she squeeze hand, you squeeze hand; if she kiss,
+you kiss.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am hanged if I do, Jeekie.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Must, Major; must or never get out of Asiki-land. What all that
+matter?&rdquo; he added confidentially. &ldquo;Miss Barbara never know. Jeekie
+doesn&rsquo;t split, also quite necessary in situation, and you can&rsquo;t be
+married till that Mungana dead. All matter business, Major; make time pass
+pleasant as well. Asika jolly enough if you stroke her fur right way, but if
+you put her back up&mdash;oh Lor&rsquo;! No trouble, sit and smile and say,
+&lsquo;Oh, ducky, how beautiful you are!&rsquo; <i>that</i> not hurt
+anybody.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of himself Alan burst out laughing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how about the Mungana?&rdquo; he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mungana, he got take that with rest. Also I try make friends with that
+poor devil. Tell him it all my eye. Perhaps he believe me&mdash;not sure. If he
+me, I no believe <i>him</i>. Mungana,&rdquo; he added oracularly,
+&ldquo;Mungana take his chance. What matter? In two months&rsquo; time he
+nothing but gold figure, No. 2403; just like one mummy in museum. Now I try
+catch my ma. I hear she alive somewhere. They tell me she used keep lodging
+house for Bonsa pilgrim, but steal grub, say it cat, all that sort of thing,
+and get run in as thief. Afraid my ma come down very much in world, not society
+lady now, shut up long way off in suburb. Still p&rsquo;raps she useful so best
+send her message by p&rsquo;liceman, say how much I love her; say her dear
+little Jeekie turn up again just to see her sweet face. Only don&rsquo;t know
+if she swallow that or if they let her out prison unless I pay for all she
+prig.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+THE FEAST OF LITTLE BONSA.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was the night of full moon and of the great feast of the return of Little
+Bonsa. Alan sat in his chamber waiting to be summoned to take part in this
+ceremony and listening the while to that <i>Wow! Wow! Wow!</i> of the death
+drums, whereof Jeekie had once spoken in England, which could be clearly heard
+even above the perpetual boom of the cataract tumbling down its cliff behind
+the town. By now he had recovered from the fatigue of his journey and his
+health was good, but the same could not be said of his spirits, for never in
+his life had he felt more downhearted, not even when he was sickening for
+blackwater fever, or lay in bondage in the City, expecting every morning to
+wake up and find his reputation blasted. He was a prisoner in this dreadful,
+gloomy place where he must live like a second Man in the Iron Mask, without
+recreation or exercise other than he could find in the walled garden where grew
+the black cedar trees, and, so far as he could see, a prisoner without hope of
+escape.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Moreover, he could no longer disguise from himself the truth; Jeekie was right.
+The Asika had fallen in love with him, or at any rate made up her mind that he
+should be her next husband. He hated the sight of the woman and her sinuous,
+evil beauty, but to be free of her was impossible, and to offend her, death.
+All day long she kept him about her, and from his sleep he would wake up and as
+on the night of his arrival, distinguish her leaning over him studying his face
+by the light of the faintly-burning lamps, as a snake studies the bird it is
+about to strike. He dared not stir or give the slightest sign that he saw her.
+Nor indeed did he always see her, for he kept his eyes closely shut. But even
+in his heaviest slumber some warning sense told him of her presence, and then
+above Jeekie&rsquo;s snores (for on these occasions Jeekie always snored his
+loudest) he would hear a soft footfall, as cat-like, she crept towards him, or
+the sweep of her spangled robe, or the tinkling of the scales of her golden
+breastplate. For a long while she would stand there, examining him greedily and
+even the few little belongings that remained to him, and then with a hungry
+sigh glide away and vanish in the shadows. How she came or how she vanished
+Alan could not discover. Clearly she did not use the door, and he could find no
+other entrance to the room. Indeed at times he thought he must be suffering
+from delusion, but Jeekie shook his great head and did not agree with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She there right enough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;She walk over me as
+though I log and I smell stuff she put on hair, but I think she come and go by
+magic. Asika do that if she please.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then I wish she would teach me the secret, Jeekie. I should soon be out
+of Asiki-land, I can tell you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All that day Alan had been in her company, answering her endless questions
+about his past, the lands that he had visited, and especially the women that he
+had known. He had the tact to tell her that none of these were half so
+beautiful as she was, which was true in a sense and pleased her very much, for
+in whatever respects she differed from them, in common with the rest of her sex
+she loved a compliment. Emboldened by her good humour, he had ventured to
+suggest that being rested and having restored Little Bonsa, he would be glad to
+return with her gifts to his own country. Next instant he was sorry, for as
+soon as she understood his meaning she grew almost white with rage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What!&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;you desire to leave me? Know, Vernoon,
+that I will see you dead first and myself also, for then we shall be born again
+together and can never more be separated.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor was this all, for she burst into weeping, threw her arms about him, drew
+him to her, kissed him on the forehead, and then thrust him away, saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Curses on the priests&rsquo; law that makes us wait so long, and curses
+on that Mungana who will not die and may not be killed. Well, he shall pay for
+it and within two months, Vernoon, oh! within two months&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+and she stretched out her arms with a gesture of infinite passion, then turned
+and left him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My!&rdquo; said Jeekie afterwards, for he had watched all this scene
+open-mouthed, &ldquo;my! but she mean business. Mrs. Jeekie never kiss me like
+that, nor any other female either. She dead nuts on you, Major. Very great
+compliment! &rsquo;Spect when you Mungana, she keep you alive a long time, four
+or five years perhaps, if no other white man come this way. Pity you
+can&rsquo;t take it on a bit, Major,&rdquo; he added insidiously,
+&ldquo;because then she grow careless and make you chief and we get chance
+scoop out that gold house and bolt with bally lot. Miss Barbara sensible woman,
+when she see all that cash she not mind, she say &lsquo;Bravo, old boy, quite
+right spoil Lady Potiphar in land of bondage, but Jeekie must have ten per
+cent. because he show you how do it.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan was so depressed, and indeed terrified by this demonstration on the part
+of his fearful hostess, that he could neither laugh at Jeekie, nor swear at
+him. He only sat still and groaned, feeling that bad as things were they were
+bound to become worse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Above the perpetual booming of the death drums rose a sound of wild music. The
+door burst open, and through it came a number of priests, their nearly naked
+bodies hideously painted and on their heads the most devilish-looking masks.
+Some of them clashed cymbals, some blew horns and some beat little drums all to
+time which was given to them by a bandmaster with a golden rod. In front of
+them with painted face and decked in his gorgeous apparel, walked the Mungana
+himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They come to take us to Bonsa worship,&rdquo; explained Jeekie.
+&ldquo;Cheer up, Major, very exciting business, no go to sleep there, as in
+English church. See the god all time and no sermon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan, who wore a linen robe over the remains of his European garments, and
+whose mask was already on his head, rose listlessly and bowed to the gorgeous
+Mungana who, poor man, answered him with a stare of hate, knowing that this
+wanderer was destined to fill his place. Then they started, Jeekie accompanying
+them, and walked a long way through various halls and passages, bearing first
+to the left and then to the right again, till suddenly through some side door
+they emerged upon a marvellous scene. The first impressions that reached
+Alan&rsquo;s mind were those of a long stretch of water, very black and still
+and not more than eighty feet in width. On the hither edge of this canal,
+seated upon a raised da&iuml;s in the midst of a great open space of polished rock,
+was the Asika, or so he gathered from her gold breastplate and sparkling
+garments, for her fierce and beautiful features were hid beneath an object
+familiar enough to him, the yellow, crystal-eyed mask of Little Bonsa. Arranged
+in companies about and behind her were hundreds of people, male and female,
+clad in hideous costumes to resemble demons, with masks to match. Some of these
+masks were semi-human and some of them bore a likeness to the heads of animals
+and had horns on them, while their wearers were adorned with skins and tails.
+To describe them in their infinite variety would be impossible; indeed the
+recollection that Alan carried away was one of a medi&aelig;val hell as it is
+occasionally to be found portrayed upon &ldquo;Doom pictures&rdquo; in old
+churches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the further side of the water the entire Asiki people seemed to be gathered;
+at least there were thousands of them seated upon a rising rocky slope as in an
+amphitheatre, clad only in the ordinary costume of the Western African native,
+and in some instances in linen cloaks. This great amphitheatre was surrounded
+by a high wall with gates, but in the moonlight he found it difficult to
+discern its exact limits.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie nudged Alan and pointed to the centre of the canal or pool. He looked
+and saw floating there a huge and hideous golden head, twenty times as large as
+life perhaps, with great prominent eyes that glared up to the sky. Its
+appearance was quite unlike anything else in the world, more loathsome, more
+horrible, man, fish and animal, all seemed to have their part in it, human
+mouth and teeth, fish-like eyes and snout, bestial expression.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Big Bonsa,&rdquo; whispered Jeekie. &ldquo;Just the same as when I sweet
+little boy.&mdash;He live here for thousand of years.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Preceded by the Mungana and followed by Jeekie and the priests, the band
+bringing up the rear, Alan was marched down a lane left open for him till he
+came to some steps leading to the da&iuml;s, upon which in addition to that occupied
+by the Asika, stood two empty chairs. These steps the Mungana motioned him to
+mount, but when Jeekie tried to follow him he turned and struck him
+contemptuously in the face. At once the Asika, who was watching Vernon&rsquo;s
+approach through the eye-holes in the Little Bonsa mask, said fiercely:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who bade you strike the servant of my guest, O Mungana? Let him come
+also, that he may stand behind us and interpret.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her wretched husband, who knew that this public slight was put upon him
+purposely, but did not dare to protest against it, bowed his head. Then all
+three of them climbed to the da&iuml;s, the priests and the musicians remaining
+below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Welcome, Vernoon,&rdquo; said the Asika through the lips of the mask,
+which to Alan, notwithstanding the dreadful cruelty of its expression, looked
+less hateful than the lovely, tigerish face it hid. &ldquo;Welcome and be
+seated here on my left hand, since on my right you may not sit&mdash;as
+yet.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He bowed and took the chair to which she pointed, while her husband placed
+himself in the other chair upon her right, and Jeekie stood behind, his great
+shape towering above them all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This is a festival of my people, Vernoon,&rdquo; she went on,
+&ldquo;such a festival as has not been seen for years, celebrated because
+Little Bonsa has come back to them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is to happen?&rdquo; he asked uneasily. &ldquo;I have told you,
+Lady, that blood is <i>orunda</i> to me. I must not witness it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know, be not afraid,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;Sacrifice there must
+be, since it is the custom and we may not defraud the gods, but you shall not
+see the deed. Judge from this, Vernoon, how greatly I desire to please
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Alan, looking about him, saw that immediately beneath the da&iuml;s and between
+them and the edge of the water, were gathered his cannibal friends, the Ogula
+and Fahni their chief who had rowed him to Asiki-land, and with them the
+messengers whom they had sent on ahead. Also he saw that their arms were tied
+behind them and that they were guarded by men dressed like devils and armed
+with spears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ask Fahni why he and his people are bound, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan,
+&ldquo;and why have they not returned to their own country.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie obeyed, putting the question in the Ogula language, whereon the poor men
+turned and began to implore Alan to save their lives, Fahni adding that he had
+been told they were to be killed that night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why are these men to be slain?&rdquo; asked Alan of the Asika.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I have learned that they attacked you in their own country,
+Vernoon,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;and would have killed you had it not been
+for Little Bonsa. It is therefore right that they should die as an offering to
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I refuse the offering since afterwards they dealt well with me. Set them
+free and let them return to their own land, Asika.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That cannot be,&rdquo; she replied coldly. &ldquo;Here they are and here
+they remain. Still, their lives are yours to take or to spare, so keep them as
+your servants if you will,&rdquo; and bending down she issued a command which
+was instantly obeyed, for the men dressed like devils cut the bonds of the
+Ogula and brought them round to the back of the da&iuml;s, where they stood blessing
+Alan loudly in their own tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the ceremonies began with a kind of infernal ballet. On the smooth space
+between them and the water&rsquo;s edge appeared male and female bands of
+dancers who emerged from the shadows. For the most part they were dressed up
+like animals and imitated the cries of the beasts that they represented,
+although some of them wore little or no clothing. To the sound of wild music of
+horns and drums these creatures danced a kind of insane quadrille which seemed
+to suggest everything that is cruel and vile upon the earth. They danced and
+danced in the moonlight till the madness spread from them to the thousands who
+were gathered upon the farther side of the water, for presently all of these
+began to dance also. Nor did it stop there, since at length the Asika rose from
+her chair upon the da&iuml;s and joined in the performance with the Mungana her
+husband. Even Jeekie began to prance and shout behind, so that at last Alan and
+the Ogula alone remained still and silent in the midst of a scene and a noise
+which might have been that of hell let loose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Leaving go of her husband, the Asika bounded up to Alan and tried to drag him
+from his chair, thrusting her gold mask against his mask. He refused to move
+and after a while she left him and returned to Mungana. Louder and louder
+brayed the music and beat the drums, wilder and wilder grew the shrieks.
+Individuals fell exhausted and were thrown into the water where they sank or
+floated away on the slow moving stream, as part of some inexplicable play that
+was being enacted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then suddenly the Asika stood still and threw up her arms, whereon all
+the thousands present stood still also. Again she threw up her arms and they
+fell upon their faces and lay as though they were dead. A third time she threw
+up her arms and they rose and remained so silent that the only sound to be
+heard was that of their thick breathing. Then she spoke, or rather screamed,
+saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Little Bonsa has come back again, bringing with her the white man whom
+she led away,&rdquo; and all the audience answered, &ldquo;Little Bonsa has
+come back again. Once more we see her on the head of the Asika as our fathers
+did. Give her a sacrifice. Give her the white man.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; she screamed back, &ldquo;the white man is mine. I name him
+as the next Mungana.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oho!&rdquo; roared the audience, &ldquo;Oho! she names him as the next
+Mungana. Good-bye, old Mungana! Greeting, new Mungana! When will be the
+marriage feast?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell us, Mungana, tell us,&rdquo; cried the Asika, patting her wretched
+husband on the cheek. &ldquo;Tell us when you mean to die, as you are bound to
+do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;On the night of the second full moon from now,&rdquo; he answered with a
+terrible groan that seemed to be wrung out of his heavy heart; &ldquo;on that
+night my soul will be eaten up and my day done. But till then I am lord of the
+Asika, and if she forgets it, death shall be her portion, according to the
+ancient law.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; shouted the multitude, &ldquo;death shall be her
+portion, and her lover we will sacrifice. Die in honour, Mungana, as all those
+died that went before you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank Heaven!&rdquo; muttered Alan to himself, &ldquo;I am safe from
+that witch for the next two months,&rdquo; and through the eye-holes of his
+mask he contemplated her with loathing and alarm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the moment, indeed, she was not a pleasing spectacle, for in the heat and
+excitement of her mad dance she had cast off her gold breast-plate or
+stomacher, leaving herself naked except for her kirtle and the thin,
+gold-spangled robe upon her shoulders over which streamed her black, disordered
+hair. Contrasting strangely in the silver moonlight with her glistening,
+copper-coloured body, the mask of Little Bonsa on her head glared round with
+its fixed crystal eyes and fiendish smile as she turned her long neck from side
+to side. Seen thus she scarcely looked human, and Alan&rsquo;s heart was filled
+with pity for the poor bedizened wretch she named her husband, who had just
+been forced to announce the date of his own suicide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon, however, he forgot it, for a new act in the drama had begun. Two priests
+clad in horns and tails leapt on to the da&iuml;s and at a signal unlaced the mask
+of Little Bonsa. Now the Asika lifted it from her streaming face and held it on
+high, then she lowered it to the level of her breast, and holding it in both
+hands, walked to the edge of the da&iuml;s, whereon priests, disguised as fiends,
+began to leap at it, striving to reach it with their fingers and snatch it from
+her grasp. One by one they leapt with the most desperate energy, each man being
+allowed to make three attempts, and Alan noted that this novel jumping
+competition was watched with the deepest interest by all the audience, at the
+time he knew not why.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first two, who were evidently elderly men, who failed to come anywhere near
+the mark. Their failure was received with shouts of derision. They sank
+exhausted to the ground and from the motion of his body Alan could see that one
+of them was weeping, while the other remained sullenly silent. Then a younger
+man advanced and at the third try almost grasped the fetish. Indeed he would
+have grasped it had he not met with foul play, for the Asika, seeing that he
+was about to succeed, lifted it an inch or two, so that he also missed and with
+a groan joined the band of the defeated. Next appeared a fourth priest, even
+more horribly arrayed than those before him, but Alan noticed that his mask was
+of the lightest, and that his garments consisted chiefly of paint, the main
+idea of his make-up being that of a skeleton. He was a thin active fellow, and
+all the watching thousands greeted him with a shout. For a few seconds he stood
+back gazing at the mask as a wolf might at an unapproachable bone. Then
+suddenly he ran forward and sprang into the air. Such an amazing jump Alan had
+never seen before. So high was it indeed that his head came level with that of
+the fetish, which he snatched with both hands tearing it from Asika&rsquo;s
+grasp. Coming to the ground again with a thud, he began to caper to and fro,
+kissing the mask, while the audience shouted:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Little Bonsa has chosen. What fate for the fallen? Ask her,
+priest?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man stopped his capering and held the mouth of Little Bonsa to his ear,
+nodding from time to time as though she were speaking to him and he heard what
+she said. Then he passed round the da&iuml;s where Alan could not see him, and
+presently reappeared holding Little Bonsa in his right hand and in his left a
+great gold cup. A silence fell upon the place. He advanced to the first man who
+had jumped and offered him the cup. He turned his head away, but a thousand
+voices thundered &ldquo;Drink!&rdquo; Then he took it and drank, passing it to
+a companion in misfortune, who in turn drank also and gave it to the third
+priest, he who would have snatched the mask had not the Asika lifted it out of
+his reach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This man drained it to the dregs, and with an exclamation of rage dashed the
+empty vessel into the face of the chosen priest with such fury that the man
+rolled upon the ground and for a while lay there stunned. Now he who had drunk
+first began to spring about in a ludicrous fashion, and presently was joined in
+his dance by the other two. So absurd were their motions and tumblings and
+clownlike grimaces, for they had dragged off their masks, that roars of brutal
+laughter rose from the audience, in which the Asika joined.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first Alan thought that the thing was a joke, and that the men had merely
+been made mad drunk, till catching sight of their eyes in the moonlight, he
+perceived that they were in great pain and turned indignantly to remonstrate
+with the Asika.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be silent, Vernoon,&rdquo; she said savagely, &ldquo;blood is your
+<i>orunda</i> and I respect it. Therefore by decree of the god these die of
+poison,&rdquo; and again she fell to laughing at the contortions of the victims.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan shut his eyes, and when at length, drawn by some fearful fascination, he
+opened them once more, it was to see that the three poor creatures had thrown
+themselves into the water, where they rolled over and over like wounded
+porpoises, till presently they sank and vanished there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This farce, for so they considered it, being ended and the stage, so to speak,
+cleared, the audience having laughed itself hoarse, set itself to watch the
+proceedings of the newly chosen high-priest of Little Bonsa, who by now had
+recovered from the blow dealt to him by one of the murdered men. With the help
+of some other priests he was engaged in binding the fetish on to a little raft
+of reeds. This done he laid himself flat upon a broad plank which had been made
+ready for him at the edge of the water, placing the mask in front of him and
+with a few strokes of his feet that hung over the sides of the plank, paddled
+himself out to the centre of the canal where the god called Big Bonsa floated,
+or was anchored. Having reached it he pushed the little raft off the plank into
+the water, and in some way that Alan could not see, made it fast to Big Bonsa,
+so that now the two of them floated one behind the other. Then while the people
+cheered, shouting out that husband and wife had come together again at last, he
+paddled his plank back to the water&rsquo;s edge, sat down and waited.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile, at a sign from the Asika, all the scores of priests and priestesses
+who were dressed as devils had filed off to right and left, and vanished,
+presumably to cross the water by bridges or boats that were out of sight. At
+any rate now they began to appear upon its further side and to wind their way
+singly among the thousands of the Asiki people who were gathered upon the rocky
+slope beyond in order to witness this fearsome entertainment. Alan observed
+that the spectators did not appear to appreciate the arrival amongst them of
+these priests, from whom they seemed to edge away. Indeed many of them rose and
+tried to depart altogether, only to be driven back to their places by a double
+line of soldiers armed with spears, who now for the first time became visible,
+ringing in the audience. Also other soldiers and with them bodies of men who
+looked like executioners, showed themselves upon the further brink of the water
+and then marched off, disappearing to left and right.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter now?&rdquo; Alan asked of Jeekie over his
+shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All in blue funk,&rdquo; whispered Jeekie back, &ldquo;joke done. Get to
+business now. Silly fools forget that when they laugh so much. Both Bonsas very
+hungry and Asika want wipe out old scores. Presently you see.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently Alan did see, for at some preconcerted signal the devil priests, each
+of them, jumped with a yell at a person near to them, gripping him or her by
+the hair, whereon assistants rushed in and dragged them down to the bank of the
+canal. Here to the number of a hundred or more, a wailing, struggling mass,
+they were confined in a pen like sheep. Then a bar was lifted and one of them
+allowed to escape, only to find himself in a kind of gangway which ran down
+into shallow water. Being forced along this he came to an open space of water
+exactly opposite to the floating fetishes, and there was kept a while by men
+armed with spears. As nothing happened they lifted their spears and the man
+bolted up an incline and was lost among the thousands of spectators.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next one, evidently a person of rank, was not so fortunate. Jumping into
+the pool off the gangway, he stood there like a sheep about to be washed, the
+water reaching up to his middle. Then Alan saw a terrifying thing, for suddenly
+the horrid, golden head of Big Bonsa, towing Little Bonsa behind it, began to
+swim with a deliberate motion across the stream until, reaching the man, it
+seemed to rear itself up and poke him with its snout in the chest as a turtle
+might do. Then it sank again into the water and slowly floated back to its
+station, directed by some agency or power that Alan could not discover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the touch of the fetish the man screamed like a horse in pain or terror, and
+soldiers leaping on him with a savage shout, dragged him up another gangway
+opposite to that by which he had descended, whereon, to all appearances more
+dead than alive, he departed into the shadows. The horns and drums set up a
+bray of triumph, the Asika clapped her hands approvingly, the spectators
+cheered, and another victim was bundled down the gangway and submitted to the
+judgment of the Bonsas, which came at him like hungry pikes at a frog. Then
+followed more and more, some being chosen and some let go, till at last,
+growing weary, the priests directed the soldiers to drive the prisoners down in
+batches until the pen in the water was full as though with huddled sheep. If
+the horrible golden masks swam at them and touched one of their number, they
+were all dragged away; if these remained quiescent they were let go.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the thing went on until at length Alan could bear no more of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lady,&rdquo; he said to the Asika when she paused for a moment from her
+hand-clapping, &ldquo;I am weary, I would sleep.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What!&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;do you wish to sleep on such a
+glorious night when so many evil doers are coming to their just doom? Well,
+well, go if you will, for then my promise is off me and I can hasten this
+business and deal with the wicked before the people according to our custom.
+Good-night to you, Vernoon, to-morrow we will meet,&rdquo; and she called to
+some priests to lead him away, and with him the Ogula cannibals whom she had
+given to him as servants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan went thankfully enough. As he plunged into one of the passages the sound
+of frightful yelling reached his ears, followed by loud, triumphant shouts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now you gone they kill those who Bonsa smell out,&rdquo; said Jeekie.
+&ldquo;Why you no wait and see? Very interesting sight.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hold your tongue,&rdquo; answered Alan savagely. &ldquo;Did you think so
+years ago when you were put into that pen to be butchered?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Major,&rdquo; replied the unabashed Jeekie, &ldquo;not think at all
+then, too far gone. But see other people in there and know it not <i>you</i>,
+quite different matter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They reached their room. At the door of it Fahni and his followers were led off
+to some quarters near by, blessing Alan as they went because he had saved their
+lives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said when they were alone, &ldquo;tell me, what makes
+that hellish idol swim about in the water picking out some people and leaving
+others alone?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Major, I not know, no one know except top priest and Asika. Perhaps
+there man underneath, perhaps they pull string, or perhaps fetish alive and he
+do what he like. Please don&rsquo;t call him names, Major, or he remember and
+come after us one time, and that bad job,&rdquo; and Jeekie shivered visibly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bosh!&rdquo; answered Alan, but all the same he shivered also.
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he asked again, &ldquo;what happens to those people whom
+the Bonsas smell out?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Case of good-bye, Major. Sometimes they chop off nut, sometimes they
+spiflicate in gold tub, sometimes priest-man make hole in what white doctor
+call <i>diagram</i>&mdash;and shake hands with heart.&mdash;All matter of
+taste, Major, just as Asika please. If she like victim or they old friends,
+chop off head; if she not like him&mdash;do worse things.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+More than satisfied with his information Alan went to bed. For hour after hour
+that night he lay tossing and turning, haunted by the recollections of the
+dreadful sights that he had seen and of the horrible Asika, beautiful and
+half-naked, glaring at him amorously through the crystal eyes of Little Bonsa.
+When at last he fell asleep it was to dream that he was alone in the water with
+the god which pursued him as a shark pursues a shipwrecked sailor. Never did he
+experience a nightmare that was half so awful. Only one thing could be more
+awful, the reality itself.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+THE MOTHER OF JEEKIE.</h2>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan next morning, &ldquo;I tell you again that I
+have had enough of this place, I want to get out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, that just what mouse say when he finish cheese in trap, but
+missus come along, call him &lsquo;Pretty, pretty,&rsquo; and drown him all the
+same,&rdquo; and he nodded in the direction of the Asika&rsquo;s house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie, it has got to be done&mdash;do you hear me? I had rather die
+trying to get away than stop here till the next two months are up. If I am here
+on the night of the next full moon but one, I shall shoot that Asika and then
+shoot myself, and you must take your chance. Do you understand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Understand that foolish game and poor lookout for Jeekie, Major, but
+can&rsquo;t think of any plan.&rdquo; Then he rubbed his big nose reflectively
+and added, &ldquo;Fahni and his people your slaves now, &rsquo;spose we have
+talk with him. I tell priests to bring him along when they come with breakfast.
+Leave it to me, Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan did leave it to him, with the result that after long argument the priests
+consented or obtained permission to produce Fahni and his followers, and a
+little while after the great men arrived looking very dejected, and saluted
+Alan humbly. Bidding the rest of them be seated, he called Fahni to the end of
+the room and asked him through Jeekie if he and his men did not wish to return
+home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed we do, white lord,&rdquo; answered the old chief, &ldquo;but how
+can we? The Asika has a grudge against our tribe and but for you would have
+killed every one of us last night. We are snared and must stop here till we
+die.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Would not your people help you if they knew, Fahni?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, lord, I think so. But how can I tell them who doubtless believe us
+dead? Nor can I send a messenger, for this place is guarded and he would be
+killed at once. We came here for your sake because you had Little Bonsa, a god
+that is known in the east and the west, in the north and the south, and because
+you saved me from the lion, and here, alas! we must perish.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;can you not find a messenger? Have you,
+who were born of this people, no friend among them at all?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie shook his white head and rolled his eyes. Then suddenly an idea struck
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I think one, p&rsquo;raps. I mean my
+ma.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Your ma!&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;Oh! I remember. Have you heard
+anything more about her?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major. Very old girl now, but strong on leg, so they say. Believe
+she glad go anywhere, because she public nuisance; they tired of her in prison
+and there no workhouse here, so they want turn her out starve, which of course
+break my heart. Perhaps she take message. Some use that way. Only think she
+afraid go Ogula-land because they nasty cannibal and eat old woman.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When all this was translated to Fahni he assured Jeekie with earnestness that
+nothing would induce the Ogula people to eat his mother; moreover, that for her
+sake they would never look carnivorously on another old woman, fat or thin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;I try again to get hold of old lady and
+we see. I pray priests, whom you save other day, let her out of chokey as I
+sick to fall upon bosom, which quite true, only so much to think of that no
+time to attend to domestic relation till now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That very afternoon, on returning to his room from walking in the dismal cedar
+garden, Alan&rsquo;s ears were greeted by a sound of shrill quarrelling.
+Looking up he saw an extraordinary sight. A tall, gaunt, withered female who
+might have been of any age between sixty and a hundred, had got Jeekie&rsquo;s
+ear in one hand, and with the other was slapping him in the face while she
+exclaimed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;O thief, whom by the curse of Bonsa I brought into the world, what have
+you done with my blanket? Was it not enough that you, my only son, should leave
+me to earn my own living? Must you also take my best blanket with you, for
+which reason I have been cold ever since. Where is it, thief, where is
+it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Worn out, my mother, worn out,&rdquo; he answered, trying to free
+himself. &ldquo;You forget, honourable mother, that I grow old and you should
+have been dead years ago. How can you expect a blanket to last so long? Leave
+go of my ear, beloved mother, and I will give you another. I have travelled
+across the world to find you and I want to hear news of your husband.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My husband, thief, which husband? Do you mean your father, the one with
+the broken nose, who was sacrificed because you ran away with the white man
+whom Bonsa loved? Well, you look out for him when you get into the world of
+ghosts, for he said that he was going to wait for you there with the biggest
+stick that he could find. Why I haven&rsquo;t thought of him for years, but
+then I have had three other husbands since his time, bad enough, but better
+than he was, so who would? And now Bonsa has got the lot, and I have no
+children alive, and they say I am to be driven out of the prison to starve next
+week as they won&rsquo;t feed me any longer, I who can still work against any
+one of them, and&mdash;you&rsquo;ve got my blanket, you ugly old rascal,&rdquo;
+and collapsing beneath the weight of her recited woes, the hag burst into a
+melancholy howl.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Peace, my mother,&rdquo; said Jeekie, patting her on the head. &ldquo;Do
+what I tell you and you shall have more blankets than you can wear and, as you
+are still so handsome, another husband too if you like, and a garden and slaves
+to work for you and plenty to eat.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How shall I get all these things, my son?&rdquo; asked the old woman,
+looking up. &ldquo;Will you take me to your home and support me, or will that
+white lord marry me? They told me that the Asika had named him as the Mungana,
+and she is very jealous, the most jealous Asika that I have ever known.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, mother, he would like to, but he dare not, and I cannot support you
+as I should wish, as here I have no house or property. You will get all this by
+taking a walk and holding your tongue. You see this man here, he is Fahni, king
+of a great tribe, the Ogula. He wants you to carry a message for him, and by
+and by he will marry you, won&rsquo;t you, Fahni?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes, yes,&rdquo; said Fahni; &ldquo;I will do anything she likes. No
+one shall be so rich and honoured in my country, and for her sake we will never
+eat another old woman, whereas if she stays here she will be driven to the
+mountains to starve in a week.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Set out the matter,&rdquo; said the mother of Jeekie, who was by no
+means so foolish as she seemed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they told her what she must do, namely, travel down to the Ogula and tell
+them of the plight of their chief, bidding them muster all their fighting men
+and when the swamps were dry enough, advance as near as they dared to the Asiki
+country and, if they could not attack it, wait till they had further news.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The end of it was that the mother of Jeekie, who knew her case to be desperate
+at home, where she was in no good repute, promised to attempt the journey in
+consideration of advantages to be received. Since she was to be turned adrift
+to meet her fate with as much food as she could carry, this she could do
+without exciting any suspicion, for who would trouble about the movements of a
+useless old thief? Meanwhile Jeekie gave her one of the robes which the Asika
+had provided for Alan, also various articles which she desired and, having
+learned Fahni&rsquo;s message by heart and announced that she considered
+herself his affianced bride, the gaunt old creature departed happy enough after
+exchanging embraces with her long lost son.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She will tell somebody all about it and we shall only get our throats
+cut,&rdquo; said Alan wearily, for the whole thing seemed to him a foolish
+farce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, Major. I make her swear not split on ghosts of all her husbands
+and by Big Bonsa hisself. She sit tight as wax, because she think they haunt
+her if she don&rsquo;t and I too by and by when I dead. P&rsquo;raps she get to
+Ogula country and p&rsquo;raps not. If she don&rsquo;t, can&rsquo;t help it and
+no harm done. Break my heart, but only one old woman less. Anyhow she hold
+tongue, that main point, and I really very glad find my ma, who never hoped to
+see again. Heaven very kind to Jeekie, give him back to family bosom,&rdquo; he
+added, unctuously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That day there were no excitements, and to Alan&rsquo;s intense relief he saw
+nothing of the Asika. After its orgy of witchcraft and bloodshed on the
+previous night, weariness and silence seemed to have fallen upon the town. At
+any rate no sound came from it that could be heard above the low, constant
+thunder of the great waterfall rushing down its precipice, and in the
+cedar-shadowed garden where Alan walked till he was weary, attended by Jeekie
+and the Ogula savages, not a soul was to be seen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the following morning, when he was sitting moodily in his room, two priests
+came to conduct him to the Asika. Having no choice, followed by Jeekie, he
+accompanied them to her house, masked as usual, for without this hateful
+disguise he was not allowed to stir. He found her lying upon a pile of cushions
+in a small room that he had never seen before, which was better lighted than
+most in that melancholy abode, and seemed to serve as her private chamber. In
+front of her lay the skin of the lion that he had sent as a present, and about
+her throat hung a necklace made of its claws, heavily set in gold, with which
+she was playing idly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the opening of the door she looked up with a swift smile that turned to a
+frown when she saw that he was followed by Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Say, Vernoon,&rdquo; she asked in her languorous voice, &ldquo;can you
+not stir a yard without that ugly black dog at your heels? Do you bring him to
+protect your back? If so, what is the need? Have I not sworn that you are safe
+in my land?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan made Jeekie interpret this speech, then answered that the reason was that
+he knew but little of her tongue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can I not teach it to you alone, then, without this low fellow hearing
+all my words? Well, it will not be for long,&rdquo; and she looked at Jeekie in
+a way that made him feel very uncomfortable. &ldquo;Get behind us, dog, and
+you, Vernoon, come sit on these cushions at my side. Nay, not there, I said
+upon the cushions&mdash;so. Now I will take off that ugly mask of yours, for I
+would look into your eyes. I find them pleasant, Vernoon,&rdquo; and, without
+waiting for his permission, she sat up and did so. &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she went
+on, &ldquo;we shall be happy when we are married, shall we not? Do not be
+afraid, Vernoon, I will not eat out your heart as I have those of the men that
+went before you. We will live together until we are old, and die together at
+last, and together be born again, and so on and on till the end which even I
+cannot foresee. Why do you not smile, Vernoon, and say that you are pleased,
+and that you will be happy with me who loved you from the moment that my eyes
+fell upon you in sleep? Speak, Vernoon, lest I should grow angry with
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what to say,&rdquo; answered Alan despairingly
+through Jeekie, &ldquo;the honour is too great for me, who am but a wandering
+trader who came here to barter Little Bonsa against the gold I
+need&rdquo;&mdash;to support my wife and family, he was about to add, then
+remembering that this statement might not be well received, substituted,
+&ldquo;to support my old parents and eight brothers and sisters who are
+dependent upon me, and remain hungry until I return to them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then I think they will remain hungry a long time, Vernoon, for while I
+live you shall never return. Much as I love you I would kill you first,&rdquo;
+and her eyes glittered as she said the words. &ldquo;Still,&rdquo; she added,
+noting the fall in his face, &ldquo;if it is gold that they need, you shall
+send it them. Yes, my people shall take all that I gave you down to the coast,
+and there it can be put in a big canoe and carried across the water. See to the
+packing of the stuff, you black dog,&rdquo; she said to Jeekie over her
+shoulder, &ldquo;and when it is ready I will send it hence.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan began to thank her, though he thought it more than probable that even if
+she kept her word, this bullion would never get to Old Calabar, and much less
+to England. But she waived the matter aside as one in which she was not
+interested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell me,&rdquo; she asked; &ldquo;would you have me other than I am?
+First, do you think me beautiful?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Alan honestly, &ldquo;very beautiful when you are
+quiet as now, not when you are dancing as you did the other night without your
+robes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she understood what he meant the Asika actually blushed a little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am sorry,&rdquo; she answered in a voice that for her was quite
+humble. &ldquo;I forget that it might seem strange in your eyes. It has always
+been the custom for the Asika to do as I did at feasts and sacrifices, but
+perhaps that is not the fashion among your women; perhaps they always remain
+veiled, as I have heard the worshippers of the Prophet do, and therefore you
+thought me immodest. I am very, very sorry, Vernoon. I pray you to forgive me
+who am ignorant and only do what I have been taught.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, they always remain veiled,&rdquo; stammered Alan, though he was not
+referring to their faces, and as the words passed his lips he wondered what the
+Asika would think if she could see a ballet at a London music-hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is there anything else wrong?&rdquo; she went on gently. &ldquo;If so,
+tell me that I may set it right.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not like cruelty or sacrifices, O Asika. I have told you that
+bloodshed is <i>orunda</i> to me, and at the feast those men were poisoned and
+you mocked them in their pain; also many others were taken away to be killed
+for no crime.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She opened her beautiful eyes and stared at him, answering:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But, Vernoon, all this is not my fault; they were sacrifices to the
+gods, and if I did not sacrifice, I should be sacrificed by the priests and
+wizards who live to sacrifice. Yes, myself I should be made to drink the poison
+and be mocked at while I died like a snake with a broken back. Or even if I
+escaped the vengeance of the people, the gods themselves would kill me and
+raise up another in my place. Do they not sacrifice in your country,
+Vernoon?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Asika, they fight if necessary and kill those who commit murder. But
+they have no fetish that asks for blood, and the law they have from heaven is a
+law of mercy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She stared at him again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All this is strange to me,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I was taught
+otherwise. Gods are devils and must be appeased, lest they bring misfortune on
+us; men must be ruled by terror, or they would rebel and pull down the great
+House; doctors must learn magic, or how could they avert spells? wizards must
+be killed, or the people would perish in their net. May not we who live in a
+hell, strive to beat back its flame with the wisdom our forefathers have handed
+on to us? Tell me, Vernoon, for I would know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You make your own hell,&rdquo; answered Alan when with the help of
+Jeekie he understood her talk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She pondered over his words for a while, then said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I must think. The thing is big. I wander in blackness; I will speak with
+you again. Say now, what else is wrong with me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Alan thought that he saw opportunity for a word in season and made a great
+mistake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I think that you treat your husband, that man whom you call Mungana,
+very badly. Why should you drive him to his death?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At these words the Asika leapt up in a rage, and seeking something to vent her
+temper on, violently boxed Jeekie&rsquo;s ears and kicked him with her
+sandalled foot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Mungana!&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;that beast! What have I to do
+with him? I hate him, as I hated the others. The priests thrust him on me. He
+has had his day, let him go. In your country do they make women live with men
+whom they loathe? I love <i>you</i>, Bonsa himself knows why. Perhaps because
+you have a white skin and white thoughts. But I hate that man. What is the use
+of being Asika if I cannot take what I love and reject what I hate? Go away,
+Vernoon, go away, you have angered me, and if it were not for what you have
+said about that new law of mercy, I think that I would cut your throat,&rdquo;
+and again she boxed Jeekie&rsquo;s ears and kicked him in the shins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan rose and bowed himself towards the door while she stood with her back
+towards him, sobbing. As he was about to pass it she wheeled round, wiping the
+tears from her eyes with her hand, and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I forgot, I sent for you to thank you for your presents; that,&rdquo;
+and she pointed to the lion skin, &ldquo;which they tell me you killed with
+some kind of thunder to save the life of that old cannibal, and this,&rdquo;
+and she pulled off the necklace of claws, then added, &ldquo;as I am too bad to
+wear it, you had better take it back again,&rdquo; and she threw it with all
+her strength straight into Jeekie&rsquo;s face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fearing worse things, the much maltreated Jeekie uttered a howl and bolted
+through the door, while Alan, picking up the necklace, returned it to her with
+a bow. She took it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stop,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You are leaving the room without your mask
+and my women are outside. Come here,&rdquo; and she tied the thing upon his
+head, setting it all awry, then pushed him from the place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very poor joke, Major, very poor indeed,&rdquo; said Jeekie when they
+had reached their own apartment. &ldquo;Lady make love to <i>you</i>;
+<i>you</i> play prig and lecture lady about holy customs of her country and she
+box <i>my</i> ear till head sing, also kick me all over and throw sharp claws
+in face. Please you do it no more. The next time, who knows? she stick knife in
+<i>my</i> gizzard, then kiss <i>you</i> afterward and say she so sorry and hope
+she no hurt <i>you</i>. But how that help poor departed Jeekie who get all
+kicks, while you have ha&rsquo;pence?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! be quiet,&rdquo; said Alan; &ldquo;you are welcome to the halfpence
+if you would only leave me the kicks. The question is, how am I to get out of
+this mess? While she was a beautiful savage devil one could deal with the
+thing, but if she is going to become human it is another matter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie looked at him with pity in his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Always thought white man mad at bottom,&rdquo; he said, shaking his big
+head. &ldquo;To benighted black nigger thing so very simple. All you got to do,
+make love and cut when you get chance. Then she pleased as Punch, everything go
+smooth and Jeekie get no more kicks. Christian religion business very good, but
+won&rsquo;t wash in Asiki-land. Your reverend uncle find out that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not wishing to pursue the argument, Alan changed the subject by asking his
+indignant retainer if he thought that the Asika had meant what she said when
+she offered to send the gold down to the coast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why not, Major? That good lady always mean what she say, and what she do
+too,&rdquo; and he dabbed wrathfully at the scratches made by the lion&rsquo;s
+claws on his face, then added, &ldquo;She know her own mind, not like
+shilly-shally, see-saw white woman, who get up one thing and go to bed another.
+If she love she love, if she hate she hate. If she say she send gold, she send
+it, though pity to part with all that cash, because &rsquo;spect someone bag
+it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan reflected a while.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you see, Jeekie, that here is a chance, if a very small one,
+of getting a message to the coast. Also it is quite clear that if we are ever
+able to escape, it will be impossible for us to carry this heavy stuff, whereas
+if we send it on ahead, perhaps some of it might get through. We will pack it
+up, Jeekie, at any rate it will be something to do. Go now and send a message
+to the Asika, and ask her to let us have some carpenters, and a lot of
+well-seasoned wood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The message was sent and an hour later a dozen of the native craftsmen arrived
+with their rude tools and a supply of planks cut from a kind of iron-wood or
+ebony tree. They prostrated themselves to Alan, then the master of them rising,
+instantly began to measure Jeekie with a marked reed. That worthy sprang back
+and asked what in the name of Bonsa, Big and Little, they were doing, whereon
+the man explained with humility that the Asika had said that she thought the
+white lord wanted the wood to make a box to bury his servant in, as he, the
+said servant, had offended her that morning, and doubtless the white lord
+wished to kill him on that account, or perhaps to put him away under ground
+alive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, my golly!&rdquo; said Jeekie, shaking till his great knees knocked
+together, &ldquo;oh! my golly! here pretty go. She think you want bury me all
+alive. That mean she want to be rid of Jeekie, because he got sit there and
+play gooseberry when she wish talk alone with you. Oh, yes! I see her little
+game.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, bursting into such a roar of laughter
+that he nearly shook off his mask, &ldquo;you had better be careful, for you
+just told me that the Asika is not like a see-saw white woman and never changes
+her mind. Say to this man that he must tell the Asika there is a mistake, and
+that however much I should like to oblige her, I can&rsquo;t bury you because
+it has been prophesied to me that on the day you are buried, I shall be buried
+also, and that therefore you must be kept alive.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Capital notion that, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, much relieved.
+&ldquo;She not want bury you just at present; next year perhaps, but not now. I
+tell him.&rdquo; And he did with much vigour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This slight misconception having been disposed of, they explained to the
+carpenters what was wanted. First, all the gold was emptied out of the sacks in
+which it remained as the priests had brought it, and divided into heaps, each
+of which weighed about forty pounds, a weight that with its box Alan considered
+would be a good load for a porter. Of these heaps there proved to be
+fifty-three, their total value, Alan reckoned, amounting to about &pound;100,000
+sterling. Then the carpenters were set to work to make a model box, which they
+did quickly enough and with great ingenuity, cutting the wood with their native
+saws, dovetailing it as a civilized craftsman would do, and finally securing it
+everywhere with ebony pegs, driven into holes which they bored with a hot iron.
+The result was a box that would stand any amount of rough usage and when
+finally pegged down, one that could only be opened with a hammer and a cold
+chisel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This box-making went on for two whole days. As each of them was filled and
+pegged down, the gold within being packed in sawdust to keep it from rattling,
+Alan amused himself in adding an address with a feather brush and a supply of
+red paint such as the Asiki priests used to decorate their bodies. At first he
+was puzzled to know what address to put, but finally decided upon the following:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Major A. Vernon, care of Miss Champers, The Court, near Kingswell,
+England.</i> Adding in the corner, <i>From A. V., Asiki Land, Africa.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all childish enough, he knew, yet when it was done he regarded his
+handiwork with a sort of satisfaction. For, reflected Alan, if but one of those
+boxes should chance to get through to England, it would tell Barbara a great
+deal, and if it were addressed to himself, her uncle could scarcely dare to
+take possession of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he bethought him of sending a letter, but was obliged to abandon the idea,
+as he had neither pen, pencil, ink, nor paper left to him. Whatever arts
+remained to them, that of any form of writing was now totally unknown to the
+Asiki, although marks that might be writing, it will be remembered, did appear
+on the inner side of the Little Bonsa mask, an evidence of its great antiquity.
+Even in the days when they had wrapped up the Egyptian, the Roman, and other
+early Munganas in sheets of gold and set them in their treasure-house,
+apparently they had no knowledge of it, for not even an hieroglyph or a rune
+appeared upon the imperishable metal shrouds. Since that time they had
+evidently decreased, not advanced, in learning till at the present day, except
+for these relics and some dim and meaningless survival of rites that once had
+been religious and were still offered to the same ancient idols, there was
+little to distinguish them from other tribes of Central African savages. Still
+Alan did something, for obtaining a piece of white wood, which he smoothed as
+well as he was able with a knife, he painted on it this message:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Messrs. Aston, Old Calabar. Please forward accompanying fifty-three
+packages, or as many as arrive, and cable as follows (all costs will be
+remitted): Miss Champers, Kingswell, England. Prisoner among Asiki. No present
+prospect of escape, but hope for best. Jeekie and I well. Allowed send this,
+but perhaps no future message possible. Good-bye. Alan.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it happened just as Alan was finishing this scrawl with a sad heart, he
+heard a movement and glancing up, perceived standing at his side the Asika, of
+whom he had seen nothing since the interview when she had beaten Jeekie:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What are those marks that you make upon the board, Vernoon?&rdquo; she
+asked suspiciously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the assistance of Jeekie, who kept at a respectful distance, he informed
+her that they were a message in writing to tell the white men at the coast to
+forward the gold to his starving family.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I never heard of writing. You shall teach it
+me. It will serve to pass the time till we are married, though it will not be
+of much use afterwards, as we shall never be separated any more and words are
+better than marks upon a board. But,&rdquo; she added cheerfully, &ldquo;I can
+send away this black dog of yours,&rdquo; and she looked at Jeekie, &ldquo;and
+he can write to us. No, I cannot, for an accident might happen to him, and they
+tell me you say that if he dies, you die also, so he must stop here always.
+What have you in those little boxes?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The gold you gave me, Asika, packed in loads.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A small gift enough,&rdquo; she answered contemptuously; &ldquo;would
+you not like more, since you value that stuff? Well, another time you shall
+send all you want. Meanwhile the porters are waiting, fifty men and three, as
+you sent me word, and ten spare ones to take the place of any who die. But how
+they will find their way, I know not, since none of them have ever been to the
+coast.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An idea occurred to Alan, who had small faith in Jeekie&rsquo;s
+&ldquo;ma&rdquo; as a messenger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The Ogula prisoners could show them,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;at any rate
+as far as the forest, and after that they could find out. May they not go,
+Asika?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you will,&rdquo; she answered carelessly. &ldquo;Let them be ready to
+start to-morrow at the dawn, all except their chief, Fahni, who must stop here
+as a hostage. I do not trust those Ogula, who more than once have threatened to
+make war upon us,&rdquo; she added, then turned and bade the priests bring in
+the bearers to receive their instructions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently they came, picked men all of them, under the command of an Asiki
+captain, and with them the Ogula, whom she summoned also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go where the white lord sends you,&rdquo; she said in an indifferent
+voice, &ldquo;carrying with you these packages. I do not know where it is, but
+these man-eaters will show you some of the way, and if you fail in the business
+but live to come back again, you shall be sacrificed to Bonsa at the next
+feast; if you run away then your wives and children will be sacrificed. Food
+shall be given you for your journey, and gold to buy more when it is gone. Now,
+Vernoon, tell them what they have to do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Alan, or rather Jeekie, told them, and these directions were so long and
+minute, that before they were finished the Asika grew tired of listening and
+went away, saying as she passed the captain of the company:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Remember my words, man, succeed or die, but of your land and its secrets
+say nothing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hear,&rdquo; answered the captain, prostrating himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night Alan summoned the Ogula and spoke to them through Jeekie in their
+own language. At first they declared that they would not leave their chief,
+preferring to stay and die with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not so,&rdquo; said Fahni; &ldquo;go, my children, that I may live. Go
+and gather the tribe, all the thousands of them who are men and can fight, and
+bring them up to attack Asiki-land, to rescue me if I still live, or to avenge
+me if I am dead. As for these bearers, do them no harm, but send them on to the
+coast with the white man&rsquo;s goods.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So in the end the Ogula said that they would go, and when Alan woke up on the
+following morning, he was informed that they and the Asiki porters had already
+departed upon their journey. Then he dismissed the matter from his mind, for to
+tell the truth he never expected to hear of them any more.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
+ALAN FALLS ILL.</h2>
+
+<p>
+After the departure of the messengers a deep melancholy fell upon Alan, who was
+sure that he had now no further hope of communicating with the outside world.
+Bitterly did he reproach himself for his folly in having ever journeyed to this
+hateful place in order to secure&mdash;what? About &pound;100,000 worth of gold which
+of course he never could secure, as it would certainly vanish or be stolen on
+its way to the coast. For this gold he had become involved in a dreadful
+complication which must cost him much misery, and sooner or later life itself,
+since he could not marry that beautiful savage Asika, and if he refused her she
+would certainly kill him in her outraged pride and fury.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Day by day she sent for him, and when he came, assumed a new character, that of
+a woman humbled by a sense of her own ignorance, which she was anxious to
+amend. So he must play the role of tutor to her, telling her of civilized
+peoples, their laws, customs and religions, and instructing her how to write
+and read. She listened and learned submissively enough, but all the while Alan
+felt as one might who is called upon to teach tricks to a drugged panther. The
+drug in this case was her passion for him, which appeared to be very genuine.
+But when it passed off, or when he was obliged to refuse her, what, he
+wondered, would happen then?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Anxiety and confinement told on him far more than all the hardships of his
+journey. His health ran down, he began to fall ill. Then as bad luck would have
+it, walking in that damp, unwholesome cedar garden, out of which he might not
+stray, he contracted the germ of some kind of fever which in autumn was very
+common in this poisonous climate. Three days later he became delirious, and for
+a week after that hung between life and death. Well was it for him that his
+medicine-chest still remained intact, and that recognizing his own symptoms
+before his head gave way, he was able to instruct Jeekie what drugs to give him
+at the different stages of the disease.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the rest his memories of that dreadful illness always remained very vague.
+He had visions of Jeekie and of a robed woman whom he knew to be the Asika,
+bending over him continually. Also it seemed to him that from time to time he
+was talking with Barbara, which even then he knew must be absurd, for how could
+they talk across thousands of miles of land and sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length his mind cleared suddenly, and he awoke as from a nightmare to find
+himself lying in the hall or room where he had always been, feeling quite cool
+and without pain, but so weak that it was an effort to him to lift his hand. He
+stared about him and was astonished to see the white head of Jeekie rolling
+uneasily to and fro upon the cushions of another bed near by.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;are you ill too, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the sound of that voice his retainer started up violently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What, Major, you awake?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Thanks be to all gods,
+white and black, yes, and yellow too, for I thought your goose cooked. No, no,
+Major, I not ill, only Asika say so. You go to bed, so she make me go to bed.
+You get worse, she treat me cruel; you seem better, she stuff me with food till
+I burst. All because you tell her that you and I die same day. Oh, Lord! poor
+Jeekie think his end very near just now, for he know quite well that she not
+let him breathe ten minutes after you peg out. Jeekie never pray so hard for
+anyone before as he pray this week for you, and by Jingo! I think he do the
+trick, he and that medicine stuff which make him feel very bad in
+stomach,&rdquo; and he groaned under the weight of his many miseries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Weak as he was Alan began to laugh, and that laugh seemed to do him more good
+than anything that he could remember, for after it he was sure that he would
+recover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then an agonized whisper reached him from Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look out!&rdquo; it said, &ldquo;here come Asika. Go sleep and seem
+better, Major, please, or I catch it hot.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Alan almost shut his eyes and lay still. In another moment she was standing
+over him and he noticed that her hair was dishevelled and her eyes were red as
+though with weeping. She scanned him intently for a little while, then passed
+round to where Jeekie lay, and appeared to pinch his ear so hard that he
+wriggled and uttered a stifled groan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How is your lord, dog?&rdquo; she whispered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Better, O Asika, I think that last medicine do us good, though it make
+me very sick inside. Just now he spoke to me and said that he hoped that your
+heart was not sad because of him and that all this time in his dreams he had
+seen and thought of nobody but you, O Asika.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did he?&rdquo; asked that lady, becoming intensely interested.
+&ldquo;Then tell me, dog, why is he ever calling upon one Bar-bar-a? Surely
+that is a woman&rsquo;s name?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, O Asika, that is the name of his mother, also of one of his
+sisters, whom, after you, he loves best of anyone in the whole world. When you
+are here he talks of them, but when you are not here he talks of no one but
+you. Although he is so sick he remembers white man&rsquo;s custom, which tells
+him that it is very wrong to say sweet things to lady&rsquo;s face till he is
+quite married to her. After <i>that</i> they say them always.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at him suspiciously and muttering, &ldquo;Here it is otherwise. For
+your own sake, man, I trust that you do not lie,&rdquo; left him, and drawing a
+stool up beside Alan&rsquo;s bed, sat herself down and examined him carefully,
+touching his face and hands with her long thin fingers. Then noting how white
+and wasted he was, of a sudden she began to weep, saying between her sobs:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! if you should die, Vernoon, I will die also and be born again not as
+Asika, as I have been for so many generations, but as a white woman that I may
+be with you. Only first,&rdquo; she added, setting her teeth, &ldquo;I will
+sacrifice every wizard in this land, for they have brought the sickness on you
+by their magic, and I will burn Bonsa Town and cast its gods to melt in the
+flames, and the Mungana with them. And then amid their ashes I will let out my
+life,&rdquo; and again she began to weep very piteously and to call him by
+endearing names and pray him that he would not die.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Alan thought it time to wake up. He opened his eyes, stared at her
+vacantly, and asked if it were raining, which indeed it might have been, for
+her big tears were falling on his face. She uttered a gasp of joy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;the weather is very fine. It is
+I&mdash;I who have rained because I thought you die.&rdquo; She wiped his
+forehead with the soft linen of her robe, then went on, &ldquo;But you will not
+die; say that you will live, say that you will live for me, Vernoon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at her, and feeble though he was, the awfulness of the situation sank
+into his soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hope that I shall live,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;I am hungry, please
+give me some food.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next instant there was a tumult near by, and when Alan looked up again it was
+to see Jeekie, very lightly clad, risen from his bed of sympathetic sickness
+and flying through the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It will be here presently,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Oh! if you knew what
+I have suffered, if you only knew. Now you will recover whom I thought dead,
+for this fever passes quickly, and there shall be such a sacrifice&mdash;no, I
+forgot, you hate sacrifices&mdash;there shall be no sacrifice, there shall be a
+thanksgiving, and every woman in the land shall break her bonds to husband or
+to lover and take him whom she desires without reproach or loss. I will do as I
+would be done by, that is the law you taught me, is it not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This novel interpretation of a sacred doctrine, worthy of Jeekie himself, so
+paralyzed Alan&rsquo;s enfeebled brain that he could make no answer, nor do
+anything except wonder what would happen in Asiki-land when the decree of its
+priestess took effect. Then Jeekie arrived with something to drink which he
+swallowed with the eagerness of the convalescent and almost immediately went to
+sleep in good earnest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan&rsquo;s recovery was rapid, since as the Asika had told him, if a patient
+lives through it, the kind of fever that he had taken did not last long enough
+to exhaust his vital forces. When she asked him if he needed anything to make
+him well, he answered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, air and exercise.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She replied that he should have both, and next morning his hated mask was put
+upon his face and he was supported by priests to a door where a litter, or
+rather litters were waiting, one for himself and another for Jeekie who,
+although in robust health, was still supposed to be officially ill and not
+allowed to walk upon his own legs. They entered these litters and were borne
+off till presently they met a third litter of particularly gorgeous design
+carried by masked bearers, wherein was the Asika herself, wearing her coronet
+and a splendid robe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Into this litter, which was fitted with a second seat, Alan was transferred,
+the Mungana, for whom it was designed, being placed in that vacated by Alan,
+which either by accident or otherwise, was no more seen that day. They went up
+the mountain side and to the edge of the great fall and watched the waters
+thunder down, though the crest of them they could not reach. Next they wandered
+off into the huge forests that clothed the slopes of the hills and there halted
+and ate. Then as the sun sank they returned to the gloomy Bonsa Town beneath
+them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For Alan, notwithstanding his weakness and anxieties, it was a heavenly day.
+The Asika was passive, some new mood being on her, and scarcely troubled him at
+all except to call his attention to a tree, a flower, or a prospect of the
+scenery. Here on the mountain side, too, the air was sweet, and for the
+rest&mdash;well, he who had been so near to death, was escaped for an hour from
+that gloomy home of bloodshed and superstition, and saw God&rsquo;s sky again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This journey was the first of many. Every day the litters were waiting and they
+visited some new place, although into the town itself they never went.
+Moreover, if they passed through outlying villages, though Alan was forced to
+wear his mask, their inhabitants had been warned to absent themselves, so that
+they saw no one. The crops were left untended and the cattle and sheep lowed
+hungrily in their kraals. On certain days, at Alan&rsquo;s request, they were
+taken to the spots where the gold was found in the gravel bed of an almost dry
+stream that during the rains was a torrent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He descended from the litter and with the help of the Asika and Jeekie, dug a
+little in this gravel, not without reward, for in it they found several
+nuggets. Above, too, where they went afterwards, was a huge quartz reef denuded
+by water, which evidently had been worked in past ages and was still so rich
+that in it they saw plenty of visible gold. Looking at it Alan bethought him of
+his City days and of the hundreds of thousands of pounds capital with which
+this unique proposition might have been floated. Afterwards they were carried
+to the places where the gems were found, stuck about in the clay, like plums in
+a pudding, though none ever sought them now. But all these things interested
+the Asika not at all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is the good of gold,&rdquo; she asked of Alan, &ldquo;except to
+make things of, or the bright stones except to play with? What is the good of
+anything except food to eat and power and wisdom that can open the secret doors
+of knowledge, of things seen and things unseen, and love that brings the lover
+joy and forgetfulness of self and takes away the awful loneliness of the soul,
+if only for a little while?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not wishing to drift into discussion on the matter of love, Alan asked the
+priestess to define her &ldquo;soul,&rdquo; whence it came and whither she
+believed it to be going.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My soul is I, Vernoon,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;and already very,
+very old. Thus it has ruled amongst this people for thousands of years.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How is that?&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;seeing that the Asika dies?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! no, Vernoon, she does not die; she only changes. The old body dies,
+the spirit enters into another body which is waiting. Thus until I was fourteen
+I was but a common girl, the daughter of a headman of that village yonder, at
+least so they tell me, for of this time I have no memory. Then the Asika died
+and as I had the secret marks and the beauty that is hers the priests burnt her
+body before Big Bonsa and suffocated me, the child, in the smoke of the
+burning. But I awoke again and when I awoke the past was gone and the soul of
+the Asika filled me, bringing with it its awful memories, its gathered wisdom,
+its passion of love and hate, and its power to look backward and before.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you ever do these things?&rdquo; asked Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Backward, yes, before very little; since you came, not at all, because
+my heart is a coward and I fear what I might see. Oh! Vernoon, Vernoon, I know
+you and your thoughts. You think me a beautiful beast who loves like a beast,
+who loves you because you are white and different from our men. Well, what
+there is of the beast in me the gods of my people gave, for they are devils and
+I am their servant. But there is more than that, there is good also which I
+have won for myself. I knew you would come even before I had seen your face, I
+knew you would come,&rdquo; she went on passionately, &ldquo;and that is why I
+was yours already. But what would befall after you came, that I neither knew,
+nor know, because I will not seek, who could learn it all.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at her and she saw the doubt in his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You do not believe me, Vernoon. Very well, this night you shall see, you
+and that black dog of yours, that you may know I do not trick you, and he shall
+tell me what you see, for he being but a low-born pig will speak the truth, not
+minding if it hurts me, whereas you are gentle and might spare, and myself I
+have sworn not to search the future by an oath that I may not break.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What of the past?&rdquo; asked Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We will not waste time on it, for I know it all. Vernoon, have you no
+memories of Asiki-land? Do you think you never visited it before?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never,&rdquo; said Alan; &ldquo;it was my uncle who came and ran away
+with Little Bonsa on his head.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is news indeed,&rdquo; she replied mockingly. &ldquo;Did you then
+think that I believed it to be you, though it is true that she who went before,
+or my spirit that was in her, fell into error for an hour, and thought that
+fool-uncle of yours was <i>the Man</i>. When she found her mistake she let him
+go, and bade the god go with him that it might bring back the appointed Man, as
+it has done; yes, that Little Bonsa, who knew him of old, might search him out
+from among all the millions of men, born or unborn, and bring him back to me.
+Therefore also she chose a young black dog who would live for many years, and
+bade the god to take him with her, and told him of the wealth of our people
+that it might be a bait upon the hook. Do you see, Vernoon, that yellow dirt
+was the bait, that I&mdash;I am the hook? Well, you have felt it before, so it
+should not gall you overmuch.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Alan was more frightened than he had been since he set foot in Asiki-land,
+for of a sudden this woman became terrible to him. He felt that she knew things
+which were hidden from him. For the first time he believed in her, believed,
+that she was more than a mere passionate savage set by chance to rule over a
+bloodthirsty tribe; that she was one who had a part in his destiny.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Felt the hook?&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;I do not understand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are very forgetful,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;Vernoon, we have
+lived and loved before, who were twin souls from the first. That man now, whom
+I told you lived once on the great river called the Nile, have you no memory of
+him? Well, well, let it be, I will tell you afterwards. Here we are at the Gold
+House again, to-night when I am ready I will send for you, and this I promise,
+you shall leave me wiser than you were.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When they were alone in their room Alan told Jeekie of the expected
+entertainment of crystal gazing, or whatever it might be, and the part that he
+was to play in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You say that again, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan repeated the information, giving every detail that he could remember.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;I see Asika show us things, &rsquo;cause
+she afraid to look at them herself, or take oath, or can&rsquo;t, or something.
+She no ask you tell her what she see, because you too kind hurt her feeling, if
+happen to be something beastly. But Jeekie just tell her because he so truthful
+and not care curse about her feeling. Well, that all right, Jeekie tell her
+sure enough. Only, Major, don&rsquo;t you interrupt. Quite possible these magic
+things, I see one show, you see another. So don&rsquo;t you go say,
+&lsquo;Jeekie, that a lie,&rsquo; and give me away to Asika just because you
+think you see different, &lsquo;cause if so you put me into dirty hole, and of
+course I catch it afterwards. You promise, Major?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! yes, I promise. But, Jeekie, do you really think we are going to see
+anything?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t say, Major,&rdquo; and he shook his head gloomily.
+&ldquo;P&rsquo;raps all put up job. But lots of rum things in world, Major,
+specially among beastly African savage who very curious and always ready pay
+blood to bad Spirit. Hope Asika not get this into her head, because no one know
+what happen. P&rsquo;raps we see too much and scared all our lives; but
+p&rsquo;raps all tommy rot.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s it&mdash;tommy rot,&rdquo; answered Alan, who was not
+superstitious. &ldquo;Well, I suppose that we must go through with it. But oh!
+Jeekie, I wish you would tell me how to get out of this.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know, Major, p&rsquo;raps never get out; p&rsquo;raps learn
+how to-night. Have to do something soon if want to go. Mungana&rsquo;s time
+nearly up, and then&mdash;oh my eye!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was night, about ten o&rsquo;clock indeed, the hour at which Alan generally
+went to bed. No message had come and he began to hope that the Asika had
+forgotten, or changed her mind, and was just going to say so to Jeekie when a
+light coming from behind him attracted his attention and he turned to see her
+standing in a corner of the great room, holding a lamp in her hand and looking
+towards him. Her gold breastplate and crown were gone, with every other
+ornament, and she was clad, or rather muffled in robes of pure white fitted
+with a kind of nun&rsquo;s hood which lay back upon her shoulders. Also on her
+arm she carried a shawl or veil. Standing thus, all undecked, with her long
+hair fastened in a simple knot, she still looked very beautiful, more so than
+she had ever been, thought Alan, for the cruelty of her face had faded and was
+replaced by a mystery very strange to see. She did not seem quite like a
+natural woman, and that was the reason, perhaps, that Alan for the first time
+felt attracted by her. Hitherto she had always repelled him, but this night it
+was otherwise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How did you come here?&rdquo; he asked in a more gentle voice than he
+generally used towards her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Noting the change in his tone, she smiled shyly and even coloured a little,
+then answered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This house has many secrets, Vernoon. When you are lord of it you shall
+learn them all, till then I may not tell them to you. But, come, there are
+other secrets which I hope you shall see to-night, and, Jeekie, come you also,
+for you shall be the mouth of your lord, so that you may tell me what perhaps
+he would hide.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will tell you everything, everything, O Asika,&rdquo; answered Jeekie,
+stretching out his hands and bowing almost to the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then they started and following many long passages as before, although whether
+they were the same or others Alan could not tell, came at last to a door which
+he recognized, that of the Treasure House. As they approached this door it
+opened and through it, like a hunted thing, ran the bedizened Mungana, husband
+of the Asika, terror, or madness, shining in his eyes. Catching sight of his
+wife, who bore the lamp, he threw himself upon his knees and snatching at her
+robe, addressed some petition to her, speaking so rapidly that Alan could not
+follow his words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a moment she listened, then dragged her dress from his hand and spurned him
+with her foot. There was something so cruel in the gesture and the action, so
+full of deadly hate and loathing, that Alan, who witnessed it, experienced a
+new revulsion of feeling towards the Asika. What kind of a woman must she be,
+he wondered, who could treat a discarded lover thus in the presence of his
+successor?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a groan or a sob, it was difficult to say which, the poor man rose and
+perceived Alan, whose face he now beheld for the first time, since the Asika
+had told him not to mask himself as they would meet no one. The sight of it
+seemed to fill him with jealous fury; at any rate he leapt at his rival,
+intending, apparently, to catch him by the throat. Alan, who was watching him,
+stepped aside, so that he came into violent contact with the wall of the
+passage and, half-stunned by the shock, reeled onwards into the darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The hog!&rdquo; said the Asika, or rather she hissed it, &ldquo;the hog,
+who dared to touch me and to strike at you. Well, his time is short&mdash;would
+that I could make it shorter! Did you hear what he sought of me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan, who wished for no confidences, replied by asking what the Mungana was
+doing in the Treasure House, to which she answered that the spirits who dwelt
+there were eating up his soul, and when they had devoured it all he would go
+quite mad and kill himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does this happen to all Munganas?&rdquo; inquired Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Vernoon, if the Asika hates them, but if she loves them it is
+otherwise. Come, let us forget the wretch, who would kill you if he
+could,&rdquo; and she led the way into the hall and up it, passing between the
+heaps of gold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the table where lay the necklaces of gems she set down her lamp, whereof the
+light, all there was in that great place, flickered feebly upon the mask of
+Little Bonsa, which had been moved here apparently for some ceremonial purpose,
+and still more feebly upon the hideous, golden countenances and winding sheets
+of the ancient, yellow dead who stood around in scores placed one above the
+other, each in his appointed niche. It was an awesome scene and one that
+oppressed Jeekie very much, for he murmured to Alan:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh my! Major, family vault child&rsquo;s play to this hole, just
+like&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; here his comparison came to an end, for the Asika cut
+it short with a single glance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sit here in front of me,&rdquo; she said to Alan, &ldquo;and you,
+Jeekie, sit at your lord&rsquo;s side, and be silent till I bid you
+speak.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she crouched down in a heap behind them, threw the cloth or veil she
+carried over her head, and in some way that they did not see, suddenly
+extinguished the lamp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now they were in deep darkness, the darkness of death, and in utter silence,
+the silence of the dead. No glimmer of light, and yet to Alan it seemed as
+though he could feel the flash of the crystal eyes of Little Bonsa, and of all
+the other eyes set in the masks of those departed men who once had been the
+husbands of the blood-stained priestess of the Asiki, till one by one, as she
+wearied of them, they were bewitched to madness and to doom. In that utter
+quiet he thought even that he could hear them stir within their winding sheets,
+or it may have been that the Asika had risen and moved among them on some
+errand of her own. Far away something fell to the floor, a very light object,
+such as a flake of rock or a scale of gold. Yet the noise of it struck his
+nerves loud as a clap of thunder, and those of Jeekie also, for he felt him
+start at his side and heard the sudden hammerlike beat of his heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What was the woman doing in this dreadful place, he wondered. Well, it was easy
+to guess. Doubtless she had brought them here to scare and impress them.
+Presently a voice, that of some hidden priest, would speak to them, and they
+would be asked to believe it a message from the spirit world, or a spirit
+itself might be arranged&mdash;what could be easier in their mood and these
+surroundings?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now the Asika was speaking behind them in a muffled voice. From the tone of it
+she appeared to be engaged in argument or supplication in some strange tongue.
+At any rate Alan could not understand a word of what she said. The argument, or
+prayer, went on for a long while, with pauses as though for answers. Then
+suddenly it ceased and once more they were plunged into that unfathomable
+silence.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It seemed to Alan that he went to sleep and dreamed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He dreamed that it was late autumn in England. Leaves drifted down from the
+trees beneath the breath of a strong, damp wind, and ran or floated along the
+road till they vanished into a ditch, or caught against a pile of stones that
+had been laid ready for its repair. He knew the road well enough; he even knew
+the elm tree beneath which he seemed to stand on the crest of a hill. It was
+that which ran from Mr. Champers-Haswell&rsquo;s splendid house, The Court, to
+the church; he could see them both, the house to the right, the church to the
+left, and his eyesight seemed to have improved, since he was able to observe
+that at either place there was bustle and preparation as though for some big
+ceremony.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now the big gates of The Court opened and through them came a funeral. It
+advanced toward him with unnatural swiftness, as though it floated upon air,
+the whole melancholy procession of it. In a few seconds it had come and gone
+and yet during those seconds he suffered agony, for there arose in his mind a
+horrible terror that this was Barbara&rsquo;s burying. He could not have
+endured it for another moment; he would have cried out or died, only now the
+mourners passed him, following the coffin, and in the first carriage he saw
+Barbara seated, looking sad and somewhat troubled, but well. A little further
+down the line came another carriage, and in it was Sir Robert Aylward, staring
+before him with cold, impassive face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In his dream Alan thought to himself that he must have borrowed this carriage,
+which would not be strange, as he generally used motors, for there was a
+peer&rsquo;s coronet upon the panels and the silver-mounted harness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The funeral passed and suddenly vanished into the churchyard gates, leaving
+Alan wondering why his cousin Haswell was not seated at Barbara&rsquo;s side.
+Then it occurred to him that it might be because he was in the coffin, and at
+that moment in his dream he heard the Asika asking Jeekie what he saw; heard
+Jeekie answering also, &ldquo;A burying in the country called England.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of whom, Jeekie?&rdquo; Then after some hesitation, the answer:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of a lady whom my lord loves very much. They bury her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What was her name, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Her name was Barbara.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Bar-bara, why that you told me was the name of his mother and his
+sister. Which of them is buried?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Neither, O Asika. It was another lady who loved him very much and wanted
+to marry him, and that was why he ran away to Africa. But now she is dead and
+buried.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are all women in England called Bar-bara, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, O Asika, Barbara means woman.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If your lord loved this Barbara, why then did he run away from her?
+Well, it matters not since she is dead and buried, for whatever their spirits
+may feel, no man cares for a woman that is dead until she clothes herself in
+flesh again. That was a good vision and I will reward you for it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have earned nothing, O Asika,&rdquo; answered Jeekie modestly,
+&ldquo;who only tell you what I see as I must. Yet, O Asika,&rdquo; he added
+with a note of anxiety in his voice, &ldquo;why do you not read these magic
+writings for yourself?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I dare not, or rather because I can not,&rdquo; she answered
+fiercely. &ldquo;Be silent, slave, for now the power of the good broods upon my
+soul.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dream went on. A great forest appeared, such a forest as they had passed
+before they met the cannibals, and set beneath one of the trees, a tent and in
+that tent Barbara, Barbara weeping. Someone began to lift the flap of the tent.
+She sprang up, snatching at a pistol that lay beside her, turning its muzzle
+towards her breast. A man entered the tent. Alan saw his face, it was his own.
+Barbara let fall the pistol and fell backwards as though a bullet from it had
+pierced her heart. He leapt towards her, but before he came to where she lay
+everything had vanished and he heard Jeekie droning out his lies to the Asika,
+telling her that the vision he had seen was one of her and his master seated
+with their arms about each other in a chamber of the Golden House.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A third time the dream descended on Alan like a cloud. It seemed to him that he
+was borne beyond the flaming borders of the world. Everything around was new
+and unfamiliar, vast, changing, lovely, terrible. He stood alone upon a pearly
+plain and the sky above him was lit with red moons, many and many of them that
+hung there like lamps. Spirits began to pass him. He could catch something of
+their splendour as they sped by with incredible swiftness; he could hear the
+music of their laughter. One rose up at his side. It was the Asika, only a
+thousand times more splendid; clothed in all the glory of hell. Majestically
+she bent towards him, her glowing eyes held his, the deadly perfume of her
+breath beat upon his brow and made him drunken.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She spoke to him and her voice sounded like distant bells.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Through many a life, through many a life,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;bought
+with much blood, paid for with a million tears, but mine at last, the soul that
+I have won to comfort my soul in the eternal day. Come to the place I have made
+ready for you, the hell that shall turn to heaven at your step, come, you by
+whom I am redeemed, and drive away those gods that torture me because I was
+their servant that I might win you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So she spoke, and though all his soul revolted, yet the fearful strength that
+was in her seemed to draw him onward whither she would go. Then a light shone,
+and that light was the face of Barbara, and with a suddenness which was almost
+awful, the wild dream came to an end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan was in his own room again, though how he got there he did not recollect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;what has happened? I seem to have had a
+very curious dream, there in the Treasure-place, and to have heard you telling
+the Asika a string of incredible falsehoods.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! no, Major, Jeekie can&rsquo;t lie, too good Christian; he tell her
+what <i>he</i> see, or what he think she see if she look, &rsquo;cause though
+p&rsquo;raps he see nothing, she never believe that. And,&rdquo; he added with
+a burst of confidence, &ldquo;what the dickens it matter what he tell her, so
+long as she swallow same and keep quiet? Nasty things always make women like
+Asika quite outrageous. Give them sweet to suck, say Jeekie, and if they ill
+afterwards, that no fault of his. They had sweet.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite so, Jeekie, quite so, only I should advise you not to play too
+many tricks upon the Asika, lest she should happen to find you out. How did I
+get back here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Like man that walk in his sleep, Major. She go first, you follow, just
+as little lamb after Mary in hymn.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie, did you really see anything at all?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Major, nothing partic&rsquo;lar, except ghost of Mrs. Jeekie and of
+your reverend uncle, both of them very angry. That magic all stuff, Major.
+Asika put something in your grub make you drunk, so that you think her very
+wise. Don&rsquo;t think of it no more, Major, or you go off your chump. If
+Jeekie see nothing, depend on it there nothing to see.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps so, Jeekie, but I wish I could be sure you had seen nothing.
+Listen to me; we must get out of this place somehow, or as you say, I shall go
+off my chump. It&rsquo;s haunted, Jeekie, it&rsquo;s haunted, and I think that
+Asika is a devil, not a woman.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That what priests say, Major, very old devil&mdash;part of Bonsa,&rdquo;
+he answered, looking at his master anxiously. &ldquo;Well, don&rsquo;t you
+fret, Jeekie not afraid of devils, Jeekie get you out in good time. Go to bed
+and leave it all to Jeekie.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fifteen more days had gone by, and it was the eve of the night of the second
+full moon when Alan was destined to become the husband of the Asika. She had
+sent for him that morning and he found her radiant with happiness. Whether or
+no she believed Jeekie&rsquo;s interpretation of the visions she had called up,
+it seemed quite certain that her mind was void of fears and doubts. She was
+sure that Alan was about to become her husband, and had summoned all the people
+of the Asiki to be present at the ceremony of their marriage, and incidentally
+of the death of the Mungana who, poor wretch, was to be forced to kill himself
+upon that occasion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before they parted she had spoken to Alan sweetly enough.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Vernoon,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I know that you do not love me as I
+love you, but the love will come, since for your sake I will change myself. I
+will grow gentle; I will shed no more blood; that of the Mungana shall be the
+last, and even him I would spare if I could, only while he lives I may not
+marry you; it is the one law that is stronger than I am, and if I broke it I
+and you would die at once. You shall even teach me your faith, if you will, for
+what is good to you is henceforth good to me. Ask what you wish of me, and as
+an earnest I will do it if I can.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Alan looked at her. There was one thing that he wished above all
+others&mdash;that she would let him go. But this he did not dare to ask;
+moreover, it would have been utterly useless. After all, if the Asika&rsquo;s
+love was terrible, what would be the appearance of her outraged hate? What
+could he ask? More gold? He hated the very name of the stuff, for it had
+brought him here. He remembered the old cannibal chief, Fahni, who, like
+himself, languished a prisoner, daily expecting death. Only that morning he had
+implored him to obtain his liberty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I thank you, Asika,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now, if your words are true,
+set Fahni free and let him return to his own country, for if he stays here he
+will die.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Surely, Vernoon, that is a small thing,&rdquo; she answered, smiling,
+&ldquo;though it is true that when he gets there he will probably make war upon
+us. Well, let him, let him.&rdquo; Then she clapped her hands and summoned
+priests, whom she bade go at once and conduct Fahni out of Bonsa Town. Also she
+bade them loose certain slaves who were of the Ogula tribe, that they might
+accompany him laden with provisions, and send on orders to the outposts that
+Fahni and his party should be furnished with a canoe and pass unmolested from
+the land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This done, she began to talk to Alan about many matters, however little he
+might answer her. Indeed it seemed almost as though she feared to let him leave
+her side; as though some presentiment of loss oppressed her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, to Alan&rsquo;s great relief, the time came when they must part,
+since it was necessary for her to attend a secret ceremony of preparation or
+purification that was called &ldquo;Putting-off-the-Past.&rdquo; Although she
+had been thrice summoned, still she would not let him go.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They call you, Asika,&rdquo; said Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes, they call me,&rdquo; she replied, springing up. &ldquo;Leave
+me, Vernoon, till we meet to-morrow to part no more. Oh! why is my heart so
+heavy in me? That black dog of yours read the visions that I summoned but might
+not look on, and they were good visions. They showed that the woman who loved
+you is dead; they showed us wedded, and other deeper things. Surely he would
+not dare to lie to me, knowing that if he did I would flay him living and throw
+him to the vultures. Why, then, is my heart so heavy in me? Would you escape
+me, Vernoon? Nay, you are not so cruel, nor could you do it except by death.
+Moreover, man, know that even in death you cannot escape me, for there be sure
+I shall follow you and claim you, to whose side my spirit has toiled for ages,
+and what is there so strong that it can snatch you from my hand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at him a moment, then of a sudden burst into a flood of tears, and,
+seizing his hand threw herself upon her knees and kissed it again and again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go now,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;go, and let my love go with you, through
+lives and deaths, and all the dreams beyond, oh! let my love go with you, as it
+shall, Vernoon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So he went, leaving her weeping on her knees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the dark hours that followed Alan and madness were not far apart. What
+could he do? Escape was utterly impossible. For weeks he and Jeekie had
+considered it in vain. Even if they could win out of the Gold House fortress,
+what hope had they of making their way through the crowded, tortuous town
+where, after the African fashion, peopled walked about all night, every one of
+whom would recognize the white man, whether he were masked or no? Besides,
+beyond the town were the river and the guarded walls and gates and beyond them
+open country where they would be cut off or run down. No, to attempt escape was
+suicide. Suicide! That gave him an idea, why should he not kill himself? It
+would be easy enough, for he still had his revolver and a few cartridges, and
+surely it was better than to enter on such a life as awaited him as the
+plaything of a priestess of a tribe of fetish-worshipping savages.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But if he killed himself, how about Barbara and how about poor old Jeekie, who
+would certainly be killed also? Besides, it was not the right thing to do, and
+while there is life there is always hope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan paused in his walk up and down the room and looked at Jeekie, who sat upon
+the floor with his back resting against the stone altar, reflectively pulling
+down his thick under-lip and letting it fly back, negro-fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;time&rsquo;s up. What am I to do?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do, Major?&rdquo; he replied with affected cheerfulness. &ldquo;Oh! that
+quite simple. Jeekie arrange everything. You marry Asika and by and by, when
+you master here and tired of her, you give her slip. Very interesting
+experience; no white man ever have such luck before. Asika not half bad,
+<i>if</i> she fond of you; she like little girl in song, when she good, she
+very, very good. At any rate, nothing else to do. Marry Asika or spiflicate,
+which mean, Major, that Jeekie spiflicate too, and,&rdquo; he added, shaking
+his white head sadly, &ldquo;he no like <i>that</i>. One or two little things
+on his mind that no get time to square up yet. Daren&rsquo;t pray like
+Christian here, &rsquo;cause afraid of Bonsas, and Bonsas come even with him by
+and by, &rsquo;cause he been Christian, so poor Jeekie fall down bump between
+two stools. &rsquo;Postles kick him out of heaven and Bonsas kick him out of
+hell, and where Jeekie go to then?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know, I am sure,&rdquo; answered Alan, smiling a little in
+spite of his sorrow, &ldquo;but I think the Bonsas might find a corner for you
+somewhere. Look here, Jeekie, you old scamp, I am sorry for you, for you have
+been a good friend to me and we are fond of each other. But just understand
+this, I am not going to marry that woman if I can help it. It&rsquo;s against
+my principles. So I shall wait till to-morrow and then I shall walk out of this
+place. If the guards try to stop me I shall shoot them while I have any
+cartridges. Then I shall go on until they kill me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! But Major, they not kill you&mdash;never; they chuck blanket over
+your head and take you back to Asika. It Jeekie they kill, skin him alive-o,
+and all the rest of it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hope not, Jeekie, because they think we shall die the same day. But if
+so, I can&rsquo;t help it. To-morrow morning I shall walk out, and now
+that&rsquo;s settled. I am tired and going to sleep,&rdquo; and he threw
+himself down upon the bed and, being worn out with weariness and anxiety, soon
+fell fast asleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Jeekie did not sleep, although he too lay down upon his bed. On the
+contrary, he remained wide awake and reflected, more deeply perhaps than he had
+ever done before, being sure the superstition as to the dependence of
+Alan&rsquo;s life upon his own was now worn very thin, and that his hour was at
+hand. He thought of making Alan&rsquo;s wild attempt to depart impossible by
+the simple method of warning the Asika, but, notwithstanding his native
+selfishness, was too loyal to let that idea take root in his mind. No, there
+was nothing to be done; if the Major wished to start, the Major must start, and
+he, Jeekie, must pay the price. Well, he deserved it, who had been fool enough
+to listen to the secret promptings of Little Bonsa and conduct him to
+Asiki-land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus he passed several hours, for the most part in melancholy speculations as
+to the exact fashion of his end, until at length weariness overcame him also
+and, shutting his eyes, Jeekie began to doze. Suddenly he grew aware of the
+presence of some other person in the room, but thinking that it was only the
+Asika prowling about in her uncanny fashion, or perhaps her spirit, for how her
+body entered the place he could not guess, he did not stir, but lay breathing
+heavily and watching out of the corner of his eye.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently a figure emerged from the shadows into the faint light thrown by the
+single lamp that burned above, and though it was wrapped in a dark cloak,
+Jeekie knew at once that it was not the Asika. Very stealthily the figure crept
+towards him, as a leopard might creep, and bent down to examine him. The
+movement caused the cloak to slip a little, and for an instant Jeekie caught
+sight of the wasted, half-crazed face of the Mungana, and of a long, curved
+knife that glittered in his hand. Paralyzed with fear, he lay quite still,
+knowing that should he show the slightest sign of consciousness that knife
+would pierce his heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mungana watched him a while, then satisfied that he slept, turned round
+and, bending himself almost double, glided with infinite precautions towards
+Alan&rsquo;s bed, which stood some twelve or fourteen feet away. Silently as a
+snake that uncoils itself, Jeekie slipped from between his blankets and crept
+after him, his naked feet making no noise upon the mat-strewn floor. So intent
+was the Mungana upon the deed which he had come to do that he never looked
+back, and thus it happened that the two of them reached the bed one immediately
+behind the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan was lying on his back with his throat exposed, a very easy victim. For a
+moment the Mungana stared. Then he erected himself like a snake about to
+strike, and lifted the great curved knife, taking aim at Alan&rsquo;s naked
+breast. Jeekie erected himself also, and even as the knife began to fall, with
+one hand he caught the arm that drove it and with the other the
+murderer&rsquo;s throat. The Mungana fought like a wild-cat, but Jeekie was too
+strong for him. His fingers held the man&rsquo;s windpipe like a vise. He
+choked and weakened; the knife fell from his hand. He sank to the ground and
+lay there helpless, whereon Jeekie knelt upon his chest and, possessing himself
+of the knife, held it within an inch of his heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was at this juncture that Alan woke up and asked sleepily what was the
+matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nothing, Major,&rdquo; answered Jeekie in low and cheerful tones.
+&ldquo;Snake just going to bite you and I catch him, that all,&rdquo; and he
+gave an extra squeeze to the Mungana&rsquo;s throat, who turned black in the
+face and rolled his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Be careful, Jeekie, or you will kill the man,&rdquo; exclaimed Alan,
+recognizing the Mungana and taking in the situation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why not, Major? He want kill you, and me too afterwards. Good riddance
+of bad rubbish, as Book say.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am not so sure, Jeekie. Give him air and let me think. Tell him that
+if he makes any noise, he dies.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie obeyed, and the Mungana&rsquo;s darkening eyes grew bright again as he
+drew his breath in great sobs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, friend,&rdquo; said Alan in Asiki, &ldquo;why did you wish to stab
+me?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I hate you,&rdquo; answered the man, &ldquo;who to-morrow will
+take my place and the wife I love.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As a year or two ago you took someone else&rsquo;s place, eh? Well,
+suppose now that I don&rsquo;t want either your place or your wife.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What would that matter even it if were true, white man, since she wants
+you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am thinking, friend, that there is someone else she will want when she
+hears of this. How do you suppose that you will die to-morrow? Not so easily as
+you hope, perhaps.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mungana&rsquo;s eyes seemed to sink into his head, and his face to sicken
+with terror. That shaft had gone home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Suppose I make a bargain with you,&rdquo; went on Alan slowly.
+&ldquo;Supposing I say: &lsquo;Mungana, show me the way out of this place, as
+you can, now at once. Or if you prefer it, refuse and be given up to the
+Asika?&rsquo; Come, you are not too mad to understand. Answer&mdash;and
+quickly.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Would you kill me afterwards?&rdquo; he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not I. Why should I wish to kill you? You can come with us and go where
+you will. Or you can stay here and die as the Asika directs.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot believe you, white man. It is not possible that you should wish
+to run away from so much love and glory, or to spare one who would have slain
+you. Also it would be difficult to get you out of Bonsa Town.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;this fellow is mad after all, I think
+you had better go to the door and shout for the priests.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, lord,&rdquo; begged the wretched creature, &ldquo;I will trust
+you; I will try, though it is you who must be mad.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very good. Stand over him, Jeekie, while I put on my things and, yes,
+give me that mask. If he stirs, kill him at once.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Alan made himself ready. Then he mounted guard over the Mungana, as did
+Jeekie, although he shook his head over their prospect of escape.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No go,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;no go! If we get past priests, Asika
+catch us with her magic. When I bolt with your reverend uncle last time, Little
+Bonsa arrange business because she go abroad fetch you. Now likely as not she
+bowl you out, and then good-bye Jeekie.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan sternly bade him be quiet and stop behind if he did not wish to come.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, Major,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;I come all right. Asika very
+prejudiced beggar, and if she find me here alone&mdash;oh my! Better die double
+after all, Two&rsquo;s company, Major. Now, all ready, <i>March!</i>&rdquo; and
+he gave the unfortunate Mungana a fearful kick as a hint to proceed, adding
+reflectively &ldquo;Everything come square in end, Major. You &rsquo;member once
+this chap bump Jeekie&rsquo;s head at feast of Little Bonsa. Well, now I bump
+his tail,&rdquo; and he kicked him again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So utterly crushed was the poor wretch that even this insult did not stir him
+to resentment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Follow me, white man,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and if you desire to live,
+be silent. Throw your cloaks about your heads.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They did so, and holding their revolvers in their right hands, glided after the
+Mungana. In the corner of the big room they came to a little stair. How it
+opened in that place where no stair had been, they could not see or even guess,
+for it was too dark, only now they knew the means by which the Asika had been
+able to visit them at night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mungana went first down the stair. Jeekie followed, grasping him by the arm
+with one hand, while in the other he kept his own knife ready to stab him at
+the first sign of treachery. Alan brought up the rear, keeping hold of
+Jeekie&rsquo;s cloak. They passed down twelve steps of stair, then turned to
+the right along a tunnel, then to the left, then to the right again. In the
+pitch darkness it was an awful journey, since they knew not whither they were
+being led, and expected that every moment would be their last. At length, quite
+of a sudden, they emerged into moonlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan looked about him and knew the place. It was where the feast had been held
+two months before, when the priests were poisoned and the Bonsas chose the
+victims for sacrifice. Already it was prepared for the great festival of
+to-morrow, when the Mungana should drown himself and Alan be married to the
+Asika. There on the da&iuml;s were the gold chairs in which they were to sit, and
+green branches of trees mixed with curious flags decked the vast amphitheatre
+beyond. Moreover, there was the broad canal, and floating in the midst of it
+the hideous gold fetish, Big Bonsa. The moon shone on its glaring, deathly
+eyes, its fish-like snout and its huge, pale teeth. Alan looked at it and
+shivered, for the thing was horrid and uncanny, and the utter loneliness in
+which it lay staring up at the moon, seemed to accentuate the horror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mungana noticed his fear and whispered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We must swim the water. If you have a god, white man, pray him to
+protect you from Bonsa.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lead on,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;I do not dread a foul fetish, only
+the look of it. But is there no way round?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mungana shook his head and began to enter the canal. Jeekie, whose teeth
+were chattering, hung back, but Alan pushed him from behind, so sharply that he
+stumbled and made a splash. Then Alan followed, and as the cold, black water
+rose to his chest, looked again at Big Bonsa.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seemed to him that the thing had turned round and was staring at them.
+Surely a few seconds ago its snout pointed the other way. No, that must be
+fancy. He was swimming now, they were all swimming, Alan and Jeekie holding
+their pistols and little stock of cartridges above their heads to keep them
+dry. The gold head of Big Bonsa appeared to be lifting itself up in the water,
+as a reptile might, in order to get a better view of these proceedings, but
+doubtless it was the ripples that they caused which gave it this appearance.
+Only why did the ripples make it come towards them, quite gently, like an
+investigating fish?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was about ten yards off and they were in the middle of the canal. The
+Mungana had passed it. It was in a line with Alan&rsquo;s head. Oh Heavens! a
+sudden smother of foam, a rush like that of a torpedo, and set low down between
+two curving waves, a flash of gold. Then a gurgling, inhuman laugh and a weight
+upon his back. Down went Alan, down and down!
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap17"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+THE END OF THE MUNGANA.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The moonlight above vanished. Alan was alone in the depths with this devil, or
+whatever it might be. He could feel hands and feet gripping and treading on
+him, but they did not seem to be human, for there were too many of them. Also
+they were very cold. He gave himself up for dead and thought of Barbara.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then something flashed into his mind. In his hand he still held the revolver.
+He pressed it upwards against the thing that was smothering him, and pulled the
+trigger. Again he pulled it, and again, for it was a self-cocking weapon, and
+even there deep down in the water he heard the thud of the explosion of the
+damp-proof copper cartridges. His lungs were bursting, his senses reeled, only
+enough of them remained to tell him that he was free of that strangling grip
+and floating upwards. His head rose above the surface, and through the mouth of
+his mask he drew in the sweet air with quick gasps. Down below him in the clear
+water he saw the yellow head of Big Bonsa rocking and quivering like a great
+reflected moon, saw too that it was beginning to rise. Yet he could not swim
+away from it, the fetish seemed to have hypnotized him. He heard Jeekie calling
+to him from the shallow water near the further bank, but still he floated there
+like a log and stared down at Big Bonsa wallowing beneath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie plunged back into the canal and with a few strong strokes reached him,
+gripped him by the arm and began to tow him to the shore. Before they came
+there Big Bonsa rose like a huge fish and tried to follow them, but could not,
+or so it seemed. At any rate it only whirled round and round upon the surface,
+while from it poured a white fluid that turned the black water to the hue of
+milk. Then it began to scream, making a thin and dreadful sound more like that
+of an infant in pain than anything they had ever heard, a very sickening sound
+that Alan never could forget. He staggered to the bank and stood staring at it
+where it bled, rolled and shrieked, but because of the milky foam could make
+nothing out in that light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is it, Jeekie?&rdquo; he said with an idiotic laugh. &ldquo;What is
+it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! don&rsquo;t know. Devil and all, perhaps. Come on, Major, before it
+catch us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it will catch anyone just at present. Devil or not
+hollow-nosed bullets don&rsquo;t agree with it. Shall I give it another,
+Jeekie?&rdquo; and he lifted the pistol.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, Major, don&rsquo;t play tomfool,&rdquo; and Jeekie grabbed him
+by the arm and dragged him away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few paces further on stood the Mungana like a man transfixed, and even then
+Alan noticed that he regarded him with something akin to awe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stronger than the god,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;stronger than the
+god,&rdquo; and bounded forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Following the path that ran beside the canal, they plunged into a tunnel,
+holding each other as before. In a few minutes they were through it and in a
+place full of cedar trees outside the wall of the Gold House, under which
+evidently the tunnel passed, for there it rose behind them. Beneath these cedar
+trees they flitted like ghosts, now in the moonlight and now in the shadow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The great fall to the back of the town was on their left, and in front of them
+lay one of the arms of the river, at this spot a raging torrent not much more
+than a hundred feet in width, spanned by a narrow suspension bridge which
+seemed to be supported by two fibre ropes. On the hither side of this bridge
+stood a guard hut, and to their dismay out of this hut ran three men armed with
+spears, evidently to cut them off. One of these men sped across the bridge and
+took his stand at the further end, while the other two posted themselves in
+their path at the entrance to it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mungana slacked his speed and said one word&mdash;&ldquo;Finished!&rdquo;
+and Jeekie also hesitated, then turned and pointed behind them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan looked back and flitting in and out between the cedar trees, saw the white
+robes of the priests of Bonsa. Then despair seized them all, and they rushed at
+the bridge. Jeekie reached it first and dodging beneath the spears of the two
+guards, plunged his knife into the breast of one of them, and butted the other
+with his great head, so that he fell over the side of the bridge on to the
+rocks below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cut, Major, cut!&rdquo; he said to Alan, who pushed past him. &ldquo;All
+right now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were on the narrow swaying bridge&mdash;it was but a single
+plank&mdash;Alan first, then the Mungana, then Jeekie. When they were half way
+across Alan looked before him and saw a sight he could never forget.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The third guard at the further side was sawing through one of the fibre ropes
+with his spear. There they were on the middle of the bridge with the torrent
+raving fifty feet beneath them, and the man had nearly severed the rope! To get
+over before it parted was impossible; behind were the priests; beneath the
+roaring river. All three of them stopped as though paralyzed, for all three had
+seen. Something struck against Alan&rsquo;s leg, it was his pistol that still
+remained fastened to his wrist by its leather thong. He cocked and lifted it,
+took aim and fired. The shot missed, which was not wonderful considering the
+light and the platform on which the shooter stood. It missed, but the man,
+astonished, for he had never seen or heard such a thing before, stopped his
+sawing for a moment, and stared at them. Then as he began again Alan fired once
+more, and this time by good fortune the bullet struck the man somewhere in the
+body. He fell, and as he fell grasped the nearly separated rope and hung to it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Get hold of the other rope and come on,&rdquo; yelled Alan, and once
+more they bounded forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My God! it&rsquo;s going!&rdquo; he yelled again. &ldquo;Hold fast,
+Jeekie, hold fast!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next instant the rope parted and the man vanished. The bridge tipped over, and
+supported by the remaining rope, hung edgeways up. To this rope the three of
+them clung desperately, resting their feet upon the edge of the swaying plank.
+For a few seconds they remained thus, afraid to stir, then Jeekie called out:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Climb on, Major, climb on like one monkey. Look bad, but quite safe
+really.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan began to climb, shifting his feet
+along the plank edge and his hands along the rope, which creaked and stretched
+beneath their threefold weight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a horrible journey, and in his imagination took at least an hour. Yet
+they accomplished it, for at last they found themselves huddled together but
+safe upon the further bank. The sweat pouring down from his head almost blinded
+Alan; a deadly nausea worked within him, sickly tremors shot up and down his
+spine; his brain swam. Yet he could hear Jeekie, in whom excitement always took
+the form of speech, saying loudly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Think that man no liar what say our great papas was monkeys. Never look
+down on monkey no more. Wake up, Major, those priests monkey-men too, for we
+all brothers, you know. Wait a bit, I stop their little game,&rdquo; and
+springing up with three or four cuts of the big curved knife, he severed the
+remaining rope just as their pursuers reached the further side of the chasm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They shouted with rage as the long bridge swung back against the rock, the cut
+end of it falling into the torrent, and waved their spears threateningly. To
+this demonstration Jeekie replied with gestures of contempt such as are known
+to street Arabs. Then he looked at the Mungana, who lay upon the ground a
+melancholy and dilapidated spectacle, for the perspiration had washed lines of
+paint off his face and patches of dye from his hair, also his gorgeous robes
+were water-stained and his gem necklaces broken. Having studied him a while
+Jeekie kicked him meditatively till he got up, then asked him to set out the
+exact situation. The Mungana answered that they were safe for a while, since
+that torrent could only be crossed by the broken bridge and was too rapid to
+swim. The Asiki, he added, must go a long journey round through the city in
+order to come at them, though doubtless they would hunt them down in time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here Jeekie cut him short, since he knew all that country well and only wished
+to learn whether any more bridges had been built across the torrent since he
+was a boy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, Major,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you get up and follow me, for I know
+every inch of ground, also by and by good short cut over mountains. You see
+Jeekie very clever boy, and when he herd sheep and goat he made note of
+everything and never forget nothing. He pull you out of this hole, never
+fear.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Glad to hear it, I am sure,&rdquo; answered Alan as he rose. &ldquo;But
+what&rsquo;s to become of the Mungana?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know and don&rsquo;t care,&rdquo; said Jeekie; &ldquo;no
+more good to us. Can go and see how Big Bonsa feel, if he like,&rdquo; and
+stretching out his big hand as though in a moment of abstraction, he removed
+the costly necklaces from their guide&rsquo;s neck and thrust them into the
+pouch he wore. Also he picked up the gilded linen mask which Alan had removed
+from his head and placed it in the same receptacle, remarking, that he
+&ldquo;always taught that it wicked to waste anything when so many poor in the
+world.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then they started, the Mungana following them. Jeekie paused and waved him off,
+but the poor wretch still came on, whereon Jeekie produced the big, crooked
+knife, Mungana&rsquo;s own knife.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What are you going to do?&rdquo; said Alan, awaking to the situation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cut off head of that cocktail man, Major, and so save him lot of
+trouble. Also we got no grub, and if we find any he want eat a lot. Chop what
+do for two p&rsquo;raps, make very short commons for three. Also he might play
+dirty trick, so much best dead.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nonsense,&rdquo; said Alan sternly; &ldquo;let the poor devil come along
+if he likes. One good turn deserves another.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Just so, Major; that hello-swello want cut our throats, so I want cut
+his&mdash;one good turn deserve another, as wise king say in Book, when he give
+half baby to woman what wouldn&rsquo;t have it. Well, so be, Major, specially
+as it no matter, for he not stop with us long.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mean that he will run away, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! no, he not run away, he in too blue funk for that. But something run
+away with him, because he ought die to-morrow night. Oh! yes, you see, you see,
+and Jeekie hope that something not run away with you too, Major, because you
+ought be married at same time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hope not, I am sure,&rdquo; answered Alan, and bethinking him of Big
+Bonsa wallowing and screaming on the water and bleeding out white blood, he
+shivered a little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time, advancing at a trot, the Mungana running after them like a dog,
+they had entered the bush pierced with a few wandering paths. Along these paths
+they sped for hour after hour, Jeekie leading them without a moment&rsquo;s
+hesitation. They met no man and heard nothing, except occasional weird sounds
+which Alan put down to wild beasts, but Jeekie and the Mungana said were
+produced by ghosts. Indeed it appeared that all this jungle was supposed to be
+haunted, and no Asiki would enter it at night, or unless he were very bold and
+protected by many charms, by day either. Therefore it was an excellent place
+for fugitives who sorely needed a good start.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length the day began to dawn just as they reached the main road where it
+crossed the hills, whence on his journey thither Alan had his first view of
+Bonsa Town. Peering from the edge of the bush, they perceived a fire burning
+near the road and round it five or six men, who seemed to be asleep. Their
+first thought was to avoid them, but the Mungana, creeping up to Alan, for
+Jeekie he would not approach, whispered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not Asiki, Ogula chief and slaves who left Bonsa Town yesterday.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They crept nearer the fire and saw that this was so. Then rejoicing
+exceedingly, they awoke the old chief, Fahni, who at first thought they must be
+spirits. But when he recognized Alan, he flung himself on his knees and kissed
+his hand, because to him he owed his liberty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No time for all that, Fahni,&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;Give us
+food.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now of this as it chanced there was plenty, since by the Asika&rsquo;s orders
+the slaves had been laden with as much as they could carry. They ate of it
+ravenously, and while they ate, told Fahni something of the story of their
+escape. The old chief listened amazed, but like Jeekie asked Alan why he had
+not killed the Mungana, who would have killed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan, who was in no mood for long explanations, answered that he had kept him
+with them because he might be useful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, yes, friend, I see,&rdquo; exclaimed the old cannibal,
+&ldquo;although he is so thin he will always make a meal or two at a pinch.
+Truly white men are wise and provident. Like the ants, you take thought for the
+morrow.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as they had swallowed their food they started all together, for
+although Alan pointed out to Fahni that he might be safer apart, the old chief
+who had a real affection for him, would not be persuaded to leave him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let us live or die together,&rdquo; he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Jeekie, abandoning the main road, led them up a stream, walking in the
+water so that their footsteps might leave no trace, and thus away into the
+barren mountains which rose between them and the great swamp. On the crest of
+these mountains Alan turned and looked back towards Bonsa Town. There far
+across the fertile valley was the hateful, river-encircled place. There fell
+the great cataract in the roar of which he had lived for so many weeks. There
+were the black cedars and there gleamed the roofs of the Gold House, his prison
+where dwelt the Asika and the dreadful fetishes of which she was the priestess.
+To him it was like the vision of a nightmare, he could scarcely think it real.
+And yet by this time doubtless they sought him far and wide. What mood, he
+wondered, would the Asika be in when she learned of his escape and the fashion
+of it, and how would she greet him if he were recaptured and taken back to her?
+Well, he would not be recaptured. He had still some cartridges and he would
+fight till they killed him, or failing that, save the last of them for himself.
+Never, never could he endure to be dragged back to Bonsa Town there to live and
+die.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They went on across the mountains, till in the afternoon once more they saw the
+road running beneath them like a ribbon, and at the end of it the lagoon. Now
+they rested a while and held a consultation while they ate. Across that lagoon
+they could not escape without a canoe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lord,&rdquo; said the Mungana presently, &ldquo;yesterday when these
+cannibals were let go a swift runner was sent forward, commanding that a good
+boat should be provisioned and made ready for them, and by now doubtless this
+has been done. Let them descend to the road, walk on to the bay and ask for the
+boat. Look, yonder, far away a tongue of land covered with trees juts out into
+the lake. We will make our way thither and after nightfall this chief can row
+back to it and take us into the canoe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan said that the plan was good, but Jeekie shook his head, asking what would
+happen if Fahni, finding himself safe upon the water, thought it wisest not to
+come to fetch them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan translated his words to the old chief, whereon Fahni wanted to fight
+Jeekie because of the slur that he had cast upon his honour. This challenge
+Jeekie resolutely declined, saying that already there were plenty of ways to
+die in Asiki-land without adding another to them. Then Fahni swore by his
+tribal god and by the spirit of every man he had ever eaten, that he would come
+to that promontory after dark, if he were still alive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they separated, Fahni and his men slipping down to the road, which they did
+without being seen by anyone, while Alan, Jeekie and the Mungana bore away to
+the right towards the promontory. The road was long and rough and, though by
+good fortune they met no one, since the few who dwelt in these wild parts had
+gone up to Bonsa Town to be present at the great feast, the sun was sinking
+before ever they reached the place. Moreover, this promontory proved to be
+covered with dense thorn scrub, through which they must force a way in the
+gathering darkness, not without hurt and difficulty. Still they accomplished it
+and at length, quite exhausted, crept to the very point, where they hid
+themselves between some stones at the water&rsquo;s edge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here they waited for three long hours, but no boat came.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All up a gum-tree now, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie. &ldquo;Old blackguard,
+Fanny, bolt and leave us here. <i>He</i> play hookey-walker, and to-morrow
+morning Asika nobble <i>us.</i> Better have gone down to bay, steal his boat
+and leave him behind, because Asika no want <i>him</i>. That only common
+sense.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan made no answer. He was too tired, and although he trusted Fahni, it seemed
+likely enough that Jeekie was right, or perhaps the cannibals had not been able
+to get the boat. Well, he had done his best, and if Fate overtook them it was
+no fault of his. He began to doze, for even their imminent peril could not keep
+his eyes open, then presently awoke with a start, for in his sleep he thought
+he heard the sounds of paddles beating the quiet water. Yes, there dimly seen
+through the mist, was a canoe, and seated in the stern of it Fahni. So that
+danger had gone by also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He woke his companions, who slept at his side, and very silently they rose,
+stepping from rock to rock till they reached the canoe and entered it. It was
+not a large craft, barely big enough to hold them all indeed, but they found
+room, and then at a sign from Fahni the oarsmen gave way so heartily that
+within half an hour they had lost sight of the accursed shores of Asiki-land,
+although presently its mountains showed up clearly beneath the moon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Fahni had told his tale. It appeared that when he reached the bay he
+found the Asiki headman who dwelt there, and those under him, in a state of
+considerable excitement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rumours had reached them that someone had escaped from Bonsa Town; they thought
+it was the Mungana. Fahni asked who had brought the rumour, whereon the headman
+answered that it came &ldquo;in a dream,&rdquo; and would say no more. Then he
+demanded the canoe which had been promised to him and his people, and the
+headman admitted that it was ready in accordance with orders received from the
+Asika, but demurred to letting him have it. A long argument followed, in the
+midst of which Fahni and his men got into the canoe, the headman apparently not
+daring to use force to prevent him. Just as they were pushing off a messenger
+arrived from Bonsa Town, reeling with exhaustion and his tongue hanging from
+his jaws, who called out that it was the white man who had escaped with his
+servant and the Mungana, and that although they were believed to be still
+hidden in the holy woods near Bonsa Town, none were to be allowed to leave the
+bay. So the headman shouted to Fahni to return, but he pretended not to hear
+and rowed away, nor did anyone attempt to follow him. Still it was only after
+nightfall that he dared to put the boat about and return to the headland to
+pick up Alan and the others as he had promised. That was all he had to say.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan thanked him heartily for his faithfulness and they paddled on steadily,
+putting mile after mile of water between them and Asiki-land. He wondered
+whether he had seen the last of that country and its inhabitants. Something
+within him answered No. He was sure that the Asika would not allow him to
+depart in peace without making some desperate effort to recapture him. Far as
+he was away, it seemed to him that he could feel her fury hanging over him like
+a cloud, a cloud that would burst in a rain of blood. Doubtless it would have
+burst already had it not been for the accident that he and his companions were
+still supposed to be hiding in the woods. But that error must be discovered,
+and then would come the pursuit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at the full moon shining upon him and reflected that at this very
+hour he should have been seated upon the chair of state, wedding, or rather
+being wedded by the Asika in the presence of Big and Little Bonsa and all the
+people. His eye fell upon the Mungana, who had also been destined to play a
+prominent part in that ceremony. At once he saw that there was something wrong
+with the man. A curious change had come over his emaciated face. It was working
+like that of a maniac. Foam appeared upon his dyed lips, his haunted eyes
+rolled, his thin hands gripped the side of the canoe and he began to sing, or
+rather howl like a dog baying at the stars. Jeekie hit him on the head and bade
+him be silent, but he took no notice, even when he hit him again more heavily.
+Presently came the climax. The man sprang up in the canoe, causing it to rock
+from side to side. He pointed to the full moon above and howled more loudly
+than before; he pointed to something that he seemed to see in the air near by
+and gibbered as though in terror. Then his eyes fixed themselves upon the water
+at which he stared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Harder and harder he stared, his head sinking lower every moment, till at
+length without another sound, very quietly and unexpectedly he went over the
+side of the boat. For a few seconds they saw his bright-coloured garments
+sinking to the depths, then he vanished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They waited a while, expecting that he would rise again. But he never rose. A
+shot-weighted corpse could not have disappeared more finally and completely.
+The thing was very awful, and for a while there was silence, which as usual was
+broken by Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That gay dog gone,&rdquo; he said in a reflective voice. &ldquo;All
+those old ghosts come to fetch him at proper time. No good run away from
+ghosts; they travel too quick; one jump, and pop up where you no expect. Well,
+more place for Jeekie now,&rdquo; and he spread himself out comfortably in the
+empty seat, adding, &ldquo;like hello-swello&rsquo;s room much better than
+company, he go in scent-bath every day and stink too much, all that water never
+wash <i>him</i> clean.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus died the Mungana, and such was the poor wretch&rsquo;s requiem. With a
+shiver Alan reflected that had it not been for him and his insane jealousy, he
+too might have been expected to go into that same scent-bath and have his face
+painted like a chorus girl. Only would he escape the spell that had destroyed
+his predecessor in the affections of the priestess of the Bonsas? Or would some
+dim power such as had drawn Mungana to the death drag him back to the arms of
+the Asika or to the torture pit of &ldquo;Great Swimming Head.&rdquo; He
+remembered his dream in the Treasure Hall and shuddered at the very thought of
+it, for all he had undergone and seen made him superstitious; then bade the men
+paddle faster, ever faster.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All that night they rowed on, taking turns to rest, except Alan and Jeekie, who
+slept a good deal and as a consequence awoke at dawn much refreshed. When the
+sun rose they found themselves across the lagoon, over thirty miles from the
+borders of Asiki-land, almost at the spot where the river up which they had
+travelled some months before, flowed out of the lake. Whether by chance or
+skill Fahni had steered a wonderfully straight course. Now, however, they were
+face to face with a new trouble, for scarcely had they begun to descend the
+river when they discovered that at this dry season of the year it was in many
+places too shallow to allow the canoe to pass over the sand and mud banks.
+Evidently there was but one thing to be done&mdash;abandon it and walk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they landed, ate from their store of food and began a terrible and toilsome
+journey. On either side of the river lay desiccated swamp covered with dead
+reeds ten or twelve feet high. Doubtless beyond the swamp there was high land,
+but in order to reach this, if it existed, they would be obliged to force a
+path through miles of reeds. Therefore they thought it safer to follow the
+river bank. Their progress was very slow, since continually they must make
+detours to avoid a quicksand or a creek, also the stones and scrubby growth
+delayed them so that fifteen or at most twenty miles was a good day&rsquo;s
+march.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still they went on steadily, seeing no man, and when their food was exhausted,
+living on the fish which they caught in plenty in the shallows, and on young
+flapper ducks that haunted the reeds. So at length they came to the main river
+into which this tributary flowed, and camped there thankfully, believing that
+if any pursuit of them had been undertaken, it was abandoned. At least Alan and
+the rest believed this, but Jeekie did not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the following morning, shortly after dawn, Jeekie awoke his master.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come here, Major,&rdquo; he said in a solemn voice, &ldquo;I got
+something pretty show you,&rdquo; and he led him to the foot of an old willow
+tree, adding, &ldquo;now up you go, Major, and look.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Alan went up and from the topmost fork of that tree saw a sight at which his
+blood turned cold. For there, not five miles behind them, on either side of the
+river bank, the light gleaming on their spears, marched two endless columns of
+men, who from their head-dresses he took to be Asiki. For a minute he looked,
+then descended the tree and approaching the others, asked what was to be done.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hook, scoot, bolt, leg it!&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie emphatically; then he
+licked his finger, held it up to the wind, and added, &ldquo;but first fire
+reeds and make it hot for Bonsa crowd.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was a good suggestion and one on which they acted without delay. Taking
+red embers, they blew them into a flame and lit torches, which they applied to
+the reeds over a width of several hundred yards. The strong northward wind soon
+did the rest; indeed with a quarter of an hour a vast sheet of flame twenty or
+thirty feet in height was rushing towards the Asiki columns. Then they began
+their advance along the river bank, running at a steady trot, for here the
+ground was open.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All that day they ran, pausing at intervals to get their breath, and at night
+rested because they must. When the light came upon the following morning they
+looked back from a little hill and saw the outposts of the Asiki advancing not
+a mile behind. Doubtless some of the army had been burned, but the rest,
+guessing their route, had forced a way through the reeds and cut across
+country. So they began to run again harder than before, and kept their lead
+during the morning. But when afternoon came the Asika gained on them. Now they
+were breasting a long rise, the river running in the cleft beneath, and Jeekie,
+who seemed to be absolutely untiring, held Alan by the hand, Fahni following
+close behind. Two of their men had fallen down and been abandoned, and the rest
+straggled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No go, Jeekie,&rdquo; gasped Alan, &ldquo;they will catch us at the top
+of the hill.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never say die, Major, never say die,&rdquo; puffed Jeekie; &ldquo;they
+get blown too, and who know what other side of hill?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Somehow they struggled to the crest and behold! there beneath them was a great
+army of men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ogula!&rdquo; yelled Jeekie, &ldquo;Ogula! Just what I tell you, Major,
+who know what other side of <i>any</i> hill.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap18"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+A MEETING IN THE FOREST.</h2>
+
+<p>
+In five minutes more Alan and Jeekie were among the Ogula, who, having
+recognized their chief while he was yet some way off, greeted him with
+rapturous cheers and the clapping of hands. Then as there was no time for
+explanation, they retreated across a little stream which ran down the valley,
+four thousand or more of them, and prepared for battle. That evening, however,
+there was no fighting, for when the first of the Asiki reached the top of the
+rise and saw that the fugitives had escaped to the enemy, who were in strength,
+they halted and finally retired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Alan, and Fahni also, hoped that the pursuit was abandoned, but again
+Jeekie shook his big head, saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not at all, Major, I know Asiki and their little ways. While one of them
+alive, not dare go back to Asika without <i>you</i>, Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps she is with them herself,&rdquo; suggested Alan, &ldquo;and we
+might treat with her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Major, Asika never leave Bonsa Town, that against law, and if she do
+so, priests make another Asika and kill her when they catch her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this a council of war was held, and it was decided to camp there that
+night, since the position was good to meet an attack if one should be made, and
+the Ogula were afraid of being caught on the march with their backs towards the
+enemy. Alan was glad enough to hear this decision, for he was quite worn out
+and ready to take any risk for a few hours&rsquo; rest. At this council he
+learned also that the Asiki bearers carrying his gold with their Ogula guides
+had arrived safely among the Ogula, who had mustered in answer to their
+chief&rsquo;s call and were advancing towards Asiki-land, though the business
+was one that did not please them. As for these Asiki bearers, it seemed that
+they had gone on into the forest with the gold, and nothing more had been heard
+of them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As they were leaving the council Alan asked Jeekie if he had any tidings of his
+mother, who had been their first messenger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Major,&rdquo; he answered gloomily, &ldquo;can&rsquo;t learn nothing
+of my ma, don&rsquo;t know where she is. Ogula camp no place for old girl if
+they short of chop and hungry. But p&rsquo;raps she never get there; I nose
+round and find out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Apparently Jeekie did &ldquo;nose round&rdquo; to some purpose, for just as
+Alan was dropping off to sleep in his bough shelter a most fearful din arose
+without, through which he recognized the vociferations of Jeekie. Running out
+of the shelter he discovered his retainer and a great Ogula whom he knew again
+as the headman who had been imprisoned with him and freed by the Asika to guide
+the bearers, rolling over and over on the ground, watched by a curious crowd.
+Just as he arrived Jeekie, who, notwithstanding his years, was a man of enormous
+strength, got the better of the Ogula and kneeling on his stomach, was
+proceeding to throttle him. Rushing at him, Alan dragged him off and asked what
+was the matter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Matter, Major!&rdquo; yelled the indignant Jeekie. &ldquo;My ma inside
+this black villain, <i>that</i> the matter. Dirty cannibal got digestion of one
+ostrich and eat her up with all his mates, all except one who not like her
+taste and tell me. They catch poor old lady asleep by road so stop and lunch at
+once when Asiki bearers not looking. Let me get at him, Major, let me get at
+him. If I can&rsquo;t bury my ma, as all good son ought to do, I bury him,
+which next best thing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;exercise a Christian spirit and
+let bygones be bygones. If you don&rsquo;t, you will make a quarrel between us
+and the Ogula, and they will give us up to the Asiki. Perhaps the man did not
+eat your mother; I understand that he denies it, and when you remember what she
+was like, it seems incredible. At any rate he has a right to a trial, and I
+will speak to Fahni about it to-morrow.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they were separated, but as it chanced that case never came on, for next
+morning this Ogula was killed in the fighting together with two of his
+companions, while the others involved in the charge kept themselves out of
+sight. Whether Jeekie&rsquo;s &ldquo;ma&rdquo; was or was not eaten by the
+Ogula no one ever learned for certain. At least she was never heard of any more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan was sleeping heavily when a sound of rushing feet and of strange,
+thrilling battle-cries awoke him. He sprang up, snatching at a spear and shield
+which Jeekie had provided for him, and ran out to find from the position of the
+moon that dawn was near.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come on, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;Asiki make night attack; they
+always like do everything at night who love darkness, because their eye evil.
+Come on quick, Major,&rdquo; and he began to drag him off toward the rear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But that&rsquo;s the wrong way,&rdquo; said Alan presently. &ldquo;They
+are attacking over there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you think Jeekie fool, Major, that he don&rsquo;t know that? He take
+you where they <i>not</i> attacking. Plenty Ogula to be killed, but not
+<i>many</i> white men like you, and in all world only <i>one</i> Jeekie!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You cold-blooded old scoundrel!&rdquo; ejaculated Alan as he turned and
+bolted back towards the noise of fighting, followed by his reluctant servant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the time that he reached the first ranks, which were some way off, the worst
+of the attack was over. It had been short and sharp, for the Asiki had hoped to
+find the Ogula unprepared and to take their camp with a rush. But the Ogula,
+who knew their habits, were waiting for them, so that presently they withdrew,
+carrying off their wounded and leaving about fifty dead upon the ground. As
+soon as he was quite sure that the enemy were all gone, Jeekie, armed with a
+large battle-axe, went off to inspect these fallen soldiers. Alan, who was
+helping the Ogula wounded, wondered why he took so much interest in them. Half
+an hour later his curiosity was satisfied, for Jeekie returned with over twenty
+heavy gold rings, torques, and bracelets slung over his shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where did you get those, Jeekie?&rdquo; he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Off poor chaps that peg out just now, Major. Remember Asiki soldiers
+nearly always wear these things, and that filthy lucre no more use where they
+gone to, &rsquo;cause they melt there. But if ever he get out of this Jeekie
+want spend his old age in respectable peace. So he fetch them. Hard work,
+though, for rings all in one bit and Asiki very tough to chop. Don&rsquo;t look
+cross, Major; you remember what &rsquo;postle say, that he who no provide for
+his own self worse than cannibal.&rdquo; 
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then Fahni came up and announced that the Asiki general had sent a
+messenger into the camp proposing terms of peace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What terms?&rdquo; asked Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;These, white man: that we should surrender you and your servant and go
+our way unharmed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed, Fahni, and what did you answer?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;White man, I refused; but I tell you,&rdquo; he added warningly,
+&ldquo;that my captains wished to accept. They said that I had come back to
+them safe and that they fear the Asiki, who are devils, not men, and who will
+bring the curse of Bonsa on us if we go on fighting with them. Still I refused,
+saying that if they gave you up I would go with you, who saved my life from the
+lion and afterwards from the priests of Bonsa. So the messenger went back and,
+white man, we march at once, and I pray you always to keep close to me that I
+may watch over you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then began that long tramp down the river, which Alan always thought afterwards
+tried him more than any of the terrible events of his escape. For although
+there was but little fighting, only rearguard actions indeed, every day the
+Asiki sent messengers renewing their offers of peace on the sole condition of
+the surrender of himself and Jeekie. At last one evening they came to that
+place where Alan first met the Ogula, and once more he camped upon the island
+on which he had shot the lion. At nightfall, after he had eaten, Fahni visited
+him here and Alan boded evil from his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;White man,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I can protect you no longer. The Asiki
+messengers have been with us again and they say that unless we give you up
+to-morrow at the dawn, their army will push on ahead of us and destroy my town,
+which is two days&rsquo; march down the river, and all the women and children
+in it, and that afterwards they will fight a great battle with us. Therefore my
+people say that I must give you up, or that if I do not they will elect another
+chief and do so themselves.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then you will give up a dead man, Fahni.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Friend,&rdquo; said the old chief in a low voice, &ldquo;the night is
+dark and the forest not so far away. Moreover, I have set no guards on that
+side of the river, and Jeekie here does not forget a road that he has
+travelled. Lastly, I have heard it said that there are some other white people
+with soldiers camped in the edge of the forest. Now, if you were not here in
+the morning, how could I give you up?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I understand, Fahni. You have done your best for me, and now,
+good-night. Jeekie and I are going to take a walk. Sometimes you will think of
+the months we spent together in Bonsa Town, will you not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, and of you also, white man, for so long as I shall live. Walk fast
+and far, for the Asiki are clever at following a spoor. Good-night, Friend, and
+to you, Jeekie the cunning, good-night also. I go to tell my captains that I
+will surrender you at dawn,&rdquo; and without more words he vanished out of
+their sight and out of their lives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Jeekie, foreseeing the issue of this talk, was already engaged in
+doing up their few belongings, including the gold rings, some food, and a
+native cooking pot, in a bundle surrounded by a couple of bark blankets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come on, Major,&rdquo; he said, handing Alan one spear and taking
+another himself. &ldquo;Old cannibal quite right, very nice night for a walk.
+Come on, Major, river shallow just here. I think this happen and try it before
+dark. You just follow Jeekie, that all you got to do.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So leaving the fire burning in front of their bough shelter, they waded the
+stream and started up the opposing slope, meeting no man. Dark as it was,
+Jeekie seemed to have no difficulty in finding the way, for as Fahni said, a
+native does not forget the path he has once travelled. All night long they
+walked rapidly, and when dawn broke found themselves at the edge of the forest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;what did Fahni mean by that tale about
+white people?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know, Major, think perhaps he lie to let you down easy. My
+golly! what that?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he spoke a distant echo reached their ears, the echo of a rifle shot.
+&ldquo;Think Fanny not lie after all,&rdquo; went on Jeekie; &ldquo;that white
+man&rsquo;s gun, sharp crack, smokeless powder, but wonder how he come in this
+place. Well, we soon find out. Come on, Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tired as they were they broke into a run; the prospect of seeing a white face
+again was too much for them. Half a mile or so further on they caught sight of
+a figure evidently engaged in stalking game among the trees, or so they judged
+from his cautious movements.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;White man!&rdquo; said Jeekie, and Alan nodded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They crept forward silently and with care, for who knew what this white man
+might be after, keeping a great tree between them and the man, till at length,
+passing round its bole, they found themselves face to face with him and not
+five yards away. Notwithstanding his unaccustomed tropical dress and his face
+burnt copper colour by the sun, Alan knew the man at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aylward!&rdquo; he gasped; &ldquo;Aylward! You here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He started. He stared at Alan. Then his countenance changed. Its habitual calm
+broke up as it was wont to do in moments of deep emotion. It became very evil,
+as though some demon of hate and jealousy were at work behind it. The thin lips
+quivered, the eyes glared, and without spoken word or warning, he lifted the
+rifle and fired straight at Alan. The bullet missed him, for the aim was high.
+Passing over Alan&rsquo;s head, it cut a neat groove through the hair of the
+taller Jeekie who was immediately behind him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next instant, with a spring like that of a tiger Jeekie was on Aylward. The
+weight of his charge knocked him backwards to the ground, and there he lay,
+pinned fast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What for you do that?&rdquo; exclaimed the indignant Jeekie. &ldquo;What
+for you shoot through wool of respectable nigger, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart.?
+Now I throttle you, you dirty hog-swine. No Magistrates&rsquo; Court here in
+Dwarf Forest,&rdquo; and he began to suit the action to the word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let him go, Jeekie. Take his rifle and let him go,&rdquo; exclaimed
+Alan, who all this while had stood amazed. &ldquo;There must be some mistake,
+he cannot have meant to murder me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know what he mean, but know his bullet go through my hair,
+Major, and give me new parting,&rdquo; grumbled Jeekie as he obeyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Of course it was a mistake, Vernon, for I suppose it is Vernon,&rdquo;
+said Aylward, as he rose. &ldquo;I do not wonder that your servant is angry,
+but the truth is that your sudden appearance frightened me out of my wits and I
+fired automatically. We have been living in some danger here, and my nerves are
+not as strong as they used to be.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; answered Alan. &ldquo;No, Jeekie will carry the rifle for
+you; yes, and I think that pistol also, every ounce makes a difference walking
+in a hot climate, and I remember that you always were dangerous with firearms.
+There, you will be more comfortable so. And now, who do you mean by
+&lsquo;we&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I mean Barbara and myself,&rdquo; he answered slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan&rsquo;s jaw dropped, he shook upon his feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Barbara and yourself!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Do I
+understand&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you understand nothing, Major,&rdquo; broke in Jeekie.
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you believe one word what this pig dog say. If Miss Barbara
+marry him he no want shoot you; he ask you to tea to see the Missus and how
+much she love him, ducky! We just go on and call on Miss Barbara and hear the
+news. Walk up, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., and show us which way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not choose to receive you and your impertinent servant at my
+camp,&rdquo; said Aylward, grinding his teeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We quite understand that, Sir Robert Aylward&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Lord Aylward, if you please, Major Vernon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I beg your pardon&mdash;Lord Aylward. I was aware of the contemplated
+purchase of that title, I did not know that it had been completed. I was about
+to add that all the same we mean to go to that camp, and that if any violence
+towards us is attempted as we approach it, you will remember that you are in
+our hands.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, my Lord,&rdquo; added Jeekie, bowing, &ldquo;and that monkeys
+don&rsquo;t tell no tales, my Lord, and that here there ain&rsquo;t no twelve
+Good-Trues to sit on noble corpse unhappily deceased, my Lord, and to bring in
+Crowner&rsquo;s verdict of done to death lawful or unlawful, according as
+evidence may show when got, my Lord. So march on, for we no breakfast yet. No,
+not that way, round here to left, where I think I hear kettle sing.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So having no choice, Aylward came, marching between the other two and saying
+nothing. When they had gone a couple of hundred yards Alan also heard
+something, and to him it sounded like a man crying out in pain. Then suddenly
+they passed round some great trees and reached a glade in the forest where
+there was a spring of water which Alan remembered. In this glade the camp had
+been built, surrounded by a &ldquo;boma&rdquo; or palisade of rough wood,
+within which stood two tents and some native shelters made of tall grass and
+boughs. Outside of this camp a curious and unpleasant scene was in progress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To a small tree that grew there was tied a man, whom from the fashion of his
+hair Alan knew to belong to the Coast negroes, while two great fellows,
+evidently of another tribe, flogged him unmercifully with hide whips.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie, &ldquo;that the kettle I hear sing. Think
+you better taken him off the fire, my Lord, or he boil over. Also his brothers
+no seem like that music,&rdquo; and he pointed to a number of other men who
+were standing round watching the scene with sullen dissatisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A matter of camp discipline,&rdquo; muttered Aylward. &ldquo;This man
+has disobeyed orders.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By now Jeekie was shouting something to the natives in an unknown tongue, which
+they seemed to understand well enough. At any rate the flogging ceased, the two
+fellows who were inflicting it slunk away, and the other men ran towards them,
+shouting back as they came.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All right, Major. You please stop here one minute with my Lord, late
+Bart. of Bloody Hand. Some of these chaps friends of mine, I meet them Old
+Calabar while we get ready to march last rains. Now I have little talk with
+them and find out thing or two.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Aylward began to bluster about interference with his servants and so forth.
+Jeekie turned on him with a very ugly grin, and showing his white teeth, as was
+his fashion when he grew fierce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Beg pardon, Right Honourable Lord,&rdquo; he said, or rather snarled,
+&ldquo;you do what I tell you just to please Jeekie. Jeekie no one in England,
+but Jeekie damn big Lord too out here, great medicine man, pal of Little Bonsa.
+You remember Little Bonsa, eh! These chaps think it great honour to meet
+Jeekie, so, Major, if he stir, please shoot him through head; Jeekie
+&rsquo;sponsible, not you. Or if you not like do it, I come back and see to job
+myself and don&rsquo;t think those fellows cry very much.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was something about Jeekie&rsquo;s manner that frightened Aylward, who
+understood for the first time that beneath all the negro&rsquo;s grotesque talk
+lay some dreadful, iron purpose, as courage lay under his affected cowardice
+and under his veneer of selfishness, fidelity. At any rate he halted with Alan,
+who stood beside him, the revolver of which Aylward had been relieved by
+Jeekie, in his hand. Meanwhile Jeekie, who held the rifle which he had
+reloaded, went on and met the natives about twenty yards away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We always disliked each other, Vernon, but I must say that I never
+thought a day would come when you proposed to murder me in my own camp,&rdquo;
+said Aylward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Odd thing,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;but a very similar idea was in
+my mind. I never thought, Lord Aylward, that however unscrupulous you might
+be&mdash;financially&mdash;a day would come when you would attempt to shoot
+down an unarmed man in an African forest. Oh! don&rsquo;t waste breath in
+lying; I saw you recognize me, aim, and fire, after which Jeekie would have had
+the other barrel, and who then would have remained to tell the story, Lord
+Aylward?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Aylward made no answer, but Alan felt that if wishes could kill him he would
+not live long. His eye fell upon a long, unmistakable mound of fresh earth,
+beneath a tree. He calculated its length, and with a thrill of terror noticed
+that it was too small for a negro.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who is buried there?&rdquo; he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Find out for yourself,&rdquo; was the sneering answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be afraid, Lord Aylward; I shall find out everything in
+time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The conversation between Jeekie and the natives proceeded, their heads were
+close together; it grew animated. They seemed to be coming to some decision.
+Presently one of them ran and cut the lashings of the man who had been bound to
+the tree, and he staggered towards them and joined in the talk, pointing to his
+wounds. Then the two fellows who had been engaged in flogging him, accompanied
+by eight companions of the same type&mdash;they appeared to be soldiers, for
+they carried guns&mdash;swaggered towards the group who were being addressed by
+Jeekie, of whom Alan counted twenty-three. As they approached Jeekie made some
+suggestion which, after one hesitating moment, the others seemed to accept, for
+they nodded their heads and separated out a little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie stepped forward and asked a question of the guards, to which they
+replied with a derisive shout. Then without a word of warning he lifted
+Aylward&rsquo;s express rifle which he carried, and fired first one barrel and
+then the other, shooting the two leading soldiers dead. Their companions halted
+amazed, but before they could lift their guns, Jeekie and those with him rushed
+at them and began stabbing them with spears and striking them with sticks. In
+three minutes it was over without another shot being fired. Most of them were
+despatched, and the others, throwing down their guns, had fled wounded into the
+forest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, shouting in jubilation, some of the men began to drag away the dead
+bodies, while others collected the rifles and the remainder, headed by Jeekie,
+advanced towards Alan and Aylward, waving their red spears. Alan stood staring,
+for he did not in the least understand the meaning of what had happened, but
+Aylward, who had turned very pale, addressed Jeekie, saying:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I suppose that you have come to murder me also, you black villain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no, my Lord,&rdquo; answered Jeekie politely, &ldquo;not at present.
+Also that wrong word, execute, not murder, just what you do to some of these
+poor devils,&rdquo; and he pointed to the mob of porters. &ldquo;Besides,
+mustn&rsquo;t kill holy white man, poor black chap don&rsquo;t matter, plenty
+more where he come from. Think we all go see Miss Barbara now. You come too, my
+Lord Bart., but p&rsquo;raps best tie your hands behind you first; if you want
+scratch head, I do it for you. That only fair, you scratch mine this
+morning.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then at a word from Jeekie some of the natives sprang on Aylward and tied his
+hands behind his back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is Miss Barbara alive?&rdquo; said Alan to Jeekie in an agonized
+whisper, at the same time nodding towards the grave that was so ominously short.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hope so, think so, these cards say so, but God He know alone,&rdquo;
+answered Jeekie. &ldquo;Go and look, that best way to find out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So they advanced into the camp through a narrow gateway made of a V-shaped
+piece of wood, to where the two tents were placed in its inner division. Of
+these tents, the first was open, whereas the second was closed. As the open
+tent was obviously empty, they went to the second, whereof Jeekie began to
+loosen the lashings of the flap. It was a long business, for they seemed to
+have been carefully knotted inside; indeed at last, growing impatient, Jeekie
+cut the cord, using the curved knife with which the Mungana had tried to kill
+Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Alan was suffering torments, being convinced that Barbara was dead
+and buried in that new-made grave beneath the trees. He could not speak, he
+could scarcely stand, and yet a picture began to form in his numb mind. He saw
+himself seated in the dark in the Treasure House at Bonsa Town; he saw a vision
+in the air before him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lo! the tent door opened and that vision reappeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was the pale Barbara seated, weeping. There again, as he entered she
+sprang up and snatching the pistol that lay beside her, turned it to her
+breast. Then she perceived him and the pistol sank downwards till from her
+relaxed hand it dropped to the ground. She threw up her arms and without a
+sound fell backwards, or would have fallen, had he not caught her.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap19"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
+THE LAST OF THE ASIKI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Barbara had recovered. She sat upon her bed in the tent and by her sat Alan,
+holding her hand, while before them stood Aylward like a prisoner in the dock,
+and behind him the armed Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell me the story, Barbara,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;and tell it
+briefly, for I cannot bear much more of this.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at him and began in a slow, even voice:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;After you had gone, dear, things went on as usual for a month or two.
+Then came the great Sahara Company trouble. First there were rumours and the
+shares began to go down. My uncle bought them in by tens and hundreds of
+thousands, to hold up the market, because he was being threatened, but of
+course he did not know then that Lord Aylward&mdash;for I forgot to tell you,
+he had become a lord somehow&mdash;was secretly one of the principal sellers,
+let him deny it if he can. At last the Ottoman Government, through the English
+ambassador, published its repudiation of the concession, which it seems was a
+forgery, actually executed or obtained in Constantinople by my uncle. Well,
+there was a fearful smash. Writs were taken out against my uncle, but before
+they could be served, he died suddenly of heart disease. I was with him at the
+time, and he kept saying he saw that gold mask which Jeekie calls Bonsa, the
+thing you took back to Africa. He had a fine funeral, for what he had done was
+not publicly known, and when his will was opened I found that he had left me
+his fortune, but made Lord Aylward there my trustee until I came to the full
+age of twenty-five under my father&rsquo;s will. Alan, don&rsquo;t force me to
+tell you what sort of a guardian he was to me; also there was no fortune, it
+had all gone; also I had very, very little left, for almost all my own money
+had gone too. In his despair he had forged papers to get it in order to support
+those Sahara Syndicate shares. Still I managed to borrow about &pound;2000 from that
+little lawyer out of the &pound;5000 that remain to me, an independent sum which he
+was unable to touch, and, Alan, with it I came to find you.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Alan, Lord Aylward followed me; although everybody else was ruined, he
+remained rich, very, very rich, they say, and his fancy was to marry me, also I
+think it was not comfortable for him in England. It is a long tale, but I got
+up here with about five-and-twenty servants, and Snell, my maid, whom you
+remember. Then we were both taken ill with some dreadful fever and had it not
+been for those good black people, I should have died, for I have been very
+sick, Alan. But they nursed me and I recovered; it was poor Snell who died,
+they buried her a few days ago. I thought that she would live, but she had a
+relapse. Next Lord Aylward appeared with twelve soldiers and some porters who,
+I believe, have run away now,&mdash;oh! you can guess, you can guess. He wanted
+my people to carry me off somewhere, to the coast, I suppose, but they were
+faithful to me and would not. Then he set his soldiers on to maltreat them.
+They shot several of them and flogged them on every opportunity; they were
+flogging one of them just now, I heard them. Well, the poor men made me
+understand that they could bear it no longer and must do what he told them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And so, Alan, as I was quite hopeless and helpless, I made up my mind to
+kill myself, hoping that God would forgive me and that I should find you
+somewhere, perhaps after sleeping a while, for it was better to die than to be
+given into the power&mdash;of that man. I thought that he was coming for me
+just now and I was about to do it, but it was you instead, Alan, <i>you</i>,
+and only just in time. That is all the story, and I hope you will not think
+that I have acted very foolishly, but I did it for the best. If you only knew
+what I have suffered, Alan, what I have gone through in one way and another, I
+am sure that you would not judge me harshly; also I kept dreaming that you were
+in trouble and wanted me to come to you, and of course I knew where you were
+gone and had that map. Send him away, Alan, for I am still so weak and I cannot
+bear the sight of his face. If you knew everything, you would understand.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan turned on Aylward and in a cold, quiet voice asked him what he had to say
+to this story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have to say, Major Vernon, that it is a clever mixture of truth and
+falsehood. It is true that your cousin, Champers-Haswell, had been proved
+guilty of some very shameful conduct. For instance, it appears that he did
+forge, or rather cause to be forged that Firman from the Sultan, although I
+knew nothing of this until it was publicly repudiated. It is also true that
+fearing exposure he entirely lost his head and spent not only his own great
+fortune but that of Miss Champers also, in trying to support Sahara shares. I
+admit also that I sold many hundreds of thousands of those shares in the
+ordinary way, having made up my mind to retire from business when I was raised
+to the peerage. I admit further, what you knew before, that I was attached to
+Miss Champers and wished to marry her. Why should I not, especially as I had a
+good deal to offer to a lady who has been proved to be almost without fortune?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;For the rest she set out secretly on this mad journey to Africa, whither
+both my duty as her trustee and my affection prompted me to follow her. I found
+her here recovering from an illness, and since she has dwelt upon the point, in
+self-defence I must tell you that whatever has taken place between us, has been
+with her full consent and encouragement. Of course I allude only to those
+affectionate amenities which are common between people who purpose to marry as
+soon as opportunity may offer.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this declaration poor Barbara gasped and leaned back against her pillow.
+Alan stood silent, though his lips turned white, while Jeekie thrust his big
+head through the tent opening and stared upwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What are you looking at, Jeekie?&rdquo; asked Alan irritably.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Seem to want air, Major, also look to see if clouds tumble. Believe
+partickler big lie do that sometimes. Please go on, O good Lord, for Jeekie
+want his breakfast.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As regards the execution of two of Miss Champers&rsquo; bearers and the
+flogging of some others, these punishments were inflicted for mutiny,&rdquo;
+went on Aylward. &ldquo;It was obviously necessary that she should be moved
+back to the coast, but I found out that they were trying to desert her in a
+body and to tamper with my own servants, and so was obliged to take strong
+measures.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sure those clouds come down now,&rdquo; soliloquized Jeekie, &ldquo;or
+least something rummy happen.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have only to add, Major Vernon, that unless you make away with me
+first, as I daresay you will, as soon as we reach civilization again I shall
+proceed against you and this fellow for the cold-blooded murder of my men, in
+punishment of which I hope yet to live to see you hanged. Meanwhile, I have
+much pleasure in releasing Miss Champers from her engagement to me which,
+whatever she may have said to you in England, she was glad enough to enter on
+here in Africa, a country of which I have been told the climate frequently
+deteriorates the moral character.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hear, hear!&rdquo; ejaculated Jeekie, &ldquo;he say something true at
+last; by accident, I think, like pig what find pearl in muck-heap.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hold your tongue, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;I do not intend to
+kill you, Lord Aylward, or to do you any harm&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nor I neither,&rdquo; broke in Jeekie, &ldquo;all I do to my Lord just
+for my Lord&rsquo;s good; who Jeekie that he wish to hurt noble British
+&rsquo;ristocrat?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But I do intend that it shall be impossible that Miss Champers should be
+forced to listen to more of your insults,&rdquo; went on Alan, &ldquo;and to
+make sure that your gun does not go off again as it did this morning. So, Lord
+Aylward, until we have settled what we are going to do, I must keep you under
+arrest. Take him to his tent, Jeekie, and put a guard over him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, certainly, Major. Right turn, march! my Lord, and quick,
+please, since poor, common Jeekie not want dirty his black finger touching
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Aylward obeyed, but at the door of the tent swung round and favoured Alan with
+a very evil look.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Luck is with you for the moment, Major Vernon,&rdquo; he said,
+&ldquo;but if you are wise you will remember that you never have been and never
+will be my match. It will turn again, I have no doubt, and then you may look to
+yourself, for I warn you I am a bad enemy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan did not answer, but for the first time Barbara sprang to her feet and
+spoke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You mean that you are a bad man, Lord Aylward, and a coward too, or
+otherwise you would not have tortured me as you have done. Well, when it seemed
+impossible that I should escape from you except in one way, I was saved by
+another way of which I never dreamed. Now I tell you that I do not fear you any
+more. But I think,&rdquo; she added slowly, &ldquo;that you would do well to
+fear for yourself. I don&rsquo;t know why, but it comes into my mind that
+though neither Alan nor I shall lift a finger against you, you have a great
+deal of which to be afraid. Remember what I said to you months ago when you
+were angry because I would not marry you. I believe it is all coming true, Lord
+Aylward.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Barbara turned her back upon him, and that was the last time that either
+she or Alan ever saw his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was gone, and Barbara, her head upon her lover&rsquo;s shoulder and her
+sweet eyes filled with tears of joy and gratitude, was beginning to tell him
+everything that had befallen her when suddenly they heard a loud cough outside
+the tent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s that confounded Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, and he called to
+him to come in.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter now?&rdquo; he asked crossly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Breakfast, Major. His lordship got plenty good stores, borrow some from
+him and give him chit. Coming in one minute&mdash;hot coffee, kipper herring,
+rasher bacon, also butter (best Danish), and Bath Oliver biscuit.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said Alan, but Jeekie did not move.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; repeated Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Major, not very well, very ill. Thought those lies bring down
+clouds.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What do you mean, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mean, Major, that Asiki smelling about this camp. Porter-man what go to
+fetch water see them. Also believe they catch rest of those soldier chaps and
+polish them, for porter-man hear the row.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan sprang up with an exclamation; in his new-found joy he had forgotten all
+about the Asiki.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Keep hair on, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie cheerfully; &ldquo;don&rsquo;t
+think they attack yet, plenty of time for breakfast first. When they come we
+make it very hot for them, lots of rifle and cartridge now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t we run away?&rdquo; asked Barbara.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Missy, can&rsquo;t run; must stop here and do best. Camp well built,
+open all round, don&rsquo;t think they take it. You leave everything to Jeekie,
+he see you through, but p&rsquo;raps you like come breakfast outside, where you
+know all that go on.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Barbara did like, but as it happened they were allowed to consume their meal in
+peace, since no Asiki appeared. As soon as it was swallowed she returned to her
+tent, while Alan and Jeekie set to work to strengthen the defences of the
+little camp as well as they were able, and to make ready and serve out the arms
+and ammunition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About midday a man whom they had posted in a tree that grew inside the camp
+announced that he saw the enemy, and next moment a company of them rushed
+towards them across the open and were greeted by a volley which killed and
+wounded several men. At this exhibition of miraculous power, for none of these
+soldiers had ever heard the report of firearms or seen their effect, they
+retreated rapidly, uttering shouts of dismay and carrying their dead and
+wounded with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you suppose they have gone, Jeekie?&rdquo; asked Alan anxiously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Think not, Major, think they frightened, by big bullet magic, and go
+consult priest. Also only a few of them here, rest of army come later and try
+rush us to-morrow morning before dawn. That Asiki custom.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then what shall we do, Jeekie? Run for it or stop here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Think must stop here, Major. If we bolt, carrying Miss Barbara, who
+can&rsquo;t walk much, they follow on spoor and catch us. Best stick inside
+this fence and see what happen. Also once outside p&rsquo;raps porters desert
+and leave us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So as there was nothing else to do they stayed, labouring all day at the
+strengthening of their fortifications till at length the boma or fence of
+boughs, supported by earth, was so high and thick that while any were left to
+fire through the loopholes, it would be very difficult to storm by men armed
+with spears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a dreadful and arduous day for Alan, who now had Barbara&rsquo;s safety
+to think of, Barbara with whom as yet he had scarcely found time to exchange a
+word. By sunset indeed he was so worn out with toil and anxiety that he could
+scarcely stand upon his feet. Jeekie, who all that afternoon had been strangely
+quiet and reflective, surveyed him critically, then said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have good drink and go sleep a bit, Major. Very good little shelter
+there by Miss Barbara&rsquo;s tent, and you hold her hand if you like
+underneath the canvas, which comforting and all correct. Jeekie never get
+tired, he keep good lookout and let you know if anything happen, and then you
+jump up quite fresh and fight like tom-cat in corner.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first Alan refused to listen, but when Barbara added her entreaties to those
+of Jeekie he gave way, and ten minutes later was as soundly asleep as he had
+ever been in his life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Keep eye on him, Miss Barbara, and call me if he wake. Now I go give
+noble lord his supper and see that he quite comfortable. Jeekie seem very busy
+to-night, just like when Major have dinner-party at Yarleys and old cook get
+drunk in kitchen.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If Barbara could have followed Jeekie&rsquo;s movements for the next few hours,
+she would probably have agreed that he was busy. First he went to
+Aylward&rsquo;s tent, and as he had said he would, gave him his supper, and
+with it half a bottle of whisky from the stores which he had been carrying
+about with him for some time, as he said, to prevent the porters from getting
+at it. Aylward would drink little, though as his arms were tied to the
+tent-pole, Jeekie sat beside him and fed him like a baby, conversing pleasantly
+with him all the while, informing him amongst other things that he had better
+say &ldquo;big prayer,&rdquo; because the Asiki would probably cut his throat
+before morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Aylward, who was in a state of sullen fury, scarcely replied to this talk,
+except to say that if so, there was one comfort, they would cut his and his
+master&rsquo;s also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Lord,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, &ldquo;that quite true, so drink
+to next meeting, though I think you go different place to me, and when you got
+tail and I wing, you horn and I crown of glory, of course we not talk much
+together,&rdquo; and he held a mug of whisky and water&mdash;a great deal of
+whisky and a very little water&mdash;to his prisoner&rsquo;s mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Aylward drained it, feeling a need for stimulant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There,&rdquo; said Jeekie, holding it upside down, &ldquo;you drink
+every drop and not offer one to poor old Jeekie. Well, he turned teetotaller,
+so no matter. Good-night, my Lord, I call you if Asiki come.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who are the Asiki?&rdquo; asked Aylward drowsily.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! you want to know? I tell you,&rdquo; and he began a long, rambling
+story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before he ever came to the end of it Aylward had fallen on his side and was
+fast asleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; said Jeekie, contemplating him, &ldquo;that whisky very
+strong, though bottle say same as they drink in House of Common. That whisky so
+strong I think I pour away rest of it,&rdquo; and he did to the last drop, even
+taking the trouble to wash out the bottle with water. &ldquo;Now you no tempt
+anyone,&rdquo; he said, addressing the said bottle with a very peculiar smile,
+&ldquo;or if you tempt, at least do no harm&mdash;like kiss down
+telephone!&rdquo; Then he laid down the bottle on its side and left the tent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Outside of it three of the head porters, who appeared to be friends of his,
+were waiting for him, and with these men he engaged in low and earnest
+conversation. Next, after they had arrived at some agreement, which they seemed
+to ratify by a curious oath that involved their crossing and clasping hands in
+an odd fashion, and other symbols known to West African secret societies,
+Jeekie went the round of the camp to see that everyone was at his post. Then he
+did what most people would have thought a very curious and strange thing,
+namely climbed the fence and vanished into the forest, where presently a sound
+was heard as of an owl hooting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A little while later and another owl began to hoot in the distance, whereat the
+three head porters nudged each other. Perhaps they had heard such owls hoot
+before at night, and perhaps they knew that Jeekie, who had &ldquo;passed
+Bonsa,&rdquo; could only be harmed by the direct command of Bonsa speaking
+through the mouth of the Asika herself. Still they might have been interested
+in the nocturnal conversation of those two owls, which, as is common with such
+magical fowl in West Africa, had transformed themselves into human shapes, the
+shape of Jeekie and the shape of an Asiki priest, who was, as it happened, a
+blood relation of Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very good, Brother,&rdquo; said Owl No. 1; &ldquo;all you want is this
+white man whom the Asika desires for a husband. Well, I have done my best for
+him, but I must think of myself and others, and he goes to great happiness. I
+have given him something to make him sleep; do you come presently with eight
+men, no more, or we shall kill you, to the fence of the camp, and we will hand
+over the white man, Vernoon, to you to take back to the Asika, who will give
+you a wonderful reward, such a reward as you have never imagined. Now let me
+hear your word.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then Owl No. 2 answered:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Brother, I make the bargain on behalf of the army, and swear to it by
+the double Swimming Head of Bonsa. We will come and take the white man,
+Vernoon, who is to be Mungana, and carry him away. In return we promise not to
+follow or molest you, or any others in your camp. Indeed, why should we, who do
+not desire to be killed by the dreadful magic that you have, a magic that makes
+a noise and pierces through our bodies from afar? What were the words of the
+Asika? &rsquo;Bring back Vernoon, or perish. I care for nothing else, bring
+back Vernoon to be my husband.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good,&rdquo; said Owl No. 1, &ldquo;within the half of an hour Vernoon
+shall be ready for you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good,&rdquo; answered Owl No. 2, &ldquo;within half an hour eight of us
+will be without the east face of your camp to receive him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Silently?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Silently, my brother in Bonsa. If he cries out we will gag him. Fear
+not, none shall know your part in this matter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Good, my brother in Bonsa. By the way, how is Big Bonsa? I fear that the
+white man, Vernoon, hurt him very much, and that is why I give him
+up&mdash;because of his sacrilege.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When I left the god was very sick and all the people mourned, but
+doubtless he is immortal.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Doubtless he is immortal, my brother, a little hard magic in his
+stomach&mdash;if he has one&mdash;cannot hurt <i>him</i>. Farewell, dear
+brother in Bonsa, I wish that I were you to get the great reward that the Asika
+will give to you. Farewell, farewell.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the two owls flitted apart again, hooting as they went, till they came to
+their respective camps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie was in the tent performing a strange toilet upon the sleeping Aylward by
+the light of a single candle. From his pouch he produced the mask of linen
+painted with gold that Alan used to be forced to wear, and tied it securely
+over Aylward&rsquo;s face, murmuring:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You always love gold, my Lord Aylward, and Jeekie promise you see plenty
+of it now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then he proceeded to remove his coat, his waistcoat, his socks, and his boots
+and to replace these articles of European attire by his own worn Asiki sandals
+and his own dirty Asiki robe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;think that do,&rdquo; and he studied him
+by the light of the candle. &ldquo;Same height, same colour hair, same dirty
+clothes, and as Asiki never see Major&rsquo;s face because he always wear mask
+in public, like as two peas on shovel. Oh my! Jeekie clever chap, Jeekie
+devilish clever chap. But when Asika pull off that mask to give him true lover
+kiss, OH MY! wonder that happen then? Think whole of Bonsa Town bust up; think
+big waterfall run backwards; think she not quite pleased; think my good Lord
+find himself in false position; think Jeekie glad to be on coast; think he not
+go back to Bonsa Town no more. Oh my aunt! no, he stop in England and go church
+twice on Sunday,&rdquo; and, pressing his big hands on the pit of his stomach he
+rocked and rolled in fierce, silent laughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then an owl hooted again immediately beneath the fence and Jeekie, blowing out
+the candle, opened the flap of the tent and tapped the head porter, who stood
+outside, on the shoulder. He crept in and between them they lifted the
+senseless Aylward and bore him to the V-shaped entrance of the boma which was
+immediately opposite to the tent and, oddly enough, half open. Here the two
+other porters with whom Jeekie had performed some ceremony, chanced to be on
+guard, the rest of their company being stationed at a distance. Jeekie and the
+head porter went through the gap like men carrying a corpse to midnight burial,
+and presently in the darkness without two owls began to hoot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now Aylward was laid upon a litter that had been prepared, and eight
+white-robed Asiki bearers stared at his gold mask in the faint starlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I suppose he is not dead, brother,&rdquo; said Owl No. 2 doubtfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, brother,&rdquo; said Owl No. 1, &ldquo;feel his heart and his
+pulse. Not dead, only drunk. He will wake up by daylight, by which time you
+should be far upon your way. Be good and gentle to the white man Vernoon, who
+has been my master. Be careful, too, that he does not escape you, brother, for
+as you know he is very strong and cunning. Say to the Asika that Jeekie her
+servant makes his reverence to her, and hopes that she will have many, many
+happy years with the husband that he sends her; also that she will remember
+him whom she called &lsquo;black dog,&rsquo; and whose face she often smacked,
+in her prayers to the gods and spirits of our people.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It shall be done, brother, but why do you not return with us?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because, brother, I have ties across the Black Water&mdash;dear
+children, almost white&mdash;whom I love so much that I cannot leave them.
+Farewell, brethren, the blessings of the Bonsas be on you, and may you grow fat
+and prosper in the love and favour of our lady the Asika.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Farewell,&rdquo; they murmured in answer. &ldquo;Good fortune be your
+bedfellow.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another minute and they had lifted up the litter and vanished at a swinging
+trot into the shadow of the trees. Jeekie returned to the camp and ordered the
+three men to re-stop the gateway with thorns, muttering in their ears:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Remember, brethren, one word of this and you die, all of you, as those
+die who break the oath.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have we not sworn?&rdquo; they whispered, as they went back to their
+posts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie stood a while in front of the empty tent and if any had been there to
+note him, they might have seen a shadow as of compunction creep over his
+powerful black face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When he wake up he won&rsquo;t know where he are,&rdquo; he reflected,
+&ldquo;and when he get to Bonsa Town he&rsquo;ll wonder where he is, and when
+he meet Asika! Well, he very big blackguard; try to murder Major, whom Jeekie
+nurse as baby, the only thing that Jeekie care for&mdash;except&mdash;Jeekie;
+try to make love to Miss Barbara against will when he catch her alone in
+forest, which not playing game. Jeekie self not such big blackguard as that
+dirt-born noble Lord; Jeekie never murder no one&mdash;not quite; Jeekie never
+make love to girl what not want him&mdash;no need, so many what do that he have
+to shove them off, like good Christian man. Mrs. Jeekie see to that while she
+live. Also better that mean white man go call on Bonsas than Major and Missy
+Barbara and all porters, and Jeekie&mdash;specially Jeekie&mdash;get throat
+cut. No, no, Jeekie nothing to be ashamed of, Jeekie do good day&rsquo;s work,
+though Jeekie keep it tight as wax since white folk such silly people, and when
+Major in a rage, he very nasty customer and see everything upside down. Now,
+Jeekie quite tired, so say his prayers and have nap. No, think not in tent,
+though very comfortable. Major might wake up, poke his nose in there, and if he
+see black face instead of white one, ask ugly question, which if Jeekie half
+asleep he no able to answer nice and neat. Still he just arrange things a
+little so they look all right.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap20"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br />
+THE ASIKA&rsquo;S MESSAGE.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Dawn began to break in the forest, and Alan woke in his shelter and stretched
+himself. He had slept soundly all the night, so soundly that the innocent
+Jeekie wondered much whether by any chance he also had taken a tot out of that
+particular whisky bottle, as indeed he had recommended him to do. People who
+drink whisky after long abstinence from spirits are apt to sleep long, he
+reflected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan crept out of the shelter and gazed affectionately at the tent in which
+Barbara slumbered. Thank Heaven she was safe so far, as for some unknown
+reason, evidently the Asiki had postponed their attack. Just then a clamour
+arose in the air, and he perceived Jeekie striding towards him waving one arm
+in an excited fashion, while with the other he dragged along the captain of the
+porters, who appeared to be praying for mercy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here pretty go, Major,&rdquo; he shouted, &ldquo;devil and all to pay!
+That my Lord, he gone and bolted. This silly fool say that three hours ago he
+hear something break through fence and think it only hy&aelig;na what come to steal,
+so take no notice. Well, that hy&aelig;na, you guess who he is. You come look,
+Major, you come look, and then we tie this fellow up and flog him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan ran to Aylward&rsquo;s tent, to find it empty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look,&rdquo; said Jeekie, who had followed, &ldquo;see how he do
+business, that jolly clever hy&aelig;na,&rdquo; and he pointed to a broken whisky
+bottle and some severed cords. &ldquo;You see he manage break bottle and rub
+rope against cut glass till it come in two. Then he do hy&aelig;na dodge and hook
+it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan inspected the articles, nor did any shadow of doubt enter his mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly he managed very well,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;especially for a
+London-bred man, but, Jeekie, what can have been his object?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! who know, Major? Mind of man very strange and various thing;
+p&rsquo;raps he no bear to see you and Miss Barbara together; p&rsquo;raps he
+bolt coast, get ear of local magistrate before you; p&rsquo;raps he sit up tree
+to shoot you; p&rsquo;raps nasty temper make him mad. But he gone anyway, and
+I hope he no meet Asiki, poor fellow, &rsquo;cause if so, who know?
+P&rsquo;raps they knock him on head, or if they think him you, they make him
+prisoner and keep him quite long while before they let him go again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;he has gone of his own free will, so we
+have no responsibility in the matter, and I can&rsquo;t pretend that I am sorry
+to see the last of him, at any rate for the present. Let that poor beggar
+loose, there seems to have been enough flogging in this place, and after all he
+isn&rsquo;t much to blame.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie obeyed, apparently with much reluctance, and just then they saw one of
+their own people running towards the camp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&rsquo;Fraid he going to tell us Asiki come attack,&rdquo; said Jeekie,
+shaking his head. &ldquo;Hope they give us time breakfast first.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No doubt,&rdquo; answered Alan nervously, for he feared the result of
+that attack.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the man arrived breathless and began to gasp out his news, which filled
+Alan with delight and caused a look of utter amazement to appear upon the broad
+face of Jeekie. It was to the effect that he had climbed a high tree as he had
+been bidden to do, and from the top of that tree by the light of the first rays
+of the rising sun, miles away on the plain beyond the forest, he had seen the
+Asiki army in full retreat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; exclaimed Alan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, but that very rum story. Jeekie can&rsquo;t swallow it all
+at once. Must send out see none of them left behind. P&rsquo;raps they play
+trick, but if they really gone, &rsquo;spose it &rsquo;cause guns frightens
+them so much. Always think powder very great &rsquo;vention, especially when
+enemy hain&rsquo;t got none, and quite sure of it now. Jeekie very, very seldom
+wrong. Soon believe,&rdquo; he added with a burst of confidence, &ldquo;that
+Jeekie never wrong at all. He look for truth so long that at last he find it
+<i>always</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Something more than a month had gone by and Major and Mrs. Vernon, the latter
+fully restored to health and the most sweet and beautiful of brides, stood upon
+the steamship <i>Benin</i>, and as the sun sank, looked their last upon the
+coast of Western Africa.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, dear,&rdquo; Alan was saying to his wife, &ldquo;from first to last
+it has been a very queer story, but I really think that our getting that Asiki
+gold after all was one of the queerest parts of it; also uncommonly convenient,
+as things have turned out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Namely that you have got a little pauper for a wife instead of a great
+heiress, Alan. But tell me again about the gold. I have had so much to think of
+during the last few days,&rdquo; and she blushed, &ldquo;that I never quite
+took it all in.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, love, there isn&rsquo;t much to tell. When that forwarding agent,
+Mr. Aston, knew that we were in the town, he came to me and said that he had
+about fifty cases full of something heavy, as he supposed samples of ore,
+addressed to me to your care in England which he was proposing to ship on by
+the <i>Benin</i>. I answered &lsquo;Yes, that was all right,&rsquo; and did not
+undeceive him about their contents. Then I asked how they had arrived, and if
+he had not received a letter with them. He replied that one morning before the
+warehouse was open, some natives had brought them down in a canoe, and dumped
+them at the door, telling the watchman that they had been paid to deliver them
+there by some other natives whom they met a long way up the river. Then they
+went away without leaving any letter or message. Well, I thanked Aston and paid
+his charges and there&rsquo;s an end of the matter. Those fifty-three cases are
+now in the hold invoiced as ore samples and, as I inspected them myself and am
+sure that they have not been tampered with, besides the value of the necklace
+the Asika gave me we&rsquo;ve got &pound;100,000 to begin our married life upon with
+something over for old Jeekie, and I daresay we shall do very well on
+that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Alan, very well indeed.&rdquo; Then she reflected a while, for the
+mention of Jeekie&rsquo;s name seemed to have made her thoughtful, and added,
+&ldquo;Alan, what <i>do</i> you think became of Lord Aylward?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am sure I don&rsquo;t know. Jeekie and I and some of the porters went
+to see the Old Calabar officials and made affidavits as to the circumstances of
+his disappearance. We couldn&rsquo;t do any more, could we?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Alan. But do you think that Jeekie quite understands the meaning of
+an oath? I mean it seems so strange that we should never have found the
+slightest trace of him, and, Alan, I don&rsquo;t know if you noticed it, but
+why did Jeekie appear that morning wearing Lord Aylward&rsquo;s socks and
+boots?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He ought to know all about oaths, he has heard enough of them in
+Magistrates&rsquo; Courts, but as regards the boots, I am sure I can&rsquo;t
+say, dear,&rdquo; answered Alan uneasily. &ldquo;Here he comes, we will ask
+him,&rdquo; and he did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sock and boot,&rdquo; replied Jeekie, with a surprised air, &ldquo;why,
+Mrs. Major, if that good lord go mad and cut off into forest leaving them
+behind, of course I put them on, as they no more use to him, and I just burn my
+dirty old Asiki dress and sandal and got nothing to keep jigger out of toe.
+Don&rsquo;t you sit up here in this damp, cold, Mrs. Major, else you get more
+fever. You go down and dress dinner, which at half-past six to-night. I just
+come tell you that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Barbara went, leaving the other two talking about various matters, for they
+were alone together on the deck, all the passengers, of whom there were but
+few, having gone below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The short African twilight had come, a kind of soft blue haze that made the
+ship look mysterious and unnatural. By degrees their conversation died away.
+They lapsed into a silence, which Alan was the first to break.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What are you thinking of, Jeekie?&rdquo; he asked nervously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thinking of Asika, Major,&rdquo; he answered in a scared whisper.
+&ldquo;Seem to me that she about somewhere, just as she use pop up in room in
+Gold House; seem to me I feel her all down my back, likewise in head wool,
+which stand up.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very odd, Jeekie,&rdquo; replied Alan, &ldquo;but so do
+I.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, Major, &rsquo;spect she thinking of us, specially of you, and just
+throw what she think at us, like boy throw stones at bird what fly away out of
+cage. Asika do all that, you know, she not quite human, full of plenty Bonsa
+devil, from gen&rsquo;ration to gen&rsquo;rations, amen! P&rsquo;raps she just
+find out something what make her mad.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What could she find out after all this time, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, don&rsquo;t know. How I know? Jeekie can&rsquo;t guess. Find out you
+marry Miss Barbara, p&rsquo;raps. Very sick that she lose you for this time,
+p&rsquo;raps. Kill herself that she keep near you, p&rsquo;raps, while she wait
+till you come round again, p&rsquo;raps. Asika can do all these things if she
+like, Major.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stuff and rubbish,&rdquo; answered Alan uneasily, for Jeekie&rsquo;s
+suggestions were most uncomfortable, &ldquo;I believe in none of your West
+Coast superstitions.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite right, Major, nor don&rsquo;t I. Only you &rsquo;member, Major,
+what she show us there in Treasure-place&mdash;Mr. Haswell being buried, eh?
+Miss Barbara in tent, eh? t&rsquo;other job what hasn&rsquo;t come off yet, eh?
+Oh! my golly! Major, just you look behind you and say you see nothing,
+please,&rdquo; and the eyes of Jeekie grew large as Maltese oranges, while with
+chattering teeth he pointed over the bulwark of the vessel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alan turned and saw.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was what he saw or seemed to see: The figure of the Asika in her robes and
+breastplate of gold, standing upon the air, just beyond the ship, as though on
+it she might set no foot. Her waving black hair hung about her shoulders, but
+the sharp wind did not seem to stir it nor did her white dress flutter, and on
+her beautiful face was stamped a look of awful rage and agony, the rage of
+betrayal, the agony of loss. In her right hand she held a knife, and from a
+wound in her breast the red blood ran down her golden corselet. She pointed to
+Jeekie with the knife, she opened her arms to Alan as though in unutterable
+longing, then slowly raised them upwards towards the fading glory of the sky
+above&mdash;and was gone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie sat down upon the deck, mopping his brow with a red handkerchief, while
+Alan, who felt faint, clung to the bulwarks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Tell you, Major, that Asika can do all that kind of thing. Never know
+where you find her next. &rsquo;Spect she come to live with us in England and
+just call in now and again when it dark. Tell you, she very awkward customer,
+think p&rsquo;raps you done better stop there and marry her. Well, she gone
+now, thank Heaven! seem to drop in sea and hope she stay there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, recovering himself, &ldquo;listen to me; this
+is all infernal nonsense; we have gone through a great deal and the nerves of
+both of us are overstrained. We think we saw what we did not see, and if you
+dare to say a single word of it to your mistress, I&rsquo;ll break your neck.
+Do you understand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, think so. All &rsquo;fernal nonsense, nerves strained,
+didn&rsquo;t see what we see, and say nothing of what did see to Mrs. Major, if
+either do say anything, t&rsquo;other one break his neck. That all right, quite
+understand. Anything else, Major?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Jeekie. We have had some wonderful adventures, but they are past
+and done with and the less we talk or even think about them the better, for
+there is a lot that would be rather difficult to explain, and that if explained
+would scarcely be believed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, Major, for instance, very difficult explain Mrs. Barbara how Asika
+so fond of you if you only tell her, &lsquo;Go away, go away!&rsquo; all the
+time, like old saint-gentleman to pretty girl in picture. P&rsquo;raps she
+smell rat.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stop your ribald talk,&rdquo; said Alan in a stern voice. &ldquo;It
+would be better if instead of making jokes you gave thanks to Providence for
+bringing both of us alive and well out of very dreadful dangers. Now I am going
+to dress for dinner,&rdquo; and with an anxious glance seaward into the
+gathering darkness, he turned and went.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jeekie stood alone upon the empty deck, wagging his great white head to and fro
+and soliloquizing thus:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Wonder if Major see what under lady Asika&rsquo;s feet when she stand
+out there over nasty deep. Think not or he say something. That noble lord not
+look nice. No, private view for Jeekie only, free ticket and nothing to pay and
+me hope it no come back when I go to bed. Major know nothing about it, so he
+not see, but Jeekie know a lot. Hope that Aylward not write any letters home,
+or if he write, hope no one post them. Ghost bad enough, but murder, oh
+my!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He paused a while, then went on:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Jeekie do big sacrifice to Bonsa when he reach Yarleys, get lamb in back
+kitchen at night, or if ghost come any more, calf in wood outside. Not steal
+it, pay for it himself. Then think Jeekie turn Cath&rsquo;lic; confess his
+sins, they say them priest chaps not split, and after they got his sins, they
+tackle Asika and Bonsas too,&rdquo; and he uttered a series of penitent groans,
+turning slowly round and round to be sure that nothing was behind him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just then the full moon appeared out of a bank of clouds, and as it rose
+higher, flooding the world with light, Jeekie&rsquo;s spirits rose also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Asika never come in moonshine,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that not the game,
+against rule, and after all, what Jeekie done bad? He very good fellow really.
+Aylward great villain, serve him jolly well right if Asika spiflicate him, that
+not Jeekie&rsquo;s fault. What Jeekie do, he do to save master and missus who
+he love. Care nothing for his self, ready to die any day. Keep it dark to save
+them too, &rsquo;cause they no like the story. If once they know, it always
+leave taste in mouth, same as bad oyster. Also Jeekie manage very well, take
+Major safe Asiki-land (&rsquo;cause Little Bonsa make him), give him very
+interesting time there, get him plenty gold, nurse him when he sick, nobble
+Mungana, bring him out again, find Miss Barbara, catch hated rival and
+bamboozle all Asiki army, bring happy pair to coast and marry them, arrange
+first-class honeymoon on ship&mdash;Jeekie do all these things, and lots more
+he could tell, if he vain and not poor humble nigger.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once more he paused a while, lost in the contemplation of his own modesty and
+virtues, then continued:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This very ungrateful world. Major there, he not say, &lsquo;Thank you,
+Jeekie, Jeekie, you great, wonderful man. Brave Jeekie, artful Jeekie. Jeekie
+smart as paint who make all world believe just what he like, and one too many
+for Asika herself.&rsquo; No, no, he say nothing like that. He say &lsquo;thank
+Prov&rsquo;dence,&rsquo; not &lsquo;Jeekie,&rsquo; as though Prov&rsquo;dence
+do all them things. White folk think they clever, but great fools, really,
+don&rsquo;t know nothing. Prov&rsquo;dence all very well in his
+way&mdash;p&rsquo;raps, but Prov&rsquo;dence not a patch on Jeekie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hullo! moon get behind cloud and there second bell; think Jeekie go down
+and wait dinner; lonely up here and sure Asika never stand &rsquo;lectric
+light.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***</div>
+<div style='text-align:left'>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Updated editions will replace the previous one&#8212;the old editions will
+be renamed.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
+States without permission and without paying copyright
+royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
+of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG&#8482;
+concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
+and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
+the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
+of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
+copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
+easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
+of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
+Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may
+do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
+by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
+license, especially commercial redistribution.
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br />
+<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br />
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+To protect the Project Gutenberg&#8482; mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &#8220;Project
+Gutenberg&#8221;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
+destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works in your
+possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
+by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person
+or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.B. &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works if you follow the terms of this
+agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&#8220;the
+Foundation&#8221; or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
+of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works. Nearly all the individual
+works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
+States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
+United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
+displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
+all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
+that you will support the Project Gutenberg&#8482; mission of promoting
+free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; name associated with the work. You can easily
+comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License when
+you share it without charge with others.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
+in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
+check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
+agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
+distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
+other Project Gutenberg&#8482; work. The Foundation makes no
+representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
+country other than the United States.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
+immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License must appear
+prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg&#8482; work (any work
+on which the phrase &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; appears, or with which the
+phrase &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
+</div>
+
+<blockquote>
+  <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+    other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+    whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+    of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+    at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+    are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws
+    of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
+  </div>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work is
+derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
+contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
+the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
+redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase &#8220;Project
+Gutenberg&#8221; associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
+either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
+obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
+additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
+will be linked to the Project Gutenberg&#8482; License for all works
+posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
+beginning of this work.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg&#8482;.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; License.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
+any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
+to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg&#8482; work in a format
+other than &#8220;Plain Vanilla ASCII&#8221; or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg&#8482; website
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original &#8220;Plain
+Vanilla ASCII&#8221; or other form. Any alternate format must include the
+full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg&#8482; works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+provided that:
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'>
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+        the use of Project Gutenberg&#8482; works calculated using the method
+        you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+        to the owner of the Project Gutenberg&#8482; trademark, but he has
+        agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+        within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+        legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+        payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+        Section 4, &#8220;Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+        Literary Archive Foundation.&#8221;
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+        you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+        does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+        License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+        copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+        all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+        works.
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+        any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+        electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+        receipt of the work.
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+        distribution of Project Gutenberg&#8482; works.
+    </div>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
+from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
+the Project Gutenberg&#8482; trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
+forth in Section 3 below.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain &#8220;Defects,&#8221; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
+other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
+cannot be read by your equipment.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &#8220;Right
+of Replacement or Refund&#8221; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
+with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
+with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
+lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
+or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
+opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
+the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you &#8216;AS-IS&#8217;, WITH NO
+OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
+damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
+violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
+agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
+limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
+unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+remaining provisions.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works in
+accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
+production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
+including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
+or any Project Gutenberg&#8482; work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg&#8482; work, and (c) any
+Defect you cause.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
+exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
+from people in all walks of life.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg&#8482;&#8217;s
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg&#8482; collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg&#8482; and future
+generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
+Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation&#8217;s EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+U.S. federal laws and your state&#8217;s laws.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Foundation&#8217;s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
+Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
+to date contact information can be found at the Foundation&#8217;s website
+and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; depends upon and cannot survive without widespread
+public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
+visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; concept of a library of electronic works that could be
+freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
+distributed Project Gutenberg&#8482; eBooks with only a loose network of
+volunteer support.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
+the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+edition.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
+facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This website includes information about Project Gutenberg&#8482;,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+</body>
+
+</html>
diff --git a/2857-h/images/cover.jpg b/2857-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a5179ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2857-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b5d9cc4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #2857 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2857)
diff --git a/old/2857-8.txt b/old/2857-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6337ff5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2857-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9949 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Yellow God
+       An Idol of Africa
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2857]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE YELLOW GOD
+
+AN IDOL OF AFRICA
+
+
+By H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SAHARA LIMITED
+
+Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., M.P., sat in his office in the City of
+London. It was a very magnificent office, quite one of the finest that
+could be found within half a mile of the Mansion House. Its exterior
+was built of Aberdeen granite, a material calculated to impress the
+prospective investor with a comfortable sense of security. Other stucco,
+or even brick-built, offices might crumble and fall in an actual or a
+financial sense, but this rock-like edifice of granite, surmounted by a
+life-sized statue of Justice with her scales, admired from either corner
+by pleasing effigies of Commerce and of Industry, would surely endure
+any shock. Earthquake could scarcely shake its strong foundations; panic
+and disaster would as soon affect the Bank of England. That at least
+was the impression which it had been designed to convey, and not without
+success.
+
+"There is so much in externals," Mr. Champers-Haswell, Sir Robert's
+partner, would say in his cheerful voice. "We are all of us influenced
+by them, however unconsciously. Impress the public, my dear Aylward. Let
+solemnity without suggest opulence within, and the bread, or rather the
+granite, which you throw upon the waters will come back to you after
+many days."
+
+Mr. Aylward, for this conversation occurred before his merits or the
+depth of his purse had been rewarded by a baronetcy, looked at his
+partner in the impassive fashion for which he was famous, and answered:
+
+"You mix your metaphors, Haswell, but if you mean that the public are
+fools who must be caught by advertisement, I agree with you. Only this
+particular advertisement is expensive and I do not want to wait many
+days for my reward. However, �20,000 one way or the other is a small
+matter, so tell that architect to do the thing in granite."
+
+Sir Robert Aylward sat in his own quiet room at the back of this
+enduring building, a very splendid room that any Secretary of State
+might have envied, but arranged in excellent taste. Its walls were
+panelled with figured teak, a rich carpet made the footfall noiseless,
+an antique Venus stood upon a marble pedestal in the corner, and over
+the mantelpiece hung a fine portrait by Gainsborough, that of a certain
+Miss Aylward, a famous beauty in her day, with whom, be it added, its
+present owner could boast no connection whatsoever.
+
+Sir Robert was seated at his ebony desk playing with a pencil, and the
+light from a cheerful fire fell upon his face.
+
+In its own way it was a remarkable face, as he appeared then in his
+fourth and fortieth year; very pale but with a natural pallor, very well
+cut and on the whole impressive. His eyes were dark, matching his black
+hair and pointed beard, and his nose was straight and rather prominent.
+Perhaps the mouth was his weakest feature, for there was a certain
+shiftiness about it, also the lips were thick and slightly sensuous.
+Sir Robert knew this, and therefore he grew a moustache to veil them
+somewhat. To a careful observer the general impression given by this
+face was such as is left by the sudden sight of a waxen mask. "How
+strong! How lifelike!" he would have said, "but of course it isn't
+real. There may be a man behind, or there may be wood, but that's only
+a mask." Many people of perception had felt like this about Sir Robert
+Aylward, namely, that under the mask of his pale countenance dwelt a
+different being whom they did not know or appreciate.
+
+If these had seen him at this moment of the opening of our story, they
+might have held that Wisdom was justified of her children. For now
+in the solitude of his splendid office, of a sudden Sir Robert's mask
+seemed to fall from him. His face broke up like ice beneath a thaw. He
+rose from his table and began to walk up and down the room. He talked to
+himself aloud.
+
+"Great Heavens!" he muttered, "what a game to have played, and it will
+go through. I believe that it will go through."
+
+He stopped at the table, switched on an electric light and made a rapid
+calculation on the back of a letter with a blue pencil.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that's my share, a million and seventeen thousand
+pounds in cash, and two million in ordinary shares which can be worked
+off at a discount--let us say another seven hundred and fifty thousand,
+plus what I have got already--put that at only two hundred and fifty
+thousand net. Two millions in all, which of course may or may not be
+added to, probably not, unless the ordinaries boom, for I don't mean
+to speculate any more. That's the end of twenty years' work, Robert
+Aylward. And to think of it, eighteen months ago, although I seemed so
+rich, I was on the verge of bankruptcy--the very verge, not worth five
+thousand pounds. Now what did the trick? I wonder what did the trick?"
+
+He walked down the room and stopped opposite the ancient marble, staring
+at it--
+
+"Not Venus, I think," he said, with a laugh, "Venus never made any man
+rich." He turned and retraced his steps to the other end of the room,
+which was veiled in shadow. Here upon a second marble pedestal stood an
+object that gleamed dimly through the gloom. It was about ten inches or
+a foot high, but in that place nothing more could be seen of it, except
+that it was yellow and had the general appearance of a toad. For some
+reason it seemed to attract Sir Robert Aylward, for he halted to stare
+at it, then stretched out his hand and switched on another lamp, in the
+hard brilliance of which the thing upon the pedestal suddenly declared
+itself, leaping out of the darkness into light. It was a terrible
+object, a monstrosity of indeterminate sex and nature, but surmounted by
+a woman's head and face of extraordinary, if devilish loveliness, sunk
+back between high but grotesquely small shoulders, like to those of a
+lizard, so that it glared upwards. The workmanship of the thing was
+rude yet strangely powerful. Whatever there is cruel, whatever there
+is devilish, whatever there is inhuman in the dark places of the world,
+shone out of the jewelled eyes which were set in that yellow female
+face, yellow because its substance was of gold, a face which seemed not
+to belong to the embryonic legs beneath, for body there was none, but
+to float above them. A hollow, life-sized mask with two tiny frog-like
+legs, that was the fashion of it.
+
+"You are an ugly brute," muttered Sir Robert, contemplating this effigy,
+"but although I believe in nothing in heaven above or earth below,
+except the abysmal folly of the British public, I am bothered if I don't
+believe in you. At any rate from the day when Vernon brought you into
+my office, my luck turned, and to judge from the smile on your sweet
+countenance, I don't think it is done with yet. I wonder what those
+stones are in your eyes. Opals, I suppose, from the way they change
+colour. They shine uncommonly to-day, I never remember them so bright.
+I----"
+
+At this moment a knock came on the door. Sir Robert turned off the lamp
+and walked back to the fireplace.
+
+"Come in," he said, and as he spoke once more his pale face grew
+impassive and expressionless.
+
+The door opened and a clerk entered, an imposing-looking clerk with
+iron-grey hair, who wore an irreproachable frock coat and patent leather
+boots. Advancing to his master, he stood respectfully silent, waiting to
+be addressed. For quite a long while Sir Robert looked over his head as
+though he did not see him; it was a way of his. Then his eyes rested on
+the man dreamily and he remarked in his cold, clear voice:
+
+"I don't think I rang, Jeffreys."
+
+"No, Sir Robert," answered the clerk, bowing as though he spoke to
+Royalty, "but there is a little matter about that article in _The
+Cynic_."
+
+"Press business," said Sir Robert, lifting his eyebrows; "you should
+know by this time that I do not attend to such details. See Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, or Major Vernon."
+
+"They are both out at the moment, Sir Robert."
+
+"Go on, then, Jeffreys," replied the head of the firm with a resigned
+sigh, "only be brief. I am thinking."
+
+The clerk bowed again.
+
+"The _Cynic_ people have just telephoned through about that article we
+sent them. I think you saw it, sir, and you may remember it begins----"
+and he read from a typewritten copy in his hand which was headed "Sahara
+Limited":
+
+"'We are now privileged to announce that this mighty scheme which will
+turn a desert into a rolling sea bearing the commerce of nations and
+cause the waste places of the earth to teem with population and to
+blossom like the rose, has been completed in its necessary if dull
+financial details and will within a few days be submitted to investors
+among whom it has already caused so much excitement. These details we
+will deal with fully in succeeding articles, and therefore now need only
+pause to say that the basis of capitalization strikes us as wonderfully
+advantageous to the fortunate public who are asked to participate in
+its vast prospective prosperity. Our present object is to speak of its
+national and imperial aspects----'"
+
+Sir Robert lifted his eyes in remonstrance:
+
+"How much more of that exceedingly dull and commonplace puff do you
+propose to read, Jeffreys?" he asked.
+
+"No more, Sir Robert. We are paying _The Cynic_ thirty guineas to insert
+this article, and the point is that they say that if they have to put in
+the 'national and imperial' business they must have twenty more."
+
+"Indeed, Jeffreys? Why?"
+
+"Because, Sir Robert--I will tell you, as you always like to hear the
+truth--their advertisement-editor is of opinion that Sahara Limited is a
+national and imperial swindle. He says that he won't drag the nation and
+the empire into it in an editorial under fifty guineas."
+
+A faint smile flickered on Sir Robert's face.
+
+"Does he, indeed?" he asked. "I wonder at his moderation. Had I been
+in his place I should have asked more, for really the style is a little
+flamboyant. Well, we don't want to quarrel with them just now--feed the
+sharks. But surely, Jeffreys, you didn't come to disturb me about such a
+trifle?"
+
+"Not altogether, Sir Robert. There is something more important. _The
+Daily Judge_ not only declines to put any article whatsoever, but
+refuses our advertisement, and states that it means to criticize the
+prospectus trenchantly."
+
+"Ah!" said his master after a moment's thought, "that _is_ rather
+serious, since people believe in the _Judge_ even when it is wrong.
+Offer them the advertisement at treble rates."
+
+"It has been done, sir, and they still refuse."
+
+Sir Robert walked to the corner of the room where the yellow object
+squatted on its pedestal, and contemplated it a while, as a man often
+studies one thing when he is thinking of another. It seemed to give him
+an idea, for he looked over his shoulder and said:
+
+"That will do, Jeffreys. When Major Vernon comes in, give him my
+compliments and say that I should be obliged by a word or two with him."
+
+The clerk bowed and went as noiselessly as he had entered.
+
+"Let's see," added Sir Robert to himself. "Old Jackson, the editor of
+_The Judge_, was a great friend of Vernon's father, the late Sir William
+Vernon, G.C.B. I believe that he was engaged to be married to his sister
+years ago, only she died or something. So the Major ought to be able to
+get round him if anybody can. Only the worst of it is I don't altogether
+trust that young gentleman. It suited us to give him a share in the
+business because he is an engineer who knows the country, and this
+Sahara scheme was his notion, a very good one in a way, and for other
+reasons. Now he shows signs of kicking over the traces, wants to know
+too much, is developing a conscience, and so forth. As though the
+promoters of speculative companies had any business with consciences.
+Ah! here he comes."
+
+Sir Robert seated himself at his desk and resumed his calculations upon
+a half-sheet of note-paper, and that moment a clear, hearty voice was
+heard speaking to the clerks in the outer office. Then came the sound of
+a strong, firm footstep, the door opened and Major Alan Vernon appeared.
+
+He was still quite a young man, not more than thirty-two or three years
+of age, though he lacked the ultra robust and rubicund appearance which
+is typical of so many Englishmen of his class at this period of life. A
+heavy bout of blackwater fever acquired on service in West Africa, which
+would have killed anyone of weaker constitution, had robbed his face of
+its bloom and left it much sallower, if more interesting than once it
+had been. For in a way there was interest about the face; also a certain
+charm. It was a good and honest face with a rather eager, rather puzzled
+look, that of a man who has imagination and ideas and who searches for
+the truth but fails to find it. As for the charm, it lay for the most
+part in the pleasant, open smile and in the frank but rather round brown
+eyes overhung by a somewhat massive forehead which projected a little,
+or perhaps the severe illness already alluded to had caused the rest
+of the face to sink. Though thin, the man was bigly built, with broad
+shoulders and well-developed limbs, measuring a trifle under six feet in
+height.
+
+Such was the outward appearance of Alan Vernon. As for his mind, it was
+able enough in certain fashions, for instance those of engineering,
+and the soldier-like faculties to which it had been trained; frank
+and kindly also, but in other respects not quick, perhaps from its
+unsuspiciousness. Alan Vernon was a man slow to discover ill and slower
+still to believe in it even when it seemed to be discovered, a weakness
+that may have gone far to account for his presence in the office
+of those eminent and brilliant financiers, Messrs. Aylward &
+Champers-Haswell. Just now he looked a little worried, like a fish out
+of water, or rather a fish which has begun to suspect the quality of the
+water, something in its smell or taste.
+
+"Jeffreys tells me that you want to see me, Sir Robert," he said in his
+low and pleasant voice, looking at the baronet rather anxiously.
+
+"Yes, my dear Vernon, I wish to ask you to do something, if you kindly
+will, although it is not quite in your line. Old Jackson, the editor of
+_The Judge_, is a friend of yours, isn't he?"
+
+"He was a friend of my father's, and I used to know him slightly."
+
+"Well, that's near enough. As I daresay you have heard, he is an
+unreasonable old beggar, and has taken a dislike to our Sahara scheme.
+Someone has set him against it and he refuses to receive advertisements,
+threatens criticisms, etc. Now the opposition of _The Judge_ or any
+other paper won't kill us, and if necessary we can fight, but at the
+same time it is always wise to agree with your enemy while he is in the
+way, and in short--would you mind going down and explaining his mistake
+to him?"
+
+Before answering Major Vernon walked to the window leisurely and looked
+out.
+
+"I don't like asking favours from family friends," he replied at length,
+"and, as you said, I think it isn't quite my line. Though of course if
+it has anything to do with the engineering possibilities, I shall be
+most happy to see him," he added, brightening.
+
+"I don't know what it has to do with; that is what I shall be obliged if
+you will find out," answered Sir Robert with some asperity. "One can't
+divide a matter of this sort into watertight compartments. It is
+true that in so important a concern each of us has charge of his
+own division, but the fact remains that we are jointly and severally
+responsible for the whole. I am not sure that you bear this sufficiently
+in mind, my dear Vernon," he added with slow emphasis.
+
+His partner moved quickly; it might almost have been said that he
+shivered, though whether the movement, or the shiver, was produced by
+the argument of joint and several liability or by the familiarity of the
+"my dear Vernon," remains uncertain. Perhaps it was the latter, since
+although the elder man was a baronet and the younger only a retired
+Major of Engineers, the gulf between them, as any one of discernment
+could see, was wide. They were born, lived, and moved in different
+spheres unbridged by any common element or impulse.
+
+"I think that I do bear it in mind, especially of late, Sir Robert,"
+answered Alan Vernon slowly.
+
+His partner threw a searching glance on him, for he felt that there was
+meaning in the words, but only said:
+
+"That's all right. My motor is outside and will take you to Fleet Street
+in no time. Meanwhile you might tell them to telephone that you are
+coming, and perhaps you will just look in when you get back. I haven't
+got to go to the House to-night, so shall be here till dinner time, and
+so, I think, will your cousin Haswell. Muzzle that old bulldog, Jackson,
+somehow. No doubt he has his price like the rest of them, in meal or
+malt, and you needn't stick at the figure. We don't want him hanging on
+our throat for the next week or two."
+
+Ten minutes later the splendid, two-thousand guinea motor brougham drew
+up at the offices of the _Judge_ and the obsequious motor-footman bowed
+Major Vernon through its rather grimy doorway. Within, a small boy in
+a kind of box asked his business, and when he heard his name, said that
+the "Guvnor" had sent down word that he was go up at once--third floor,
+first to the right and second to the left. So up he went, and when
+he reached the indicated locality was taken possession of by a
+worried-looking clerk who had evidently been waiting for him, and almost
+thrust through a door to find himself in a big, worn, untidy room. At
+a huge desk in this room sat an elderly man, also big, worn, and
+untidy-looking, who waved a long slip of galley-proof in his hand, and
+was engaged in scolding a sub-editor.
+
+"Who is that?" he said, wheeling round. "I'm busy, can't see anyone."
+
+"I beg your pardon," answered the Major with humility, "your people told
+me to come up. My name is Alan Vernon."
+
+"Oh! I remember. Sit down for a moment, will you, and--Mr. Thomas,
+oblige me by taking away this rot and rewriting it entirely in the sense
+I have outlined."
+
+Mr. Thomas snatched his rejected copy and vanished through another door,
+whereon his chief remarked in an audible voice:
+
+"That man is a perfect fool. Lucky I thought to look at his stuff. Well,
+he is no worse than the rest, in this weary world," and he burst into a
+hearty laugh and swung his chair round, adding, "Now then, Alan, what
+is it? I have a quarter of an hour at your service. Why, bless me! I
+was forgetting that it's more than a dozen years since we met; you
+were still a boy then, and now you have left the army with a D.S.O. and
+gratuity, and turned financier, which I think wouldn't have pleased your
+old father. Come, sit down here and let us talk."
+
+"I didn't leave the army, Mr. Jackson," answered his visitor; "it left
+me; I was invalided out. They said I should never get my health back
+after that last go of fever, but I did."
+
+"Ah! bad luck, very bad luck, just at the beginning of what should have
+been a big career, for I know they thought highly of you at the
+War Office, that is, if they can think. Well, you have grown into a
+fine-looking fellow, like your father, very, and someone else too," and
+he sighed, running his fingers through his grizzled hair. "But you don't
+remember her; she was before your time. Now let us get to business;
+there's no time for reminiscences in this office. What is it, Alan, for
+like other people I suppose that you want something?"
+
+"It is about that Sahara flotation, Mr. Jackson," he began rather
+doubtfully.
+
+The old editor's face darkened. "The Sahara flotation! That
+accursed----" and he ceased abruptly. "What have you, of all people in
+the world, got to do with it? Oh! I remember. Someone told me that you
+had gone into partnership with Aylward the company promoter, and that
+little beast, Champers-Haswell, who really is the clever one. Well, set
+it out, set it out."
+
+"It seems, Mr. Jackson, that _The Judge_ has refused not only our
+article, but also the advertisement of the company. I don't know much
+about this side of the affair myself, but Sir Robert asked me if I would
+come round and see if things couldn't be arranged."
+
+"You mean that the man sent you to try and work on me because he knew
+that I used to be intimate with your family. Well, it is a poor errand
+and will have a poor end. You can't--no one on earth can, while I sit in
+this chair, not even my proprietors."
+
+There was silence broken at last by Alan, who remarked awkwardly:
+
+"If that is so, I must not take up your time any longer."
+
+"I said that I would give you a quarter of an hour, and you have only
+been here four minutes. Now, Alan Vernon, tell me as your father's old
+friend, why you have gone to herd with these gilded swine?"
+
+There was something so earnest about the man's question that it did not
+even occur to his visitor to resent its roughness.
+
+"Of course it is not original," he answered, "but I had this idea about
+flooding the Desert; I spent a furlough up there a few years ago and
+employed my time in making some rough surveys. Then I was obliged to
+leave the Service and went down to Yarleys after my father's death--it's
+mine now, you know, but worth nothing except a shooting rent, which just
+pays for the repairs. There I met Champers-Haswell, who lives near
+and is a kind of distant cousin of mine--my mother was a Champers--and
+happened to mention the thing to him. He took it up at once and
+introduced me to Aylward, and the end of it was, that they offered me a
+partnership with a small share in the business, because they said I was
+just the man they wanted."
+
+"Just the man they wanted," repeated the editor after him. "Yes, the
+last of the Vernons, an engineer with an old name in his county, a
+clean record and plenty of ability. Yes, you would be just the man they
+wanted. And you accepted?"
+
+"Yes. I was on my beam ends with nothing to do; I wanted to make some
+money. You see Yarleys has been in the family for over five hundred
+years, and it seemed hard to have to sell it. Also--also----" and he
+paused.
+
+"Ever meet Barbara Champers?" asked Mr. Jackson inconsequently. "I did
+once. Wonderfully nice girl, and very good-looking too. But of course
+you know her, and she is her uncle's ward, and their place isn't far off
+Yarleys, you say. Must be a connection of yours also."
+
+Major Vernon started a little at the name and his face seemed to redden.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I have met her and she is a connection."
+
+"Will be a big heiress one day, I think," went on Mr. Jackson, "unless
+old Haswell makes off with her money. I think Aylward knows that; at any
+rate he was hanging about when I saw her."
+
+Vernon started again, this time very perceptibly.
+
+"Very natural--your going into the business, I mean, under all the
+circumstances," went on Mr. Jackson. "But now, if you will take my
+advice, you'll go out of it as soon as you can."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, Alan Vernon, I am sure you don't want to see your name dragged
+in the dirt, any more than I do." He fumbled in a drawer and produced
+a typewritten document. "Take that," he said, "and study it at your
+leisure. It's a sketch of the financial career of Messrs. Aylward and
+Champers-Haswell, also of the companies which they have promoted and
+been connected with, and what has happened to them and to those who
+invested in them. A man got it out for me yesterday and I'm going to use
+it. As regards this Sahara business, you think it all right, and so it
+may be from an engineering point of view, but you will never live to
+sail upon that sea which the British public is going to be asked to find
+so many millions to make. Look here. We have only three minutes more, so
+I will come to the point at once. It's Turkish territory, isn't it, and
+putting aside everything else, the security for the whole thing is a
+Firman from the Sultan?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Robert Aylward and Haswell procured it in Constantinople. I
+have seen the document."
+
+"Indeed, and are you well acquainted with the Sultan's signature? I know
+when they were there last autumn that potentate was very ill----"
+
+"You mean----" said Major Vernon, looking up.
+
+"I mean, Alan, that I like not the security. I won't say any more,
+as there is a law of libel in this land. But _The Judge_ has certain
+sources of information. It may be that no protest will be made at once,
+for baksheesh can stop it for a while, but sooner or later the protest
+or repudiation will come, and perhaps some international bother;
+also much scandal. As to the scheme itself, it is shamelessly
+over-capitalized for the benefit of the promoters--of whom, remember,
+Alan, you will appear as one. Now time's up. Perhaps you will take my
+advice, and perhaps you won't, but there it is for what it's worth as
+that of a man of the world and an old friend of your family. As for your
+puff article and your prospectus, I wouldn't put them in _The Judge_
+if you paid me a thousand pounds, which I daresay your friend, Aylward,
+would be quite ready to do. Good-bye. Come and see me again sometime,
+and tell me what has happened--and, I say"--this last was shouted
+through the closing door,--"give my kind regards to Miss Barbara, for
+wherever she happens to live, she is an honest woman."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE YELLOW GOD
+
+Alan Vernon walked thoughtfully down the lead-covered stairs, hustled
+by eager gentlemen hurrying up to see the great editor, whose bell
+was already ringing furiously, and was duly ushered by the obsequious
+assistant-chauffeur back into the luxurious motor. There was an electric
+lamp in this motor, and by the light of it, his mind being perplexed,
+he began to read the typewritten document given to him by Mr. Jackson,
+which he still held in his hand.
+
+As it chanced they were blocked for a quarter of an hour near the
+Mansion House, so that he found time, if not to master it, at least to
+gather enough of its contents to make him open his brown eyes very wide
+before the motor pulled up at the granite doorway of his office. Alan
+descended from the machine, which departed silently, and stood for a
+moment wondering what he should do. His impulse was to jump into a bus
+and go straight to his rooms or his club, to which Sir Robert did not
+belong, but being no coward, he dismissed it from his mind.
+
+His fate hung in the balance, of that he was well aware. Either he must
+disregard Mr. Jackson's warning, confirmed as it was by many secret
+fears and instincts of his own, and say nothing except that he had
+failed in his mission, or he must take the bull by the horns and break
+with the firm. To do the latter meant not only a good deal of moral
+courage, but practical ruin, whereas if he chose the former course,
+probably within a fortnight he would find himself a rich man. Whatever
+Jackson and a few others might say in its depreciation, he was certain
+that the Sahara flotation would go through, for it was underwritten,
+of course upon terms, by responsible people, moreover the unissued
+preferred shares had already been dealt in at a heavy premium. Now to
+say nothing of the allotment to which he was entitled upon his holding
+in the parent Syndicate, the proportion of cash due to him as a partner,
+would amount to quite a hundred thousand pounds. In other words, he, who
+had so many reasons for desiring money, would be wealthy. After working
+so hard and undergoing so much that he felt to be humiliating and even
+degrading, why should he not take his reward and clear out afterwards?
+
+This he remembered he could do, since probably by some oversight of
+Aylward's, who left such matters to his lawyers, his deed of partnership
+did not bind him to a fixed term. It could be broken at any moment.
+To this argument there was only one possible answer, that of his
+conscience. If once he were convinced that things were not right,
+it would be dishonest to participate in their profits. And he was
+convinced. Mr. Jackson's arguments and his damning document had thrown a
+flood of light upon many matters which he had suspected but never quite
+understood. He was the partner of, well, adventurers, and the money
+which he received would in fact be filched from the pockets of
+unsuspecting persons. He would vouch for that of which he was doubtful
+and receive the price of sharp practice. In other words he, Alan Vernon,
+who had never uttered a wilful untruth or taken a halfpenny that was not
+his own, would before the tribunal of his own mind, stand convicted as
+a liar and a thief. The thing was not to be borne. At whatever cost it
+must be ended. If he were fated to be a beggar, at least he would be an
+honest beggar.
+
+With a firm step and a high head he walked straight into Sir Robert's
+room, without even going through the formality of knocking, to find
+Mr. Champers-Haswell seated at the ebony desk by his partner's
+side examining some document through a reading-glass, which on his
+appearance, was folded over and presently thrust away into a drawer.
+It seemed, Alan noticed, to be of an unusual shape and written in some
+strange character.
+
+Mr. Haswell, a stout, jovial-looking, little man with a florid
+complexion and white hair, rose at once to greet him.
+
+"How do you do, Alan," he said in a cheerful voice, for as a cousin by
+marriage he called him by his Christian name. "I am just this minute
+back from Paris, and you will be glad to learn that they are going to
+support us very well there; in fact I may say that the Government has
+taken up the scheme, of course under the rose. You know the French have
+possessions all along that coast and they won't be sorry to find
+an opportunity of stretching out their hand a little further. Our
+difficulties as to capital are at an end, for a full third of it is
+guaranteed in Paris, and I expect that small investors and speculators
+for the rise will gobble a lot more. We shall plant �10,000,000 worth of
+Sahara scrip in sunny France, my boy, and foggy England has underwritten
+the rest. It will be a case of 'letters of Allotment and regret,' _and_
+regret, Alan, financially the most successful issue of the last dozen
+years. What do you say to that?" and in his elation the little man
+puffed out his chest and pursing up his lips, blew through them, making
+a sound like that of wind among wires.
+
+"I don't know, Mr. Haswell. If we are all alive I would prefer to answer
+the question twelve months hence, or later, when we see whether the
+company is going to be a practical success as well, or not."
+
+Again Mr. Haswell made the sound of wind among wires, only this time
+there was a shriller note in it; its mellowness was gone, it was as
+though the air had suddenly been filled with frost.
+
+"A practical success!" he repeated after him. "That is scarcely our
+affair, is it? Promoters should not bother themselves with long views,
+Alan. These may be left to the investing public, the speculative
+parson and the maiden lady who likes a flutter--those props of modern
+enterprise. But what do you mean? You originated this idea and always
+said that the profits should be great."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Haswell, on a moderate capitalization and provided that we are
+sure of the co-operation of the Porte."
+
+Mr. Haswell looked at him very searchingly and Sir Robert, who had been
+listening, said in his cold voice:
+
+"I think that we thrashed out these points long ago, and to tell you the
+truth I am rather tired of them, especially as it is too late to change
+anything. How did you get on with Jackson, Vernon?"
+
+"I did not get on at all, Sir Robert. He will not touch the thing on any
+terms, and indeed means to oppose it tooth and nail."
+
+"Then he will find himself in a minority when the articles come out
+to-morrow. Of course it is a bore, but we are strong enough to snap our
+fingers at him. You see they don't read _The Judge_ in France, and no
+one has ever heard of it in Constantinople. Therefore we have nothing to
+fear--so long as we stick together," he added meaningly.
+
+Alan felt that the crisis had come. He must speak now or for ever hold
+his peace; indeed Aylward was already looking round for his hat.
+
+"Sir Robert and Mr. Haswell," he broke in rather nervously, "I have
+something to say to you, something unpleasant," and he paused.
+
+"Then please say it at once, Vernon. I want to dress for dinner, I am
+going to the theatre to-night and must dine early," replied Aylward in a
+voice of the utmost unconcern.
+
+"It is, Sir Robert," went on Alan with a rush, "that I do not like the
+lines upon which this business is being worked, and I wish to give up my
+interest in it and retire from the firm, as I have a right to do under
+our deed of partnership."
+
+"Have you?" said Aylward. "Really, I forget. But, my dear fellow, do not
+think that we should wish to keep you for one moment against your will.
+Only, might I ask, has that old puritan, Jackson, hypnotized you, or is
+it a case of sudden madness after influenza?"
+
+"Neither," answered Alan sternly, for although he might be diffident on
+matters that he did not thoroughly understand, he was not a man to brook
+trifling or impertinence. "It is what I have said, no more nor less. I
+am not satisfied either as to the capitalization or as to the guarantee
+that the enterprise can be really carried out. Further"--and he
+paused,--"Further, I should like what I have never yet been able to
+obtain, more information as to that Firman under which the concession is
+granted."
+
+For one moment a sort of tremor passed over Sir Robert's impassive
+countenance, while Mr. Haswell uttered his windy whistle, this time in a
+tone of plaintive remonstrance.
+
+"As you have formally resigned your membership of the firm, I do not see
+that any useful purpose can be served by discussing such matters.
+The fullest explanations, of course, we should have been willing to
+give----"
+
+"My dear Alan," broke in Mr. Champers-Haswell, who was quite upset, "I
+do implore you to reflect for one moment, for your own sake. In a single
+week you would have been a wealthy man; do you really mean to throw away
+everything for a whim?"
+
+"Perhaps Vernon remembers that he holds over 1700 of the Syndicate
+shares which we have worked up to �18, and thinks it wiser to capture
+the profit in sight, generally speaking a very sound principle,"
+interrupted Aylward sarcastically.
+
+"You are mistaken, Sir Robert," replied Alan, flushing. "The way that
+those shares have been artificially put up is one of the things to which
+I most object. I shall only ask for mine the face value which I paid for
+them."
+
+Now notwithstanding their experience, both of the senior partners
+did for a moment look rather scared. Such folly, or such honesty, was
+absolutely incredible to them. They felt that there must be much behind.
+Sir Robert, however, recovered instantly.
+
+"Very well," he said; "it is not for us to dictate to you; you must make
+your own bed and lie on it. To argue or remonstrate would only be rude."
+He put out his hand and pushed the button of an electric bell, adding as
+he did so, "Of course we understand one thing, Vernon, namely, that as
+a gentleman and a man of honour you will make no public use of the
+information which you have acquired during your stay in this office,
+either to our detriment, personal or financial, or to your own
+advantage."
+
+"Certainly you may understand that," replied Vernon. "Unless my
+character is attacked and it becomes necessary for me to defend myself,
+my lips are sealed."
+
+"That will never happen--why should it?" said Sir Robert with a polite
+bow.
+
+The door opened and the head clerk, Jeffreys, appeared.
+
+"Mr. Jeffreys," said Sir Robert, "please find us the deed of partnership
+between Major Vernon and ourselves, and bring it here. One moment.
+Please make out also a transfer of Major Vernon's parcel of Sahara
+Syndicate shares to Mr. Champers-Haswell and myself at par value, and
+fill in a cheque for the amount. Please remove also Major Vernon's name
+wherever it appears in the proof prospectus, and--yes--one thing more.
+Telephone to Specton--the Right Honourable the Earl of Specton, I mean,
+and say that after all I have been able to arrange that he shall have a
+seat on the Board and a block of shares at a very moderate figure,
+and that if he will wire his assent, his name shall be put into the
+prospectus. You approve, don't you, Haswell?--yes--then that is all, I
+think, Jeffreys, only please be as quick as you can, for I want to get
+away."
+
+Jeffreys, the immaculate and the impassive, bowed, and casting one swift
+glance at Vernon out of the corner of his eye, departed.
+
+What is called an awkward pause ensued; in fact it was a very awkward
+pause. The die was cast, the matter ended, and what were the principals
+to do until the ratifications had been exchanged or, a better simile
+perhaps, the _decree nisi_ pronounced absolute. Mr. Champers-Haswell
+remarked that the weather was very cold for April, and Alan agreed with
+him, while Sir Robert found his hat and brushed it with his sleeve. Then
+Mr. Haswell, in desperation, for in minor matters he was a kindly sort
+of man who disliked scenes and unpleasantness, muttered something as
+to seeing him--Alan--at his house, The Court, in Hertfordshire, from
+Saturday to Monday.
+
+"That was the arrangement," answered Alan bluntly, "but possibly after
+what has happened you will not wish that it should be kept."
+
+"Oh! why not, why not?" said Mr. Haswell. "Sunday is a day of rest when
+we make it a rule not to talk business, and if we did, perhaps we might
+all change our minds about these matters. Sir Robert is coming, and I
+am sure that your cousin Barbara will be very disappointed if you do not
+turn up, for she understands nothing about these city things which are
+Greek to her."
+
+At the mention of the name of Barbara Sir Robert Aylward looked up from
+the papers which he affected to be tidying, and Alan thought that there
+was a kind of challenge in his eyes. A moment before he had made up his
+mind that no power on earth would induce him to spend a Sunday with his
+late partners at The Court. Now, acting upon some instinct or impulse,
+he reversed his opinion.
+
+"Thanks," he said, "if that is understood, I shall be happy to come. I
+will drive over from Yarleys in time for dinner to-morrow. Perhaps you
+will say so to Barbara."
+
+"She will be glad, I am sure," answered Mr. Haswell, "for she told
+me the other day that she wants to consult you about some outdoor
+theatricals that she means to get up in July."
+
+"In July!" answered Alan with a little laugh. "I wonder where I shall be
+in July."
+
+Then came another pause, which seemed to affect even Sir Robert's
+nerves, for abandoning the papers, he walked down the room till he came
+to the golden object that has been described, and for the second time
+that day stood there contemplating it.
+
+"This thing is yours, Vernon," he said, "and now that our relations are
+at an end, I suppose that you will want to take it away. What is its
+history? You never told me."
+
+"Oh! that's a long story," answered Alan in an absent voice. "My uncle,
+who was a missionary, brought it from West Africa. I rather forget the
+facts, but Jeekie, my negro servant, knows them all, for as a lad my
+uncle saved him from sacrifice, or something, in a place where they
+worship these things, and he has been with us ever since. It is a fetish
+with magical powers and all the rest of it. I believe they call it the
+Swimming Head and other names. If you look at it, you will see that it
+seems to swim between the shoulders, doesn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said Sir Robert, "and I admire the beautiful beast. She is cruel
+and artistic, like--like finance. Look here, Vernon, we have quarrelled,
+and of course henceforth are enemies, for it is no use mincing matters,
+only fools do that. But in a way you are being hardly treated. You
+could get �10 apiece to-day for those shares of yours in a block on the
+market, and I am paying you �1. I understand your scruples, but there
+is no reason why we should not square things. This fetish of yours has
+brought me luck, so let's do a deal. Leave it here, and instead of a
+check for �1700, I will make you one out for �17,000."
+
+"That's a very liberal offer," said Vernon. "Give me a moment to think
+it over."
+
+Then he also walked into the corner of the room and contemplated the
+golden mask that seemed to float between the frog-like shoulders. The
+shimmering eyes drew his eyes, though what he saw in them does not
+matter. Indeed he could never remember. Only when he straightened
+himself again there was left on his mind a determination that not
+for seventeen or for seventy thousand pounds would he part with his
+ownership in this very unique fetish.
+
+"No, thank you," he said presently. "I don't think I will sell the
+Yellow God, as Jeekie calls it. Perhaps you will kindly keep her here
+for a week or so, until I make up my mind where to stow her."
+
+Again Mr. Champers-Haswell uttered his windy whistle. That a man should
+refuse �17,000 for a bit of African gold worth �100 or so, struck him
+as miraculous. But Sir Robert did not seem in the least surprised, only
+very disappointed.
+
+"I quite understand your dislike to selling," he said. "Thank you for
+leaving it here for the present to see us through the flotation," and he
+laughed.
+
+At that moment Jeffreys entered the room with the documents. Sir Robert
+handed the deed of partnership to Alan, and when he had identified it,
+took it from him again and threw it on the fire, saying that of course
+the formal letter of release would be posted and the dissolution
+notified in the _Gazette_. Then the transfer was signed and the cheque
+delivered.
+
+"Well, good-bye till Saturday," said Alan when he had received the
+latter, and nodding to them both, he turned and left the room.
+
+The passage ran past the little room in which Mr. Jeffreys, the head
+clerk, sat alone. Catching sight of him through the open door, Alan
+entered, shutting it behind him. Finding his key ring he removed from
+it the keys of his desk and of the office strongroom, and handed them
+to the clerk who, methodical in everything, proceeded to write a formal
+receipt.
+
+"You are leaving us, Major Vernon?" he said interrogatively as he signed
+the paper.
+
+"Yes, Jeffreys," answered Alan, then prompted by some impulse, added,
+"Are you sorry?"
+
+Mr. Jeffreys looked up and there were traces of unwonted emotion upon
+his hard, regulated face.
+
+"For myself, yes, Major--for you, on the whole, no."
+
+"What do you mean, Jeffreys? I do not quite understand."
+
+"I mean, Major, that I am sorry because you have never tried to shuffle
+off any shady business on to my back and leave me to bear the brunt of
+it; also because you have always treated me as a gentleman should, not
+as a machine to be used until a better can be found, and kicked aside
+when it goes out of order."
+
+"It is very kind of you to say so, Jeffreys, but I can't remember having
+done anything particular."
+
+"No, Major, you can't remember what comes natural to you. But I and the
+others remember, and that's why I am sorry. But for yourself I am glad,
+since although Aylward and Haswell have put a big thing through and are
+going to make a pot of money, this is no place for the likes of you,
+and now that you are going I will make bold to tell you that I always
+wondered what you were doing here. By and by, Major, the row will come,
+as it has come more than once in the past, before your time."
+
+"And then?" said Alan, for he was anxious to get to the bottom of this
+man's mind, which hitherto he had always found so secret.
+
+"And then, Major, it won't matter much to Messrs. Aylward and
+Champers-Haswell, who are used to that kind of thing and will probably
+dissolve partnership and lie quiet for a bit, and still less to folk
+like myself, who are only servants. But if you were still here it would
+have mattered a great deal to you, for it would blacken your name and
+break your heart, and then what's the good of the money? I tell you,
+Major," the clerk went on with quiet intensity, "though I am nobody and
+nothing, if I could afford it I would follow your example. But I can't,
+for I have a sick wife and a family of delicate children who have to
+live half the year on the south coast, to say nothing of my old mother,
+and--I was fool enough to be taken in and back Sir Robert's last little
+venture, which cost me all I had saved. So you see I must make a bit
+before the machine is scrapped, Major. But I tell you this, that if I
+can get �5000 together, as I hope to do out of Saharas before I am a
+month older, for they had to give me a look-in, as I knew too much, I am
+off to the country, where I was born, to take a farm there. No more
+of Messrs. Aylward and Haswell for Thomas Jeffreys. That's my bell.
+Good-bye, Major, I'll take the liberty to write you a line sometimes,
+for I know you won't give me away. Good-bye and God bless you, as I am
+sure He will in the long run," and stretching out his hand, he took that
+of the astonished Alan and wrung it warmly.
+
+When he was gone Alan went also, noticing that the clerks, whom some
+rumour of these events seemed to have reached, eyed him curiously
+through the glass screens behind which they sat at their desks, as
+he thought not without regret and a kind of admiration. Even the
+magnificent be-medalled porter at the door emerged from the carved teak
+box where he dwelt and touching his cap asked if he should call a cab.
+
+"No, thank you, Sergeant," answered Alan, "I will take a bus, and,
+Sergeant, I think I forgot to give you a present last Xmas. Will you
+accept this?--I wish I could make it more," and he presented him with
+ten shillings.
+
+The Sergeant drew himself up and saluted.
+
+"Thank you kindly, Major," he said. "I'd rather take that from you than
+�10 from the other gentlemen. But, Major, I wish we were out on the West
+Coast again together. It's a stinking, barbarous hole, but not so bad as
+this 'ere city."
+
+For once these two had served as comrades, and it was through Alan that
+the sergeant obtained his present lucrative but somewhat uncongenial
+post.
+
+He was outside at last. The massive granite portal vanished behind him
+in the evening mists, much as a nightmare vanishes. He, Alan Vernon, who
+for a year or more had been in bondage, was a free man again. All his
+dreams of wealth had departed; indeed if anything, save in experience,
+he was poorer than when first the shadow of yonder doorway fell upon
+him. But at least he was safe, safe. The deed of partnership which had
+been as a chain about his neck, was now white ashes; his name was erased
+from that fearful prospectus of Sahara Limited, wherein millions which
+someone would provide were spoken of like silver in the days of Solomon,
+as things of no account. The bitterest critic could not say that he
+had made a halfpenny out of the venture, in fact, if trouble came, his
+voluntary abandonment of the profits due to him must go to his credit.
+He had plunged into the icy waters of renunciation and come up clean if
+naked. Never since he was a boy could Alan remember feeling so utterly
+light-hearted and free from anxiety. Not for a million pounds would he
+have returned to gather gold in that mausoleum of reputations. As for
+the future, he did not in the least care what happened. There was no
+one dependent on him, and in this way or in that he could always earn a
+crust, a nice, honest crust.
+
+He ran down the street and danced for joy like a child, yes, and
+presented a crossing-sweeper against whom he butted with a whole
+sixpence in compensation. Thus he reached the Mansion House, not
+unsuspected of inebriety by the police, and clambered to the top of a
+bus crowded with weary and anxious-looking City clerks returning home
+after a long day's labour at starvation wage. In that cold company and
+a chilling atmosphere some of his enthusiasm evaporated. He remembered
+that this step of his meant that sooner or later, within a year or two
+at most, Yarleys, where his family had dwelt for centuries, must go to
+the hammer. Why had he not accepted Aylward's offer and sold that old
+fetish to him for �17,000? There was no question of share-dealing there,
+and if a very wealthy man chose to give a fancy price for a curiosity,
+he could take it without doubt or shame. At least it would have sufficed
+to save Yarleys, which after all was only mortgaged for �20,000. For the
+life of him he could not tell. He had acted on impulse, a very curious
+impulse, and there was an end of it perhaps; it might be because his
+uncle had told him as a boy that the thing was unique, or perhaps
+because old Jeekie, his negro servant, venerated it so much and swore
+that it was "lucky." At any rate he had declined and there was an end.
+
+But another and a graver matter remained. He had desired wealth to save
+Yarleys, but he desired it still more for a different purpose. Above
+everything on earth he loved Barbara, his distant cousin and the niece
+of Mr. Champers-Haswell, who until an hour ago had been his partner.
+Now she was a great heiress, and without fortune he could not marry her,
+even if she would marry him, which remained in doubt. For one thing
+her uncle and guardian Haswell, under her father's will, had absolute
+discretion in this matter until she reached the age of twenty-five, and
+for another he was too proud. Therefore it would seem that in abandoning
+his business, he had abandoned his chance of Barbara also, which was a
+truly dreadful thought.
+
+Well, it was in order that he might see her, that he had agreed to visit
+The Court on the morrow, even though it meant a meeting with his late
+partners, who were the last people with whom he desired to foregather
+again so soon. Then and there he made up his mind that before he bade
+Barbara farewell, he would tell her the whole story, so that she might
+not misjudge him. After that he would go off somewhere--to Africa
+perhaps. Meanwhile he was quite tired out, as tired as though he had
+lain a week in the grip of fever. He must eat some food and get to
+bed. Sufficient unto the day was the evil thereof, yet on the whole he
+blessed the name of Jackson, editor of _The Judge_ and his father's old
+friend.
+
+
+
+When Alan had left the office Sir Robert turned to Mr. Champers-Haswell
+and asked him abruptly, "What the devil does this mean?"
+
+Mr. Haswell looked up at the ceiling and whistled in his own peculiar
+fashion, then answered:
+
+"I cannot say for certain, but our young friend's strange conduct seems
+to suggest that he has smelt a rat, possibly even that Jackson, the old
+beast, has shown him a rat--of a large Turkish breed."
+
+Sir Robert nodded.
+
+"Vernon is a fellow who doesn't like rats; they seem to haunt his
+sleep," he said; "but do you think that having seen it, he will keep it
+in the bag?"
+
+"Oh! certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Haswell with cheerfulness;
+"the man is the soul of honour; he will never give us away. Look how he
+behaved about those shares. Still, I think that perhaps we are well rid
+of him. Too much honour, like too much zeal, is a very dangerous quality
+in any business."
+
+"I don't know that I agree with you," answered Sir Robert. "I am not
+sure that in the long run we should not do better for a little more of
+the article. For my part, although it will not hurt us publicly, for the
+thing will never be noticed, I am sorry that we have lost Vernon, very
+sorry indeed. I don't think him a fool, and awkward as they may be, I
+respect his qualities."
+
+"So do I, so do I," answered Mr. Haswell, "and of course we have acted
+against his advice throughout, which must have been annoying to him.
+The scheme as he suggested it was a fair business proposition that might
+have paid ten per cent. on a small capital, but what is the good of ten
+per cent. to you and me? We want millions and we are going to get them.
+Well, he is coming to The Court to-morrow, and perhaps after all we
+shall be able to arrange matters. I'll give Barbara a hint; she has
+great influence with him, and you might do the same, Aylward."
+
+"Miss Champers has great influence with everyone who is fortunate enough
+to know her," answered Sir Robert courteously. "But even if she chooses
+to use it, I doubt if it will avail in this case. Vernon has been making
+up his mind for a long while. I have watched him and am sure of that.
+To-night he determined to take the plunge and I do not think that we
+shall see any more of him in this office. Haswell," he added with sudden
+energy, "I tell you that of late our luck has been too good to last. The
+boom, the real boom, came in with Vernon, and with Vernon I think that
+it will go."
+
+"At any rate it must leave something pretty substantial behind it this
+time, Aylward, my friend. Whatever happens, within a week we shall be
+rich, really rich for life."
+
+"For life, Haswell, yes, for life. But what is life? A bubble that any
+pin may prick. Oh! I know that you do not like the subject, but it is
+as well to look it in the face sometimes. I'm no church-goer, but if
+I remember right we were taught to pray the good Lord to deliver us
+especially 'in all times of our wealth,' which is followed by something
+about tribulation and sudden death, for when they wrote that prayer the
+wheel of human fortune went round just as it does to-day. There, let's
+get out of this before I grow superstitious, as men who believe in
+nothing sometimes do, because after all they must believe in something,
+I suppose. Got your hat and coat? So have I, come on," and he switched
+off the light, so that the room was left in darkness except for the
+faint glimmering of the fire.
+
+His partner grumbled audibly, for in turning he had knocked his hand
+against the desk.
+
+"Leave me my only economy, Haswell," he answered with a hard little
+laugh. "Electricity is strength and I hate to see strength burning to
+waste. Why do you mind?" he went on as he stepped towards the door.
+"Is it the contrast? In all times of our wealth, in all times of our
+tribulation, from sickness and from sudden death----"
+
+"Good Lord deliver us," chimed in Mr. Haswell in a shaking voice behind
+him. "What the devil's that?"
+
+Sir Robert looked round and saw, or thought that he saw, something very
+strange. From the pillar on which it stood the golden fetish with a
+woman's face, appeared to have floated. The firelight showed it gliding
+towards them across, but a few inches above the floor of the great room.
+It came very slowly, but it came. Now it reached them and paused,
+and now it rose into the air until it attained the height of Mr.
+Champers-Haswell and stayed there, staring into his face and not a
+hand's breadth away, just as though it were a real woman glaring at him.
+
+He uttered a sound, half whistle and half groan, and fell back, as it
+chanced on to a morocco-covered seat behind him. For a moment or two
+the gleaming, golden mask floated in the air. Then it turned very
+deliberately, rose a little way, and moving sidelong to where Sir Robert
+stood, hung in front of _his_ face.
+
+Presently Aylward staggered to the mantelpiece and began to fumble for
+the switch; in the silence his nails scratching at the panelling made
+a sound like to that of a gnawing mouse. He found it at last, and next
+instant the office broke into a blaze of light, showing Mr. Haswell,
+his rubicund face quite pale, his hat and umbrella on the floor, gasping
+like a dying man upon the couch, and Sir Robert himself clinging to the
+mantel-shelf as a person might do who had received a mortal wound, while
+the golden fetish reposed calmly on its pillar, to all appearance as
+immovable and undisturbed as the antique Venus which matched it at the
+other end of the room. For a while there was silence. Then Sir Robert,
+recovering himself, asked:
+
+"Did you notice anything unusual just now, Haswell?"
+
+"Yes," whispered his partner. "I thought that hideous African thing
+which Vernon brought here, came sliding across the floor and stared into
+my face with its glittering eyes, and in the eyes----"
+
+"Well, what was in the eyes?"
+
+"I can't remember. It was a kind of picture and the meaning of it was
+Sudden Death--oh Lord! Sudden Death. Tell me it was a fancy bred of that
+ill-omened talk of yours?"
+
+"I can't tell you anything of the sort," answered Aylward in a hollow
+voice, "for I saw something also."
+
+"What?" asked his partner.
+
+"Death that wasn't sudden, and other things."
+
+Again the silence fell till it was broken by Aylward.
+
+"Come," he said, "we have been over-working--too much strain, and now
+the reaction. Keep this rubbish to yourself, or they will lock you up in
+an asylum."
+
+"Certainly, Aylward, certainly. But can't you get rid of that beastly
+image?"
+
+"Not on any account, Haswell, even if it haunts us all day. Here it
+shall stop until the Saharas are floated on Monday, if I have to lock it
+in the strongroom and throw the keys into the Thames. Afterwards Vernon
+can take it, as he has a right to do, and I am sure that with it will go
+our luck."
+
+"Then the sooner our luck goes, the better," replied Haswell, with
+a mere ghost of his former whistle. "Life is better than luck,
+and--Aylward, that Yellow God you are so fond of means to murder us. We
+are being fatted for the sacrifice, that is all. I remember now, that
+was one of the things I saw written in its eyes!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JEEKIE TELLS A TALE
+
+The Court, Mr. Champers-Haswell's place, was a very fine house indeed,
+of a sort. That is, it contained twenty-nine bedrooms, each of them with
+a bathroom attached, a large number of sitting-rooms, ample garages,
+stables, and offices, the whole surrounded by several acres of
+newly-planted gardens. Incidentally it may be mentioned that it was
+built in the most atrocious taste and looked like a suburban villa seen
+through a magnifying glass.
+
+It was in this matter of taste that it differed from Sir Robert
+Aylward's home, Old Hall, a few miles away. Not that this was old
+either, for the original house had fallen down or been burnt a hundred
+years before. But Sir Robert, being gifted with artistic perception, had
+reared up in place of it a smaller but really beautiful dwelling of soft
+grey stone, long and low, and built in the Tudor style with many gables.
+
+This house, charming as it was, could not of course compare with
+Yarleys, the ancient seat of the Vernons in the same neighbourhood.
+Yarleys was pure Elizabethan, although it contained an oak-roofed hall
+which was said to date back to the time of King John, a remnant of a
+former house. There was no electric light or other modern convenience
+at Yarleys, yet it was a place that everyone went to see because of its
+exceeding beauty and its historical associations. The moat by which it
+was surrounded, the grass court within, for it was built on three sides
+of a square, the mullioned windows, the towered gateway of red brick,
+the low-panelled rooms hung with the portraits of departed Vernons,
+the sloping park and the splendid oaks that stood about, singly or in
+groups, were all of them perfect in their way. It was one of the most
+lovely of English homes, and oddly enough its neglected gardens and the
+air of decay that pervaded it, added to rather than decreased its charm.
+
+But it is with The Court that we have to do at present, not with
+Yarleys. Mr. Champers-Haswell had a week-end party. There were ten
+guests, all men, and with the exception of Alan, who it will be
+remembered was one of them, all rich and in business. They included two
+French bankers and three Jews, everyone a prop of the original Sahara
+Syndicate and deeply interested in the forthcoming flotation. To
+describe them is unnecessary, for they have no part in our story, being
+only financiers of a certain class, remarkable for the riches they had
+acquired by means that for the most part would not bear examination. The
+riches were evident enough. Ever since the morning the owners of this
+wealth had arrived by ones or twos in their costly motorcars, attended
+by smart chauffeurs and valets. Their fur coats, their jewelled studs
+and rings, something in their very faces suggested money, which indeed
+was the bond that brought and held them together.
+
+Alan did not come until it was time to dress for dinner, for he knew
+that Barbara would not appear before that meal, and it was her society
+he sought, not that of his host or fellow guests. Accompanied by his
+negro servant, Jeekie, for in a house like this it was necessary to have
+someone to wait upon him, he drove over from Yarleys, a distance of ten
+miles, arriving about eight o'clock.
+
+"Mr. Haswell as gone up to dress, Major, and so have the other
+gentlemen," said the head butler, Mr. Smith, "but Miss Champers told me
+to give you this note and to say that dinner is at half-past eight."
+
+Alan took the note and asked to be shown to his room. Once there,
+although he had only five and twenty minutes, he opened it eagerly,
+while Jeekie unpacked his bag.
+
+"Dear Alan," it ran: "Don't be late for dinner, or I may not be able to
+keep a place next to me. Of course Sir Robert takes me in. They are a
+worse lot than usual this time, odious--odious!--and I can't stand one
+on the left hand as well as on the right. Yours,
+
+"B.
+
+
+"P.S. What _have_ you been doing? Our distinguished guests, to say
+nothing of my uncle, seem to be in a great fuss about you. I overheard
+them talking when I was pretending to arrange some flowers. One of them
+called you a sanctimonious prig and an obstinate donkey, and another
+answered--I think it was Sir Robert --'No doubt, but obstinate donkeys
+can kick and have been known to upset other people's applecarts ere
+now.' Is the Sahara Syndicate the applecart? If so, I'll forgive you.
+
+"P.P.S. Remember that we will walk to church together to-morrow, but
+come down to breakfast in knickerbockers or something to put them off,
+and I'll do the same--I mean I'll dress as if I were going to golf.
+We can turn into Christians later. If we don't--dress like that, I
+mean--they'll guess and all want to come to church, except the Jews,
+which would bring the judgment of Heaven on us.
+
+"P.P.P.S. Don't be careless and leave this note lying about, for the
+under-footman who waits upon you reads all the letters. He steams them
+over a kettle. Smith the butler is the only respectable man in this
+house."
+
+Alan laughed outright as he finished this peculiar and outspoken
+epistle, which somehow revived his spirits, that since the previous day
+had been low enough. It refreshed him. It was like a breath of
+frosty air from an open window blowing clean and cold into a scented,
+overheated room. He would have liked to keep it, but remembering
+Barbara's injunctions and the under-footman, threw it onto the fire and
+watched it burn. Jeekie coughed to intimate that it was time for his
+master to dress, and Alan turned and looked at him in an absent-minded
+fashion.
+
+He was worth looking at, was Jeekie. Let the reader imagine a very tall
+and powerfully-built negro with a skin as black as a well-polished boot,
+woolly hair as white as snow, a little tufted beard also white, a
+hand like a leg of mutton, but with long delicate fingers and pink,
+filbert-shaped nails, an immovable countenance, but set in it beneath a
+massive brow, two extraordinary humorous and eloquent black eyes which
+expressed every emotion passing through the brain behind them, that is
+when their owner chose to allow them to do so. Such was Jeekie.
+
+"Shall I unlace your boots, Major?" he said in his full, melodious voice
+and speaking the most perfect English. "I expect that the gong will
+sound in nine and a half minutes."
+
+"Then let it sound and be hanged to it," answered Alan; "no, I forgot--I
+must hurry. Jeekie, put that fire out and open all the windows as soon
+as I go down. This room is like a hot-house."
+
+"Yes, Major, the fire shall be extinguished and the sleeping-chamber
+ventilated. The other boot, if you please, Major."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "who is stopping in this place? Have you heard?"
+
+"I collected some names on my way upstairs, Major. Three of the
+gentlemen you have never met before, but," he added suddenly breaking
+away from his high-flown book-learned English, as was his custom when
+in earnest, "Jeekie think they just black niggers like the rest, thief
+people. There ain't a white man in this house, except you and Miss
+Barbara and me, Major. Jeekie learnt all that in servant's hall palaver.
+No, not now, other time. Everyone tell everything to Jeekie, poor old
+African fool, and he look up an answer, 'O law! you don't say so?' but
+keep his eyes and ears open all the same."
+
+"I'll be bound you do, Jeekie," replied Alan, laughing again. "Well, go
+on keeping them open, and give me those trousers."
+
+"Yes, Major," answered Jeekie, reassuming his grand manner, "I shall
+continue to collect information which may prove to your advantage, but
+personally I wish that you were clear of the whole caboodle, except Miss
+Barbara."
+
+"Hear, hear," ejaculated Alan, "there goes the gong. Mind you come in
+and help to wait," and hurrying into his coat he departed downstairs.
+
+The guests were gathered in the hall drinking sherry and bitters, a
+proceeding that to Alan's mind set a stamp upon the house. His host, Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, came forward and greeted him with much affectionate
+enthusiasm, and Alan noticed that he looked very pale, also that his
+thoughts seemed to be wandering, for he introduced a French banker to
+him as a noted Jew, and the noted Jew as the French banker, although
+the distinction between them was obvious and the gentlemen concerned
+evidently resented the mistake. Sir Robert Aylward, catching sight of
+him, came across the hall in his usual, direct fashion, and shook him by
+the hand.
+
+"Glad to see you, Vernon," he said, fixing his piercing eyes upon Alan
+as though he were trying to read his thoughts. "Pleasant change this
+from the City and all that eternal business, isn't it? Ah! you are
+thinking that one is not quite clear of business after all," and he
+glanced round at the company. "That's one of your cousin Haswell's
+faults; he can never shake himself free of the thing, never get any real
+recreation. I'd bet you a sovereign that he has a stenographer waiting
+by a telephone in the next room, just in case any opportunity should
+arise in the course of conversation. That is magnificent, but it is not
+wise. His heart can't stand it; it will wear him out before his time.
+Listen, they are all talking about the Sahara. I wish I were there; it
+must be quiet at any rate. The sands beneath, the eternal stars above.
+Yes, I wish I were there," he repeated with a sigh, and Alan noted that
+although his face could not be more pallid than its natural colour, it
+looked quite worn and old.
+
+"So do I," he answered with enthusiasm.
+
+Then a French gentleman on his left, having discovered that he was the
+engineer who had formulated the great flooding scheme, began to address
+him as "Cher maitre," speaking so rapidly his own language that Alan,
+whose French was none of the best, struggled after him in vain. Whilst
+he was trying to answer a question which he did not understand, the door
+at the end of the hall opened, and through it appeared Barbara Champers.
+
+It was a large hall and she was a long way off, which caused her to look
+small, who indeed was only of middle height. Yet even at that distance
+it was impossible to mistake the dignity of her appearance. A slim woman
+with brown hair, cheerful brown eyes, a well-modelled face, a rounded
+figure and an excellent complexion, such was Barbara. Ten thousand young
+ladies could be found as good, or even better looking, yet something
+about her differentiated her from the majority of her sex. There was
+determination in her step, and overflowing health and vigour in her
+every movement. Her eyes had a trick of looking straight into any other
+eyes they met, not boldly, but with a kind of virginal fearlessness
+and enterprise that people often found embarrassing. Indeed she was
+extremely virginal and devoid of the usual fringe of feminine airs and
+graces, a nymph of the woods and waters, who although she was three and
+twenty, as yet recked little of men save as companions whom she liked
+or disliked according to her instincts. For the rest she was sweetly
+dressed in a white robe with silver on it, and wore no ornaments save
+a row of small pearls about her throat and some lilies of the valley at
+her breast.
+
+Barbara came straight onwards, looking neither to the right or to the
+left, till she reached her uncle, to whom she nodded. Then she walked to
+Alan and, offering him her hand, said:
+
+"How do you do! Why did you not come over at lunch time? I wanted to
+play a round of golf with you this afternoon."
+
+Alan answered something about being busy at Yarleys.
+
+"Yarleys!" she replied. "I thought that you lived in the City now,
+making money out of speculations, like everyone else that I know."
+
+"Why, Miss Champers," broke in Sir Robert reproachfully, "I asked you to
+play a round of golf before tea and you would not."
+
+"No," she answered, "because I was waiting for my cousin. We are better
+matched, Sir Robert."
+
+There was something in her voice, usually so soft and pleasant, as she
+spoke these words, something of steeliness and defiance that caused
+Alan to feel at once happy and uncomfortable. Apparently also it caused
+Aylward to feel angry, for he flashed a glance at Alan over her head of
+which the purport could not be mistaken, though his pale face remained
+as immovable as ever. "We are enemies. I hate you," said that glance.
+Probably Barbara saw it; at any rate before either of them could speak
+again, she said:
+
+"Thank goodness, there is dinner at last. Sir Robert, will you take me
+in, and, Alan, will you sit on the other side of me? My uncle will show
+the rest their places."
+
+The meal was long and magnificent; the price of each dish of it would
+have kept a poor family for a month, and on the cost of the exquisite
+wines they might have lived for a year or two. Also the last were well
+patronized by everyone except Barbara, who drank water, and Alan, who
+since his severe fever took nothing but weak whiskey and soda and a
+little claret. Even Aylward, a temperate person, absorbed a good deal
+of champagne. As a consequence the conversation grew animated, and under
+cover of it, while Sir Robert was arguing with his neighbour on the
+left, Barbara asked in a low voice:
+
+"What is the row, Alan? Tell me, I can't wait any longer."
+
+"I have quarrelled with them," he answered, staring at his mutton as
+though he were criticizing it. "I mean, I have left the firm and have
+nothing more to do with the business."
+
+Barbara's eyes lit up as she whispered back:
+
+"Glad of it. Best news I have heard for many a day. But then, may I ask
+why you are here?"
+
+"I came to see you," he replied humbly--"thought perhaps you wouldn't
+mind," and in his confusion he let his knife fall into the mutton,
+whence it rebounded, staining his shirt front.
+
+Barbara laughed, that happy, delightful little laugh of hers, presumably
+at the accident with the knife. Whether or no she "minded" did not
+appear, only she handed her handkerchief, a costly, last-fringed trifle,
+to Alan to wipe the gravy off his shirt, which he took thinking it was
+a napkin, and as she did so, touched his hand with a little caressing
+movement of her fingers. Whether this was done by chance or on purpose
+did not appear either. At least it made Alan feel extremely happy. Also
+when he discovered what it was, he kept that gravy-stained handkerchief,
+nor did she ever ask for it back again. Only once in after days when she
+happened to come across it stuffed away in the corner of a despatch-box,
+she blushed all over, and said that she had no idea that any man could
+be so foolish out of a book.
+
+"Now that _you_ are really clear of it, I am going for them," she said
+presently when the wiping process was finished. "I have only restrained
+myself for your sake," and leaning back in her chair she stared at the
+ceiling, lost in meditation.
+
+Presently there came one of those silences which will fall upon
+dinner-parties at times, however excellent and plentiful the champagne.
+
+"Sir Robert Aylward," said Barbara in that clear, carrying voice of
+hers, "will you, as an expert, instruct a very ignorant person? I want a
+little information."
+
+"Miss Champers," he answered, "am I not always at your service?" and
+all listened to hear upon what point their hostess desired to be
+enlightened.
+
+"Sir Robert," she went on calmly, "everyone here is, I believe, what
+is called a financier, that is except myself and Major Vernon, who only
+tries to be and will, I am sure, fail, since Nature made him something
+else, a soldier and--what else did Nature make you, Alan?"
+
+As he vouchsafed no answer to question, although Sir Robert muttered an
+uncomplimentary one between his lips which Barbara heard, or read, she
+continued:
+
+"And you are all very rich and successful, are you not, and are going to
+be much richer and much more successful--next week. Now what I want to
+ask you is--how is it done?"
+
+"Accepting the premises for the sake of argument, Miss Champers,"
+replied Sir Robert, who felt that he could not refuse the challenge,
+"the answer is that it is done by finance."
+
+"I am still in the dark," she said. "Finance, as I have heard of it,
+means floating companies, and companies are floated to earn money for
+those who invest in them. Now this afternoon as I was dull, I got hold
+of a book called the Directory of Directors, and looked up all your
+names in it, except those of the gentlemen from Paris, and the companies
+that you direct--I found out about those in another book. Well, I could
+not make out that any of these companies have ever earned any money, a
+dividend, don't you call it? Therefore how do you all grow so rich, and
+why do people invest in them?"
+
+Now Sir Robert frowned, Alan coloured, two or three of the company
+laughed outright, and one of the French gentlemen who understood English
+and had already drunk as much as was good for him, remarked loudly to
+his neighbour, "Ah! she is charming. She do touch the spot, like that
+ointment you give me to-day. How do we grow rich and why do the people
+invest? _Mon Dieu!_ why do they invest? That is the great mystery. I
+say that _cette belle demoiselle, votre ni�ce, est ravissante. Elle a
+d'esprit, mon ami Haswell._"
+
+Apparently her uncle did not share these sentiments, for he turned as
+red as any turkey-cock, and said across the great round table:
+
+"My dear Barbara, I wish that you would leave matters which you do not
+understand alone. We are here to dine, not to talk about finance."
+
+"Certainly, Uncle," she answered sweetly. "I stand, or rather sit,
+reproved. I suppose that I have put my foot into it as usual, and the
+worst of it is," she added, turning to Sir Robert, "that I am just as
+ignorant as I was before."
+
+"If you want to master these matters, Miss Champers," said Aylward with
+a rather forced laugh, "you must go into training and worship at the
+shrine of"--he meant to say Mammon, then thinking that the word sounded
+unpleasant, substituted--"the Yellow God as we do."
+
+At these words Alan, who had been studying his plate, looked up quickly,
+and her uncle's face turned from red to white. But the irrepressible
+Barbara seized upon them.
+
+"The Yellow God," she repeated. "Do you mean money or that fetish thing
+of Major Vernon's with the terrible woman's face that I saw at the
+office in the City. Well, to change the subject, tell us, Alan, what is
+that yellow god of yours and where did it come from?"
+
+"My uncle Austin, who was my mother's brother and a missionary, brought
+it from West Africa a great many years ago. He was the first to visit
+the tribe who worship it; in fact I do not think that anyone has ever
+visited them since. But really I do not know all the story. Jeekie can
+tell you about it if you want to know, for he is one of that people and
+escaped with my uncle."
+
+Now Jeekie having left the room, some of the guests wished to send
+for him, but Mr. Champers-Haswell objected. The end of it was that
+a compromise was effected, Alan undertaking to produce his retainer
+afterwards when they went to play billiards or cards.
+
+
+
+Dinner was over at length and the diners, who had dined well, were
+gathered in the billiard room to smoke and amuse themselves as they
+wished. It was a very large room, sixty feet long indeed, with a wide
+space in the centre between the two tables, which was furnished as a
+lounge. When the gentlemen entered it they found Barbara standing by
+the great fireplace in this central space, a little shape of white and
+silver in its emptiness.
+
+"Forgive me for intruding on you," she said, "and please do not stop
+smoking, for I like the smell. I have sat up expressly to hear Jeekie's
+story of the Yellow God. Alan, produce Jeekie, or I shall go to bed at
+once."
+
+Her uncle made a movement as though to interfere, but Sir Robert said
+something to him which appeared to cause him to change his mind, while
+the rest in some way or another signified an enthusiastic assent. All of
+them were anxious to see this Jeekie and hear his tale, if he had one
+to tell. So Jeekie was sent for and presently arrived clad in the dress
+clothes which are common to all classes in England and America. There
+he stood before them white-headed, ebony-faced, gigantic, imperturbable.
+There is no doubt that his appearance produced an effect, for it was
+unusual and indeed striking.
+
+"You sent for me, Major?" he said, addressing his master, to whom he
+gave a military salute, for he had been Alan's servant when he was in
+the Army.
+
+"Yes, Jeekie. Miss Barbara here and these gentlemen, wish you to tell
+them all that you know about the Yellow God."
+
+The negro started and rolled his round eyes upwards till the whites of
+them showed, then began in his school-book English:
+
+"That is a private subject, Major, upon which I should prefer not to
+discourse before this very public company."
+
+A chorus of remonstrance arose and one of the Jewish gentlemen
+approaching Jeekie, slipped a couple of sovereigns into his great hand,
+which he promptly transferred to his pocket without seeming to notice
+them.
+
+"Jeekie," said Barbara, "don't disappoint me."
+
+"Very well, miss, I fall in with your wishes. The Yellow God that all
+these gentlemen worship, quite another god to that of which you desire
+that I should tell you. You know all about him. My god is of female
+sex."
+
+At this statement his audience burst into laughter while Jeekie rolled
+his eyes again and waited till they had finished. "My god," he went on
+presently, "I mean, gentlemen, the god I used to pray to, for I am a
+good Christian now, has so much gold that she does not care for any
+more," and he paused.
+
+"Then what does she care for?" asked someone.
+
+"Blood," answered Jeekie. "She is god of Death. Her name is Little
+Bonsa or Small Swimming Head; she is wife of Big Bonsa or Great Swimming
+Head."
+
+Again there was laughter, though less general--for instance, neither Sir
+Robert nor Mr. Champers-Haswell laughed. This merriment seemed to excite
+Jeekie. At any rate it caused him to cease his stilted talk and relapse
+into the strange vernacular that is common to all negroes, tinctured
+with a racy slang that was all his own.
+
+"You want to hear Yellow God palaver?" he said rapidly. "Very well, I
+tell you, you cocksure white men who think you know everything, but
+know nothing at all. My people, people of the Asiki, that mean people of
+Spirits, what you call ghosts and say you no believe in, but always look
+for behind door, they worship Yellow God, Bonsa Big and Bonsa Little,
+worship both and call them one; only Little Bonsa on trip to this
+country just now and sit and think in City office. Yellow God live long
+way up a great river, then turn to the left and walk six days through
+big forest where dwarf people shoot you with poisoned arrow. Then turn
+to the right, walk up stream where many wild beasts. Then turn to the
+left again and go in canoe through swamp where you die of fever, and
+across lake. Then walk over grassland and mountains. Then in kloof of
+the mountains where big black trees make a roof and river fall like
+thunder, find Asiki and gold house of the Yellow God. All that mountain
+gold, full of gold and beneath gold house Yellow God afloat in water.
+She what you call Queen, priestess, live there also, always there, very
+beautiful woman called Asika with face like Yellow God, cruel, cruel.
+She take a husband every year, and every year he die because she always
+hunt for right man but never find him."
+
+"Does she kill him then?" asked Barbara.
+
+"Oh! no, she no kill him, Miss, he kill himself at end of year, glad to
+get away from Asika and go to spirits. While he live he have a very good
+time, plenty to eat, plenty wives, fine house, much gold as he like,
+only nothing to spend it on, pretty necklace, nice paint for face. But
+Asika, little bit by little bit she eat up his spirit. He see too many
+ghosts. The house where he sleep with dead men who once have his billet,
+full of ghosts and every night there come more and sit with him, sit all
+round him, look at him with great eyes, just like you look at me, till
+at last when Asika finish eating up his spirit, he go crazy, he howl
+like man in hell, he throw away all the gold they give him, and then,
+sometimes after one week, sometimes after one month, sometimes after one
+year if he be strong but never more, he run out at night and jump into
+canal where Yellow God float and god get him, while Asika sit on the
+bank and laugh, 'cause she hungry for new man to eat up his spirit too."
+
+Jeekie's big voice died away to a whisper and ceased. There was a
+silence in the room, for even in the shine of the electric light and
+through the fumes of champagne, in more than one imagination there rose
+a vision of that haunted water in which floated the great Yellow God,
+and of some mad being casting himself to his death beneath the moon,
+while his beautiful witch wife who was "hungry for more spirits" sat
+upon its edge and laughed. Although his language was now commonplace
+enough, even ludicrous at times, the negro had undoubtedly the art of
+narration. His auditors felt that he spoke of what he knew, or had seen,
+that the very recollection of it frightened him, therefore he frightened
+them.
+
+Again Barbara broke the silence which she felt to be awkward.
+
+"Why do more ghosts come very night to sit with the queen's husband,
+Jeekie?" she asked. "Where do they come from?"
+
+"Out of the dead, miss, dead husbands of Asika from beginning of the
+world; what they call Munganas. Also always they make sacrifice to
+Yellow God. From far, far away them poor niggers send people to be
+sacrifice that their house or tribe get luck. Sometimes they send kings,
+sometimes great men, sometimes doctors, sometimes women what have twin
+babies. Also the Asiki bring people what is witches, or have drunk
+poison stuff which blacks call _muavi_ and have not been sick, or
+perhaps son they love best to take curse off their roof. All these come
+to Yellow God. Then Asiki doctor, they have Death-palaver. On night of
+full moon they beat drum, and drum go Wow! Wow! Wow! and doctors pick
+out those to die that month. Once they pick out Jeekie, oh! good Lord,
+they pick out _me_," and as he said the words he gasped and with his
+great hand wiped off the sweat that started from his brow. "But Yellow
+God no take Jeekie that time, no want him and I escape."
+
+"How?" asked Sir Robert.
+
+"With my master, Major's uncle, Reverend Austin, he who come try to make
+Asiki Christian. He snap his fingers, put on small mask of Yellow God
+which he prig, Little Bonsa herself, that same face which sit in your
+office now," and he pointed to Sir Robert, "like one toad upon a stone.
+Priests think that god make herself into man, want holiday, take me out
+into forest to kill me and eat my life. So they let us go by and we go
+just as though devil kick us--fast, fast, and never see the Asiki any
+more. But Little Bonsa I bring with me for luck, tell truth I no dare
+leave her behind, she not stand that; and now she sit in your office and
+think and think and make magic there. That why you grow rich, because
+she know you worship her."
+
+"That's a nice way for a baptized Christian to talk," said Barbara,
+adding, "But Jeekie, what do you mean when you say that the god did not
+take you?"
+
+"I mean this, miss; when victim offered to Big Yellow God, priest-men
+bring him to edge of canal where the great god float. Then if Yellow God
+want him, it turn and swim across water."
+
+"Swim across water! I thought you said it was only a mask of gold?"
+
+"I don't know, miss, perhaps man inside the mask, perhaps spirit. I say
+it swim across water in the night, always in the night, and lift
+itself up and look in victim's face. Then priest take him and kill him,
+sometimes one way--sometimes another. Or if he escape and they not kill
+him, all same for that Johnnie, he die in about one year, always die,
+no one ever live long if Yellow God swim to him in dark and rise up and
+smile in his face. No matter if it Big Bonsa or Little Bonsa, for they
+man and wife joined in holy matrimony and either do trick."
+
+As these words left Jeekie's lips Alan became aware of some unusual
+movement on his left and looking round, saw that Mr. Champers-Haswell,
+who stood by him, had dropped the cigar which he held and, white as a
+sheet, was swaying to and fro. Indeed in another instant he would have
+fallen had not Alan caught him in his arms and supported him till others
+came to his assistance, when between them they carried him to a sofa. On
+their way they passed a table where spirits and soda water were set out,
+and to his astonishment Alan noticed that Sir Robert Aylward, looking
+little if at all better than his partner, had helped himself to half a
+tumbler of cognac, which he was swallowing in great gulps. Then there
+was confusion and someone went to telephone the doctor, while the deep
+voice of Jeekie was heard exclaiming:
+
+"That Yellow God at work--oh yes, Little Bonsa on the job. Jeekie
+Christian man but no doubt she very powerful fetish and can do anything
+she like to them that worship her, and you see, she sit in office of
+these gentlemen. 'Spect she make Reverend Austin and me bring her
+to England because she got eye on firm of Messrs. Aylward & Haswell,
+London, E.C. Oh, shouldn't wonder at all, for Bonsa know everything."
+
+"Oh, confound you and your fetish! Be off, you old donkey," almost
+shouted Alan.
+
+"Major," replied the offended Jeekie, assuming his grand manner
+and language, "it was not I who wished to narrate this history of
+blood-stained superstitions of poor African. Mustn't blame old Jeekie if
+they make Christian gents sick as Channel steamer."
+
+"Be off," repeated Alan, stamping his foot.
+
+So Jeekie went, but outside the door, as it chanced, he encountered one
+of the Jew gentlemen who also appeared to be a little "sick." An idea
+striking him, he touched his white hair with his finger and said:
+
+"You like Jeekie's pretty story, sir? Well, Jeekie think that if you
+make little present to him, like your brother in there, it please Yellow
+God very much, and bring you plenty luck."
+
+Then acting upon some unaccustomed impulse, that Jew became exceedingly
+generous. In his pocket was a handful of sovereigns which he had been
+prepared to stake at bridge. He grasped them all and thrust them into
+Jeekie's outstretched palm, where they seemed to melt.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Jeekie. "Now I sure you have plenty luck, just
+like your grandpa Jacob in Book when he do his brudder in eye."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ALAN AND BARBARA
+
+There was no bridge or billiards at the Court that night, where
+ordinarily the play ran high enough. After Mr. Haswell had been carried
+to his room, some of the guests, among them Sir Robert Aylward, went to
+bed, remarking that they could do no good by sitting up, while others,
+more concerned, waited to hear the verdict of the doctor, who must drive
+from six miles away. He came, and half an hour later Barbara entered
+the billiard room and told Alan, who was sitting there smoking, that her
+uncle had recovered from his faint, and that the doctor, who was to stay
+all night, said that he was in no danger, only suffering from a heart
+attack brought on apparently by over-work or excitement.
+
+When Alan woke next morning the first thing that he heard through his
+open window was the sound of the doctor's departing dogcart. Then Jeekie
+appeared and told him that Mr. Haswell was all right again, but that
+all night he had shaken "like one jelly." Alan asked what had been the
+matter with him, but Jeekie only shrugged his shoulders and said that he
+did not know--"perhaps Yellow God touch him up."
+
+At breakfast, as in her note she had said she would, Barbara appeared
+wearing a short skirt. Sir Robert, who was there, also looked extremely
+pale even for him and with black rims round his eyes, asked her if she
+were going to golf, to which she answered that she would think it over.
+It was a somewhat melancholy meal, and as though by common consent no
+mention was made of Jeekie's tale of the Yellow God, and beyond the
+usual polite inquiries, very little of their host's seizure.
+
+As Barbara went out she whispered to Alan, who opened the door for her,
+"Meet me at half-past ten in the kitchen garden."
+
+Accordingly, having changed his clothes surreptitiously, Alan, avoiding
+the others, made his way by a circuitous route to this kitchen garden,
+which after the fashion of modern places was hidden behind a belt of
+trees nearly a quarter of a mile from the house. Here he wandered about
+till presently he heard Barbara's pleasant voice behind him saying:
+
+"Don't dawdle so, we shall be late for church."
+
+So they started, somewhat furtively like runaway children. As they went
+Alan asked how her uncle was.
+
+"All right now," she answered, "but he has had a bad shake. It was
+that Yellow God story which did it. I know, for I was there when he
+was coming to, with Sir Robert. He kept talking about it in a confused
+manner, saying that it was swimming to him across the floor, till at
+last Sir Robert bent over him and told him to be quiet quite sternly.
+Do you know, Alan, I believe that your pet fetish has been manifesting
+itself in some unpleasant fashion up there in the office?"
+
+"Indeed. If so, it must be since I left, for I never heard of anything
+of the sort, nor are Aylward and your uncle likely people to see ghosts.
+In fact Sir Robert wished to give me about �17,000 for the thing only
+the day before yesterday, which doesn't look as though it had been
+frightening him."
+
+"Well, he won't repeat the offer, Alan, for I heard him promise my uncle
+only this morning that it should be sent back to Yarleys at once. But
+why did he want to buy it for such a lot of money? Tell me quickly,
+Alan, I am dying to hear the whole story."
+
+So he began and told her, omitting nothing, while she listened eagerly
+to every word, hardly interrupting him at all. As he finished his tale
+they reached the door of the quaint old village church just as the clock
+was striking eleven.
+
+"Come in, Alan," she said gently, "and thank Heaven for all its mercies,
+for you should be a grateful man to-day."
+
+Then without giving him time to answer she entered the church and they
+took their places in the great square pew that for generations had been
+occupied by the owners of the ancient house which Mr. Haswell pulled
+down when he built The Court. There were their monuments upon the
+wall and their gravestones in the chancel floor. But now no one except
+Barbara ever sat in their pew; even the benches set aside for the
+servants were empty, for those who frequented The Court were not
+church-goers and "like master, like man." Indeed the gentle-faced old
+clergyman looked quite pleased and surprised when he saw two inhabitants
+of that palatial residence amongst his congregation, although it is true
+that Barbara was his friend and helper.
+
+The simple service went on; the first lesson was read. It cried woe upon
+them that joined house to house and field to field, that draw iniquity
+with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope; that call evil
+good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness,
+that justify the wicked for reward; that feast full but regard not the
+work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hand, for of
+such it prophesied that their houses great and fair should be without
+inhabitant and desolate.
+
+It was very well read, and Alan, listening, thought that the
+denunciations of the old seer of thousands of years ago were not
+inappropriate to the dwellers in some houses great and fair of his own
+day, who, whatever they did or left undone, regarded not the work of
+the Lord, neither considered the operation of His hand. Perhaps Barbara
+thought so too; at any rate a rather sad little smile appeared once or
+twice upon her sweet, firm face as the immortal poem echoed down the
+aisle.
+
+The peace that passeth understanding was invoked upon their heads, and
+rising with the rest of the scanty congregation they went away.
+
+"Shall we walk home by the woods, Alan?" asked Barbara. "It is three
+miles round, but we don't lunch till two."
+
+He nodded, and presently they were alone in those woods, the beautiful
+woods through which the breath of spring was breathing, treading upon
+carpets of bluebells, violet and primrose; quite alone, unaccompanied
+save by the wild things that stole across their path, undisturbed save
+by the sound of the singing birds and of the wind among the trees.
+
+"What did you mean, Barbara, when you said that I should be a grateful
+man to-day?" asked Alan presently.
+
+Barbara looked him in the eyes in that open, virginal fashion of hers
+and answered in the words of the lesson, "'Woe unto them that draw
+iniquity with the cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope,
+that lay house to house,'" and through an opening in the woods she
+pointed to the roof of The Court standing on one hill, and to the roof
+of Old Hall standing upon another--"'and field to field,'" and with a
+sweep of her hand she indicated all the country round, "'for many houses
+great and fair that have music in their feasts shall be left desolate.'"
+Then turning she said:
+
+"Do you understand now, Alan?"
+
+"I think so," he answered. "You mean that I have been in bad company."
+
+"Very bad, Alan. One of them is my own uncle, but the truth remains the
+truth. Alan, they are no better than thieves; all this wealth is stolen,
+and I thank God that you have found it out in time before you became one
+of them in heart as well as in name."
+
+"If you refer to the Sahara Syndicate," he said, "the idea is sound
+enough; indeed, I am responsible for it. The thing can be done, great
+benefits would result, too long to go into."
+
+"Yes, yes, Alan, but you know that they never mean to do it, they only
+mean to get the millions from the public. I have lived with my uncle for
+ten years, ever since my poor father died, and I know the backstairs
+of the business. There have been half a dozen schemes like this, and
+although they have had their bad times, very bad times, he and Sir
+Robert have grown richer and richer. But what has happened to those who
+have invested in them? Oh! let us drop the subject, it is unpleasant.
+For myself it doesn't matter, because although it isn't under my
+control, I have money of my own. You know we are a plebeian lot on the
+male side, my grandfather was a draper in a large way of business, my
+father was a coal-merchant who made a great fortune. His brother, my
+uncle, in whom my father always believed implicitly, took to what is
+called Finance, and when my father died he left me, his only child,
+in his guardianship. Until I am five and twenty I cannot even marry or
+touch a halfpenny without his consent; in fact if I should marry against
+his will the most of my money goes to him."
+
+"I expect that he has got it already," said Alan.
+
+"No, I think not. I found out that, although it is not mine, it is not
+his. He can't draw it without my signature, and I steadily refuse to
+sign anything. Again and again they have brought me documents, and I
+have always said that I would consider them at five and twenty, when
+I came of age under my father's will. I went on the sly to a lawyer
+in Kingswell and paid him a guinea for his advice, and he put me up to
+that. 'Sign nothing,' he said, and I have signed nothing, so, except by
+forgery nothing can have gone. Still for all that it may have gone.
+For anything I know I am not worth more than the clothes I stand in,
+although my father was a very rich man."
+
+"If so, we are about in the same boat, Barbara," Alan answered with a
+laugh, "for my present possessions are Yarleys, which brings in about
+�100 a year less than the interest on its mortgages and cost of upkeep,
+and the �1700 that Aylward paid me back on Friday for my shares. If I
+had stuck to them I understand that in a week or two I should have been
+worth �100,000, and now you see, here I am, over thirty years of age
+without a profession, invalided out of the army and having failed in
+finance, a mere bit of driftwood without hope and without a trade."
+
+Barbara's brown eyes grew soft with sympathy, or was it tears?
+
+"You are a curious creature, Alan," she said. "Why didn't you take the
+�17,000 for that fetish of yours? It would have been a fair deal and
+have set you on your legs."
+
+"I don't know," he answered dejectedly. "It went against the grain, so
+what is the use of talking about it? I think my old uncle Austin told
+me it wasn't to be parted with--no, perhaps it was Jeekie. Bother the
+Yellow God! it is always cropping up."
+
+"Yes," replied Barbara, "the Yellow God is always cropping up,
+especially in this neighbourhood."
+
+They walked on a while in silence, till suddenly Barbara sat down upon a
+bole of felled oak and began to cry.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" asked Alan.
+
+"I don't know," she answered. "Everything goes wrong. I live in a kind
+of gilded hell. I don't like my uncle and I loath the men he brings
+about the place. I have no friends, I scarcely know a woman intimately,
+I have troubles I can't tell you and--I am wretched. You are the only
+creature I have left to talk to, and I suppose that after this row you
+must go away too to make your living."
+
+Alan looked at her there weeping on the log and his heart swelled within
+him, for he had loved this girl for years.
+
+"Barbara," he gasped, "please don't cry, it upsets me. You know you are
+a great heiress----"
+
+"That remains to be proved," she answered. "But anyway, what has it to
+do with the case?"
+
+"It has everything to do with it, at least so far as I am concerned. If
+it hadn't been for that I should have asked you to marry me a long
+while ago, because I love you, as I would now, but of course it is
+impossible."
+
+Barbara ceased her weeping, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand,
+and looked up at him.
+
+"Alan," she said, "I think that you are the biggest fool I ever
+knew--not but that a fool is rather refreshing when one lives among
+knaves."
+
+"I know I am a fool," he answered. "If I wasn't I should not have
+mentioned my misfortune to you, but sometimes things are too much for
+one. Forget it and forgive me."
+
+"Oh! yes," she said; "I forgive you; a woman can generally forgive a
+man for being fond of her. Whatever she may be, she is ready to take
+a lenient view of his human weakness. But as to forgetting, that is
+a different matter. I don't exactly see why I should be so anxious to
+forget, who haven't many people to care about me," and she looked at him
+in quite a new fashion, one indeed which gave him something of a shock,
+for he had not thought the nymph-like Barbara capable of such a look as
+that. She and any sort of passion had always seemed so far apart.
+
+Now after all Alan was very much a man, if a modest one, with all a
+man's instincts, and therefore there are appearances of the female face
+which even such as he could not entirely misinterpret.
+
+"You--don't--mean," he said doubtfully, "you don't really mean----" and
+he stood hesitating before her.
+
+"If you would put your question a little more clearly, Alan, I might be
+able to give you an answer," she replied, that quaint little smile of
+hers creeping to the corners of her mouth like sunshine through a mist
+of rain.
+
+"You don't really mean," he went on, "that you care anything about me,
+like, like I have cared for you for years?"
+
+"Oh! Alan," she said, laughing outright, "why in the name of goodness
+shouldn't I care about you? I didn't say that I do, mind, but why
+shouldn't I? What is the gulf between us?"
+
+"The old one," he answered, "that between Dives and Lazarus--that
+between the rich and the poor."
+
+"Alan," said Barbara, looking down, "I don't know what has come over me,
+but for some unexplained and inexplicable reason I am inclined to
+give Lazarus a lead--across that gulf, the first one, I mean, not the
+second!"
+
+Like the glance which preceded it, this was a saying that even Alan
+could not misunderstand. He sat himself on the log beside her, while
+she, still looking down, watched him out of the corners of her eyes.
+He went red, he went white, his heart beat very violently. Then he
+stretched out his big brown hand and took her small white one, and as
+this familiarity produced no remonstrance, let it fall, and passing his
+arm about her, drew her to him and embraced her, not once, but
+often, with such vigour that a squirrel which had been watching these
+proceedings from a neighbouring tree, bolted round it scandalized and
+was seen no more.
+
+"I love you, I love you," he said huskily.
+
+"So I gather," she answered in a feeble voice.
+
+"Do you care for me?" he asked.
+
+"It would seem that I must, Alan, otherwise I should scarcely--oh! you
+foolish Alan," and heedless of her Sunday hat, which never recovered
+from this encounter, but was kept as a holy relic, she let her head fall
+upon his shoulder and began to cry again, this time for very happiness.
+
+He kissed her tears away, then as he could think of nothing else to say,
+asked her if she would marry him.
+
+"It is the general sequel to this kind of thing, I believe," she
+answered; "or at any rate it ought to be. But if you want a direct
+answer--yes, I will, if my uncle will let me, which he won't, as you
+have quarrelled with him, or at any rate two years hence, when I am five
+and twenty and my own mistress; that is if we have anything to marry
+on, for one must eat. At present our worldly possessions seem to consist
+chiefly of a large store of mutual affection, a good stock of clothes
+and one Yellow God, which after what happened last night, I do not think
+you will get another chance of turning into cash."
+
+"I must make money somehow," he said.
+
+"Yes, Alan, but I am afraid it is not easy to do--honestly. Nobody
+wants people without capital whose only stock in trade is a brief but
+distinguished military career, and a large experience of African fever."
+
+Alan groaned at this veracious but discouraging remark, and she went on
+quickly:
+
+"I mean to spend another guinea upon my friend the lawyer at Kingswell.
+Perhaps he can raise the wind, by a post-obit, or something," she added
+vaguely, "I mean a post-uncle-obit."
+
+"If he does, Barbara, I can't live on your money alone, it isn't right."
+
+"Oh! don't you trouble about that, Alan. If once I can get hold of those
+dim thousands you will soon be able to make more, for unto him that hath
+shall be given. But at present they are very dim, and for all I know may
+be represented by stock in deceased companies. In short, the financial
+position is extraordinarily depressed, as they say in the Market
+Intelligence in _The Times_. But that's no reason why we should be
+depressed also."
+
+"No, Barbara, for at any rate we have got each other."
+
+"Yes," she answered, springing up, "we have got each other, dear, until
+Death do us part, and somehow I don't think he'll do that yet awhile;
+it comes into my heart that he won't do that, Alan, that you and I are
+going to live out our days. So what does the rest matter? In two years
+I shall be a free woman. In fact, if the worst comes to the worst, I'll
+defy them all," and she set her little mouth like a rock, "and marry you
+straight away, as being over age, I can do, even if it costs me every
+halfpenny that I've got."
+
+"No, no," he said, "it would be wrong, wrong to yourself and wrong to
+your descendants."
+
+"Very well, Alan, then, we will wait, or perhaps luck will come our
+way--why shouldn't it? At any rate for my part I never felt so happy in
+my life; for, dear Alan, we have found what we were born to find, found
+it once and for always, and the rest is mere etceteras. What would be
+the use of all the gold of the Asiki people that Jeekie was talking
+about last night, to either of us, if we had not each other? We can
+get on without the wealth, but we couldn't get on apart, or at least I
+couldn't and I don't mind saying so."
+
+"No, my darling, no," he answered, turning white at the very thought,
+"we couldn't get on apart--now. In fact I don't know how I have done so
+so long already, except that I was always hoping that a time would
+come when we shouldn't be apart. That is why I went into that infernal
+business, to make enough money to be able to ask you to marry me.
+And now I have gone out of the business and asked you just when I
+shouldn't."
+
+"Yes, so you see you might as well have done it a year or two ago when
+perhaps things would have been simpler. Well, it is a fine example of
+the vanity of human plans, and, Alan, we must be going home to lunch. If
+we don't, Sir Robert will be organizing a search party to look for us;
+in fact, I shouldn't wonder if he is doing that already, in the wrong
+direction."
+
+The mention of Sir Robert Aylward's name fell on them both like a blast
+of cold wind in summer, and for a while they walked in silence.
+
+"You are afraid of that man, Barbara," said Alan presently, guessing her
+thoughts.
+
+"A little," she answered, "so far as I can be afraid of anything any
+more. And you?"
+
+"A little also. I think that he will give us trouble. He can be very
+malevolent and resourceful."
+
+"Resourceful, Alan; well, so can I. I'll back my wits against his any
+day. He shan't separate us by anything short of murder, which he won't
+go in for. Men like that don't like to break the law; they have too much
+to lose. But no doubt he will make things uncomfortable for you, if he
+can, for several reasons."
+
+Again they walked on lost in reflections, when Barbara suddenly saw her
+lover's face brighten.
+
+"What is it, Alan?" she asked.
+
+"Something that is rare enough with me, Barbara--an idea. You remember
+speaking about that Asiki gold just now. Well, why shouldn't I go and
+get it?"
+
+She stared at him.
+
+"It sounds a little speculative," she said; "something like one of my
+uncle's companies."
+
+"Not half so speculative as you think. I have no doubt it is there and
+Jeekie knows the way. Also I seem to remember that there is a map and an
+account of the whole thing in Uncle Austin's diaries, though to tell you
+the truth the old fellow wrote such a fearful hand, that I have never
+taken the trouble to read it. You see," he went on with enthusiasm, "it
+is the kind of business that I can do. I am thoroughly salted to fever,
+I know the West Coast, where I spent three years on that Boundary
+Commission, I have studied the natives and can talk several of their
+dialects. Of course there would be a risk, but there are risks in
+everything, and like you I am not afraid about that, for I believe that
+we have got our lives before us."
+
+"Read up those diaries, Alan, and we will talk the thing over again.
+I'll pump Jeekie, who will tell me anything by coaxing, and try to get
+at the truth. Meanwhile what are you going to do about my uncle?"
+
+"Speak to him, of course, and have the row over."
+
+"Yes," she answered, "that is the best and the most honest. Of course
+he can turn you out, but he can't prevent my seeing you. If he does, go
+home to Yarleys and I'll come over and call. Here we are, let us go in
+by the back door," and she pointed to her crushed hat, and laughed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BARBARA MAKES A SPEECH
+
+While Alan and Barbara, on the most momentous occasion of their lives,
+were seated upon the fallen oak in the woods that thrilled with
+the breath of spring, another interview was taking place in Mr.
+Champers-Haswell's private suite at The Court, the decorations of
+which, as he was wont to inform his visitors, had cost nearly �2000. Sir
+Robert, whose taste at any rate was good, thought them so appalling that
+while waiting for his host and partner, whom he had come to see, he took
+a seat in the bow window of the sitting-room and studied the view that
+nobody had been able to spoil. Presently Mr. Haswell emerged from his
+bedroom, wrapped in a dressing gown and looking very pale and shaky.
+
+"Delighted to see you all right again," said Sir Robert as he wheeled up
+a chair into which Mr. Haswell sank.
+
+"I am not all right, Aylward," he answered; "I am not all right at all.
+Never had such an upset in my life; thought I was going to die when that
+accursed savage told his beastly tale. Aylward, you are a man of the
+world, tell me, what is the meaning of the thing? You remember what we
+thought we saw in the office, and then--that story."
+
+"I don't know," he answered; "frankly I don't know. I am a man who has
+never believed in anything I cannot see and test, one who utterly lacks
+faith. In my leisure I have examined into the various religious
+systems and found them to be rubbish. I am convinced that we are but
+highly-developed mammals born by chance, and when our day is done,
+departing into the black nothingness out of which we came. Everything
+else, that is, what is called the higher and spiritual part, I attribute
+to the superstitions incident to the terror of the hideous position in
+which we find ourselves, that of gods of a sort hemmed in by a few years
+of fearful and tormented life. But you know the old arguments, so why
+should I enter on them? And now I am confronted with an experience
+which I cannot explain. I certainly thought that in the office on Friday
+evening I saw that gold mask to which I had taken so strange a fancy
+that I offered to give Vernon �17,000 for it because I thought that it
+brought us luck, swim across the floor of our room and look first into
+your face and then into mine. Well, the next night that negro tells his
+story. What am I to make of it?"
+
+"Can't tell you," answered Mr. Champers-Haswell with a groan. "All I
+know is that it nearly made a corpse of me. I am not like you, Aylward,
+I was brought up as an Evangelical, and although I haven't given much
+thought to these matters of late years--well, we don't shake them off in
+a hurry. I daresay there is something somewhere, and when the black
+man was speaking, that something seemed uncommonly near. It got up and
+gripped me by the throat, shaking the mortal breath out of me, and upon
+my word, Aylward, I have been wishing all the morning that I had led a
+different kind of life, as my old parents and my brother John, Barbara's
+father, who was a very religious kind of man, did before me."
+
+"It is rather late to think of all that now, Haswell," said Sir Robert,
+shrugging his shoulders. "One takes one's line and there's an end.
+Personally I believe that we are overstrained with the fearful and
+anxious work of this flotation, and have been the victims of an
+hallucination and a coincidence. Although I confess that I came to look
+upon the thing as a kind of mascot, I put no trust in any fetish. How
+can a bit of gold move, and how can it know the future? Well, I have
+written to them to clear it out of the office to-morrow, so it won't
+trouble us any more. And now I have come to speak to you on another
+matter."
+
+"Not business," said Mr. Haswell with a sigh. "We have that all the week
+and there will be enough of it on Monday."
+
+"No," he answered, "something more important. About your niece Barbara."
+
+Mr. Haswell glanced at him with those little eyes of his which were so
+sharp that they seemed to bore like gimlets.
+
+"Barbara?" he said. "What of Barbara?"
+
+"Can't you guess, Haswell? You are pretty good at it, generally. Well,
+it is no use beating about the bush; I want to marry her."
+
+At this sudden announcement his partner became exceedingly interested.
+Leaning back in the chair he stared at the decorated ceiling, and
+uttered his favourite wind-in-the-wires whistle.
+
+"Indeed," he said. "I never knew that matrimony was in your line,
+Aylward, any more than it has been in mine, especially as you are always
+preaching against it. Well, has the young lady given her consent?"
+
+"No, I have not spoken to her. I meant to do so this morning, but she
+has slipped off somewhere, with Vernon, I suppose."
+
+Mr. Haswell whistled again, but on a new note.
+
+"Pray do stop that noise," said Sir Robert; "it gets upon my nerves,
+which are shaky this morning. Listen: It is a curious thing, one less
+to be understood even than the coincidence of the Yellow God, but at
+my present age of forty-four, for the first time in my life I have
+committed the folly of what is called falling in love. It is not the
+case of a successful, middle-aged man wishing to _ranger_ himself and
+settle down with a desirable _partie_, but of sheer, stark infatuation.
+I adore Barbara; the worse she treats me the more I adore her. I had
+rather that the Sahara flotation should fail than that she should refuse
+me. I would rather lose three-quarters of my fortune than lose her. Do
+you understand?"
+
+His partner looked at him, pursed up his lips to whistle, then
+remembered and shook his head instead.
+
+"No," he answered. "Barbara is a nice girl, but I should not have
+imagined her capable of inspiring such sentiments in a man almost old
+enough to be her father. I think that you are the victim of a kind of
+mania, which I have heard of but never experienced. Venus--or is it
+Cupid?--has netted you, my dear Aylward."
+
+"Oh! pray leave gods and goddesses out of it, we have had enough of them
+already," he answered, exasperated. "That is my case at any rate, and
+what I want to know now is if I have your support in my suit. Remember,
+I have something to offer, Haswell, for instance, a large fortune of
+which I will settle half--it is a good thing to do in our business,--and
+a baronetcy that will be a peerage before long."
+
+"A peerage! Have you squared that?"
+
+"I think so. There will be a General Election within the next three
+months, and on such occasions a couple of hundred thousand in cool cash
+come in useful to a Party that is short of ready money. I think I may
+say that it is settled. She will be the Lady Aylward, or any other name
+she may fancy, and one of the richest women in England. Now have I your
+support?"
+
+"Yes, my dear friend, why not, though Barbara does not want money, for
+she has plenty of her own, in first-class securities that I could never
+persuade her to vary, for she is shrewd in that way and steadily refuses
+to sign anything. Also she will probably be my heiress--and, Aylward,"
+here a sickly look of alarm spread itself over his face, "I don't know
+how long I have to live. That infernal doctor examined my heart this
+morning and told me that it was weak. Weak was his word, but from the
+tone in which he said it, I believe that he meant more. Aylward, I
+gather that I may die any day."
+
+"Nonsense, Haswell, so may we all," he replied, with an affectation of
+cheerfulness which failed to carry conviction.
+
+Presently Mr. Haswell, who had hidden his face in his hand, looked up
+with a sigh and said:
+
+"Oh! yes, of course you have my support, for after all she is my only
+relation and I should be glad to see her safely married. Also, as it
+happens, she can't marry anyone without my consent, at any rate until
+she is five and twenty, for if she does, under her father's will all her
+property goes away, most of it to charities, except a beggarly �200 a
+year. You see my brother John had a great horror of imprudent marriages
+and a still greater belief in me, which as it chances, is a good thing
+for you."
+
+"Had he?" said Sir Robert. "And pray why is it a good thing for me?"
+
+"Because, my dear Aylward, unless my observation is at fault, there is
+another Richard in the field, our late partner, Vernon, of whom, by
+the way, Barbara is extremely fond, though it may only be in a friendly
+fashion. At any rate she pays more attention to his wishes and opinions
+than to mine and yours put together."
+
+At the mention of Alan's name Aylward started violently.
+
+"I feared it," he said, "and he is more than ten years my junior and
+a soldier, not a man of business. Also there is no use disguising the
+truth, although I am a baronet and shall be a peer and he is nothing
+but a beggarly country gentleman with a D.S.O. tacked on to his name,
+he belongs to a different class to us, as she does too on her mother's
+side. Well, I can smash him up, for you remember I took over that
+mortgage on Yarleys, and I'll do it if necessary. Practically our friend
+has not a shilling that he can call his own. Therefore, Haswell, unless
+you play me false, which I don't think you will, for I can be a nasty
+enemy," he added with a threat in his voice, "Alan Vernon hasn't much
+chance in that direction."
+
+"I don't know, Aylward, I don't know," replied Haswell, shaking his
+white head. "Barbara is a strong-willed woman and she might choose to
+take the man and let the money go, and then--who can stop her? Also I
+don't like your idea of smashing Vernon. It isn't right, and it may come
+back on our own heads, especially yours. I am sorry that he has left us,
+as you were on Friday night, for somehow he was a good, honest stick to
+lean on, and we want such a stick. But I am tired now, I really can't
+talk any more. The doctor warned me against excitement. Get the girl's
+consent, Aylward, and we'll see. Ah! here comes my soup. Good-bye for
+the present."
+
+When Sir Robert came down to luncheon he found Barbara looking
+particularly radiant and charming, already presiding at that meal and
+conversing in her best French to the foreign gentlemen, who were paying
+her compliments.
+
+"Forgive me for being late," he said; "first of all I have been
+talking to your uncle, and afterwards skimming through the articles in
+yesterday's papers on our little venture which comes out to-morrow. A
+cheerful occupation on the whole, for with one or two exceptions they
+are all favourable."
+
+"Mon Dieu," said the French gentlemen on the right, "seeing what
+they did cost, that is not strange. Your English papers they are so
+expensive; in Paris we have done it for half the money."
+
+Barbara and some of the guests laughed outright, finding this frankness
+charming.
+
+"But where have you been, Miss Champers? I thought that we were going to
+have a round of golf together. The caddies were there, I was there, the
+greens had been specially rolled this morning, but there was no You."
+
+"No," she answered, "because Major Vernon and I walked to church and
+heard a very good sermon upon the observance of the Sabbath."
+
+"You are severe," he said. "Do you think it wrong for men who work hard
+all the week to play a harmless game on Sunday?"
+
+"Not at all, Sir Robert." Then she looked at him and, coming to a sudden
+decision, added, "If you like I will play you nine holes this afternoon
+and give you a stroke a hole, or would you prefer a foursome?"
+
+"No, let us fight alone and let the best player win."
+
+"Very well, Sir Robert; but you mustn't forget that I am handicapped."
+
+"Don't look angry," she whispered to Alan as they strolled out into the
+garden after lunch, "I must clear things up and know what we have to
+face. I'll be back by tea-time, and we will have it out with my uncle."
+
+
+
+The nine holes had been played, and by a single stroke Barbara had won
+the match, which pleased her very much, for she had done her best, and
+with such heavy odds in his favour Sir Robert, who had also done his
+best, was no mean opponent, even for a player of her skill. Indeed the
+fight had been quite earnest, for each party knew that it was but a
+prelude to another and more serious fight, and looked upon the result as
+in some sense an omen.
+
+"I am conquered," he said in a voice in which vexation struggled with a
+laugh, "and by a woman over whom I had an advantage. It is humiliating,
+for I confess I do not like being beaten."
+
+"Don't you think that women generally win if they mean to?" asked
+Barbara. "I believe that when they fail, which is often enough, it
+is because they don't care, or can't make up their minds. A woman in
+earnest is a dangerous antagonist."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "or the best of allies." Then he gave the clubs and
+half-a-crown to the caddies, and when they were out of hearing, added,
+"Miss Champers, I have been wondering for some time whether it is
+possible that you would become such an ally to me."
+
+"I know nothing of business, Sir Robert; my tastes do not lie that way."
+
+"You know well that I was not speaking of business, Miss Champers. I was
+speaking of another kind of partnership, that which Nature has ordained
+between men and women--marriage. Will you accept me as a husband?"
+
+She opened her lips to speak, but he lifted his hand and went on.
+"Listen before you give that ready answer which it is so hard to recall,
+or smooth away. I know all my disadvantages, my years, which to you may
+seem many; my modest origin; my trade, which, not altogether without
+reason, you despise and dislike. Well, the first two cannot be changed
+except for the worse; the second can be, and already is, buried beneath
+the gold and ermine of wealth and titles. What does it matter if I am
+the son of a City clerk who never earned more than �2 a week and was
+born in a tenement at Battersea, when I am one of the rich men of this
+rich land and shall die a peer in a palace, leaving millions and honours
+to my children? As for the third, my occupation, I am prepared to give
+it up. It has served my turn, and after next week I shall have earned
+the amount that years ago I determined to earn. Thenceforth, set above
+the accidents of fortune, I propose to devote myself to higher aims,
+those of legitimate ambition. So far as my time would allow I have
+already taken some share in politics as a worker; I intend to continue
+in them as a ruler which I still have the health and ability to do. I
+mean to be one of the first men in this Empire, to ride to power over
+the heads of all the nonentities whose only claim upon the confidence of
+their countrymen is that they were born in a certain class, with money
+in their pockets and without the need to spend the best of their manhood
+in work. With you at my side I can do all these things and more, and
+such is the future that I have to offer you."
+
+Again she would have broken in upon his speech and again he stopped her,
+reading the unspoken answer on her lips.
+
+"Listen: I have not told you all. Perhaps I have put first what should
+have come last. I have not told you that I love you earnestly and
+sincerely, with the settled, unalterable love that sometimes comes to
+men in middle-age who have never turned their thought that way before.
+I will not attempt the rhapsodies of passion which at my time of life
+might sound foolish or out of place; yet it is true that I am filled
+with this passion which has descended on me and taken possession of me.
+I who often have laughed at such things in other men, adore you. You
+are a joy to my eyes. If you are not in the room, for me it is empty. I
+admire the uprightness of your character, and even your prejudices, and
+to your standard I desire to approximate my own. I think that no man can
+ever love you quite so well as I do, Barbara Champers. Now speak. I am
+ready to meet the best or the worst."
+
+After her fashion Barbara looked him straight in the face with her
+steady eyes, and answered gently enough, for the man's method of
+presenting his case, elaborate and prepared though it evidently was, had
+touched her.
+
+"I fear it is the worst, Sir Robert. There are hundreds of women
+superior to myself in every way who would be glad to give you the help
+and companionship you ask, with their hearts thrown in. Choose one of
+them, for I cannot do so."
+
+He heard and for the first time his face broke, as it were. All this
+while it had remained masklike and immovable, even when he spoke of his
+love, but now it broke as ice breaks at the pressure of a sudden flood
+beneath, and she saw the depths and eddies of his nature and understood
+their strength. Not that he revealed them in speech, angry or pleading,
+for that remained calm and measured enough. She did not hear, she saw,
+and even then it was marvellous to her that a mere change in a man's
+expression could explain so much.
+
+"Those are very cruel words," he said. "Are they unalterable?"
+
+"Quite. I do not play in such matters, it would be wicked."
+
+"May I ask you one question, for if the answer is in the negative, I
+shall still continue to hope? Do you care for any other man?"
+
+Again she looked at him with her fearless eyes and answered:
+
+"Yes, I am engaged to another man."
+
+"To Alan Vernon?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"When did that happen? Some years ago?"
+
+"No, this morning."
+
+"Great Heavens!" he muttered in a hoarse voice turning his head away,
+"this morning. Then last night it might not have been too late, and last
+night I should have spoken to you, I had arranged it all. Yes, if it had
+not been for the story of that accursed fetish and your uncle's illness,
+I should have spoken to you, and perhaps succeeded."
+
+"I think not," she said.
+
+He turned upon her and notwithstanding the tears in his eyes they burned
+like fire.
+
+"You think--you think," he gasped, "but I know. Of course after this
+morning it was impossible. But, Barbara, I say that I will win you yet.
+I have never failed in any object that I set before myself, and do
+not suppose that I shall fail in this. Although in a way I liked and
+respected him, I have always felt that Vernon was my enemy, one destined
+to bring grief and loss upon me, even if he did not intend to do so.
+Now I understand why, and he shall learn that I am stronger than he. God
+help him! I say."
+
+"I think He will," Barbara answered, calmly. "You are speaking wildly,
+and I understand the reason and hope that you will forget your words,
+but whether you forget or remember, do not suppose that you frighten
+me. You men who have made money," she went on with swelling indignation,
+"who have made money somehow, and have bought honours with the moneys
+somehow, think yourselves great, and in your little day, your little,
+little day that will end with three lines in small type in _The Times_,
+you are great in this vulgar land. You can buy what you want and people
+creep round you and ask you for doles and favours, and railway porters
+call you 'my Lord' at every other step. But you forget your limitations
+in this world, and that which lives above you. You say you will do this
+and that. You should study a book which few of you ever read, where it
+tells you that you do not know what you will be on the morrow; that your
+life is even as a vapour appearing for a little time and then vanishing
+away. You think that you can crush the man to whom I have given my heart
+because he is honest and you are dishonest, because you are rich and he
+is poor, and because he chances to have succeeded where you have not.
+Well, for myself and for him I defy you. Do your worst and fail, and
+when you have failed, in the hour of your extremity remember my words
+to-day. If I have given you pain by refusing you it is not my fault and
+I am sorry, but when you threaten the man who has honoured me with
+his love and whom I honour above every creature upon the earth, then I
+threaten back, and may the Power that made us all judge between you and
+me, as judge it will," and bursting into tears she turned and left him.
+
+Sir Robert watched her go.
+
+"What a woman!" he said meditatively, "what a woman--to have lost. Well
+she has set the stakes and we will play out the game. The cards all seem
+to be in my hands, but it would not in the least surprise me if she
+won the rubber, for the element that I call Chance and she would call
+something else, may come in. Still, I never refused a challenge yet and
+we will play the game out without pity to the loser."
+
+
+
+That night the first trick was played. When he got back to The Court Sir
+Robert ordered his motorcar and departed on urgent business, either
+to his own place, Old Hall, or to London, saying only that he had been
+summoned away by telegram. As the 70-horse-power Mercedes glided out of
+the gates a pencilled note was put into Mr. Haswell's hand.
+
+It ran: "I have tried and failed--for the present. By ill-luck A.V. had
+been before me, only this morning. If I had not missed my chance last
+night owing to your illness, it would have been different. I do not,
+however, in the least abandon my plan, in which of course I rely on and
+expect your support. Keep V. in the office or let him go as you like.
+Perhaps it would be better if you could prevail upon him to stop there
+until after the flotation. But whatever you say at the moment, I trust
+to you to absolutely veto any engagement between him and your niece, and
+to that end to use all your powers and authority as her guardian. Burn
+this note.
+
+"R.A."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MR. HASWELL LOSES HIS TEMPER
+
+Alan and Barbara sat in Mr. Champers-Haswell's private sitting-room with
+the awful decorations, and before them by the fire Mr. Champers-Haswell
+reclined upon his couch. Alan in a few, brief, soldier-like words had
+just informed him of his engagement to Barbara. During the recital of
+this interesting fact Barbara said nothing, but Mr. Haswell had whistled
+several times. Now at length he spoke, in that tone of forced geniality
+which he generally adopted towards his cousin.
+
+"You are asking for the hand of a considerable heiress, Alan my boy," he
+said, "but you have neglected to inform me of your own position."
+
+"Where is the use of telling you what you know already, Mr. Haswell? I
+have left the firm, therefore I have practically nothing."
+
+"You have practically nothing, and yet----Well, in my young days men
+were more delicate, they did not like being called fortune-hunters, but
+of course times have changed."
+
+Alan bit his lip and Barbara sat up quite straight in her chair,
+observing which indications, Mr. Haswell went on hurriedly:
+
+"Now if you had stopped in the firm and earned the very handsome
+competence in a small way which would have become due to you this week,
+instead of throwing us over at the last moment for some quixotic reasons
+of your own, it might have been a different matter. I do not say it
+would have been, I say it might have been, and you may remember a
+proverb about winks and nods and blind horses. So I ask you whether you
+are inclined to withdraw that resignation of yours and bring up this
+question again let us say, next Sunday?"
+
+Alan thought a while before he answered. As he understood Mr. Haswell
+practically was promising to assent to the engagement upon these terms.
+The temptation was enormously great, the fiercest that he had ever been
+called upon to face. He looked at Barbara. She had closed her eyes and
+made absolutely no sign. For some reason of her own she had elected that
+he should determine this vital point without the slightest assistance
+from her. And it must be determined at once; procrastination was
+impossible. For a moment he hesitated. On the one side was Barbara, on
+the other his conscience. After long doubts he had come to a certain
+conclusion which he quite understood to be inconvenient to his partners.
+Should he throw it over now? Should he even try to make a sure and
+certain bargain as the price of his surrender? Probably he would
+not suffer if he did. The flotation was underwritten and bound to go
+through; the scandal would come afterwards, months or years hence, long
+before which he might get out, as most of the others meant to do. No, he
+could not. His conscience was too much for him.
+
+"I do not see any use in reconsidering that question, Mr. Haswell," he
+said quietly; "we settled it on Friday night."
+
+Barbara reopened her brown eyes and stared amiably at the painted
+ceiling, and Mr. Haswell whistled.
+
+"Then I am afraid," he said, "that I do not see any use in discussing
+your kind proposal for my niece's hand. Listen--I will be quite open
+with you. I have other views for Barbara, and as it happens I have the
+power to enforce them, or at any rate to prevent their frustration by
+you. If Barbara marries against my will before she is five and twenty,
+that is within the next two years, her entire fortune, with the
+exception of a pittance, goes elsewhere. This I am sure is a fact that
+will influence you, who have nothing and even if it did not, I presume
+that you are scarcely so selfish as to wish to beggar her."
+
+"No," answered Alan, "you need not fear that, for it would be wrong. I
+understand that you absolutely refuse to sanction my suit on the ground
+of my poverty, which under the circumstances is perhaps not wonderful.
+Well, the only thing to do is to wait for two years, a long time, but
+not endless, and meanwhile I can try to better my position."
+
+"Do what you will, Alan," said Mr. Haswell harshly, for now all his
+_faux bonhomme_ manner had gone, leaving him revealed in his true
+character of an unscrupulous tradesman with dark ends of his own to
+serve. "Do what you will, but understand that I forbid all communication
+between you and my niece, and that the sooner you cease to trespass upon
+a hospitality which you have abused, the better I shall be pleased."
+
+"I will go at once," said Alan, rising, "before my temper gets the
+better of me and I tell you some truths that I might regret, for after
+all you are Barbara's uncle. But on your part I ask you to understand
+that I refuse to cut off from my cousin, who is of full age and has
+promised to be my wife," and he turned to go.
+
+"Stop a minute, Alan," said Barbara, who all this while had sat silent.
+"I have something to say which I wish you to hear. You told us just now,
+uncle, that you have other views for me, by which you meant that you
+wish me to marry Sir Robert Aylward, whom, as you are probably aware, I
+refused definitely this afternoon. Now I wish to make it clear at once
+that no earthly power will induce me to take as a husband a man whom I
+dislike, and whose wealth, of which you think so much, has in my opinion
+been dishonestly acquired."
+
+"What are you saying?" broke in her uncle furiously. "He has been my
+partner for years, you are reflecting upon me."
+
+"I am sorry, uncle, but I withdraw nothing. Even if Alan here were dead,
+I would not marry that man, and perhaps you will make him understand
+this," she added with emphasis. "Indeed I had sooner die myself. You
+told us also that if I marry against your will, you can take away all
+the property that my father left to me. Uncle, I shall not give you that
+satisfaction. I shall wait until I am twenty-five and do what I please
+with myself and my fortune. Lastly, you said that you forbade us to see
+each other or to correspond. I answer that I shall both write to and see
+Alan as often as I like. If you attempt to prevent me from doing so,
+I shall go to the Court of Chancery, lay all the facts before it, as I
+have been advised that I can do--not by Alan--please remember, _all_ the
+facts, and ask for its protection and for a separate maintenance out of
+my estate until I am twenty-five. I am sure that the Court would grant
+me this and would declare that considering his distinguished family and
+record Alan is a perfectly proper person to be my affianced husband. I
+think that is all I have to say."
+
+"All you have to say!" gasped Mr. Haswell, "all you have to say, you
+impertinent and ungrateful minx!" Then he fell into a furious fit of
+rage and in language that need not be repeated, poured a stream of
+threats and abuse upon Alan and herself. Barbara waited until he ceased
+from exhaustion.
+
+"Uncle," she said, "you should remember that your heart is weak and
+you must not overexcite yourself, also when you are calmer, that if you
+speak to me like that again, I shall go to the Court at once, for I will
+not be sworn at by you or by any other man. I apologize to you, Alan;
+I am afraid I have brought you into strange company. Come, my dear,
+we will go and order your dogcart," and putting her arm affectionately
+through his, she went with him from the room.
+
+"I wonder who put her up to all this?" gasped Haswell, as the door
+closed behind them. "Some infernal lawyer, I'll be bound. Well, she has
+got the whip hand of me, and I can't face an investigation in Chancery,
+especially as the only thing against Vernon is that the value of his
+land has fallen. But I swear that she shall never marry him while I
+live," he ended in a kind of shout and the domed and painted ceiling
+echoed back his words--"_while I live_" after which the room was silent,
+save for the heavy thumping of his heart.
+
+
+
+When Alan reached home that night after his ten-mile drive he sent
+Jeekie to tell the housekeeper to find him some food. In his mysterious
+African fashion the negro had already collected much intelligence as
+to the events of the day, mostly in the servants' hall, and more
+particularly from the two golf-caddies, sons of one of the gardeners,
+who it seemed instead of retiring with the clubs, had taken shelter in
+some tall whins and thence followed the interview between Barbara and
+Sir Robert with the intensest interest. Reflecting that this was not
+the time to satisfy his burning curiosity, Jeekie went and in due course
+returned with some cold mutton and a bottle of claret. Then came his
+chance, for Alan could scarcely touch the mutton and demanded toast and
+butter.
+
+"Very inferior chop"--that was his West African word for food--"for a
+gentleman, Major," he said, shaking his white head sympathetically and
+pointing to the mutton,--"specially when he has unexpectedly departed
+from magnificent eating of The Court. Why did you not wait till after
+dinner, Major, before retiring?"
+
+Alan laughed at the man's inflated English, and answered in a more
+nervous and colloquial style:
+
+"Because I was kicked out, Jeekie."
+
+"Ah! I gathered that kicking was in the wind, Major. Sir Robert Aylward,
+Bart., he also was kicked out, but by smaller toe."
+
+Again Alan laughed and, as it was a relief to talk even to Jeekie, asked
+him:
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"I gathered it out of atmosphere, Major; from Sir Robert's gentleman,
+from two youths who watch Sir Robert and Miss Barbara talking upon golf
+green No. 9, from the machine driver of Sir Robert whose eyes he damn in
+public, and last but not least from his own noble countenance."
+
+"I see that you are observant, Jeekie."
+
+"Observation, Major, it is art of life. I see Miss Barbara's eyes
+red like morning sky and I deduct. I see you shot out and gloomy like
+evening cloud, and I deduct. I listen at door of Mr. Haswell's room,
+I hear him curse and swear like holy saint in Book, and you and Miss
+Barbara answer him not like saint, though what you speak I cannot hear,
+and I deduct. Jeekie deduct this--that you make love to Miss Barbara
+in proper gentlemanlike, 'nogamous, Christian fashion such as your late
+Reverend Uncle approve, and Miss Barbara, she make love to you with
+ten per cent. compound interest, but old gent with whistle, he _not_
+approve; he say, 'Where corresponding cash!' He say 'Noble Sir Robert
+have much cash and interested in identical business. I prefer Sir
+Robert. Get out, you Cashless.' Often I see this same thing when boy in
+West Africa, very common wherever sun shine. I note all these matters
+and I deduct--that Jeekie's way and Jeekie seldom wrong."
+
+Alan laughed for the third time, until the tears ran down his face
+indeed.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "you are a great rascal----"
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted Jeekie, "great rascal. Best thing to be in
+this world, Major. Honourable Sir Robert, Bart., M.P., and Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, D.L., J.P., they find that out long ago and sit on
+top of tree of opulent renown. Jeekie great rascal and therefore have
+Savings Bank account--go on, Major."
+
+"Well, Jeekie, because if you are a rascal you are kind-hearted and
+because I believe that you care for me----"
+
+"Oh! Major," broke in Jeekie again, "that most 'utterably true. Honour
+bright I love you, Major, better than anyone on earth, except my late
+old woman, now happily dead, gone and forgotten in best oak coffin, �4
+10 without fittings but polished, and perhaps your holy uncle, Reverend
+Mr. Austin, also coffined and departed, who saved me from early
+extinction in a dark place. Major, I no like graves, I see too much of
+them, and can't tell what lie on other side. Though everyone say they
+know, Jeekie not quite sure. May be all light and crowns of glory, may
+be damp black hole and no way out. But this at least true, that I love
+you better, yes, better than Miss Barbara, for love of woman very poor,
+uncertain thing, quick come, quick go. Jeekie find that out--often. Yes,
+if need be, though death most nasty, if need be I say I die for you,
+which great unpleasant sacrifice," and Jeekie in the genuine enthusiasm
+of his warm heart, throwing himself upon his knees after the African
+fashion, seized his master's hand and kissed it.
+
+"Thanks, Jeekie," said Alan, "very kind of you, I am sure. But we
+haven't come to that yet, though no one knows what may happen later on.
+Now sit upon that chair and take a little whisky--not too much--for I am
+going to ask your advice."
+
+"Major," said Jeekie, "I obey," and seizing the whisky bottle in a
+casual manner, he poured out half a tumbler full, for Jeekie was fond of
+whisky. Indeed before now this taste had brought him into conflict with
+the local magistrates.
+
+"Put back three parts of that," said Alan, and Jeekie did so. "Now," he
+went on, "listen: this is the case, Miss Barbara and I are----" and he
+hesitated.
+
+"Oh! I know; like me and Mrs. Jeekie once," said Jeekie, gulping down
+some of the neat whisky. "Go on, Major."
+
+"And Sir Robert Aylward is----"
+
+"Same thing, Major. Continue."
+
+"And Mr. Haswell has----"
+
+"Those facts all ascertained, Major," said Jeekie, contemplating his
+glass with a mournful eye. "Now come to the point, Major."
+
+"Well, the point is, Jeekie, that I am what you called just now
+cashless, and therefore----"
+
+"Therefore," interrupted Jeekie again, "stick fast in honourable
+intention towards Miss Barbara owing to obstinate opposition of Mr.
+Haswell, legal uncle with control of property fomented by noble Sir
+Robert who desire same girl."
+
+"Quite right, Jeekie, but if you would talk a little less and let me
+talk a little more, we might get on better."
+
+"I henceforth silent, Major," and lifting his empty tumbler Jeekie
+looked through it as if it were a telescope, a hint that Alan ignored.
+
+"Jeekie, you infernal old fool, I want money."
+
+"Yes, Major, I understand, Major. Forgive me for breaking conspiracy of
+silence, but if �500 in Savings Bank any use, very much at your service,
+Major; also �20 more extracted last night from terror of wealthy Jew who
+fear fetish."
+
+"Jeekie, you old donkey, I don't want your �500; I want a great deal
+more, �50,000 or �500,000. Tell me how to get it."
+
+"City best place, Major. But you chuck City, too much honest man, great
+mistake to be honest in this terrestrial sphere. Often notice that in
+West Africa."
+
+"Perhaps, Jeekie, but I have done with the City. As you would say, for
+me it is 'wipe out, finish.'"
+
+"Yes, Major, too much pickpocket, too much dirt. Bottom always drop out
+of bucket shop at last. I understand, end in police court and severe
+magistrate, or perhaps even 'Gentlemen of Jury'; etcetera."
+
+"Well, Jeekie, then what remains? Now last night when you told us that
+amazing yarn of yours, you said something about a mountain full of gold,
+and houses full of gold, among your people. Jeekie, do you think----"
+and he paused, looking at him.
+
+Jeekie rolled his black eyes round the room and in a fit of
+absentmindedness helped himself to some more whisky.
+
+"Do I think, Major, that this useless lucre could be converted into coin
+of gracious King Edward? Not at all, Major, by no one, Major, by no one
+whatsoever, except possibly by Major Alan Vernon, D.S.O., and by one,
+Jeekie, Christian surname Smith."
+
+"Proceed, Jeekie," said Alan, removing the whisky bottle, "proceed and
+explain."
+
+"Major, thus: The Asiki tribe care nothing about all that gold, it no
+good to them. Dead people who live long, long ago, no one know when, dig
+it up and store it there and make the great fetish which they call Bonsa
+to keep away enemy who want to steal. Also old custom when any one in
+country round find big nugget, or pretty stone, like ladies wear on
+bosom, to bring it as offering to Bonsa, so that there now great plenty
+of all this stuff. But no one use it for anything except to set on walls
+of house of Asiki, or to make basin, stool, table and pot to cook with.
+Once Arab come there and I see the priests give him weight in gold for
+iron hoe, though afterwards they murder him, not for the gold, but lest
+he go away and tell their secret."
+
+"One might trade with them then, Jeekie?"
+
+He shook his white head doubtfully.
+
+"Yes, perhaps, if you can find anything they want buy and can carry it
+there. But I think there only one thing they want, and you got that,
+Major."
+
+"I, Jeekie! What have I got?"
+
+The negro leant forward and tapped his master on the knee, saying in a
+portentous whisper:
+
+"You got Little Bonsa, which much more holy than anything, even than
+Big Bonsa her husband, I mean greater, more powerful devil. That Little
+Bonsa sit in front room Asika's house, and when she want see things, she
+put it in big basin of gold, but I no tell you what it float in. Also
+once or twice every year they take out Little Bonsa; Asika wear it on
+head as mask, and whoever they meet they kill as offering to Little
+Bonsa, so that spirit come back to world to be priest of Bonsa. I tell
+you, Major, that Yellow God see many thousand of people die."
+
+"Indeed," said Alan. "A pleasing fetish truly. I should think that the
+Asiki must be glad it is gone."
+
+"No, not glad, very sorry. No luck for them when Little Bonsa go away,
+but plenty luck for those who got her. That why firm Aylward & Haswell
+make so much money when you join them and bring her to office. She drop
+green in eye of public so they no smell rat. That why you so lucky, not
+die of blackwater fever when you should; get safe out of den of thieves
+in City with good name; win love of sweet maiden, Miss Barbara. Little
+Bonsa do all those things for you, and by and by do plenty more, as
+Little Bonsa bring my old master, your holy uncle, safe out of that
+country because all the Asiki run away when they see him wear her on
+head, for they think she come sacrifice them after she eat up my life."
+
+"I don't wonder that they ran," said Alan, laughing, for the vision of a
+missionary with Little Bonsa on his head caught his fancy. "But come to
+the point, you old heathen. What do you mean that I should do?"
+
+"Jeekie not heathen now, Major, but plenty other things true in this
+world, besides Christian religion. I no want you do anything, but I say
+this--you go back to Asiki wearing Little Bonsa on head and dressed
+like Reverend uncle whom you very like, for he just your age then thirty
+years ago, and they give you all the gold you want, if you give them
+back Little Bonsa whom they love and worship for ever and ever, for
+Little Bonsa very, very old."
+
+Alan sat up in his chair and stared at Jeekie, while Jeekie nodded his
+head at him.
+
+"There is something in it," he said slowly, speaking more to himself
+than to the negro, "and perhaps that is why I would not sell the fetish,
+for as you say, there are plenty of true things in the world besides
+those which we believe. But, Jeekie, how should I find the way?"
+
+"No trouble, Major, Little Bonsa find way, want to get back home, very
+hungry by now, much need sacrifice. Think it good thing kill pig to
+Little Bonsa--or even lamb. She know you do your best, since human being
+not to be come at in Christian land, and say 'thank you for life of
+pig.'"
+
+"Stop that rubbish," said Alan. "I want a guide; if I go, will you come
+with me?"
+
+At this suggestion the negro looked exceedingly uncomfortable.
+
+"Not like to, not like to at all," he said, rolling his eyes.
+"Asiki-land very funny place for native-born. But," he added sadly, "if
+you go Jeekie must, for I servant of Little Bonsa and if I stay behind,
+she angry and kill me because I not attend her where she walk. But
+perhaps if I go and take her to Gold House again, she pleased and let me
+off. Also I able help you there. Yes, if you and Little Bonsa go, think
+I go too."
+
+After this announcement Jeekie rose and walked down the room, carrying
+the cold mutton in his hand. Then he returned, replaced it on the table
+and standing in front of Alan, said earnestly:
+
+"Major, I tell you all truth, just this once. Jeekie believe he _got_
+go with you to Asiki-land. Jeekie have plenty bad dream lately, Little
+Bonsa come in middle of the night and sit on his stomach and scratch his
+face with her gold leg, and say, 'Jeekie, Jeekie, you son of Bonsa, you
+get up quick and take me back Bonsa Town, for I darned tired of City fog
+and finished all I come here to do. Now I want jolly good sacrifice and
+got plenty business attend to there at home, things you not understand
+just yet. You take me back sharp, or I make you sit up, Jeekie, my
+boy;'" and he paused.
+
+"Indeed," said Alan; "and did she tell you anything else in her midnight
+visitations?"
+
+"Yes, Major. She say, 'You take that white master of yours along also,
+for I want come back Asiki-land on his head, and someone wish see him
+there, old pal, what he forget but what not forget him. You tell him
+Little Bonsa got score she wants settle with that party and wish use him
+to square account. You tell him too that she pay him well for trip; he
+lose nothing if he play her game 'cause she got no score against him.
+But if he not go, that another matter, then he look out, for Little
+Bonsa very nasty customer if she riled, as his late partners find out
+one day.'"
+
+"Oh! shut up, Jeekie. What's the use of wasting time telling me your
+nightmares?"
+
+"Very well, Major, just as you like, Major. But I got other reasons why
+I willing go. Jeekie want see his ma."
+
+"Your ma? I never heard you had a ma. Besides she must be dead long
+ago."
+
+"No, Major, 'cause she turn up in dream too, very much alive, swear at
+me 'cause I bag her blanket. Also she tough old woman, take lot kill
+her."
+
+"Perhaps you have a pa too," suggested Alan.
+
+"Think not, Major, my ma always say she forget him. What she mean,
+she not like talk about him, he such a swell. Why Jeekie so strong, so
+clever and with such beautiful face? No doubt because he is son of
+very great man. All this true reason why he want to go with you, Major.
+Still, p'raps poor old Jeekie make mistake, p'raps he dream 'cause he
+eat too much supper, p'raps his ma dead, after all. If so, p'raps better
+stay at home--not know."
+
+"No," answered Alan, "not know. What between Little Bonsa and one thing
+and another my head is swimming--like Little Bonsa in the water."
+
+"Big Bonsa swim in water," interrupted Jeekie. "Little Bonsa swim in
+gold tub."
+
+"Well, Big Bonsa, or Little Bonsa, I don't care which. I'm going to bed
+and you had better clear away these things and do the same. But, Jeekie,
+if you say a word of our talk to anyone, I shall be very angry. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, Major, I understand. I understand that if I tell secrets of Little
+Bonsa to anyone except you with whom she live in strange land far away
+from home, Little Bonsa come at me like one lion, and cut my throat.
+No fear Jeekie split on Little Bonsa, oh! no fear at all," and still
+shaking his head solemnly, for the second time he seized the cold mutton
+and vanished from the room.
+
+"A farrago of superstitious nonsense," thought Alan to himself when
+he had gone. "But still there may be something to be made out of it.
+Evidently there is lots of gold in this Asiki country, if only one can
+persuade the people to deal."
+
+Then weary of Jeekie and his tribal gods, Alan lit his pipe and sat a
+while thinking of Barbara and all the events of that tumultuous
+day. Notwithstanding his rebuff at the hands of Mr. Haswell and the
+difficulties and dangers which threatened, he felt even then that it had
+been a happy and a fortunate day. For had he not discovered that Barbara
+loved him with all her heart and soul as he loved Barbara? And as this
+was so, he did not care a--Little Bonsa about anything else. The future
+must look to itself, sufficient to the day was the abiding joy thereof.
+
+So he went to bed and for a while to sleep, but he did not sleep very
+long, for presently he fell to dreaming, something about Big Bonsa and
+Little Bonsa which sat, or rather floated on either side of his couch
+and held an interminable conversation over him, while Jeekie and Sir
+Robert Aylward, perched respectively at its head and its foot, like the
+symbols of the good and evil genii on a Mahommedan tomb, acted as a kind
+of insane chorus. He struck his repeater, it was only one o'clock, so he
+tried to go to sleep again, but failed utterly. Never had he been more
+painfully awake.
+
+For an hour or more Alan persevered, then at last in despair he jumped
+out of bed wondering what he could do to occupy his mind. Suddenly he
+remembered the diary of his uncle, the Rev. Mr. Austin, which he had
+inherited with the Yellow God and a few other possessions, but never
+examined. They had been put away in a box in the library about fifteen
+years before, just at the time he entered the army, and there doubtless
+they remained. Well, as he could not sleep, why should he not examine
+them now, and thus get through some of this weary night?
+
+He lit a candle and went down to the library, an ancient and beautiful
+apartment with black oak panelling between the bookcases, set there in
+the time of Elizabeth. In this panelling there were cupboards, and in
+one of the cupboards was the box he sought, made of teak wood. On its
+lid was painted, "The Reverend Henry Austin. Passenger to Acra," showing
+that it had once been his uncle's cabin box. The key hung from the
+handle, and having lit more candles, Alan drew it out and unlocked it,
+to be greeted by a smell of musty documents done up in great bundles.
+One by one he placed them on the floor. It was a dreary occupation alone
+there in that great, silent room at the dead of night, one indeed with
+which he was soon satisfied, for somehow it reminded him of rifling
+coffins in a vault. Before him so carefully put away lay the records of
+a good if not a distinguished life, and until this moment he had never
+found the energy even to look through them.
+
+At length he came to the end of the bundles and saw that beneath lay
+a number of manuscript books packed closely with their backs upwards,
+marked--"Journal"--and with the year and sometimes the place of the
+author's residence. As he glanced at them in dismay, for they were many,
+his eye caught the title of one inscribed--as were several others--"West
+Africa," and written in brackets beneath--"This vol. contains all
+that is left of the notes of my escape with Jeekie from the Asiki
+Devil-worshippers."
+
+Alan drew it out, and having refilled and closed the box, bore it off to
+his room, where he proceeded to read it in bed. As a matter of fact he
+found that there was not very much to read, for the reason that most
+of the closely-written volume had been so damaged by water, that the
+pencilled writing had run and become utterly illegible. The centre
+pages, however, not having been soaked, could still be deciphered, at
+any rate in part, also there was a large manuscript map, executed in
+ink, apparently at a later date, on the back of which was written: "I
+purpose, D.V., to re-write at some convenient time all the history of my
+visit to the unknown Asiki people, as my original notes were practically
+destroyed when the canoe overset in the rapids and most of our few
+possessions were lost, except this book and the gold fetish mask which
+is called Little Bonsa or Small Swimming Head. This I think I can
+do with the aid of Jeekie from memory, but as the matter has only a
+personal and no religious interest, seeing that I was not able even to
+preach the Word among those benighted and blood-thirsty savages in
+whose country, as I verily believe, the Devil has one of his principal
+habitations, it must stand over till a convenient season, such as the
+time of old age or sickness. H.A."
+
+"P.S. I ought to add with gratitude that even out of this hell fire I
+was enabled to snatch one brand from the burning, namely, the negro
+lad, Jeekie, to whose extraordinary resource and faithfulness I owe
+my escape. After a long hesitation I have been able to baptize him,
+although I fear that the taint of heathenism still clings to him. Thus
+not six months ago I caught him sacrificing a white cock to the image,
+Little Bonsa, in gratitude, as to my horror he explained, for my having
+been appointed an Honorary Canon of the Cathedral. I have told him to
+take that ugly mask which has been so often soaked in human blood, and
+melt it down over the kitchen stove, after picking out the gems in the
+eyes, that the proceeds may be given to the poor. _Note._ I had better
+see to this myself, as where Little Bonsa is concerned, Jeekie is not to
+be trusted. He says (with some excuse) that it has magic, and that if
+he melts it down, he will melt down too, and so shall I. How dark and
+ridiculous are the superstitions of the heathen! Perhaps, however,
+instead of destroying the thing, which is certainly unique, I might sell
+it to a museum, and thus spare the feelings of that weak vessel, Jeekie,
+who otherwise would very likely take it into his head to waste away and
+die, as these Africans do when their nerves are affected by terror of
+their fetish."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE DIARY
+
+Reflecting that time evidently had made little change in Jeekie, Alan
+studied this route map with care, and found that it started from Old
+Calabar, in the Bight of Biafra, on the west coast of Africa, whence it
+ran up to the Great Qua River, which it followed for a long way. Then it
+struck across country marked "dense forest," northwards, and came to a
+river called Katsena, along the banks of which the route went eastwards.
+Thence it turned northward again through swamps, and ended in mountains
+called Shaku. In the middle of these mountains was written "Asiki People
+live here on Raaba River."
+
+The map was roughly drawn to scale, and Alan, who was an engineer
+accustomed to such things, easily calculated that the distance of this
+Raaba River from Old Calabar was about 350 miles as the crow flies,
+though probably the actual route to be travelled was nearer five hundred
+miles.
+
+Having mastered the map, he opened the water-soaked diary. Turning page
+after page, only here and there could he make out a sentence, such as
+"so I defied that beautiful but terrific woman. I, a Christian minister,
+the husband of a heathen priestess! Perish the thought. Sooner would I
+be sacrificed to Bonsa."
+
+Then came more illegible pages and again a paragraph that could be
+read--"They gave me 'The Bean' in a gold cup, and knowing its deadly
+nature I prepared myself for death. But happily for me my stomach,
+always delicate, rejected it at once, though I felt queer for days
+afterwards. Whereon they clapped their hands and said I was evidently
+innocent and a great medicine man."
+
+And again, further on--"never did I see so much gold whether in dust,
+nuggets, or worked articles. I imagine it must be worth millions, but
+at that time gold was the last thing with which I wished to trouble
+myself."
+
+After this entry many pages were utterly effaced.
+
+The last legible passage ran as follows--"So guided by the lad Jeekie,
+and wearing the gold mask, Little Bonsa, on my head, I ran through
+them all, holding him by the hand as though I were dragging him away.
+A strange spectacle I must have been with my old black clergyman's coat
+buttoned about me, my naked legs and the gold mask, as pretending to be
+a devil such as they worship, I rushed through them in the moonlight,
+blowing the whistle in the mask and bellowing like a bull. . . . Such
+was the beginning of my dreadful six months' journey to the coast.
+Setting aside the mercy of Providence that preserved me for its own
+purposes, I could never have lived to reach it had it not been for
+Little Bonsa, since curiously enough I found this fetish known and
+dreaded for hundreds of miles, and that by people who had never seen it,
+yes, even by the wild cannibals. Whenever it was produced food, bearers,
+canoes, or whatever else I might want were forthcoming as though by
+magic. Great is the fame of Big and Little Bonsa in all that part of
+West Africa, although, strange as it may seem, the outlying tribes
+seldom mention them by name. If they must speak of either of these
+images which are supposed to be man and wife, they call it the
+'Yellow-God-who-lives-yonder.'"
+
+Not another word of all this strange history could Alan decipher, so
+with aching eyes he shut up the stained and tattered volume, and at
+last, just as the day was breaking, fell asleep.
+
+At eleven o'clock on that same morning, for he had slept late, Alan rose
+from his breakfast and went to smoke his pipe at the open door of the
+beautiful old hall in Yarleys that was clad with brown Elizabethan
+oak for which any dealer would have given hundreds of pounds. It was a
+charming morning, one of those that comes to us sometimes in an English
+April when the air is soft like that of Italy and the smell of the earth
+rises like that of incense, and little clouds float idly across a sky
+of tender blue. Standing thus he looked out upon the park where the elms
+already showed a tinge of green and the ash-buds were coal black. Only
+the walnuts and the great oaks, some of them pollards of a thousand
+years of age, remained stark and stern in their winter dress.
+
+Alan was in a reflective mood and involuntarily began to wonder how many
+of his forefathers had stood in that same spot upon such April mornings
+and looked out upon those identical trees wakening in the breath of
+spring. Only the trees and the landscape knew, those trees which had
+seen every one of them borne to baptism, to bridal and to burial. The
+men and women themselves were forgotten. Their portraits, each in the
+garb of his or her generation, hung here and there upon the walls of the
+ancient house which once they had owned or inhabited, but who remembered
+anything of them to-day? In many cases their names even were lost, for
+believing that they, so important in their time, could never sink into
+oblivion, they had not thought it necessary to record them upon their
+pictures.
+
+And now the thing was coming to an end. Unless in this way or in that
+he could save it, what remained of the old place, for the outlying lands
+had long since been sold, must go to the hammer and become the property
+of some pushing and successful person who desired to found a family, and
+perhaps in days to be would claim these very pictures that hung upon the
+walls as those of his own ancestors, declaring that he had brought in
+the estate because he was a relative of the ancient and ruined race.
+
+Well, it was the way of the world, and perhaps it must be so, but the
+thought of it made Alan Vernon sad. If he could have continued that
+business, it might have been otherwise. By this hour his late partners,
+Sir Robert Aylward and Mr. Champers-Haswell, were doubtless sitting in
+their granite office in the City, probably in consultation with Lord
+Specton, who had taken his place upon the Board of the great Company
+which was being subscribed that day. No doubt applications for shares
+were pouring in by the early posts and by telegram, and from time to
+time Mr. Jeffreys respectfully reported their number and amount, while
+Sir Robert looked unconcerned and Mr. Haswell rubbed his hands and
+whistled cheerfully. Almost he could envy them, these men who were
+realizing great fortunes amidst the bustle and excitement of that fierce
+financial life, whilst he stood penniless and stared at the trees and
+the ewes which wandered among them with their lambs, he who, after all
+his work, was but a failure. With a sigh he turned away to fetch his
+cap and go out walking--there was a tenant whom he must see, a shifty,
+new-fangled kind of man who was always clamouring for fresh buildings
+and reductions in his rent. How was he to pay for more buildings? He
+must put him off, or let him go.
+
+Just then a sharp sound caught his ear, that of an electric bell. It
+came from the telephone which, since he had been a member of a City
+firm, he had caused to be put into Yarleys at considerable expense in
+order that he might be able to communicate with the office in London.
+"Were they calling him up from force of habit?" he wondered. He went to
+the instrument which was fixed in a little room he used as a study, and
+took down the receiver.
+
+"Who is it?" he asked. "I am Yarleys. Alan Vernon."
+
+"And I am Barbara," came the answer. "How are you, dear? Did you sleep
+well?"
+
+"No, very badly."
+
+"Nerves--Alan, you have got nerves. Now although I had a worse day than
+you did, I went to bed at nine, and protected by a perfect conscience,
+slumbered till nine this morning, exactly twelve hours. Isn't it clever
+of me to think of this telephone, which is more than you would ever have
+done? My uncle has departed to London vowing that no letter from you
+shall enter this house, but he forgot that there is a telephone in
+every room, and in fact at this moment I am speaking round by his
+office within a yard or two of his head. However, he can't hear, so that
+doesn't matter. My blessing be on the man who invented telephones,
+which hitherto I have always thought an awful nuisance. Are you feeling
+cheerful, Alan?"
+
+"Very much the reverse," he answered; "never was more gloomy in my life,
+not even when I thought I had to die within six hours of blackwater
+fever. Also I have lots that I want to talk to you about and I can't do
+it at the end of this confounded wire that your uncle may be tapping."
+
+"I thought it might be so," answered Barbara, "so I just rang you up to
+wish you good-morning and to say that I am coming over in the motor to
+lunch with my maid Snell as chaperone. All right, don't remonstrate, I
+_am coming_ over to lunch--I can't hear you--never mind what people
+will say. I am coming over to lunch at one o'clock, mind you are in.
+Good-bye, I don't want much to eat, but have something for Snell and the
+chauffeur. Good-bye."
+
+Then the wire went dead, nor could all Alan's "Hello's" and "Are you
+there's?" extract another syllable.
+
+Having ordered the best luncheon that his old housekeeper could provide
+Alan went off for his walk in much better spirits, which were further
+improved by his success in persuading the tenant to do without the new
+buildings for another year. In a year, he reflected, anything might
+happen. Then he returned by the wood where a number of new-felled oaks
+lay ready for barking. This was not a cheerful sight; it seemed so cruel
+to kill the great trees just as they were pushing their buds for another
+summer of life. But he consoled himself by recalling that they had been
+too crowded and that the timber was really needed on the estate. As he
+reached the house again carrying a bunch of white violets which he
+had plucked in a sheltered place for Barbara, he perceived a motor
+travelling at much more than the legal speed up the walnut avenue which
+was the pride of the place. In it sat that young lady herself, and her
+maid, Snell, a middle-aged woman with whom, as it chanced, he was on
+very good terms, as once, at some trouble to himself, he had been able
+to do her a kindness.
+
+The motor pulled up at the front door and out of it sprang Barbara,
+laughing pleasantly and looking fresh and charming as the spring itself.
+
+"There will be a row over this, dear," said Alan, shaking his head
+doubtfully when at last they were alone together in the hall.
+
+"Of course, there'll be a row," she answered. "I mean that there should
+be a row. I mean to have a row every day if necessary, until they leave
+me alone to follow my own road, and if they won't, as I said, to go to
+the Court of Chancery for protection. Oh! by the way, I have brought
+you a copy of _The Judge_. There's a most awful article in it about that
+Sahara flotation, and among other things it announces that you have left
+the firm and congratulates you upon having done so."
+
+"They'll think I have put it in," groaned Alan as he glanced at the head
+lines, which were almost libellous in their vigour, and the summaries
+of the financial careers of Sir Robert Aylward and Mr. Champers-Haswell.
+"It will make them hate me more than ever, and I say, Barbara, we can't
+live in an atmosphere of perpetual warfare for the next two years."
+
+"I can, if need be," answered that determined young woman. "But I admit
+that it would be trying for you, if you stay here."
+
+"That's just the point, Barbara. I must not stay here, I must go away,
+the further the better, until you are your own mistress."
+
+"Where to, Alan?"
+
+"To West Africa, I think."
+
+"To West Africa?" repeated Barbara, her voice trembling a little. "After
+that treasure, Alan?"
+
+"Yes, Barbara. But first come and have your lunch, then we will talk. I
+have got lots to tell and show you."
+
+So they lunched, speaking of indifferent things, for the servant was
+there waiting on them. Just as they were finishing their meal Jeekie
+entered the room carrying a box and a large envelope addressed to his
+master, which he said had been sent by special messenger from the office
+in London.
+
+"What's in the box?" asked Alan, looking somewhat nervously at the
+envelope, which was addressed in a writing that he knew.
+
+"Don't know for certain, Major," answered Jeekie, "but think Little
+Bonsa; think I smell her through wood."
+
+"Well, look and see," replied Alan, while he broke the seal of the
+envelope and drew out its contents. They proved to be sundry documents
+sent by the firm's lawyers, among which were a notice of the formal
+dissolution of partnership to be approved by him before it appeared
+in the _Gazette_, a second notice calling in a mortgage for fifteen
+thousand and odd pounds on Yarleys, which as a matter of business had
+been taken over by the firm while he was a partner; a cash account
+showing a small balance against him, and finally a receipt for him to
+sign acknowledging the return of the gold image that was his property.
+
+"You see," said Alan with a sigh, pushing over the papers to Barbara,
+who read them carefully one by one.
+
+"I see," she answered presently. "It is war to the knife. Alan, I hate
+the idea of it, but perhaps you had better go away. While you are here
+they will harass the life out of you."
+
+Meanwhile with the aid of a big jack-knife and the dining-room poker,
+Jeekie had prized off the lid of the box. Chancing to look round Barbara
+saw him on his knees muttering something in a strange tongue, and bowing
+his white head until it touched an object that lay within the box.
+
+"What are you doing, Jeekie?" she asked.
+
+"Make bow to Little Bonsa, Miss Barbara, tell her how glad I am see her
+come back from town. She like feel welcome. Now you come bow too, Little
+Bonsa take that as compliment."
+
+"I won't bow, but I will look, Jeekie, for although I have heard so much
+about it I have never really examined this Yellow God."
+
+"Very good, you come look, miss," and Jeekie propped up the case upon
+the end of the dining-room table. As from its height and position she
+could not see its contents very well whilst standing above it, Barbara
+knelt down to get a better view of it.
+
+"My goodness!" she exclaimed, "what a terrible face, beautiful too in
+its way."
+
+Hardly had the words left her lips when for some reason unexplained that
+probably had to do with the shifting of the centre of gravity, Little
+Bonsa appeared to glide or fall out of her box with a startling
+suddenness, and project herself straight at Barbara, who, with a faint
+scream, fearing lest the precious thing should be injured, caught it in
+her arms and for a moment hugged it to her breast.
+
+"Saved!" she exclaimed, recovering herself and placing it on the table,
+whereon Jeekie, to their astonishment, began to execute a kind of war
+dance.
+
+"Oh! yes," he said, "saved, very much saved. All saved, most magnificent
+omen. Lady kneel to Little Bonsa and Little Bonsa nip out of box, make
+bow and jump in lady's arms. That splendid, first-class luck, for miss
+and everybody. When Little Bonsa do that need fear nothing no more. All
+come right as rain."
+
+"Nonsense," said Barbara, laughing. Then from a cautious distance she
+continued her examination of the fetish.
+
+"See," said Jeekie, pointing to the misshapen little gold legs which
+were yet so designed that it could be stood up upon them, "when anyone
+wear Little Bonsa, tie her on head behind by these legs; look, here same
+old leather string. Now I put her on, for she like to be worn
+again," and with a quick movement he clapped the mask on to his face,
+manipulated the greasy black leather thongs and made them fast. Thus
+adorned the great negro looked no less than terrific.
+
+"I see you, miss," he said, turning the fixed eyes of opal-like stone,
+bloodshot with little rubites, upon Barbara, "I see you, though you no
+see me, for these eyes made very cunning. But listen, you hear me,"
+and suddenly from the mask, produced by some contrivance set within it,
+there proceeded an awful, howling sound that made her shiver.
+
+"Take that thing off, Jeekie," said Alan, "we don't want any banshees
+here."
+
+"Banshees? Not know him, he poor English fetish p'raps," said Jeekie, as
+he removed the mask. "This real African god, howl banshee and all that
+sort into middle of next week. This Little Bonsa and no mistake, ten
+thousand years old and more, eat up lives, so many that no one can
+count them, and go on eating for ever, yes unto the third and fourth
+generation, as Ten Commandments lay it down for benefit of Christian
+man, like me. Look at her again, Miss Barbara."
+
+Miss Barbara took the hateful, ancient thing in her hands and studied
+it. No one could doubt its antiquity, for the gold plate of which it was
+made was literally worn away wherever it had touched the foreheads of
+the high priests or priestesses who donned it upon festive occasions or
+days of sacrifice, showing that hundreds and hundreds of them must have
+used it thus in succession. So was the vocal apparatus within the mouth,
+and so were the little toad-like feet upon which it was stood up. Also
+the substance of the gold itself as here and there pitted as though with
+acid or salts, though what those salts were she did not inquire.
+And yet, so consummate was the art with which it had originally been
+fashioned, that the battered beautiful face of Little Bonsa still peered
+at them with the same devilish smile that it had worn when it left the
+hands of its maker, perhaps before Mohammed preached his holy war, or
+even earlier.
+
+"What is all that writing on the back of it?" asked Barbara, pointing to
+the long lines of rune-like characters which were inscribed within it.
+
+"Not know, miss, think they dead tongue cut in the beginning when black
+men could write. But Asiki priests swear they remember every one of
+them, and that why no one can copy Little Bonsa, for they look inside
+and see if marks all right. They say they names of those who died for
+Little Bonsa, and when they all done, Little Bonsa begin again, for
+Little Bonsa never die. But p'raps priests lie."
+
+"I daresay," said Barbara, "but take Little Bonsa away, for however
+lucky she may be, she makes me feel sick."
+
+"Where I put her, Major?" asked Jeekie of Alan. "In box in library where
+she used to live, or in plate-safe with spoons? Or under your bed where
+she always keep eye on you?"
+
+"Oh! put her with the spoons," said Alan angrily, and Jeekie departed
+with his treasure.
+
+"I think, dear," remarked Barbara as the door closed behind him, "that
+if I come to lunch here any more, I shall bring my own christening
+present with me, for I can't eat off silver that has been shut up with
+that thing. Now let us get to business--show me the diary and the map."
+
+"Dearest Alan," wrote Barbara from The Court two days later, "I have
+been thinking everything over, and since you are so set upon it,
+I suppose that you had better go. To me the whole adventure seems
+perfectly mad, but at the same time I believe in our luck, or rather in
+the Providence which watches over us, and I don't believe that you, or I
+either, will come to any harm. If you stop here, you will only eat
+your heart out and communication between us must become increasingly
+difficult. My uncle is furious with you, and since he discovered that we
+were talking over the telephone, to his own great inconvenience he has
+had the wires cut outside the house. That horrid letter of his to
+you saying that you had 'compromised' me in pursuance of a 'mercenary
+scheme' is all part and parcel of the same thing. How are you to stop
+here and submit to such insults? I went to see my friend the lawyer, and
+he tells me that of course we can marry if we like, but in that case my
+father's will, which he has consulted at Somerset House, is absolutely
+definite, and if I do so in opposition to my uncle's wishes, I must lose
+everything except �200 a year. Now I am no money-grubber, but I will not
+give my uncle the satisfaction of robbing me of my fortune, which may
+be useful to both of us by and by. The lawyer says also that he does not
+think that the Court of Chancery would interfere, having no power to do
+so as far as the will is concerned, and not being able to make a ward
+of a person like myself who is over age and has the protection of the
+common law of the country. So it seems to me that the only thing to do
+is to be patient, and wait until time unties the knot.
+
+"Meanwhile, if you can make some money in Africa, so much the better.
+So go, Alan, go as soon as you like, for I do not wish to prolong this
+agony, or to see you exposed daily to all you have to bear. Whenever you
+return you will find me waiting for you, and if you do not return, still
+I shall wait, as you in like circumstances will wait for me. But I think
+you will return."
+
+Then followed much that need not be written, and at the end a postscript
+which ran:
+
+"I am glad to hear that you have succeeded in shifting the mortgage on
+Yarleys, although the interest is so high. Write to me whenever you get
+a chance, to the care of the lawyer, for then the letters will reach me,
+but never to this house, or they may be stopped. I will do the same to
+you to the address you give. Good-bye, dearest Alan, my true and only
+lover. I wonder where and when we shall meet again. God be with us both
+and enable us to bear our trial.
+
+"P.P.S. I hear that the Sahara flotation was _really_ a success,
+notwithstanding the _Judge_ attacks. Sir Robert and my uncle have made
+millions. I wonder how long they will keep them."
+
+A week after he received this letter Alan was on the seas heading for
+the shores of Western Africa.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE DWARF FOLK
+
+It was dawn at last. All night it had rained as it can rain in West
+Africa, falling on the wide river with a hissing splash, sullen and
+continuous. Now, towards morning, the rain had ceased and everywhere
+rose a soft and pearly mist that clung to the face of the waters and
+seemed to entangle itself like strands of wool among the branches of
+the bordering trees. On the bank of the river at a spot that had been
+cleared of bush, stood a tent, and out of this tent emerged a white man
+wearing a sun helmet and grey flannel shirt and trousers. It was Alan
+Vernon, who in these surroundings looked larger and more commanding than
+he had done at the London office, or even in his own house of Yarleys.
+Perhaps the moustache and short brown beard which he had grown, or
+his skin, already altered and tanned by the tropics, had changed his
+appearance for the better. At any rate it was changed. So were his
+manner and bearing, whereof all the diffidence had gone. Now they were
+those of a man accustomed to command who found himself in his right
+place.
+
+"Jeekie," he called, "wake up those fellows and come and light the
+oil-stove. I want my coffee."
+
+Thereon a deep voice was heard speaking in some native tongue and
+saying:
+
+"Cease your snoring, you black dogs, and arouse yourselves, for your
+lord calls you," an invocation that was followed by the sound of kicks,
+thumps, and muttered curses.
+
+A minute or two later Jeekie himself appeared, and he also was much
+changed in appearance, for now instead of his smart, European clothes,
+he wore a white robe and sandals that gave him an air at once dignified
+and patriarchal.
+
+"Good-morning, Major," he said cheerfully. "I hope you sleep well,
+Major, in this low-lying and accursed situation, which is more than we
+do in boat that half full of water, to say nothing of smell of black man
+and prevalent mosquito. But the rain it over and gone, and presently the
+sun shine out, so might be much worse, no cause at all complain."
+
+"I don't know," answered Alan, with a shiver. "I believe that I am fever
+proof, but otherwise I should have caught it last night, and--just give
+me the quinine, I will take five grains for luck."
+
+"Yes, yes, for luck," answered Jeekie as he opened the medicine chest
+and found the quinine, at the same time glancing anxiously out of the
+corner of his eye at his master's face, for he knew that the spot where
+they had slept was deadly to white men at this season of the year. "You
+not catch fever, Little Bonsa," here he dropped his voice and looked
+down at the box which had served Alan for a pillow, "see to that. But
+quinine give you appetite for breakfast. Very good chop this morning.
+Which you like best? Cold ven'son, or fish, or one of them ducks you
+shoot yesterday?"
+
+"Oh! some of the cold meat, I think. Give the ducks to the boatmen, I
+don't fancy them in this hot place. By the way, Jeekie, we leave the Qua
+River here, don't we?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Major, just here. I 'member spot well, for your uncle he pray
+on it one whole hour; I pretend pray too, but in heart give thanks
+to Little Bonsa, for heathen in those days, quite different now. This
+morning we begin walk through forest where it rather dark and cool
+and comfortable, that is if we no see dwarf people from whom good Lord
+deliver us," and he bowed towards the box containing Little Bonsa.
+
+"Will those four porters come with us through the forest, Jeekie, as
+they promised?"
+
+"Yes, yes, they come. Last night they say they not come, too much afraid
+of dwarf. But I settle their hash. I tell them I save up bits of their
+hair and toe nails when they no thinking, and I mix it with medicine,
+and if they not come, they die every one before they get home. They
+think me great doctor and they believe. Perhaps they die if they go on.
+If so, I tell them that because they want show white feather, and they
+think me greater doctor still. Oh! they come, they come, no fear, or
+else Jeekie know reason why. Now, here coffee, Major. Drink him hot
+before you go take tub, but keep in shallow water, because crocodile he
+very early riser."
+
+Alan laughed, and departed to "take tub." Notwithstanding the mosquitoes
+that buzzed round him in clouds, the water was cool and pleasant by
+comparison with the hot, sticky air, and the feel of it seemed to rid
+him of the languor resulting from his disturbed night.
+
+A month had passed since he had left Old Calabar, and owing to the
+incessant rains the journeying had been hard. Indeed the white men there
+thought that he was mad to attempt to go up the river at this season.
+Of course he had said nothing to them of the objects of his expedition,
+hinting only that he wished to explore and shoot, and perhaps prospect
+for mines. But knowing as they did, that he was an Engineer officer with
+a good record and much African experience, they soon made up their minds
+that he had been sent by Government upon some secret mission that for
+reasons of his own he preferred to keep to himself. This conclusion,
+which Jeekie zealously fostered behind his back, in fact did Alan a good
+turn, since owing to it he obtained boatmen and servants at a season
+when, had he been supposed to be but a private person, these would
+scarcely have been forthcoming at any price. Hitherto his journey had
+been one long record of mud, mosquitoes, and misery, but otherwise
+devoid of incident, except the eating of one of his boatmen by a
+crocodile which was a particularly "early riser," for it had pulled
+the poor fellow out of the canoe in which he lay asleep at night. Now,
+however, the real dangers were about to begin, since at this spot he
+left the great river and started forward through the forest on foot with
+Jeekie and the four bearers whom he had paid highly to accompany him.
+
+He could not conceal from himself that the undertaking seemed somewhat
+desperate. But of this he said nothing in the long letter he had written
+to Barbara on the previous night, sighing as he sealed it, at the
+thought that it might well be the last which would ever reach her from
+him, even if the boatmen got safely back to Calabar and remembered to
+put it in the post. The enterprise had been begun and must be carried
+through, until it ended in success--or death.
+
+An hour later they started. First walked Alan as leader of the
+expedition, carrying a double-barrelled gun that could be used either
+for ball or shot, about fifty cartridges with brass cases to protect
+them from the damp, a revolver, a hunting-knife, a cloth mackintosh, and
+lastly, strapped upon his back like a knapsack, a tin box containing
+the fetish, Little Bonsa, which was too precious to be trusted to anyone
+else. It was quite a sufficient load for any white man in that climate,
+but being very wiry, Alan did not feel its weight, at any rate at first.
+
+After him in single file came the four porters, laden with a small tent,
+some tinned provisions and brandy, ammunition, a box containing beads,
+watches, etc. for presents, blankets, spare clothing and so forth. These
+were stalwart fellows enough, who knew the forest, but their dejected
+air showed that now they had come face to face with its dangers, they
+heartily wished themselves anywhere else. Indeed, notwithstanding their
+terror of Jeekie's medicine, at the last moment they threw down their
+loads intending to make a wild rush for the departing boat, only to be
+met by Jeekie himself who, anticipating some such move, was waiting for
+them on the bank with a shotgun. Here he remained until the canoe was
+too far out in the stream for them to reach it by swimming. Then he
+asked them if they wished to sit and starve there with the devils he
+would leave them for company, of if they would carry out their bargain
+like honest men?
+
+The end of it was they took up their loads again and marched, while
+behind them walked the terrible and gigantic Jeekie, the barrels of
+the shotgun which he carried at full cock and occasionally used to
+prod them, pointing directly at their backs. A strange object he looked
+truly, for in addition to the weapons with which he bristled, several
+cooking-pots were slung about him, to say nothing of a cork mattress
+and a mackintosh sheet tied in a flat bundle to his shoulders, a box
+containing medicines and food which he carried on his head, and fastened
+to the top of it with string like a helmet on a coffin, an enormous
+solar-tope stuffed full of mosquito netting, of which the ends fell
+about him like a green veil. When Alan remonstrated with him as to the
+cork mattress, suggesting that it should be thrown away as too hot to
+wear, Jeekie replied that he had been cold for thirty years, and wished
+to get warm again. Guessing that his real reason for declining to part
+with the article, was that his master should have something to lie on,
+other than the damp ground, Alan said no more at the time, which, as
+will be seen, was fortunate enough for Jeekie.
+
+For a mile or more their road ran through fantastic-looking mangrove
+trees rooted in the mud, that in the mist resembled, Alan thought,
+many-legged arboreal octopi feeling for their food, and tall reeds on
+the tops of which sat crowds of chattering finches. Then just as the sun
+broke out, strongly, cheering them with its warmth and sucking up the
+vapours, they entered sparse bush with palms and great cotton trees
+growing here and there, and so at length came to the borders of the
+mighty forest.
+
+Oh! dark, dark was that forest; he who entered it from the cheerful
+sunshine felt as though suddenly and without preparation he had wandered
+out of the light we know into some dim Hades such as the old Greek fancy
+painted, where strengthless ghosts flit aimlessly, mourning the lost
+light. Everywhere the giant boles of trees shooting the height of a
+church tower into the air without a branch; great rib-rooted trees, and
+beneath them a fierce and hungry growth of creepers. Where a tree had
+fallen within the last century or so, these creepers ramped upwards in
+luxuriance, their stems thick as the body of a man, drinking the shaft
+of light that pierced downwards, drinking it with eagerness ere the
+boughs above met again and starved them. Where no tree had fallen the
+creepers were thin and weak; from year to year they lived on feebly,
+biding their time, but still they lived, knowing that some day it would
+come. And always it was coming to those expectant parasites, since from
+minute to minute, somewhere in the vast depths, miles and miles away
+perhaps, a great crash echoed in the stillness, the crash of a tree
+that, sown when the Saxons ruled in England, or perhaps before Cleopatra
+bewitched Anthony, came to its end at last.
+
+On the second day of their march in the forest Alan chanced to see such
+a tree fall, and the sight was one that he never could forget. As it
+happened, owing to the vast spread of its branches which had killed out
+all rivals beneath, for in its day it had been a very successful tree
+embued with an excellent constitution by its parent, it stood somewhat
+alone, so that from several hundred yards away as these six human beings
+crept towards it like ants towards a sapling in a cornfield, its mighty
+girth and bulk set upon a little mound and the luxuriant greenness of
+its far-reaching boughs made a kind of landmark. Then in the hot noon
+when no breath of wind stirred, suddenly the end came. Suddenly that
+mighty bole seemed to crumble; suddenly those far-reaching arms were
+thrown together as their support failed, gripping at each other like
+living things, flogging the air, screaming in their last agony, and with
+an awful wailing groan sinking, a tumbled ruin, to the earth.
+
+Silence again, and in the midst of the silence Jeekie's cheerful voice.
+
+"Old tree go flop! Glad he no flop on us, thanks be to Little Bonsa. Get
+on, you lazy nigger dog. Who pay you stand there and snivel? Get on or
+I blow out your stupid skull," and he brought the muzzle of the
+full-cocked, double-barrelled gun into sharp contact with that part of
+the terrified porter's anatomy.
+
+Such was the forest. Of their march through it for the first four
+days, there is nothing to tell. Its depths seemed to be devoid of
+life, although occasionally they heard the screaming of parrots in the
+treetops a couple of hundred feet above, or caught sight of the dim
+shapes of monkeys swinging themselves from bough to bough. That was in
+the daytime, when, although they could not see it, they knew that the
+sun was shining somewhere. But at night they heard nothing, since beasts
+of prey do not come where there is no food. What puzzled Alan was that
+all through these impenetrable recesses there ran a distinct road
+which they followed. To the right and left rose a wall of creepers, but
+between them ran this road, an ancient road, for nothing grew on it, and
+it only turned aside to avoid the biggest of the trees which must have
+stood there from time immemorial, such a tree as that which he had seen
+fall; indeed it was one of those round which the road ran.
+
+He asked Jeekie who made the road.
+
+"People who come out Noah's Ark," answered Jeekie, "I think they run up
+here to get out of way of water, and sent them two elephants ahead to
+make path. Or perhaps dwarf people make it. Or perhaps those who go up
+to Asiki-land to do sacrifice like old Jews."
+
+"You mean you don't know," said Alan.
+
+"No, of course don't know. Who know about forest path made before
+beginning of world. You ask question, Major, I answer. More lively
+answer than to shake head and roll eyes like them silly fool porters."
+
+It was on the fourth night that the trouble began. As usual they had lit
+a huge fire made of the fallen boughs and rotting tree trunks that lay
+about in plenty. There was no reason why the fire should be so large,
+since they had little to cook and the air was hot, but they made it
+so for the same reason that Jeekie answered questions, for the sake of
+cheerfulness. At least it gave light in the darkness, leaping up in red
+tongues of flame twenty or thirty feet high, and its roar and crackle
+were welcome in the primeval silence.
+
+Alan lay upon the cork mattress in the open, for here there was no need
+to pitch the tent; if any rain fell above, the canopy of leaves absorbed
+it. He was amusing himself while he smoked his pipe with watching the
+reflection of the fire-light against a patch of darkness caused probably
+by some bush about twenty yards away, and by picturing in his own mind
+the face of Barbara, that strong, pleasant English face, as it might
+appear on such a background. Suddenly there, on the identical spot he
+did see a face, though one of a very different character. It was round
+and small and hideous, resembling in its general outline that of a
+bloated child. At this distance he could not distinguish the features,
+except the lips, which were large and pendulous, and between them the
+flash of white teeth.
+
+"Look here," he whispered to Jeekie in English, and Jeekie looked, then
+without saying a word, lifted the shotgun that lay at his side and fired
+straight at the bush. Instantly there arose a squeaking noise, such as
+might be made by a wounded animal, and the four porters sprang up in
+alarm.
+
+"Sit down," said Jeekie to them in their own tongue, "a leopard was
+stalking us and I fired to frighten it away. Don't go near the place,
+as it may be wounded and angry, but drag up some boughs and make a fence
+round the fire, for fear of others."
+
+The men who dreaded leopards, looking on these animals, indeed, with
+superstitious reverence, obeyed readily enough, and as there was plenty
+of wood lying within a few yards, soon constructed a _boma_ fence that,
+rough as it was, would serve for protection.
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan presently as they laboured at the fence, "that was
+not a leopard, it was a man."
+
+"No, no, Major, not man, little dwarf devil, him that have poisoned
+arrow. I shoot at once to make him sit up. Think he no come back
+to-night, too much afraid of shot fetish. But to-morrow, can't say. Not
+tell those fellows anything," and he nodded towards the porters, "or
+perhaps they bolt."
+
+"I think you would have done better to leave the dwarf alone," said
+Alan, "and they might have left us alone. Now they will have a blood
+feud against us."
+
+"Not agree, Major, only chance for us put him in blue funk. If I not
+shoot, presently he shoot," and he made a sound that resembled the
+whistling of an arrow, then added, "Now you go sleep. I not tired, I
+watch, my eyes see in dark better than yours. Only two more days of this
+damn forest, then open land with tree here and there, where dwarf no
+come because he afraid of lion and cannibal man, who like eat him."
+
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan took Jeekie's advice and in
+time fell fast asleep, nor did he wake again till the faint light which
+for the want of a better name they called dawn, was filtering down to
+them through the canopy of boughs.
+
+"Been to look," said Jeekie as he handed him his coffee. "Hit that dwarf
+man, see his blood, but think others carry him away. Jeekie very good
+shot, stone, spear, arrow, or gun, all same to him. Now get off as quick
+as we can before porters smell a rat. You eat chop, Major, I pack."
+
+Presently they started on their trudge through those endless trees,
+with Fear for a companion. Even the porters, who had been told nothing,
+seemed more afraid than usual, though whether this was because they
+"smell rat," as Jeekie called it, or owing to the progressive breakdown
+of their nervous systems, Alan did not know. About midday they stopped
+to eat because the men were too tired to walk further without rest. For
+an hour or more they had been looking for a comparatively open place,
+but as it chanced could find none, so were obliged to halt in dense
+forest. Just as they had finished their meal and were preparing to
+proceed, that which they had feared, happened, since from somewhere
+behind the tree boles came a volley of reed arrows. One struck a porter
+in the neck, one fixed itself in Alan's helmet without touching him,
+and no less than three hit Jeekie on the back and stuck there,
+providentially enough in the substance of the cork mattress that he
+still carried on his shoulders, which the feeble shafts had not the
+strength to pierce.
+
+Everybody sprang up and with a curious fascination instead of attempting
+to do anything, watched the porter who had been hit in the neck
+somewhere in the region of the jugular vein. The poor man rose to his
+feet with great deliberation, reminding Alan in some grotesque way of a
+speaker who has suddenly been called on to address a meeting and seeks
+to gain time for the gathering of his thoughts. Then he turned
+towards that vast audience of the trees, stretched out his hand with a
+declamatory gesture, said something in a composed voice, and fell upon
+his face stone dead! The swift poison had reached his heart and done its
+work.
+
+His three companions looked at him for a moment and the next with a yell
+of terror, rushed off into the forest, hurling down their loads as they
+ran. What became of them Alan never learned, for he saw them no more,
+and the dwarf people keep their secrets. At the time indeed he scarcely
+noticed their departure, for he was otherwise engaged.
+
+One of their hideous little assailants, made bold by success, ventured
+to run across an open space between two trees, showing himself for
+a moment. Alan had a gun in his hand, and mad with rage at what had
+happened, he raised it and swung on him as he would upon a rabbit. He
+was a quick and practised shot and his skill did not fail him now, for
+just as the dwarf was vanishing behind a tree, the bullet caught him and
+next instant he was seen rolling over and over upon its further side.
+
+"That very nice," said Jeekie reflectively, "very nice indeed, but I
+think we best move out of this."
+
+"Aren't you hurt?" gasped Alan. "Your back is full of arrows."
+
+"Don't feel nothing, Major," he answered, "best cork mattress, 25/3 at
+Stores, very good for poisoned arrow, but leave him behind now, because
+perhaps points work through as I run, one scratch do trick," and as
+he spoke Jeekie untied a string or several strings, letting the little
+mattress fall to the ground.
+
+"Great pity leave all those goods," said Jeekie, surveying the loads
+that the porters had cast away, "but what says Book? Life more than
+raiment. Also take no thought for morrow. Dwarf people do that for us.
+Come, Major, make tracks," and dashing at a bag of cartridges which he
+cast about his neck, a trifling addition to his other impedimenta, and
+a small case of potted meats that he hitched under his arm, he poked his
+master in the back with the muzzle of his full-cocked gun as a signal
+that it was time to start.
+
+"Keep that cursed thing off me," said Alan furiously. "How often have I
+told you never to carry firearms at full cock?"
+
+"About one thousand times, Major," answered Jeekie imperturbably, "but
+on such occasion forget discreetness. My ma just same, it run in family,
+but story too long tell you now. Cut, Major, cut like hell. Them dwarfs
+be back soon, but," he puffed, "I think, I think Little Bonsa come
+square with them one day."
+
+So Alan "cut" and the huge Jeekie blundered along after him, the
+paraphernalia with which he was hung about rattling like the hoofs of a
+galloping giraffe. Nor for all his load did he ever turn a hair. Whether
+it were fear within or a desire to save his master, or a belief in the
+virtues of Little Bonsa, or that his foot was, as it were, once more
+upon his native heath, the fact remained that notwithstanding the
+fifty years, almost, that had whitened his wool, Jeekie was absolutely
+inexhaustible. At least at the end of that fearful chase, which lasted
+all the day, and through the night also, for they dared not camp, he
+appeared to be nearly as fresh as when he started from Old Calabar, nor
+did his spirits fail him for one moment.
+
+When the light came on the following morning, however, they perceived
+by many signs and tokens that the dwarf people were all about them. Some
+arrows were shot even, but these fell short.
+
+"Pooh!" said Jeekie, "all right now, they much afraid. Still, no time
+for coffee, we best get on."
+
+So they got on as they could, till towards midday the forest began to
+thin out. Now as the light grew stronger they could see the dwarfs, of
+whom there appeared to be several hundred, keeping a parallel course
+to their own on either side of them at what they thought to be a safe
+distance.
+
+"Try one shot, I think," said Jeekie, kneeling down and letting fly at
+a clump of the little men, which scattered like a covey of partridges,
+leaving one of its number kicking on the ground. "Ah! my boy," shouted
+Jeekie in derision, "how you like bullet in tummy? You not know Paradox
+guaranteed flat trajectory 250 yard. You remember that next time,
+sonny." Then off they went again up a long rise.
+
+"River other side of that rise," said Jeekie. "Think those tree-monkeys
+no follow us there."
+
+But the "monkeys" appeared to be angry and determined. They would not
+come any more within the range of the Paradox, but they still marched
+on either side of the two fugitives, knowing well that at last their
+strength must fail and they would be able to creep up and murder them.
+So the chase went on till Alan began to wonder whether it would not be
+better to face the end at once.
+
+"No, no, if say die, can't change mind to-morrow morning," gasped Jeekie
+in a hoarse voice. "Here top rise, much nearer than I thought. Oh, my
+aunt! who those?" and he pointed to a large number of big men armed with
+spears who were marching up the further side of the hill from the river
+that ran below.
+
+At the same moment these savages, who were not more than two hundred
+yards away, caught sight of them and of their pursuers, who just then
+appeared on the ridge to the right and left. The dwarfs, on perceiving
+these strangers, uttered a shrill yell of terror, and wheeled about to
+fly to their fastnesses in the forest, which evidently they regretted
+ever having left. It was too late. With an answering shout the
+spearsmen, who were extended in a long line, apparently hunting for
+game, charged after them at full speed. They were fresh and their legs
+were long. Therefore very soon they overtook the dwarfs and even got
+in front of them, heading them off from the forest. The end may
+be guessed,--save a few whom they reserved alive, they killed them
+mercilessly, and almost without loss to themselves, since the little
+forest folk were too terrified and exhausted to shoot at them with their
+poisoned arrows, and they had no other weapons.
+
+In fact, as Alan discovered afterwards, for generations there had been
+war between them, since all the other tribes hate the dwarfs, whom they
+look upon as dangerous human monkeys, and never before had the big men
+found such a chance of squaring their account.
+
+When Jeekie saw this fearful-looking company, for the first time his
+spirits seemed to fail him.
+
+"Ogula!" he exclaimed with a groan and sat himself upon a flat rock,
+pulling Alan down beside him. "Ogula! Know them by hair and spears," he
+repeated. "Up gum tree now, say good-night."
+
+"Why? Who are they?" gasped Alan.
+
+"Great cannibal, Major, eat man, eat us to-night, or perhaps to-morrow
+morning when we nice and cool. Say prayers, Major, quick no time waste."
+
+"I think I will shoot an Ogula or two first," said Alan grimly, as he
+stood up and lifted his gun.
+
+"No, not shoot, no good. Pretend not be afraid, best chance. Let Jeekie
+think, let Jeekie think," and he slapped his forehead with his large
+hand.
+
+Apparently the action brought inspiration, for next instant he grabbed
+his master by the arm and dragged him back behind the shelter of a
+big boulder which they had just passed. Then with really marvellous
+swiftness he cut the straps of the tin box that Alan wore upon his back,
+and since there was no time to find the key and unlock it, seized the
+little padlock with which it was fastened between his finger and thumb,
+and putting out his great strength, with a single wrench twisted it off.
+
+"What are you----" began Alan.
+
+"Hold tongue," he answered savagely, "make you god, I priest. Ogula know
+Little Bonsa. Quick, quick!"
+
+In a minute it was done, the golden mask was clapped on to Alan's head,
+and the leather thongs were fastened. Moreover, Jeekie himself was
+arrayed in the solar-tope to which all this while he had clung, allowing
+streams of green mosquito netting to hang down over his white robe.
+
+"Come out now, Major," he said, "and play god. You whistle, I do
+palaver."
+
+Then hand in hand they walked from behind the rock. By this time the
+particular company of the cannibals that was opposite to them, which
+happened to include their chief, had climbed the steep slope of the hill
+and arrived within a distance of twenty yards. Having seen the two men
+and guessed that they had taken refuge behind the rock, their spears
+were lifted to kill them, since when he beholds anything strange, the
+first impulse of a savage is to bring it to its death. They looked; they
+saw. Of a sudden down went the raised spears.
+
+Some of those who held them fell upon their faces, while others turned
+to fly, appalled by the vision of this strangely clad man with the head
+of gold. Only their chief, a great yellow-toothed fellow who wore a
+necklace of baboon claws, remained erect, staring at them with open
+mouth.
+
+Alan blew the whistle that was set between the lips of the mask, and
+they shivered. Then Jeekie spoke to them in some tongue which they
+understood, saying:
+
+"Do you, O Ogula, dare to offer violence to Little Bonsa and her
+priests? Say now, why should we not strike you dead with the magic of
+the god which she has borrowed from the white man?" and he tapped the
+gun he held.
+
+"This is witchcraft," answered the chief. "We saw two men running,
+hunted by the dwarfs, not three minutes ago, and now we see--what we
+see," and he put his hand before his eyes, then after a pause went
+on--"As for Little Bonsa, she left this country in my father's day. He
+gave her passage upon the head of a white man and the Asiki wizards have
+mourned her ever since, or so I hear."
+
+"Fool," answered Jeekie, "as she went, so she returns, on the head of
+a white man. Yonder I see an elder with grey hair who doubtless knew of
+Little Bonsa in his youth. Let him come up and look and say whether or
+no this is the god."
+
+"Yes, yes," exclaimed the chief, "go up, old man, go up," and he jabbed
+at him with his spear until, unwillingly enough, he went.
+
+The elder arrived, making obeisance, and when he was near, Alan blew the
+whistle in his face, whereon he fell to his knees.
+
+"It is Little Bonsa," he said in a trembling voice, "Little Bonsa
+without a doubt. I should know, as my father and my elder brother were
+sacrificed to her, and I only escaped because she rejected me. Down on
+your face, Chief, and do honour to the Yellow God before she slay you."
+
+Instantly every man within hearing prostrated himself and lay still.
+Then Jeekie strode up and down among them shouting out:
+
+"Little Bonsa has come back and brought to you, Man-eaters, a fat
+offering, an offering of the dwarf-people whom you hate, of the
+treacherous dwarf-people who when you walk the ancient forest path,
+murder you with their poisoned arrows. Praise Little Bonsa who delivers
+you from your foes, and hearken to her bidding. Send on messengers to
+the Asiki saying that Little Bonsa comes home again from across the
+Black Water bringing the White Preacher, whom she led away in the day of
+their fathers. Say to them that the Asiki must send out a company that
+Little Bonsa and the Magician with whom she ran away, may be escorted
+back to her house with the state which has been hers from the beginning
+of time. Say to them also that they must prepare a great offering of
+pure gold out of their store, as much gold as fifty strong men can
+carry, not one handful less, to be given to the White Magician who
+brings back Small Swimming Head, for if they withhold such an offering,
+he and Little Bonsa will vanish never to be seen again, and curses
+and desolation will fall upon their land. Rise and obey, Chief of the
+Ogula."
+
+Then the man scrambled to his feet and answered:
+
+"It shall be done, O Priest of the Yellow God. To-morrow at the dawn
+swift messengers will start for the Gold House of the Asiki. To-night
+they cannot leave, as we are all very hungry and must eat."
+
+"What must you eat?" asked Jeekie suspiciously.
+
+"O Priest," answered the chief with a deprecatory gesture, "when first
+we saw you we hoped that it would be the white man and yourself, for we
+have never tasted white man. But now we fear that you will not consent
+to this, and as you are holy and the guardian of the god, we cannot eat
+you without your own consent. Therefore fat dwarf must be our food, of
+which, however, there will be plenty for you as well as us."
+
+"You dog!" exclaimed Jeekie in a voice of furious indignation. "Do you
+think that white men and their high-born companions, such as myself,
+were made to fill your vile stomachs? I tell you that a meal of the
+deadly Bean would agree better with you, for if you dare so much as to
+look on us, or on any of the white race with hunger, agony shall seize
+your vitals and you and all your tribe shall die as though by poison.
+Moreover, we do not touch the flesh of men, nor will we see it eaten.
+It is our '_orunda_,' it is consecrate to us, it must not pass our
+lips, nor may our eyes behold it. Therefore we will camp apart from you
+further up the stream and find our own food. But to-morrow at the dawn
+the messengers must leave as we have commanded. Also you shall provide
+strong men and a large canoe to bear Little Bonsa forward towards her
+own home until she finds her people coming out to greet her.
+
+"It shall be done," answered the chief humbly, "Everything shall be done
+according to the will of Little Bonsa spoken by her priest, that she
+may leave a blessing and not a curse upon the heads of the tribe of the
+Ogula. Say where you wish to camp and men shall run to build a house of
+reeds for the god to dwell in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE DAWN
+
+Jeekie looked up and down the river and saw that in the centre of it
+about half a mile away, there was an island on which grew some trees.
+
+"Little Bonsa will camp yonder," he said. "Go, make her house ready,
+light fire and bring canoe to paddle us across. Now leave us, all of
+you, for if you look too long upon the face of the Yellow God she will
+ask a sacrifice, and it is not lawful that you should see where she
+hides herself away."
+
+At this saying the cannibals departed as one man, and at top speed, some
+of the canoes and others to warn their fellows who were engaged in
+the congenial work of hunting and killing the dwarfs, not to dare to
+approach the white man and his companion. A third party ran to the bank
+of the river that was opposite to the island to make ready as they had
+been bidden, so that presently Alan and Jeekie were left quite alone.
+
+"Ah!" said Jeekie, with a gasp of satisfaction, "_that_ all right,
+everything arranged quite comfortable. Thought Little Bonsa come out top
+somehow and score off dirty dwarf monkeys. _They_ never get home to tea
+anyway--stay and dine with Ogula."
+
+"Stop chattering, Jeekie, and untie this infernal mask, I am almost
+choked," broke in Alan in a hollow voice.
+
+"Not say 'infernal mask,' Major, say 'face of angel.' Little Bonsa woman
+and like it better, also true, if on this occasion only, for she save
+our skins," said Jeekie as he unknotted the thongs and reverently
+replaced the fetish in its tin box. "My!" he added, contemplating his
+master's perspiring countenance, "you blush like garden carrot; well,
+gold hot wear in afternoon sun beneath Tropic of Cancer. Now we walk
+on quietly and I tell you all I arrange for night's lodging and future
+progress of joint expedition."
+
+So gathering together what remained of their few possessions, they
+started leisurely down the slope towards the island, and as they went
+Jeekie explained all that had happened, since Ogula was not one of the
+African languages with which Alan was acquainted and he had only been
+able to understand a word here and there.
+
+"Look," said Jeekie when he had finished, and turning, he pointed to the
+cannibals who were driving the few survivors of the dwarfs before them
+to the spot where their canoes were beached. "Those dwarfs done for;
+capital business, forest road quite safe to travel home by; Ogula best
+friends in world; very remarkable escape from delicate situation."
+
+"Very remarkable indeed," said Alan; "I shall soon begin to believe in
+the luck of Little Bonsa."
+
+"Yes, Major, you see she anxious to get home and make path clear. But,"
+he added gloomily, "how she behave when she reach there, can't say."
+
+"Nor can I, Jeekie, but meanwhile I hope she will provide us with some
+dinner, for I am faint for want of food and all the tinned meat is
+lost."
+
+"Food," repeated Jeekie. "Yes, necessity for human stomach, which
+unhappily built that way, so Ogula find out, and so dwarfs find out
+presently." Then he looked about him and in a kind of aimless manner
+lifted his gun and fired. "There we are," he said, "Little Bonsa
+understand bodily needs," and he pointed to a fat buck of the sort that
+in South Africa is called Duiker, which his keen eyes had discovered
+in its form against a stone where it now lay shot through the head and
+dying. "No further trouble on score of grub for next three day," he
+added. "Come on to camp, Major. I send one savage skin and bring that
+buck."
+
+So on they went to the river bank, Alan so tired now that the excitement
+was over, that he was not sorry to lean upon Jeekie's arm. Reaching the
+stream they drank deep of its water, and finding that it was shallow at
+this spot, waded through it to the island without waiting for a canoe
+to ferry them over. Here they found a party of the cannibals already at
+work clearing reeds with their large, curved knives, in order to make a
+site for the hut. Another party under the command of their chief himself
+had gone to the top end of the island, to cut the stems of a willow-like
+shrub to serve as uprights. These people stared at Alan, which was not
+strange, as they had never before seen the face of a white man and were
+wondering, doubtless, what had become of the ancient and terrible fetish
+that he had worn. Without entering into explanations Jeekie in a great
+voice ordered two of them to fetch the buck, which the white man, whom
+he described as "husband of the goddess," had "slain by thunder." When
+these had departed upon their errand, leaving Jeekie to superintend the
+building operations, Alan sat down upon a fallen tree, watching one of
+the savages making fire with a pointed stick and some tinder.
+
+Just then from the head of the island where the willows were being
+cut, rose the sound of loud roarings and of men crying out in affright.
+Seizing his gun Alan ran towards the spot whence the noise came. Forcing
+his way through a brake of reeds, he saw a curious sight. The Ogula in
+cutting the willows which grew about some tumbled rocks, had disturbed
+a lioness that had her lair there, and being fearless savages, had tried
+to kill her with their spears. The brute, rendered desperate by wounds,
+and the impossibility of escape, for here the surrounding water was
+deep, had charged them boldly, and as it chanced, felled to the ground
+their chief, that yellow-toothed man to whom Jeekie gave his orders. Now
+she was standing over him looking round her royally, her great paw upon
+his breast, which it seemed almost to cover, while the Ogula ran round
+and round shouting, for they feared that if they tried to attack her,
+she would kill the chief. This indeed she seemed about to do, for just
+as Alan arrived she dropped her head as though to tear out the man's
+throat. Instantly he fired. It was a snap shot, but as it chanced a
+good one, for the bullet struck the lioness in the back of the neck just
+forward of and between the shoulders, severing the spine so that without
+a sound or any further movement she sank stone dead upon the prostrate
+cannibal. For a while his followers stood astonished. They might have
+heard of guns from the coast people, but living as they did in the
+interior where white folk did not dare to travel, they had never seen
+their terrible effects.
+
+"Magic!" they cried. "Magic!"
+
+"Of course," exclaimed Jeekie, who by now had arrived upon the scene.
+"What else did you expect from the husband of Little Bonsa? Magic, the
+greatest of magic. Go, roll that beast away before your chief is crushed
+to death."
+
+They obeyed, and the man sat up, a fearful spectacle, for he was
+smothered with the blood of the lion and somewhat cut by her claws,
+though otherwise unhurt. Then feeling that the life was still whole in
+him, he crept on his hands and knees to where Alan stood, and kissed his
+feet.
+
+"Aha!" said Jeekie, "Little Bonsa score again. Cannibal tribe our slave
+henceforth for evermore. Yes, till kingdom come. Come on, Major, and
+cook supper in perfect peace."
+
+The supper was cooked and eaten with gratitude, for seldom had two men
+needed a square meal more, and never did venison taste better. By the
+time that it was finished darkness had fallen, and before they turned in
+to sleep in the neat reed hut that the Ogula had built, Alan and Jeekie
+walked up the island to see if the lioness had been skinned, as they
+directed. This they found was done; even the carcase itself had been
+removed to serve as meat for these foul-feeding people. They climbed on
+to the pile of rocks in which the beast had made her lair, and looked
+down the river to where, two hundred yards away, the Ogula were
+encamped. From this camp there rose a sound of revelry, and by the light
+of the great fires that burned there, they perceived that the hungry
+savages were busy feasting, for some of them sat in circles, whilst
+others, their naked forms looking at that distance like those of imps in
+the infernal regions, flitted to and fro against the glowing background
+of the fires, bearing strange-looking joints on prongs of wood.
+
+"I suppose they are eating the lioness," said Alan doubtfully.
+
+"No, no, Major, not lioness; eat dwarf by dozen--just like oysters
+at seaside. But for Little Bonsa _we_ sit on those forks now and look
+uncommon small."
+
+"Beasts!" said Alan in disgust; "they make me feel uncommon sick. Let us
+go to bed. I suppose they won't murder us in our sleep, will they?"
+
+"Not they, Major, too much afraid. Also we their blood-brothers now,
+because we bring them first-class dinner and save chief from lion's
+fury. No blame them too much, Major, good fellows really with gentle
+heart, but grub like that from generation to generation. Every mother's
+son of them have many men inside, that why they so big and strong. Ogula
+people cover great multitude like Charity in Book. No doubt sent by
+Providence to keep down extra pop'lation. Not right to think too hard
+of poor fellows who, as I say, very kind and gentle at heart and most
+loving in family relation, except to old women whom they eat also, so
+that they no get bored with too long life."
+
+Weary and disgusted by this abominable sight though he was, Alan burst
+out laughing at his retainer's apology for the sweet-natured Ogula, who
+struck him as the most repulsive blackguards that he had ever met or
+heard of in all his experience of African savages. Then wishing to see
+and hear no more of them that night, he retreated rapidly to the hut
+and was soon fast asleep with his head pillowed on the box that hid the
+charms of Little Bonsa. When he awoke it was broad daylight. Rising he
+went down to the river to wash, and never had a bath been more welcome,
+for during all their journey through the forest no such thing was
+obtainable. On his return he found his garments well brushed with dry
+reeds and set upon a rock in the hot sun to air, while Jeekie in a
+cheerful mood, was engaged cooking breakfast in the frying-pan, to which
+he had clung through all the vicissitudes of their flight.
+
+"No coffee, Major," he said regretfully, "that stop in forest. But never
+mind, hot water better for nerve. Ogula messengers gone in little canoe
+to Asiki at break of day. Travel slow till they work off dwarf, but
+afterwards go quick. I send lion skin with them as present from you to
+great high-priestess Asika, also claws for necklace. No lions there and
+she think much of that. Also it make her love mighty man who can kill
+fierce lion like Samson in Book. Love of head woman very valuable ally
+among beastly savage peoples."
+
+"I am sure I hope it won't," said Alan with earnestness, "but no doubt
+it is as well to keep on the soft side of the good lady if we can. What
+time do we start?"
+
+"In one hour, Major. I been to camp already, chosen best canoe and
+finest men for rowers. Chief--he called Fanny--so grateful that he come
+with them himself."
+
+"Indeed. That is very kind of him, but I say, Jeekie, what are these
+fellows going to live on? I can't stand what you call their 'favourite
+chop.'"
+
+"No, no, Major, that all right. I tell them that when they travel with
+Little Bonsa, they must keep Lent like pious Roman Catholic family that
+live near Yarleys. They catch plenty fish in river, and perhaps we shoot
+game, or rich 'potamus, which they like 'cause he fat."
+
+Evidently the Ogula chief, Fahni by name, not Fanny, as Jeekie called
+him, was a man of his word, for before the hour was up he appeared at
+the island in command of a large canoe manned by twelve splendid-looking
+savages. Springing to land, he prostrated himself before Alan, kissing
+his feet as he had done on the previous night, and making a long speech.
+
+"That very good spirit," exclaimed Jeekie. "Like to see heathen in his
+darkness lick white gentleman's boot. He say you his lord and great
+magician who save his life, and know all Little Bonsa's secrets, which
+many and unrepeatable. He say he die for you twice a day if need be, and
+go on dying to-morrow and all next year. He say he take you safe till
+you meet Asiki and for your sake, though he hungry, eat no man for one
+whole month, or perhaps longer. Now we start at once."
+
+So they started up the river that was called Katsena, Alan and Jeekie
+seated in a lordly fashion near the stern of the canoe beneath an awning
+made out of some sticks and a grass mat. In truth after their severe
+toil and adventures in the forest, this method of journeying proved
+quite luxurious. Except for a rapid here and there over or round which
+the canoe must be dragged, the river was broad and the scenery on its
+banks park-like and beautiful. Moreover the country, perhaps owing
+to the appetites of the Ogula, appeared to be practically uninhabited
+except by vast herds of every sort of game.
+
+All day they sat in the canoe which the stalwart rowers propelled, in
+silence for the most part, since they were terribly afraid of the white
+man, and still more so of the renowned fetish which they knew he carried
+with him. Then when evening came they moored their craft to the bank
+and camped till the following morning. Nor did they lack for food, since
+game being so plentiful, it was only necessary for Alan to walk a few
+hundred yards and shoot a fat eland, or hartebeest, or other buck
+which in its ignorance of guns would allow him to approach quite close.
+Elephants, rhinoceros, and buffalo were also common, while great herds
+of giraffe might be seen wandering between the scattered trees, but as
+they were not upon a hunting trip and their ammunition was very limited,
+with these they did not interfere.
+
+Having their daily fill of meat which their souls loved, the Ogula
+oarsmen remained in an excellent mood, indeed the chief, Fahni, informed
+Alan that if only they had such magic tubes wherewith to slaughter game,
+he and his tribe would gladly give up cannibalism--except on feast days.
+He added sadly that soon they would be obliged to do so, or die, since
+in those parts there were now few people left to eat, and they hated
+vegetables. Moreover, they kept no cattle, it was not the custom of that
+tribe, except a very few for milk. Alan advised them to increase their
+herds, since, as he pointed out to them, "dog should not eat dog" or the
+human being his own kind.
+
+The chief answered that there was a great deal in what he said, which
+on his return he would lay before his head men. Indeed Alan, to his
+astonishment, discovered that Jeekie had been quite right when he
+alleged that these people, so terrible in their mode of life, were
+yet "kind and gentle at heart." They preyed upon mankind because for
+centuries it had been their custom so to do, but if anyone had been
+there to show them a better way, he grew sure that they would follow it
+gladly. At least they were brave and loyal and even after their first
+fear of the white man had worn off, fulfilled their promises without a
+murmur. Once, indeed, when he chanced to have gone for a walk unarmed
+and to be charged by a bull elephant, these Ogula ran at the brute with
+their spears and drove it away, a rescue in which one of them lost his
+life, for the "rogue" caught and killed him.
+
+So the days went on while they paddled leisurely up the river, Alan
+employing the time by taking lessons in the Asiki tongue from Jeekie, a
+language which he had been studying ever since he left England. The task
+was not easy, as he had no books and Jeekie himself after some thirty
+years of absence, was doubtful as to many of its details. Still being a
+linguist by nature and education and finding in the tongue similarities
+to other African dialects which he knew, he was now able to speak it a
+little, in a halting fashion.
+
+On the fifth day of their ascent of the river, they came to a tributary
+that flowed into it from the north, up which the Ogula said they
+must proceed to reach Asiki-land. The stream was narrow and sluggish,
+widening out here and there into great swamps through which it was not
+easy to find a channel. Also the district was so unhealthy that even
+several of the Ogula contracted fever, of which Alan cured them by heavy
+doses of quinine, for fortunately his travelling medicine chest remained
+to him. These cures were effected after their chief suggested that they
+should be thrown overboard, or left to die in the swamp as useless,
+with the result that the white man's magical powers were thenceforth
+established beyond doubt or cavil. Indeed the poor Ogula now looked
+on him as a god superior even to Little Bonsa, whose familiar he was
+supposed to be.
+
+The journey through that swamp was very trying, since in this wet season
+often they could find no place on which to sleep at night, but must stay
+in the canoe tormented by mosquitoes, and in constant danger of being
+upset by the hippopotami that lived there. Moreover, as no game was now
+available, they were obliged to live on these beasts, fish when they
+could catch them, and wildfowl, which sometimes they were unable to cook
+for lack of fuel. This did not trouble the Ogula, who ate them raw, as
+did Jeekie when he was hungry. But Alan was obliged to starve until they
+could make a fire. This it was only possible to do when they found drift
+or other wood, since at that season the rank vegetation was in full
+growth. Also the fearful thunderstorms which broke continually and in a
+few minutes half filled their canoe with water, made the reeds and the
+soil on which they grew, sodden with wet. As Jeekie said:
+
+"This time of year only fit for duck and crocodile. Human should
+remember uncontrollable forces of nature and wait till winter come in
+due course, when quagmire bear sole of his foot."
+
+This elaborate remark he made to Alan during the progress of a
+particularly fearful tempest. The lightning blazed in the black sky
+and seemed to strike all about them like stabbing swords of fire, the
+thunder crashed and bellowed as it may be supposed that it will do on
+that day when the great earth, worn out at last, shall reel and stagger
+to its doom. The rain fell in a straight and solid sheet; the tall reeds
+waved confusedly like millions of dim arms and while they waved, uttered
+a vast and groaning noise; the scared wildfowl in their terror, with
+screams and the sough of wings, rushed past them in flocks a thousand
+strong, now seen and now lost in the vapours. To keep their canoe afloat
+the poor, naked Ogula oarsmen, shivering with cold and fear, baled
+furiously with their hands, or bowls of hollowed wood, and called back
+to Alan to save them as though he were the master of the elements. Even
+Jeekie was depressed and appeared to be offering up petitions, though
+whether these were directed to Little Bonsa or elsewhere it was
+impossible to know.
+
+As for Alan, the heart was out of him. It is true that so far he had
+escaped fever or other sickness, which in itself was wonderful, but he
+was chilled through and through and practically had eaten nothing for
+two days, and very little for a week, since his stomach turned from
+half-cooked hippopotamus fat and wildfowl. Moreover, they had lost the
+channel and seemed to be wandering aimlessly through a wilderness of
+reeds broken here and there by lines of deeper water.
+
+According the Ogula they should have reached the confines of the great
+lake several days before and landed on healthful rising ground that
+was part of the Asiki territory. But this had not happened, and now he
+doubted whether it ever would happen. It was more likely that they would
+come to their deaths, there in the marsh, especially as the few ball and
+shot cartridges which they had saved in their flight were now exhausted.
+Not one was left; nothing was left except their revolvers with some
+charges, which of course were quite useless for the killing of game.
+Therefore they were in a fair way to die of hunger, for here if fish
+existed, they refused to be caught and nought remained for them to fill
+themselves with except water slugs, and snails which the boatmen were
+already gathering and crunching up in their great teeth. Or, perhaps
+the Ogula, forgetting friendship under the pressure of necessity, would
+murder them as they slept and--revert to their usual diet.
+
+Jeekie was right, he should have remembered the "uncontrollable forces
+of Nature." Only a madman would have undertaken such an expedition in
+the rains. No wonder that the Asiki remained a secret and hidden people
+when their frontier was protected by such a marsh as this upon the one
+side and, as he understood, by impassable mountains upon the other.
+
+There came a lull in the tempest and the boatmen began to get the better
+of the water, which now was up to their knees. Alan asked Jeekie if he
+thought it was over, but that worthy shook his white head mournfully,
+causing the spray to fly as from a twirling mop, and replied:
+
+"Can't say, cats and dogs not tumble so many for present, only pups and
+kitties left, so to speak, but think there plenty more up there," and he
+nodded at the portentous fire-laced cloud which seemed to be spreading
+over them, its black edges visible even through the gloom.
+
+"Bad business, I am afraid, Jeekie. Shouldn't have brought you here, or
+those poor beggars either," and he looked at the scared, frozen Ogula.
+"I begin to wonder----"
+
+"Never wonder, Major," broke in Jeekie in alarm. "If wonder, not
+live, if wonder, not be born, too much wonder about everywhere. Can't
+understand nothing, so give it up. Say, 'Right-O and devil hindermost!'
+Very good motto for biped in tight place. Better drown here than in City
+bucket shop. But no drown. Should be dead long ago, but Little Bonsa
+play the game, she not want to sink in stinking swamp when so near her
+happy home. Come out all right somehow, as from dwarf. Every cloud have
+silver lining, Major, even that black chap up there. Oh! my golly!"
+
+This last exclamation was wrung from Jeekie's lips by a sudden
+development of "forces of Nature" which astonished even him. Instead of
+a silver lining the "black chap" exhibited one of gold. In an instant it
+seemed to turn to acres of flame; it was as though the heavens had taken
+fire. A flash or a thunderbolt struck the water within ten yards of
+their canoe, causing the boatmen to throw themselves upon their faces
+through shock or terror. Then came the hurricane, which fortunately was
+so strong that it permitted no more rain to fall. The tall reeds were
+beaten flat beneath its breath; the canoe was seized in its grip and
+whirled round and round, then driven forward like an arrow. Only the
+weight of the men and the water in it prevented it from oversetting.
+Dense darkness fell upon them and although they could see no star, they
+knew that it must be night. On they rushed, driven by that shrieking
+gale, and all about and around them this wall of darkness. No one spoke,
+for hope was abandoned, and if they had, their voices could not have
+been heard. The last thing that Alan remembered was feeling Jeekie
+dragging a grass mat over him to protect him a little if he could. Then
+his senses wavered, as does a dying lamp. He thought that he was back in
+what Jeekie had rudely called "City bucket shop," bargaining across the
+telephone wire, upon which came all the sounds of the infernal regions,
+with a financial paper for an article on a Little Bonsa Syndicate that
+he proposed to float. He thought he was in The Court woods with Barbara,
+only the birds in the trees sang so unnaturally loud that he could not
+hear her voice, and she wore Little Bonsa on her head as a bonnet. Then
+she departed in flame, leaving him and Death alone.
+
+
+
+Alan awoke. Above the sun shone hotly, warming him back to life, but in
+front was a thick wall of mist and rising beyond it in the distance he
+saw the rugged swelling forms of mountains. Doubtless these had been
+visible before, but the tall reeds through which they travelled had
+hid the sight of them. He looked behind him and there in a heap lay the
+Ogula around their chief, insensible or sleeping. He counted them and
+found that two were gone, lost in the tempest, how or where no man ever
+learned. He looked forward and saw a peculiar sight, for in the prow of
+the drifting canoe stood Jeekie clad in the remains of his white robe
+and wearing on his head the battered helmet and about his shoulders the
+torn fragments of green mosquito net. While Alan was wondering strangely
+why he had adopted this ceremonial garb, from out of the mist there came
+a sound of singing, of wild and solemn singing. Jeekie seemed to listen
+to it; then he lifted up his great musical voice and sang as though in
+answer. What he sang Alan could not understand, but he recognized that
+the language which he used was that of the Asiki people.
+
+A pause and a confused murmuring, and now again the wild song rose and
+again Jeekie answered.
+
+"What the deuce are you doing? Where are we?" asked Alan faintly.
+
+Jeekie turned and beamed upon him; although his teeth were chattering
+and his face was hollow, still he beamed.
+
+"You awake, Major?" he said. "Thought good old sun do trick. Feel your
+heart now and find it beat. Pulse, too, strong, though temp'rature
+not normal. Well, good news this morning. Little Bonsa come out top as
+usual. Asiki priests on bank there. Can't see them, but know their song
+and answer. Same old game as thirty years ago. Asiki never change, which
+good business when you been away long while."
+
+"Hang the Asiki," said Alan feebly, "I think all these poor beggars are
+dead, and he pointed to the rowers.
+
+"Look like it, Major, but what that matter now since you and I alive?
+Plenty more where they come from. Not dead though, think only sleep, no
+like cold, like dormouse. But never mind cannibal pig. They serve our
+turn, if they live, live; if they die, die and God have mercy on souls,
+if cannibal have soul. Ah! here we are," and from beneath six inches of
+water he dragged up the tin box containing Little Bonsa, from which he
+extracted the fetish, wet but uninjured.
+
+"Put her on now, Major. Put her on at once and come sit in prow of
+canoe. Must reach Asiki-land in proper style. Priests think it your
+reverend uncle come back again, just as he leave. Make very good
+impression."
+
+"I can't," said Alan feebly. "I am played out, Jeekie."
+
+"Oh! buck up, Major, buck up!" he replied imploringly. "One kick more
+and you win race, mustn't spoil ship for ha'porth of tar. You just wear
+fetish, whistle once on land, and then go to sleep for whole week if you
+like. I do rest, say it all magic, and so forth--that you been dead and
+just come out of grave, or anything you like. No matter if you turn up
+as announced on bill and God bless hurricane that blow us here when we
+expect die. Come, Major, quick, quick! mist melt and soon they see you."
+Then without waiting for an answer Jeekie clapped the wet mask on his
+master's head, tied the thongs and led Alan to the prow of the canoe,
+where he set him down on a little cross bench, stood behind supporting
+him and again began to sing in a great triumphant voice.
+
+The mist cleared away, rolling up like a curtain and revealing on the
+shore a number of men and women clad in white robes, who were martialled
+in ranks there, chanting and staring out at the dim waters of the
+lagoon. Yonder upon the waters, driven forward by the gentle breeze,
+floated a canoe and lo! in the prow of that canoe sat a white man and
+on his head the god which they had lost a whole generation gone. On
+the head of a white man it had departed; on the head of a white man it
+returned. They saw and fell upon their knees.
+
+"Blow, Major, blow!" whispered Jeekie, and Alan blew a feeble note
+through the whistle in the mouth of the mask. It was enough, they knew
+it. They sprang into the water and dragged the canoe to land. They set
+Alan on the shore and worshipped him. They haled up a lad as though for
+sacrifice, for a priest flourished a great knife above his head, but
+Jeekie said something that caused them to let him go. Alan thought it
+was to the effect that Little Bonsa had changed her habits across the
+Black Water, and wanted no blood, only food. Then he remembered no more;
+again the darkness fell upon him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BONSA TOWN
+
+When consciousness returned to Alan, the first thing of which he became
+dimly aware was the slow, swaying motion of a litter. He raised himself,
+for he was lying at full length, and in so doing felt that there was
+something over his face.
+
+"That confounded Little Bonsa," he thought. "Am I expected to spend the
+rest of my life with it on my head like the man in the iron mask?"
+
+Then he put up his hand and felt the thing, to find that it was not
+Little Bonsa, but something made apparently of thin, fine linen, fitted
+to the shape of his face, for there was a nose on it, and eyeholes
+through which he could see, yes, and a mouth whereof the lips by some
+ingenious contrivance could be moved up and down.
+
+"Little Bonsa's undress uniform, I expect," he muttered, and tried to
+drag it off. This, however, proved to be impossible, for it was fitted
+tightly to his head and laced or fastened at the back of his neck so
+securely that he could not undo it. Being still weak, soon he gave up
+the attempt and began to look about him.
+
+He was in a litter, a very fine litter hung round with beautifully
+woven and coloured grass mats, inside of which were a kind of couch and
+cushions of soft wool or hair, so arranged that he could either sit up
+or lie down. He peeped between two of these mats and saw that they were
+travelling in a mountainous country over a well-beaten road or trail,
+and that his litter was borne upon the shoulders of a double line of
+white-robed men, while all around him marched numbers of other men. They
+seemed to be soldiers, for they were arranged in companies and carried
+large spears and shields. Also some of them wore torques and bracelets
+of yellow metal that might be either brass or gold. Turning himself
+about he found an eyehole in the back of the litter so contrived that
+its occupant could see without being seen, and perceived that his escort
+amounted to a veritable army of splendid-looking, but sombre-faced
+savages of a somewhat Semitic cast of countenance. Indeed many of them
+had aquiline features and hair that, although crisped, was long and
+carefully arranged in something like the old Egyptian fashion. Also
+he saw that about thirty yards behind and separated from him by a
+bodyguard, was borne a second litter. By means of a similar aperture in
+front he discovered yet more soldiers, and beyond them, at the head of
+the procession, was what appeared to be a body of white-robed men and
+women bearing strange emblems and banners. These he took to be priests
+and priestesses.
+
+Having examined everything that was within reach of his eye, Alan sank
+back upon his cushions and began to realize that he was very faint and
+hungry. It was just then that the sound of a familiar voice reached his
+ears. It was the voice of Jeekie, and he did not speak, he chanted in
+English to a melody which Alan at once recognized as a Gregorian tone,
+apparently from the second litter.
+
+"Oh, Major," he sang, "have you yet awoke from refre-e-eshing sleep?
+If so, please answer me in same tone of voice, for remember that you
+de-e-evil of a swell, Lord of the Little Bonsa, and must not speak like
+co-o-ommon cad."
+
+Feeble as he was Alan nearly burst out laughing, then remembering that
+probably he was expected not to laugh, chanted his answer as directed,
+which having a good tenor voice, he did with some effect, to the evident
+awe and delight of all the escort within hearing.
+
+"I am awake, most excellent Jee-e-ekie, and feel the need of food, if
+you have such a thing abou-ou-out you and it is lawful for the Lord of
+Little Bonsa to take nu-tri-ment."
+
+Instantly Jeekie's deep voice rose in reply.
+
+"That good tidings upon the mountain tops, Ma-ajor. Can't come out to
+bring you chop because too i-i-infra dig, for now I also biggish bug,
+the little bird what sit upon the rose, as poet sa-a-ays. I tell these
+Johnnies bring you grub, which you eat without qualm, for Asiki Al
+coo-o-ook."
+
+Then followed loud orders issued by Jeekie to his immediate _entourage_,
+and some confusion.
+
+As a result presently Alan's litter was halted, the curtains were opened
+and kneeling women thrust through them platters of wood upon which,
+wrapped up in leaves, were the dismembered limbs of a bird which he took
+to be chicken or guinea-fowl, and a gold cup containing water pleasantly
+flavoured with some essence. This cup interested him very much both on
+account of its shape and workmanship, which if rude, was striking
+in design, resembling those drinking vessels that have been found in
+Mycenian graves. Also it proved to him that Jeekie's stories of
+the abundance of the precious metal among the Asiki had not been
+exaggerated. If it were not very plentiful, they would scarcely, he
+thought, make their travelling cups of gold. Evidently there was wealth
+in the land.
+
+After the food had been handed to him the litter went on again, and
+seated upon his cushions, he ate and drank heartily enough, for now that
+the worst of his fatigue had passed away, his hunger was great. In some
+absurd fashion this meal reminded him of that which a traveller makes
+out of a luncheon basket upon a railway line in Europe or America.
+Only there the cups are not of gold and among the Asiki were no paper
+napkins, no salt and mustard, and no three and sixpence or dollar to
+pay. Further, until he got used to it, luncheon in a linen mask with
+a moveable mouth was not easy. This difficulty he overcame at last by
+propping the imitation lips apart with a piece of bone, after which
+things were easier.
+
+When he had finished he threw the platter and the remains out of the
+litter, retaining the cup for further examination, and recommenced his
+intoned and poetical converse with Jeekie.
+
+To set it out at length would be wearisome, but in the course of an hour
+or so he collected a good deal of information. Thus he learned that they
+were due to arrive at the Asiki city, which was called Bonsa Town, by
+nightfall, or a little after. Also he was informed that the mask he wore
+was, as he had guessed, a kind of undress uniform without which he must
+never appear, since for anyone except the Asika herself to look upon the
+naked countenance of an individual so mysteriously mixed up with Little
+Bonsa, was sacrilege of the worst sort. Indeed Jeekie assured him that
+the priests who had put on the headdress when he was insensible were
+first blindfolded.
+
+This news depressed Alan very much, since the prospect of living in a
+linen mask for an indefinite period was not cheerful. Recovering, he
+chanted a query as to the fate of the Ogula crew and their chief Fahni.
+
+"Not de-ad," intoned Jeekie in reply, "and not gone back. A-all alive-O,
+somewhere behind there. Fanny very sick about it, for he think Asiki
+bring them along for sacrifice, poo-or beg-gars."
+
+Finally he inquired where Little Bonsa was and was answered that he
+himself as its lawful guardian, was sitting on the fetish in its tin
+box, tidings that he was able to verify by groping beneath the cushions.
+
+After this his voice gave out, though Jeekie continued to sing items of
+interesting news from time to time. Indeed there were other things that
+absorbed Alan's attention. Looking through the peepholes and cracks in
+the curtains, he saw that at last they had reached the crest of a ridge
+up which they had been climbing for hours. Before them lay a vast and
+fertile valley, much of which seemed to be under cultivation, and down
+it flowed a broad and placid river. Opposite to him and facing west a
+great tongue of land ran up to a wall of mountains with stark precipices
+of black rock that seemed to be hundreds, or even thousands, of feet
+high, and at the tip of this tongue a mighty waterfall rushed over
+the precipice, looking at that distance like a cascade of smoke. This
+torrent, which he remembered was called Raaba, fell into a great pool
+and there divided itself into two rushing branches that enclosed
+an ellipse of ground, surrounded on all sides by water, for on its
+westernmost extremity the branches met again and after flowing a while
+as one river, divided once more and wound away quietly to north and
+south further than the eye could reach. On the island thus formed, which
+may have been three miles long by two in breadth, stood thousands of
+straw-roofed, square-built huts with verandas, neatly arranged in blocks
+and lines and having between them streets that were edged with palms.
+
+On the hither side of the pool was what looked like a park, for here
+grew great, black trees, which from their flat shape Alan took to be
+some variety of cedar, and standing alone in the midst of this park
+where no other habitations could be discovered, was a large, low
+building with dark-coloured walls and gabled roofs that flashed like
+fire.
+
+"The Gold House!" said Alan to himself with a gasp. "So it is not a
+dream or a lie."
+
+The details at that distance he could not discover, nor did he try to
+do so, for the general glory of the scene held him in its grip. At this
+evening hour, for a little while, the level rays of the setting sun
+poured straight up the huge, water-hollowed kloof. They struck upon the
+face of the fall, staining it and the clouds of mist that hung above,
+to a hundred glorious hues; indeed the substance of the foaming water
+seemed to be interlaced with rainbows whereof the arch reached their
+crest and the feet were lost in the sullen blackness of the pool
+beneath. Beautiful too was the valley, glowing in the quiet light of
+evening, and even the native town thus gilded and glorified, looked like
+some happy home of peace.
+
+The sun was sinking rapidly, and before the litter reached the foot of
+the hill and began to cross the rich valley, all the glory had departed
+and only the cataract showed white and ghost-like through the gloom.
+But still the light, which seemed to gather to itself, gleamed upon that
+golden roof amid the cedar trees; then the moon rose and the gold was
+turned to silver. Alan lay back upon his cushions full of wonder, almost
+of awe. It was a marvellous thing that he should have lived to reach
+this secret place hidden in the heart of Africa and defended by swamps,
+mountains and savages to which, so far as he knew, only one white man
+had ever penetrated. And to think of it! That white man, his own uncle,
+had never even held it worth while to make public any account of its
+wonders, which apparently had seemed to him of no importance. Or perhaps
+he thought that if he did he would not be believed. Well, there they
+were before and about him, and now the question was, what would be his
+fate in this Gold House where the great fetish dwelt with its priestess?
+
+Ah! that priestess! Somehow he shivered a little when he thought of her;
+it was as though her influence were over him already. Next moment he
+forgot her for a while, for they had come to the river brink and the
+litter was being carried on to a barge or ferry, about which were
+gathered many armed men. Evidently the Gold House was well defended both
+by Nature and otherwise. The ferry was pulled or rowed across the river,
+he could not see which, and they passed through a gateway into the town
+and up a broad street where hundreds of people watched his advent. They
+did not seem to speak, or if they spoke their voices were lost in the
+sound of the thunder of the great cataract which dominated the place
+with its sullen, continuous roar. It took Alan days to become accustomed
+to that roar, but by the inhabitants of Asiki-land apparently it was not
+noticed; their ears and voices were attuned to overcome its volume which
+their fathers had known from the beginning.
+
+Presently they were through the town and a wooden gate in an inner wall
+which surrounded the park where the cedars grew. At this spot Alan noted
+that everybody left them except the bearers and a few men whom he took
+to be priests. On they stole like ghosts beneath the mighty trees, from
+whose limbs hung long festoons of moss. It was very dark there, only in
+places where a bough was broken the moonlight lay in white gules upon
+the ground. Another wall and another gate, and suddenly the litter was
+set down. Its curtains opened, torches flashed, women appeared clad in
+white robes, veiled and mysterious, who bowed before him, then half led
+and half lifted him from his litter. He could feel their eyes on him
+through their veils, but he could not see their faces. He could see
+nothing except their naked, copper-coloured arms and long thin hands
+stretched out to assist him.
+
+Alan descended from the litter as slowly as he could, for somehow he
+shrank from the quaint, carved portal which he saw before him. He did
+not wish to pass it; its aspect filled him with reluctance. The women
+drew him on, their hands pulled at his arms, their shoulders pressed him
+from behind. Still he hung back, looking about him, till to his delight
+he saw the other litter arrive and out of it emerge Jeekie, still
+wearing his sun-helmet with its fringe of tattered mosquito curtain.
+
+"Here we are, Major," he said in his cheerful voice, "turned up all
+right like a bad ha'penny, but in odd situation."
+
+"Very odd," echoed Alan. "Could you persuade these ladies to let go of
+me?"
+
+"Don't know," answered Jeekie. "'Spect they doubtfully your wives;
+'spect you have lots of wives here; don't get white man every day, so
+make most of him. Best thing you do, kick out and teach them place.
+Rub nose in dirt at once and make them good, that first-class plan with
+female. I no like interfere in such delicate matter."
+
+Terrified by this information, Alan put out his strength and shook the
+women off him, whereon without seeming to take any offence they drew
+back to a little distance and began to bow, like automata. Then Jeekie
+addressed them in their own language, asking them what they meant by
+defiling this mighty lord, born of the Heavens, with the touch of their
+hands, whereat they went on bowing more humbly than before. Next
+he threw aside the cushions of the litter and finding the tin box
+containing Little Bonsa, held it before him in both hands and bade the
+women lead on.
+
+The march began, a bewildering march. It was like a nightmare. Veiled
+women with torches before and behind, Jeekie stalking ahead carrying the
+battered tin box, long passages lined with gold, a vision of black water
+edged with a wide promenade, and finally a large lamp-lit room whereof
+the roof was supported by gilded columns, and in the room couches of
+cushions, wooden stools inlaid with ivory, vessels of water, great
+basins made of some black, hard wood, and in the centre a block of stone
+that looked like an altar.
+
+Jeekie set down the tin box upon the altar-like stone, then he turned
+to the crowd of women and said, "Bring food." Instantly they departed,
+closing the door of the room behind them.
+
+"Now for a wash," said Alan, "unlace this confounded mask, Jeekie."
+
+"Mustn't, Major, mustn't. Priests tell me that. If those girls see you
+without mask, perhaps they kill them. Wait till they gone after supper,
+then take it off. No one allowed see you without mask except Asika
+herself."
+
+Alan stepped to one of the wooden bowls full of water which stood under
+a lamp, and gazed at his own reflection. The mask was gilded; the sham
+lips were painted red and round the eye-holes were black lines.
+
+"Why, it is horrible," he exclaimed, starting back. "I look like a devil
+crossed with Guy Fawkes. Do you mean to tell me that I have got to live
+in this thing?"
+
+"Afraid so, Major, upon all public occasion. At least they say that. You
+holy, not lawful see your sacred face."
+
+"Who do the Asiki think I am, then, Jeekie?"
+
+"They think you your reverend uncle come back after many, many year.
+You see, Major, they not believe uncle run away with Little Bonsa; they
+believe Little Bonsa run away with uncle just for change of air and so
+on, and that now, when she tired of strange land, she bring him back
+again. That why you so holy, favourite of Little Bonsa who live with you
+all this time and keep you just same age, bloom of youth."
+
+"In Heaven's name," asked Alan, exasperated, "what is Little Bonsa,
+beyond an ancient and ugly gold fetish?"
+
+"Hush," said Jeekie, "mustn't call her names here in her own house.
+Little Bonsa much more than fetish, Little Bonsa alive, or so," he added
+doubtfully, "these silly niggers say. She wife of Big Bonsa, you see,
+to-morrow p'raps. But their story this, that she get dead sick of Big
+Bonsa and bolt with white Medicine man, who dare preach she nothing but
+heathen idol. She want show him whether or no she only idol. That the
+yarn, priests tell it me to-day. They always watch for her there by the
+edge of the lake. They always sure Little Bonsa come back. Not at all
+surprised, but as she love you once, you stop holy; and I holy also,
+thank goodness, because she take me too as servant. Therefore we sleep
+in peace, for they not cut out throats, at any rate at present, though I
+think," he added mournfully, "they not let us go either."
+
+Alan sat down on a stool and groaned at the appalling prospect suggested
+by this information.
+
+"Cheer up, Major," said Jeekie sympathetically. "Perhaps manage hook it
+somehow, and meanwhile make best of bad business and have high old time.
+You see you want to come Asiki-land, though I tell you it rum place,
+and," he added with certitude and a circular sweep of his hand, "by
+Jingo! you here now and I daresay they give you all the gold you want."
+
+"What's the good of gold unless one can get away with it? What's the
+good of anything if we are prisoners among these devils?"
+
+"Perhaps time show, Major. Hush! here come dinner. You sit still on
+stool and look holy."
+
+The door opened and through it appeared four of the women bearing dishes
+and cups full of drink, fashioned of gold like that which had been given
+to Alan in the litter. He noticed at once that they had removed their
+veils and outer garments, if indeed they were the same women, and now,
+like many other Africans, were but lightly clad in linen capes open in
+front that hung over their shoulders, short petticoats or skirts about
+their middles, and sandals. Such was their attire which, scanty as it
+might be, was yet becoming enough and extremely rich. Thus the cape was
+fastened with a brooch of worked gold, so were the sandal straps,
+while the petticoat was adorned with beads of gold that jingled as they
+walked, and amongst them strings of other beads of various and beautiful
+colours, that might be glass or might be precious stones. Moreover,
+these women were young and handsome, having splendid figures and
+well-cut features, soft, dark eyes and rather long hair worn in the
+formal and attractive fashion that has been described.
+
+Advancing to Alan two of them knelt before him, holding out the trays
+upon which was the food. So they remained while he ate, like bronze
+statues, nor would they consent to change their posture even when
+he told them in their language to be pleased to go away. On hearing
+themselves addressed in the Asiki language, they seemed surprised, for
+their faces changed a little, but go they would not. The result was
+that Alan grew extremely nervous and ate and drank so rapidly that he
+scarcely noted what he was putting into his mouth. Then before Jeekie,
+to whom the women did not kneel, had half finished his dinner, Alan
+rose and walked away, whereon two of the women gathered up everything,
+including the dishes that had been given to Jeekie, and in spite of his
+remonstrances carried them out of the room.
+
+"I say, Major," said Jeekie, "if you gobble chop so fast you go ill
+inside. Poor nigger like me can't keep up with you and sleep hungry
+to-night."
+
+"I am sorry, Jeekie," said Alan with a little laugh, "but I can't eat
+off living tables, especially when they stare at one like that. You tell
+them that to-morrow we will breakfast alone."
+
+"Oh, yes, I tell them, Major, but I don't know if they listen. They mean
+it great compliment and only think you not like those girls and send
+others."
+
+"Look here, Jeekie," exclaimed Alan, turning his masked face towards the
+two who remained, "let us come to an understanding at once. Clear them
+out. Tell them I am so holy that Little Bonsa is enough for me. Say
+I can't bear the sight of females, and that if they stop here I will
+sacrifice them. Say anything you like, only get rid of them and lock the
+door."
+
+Thus adjured, Jeekie began to reason with the women, and as they treated
+his remarks with lofty disdain, at last seized first one and then the
+other by the elbows and literally ran them out of the room.
+
+"There," he said, "baggage gone since you make such fuss about it,
+though I 'spect they try to give me Bean for this job" (here he spoke
+not in figurative English slang, but of the Calabar bean, which is a
+favourite native poison). "Well, dinner gone and girls gone, and we
+tired, so best go to bed. Think we all private here now, though in Gold
+House never can be sure," and he looked round him suspiciously, adding,
+"rummy place, Gold House, full of all sort of holes made by old fellows
+thousand year ago, which no one know but Bonsa priests. Still, best risk
+it and take off your face so that you have decent wash," and he began to
+unlace the mask on his master's head.
+
+Never has a City clerk dressed up for a fancy ball in the armour of a
+Norman knight, been more glad to get rid of his costume than was Alan of
+that hateful head-dress. At length it was gone with his other garments
+and the much-needed wash accomplished, after which he clothed himself in
+a kind of linen gown which apparently had been provided for him, and lay
+down on one of the couches, placing his revolver by his side.
+
+"Will those lamps burn all night, Jeekie?" he asked.
+
+"Hope so, Major, as we haven't got no match. Not fond of dark in Gold
+House," answered Jeekie sleepily. Then he began to snore.
+
+Alan fell asleep, but was too excited and tired to rest very soundly.
+All sorts of dreams came to him, one of which he remembered on
+awakening, perhaps because it was the last. He dreamed that he heard
+some noise and opened his eyes, to see that they were no longer alone in
+the room. The oil lamps had burned quite low, indeed some of them were
+out, but by the light of those that remained he saw a tall figure which
+seemed to appear at the edge of the surrounding blackness, a woman's
+figure. It walked forward to the altar-like stone upon which lay the tin
+box containing Little Bonsa, and after several rather awkward attempts,
+succeeded in opening it, thereby making a noise which, in his dream,
+finally awoke Alan. For a while the figure gazed at the fetish. Then it
+shut the box, glided to his bed and bent down as though to study him.
+Out of the corners of his eyes he peered up at it, pretending all the
+while to be fast asleep.
+
+It was that of a woman wonderfully clad in gold-spangled, veil-like
+garments with round bosses shaped to the breast, covered with thin
+plates of gold fashioned like the scales of a fish which showed off the
+extraordinary elegance of her lithe form. The low lamp-light shone upon
+her face and the coronet of gold set upon her dark hair. What a face it
+was! Never in all his days had he seen its like for evil loveliness.
+The great, languid, oblong eyes, the rich red lips bent like a bow, the
+cruel smile of the mouth, the broad forehead on which the hair grew low,
+the delicately arched eyebrows and the long curving lashes of the heavy
+lids beneath them, the rounded cheeks, smooth as a ripe fruit, the firm,
+shapely chin, the snake-like poise of the head, the long bending neck,
+and the feline smile; all of these combined made such a dream-vision
+as he had never seen before, and to tell the truth, notwithstanding
+its beauty, for that could not be doubted, never wished to see again.
+Somehow he felt that if Satan should happen to have a copper-coloured
+wife, the exact picture of that lady had projected itself upon his
+sleeping senses.
+
+She seemed to study him very earnestly, with a kind of passionate
+eagerness, indeed, moving a little now and again to let the light fall
+upon some part that was in shadow. Once even she stretched out her
+rounded arm and just lifted the edge of the blanket so as to expose his
+hand, the left. As it chanced on the little finger of this hand Alan
+wore a plain gold ring which Barbara had given him; once it had been her
+grandfather's signet. This ring, which had a coat of arms cut upon its
+bezel seemed to interest her very much as she examined it for a long
+while. Then she drew off from her own finger another ring of gold
+fashioned of two snakes curiously intertwined, and gently, so gently
+that in his sleep he scarcely felt it, slipped it on to his finger above
+Barbara's ring.
+
+After this she seemed to vanish away, and Alan slept soundly until the
+morning, when he awoke to find the light of the sun pouring into the
+room through the high-set latticed window places.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE HALL OF THE DEAD
+
+Alan rose and stretched himself, and hearing him, Jeekie, who had a
+dog's faculty of instantly awaking from what seemed to be the deepest
+sleep, sat up also.
+
+"You rest well, Major? No dream, eh?" he asked curiously.
+
+"Not very," answered Alan, "and I had a dream, of a woman who stood over
+me and vanished away, as dreams do."
+
+"Ah!" said Jeekie. "But where you find that new ring on finger, Major?"
+
+Alan stared at his hand and started, for there set on it above that of
+Barbara, was the little circlet formed of twisted snakes which he had
+seen in his sleep.
+
+"Then it must have been true," he said in a low and rather frightened
+voice. "But how did she come and go?"
+
+"Funny place, Gold House. I tell you that yesterday, Major. People come
+up through hole, like rat. Never quite sure you alone in Gold House. But
+what this lady like?"
+
+Alan described his visitor to the best of his ability.
+
+"Ah!" said Jeekie, "pretty girl. Big eyes, gold crown, gold stays which
+fit tight in front, very nice and decent; sort of night-shirt with
+little gold stars all over--by Jingo! I think that Asika herself. If
+so--great compliment."
+
+"Confound the compliment, I think it great cheek," answered Alan
+angrily. "What does she mean by poking about here at night and putting
+rings on my finger?"
+
+"Don't know, Major, but p'raps she wish make you understand that she
+like cut of your jib. Find out by and by. Meanwhile you wear ring, for
+while that on finger no one do you any harm."
+
+"You told me that this Asika is a married woman, did you not?" remarked
+Alan gloomily.
+
+"Oh, yes, Major, always married; one down, other come on, you see. But
+she not always like her husband, and then she make him sit up, poor
+devil, and he die double quick. Great honour to be Asika's husband, but
+soon all finished. P'raps----"
+
+Then he checked himself and suggested that Alan should have a bath while
+he cleaned his clothes, an attention that they needed.
+
+Scarcely had Alan finished his toilet, donned the Arab-looking linen
+robe over his own fragmentary flannels, and above it the hateful mask
+which Jeekie insisted he must wear, when there came a knocking on the
+door. Motioning to Alan to take his seat upon a stool, Jeekie undid the
+bars, and as before women appeared with food and waited while they
+ate, which this time, having overcome his nervousness, Alan did more
+leisurely. Their meal done, one of the women asked Jeekie, for to his
+master they did not seem to dare to speak, whether the white lord did
+not wish to walk in the garden. Without waiting for an answer she led
+him to the end of the large room and, unbarring another door that they
+had not noticed, revealed a passage, beyond which appeared trees and
+flowers. Then she and her companions went away with the fragments of the
+meal.
+
+"Come on," said Alan, taking up the box containing Little Bonsa, which
+he did not dare to leave behind, "and let us get into the air."
+
+So they went down the passage and at the end of it through gates of
+copper or gold, they knew not which, that had evidently been left open
+for them, into the garden. It was a large place, a good many acres in
+extent indeed, and kept with some care, for there were paths in it and
+flowers that seemed to have been planted. Also here grew certain of
+the mighty cedar trees that they had seen from far off, beneath those
+spreading boughs twilight reigned, while beyond, not more than half a
+mile away, the splendid river-fall thundered down the precipice. For
+the rest they could find no exit to that garden which on one side was
+enclosed by a sheer cliff of living rock, and on the others with steep
+stone walls beyond which ran a torrent, and by the buildings of the Gold
+House itself.
+
+For a while they walked up and down the rough paths, till at last
+Jeekie, wearying of this occupation, remarked:
+
+"Melancholy hole this, Major. Remind me of Westminster Abbey in London
+fog, where your uncle of blessed mem'ry often take me pray and look at
+fusty tomb of king. S'pose we go back Gold House and see what happen.
+Anything better than stand about under cursed old cedar tree."
+
+"All right," said Alan, who through the eyeholes of his mask had been
+studying the walls to seek a spot in them that could be climbed if
+necessary, and found none.
+
+So they returned to the room, which had been swept and garnished in
+their absence. No sooner had they entered it than the door opened and
+through it came long lines of Asiki priests, each of whom staggered
+beneath the weight of a hide bag that he bore upon his shoulder, which
+bags they piled up about the stone altar. Then, as though at some
+signal, each priest opened the mouth of his bag and Alan saw that they
+wee filled with gold, gold in dust, gold in nuggets, gold in vessels
+perfect or broken; more gold than Alan had ever seen before.
+
+"Why do they bring all this stuff here?" he asked, and Jeekie translated
+his question.
+
+"It is an offering to the lord of Little Bonsa," answered the head
+priest, bowing, "a gift from the Asika. The heaven-born white man sent
+word by his Ogula messengers that he desired gold. Here is the gold that
+he desired."
+
+Alan stared at the treasure, which after all was what he had come to
+seek. If only he had it safe in England, he would be a rich man and
+his troubles ended. But how could he get it to England? Here it was
+worthless as mud.
+
+"I thank the Asika," he said. "I ask for porters to bear her gift back
+to my own country, since it is too heavy for me and my servant to carry
+alone."
+
+At these words the priest smiled a little, then said that the Asika
+desired to see the white lord and to receive from him Little Bonsa in
+return for the gold, and that he could proffer his request to her.
+
+"Good," replied Alan, "lead me to the Asika."
+
+Then they started, Alan bearing the box containing Little Bonsa, and
+Jeekie following after him. They went down passages and through sundry
+doors till at length they came to a long and narrow hall that seemed to
+be lined with plates of gold. At the end of this hall was a large chair
+of black wood and ivory placed upon a dais, and sitting in this chair
+with the light pouring on her from some opening above, was the woman of
+Alan's dream, beautiful to look on in her crown and glittering
+garments. Upon a stool at the foot of the dais sat a man, a handsome
+and melancholy man. His hair was tied behind his head in a pigtail and
+gilded, his face was painted red, white and yellow; he wore ropes of
+bright-coloured stones about his neck, middle, arms and ankles, and held
+a kind of sceptre in his hand.
+
+"Who is that creature?" asked Alan over his shoulder to Jeekie. "The
+Court fool?"
+
+"That husband of Asika, Major. He not fool, very big gun, but look a
+little low now because his time soon up. Come on, Major, Asika beckon
+us. Get on stomach and crawl; that custom here," he added, going down on
+to his hands and knees, as did all the priests who followed them.
+
+"I'll see her hanged first," answered Alan in English.
+
+Then accompanied by the creeping Jeekie and the train of prostrate
+priests, he marched up the long hall to the edge of the dais and there
+stood still and bowed to the woman in the chair.
+
+"Greeting, white man," she said in a low voice when she had studied him
+for a while. "Do you understand my tongue?"
+
+"A little," he answered in Asiki, "moreover, my servant here knows it
+well and can translate."
+
+"I am glad," she said. "Tell me then, in your country do not people
+go on to their knees before their queen, and if not, how do they greet
+her?"
+
+"No," answered Alan with the help of Jeekie. "They greet her by raising
+their head-dress or kissing her hand."
+
+"Ah!" she said. "Well, you have no head-dress, so kiss _my_ hand," and
+she stretched it out towards him, at the same time prodding the man whom
+Jackie had said was her husband, in the back with her foot, apparently
+to make him get out of the way.
+
+Not knowing what to do, Alan stepped on to the dais, the painted man
+scowling at him as he passed. Then he halted and said:
+
+"How can I kiss your hand through this mask, Asika?"
+
+"True," she answered, then considered a little and added, "White man,
+you have brought back Little Bonsa, have you not, Little Bonsa who ran
+away with you a great many years ago?"
+
+"I have," he said, ignoring the rest of the question.
+
+"Your messengers said that you required a present of gold in return for
+Little Bonsa. I have sent you one, is it sufficient? If not, you can
+have more."
+
+"I cannot say, O Asika, I have not examined it. But I thank you for the
+present and desire porters to enable me to carry it away."
+
+"You desire porters," she repeated meditatively. "We will talk of that
+when you have rested here a moon or two. Meanwhile, give me Little Bonsa
+that she may be restored to her own place."
+
+Alan opened the tin box and lifting out the fetish, gave it to the
+priestess, who took it and with a serpentine movement of extraordinary
+grace glided from her chair on to her knees, holding the mask above her
+head in both hands, then thrice covered her face with it. This done, she
+called to the priests, bidding them take Little Bonsa to her own place
+and give notice throughout the land that she was back again. She added
+that the ancient Feast of Little Bonsa would be held on the night of the
+full moon within three days, and that all preparations must be made for
+it as she had commanded.
+
+Then the head medicine-man, raising himself upon his knees, crept on to
+the dais, took the fetish from her hands, and breaking into a wild song
+of triumph, he and his companions crawled down the hall and vanished
+through the door, leaving them alone save for the Asika's husband.
+
+When they had gone the Asika looked at this man in a reflective way, and
+Alan looked at him also through the eyeholes of his mask, finding him
+well worth studying. As has been said, notwithstanding his paint and
+grotesque decorations, he was very good-looking for a native, with
+well-cut features of an Arab type. Also he was tall and muscular and not
+more than thirty years of age. What struck Alan most, however, was none
+of these things, nor his jewelled chains, nor even his gilded pigtail,
+but his eyes, which were full of terrors. Seeing them, Alan remembered
+Jeekie's story, which he had told to Mr. Haswell's guests at The Court,
+of how the husband of the Asika was driven mad by ghosts.
+
+Just then she spoke to the man, addressing him by name and saying:
+
+"Leave us alone, Mungana, I wish to speak with this white lord."
+
+He did not seem to hear her words, but continued to stare at Alan.
+
+"Hearken!" she exclaimed in a voice of ice. "Do my bidding and begone,
+or you shall sleep alone to-night in a certain chamber that you know
+of."
+
+Then Mungana rose, looked at her as a dog sometimes does at a cruel
+master who is about to beat it, yes, with just that same expression, put
+his hands before his eyes for a little while, and turning, left the
+hall by a side door which closed behind him. The Asika watched him go,
+laughed musically and said:
+
+"It is a very dull thing to be married,--but how are you named, white
+man?"
+
+"Vernon," he answered.
+
+"Vernoon, Vernoon," she repeated, for she could not pronounce the O as
+we do. "Are you married, Vernoon?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Have you been married?"
+
+"No," he answered, "never, but I am going to be."
+
+"Yes," she repeated, "you are going to be. You remember that you were
+near to it many years ago, when Little Bonsa got jealous and ran away
+with you. Well, she won't do that again, for doubtless she is tired of
+you now, and besides," she added with a flash of ferocity, "I'd melt her
+with fire first and set her spirit free."
+
+While Jeekie was trying to explain this mysterious speech to Alan, the
+Asika broke in, asking:
+
+"Do you always want to wear that mask?"
+
+He answered, "Certainly not," whereon she bade Jeekie take it off, which
+he did.
+
+"Understand me," she said, fixing her great languid eyes upon his in a
+fashion that made him exceedingly uncomfortable, "understand, Vernoon,
+that if you go out anywhere, it must be in your mask, which you can only
+put off when you are alone with me?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, Vernoon, I do not choose that any other woman should see
+your face. If a woman looks upon your uncovered face, remember that she
+dies--not nicely."
+
+Alan stared at her blankly, being unable to find appropriate Asiki words
+in which to reply to this threat. But the Asika only leaned back in
+her chair and laughed at his evident confusion and dismay, till a new
+thought struck her.
+
+"Your lips are free now," she said; "kiss my hand after the fashion
+of your own country," and she stretched it out to Alan, leaving him no
+choice but to obey her.
+
+"Why," she went on mischievously, taking his hand and in turn touching
+it with her red lips, "why, are you a thief, Vernoon? That ring was mine
+and you have stolen it. How did you steal that ring?"
+
+"I don't know," he answered, through Jeekie, "I found it on my finger.
+I cannot understand how it came there. I understand nothing of all this
+talk."
+
+"Well, well, keep it, Vernoon, only give me that other ring of yours in
+exchange."
+
+"I cannot," he replied, colouring. "I promised to wear it always."
+
+"Whom did you promise?" she asked with a flash of rage. "Was it a woman?
+Nay, I see, it is a man's ring, and that is well, for otherwise I would
+bring a curse on her, however far off she may be dwelling. Say no more
+and forgive my anger. A vow is a vow--keep your ring. But where is that
+one you used to wear in bygone days? I recall that it had a cross upon
+it, not this star and figure of an eagle."
+
+Now Alan remembered that his uncle owned such a ring with a cross upon
+it, and was frightened, for how did this woman know these things?
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "ask the Asika if I am mad, or if she is. How can
+she know what I used to wear, seeing that I was never in this place till
+yesterday, and certainly I have not met her anywhere else."
+
+"She mean when you your reverend uncle," said Jeekie, wagging his great
+head, "she think you identical man."
+
+"What troubles you, Vernoon," the Asika asked softly, then added
+anything but softly to Jeekie, "Translate, you dog, and be swift."
+
+So Jeekie translated in a great hurry, telling her what Alan had said,
+and adding on his own account that he, silly white man that he was,
+could not understand how, as she was quite a young woman, she could have
+seen him before she was born. If that were so, she would be old and ugly
+now, not beautiful as she was.
+
+"I never saw you before, and you never saw me, Lady, yet you talk as
+though we had been friends," broke in Alan in his halting Asiki.
+
+"So we were in the spirit, Vernoon. It was she who went before me who
+loved that white man whose face was as your face is, but her ghost
+lives on in me and tells me the tale. There have been many Asikas, for
+thousands of years they have ruled in this land, yet but one spirit
+belongs to them all; it is the string upon which the beads of their
+lives are threaded. White man, I, whom you think young, know everything
+back to the beginning of the world, back to the time when I was a monkey
+woman sitting in those cedar trees, and if you wish, I can tell it you."
+
+"I should like to hear it very much indeed," answered Alan, when he had
+mastered her meaning, "though it is strange that none of the rest of us
+remember such things. Meanwhile, O Asika, I will tell you that I desire
+to return to my own land, taking with me that gift of gold that you have
+given me. When will it please you to allow me to return?"
+
+"Not yet a while, I think," she said, smiling at him weirdly, for no
+other word will describe that smile. "My spirit remembers that it was
+always thus. Those wanderers who came hither always wished to return
+again to their own country, like the birds in spring. Once there was a
+white man among them, that was more than twenty hundred years ago; he
+was a native of a country called Roma, and wore a helmet. He wished to
+return, but my mother of that day, she kept him and by and by I will
+show him to you if you like. Before that there was a brown man who came
+from a land where a great river overflows its banks every year. He was
+a prince of his own country, who had fled from his king and the desert
+folk made a slave of him, and so he drifted hither. He wished to return
+also, for my mother of that day, or my spirit that dwelt in her, showed
+to him that if he could but be there they would make him king in his own
+land. But my mother of that day, she would not let him go, and by and by
+I will show him to you, if you wish."
+
+Bewildered, amazed, Alan listened to her. Evidently the woman was mad,
+or else she played some mystical part for reasons of her own.
+
+"When will you let me go, O Asika?" he repeated.
+
+"Not yet a while, I think," she said again. "You are too comely and I
+like you," and she smiled at him. There was nothing coarse in the smile,
+indeed it had a certain spiritual quality which thrilled him. "I like
+you," she went on in her dreamy voice, "I would keep you with me until
+your spirit is drawn up into my spirit, making it strong and rich as all
+the spirits that went before have done, those spirits that my mothers
+loved from the beginning, which dwell in me to-day."
+
+Now Alan grew alarmed, desperate even.
+
+"Queen," he said, "but just now your husband sat here, is it right then
+that you should talk to me thus?"
+
+"My husband," she answered, laughing. "Why, that man is but a slave who
+plays the part of husband to satisfy an ancient law. Never has he so
+much as kissed my finger tips; my women--those who waited on you last
+night--are his wives, not I,--or may be, if he will. Soon he will die
+of love for me, and then when he is dead, though not before, I may take
+another husband, any husband that I choose, and I think that no black
+man shall be my lord, who have other, purer blood in me. Vernoon, five
+centuries have gone by since an Asika was really wed to a foreign man
+who wore a green turban and called himself a son of the Prophet, a man
+with a hooked nose and flashing eyes, who reviled our gods until they
+slew him, even though he was the beloved of their priestess. She who
+went before me also would have married that white man whose face was
+like your face, but he fled with Little Bonsa, or rather Little Bonsa
+fled with him. So she passed away unwed, and in her place I came."
+
+"How did you come, if she whom you call your mother was not your
+mother?" asked Alan.
+
+"What is that to you, white man?" she replied haughtily. "I am here,
+as my spirit has been here from the first. Oh! I see you think I lie to
+you, come then, come, and I will show you those who from the beginning
+have been the husbands of the Asika," and rising from her chair she took
+him by the hand.
+
+They went through doors and by long, half-lit passages till they came to
+great gates guarded by old priests armed with spears. As they drew
+near to these priests the Asika loosed a scarf that she wore over her
+breast-plate of gold fish scales, and threw the star-spangled thing over
+Alan's head, that even these priests should not see his face. Then she
+spoke a word to them and they opened the gates. Here Jeekie evinced
+a disposition to remain, remarking to his master that he thought that
+place, into which he had never entered, "much too holy for poor nigger
+like him."
+
+The Asika asked him what he had said and he explained his sense of
+unworthiness in her own tongue.
+
+"Come, fellow," she exclaimed, "to translate my words and to bear
+witness that no trick is played upon your lord."
+
+Still Jeekie lingered bashfully, whereon at a sign from her one of the
+priests pricked him behind with his great spear, and uttering a low howl
+he sprang forward.
+
+The Asika led the way down a passage, which they saw ended in a big hall
+lit with lamps. Now they were in it and Alan became aware that they had
+entered the treasure house of the Asiki, since here were piled up great
+heaps of gold, gold in ingots, gold in nuggets, in stone jars filled
+with dust, in vessels plain or embossed with monstrous shapes in
+fetishes and in little squares and discs that looked as though they had
+served as coins. Never had he seen so much gold before.
+
+"You are rich here, Lady," he said, gazing at the piles astonished.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. "Yes, as I have heard that some people count
+wealth. These are the offerings brought to our gods from the beginning;
+also all the gold found in the mountains belongs to the gods, and there
+is much of it there. The gift I sent to you was taken from this heap,
+but in truth it is but a poor gift, seeing that although this stuff is
+bright and serves for cups and other things, it has no use at all and
+is only offered to the gods because it is harder to come by than other
+metals. Look, these are prettier than the gold," and from a stone table
+she picked up at hazard a long necklace of large, uncut stones, red and
+white in colour and set alternatively, that Alan judged to be crystals
+and spinels.
+
+"Take it," she said, "and examine it at your leisure. It is very old.
+For hundreds of years no more of these necklaces have been made," and
+with a careless movement she threw the chain over his head so that it
+hung upon his shoulders.
+
+Alan thanked her, then remembered that the man called Mungana, who was
+the husband, real or official, of this priestess, had been somewhat
+similarly adorned, and shivered a little as though at a presage of
+advancing fate. Still he did not return the thing, fearing lest he
+should give offence.
+
+At this moment his attention was taken from the treasure by the sound
+of a groan behind him. Turning round he perceived Jeekie, his great eyes
+rolling as though in an extremity of fear.
+
+"Oh my golly! Major," he ejaculated, pointing to the wall, "look there."
+
+Alan looked, but at first in that dim light could only discover long
+rows of gleaming objects which reached from the floor to the roof.
+
+"Come and see," said the Asika, and taking a lamp from that table on
+which lay the gems, she led him past the piles of gold to one side of
+the vault or hall. Then he saw, and although he did not show it, like
+Jeekie he was afraid.
+
+For there, each in his own niche and standing one above the other, were
+what looked like hundreds of golden men with gleaming eyes. At first
+until the utter stillness undeceived him, he thought that they _must_ be
+men. Then he understood that this was what they had been; now they were
+corpses wrapped in sheets of thin gold and wearing golden masks with
+eyes of crystal, each mask being beaten out to a hideous representation
+of the man in life.
+
+"All these are the husbands of my spirit," said the priestess, waving
+the lamp in front of the lowest row of them, "Munganas who were married
+to the Asikas in the past. Look, here is he who said that he ought to
+be king of that rich land where year after year the river overflows its
+banks," and going to one of the first of the figures in the bottom row,
+she drew out a fastening and suffered the gold mask to fall forward on a
+hinge, exposing the face within.
+
+Although it had evidently been treated with some preservative, this head
+now was little more than a skull still covered with dark hair, but set
+upon its brow appeared an object that Alan recognized at once, a simple
+band of plain gold, and rising from it the head of an asp. Without doubt
+it was the _uraeus_, that symbol which only the royalties of Old Egypt
+dared to wear. Without doubt also either this man had brought it with
+him from the Nile, or in memory of his rank and home he had fashioned it
+of the gold that was so plentiful in the place of his captivity. So this
+woman's story was true, an ancient Egyptian had once been husband to the
+Asika of his day.
+
+Meanwhile his guide had passed a long way down the line and halting in
+front of another gold-wrapped figure, opened its mask.
+
+"This is that man," she said, "who told us he came from a land called
+Roma. Look, the helmet still rests upon his head, though time has eaten
+into it, and that ring upon your hand was taken from his finger. I have
+a head-dress made upon the model of that helmet which I wear sometimes
+in memory of this man who, my soul remembers, was brave and pleasant and
+a gallant lover."
+
+"Indeed," answered Alan, looking at the sunken face above which a rim of
+curls appeared beneath the rusting helmet. "Well, he doesn't look very
+gallant now, does he?" Then he peered down between the body and its gold
+casing and saw that in his body hand the man still held a short Roman
+sword, lifted as though in salute. So she had not lied in this matter
+either.
+
+Meanwhile the Asika had glided on to the end of the hall behind the
+heaps of treasure.
+
+"There is one more white man," she said, "though we know little of him,
+for he was fierce and barbarous and died without learning our tongue,
+after killing a great number of the priests of that day because they
+would not let him go; yes, died cutting them down with a battle-axe and
+singing some wild song of his own country. Come hither, slave, and bend
+yourself so, resting your hands upon the ground."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, and actively as a cat the priestess leaped on to his
+back, and reaching up opened the mask of a corpse in the second row and
+held her lamp before its face.
+
+It was better preserved than the others, so that its features remained
+comparatively perfect, and about them hung a tangle of golden hair.
+Moreover, a broad battle-axe appeared resting on the shoulder.
+
+"A viking," thought Alan. "I wonder how _he_ came here."
+
+When he had looked the Asika leaped from Jeekie's back to the ground
+and waving her arm around her, began to talk so rapidly that Alan could
+understand nothing of her words, and asked Jeekie to translate them.
+
+"She say," explained Jeekie between his chattering teeth, "that all
+rest these Johnnies very poor crew, natives and that lot except one who
+worship false Prophet and cut throat of Asika of that time, because she
+infidel and he teach her better; also eat his dinner out of Little Bonsa
+and chuck her into water. Very wild man, that Arab, but priests catch
+him at last and fill him with hot gold before Little Bonsa because he no
+care a damn for ghosts. So he die saying Hip, hip, hurrah! for houri and
+green field of Prophet and to hell with Asika and Bonsa, Big and Little!
+Now he sit up there and at night time worst ghost of all the crowd,
+always come to finish off Mungana. That all she say, and quite enough
+too. Come on quick, she want you and no like wait."
+
+By now the Asika had passed almost round the hall, and was standing
+opposite to an empty niche beyond and above which there were perhaps a
+score of bodies gold-plated in the usual fashion.
+
+"That is your place, Vernoon," she said gently, contemplating him with
+her soft and heavy eyes, "for it was prepared for the white man with
+whom Little Bonsa fled away, and since then, as you see, there have been
+many Munganas, some of whom belong to me; indeed, that one," and she
+touched a corpse on which the gold looked very fresh, "only left me last
+year. But we always knew that Little Bonsa would bring you back again,
+and so you see, we have kept your place empty."
+
+"Indeed," remarked Alan, "that is very kind of you," and feeling that he
+would faint if he stayed longer in this horrible and haunted vault, he
+pushed past her with little ceremony and walked out through the gates
+into the passage beyond.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GOLD HOUSE
+
+"How you like Asiki-land, Major?" asked Jeekie, who had followed him
+and was now leaning against a wall fanning himself feebly with his great
+hand. "Funny place, isn't it, Major? I tell you so before you come, but
+you no believe me."
+
+"Very funny," answered Alan, "so funny that I want to get out."
+
+"Ah! Major, that what eel say in trap where he go after lob-worm, but he
+only get out into frying pan after cook skin him alive-o. Ah! here come
+cook--I mean Asika. She only stop shut up those stiff 'uns, who all love
+lob-worm one day. Very pretty woman, Asika, but thank God she not set
+cap at me, who like to be buried in open like Christian man."
+
+"If you don't stop it, Jeekie," replied Alan in a concentrated rage,
+"I'll see that you are buried just where you are."
+
+"No offence, Major, no offence, my heart full and bubble up. I wonder
+what Miss Barbara say if she see you mooing and cooing with dark-eyed
+girl in gold snake skin?"
+
+Just then the Asika arrived and by way of excuse for his flight, Alan
+remarked to her that the treasure-hall was hot.
+
+"I did not notice it," she answered, "but he who is called my husband,
+Mungana, says the same. The Mungana is guardian of the dead," she
+explained, "and when he is required so to do, he sleeps in the Place of
+the Treasure and gathers wisdom from the spirits of those Munganas who
+were before him."
+
+"Indeed. And does he like that bed-chamber?"
+
+"The Mungana likes what I like, not what he likes," she replied
+haughtily. "Where I send him to sleep, there he sleeps. But come,
+Vernoon, and I will show you the Holy Water where Big Bonsa dwells; also
+the house in which I have my home, where you shall visit me when you
+please."
+
+"Who built this place?" asked Alan as she led him through more dark and
+tortuous passages. "It is very great."
+
+"My spirit does not remember when it was built, Vernoon, so old is it,
+but I think that the Asiki were once a big and famous people who traded
+to the water upon the west, and even to the water on the east, and that
+was how those white men became their slaves and the Munganas of their
+queens. Now they are small and live only by the might and fame of Big
+and Little Bonsa, not half filling the rich land which is theirs. But,"
+she added reflectively and looking at him, "I think also that this is
+because in the past fools have been thrust upon my spirit as Munganas.
+What it needs is the wisdom of the white man, such wisdom as yours,
+Vernoon. If that were added to my magic, then the Asiki would grow great
+again, seeing that they have in such plenty the gold which you have
+shown me the white man loves. Yes, they would grow great and from coast
+to coast the people should bow at the name of Bonsa and send him their
+sons for sacrifice. Perhaps you will live to see that day, Vernoon.
+Slave," she added, addressing Jeekie, "set the mask upon your lord's
+head, for we come where women are."
+
+Alan objected, but she stamped her foot and said it must be so, having
+once worn Little Bonsa, as her people told her he had done, his naked
+face might not be seen. So Alan submitted to the hideous head-dress and
+they entered the Asika's house by some back entrance.
+
+It was a place with many rooms in it, but they were all remarkable for
+extreme simplicity. With a single exception no gilding or gold was to
+be seen, although the food vessels were made of this material here as
+everywhere. The chambers, including those in which the Asika lived and
+slept, were panelled, or rather boarded with cedar wood that was almost
+black with age, and their scanty furniture was mostly made of ebony.
+They were very insufficiently lighted, like his own room, by means of
+barred openings set high in the wall. Indeed gloom and mystery were
+the keynotes of this place, amongst the shadows of which handsome,
+half-naked servants or priestesses flitted to and fro at their tasks,
+or peered at them out of dark corners. The atmosphere seemed heavy
+with secret sin; Alan felt that in those rooms unnameable crimes and
+cruelties had been committed for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years,
+and that the place was yet haunted by the ghosts of them. At any rate it
+struck a chill to his healthy blood, more even than had that Hall of the
+Dead and of heaped-up golden treasure.
+
+"Does my house please you?" the Asika asked of him.
+
+"Not altogether," he answered, "I think it is dark."
+
+"From the beginning my spirit has ever loved the dark, Vernoon. I think
+that it was shaped in some black midnight."
+
+They passed through the chief entrance of the house which had pillars of
+woodwork grotesquely carved, down some steps into a walled and roofed-in
+yard where the shadows were even more dense than in the house they had
+left. Only at one spot was there light flowing down through a hole in
+the roof, as it did apparently in that hall where Alan had found the
+Asika sitting in state. The light fell on to a pedestal or column made
+of gold which was placed behind an object like a large Saxon font,
+also made of gold. The shape of this column reminded Alan of something,
+namely of a very similar column, although fashioned of a different
+material which stood in the granite-built office of Messrs. Aylward &
+Haswell in the City of London. Nor did this seem wonderful to him, since
+on top of it, squatting on its dwarf legs, stood a horrid but familiar
+thing, namely Little Bonsa herself come home at last. There she sat
+smiling cruelly, as she had smiled from the beginning, forgetful
+doubtless of her wanderings in strange lands, while round her stood a
+band of priests armed with spears.
+
+Followed by the Asika and Jeekie, Alan walked up and looked her in
+the face and to his excited imagination she appeared to grin at him in
+answer. Then while the priests prostrated themselves, he examined the
+golden basin or laver, and saw that at the further side of it was a
+little platform approached by steps. On the top of these golden steps
+were two depressions such as might have been worn out in the course of
+ages by persons kneeling there. Also the flat edge of the basin which
+stood about thirty inches above the level of the topmost step, was
+scored as though by hundreds of sword cuts which had made deep lines in
+the pure metal. The basin itself was empty.
+
+Seeing that these things interested him, the Asika volunteered the
+information through Jeekie, that this was a divining-bowl, and that if
+those who went before her had wished to learn the future, they caused
+Little Bonsa to float in it and found out all they wanted to know by
+her movements. She, however, she added, had other and better methods of
+learning things that were predestined.
+
+"Where does the water come from?" asked Alan thoughtlessly searching the
+bowl for some tap or inlet.
+
+"Out of the hearts of men," she answered with a low and dreadful laugh.
+"These marks are those of swords and every one of them means a life."
+Then seeing that he looked incredulous she added, "Stay, I will show
+you. Little Bonsa must be thirsty who has fasted so long, also there
+are matters that I desire to know. Come hither--you, and you," and she
+pointed at hazard to the two priests who knelt nearest to her, "and do
+you bid the executioner bring his axe," she went on to a third.
+
+The dark faces of the men turned ashen, but they made no effort to
+escape their doom. One of them crept up the steps and laid his neck upon
+the edge of gold, while the other, uttering no word, threw himself on
+his face at the foot of them, waiting his turn. Then a door opened and
+there appeared a great and brutal-looking fellow, naked except for a
+loin cloth, who bore in his hand a huge weapon, half knife and half axe.
+
+First he looked at the Asika, who nodded almost imperceptibly, then
+sprang on to a prolongation of the golden steps, bowed to Little Bonsa
+on her column behind and heaved up his knife.
+
+Now for the first time Alan really understood what was about to happen,
+and that what he had imagined a stage rehearsal, was to become a hideous
+murder.
+
+"Stop!" he shouted in English, being unable to remember the native word.
+
+The executioner paused with his axe poised in mid-air; the victim turned
+his head and looked, as though surprised; the second victim and the
+priests their companions looked also. Jeekie fell on to his knees and
+burst into fervent prayer addressed apparently to Little Bonsa. The
+Asika smiled and did nothing.
+
+Again the weapon was lifted and as he felt that words were no longer
+of any use, even if he could find them, Alan took refuge in action.
+Springing on to the other side of the little platform, he hit out with
+all his strength across the kneeling man. Catching the executioner on
+the point of the chin, he knocked him straight backwards in such fashion
+that his head struck upon the floor before any other portion of his
+body, so that he lay there either dead or stunned. Alan never learned
+which, since the matter was not thought of sufficient importance to be
+mentioned.
+
+At this sight the Asika burst into a low laugh, then asked Alan why he
+had felled the executioner. He answered because he would not stand by
+and see two innocent men butchered.
+
+"Why not," she said in an astonished voice; "if Little Bonsa, whose
+priests they are, needs them, and I, who am the Mouth of the gods
+declare that they should die? Still, she has been in your keeping for a
+long while and you may know her will, so if you wish it, let them live.
+Or perhaps you require other victims," and she fixed her eyes upon
+Jeekie with a glance of suggestive hope.
+
+"Oh my golly!" gasped Jeekie in English, "tell her not for Joe, Major,
+tell her most improper. Say Yellow God my dearest friend and go mad as
+hatter if my throat cut----"
+
+Alan stopped his protestations with a secret kick.
+
+"I choose no victims," he broke in, "nor will I see man's blood shed--to
+me it is _orunda_--unholy; I may not look on human blood, and if you
+cause me to do so, Asika, I shall hate you because you make me break my
+oath."
+
+The Asika reflected for a moment, while Jeekie behind muttered between
+his chattering teeth:
+
+"Good missionary talk that, Major. Keep up word in season, Major. If
+she make Christian martyr of Jeekie, who get you out of this confounded
+hole?"
+
+Then the Asika spoke.
+
+"Be it as you will, for I desire neither that you should hate me, nor
+that you should look on that which is unlawful for your eyes to see. The
+feasts and ceremonies you must attend, but if I can help it, no victim
+shall be slain in your presence, not even that whimpering hound, your
+servant," she added with a contemptuous glance at Jeekie, "who it seems,
+fears to give his life for the glory of the god, but who because he is
+yours, is safe now and always."
+
+"That _very_ satisfactory," said Jeekie, rising from his knees, his face
+wreathed in smiles, for he knew well that a decree of the Asika could
+not be broken. Then he began to explain to the priestess that it was not
+fear of losing his own life that had moved him, but the certainty that
+this occurrence would disagree morally with Little Bonsa, whose entire
+confidence he possessed.
+
+Taking no notice of his words, with a slight reverence to the fetish,
+she passed on, beckoning to Alan. As he went by the two prostrate
+priests whose lives he had saved, lifted their heads a little and looked
+at him with heartfelt gratitude in their eyes; indeed one of them kissed
+the place where his foot had trodden. Jeekie, following, gave him a kick
+to intimate that he was taking a liberty, but at the same time stooped
+down and asked the man his name. It occurred to him that these rescued
+priests might some day be useful.
+
+Alan followed her through a kind of swing door which opened into another
+of the endless halls, but when he looked for her there she was nowhere
+to be seen. A priest who was waiting beyond the door bowed and informed
+him that the Asika had gone to her own place, and would see him that
+evening. Then bowing again he led them back by various passages to the
+room where they had slept.
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan after their food had been brought to them, this
+time, he observed, by men, for it was now past midday, "you were born
+in Asiki-land; tell me the truth of this business. What does that
+woman mean when she talks about her spirit having been here from the
+beginning."
+
+"She mean, Major, that every time she die her soul go into someone else,
+whom priests find out by marks. Also Asika always die young, they never
+let her become old woman, but how she die and where they bury her, no
+one know 'cept priests. Sometimes she have girl child who become Asika
+after her, but if they have boy child, they kill him. I think this Asika
+daughter of her who make love to your reverend uncle. All that story
+'bout her mother not being married, lies, and all her story lies too,
+she often marry."
+
+"But how about the spirit coming back, Jeekie?"
+
+"'Spect that lie too, Major, though she think it solemn fact. Priests
+teach her all those old things. Still," he added doubtfully, "Asika
+great medicine-woman and know a lot we don't know, can't say how. Very
+awkward customer, Major."
+
+"Quite so, Jeekie, I agree with you. But to come to the point, what is
+her game with me?"
+
+"Oh! Major," he answered with a grin, "_that_ simple enough. She tired
+of black man, want change, mean to marry you according to law, that is
+when Mungana dies, and he die jolly quick now. She mustn't kill him,
+but polish him off all the same, stick him to sleep with those dead uns,
+till he go like drunk man and see things and drown himself. Then she
+marry you. But till he dead, you all right, she only talk and make eyes,
+'cause of Asiki law, not 'cause she want to stop there."
+
+"Indeed, Jeekie, and how long do you think that Mungana will last?"
+
+"Perhaps three months, Major, and perhaps two. Think not more than two.
+Strong man, but he look devilish dicky this morning. Think he begin see
+snakes."
+
+"Very well, Jeekie. Now listen to me--you've got to get us out of
+Asiki-land by this day two months. If you don't, that lady will do
+anything to oblige me and no doubt there are more executioners left."
+
+"Oh! Major, don't talk like silly fool. Jeekie always hate fools and
+suffer them badly--like holy first missionary bishop. You know very well
+this no place for ultra-Christian man like Jeekie, who only come here
+to please you. Both in same bag, Major, if I die, you die and leave
+Miss Barbara up gum tree. I get you out if I can. But this stuff the
+trouble," and he pointed to the bags of gold. "Not want to leave
+all that behind after such arduous walk. No, no, I try get you out,
+meanwhile you play game."
+
+"The game! What game, Jeekie?"
+
+"What game? Why, Asika-game of course. If she sigh, you sigh; if she
+look at you, you look at her; if she squeeze hand, you squeeze hand; if
+she kiss, you kiss."
+
+"I am hanged if I do, Jeekie."
+
+"Must, Major; must or never get out of Asiki-land. What all that
+matter?" he added confidentially. "Miss Barbara never know. Jeekie
+doesn't split, also quite necessary in situation, and you can't be
+married till that Mungana dead. All matter business, Major; make time
+pass pleasant as well. Asika jolly enough if you stroke her fur right
+way, but if you put her back up--oh Lor! No trouble, sit and smile and
+say, 'Oh, ducky, how beautiful you are!' that not hurt anybody."
+
+In spite of himself Alan burst out laughing.
+
+"But how about the Mungana?" he asked.
+
+"Mungana, he got take that with rest. Also I try make friends with that
+poor devil. Tell him it all my eye. Perhaps he believe me--not sure. If
+he me, I no believe _him_. Mungana," he added oracularly, "Mungana take
+his chance. What matter? In two months' time he nothing but gold figure,
+No. 2403; just like one mummy in museum. Now I try catch my ma. I hear
+she alive somewhere. They tell me she used keep lodging house for Bonsa
+pilgrim, but steal grub, say it cat, all that sort of thing, and get run
+in as thief. Afraid my ma come down very much in world, not society lady
+now, shut up long way off in suburb. Still p'raps she useful so best
+send her message by p'liceman, say how much I love her; say her dear
+little Jeekie turn up again just to see her sweet face. Only don't know
+if she swallow that or if they let her out prison unless I pay for all
+she prig."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE FEAST OF LITTLE BONSA
+
+It was the night of full moon and of the great feast of the return of
+Little Bonsa. Alan sat in his chamber waiting to be summoned to take
+part in this ceremony and listening the while to that _Wow! Wow! Wow!_
+of the death drums, whereof Jeekie had once spoken in England, which
+could be clearly heard even above the perpetual boom of the cataract
+tumbling down its cliff behind the town. By now he had recovered from
+the fatigue of his journey and his health was good, but the same could
+not be said of his spirits, for never in his life had he felt more
+downhearted, not even when he was sickening for blackwater fever, or lay
+in bondage in the City, expecting every morning to wake up and find his
+reputation blasted. He was a prisoner in this dreadful, gloomy
+place where he must live like a second Man in the Iron Mask, without
+recreation or exercise other than he could find in the walled garden
+where grew the black cedar trees, and, so far as he could see, a
+prisoner without hope of escape.
+
+Moreover, he could no longer disguise from himself the truth; Jeekie was
+right. The Asika had fallen in love with him, or at any rate made up her
+mind that he should be her next husband. He hated the sight of the woman
+and her sinuous, evil beauty, but to be free of her was impossible, and
+to offend her, death. All day long she kept him about her, and from his
+sleep he would wake up and as on the night of his arrival,
+distinguish her leaning over him studying his face by the light of
+the faintly-burning lamps, as a snake studies the bird it is about to
+strike. He dared not stir or give the slightest sign that he saw her.
+Nor indeed did he always see her, for he kept his eyes closely shut.
+But even in his heaviest slumber some warning sense told him of her
+presence, and then above Jeekie's snores (for on these occasions Jeekie
+always snored his loudest) he would hear a soft footfall, as cat-like,
+she crept towards him, or the sweep of her spangled robe, or the
+tinkling of the scales of her golden breastplate. For a long while
+she would stand there, examining him greedily and even the few little
+belongings that remained to him, and then with a hungry sigh glide away
+and vanish in the shadows. How she came or how she vanished Alan could
+not discover. Clearly she did not use the door, and he could find
+no other entrance to the room. Indeed at times he thought he must be
+suffering from delusion, but Jeekie shook his great head and did not
+agree with him.
+
+"She there right enough," he said. "She walk over me as though I log
+and I smell stuff she put on hair, but I think she come and go by magic.
+Asika do that if she please."
+
+"Then I wish she would teach me the secret, Jeekie. I should soon be out
+of Asiki-land, I can tell you."
+
+All that day Alan had been in her company, answering her endless
+questions about his past, the lands that he had visited, and especially
+the women that he had known. He had the tact to tell her that none of
+these were half so beautiful as she was, which was true in a sense and
+pleased her very much, for in whatever respects she differed from them,
+in common with the rest of her sex she loved a compliment. Emboldened by
+her good humour, he had ventured to suggest that being rested and having
+restored Little Bonsa, he would be glad to return with her gifts to his
+own country. Next instant he was sorry, for as soon as she understood
+his meaning she grew almost white with rage.
+
+"What!" she said; "you desire to leave me? Know, Vernoon, that I will
+see you dead first and myself also, for then we shall be born again
+together and can never more be separated."
+
+Nor was this all, for she burst into weeping, threw her arms about him,
+drew him to her, kissed him on the forehead, and then thrust him away,
+saying:
+
+"Curses on the priests' law that makes us wait so long, and curses on
+that Mungana who will not die and may not be killed. Well, he shall pay
+for it and within two months, Vernoon, oh! within two months----" and
+she stretched out her arms with a gesture of infinite passion, then
+turned and left him.
+
+"My!" said Jeekie afterwards, for he had watched all this scene
+open-mouthed, "my! but she mean business. Mrs. Jeekie never kiss me like
+that, nor any other female either. She dead nuts on you, Major. Very
+great compliment! 'Spect when you Mungana, she keep you alive a long
+time, four or five years perhaps, if no other white man come this way.
+Pity you can't take it on a bit, Major," he added insidiously, "because
+then she grow careless and make you chief and we get chance scoop out
+that gold house and bolt with bally lot. Miss Barbara sensible woman,
+when she see all that cash she not mind, she say 'Bravo, old boy, quite
+right spoil Lady Potiphar in land of bondage, but Jeekie must have ten
+per cent. because he show you how do it.'"
+
+Alan was so depressed, and indeed terrified by this demonstration on the
+part of his fearful hostess, that he could neither laugh at Jeekie, nor
+swear at him. He only sat still and groaned, feeling that bad as things
+were they were bound to become worse.
+
+
+
+Above the perpetual booming of the death drums rose a sound of wild
+music. The door burst open, and through it came a number of priests,
+their nearly naked bodies hideously painted and on their heads the most
+devilish-looking masks. Some of them clashed cymbals, some blew horns
+and some beat little drums all to time which was given to them by a
+bandmaster with a golden rod. In front of them with painted face and
+decked in his gorgeous apparel, walked the Mungana himself.
+
+"They come to take us to Bonsa worship," explained Jeekie. "Cheer up,
+Major, very exciting business, no go to sleep there, as in English
+church. See the god all time and no sermon."
+
+Alan, who wore a linen robe over the remains of his European garments,
+and whose mask was already on his head, rose listlessly and bowed to
+the gorgeous Mungana who, poor man, answered him with a stare of hate,
+knowing that this wanderer was destined to fill his place. Then they
+started, Jeekie accompanying them, and walked a long way through various
+halls and passages, bearing first to the left and then to the right
+again, till suddenly through some side door they emerged upon a
+marvellous scene. The first impressions that reached Alan's mind were
+those of a long stretch of water, very black and still and not more than
+eighty feet in width. On the hither edge of this canal, seated upon a
+raised dais in the midst of a great open space of polished rock, was
+the Asika, or so he gathered from her gold breastplate and sparkling
+garments, for her fierce and beautiful features were hid beneath an
+object familiar enough to him, the yellow, crystal-eyed mask of Little
+Bonsa. Arranged in companies about and behind her were hundreds of
+people, male and female, clad in hideous costumes to resemble demons,
+with masks to match. Some of these masks were semi-human and some of
+them bore a likeness to the heads of animals and had horns on them,
+while their wearers were adorned with skins and tails. To describe them
+in their infinite variety would be impossible; indeed the recollection
+that Alan carried away was one of a medi�val hell as it is occasionally
+to be found portrayed upon "Doom pictures" in old churches.
+
+On the further side of the water the entire Asiki people seemed to be
+gathered, at least there were thousands of them seated upon a rising
+rocky slope as in an amphitheatre, clad only in the ordinary costume of
+the Western African native, and in some instances in linen cloaks. This
+great amphitheatre was surrounded by a high wall with gates, but in the
+moonlight he found it difficult to discern its exact limits.
+
+Jeekie nudged Alan and pointed to the centre of the canal or pool. He
+looked and saw floating there a huge and hideous golden head, twenty
+times as large as life perhaps, with great prominent eyes that glared up
+to the sky. Its appearance was quite unlike anything else in the world,
+more loathsome, more horrible, man, fish and animal, all seemed to
+have their part in it, human mouth and teeth, fish-like eyes and snout,
+bestial expression.
+
+"Big Bonsa," whispered Jeekie. "Just the same as when I sweet little
+boy.--He live here for thousand of years."
+
+Preceded by the Mungana and followed by Jeekie and the priests, the band
+bringing up the rear, Alan was marched down a lane left open for him
+till he came to some steps leading to the dais, upon which in addition
+to that occupied by the Asika, stood two empty chairs. These steps the
+Mungana motioned him to mount, but when Jeekie tried to follow him he
+turned and struck him contemptuously in the face. At once the Asika, who
+was watching Vernon's approach through the eye-holes in the Little Bonsa
+mask, said fiercely:
+
+"Who bade you strike the servant of my guest, O Mungana? Let him come
+also that he may stand behind us and interpret."
+
+Her wretched husband, who knew that this public slight was put upon him
+purposely, but did not dare to protest against it, bowed his head. Then
+all three of them climbed to the dais, the priests and the musicians
+remaining below.
+
+"Welcome, Vernoon," said the Asika through the lips of the mask, which
+to Alan, notwithstanding the dreadful cruelty of its expression, looked
+less hateful than the lovely, tigerish face it hid. "Welcome and be
+seated here on my left hand, since on my right you may not sit--as yet."
+
+He bowed and took the chair to which she pointed, while her husband
+placed himself in the other chair upon her right, and Jeekie stood
+behind, his great shape towering above them all.
+
+"This is a festival of my people, Vernoon," she went on, "such a
+festival as has not been seen for years, celebrated because Little Bonsa
+has come back to them."
+
+"What is to happen?" he asked uneasily. "I have told you, Lady, that
+blood is _orunda_ to me. I must not witness it."
+
+"I know, be not afraid," she answered. "Sacrifice there must be, since
+it is the custom and we may not defraud the gods, but you shall not see
+the deed. Judge from this, Vernoon, how greatly I desire to please you."
+
+Now Alan, looking about him, saw that immediately beneath the dais
+and between them and the edge of the water, were gathered his cannibal
+friends, the Ogula, and Fahni their chief who had rowed him to
+Asiki-land, and with them the messengers whom they had sent on ahead.
+Also he saw that their arms were tied behind them and that they were
+guarded by men dressed like devils and armed with spears.
+
+"Ask Fahni why he and his people are bound, Jeekie," said Alan, "and why
+have they not returned to their own country."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, putting the question in the Ogula language, whereon the
+poor men turned and began to implore Alan to save their lives, Fahni
+adding that he had been told they were to be killed that night.
+
+"Why are these men to be slain?" asked Alan of the Asika.
+
+"Because I have learned that they attacked you in their own country,
+Vernoon," she answered, "and would have killed you had it not been for
+Little Bonsa. It is therefore right that they should die as an offering
+to you."
+
+"I refuse the offering since afterwards they dealt well with me. Set
+them free and let them return to their own land, Asika."
+
+"That cannot be," she replied coldly. "Here they are and here they
+remain. Still, their lives are yours to take or to spare, so keep them
+as your servants if you will," and bending down she issued a command
+which was instantly obeyed, for the men dressed like devils cut the
+bonds of the Ogula and brought them round to the back of the dais, where
+they stood blessing Alan loudly in their own tongue.
+
+Then the ceremonies began with a kind of infernal ballet. On the smooth
+space between them and the water's edge appeared male and female bands
+of dancers who emerged from the shadows. For the most part they were
+dressed up like animals and imitated the cries of the beasts that they
+represented, although some of them wore little or no clothing. To the
+sound of wild music of horns and drums these creatures danced a kind of
+insane quadrille which seemed to suggest everything that is cruel and
+vile upon the earth. They danced and danced in the moonlight till the
+madness spread from them to the thousands who were gathered upon the
+farther side of the water, for presently all of these began to dance
+also. Nor did it stop there, since at length the Asika rose from her
+chair upon the dais and joined in the performance with the Mungana her
+husband. Even Jeekie began to prance and shout behind, so that at last
+Alan and the Ogula alone remained still and silent in the midst of a
+scene and a noise which might have been that of hell let loose.
+
+Leaving go of her husband, the Asika bounded up to Alan and tried to
+drag him from his chair, thrusting her gold mask against his mask. He
+refused to move and after a while she left him and returned to Mungana.
+Louder and louder brayed the music and beat the drums, wilder and wilder
+grew the shrieks. Individuals fell exhausted and were thrown into the
+water where they sank or floated away on the slow moving stream, as part
+of some inexplicable play that was being enacted.
+
+Then suddenly the Asika stood still and threw up her arms and they fell
+upon their faces and lay as though they were dead. A third time she
+threw up her arms and they rose and remained so silent that the only
+sound to be heard was that of their thick breathing. Then she spoke, or
+rather screamed, saying:
+
+"Little Bonsa has come back again, bringing with her the white man whom
+she led away," and all the audience answered, "Little Bonsa has come
+back again. Once more we see her on the head of the Asika as our fathers
+did. Give her a sacrifice. Give her the white man."
+
+"Nay," she screamed back, "the white man is mine. I name him as the next
+Mungana."
+
+"Oho!" roared the audience, "Oho! she names him as the next Mungana.
+Good-bye, old Mungana! Greeting, new Mungana! When will be the marriage
+feast?"
+
+"Tell us, Mungana, tell us," cried the Asika, patting her wretched
+husband on the cheek. "Tell us when you mean to die, as you are bound to
+do."
+
+"On the night of the second full moon from now," he answered with a
+terrible groan that seemed to be wrung out of his heavy heart; "on that
+night my soul will be eaten up and my day done. But till then I am
+lord of the Asika, and if she forgets it, death shall be her portion,
+according to the ancient law."
+
+"Yes, yes," shouted the multitude, "death shall be her portion, and her
+lover we will sacrifice. Die in honour, Mungana, as all those died that
+went before you."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" muttered Alan to himself, "I am safe from that witch
+for the next two months," and through the eye-holes of his mask he
+contemplated her with loathing and alarm.
+
+At the moment, indeed, she was not a pleasing spectacle, for in the heat
+and excitement of her mad dance she had cast off her gold breast-plate
+or stomacher, leaving herself naked except for her kirtle and the thin,
+gold-spangled robe upon her shoulders over which streamed her black,
+disordered hair. Contrasting strangely in the silver moonlight with her
+glistening, copper-coloured body, the mask of Little Bonsa on her head
+glared round with its fixed crystal eyes and fiendish smile as she
+turned her long neck from side to side. Seen thus she scarcely looked
+human, and Alan's heart was filled with pity for the poor bedizened
+wretch she named her husband, who had just been forced to announce the
+date of his own suicide.
+
+Soon, however, he forgot it, for a new act in the drama had begun. Two
+priests clad in horns and tails leapt on to the dais and at a signal
+unlaced the mask of Little Bonsa. Now the Asika lifted it from her
+streaming face and held it on high, then she lowered it to the level
+of her breast, and holding it in both hands, walked to the edge of
+the dais, whereon priests, disguised as fiends, began to leap at it,
+striving to reach it with their fingers and snatch it from her grasp.
+One by one they leapt with the most desperate energy, each man being
+allowed to make three attempts, and Alan noted that this novel jumping
+competition was watched with the deepest interest by all the audience,
+at the time he knew not why.
+
+The first two were evidently elderly men who failed to come anywhere
+near the mark. Their failure was received with shouts of derision. They
+sank exhausted to the ground and from the motion of his body Alan could
+see that one of them was weeping, while the other remained sullenly
+silent. Then a younger man advanced and at the third try almost grasped
+the fetish. Indeed he would have grasped it had he not met with foul
+play, for the Asika, seeing that he was about to succeed, lifted it an
+inch or two, so that he also missed and with a groan joined the band of
+the defeated. Next appeared a fourth priest, even more horribly arrayed
+than those before him, but Alan noticed that his mask was of the
+lightest, and that his garments consisted chiefly of paint, the main
+idea of his make-up being that of a skeleton. He was a thin active
+fellow, and all the watching thousands greeted him with a shout. For
+a few seconds he stood back gazing at the mask as a wolf might at an
+unapproachable bone. Then suddenly he ran forward and sprang into the
+air. Such an amazing jump Alan had never seen before. So high was
+it indeed that his head came level with that of the fetish, which he
+snatched with both hands tearing it from Asika's grasp. Coming to the
+ground again with a thud, he began to caper to and fro, kissing the
+mask, while the audience shouted:
+
+"Little Bonsa has chosen. What fate for the fallen? Ask her, priest?"
+
+The man stopped his capering and held the mouth of Little Bonsa to his
+ear, nodding from time to time as though she were speaking to him and he
+heard what she said. Then he passed round the dais where Alan could not
+see him, and presently reappeared holding Little Bonsa in his right
+hand and in his left a great gold cup. A silence fell upon the place.
+He advanced to the first man who had jumped and offered him the cup. He
+turned his head away, but a thousand voices thundered "Drink!" Then he
+took it and drank, passing it to a companion in misfortune, who in turn
+drank also and gave it to the third priest, he who would have snatched
+the mask had not the Asika lifted it out of his reach.
+
+This man drained it to the dregs, and with an exclamation of rage dashed
+the empty vessel into the face of the chosen priest with such fury that
+the man rolled upon the ground and for a while lay there stunned. Now
+he who had drunk first began to spring about in a ludicrous fashion, and
+presently was joined in his dance by the other two. So absurd were their
+motions and tumblings and clownlike grimaces, for they had dragged off
+their masks, that roars of brutal laughter rose from the audience, in
+which the Asika joined.
+
+At first Alan thought that the thing was a joke, and that the men had
+merely been made mad drunk, till catching sight of their eyes in
+the moonlight, he perceived that they were in great pain and turned
+indignantly to remonstrate with the Asika.
+
+"Be silent, Vernoon," she said savagely, "blood is your _orunda_ and
+I respect it. Therefore by decree of the god these die of poison," and
+again she fell to laughing at the contortions of the victims.
+
+Alan shut his eyes, and when at length, drawn by some fearful
+fascination, he opened them once more, it was to see that the three poor
+creatures had thrown themselves into the water, where they rolled over
+and over like wounded porpoises, till presently they sank and vanished
+there.
+
+This farce, for so they considered it, being ended and the stage, so to
+speak, cleared, the audience having laughed itself hoarse, set itself to
+watch the proceedings of the newly chosen high-priest of Little Bonsa,
+who by now had recovered from the blow dealt to him by one of the
+murdered men. With the help of some other priests he was engaged in
+binding the fetish on to a little raft of reeds. This done he laid
+himself flat upon a broad plank which had been made ready for him at
+the edge of the water, placing the mask in front of him and with a
+few strokes of his feet that hung over the sides of the plank, paddled
+himself out to the centre of the canal where the god called Big Bonsa
+floated, or was anchored. Having reached it he pushed the little raft
+off the plank into the water, and in some way that Alan could not see,
+made it fast to Big Bonsa, so that now the two of them floated one
+behind the other. Then while the people cheered, shouting out that
+husband and wife had come together again at last, he paddled his plank
+back to the water's edge, sat down and waited.
+
+Meanwhile, at a sign from the Asika, all the scores of priests and
+priestesses who were dressed as devils had filed off to right and left,
+and vanished, presumably to cross the water by bridges or boats that
+were out of sight. At any rate now they began to appear upon its further
+side and to wind their way singly among the thousands of the Asiki
+people who were gathered upon the rocky slope beyond in order to witness
+this fearsome entertainment. Alan observed that the spectators did not
+appear to appreciate the arrival amongst them of these priests, from
+whom they seemed to edge away. Indeed many of them rose and tried to
+depart altogether, only to be driven back to their places by a double
+line of soldiers armed with spears, who now for the first time became
+visible, ringing in the audience. Also other soldiers and with them
+bodies of men who looked like executioners, showed themselves upon the
+further brink of the water and then marched off, disappearing to left
+and right.
+
+"What's the matter now?" Alan asked of Jeekie over his shoulder.
+
+"All in blue funk," whispered Jeekie back, "joke done. Get to business
+now. Silly fools forget that when they laugh so much. Both Bonsas very
+hungry and Asika want wipe out old scores. Presently you see."
+
+Presently Alan did see, for at some preconcerted signal the devil
+priests, each of them, jumped with a yell at a person near to them,
+gripping him or her by the hair, whereon assistants rushed in and
+dragged them down to the bank of the canal. Here to the number of a
+hundred or more, a wailing, struggling mass, they were confined in a
+pen like sheep. Then a bar was lifted and one of them allowed to escape,
+only to find himself in a kind of gangway which ran down into shallow
+water. Being forced along this he came to an open space of water exactly
+opposite to the floating fetishes, and there was kept a while by men
+armed with spears. As nothing happened they lifted their spears and the
+man bolted up an incline and was lost among the thousands of spectators.
+
+The next one, evidently a person of rank, was not so fortunate. Jumping
+into the pool off the gangway, he stood there like a sheep about to be
+washed, the water reaching up to his middle. Then Alan saw a terrifying
+thing, for suddenly the horrid, golden head of Big Bonsa, towing Little
+Bonsa behind it, began to swim with a deliberate motion across the
+stream until, reaching the man, it seemed to rear itself up and poke
+him with its snout in the chest as a turtle might do. Then it sank again
+into the water and slowly floated back to its station, directed by some
+agency or power that Alan could not discover.
+
+At the touch of the fetish the man screamed like a horse in pain or
+terror, and soldiers leaping on him with a savage shout, dragged him up
+another gangway opposite to that by which he had descended, whereon, to
+all appearances more dead than alive, he departed into the shadows. The
+horns and drums set up a bray of triumph, the Asika clapped her hands
+approvingly, the spectators cheered, and another victim was bundled down
+the gangway and submitted to the judgment of the Bonsas, which came
+at him like a hungry pike at a frog. Then followed more and more, some
+being chosen and some let go, till at last, growing weary, the priests
+directed the soldiers to drive the prisoners down in batches until the
+pen in the water was full as though with huddled sheep. If the horrible
+golden masks swam at them and touched one of their number, they were all
+dragged away; if these remained quiescent they were let go.
+
+So the thing went on until at length Alan could bear no more of it.
+
+"Lady," he said to the Asika when she paused for a moment from her
+hand-clapping, "I am weary, I would sleep."
+
+"What!" she exclaimed, "do you wish to sleep on such a glorious night
+when so many evil doers are coming to their just doom? Well, well, go if
+you will, for then my promise is off me and I can hasten this business
+and deal with the wicked before the people according to our custom.
+Good-night to you, Vernoon, to-morrow we will meet," and she called to
+some priests to lead him away, and with him the Ogula cannibals whom she
+had given to him as servants.
+
+Alan went thankfully enough. As he plunged into one of the passages
+the sound of frightful yelling reached his ears, followed by loud,
+triumphant shouts.
+
+"Now you gone they kill those who Bonsa smell out," said Jeekie. "Why
+you no wait and see? Very interesting sight."
+
+"Hold your tongue," answered Alan savagely. "Did you think so years ago
+when you were put into that pen to be butchered?"
+
+"No, Major," replied the unabashed Jeekie, "not think at all then, too
+far gone. But see other people in there and know it not _you_, quite
+different matter."
+
+They reached their room. At the door of it Fahni and his followers were
+led off to some quarters near by, blessing Alan as they went because he
+had saved their lives.
+
+"Jeekie," he said when they were alone, "tell me, what makes that
+hellish idol swim about in the water picking out some people and leaving
+others alone?"
+
+"Major, I not know, no one know except top priest and Asika. Perhaps
+there man underneath, perhaps they pull string, or perhaps fetish
+alive and he do what he like. Please don't call him names, Major, or
+he remember and come after us one time, and that bad job," and Jeekie
+shivered visibly.
+
+"Bosh!" answered Alan, but all the same he shivered also. "Jeekie," he
+asked again, "what happens to those people whom the Bonsas smell out?"
+
+"Case of good-bye, Major. Sometimes they chop off nut, sometimes they
+spiflicate in gold tub, sometimes priest-man make hole in what white
+doctor call _diagram_--and shake hands with heart.--All matter of taste,
+Major, just as Asika please. If she like victim or they old friends,
+chop off head; if she not like him--do worse things."
+
+More than satisfied with his information Alan went to bed. For hour
+after hour that night he lay tossing and turning, haunted by the
+recollections of the dreadful sights that he had seen and of the
+horrible Asika, horrible and half-naked, glaring at him amorously
+through the crystal eyes of Little Bonsa. When at last he fell asleep it
+was to dream that he was alone in the water with the god which pursued
+him as a shark pursues a shipwrecked sailor. Never did he experience a
+nightmare that was half so awful. Only one thing could be more awful,
+the reality itself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE MOTHER OF JEEKIE
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan next morning, "I tell you again that I have had
+enough of this place, I want to get out."
+
+"Yes, Major, that just what mouse say when he finish cheese in trap,
+but missus come along, call him 'Pretty, pretty,' and drown him all the
+same," and he nodded in the direction of the Asika's house.
+
+"Jeekie, it has got to be done--do you hear me? I had rather die trying
+to get away than stop here till the next two months are up. If I am here
+on the night of the next full moon but one, I shall shoot that Asika and
+then shoot myself, and you must take your chance. Do you understand?"
+
+"Understand that foolish game and poor lookout for Jeekie, Major, but
+can't think of any plan." Then he rubbed his big nose reflectively and
+added, "Fahni and his people your slaves now, 'spose we have talk with
+him. I tell priests to bring him along when they come with breakfast.
+Leave it to me, Major."
+
+Alan did leave it to him, with the result that after long argument
+the priests consented or obtained permission to produce Fahni and his
+followers, and a little while after the great men arrived looking very
+dejected, and saluted Alan humbly. Bidding the rest of them be seated,
+he called Fahni to the end of the room and asked him through Jeekie if
+he and his men did not wish to return home.
+
+"Indeed we do, white lord," answered the old chief, "but how can we? The
+Asika has a grudge against our tribe and but for you would have killed
+every one of us last night. We are snared and must stop here till we
+die."
+
+"Would not your people help you if they knew, Fahni?"
+
+"Yes, lord, I think so. But how can I tell them who doubtless believe us
+dead? Nor can I send a messenger, for this place is guarded and he would
+be killed at once. We came here for your sake because you had Little
+Bonsa, a god that is known in the east and the west, in the north and
+the south, and because you saved me from the lion, and here, alas! we
+must perish."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "can you not find a messenger? Have you, who were
+born of this people, no friend among them at all?"
+
+Jeekie shook his white head and rolled his eyes. Then suddenly an idea
+struck him.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I think one, p'raps. I mean my ma."
+
+"Your ma!" said Alan. "Oh! I remember. Have you heard anything more
+about her?"
+
+"Yes, Major. Very old girl now, but strong on leg, so they say. Believe
+she glad go anywhere, because she public nuisance; they tired of her in
+prison and there no workhouse here, so they want turn her out starve,
+which of course break my heart. Perhaps she take message. Some use that
+way. Only think she afraid go Ogula-land because they nasty cannibal and
+eat old woman."
+
+When all this was translated to Fahni he assured Jeekie with earnestness
+that nothing would induce the Ogula people to eat his mother; moreover,
+that for her sake they would never look carnivorously on another old
+woman, fat or thin.
+
+"Well," said Jeekie, "I try again to get hold of old lady and we see. I
+pray priests, whom you save other day, let her out of chokey as I sick
+to fall upon bosom, which quite true, only so much to think of that no
+time to attend to domestic relation till now."
+
+That very afternoon, on returning to his room from walking in the dismal
+cedar garden, Alan's ears were greeted by a sound of shrill quarrelling.
+Looking up he saw an extraordinary sight. A tall, gaunt, withered female
+who might have been of any age between sixty and a hundred, had got
+Jeekie's ear in one hand, and with the other was slapping him in the
+face while she exclaimed:
+
+"O thief, whom by the curse of Bonsa I brought into the world, what
+have you done with my blanket? Was it not enough that you, my only
+son, should leave me to earn my own living? Must you also take my best
+blanket with you, for which reason I have been cold ever since. Where is
+it, thief, where is it?"
+
+"Worn out, my mother, worn out," he answered, trying to free himself.
+"You forget, honourable mother, that I grow old and you should have been
+dead years ago. How can you expect a blanket to last so long? Leave go
+of my ear, beloved mother, and I will give you another. I have travelled
+across the world to find you and I want to hear news of your husband."
+
+"My husband, thief, which husband? Do you mean your father, the one with
+the broken nose, who was sacrificed because you ran away with the white
+man whom Bonsa loved? Well, you look out for him when you get into the
+world of ghosts, for he said that he was going to wait for you there
+with the biggest stick that he could find. Why I haven't thought of him
+for years, but then I have had three other husbands since his time, bad
+enough, but better than he was, so who would? And now Bonsa has got the
+lot, and I have no children alive, and they say I am to be driven out of
+the prison to starve next week as they won't feed me any longer, I who
+can still work against any one of them, and--you've got my blanket, you
+ugly old rascal," and collapsing beneath the weight of her recited woes,
+the hag burst into a melancholy howl.
+
+"Peace, my mother," said Jeekie, patting her on the head. "Do what I
+tell you and you shall have more blankets than you can wear and, as you
+are still so handsome, another husband too if you like, and a garden and
+slaves to work for you and plenty to eat."
+
+"How shall I get all these things, my son?" asked the old woman, looking
+up. "Will you take me to your home and support me, or will that white
+lord marry me? They told me that the Asika had named him as the Mungana,
+and she is very jealous, the most jealous Asika that I have ever known."
+
+"No, mother, he would like to, but he dare not, and I cannot support you
+as I should wish, as here I have no house or property. You will get all
+this by taking a walk and holding your tongue. You see this man here,
+he is Fahni, king of a great tribe, the Ogula. He wants you to carry a
+message for him, and by and by he will marry you, won't you, Fahni?"
+
+"Oh! yes, yes," said Fahni; "I will do anything she likes. No one shall
+be so rich and honoured in my country, and for her sake we will never
+eat another old woman, whereas if she stays here she will be driven to
+the mountains to starve in a week."
+
+"Set out the matter," said the mother of Jeekie, who was by no means so
+foolish as she seemed.
+
+So they told her what she must do, namely, travel down to the Ogula and
+tell them of the plight of their chief, bidding them muster all their
+fighting men and when the swamps were dry enough, advance as near as
+they dared to the Asiki country and, if they could not attack it, wait
+till they had further news.
+
+The end of it was that the mother of Jeekie, who knew her case to be
+desperate at home, where she was in no good repute, promised to attempt
+the journey in consideration of advantages to be received. Since she
+was to be turned adrift to meet her fate with as much food as she could
+carry, this she could do without exciting any suspicion, for who would
+trouble about the movements of a useless old thief? Meanwhile Jeekie
+gave her one of the robes which the Asika had provided for Alan, also
+various articles which she desired and, having learned Fahni's message
+by heart and announced that she considered herself his affianced bride,
+the gaunt old creature departed happy enough after exchanging embraces
+with her long lost son.
+
+"She will tell somebody all about it and we shall only get our throats
+cut," said Alan wearily, for the whole thing seemed to him a foolish
+farce.
+
+"No, no, Major. I make her swear not split on ghosts of all her husbands
+and by Big Bonsa hisself. She sit tight as wax, because she think they
+haunt her if she don't and I too by and by when I dead. P'raps she get
+to Ogula country and p'raps not. If she don't, can't help it and no
+harm done. Break my heart, but only one old woman less. Anyhow she hold
+tongue, that main point, and I really very glad find my ma, who never
+hoped to see again. Heaven very kind to Jeekie, give him back to family
+bosom," he added, unctuously.
+
+That day there were no excitements, and to Alan's intense relief he saw
+nothing of the Asika. After its orgy of witchcraft and bloodshed on the
+previous night, weariness and silence seemed to have fallen upon the
+town. At any rate no sound came from it that could be heard above the
+low, constant thunder of the great waterfall rushing down its precipice,
+and in the cedar-shadowed garden where Alan walked till he was weary,
+attended by Jeekie and the Ogula savages, not a soul was to be seen.
+
+On the following morning, when he was sitting moodily in his room, two
+priests came to conduct him to the Asika. Having no choice, followed by
+Jeekie, he accompanied them to her house, masked as usual, for without
+this hateful disguise he was not allowed to stir. He found her lying
+upon a pile of cushions in a small room that he had never seen before,
+which was better lighted than most in that melancholy abode, and seemed
+to serve as her private chamber. In front of her lay the skin of the
+lion that he had sent as a present, and about her throat hung a necklace
+made of its claws, heavily set in gold, with which she was playing idly.
+
+At the opening of the door she looked up with a swift smile that turned
+to a frown when she saw that he was followed by Jeekie.
+
+"Say, Vernoon," she asked in her languorous voice, "can you not stir
+a yard without that ugly black dog at your heels? Do you bring him to
+protect your back? If so, what is the need? Have I not sworn that you
+are safe in my land?"
+
+Alan made Jeekie interpret this speech, then answered that the reason
+was that he knew but little of her tongue.
+
+"Can I not teach it to you alone, then, without this low fellow hearing
+all my words? Well, it will not be for long," and she looked at Jeekie
+in a way that made him feel very uncomfortable. "Get behind us, dog, and
+you, Vernoon, come sit on these cushions at my side. Nay, not there, I
+said upon the cushions--so. Now I will take off that ugly mask of yours,
+for I would look into your eyes. I find them pleasant, Vernoon," and
+without waiting for his permission, she sat up and did so. "Ah!" she
+went on, "we shall be happy when we are married, shall we not? Do not
+be afraid, Vernoon, I will not eat out your heart as I have those of the
+men that went before you. We will live together until we are old, and
+die together at last, and together be born again, and so on and on till
+the end which even I cannot foresee. Why do you not smile, Vernoon, and
+say that you are pleased, and that you will be happy with me who loved
+you from the moment that my eyes fell upon you in sleep? Speak, Vernoon,
+lest I should grow angry with you."
+
+"I don't know what to say," answered Alan despairingly through Jeekie,
+"the honour is too great for me, who am but a wandering trader who came
+here to barter Little Bonsa against the gold I need"--to support my wife
+and family, he was about to add, then remembering that this statement
+might not be well received, substituted, "to support my old parents and
+eight brothers and sisters who are dependent upon me, and remain hungry
+until I return to them."
+
+"Then I think they will remain hungry a long time, Vernoon, for while I
+live you shall never return. Much as I love you I would kill you first,"
+and her eyes glittered as she said the words. "Still," she added, noting
+the fall in his face, "if it is gold that they need, you shall send it
+them. Yes, my people shall take all that I gave you down to the coast,
+and there it can be put in a big canoe and carried across the water. See
+to the packing of the stuff, you black dog," she said to Jeekie over her
+shoulder, "and when it is ready I will send it hence."
+
+Alan began to thank her, though he thought it more than probable that
+even if she kept her word, this bullion would never get to Old Calabar,
+and much less to England. But she waived the matter aside as one in
+which she was not interested.
+
+"Tell me," she asked; "would you have me other than I am? First, do you
+think me beautiful?"
+
+"Yes," answered Alan honestly, "very beautiful when you are quiet as
+now, not when you are dancing as you did the other night without your
+robes."
+
+When she understood what he meant the Asika actually blushed a little.
+
+"I am sorry," she answered in a voice that for her was quite humble. "I
+forget that it might seem strange in your eyes. It has always been
+the custom for the Asika to do as I did at feasts and sacrifices, but
+perhaps that is not the fashion among your women; perhaps they always
+remain veiled, as I have heard the worshippers of the Prophet do, and
+therefore you thought me immodest. I am very, very sorry, Vernoon. I
+pray you to forgive me who am ignorant and only do what I have been
+taught."
+
+"Yes, they always remain veiled," stammered Alan, though he was not
+referring to their faces, and as the words passed his lips he wondered
+what the Asika would think if she could see a ballet at a London
+music-hall.
+
+"Is there anything else wrong?" she went on gently. "If so, tell me that
+I may set it right."
+
+"I do not like cruelty or sacrifices, O Asika. I have told you that
+bloodshed is _orunda_ to me, and at the feast those men were poisoned
+and you mocked them in their pain; also many others were taken away to
+be killed for no crime."
+
+She opened her beautiful eyes and stared at him, answering:
+
+"But, Vernoon, all this is not my fault; they were sacrifices to the
+gods, and if I did not sacrifice, I should be sacrificed by the priests
+and wizards who live to sacrifice. Yes, myself I should be made to drink
+the poison and be mocked at while I died like a snake with a broken
+back. Or even if I escaped the vengeance of the people, the gods
+themselves would kill me and raise up another in my place. Do they not
+sacrifice in your country, Vernoon?"
+
+"No, Asika, they fight if necessary and kill those who commit murder.
+But they have no fetish that asks for blood, and the law they have from
+heaven is a law of mercy."
+
+She stared at him again.
+
+"All this is strange to me," she said. "I was taught otherwise. Gods are
+devils and must be appeased, lest they bring misfortune on us; men must
+be ruled by terror, or they would rebel and pull down the great House;
+doctors must learn magic, or how could they avert spells? wizards must
+be killed, or the people would perish in their net. May not we who live
+in a hell, strive to beat back its flame with the wisdom our forefathers
+have handed on to us? Tell me, Vernoon, for I would know."
+
+"You make your own hell," answered Alan when with the help of Jeekie he
+understood her talk.
+
+She pondered over his words for a while, then said:
+
+"I must think. The thing is big. I wander in blackness; I will speak
+with you again. Say now, what else is wrong with me?"
+
+Now Alan thought that he saw opportunity for a word in season and made a
+great mistake.
+
+"I think that you treat your husband, that man whom you call Mungana,
+very badly. Why should you drive him to his death?"
+
+At these words the Asika leapt up in a rage, and seeking something to
+vent her temper on, violently boxed Jeekie's ears and kicked him with
+her sandalled foot.
+
+"The Mungana!" she exclaimed, "that beast! What have I to do with him?
+I hate him, as I hated the others. The priests thrust him on me. He has
+had his day, let him go. In your country do they make women live with
+men whom they loathe? I love _you_, Bonsa himself knows why? Perhaps
+because you have a white skin and white thoughts. But I hate that man.
+What is the use of being Asika if I cannot take what I love and reject
+what I hate? Go away, Vernoon, go away, you have angered me, and if it
+were not for what you have said about that new law of mercy, I think
+that I would cut your throat," and again she boxed Jeekie's ears and
+kicked him in the shins.
+
+Alan rose and bowed himself towards the door while she stood with her
+back towards him, sobbing. As he was about to pass it she wheeled round,
+wiping the tears from her eyes with her hand, and said:
+
+"I forgot, I sent for you to thank you for your presents; that," and she
+pointed to the lion skin, "which they tell me you killed with some kind
+of thunder to save the life of that old cannibal, and this," and she
+pulled off the necklace of claws, then added, "as I am too bad to wear
+it, you had better take it back again," and she threw it with all her
+strength straight into Jeekie's face.
+
+Fearing worse things, the much maltreated Jeekie uttered a howl and
+bolted through the door, while Alan, picking up the necklace, returned
+it to her with a bow. She took it.
+
+"Stop," she said. "You are leaving the room without your mask and my
+women are outside. Come here," and she tied the thing upon his head,
+setting it all awry, then pushed him from the place.
+
+"Very poor joke, Major, very poor indeed," said Jeekie when they had
+reached their own apartment. "Lady make love to _you_; _you_ play prig
+and lecture lady about holy customs of her country and she box _my_ ear
+till head sing, also kick me all over and throw sharp claws in face.
+Please you do it no more. The next time, who knows? she stick knife in
+_my_ gizzard, then kiss _you_ afterward and say she so sorry and hope
+she no hurt _you_. But how that help poor departed Jeekie who get all
+kicks, while you have ha'pence?"
+
+"Oh! be quiet," said Alan; "you are welcome to the halfpence if you
+would only leave me the kicks. The question is, how am I to get out of
+this mess? While she was a beautiful savage devil, one could deal with
+the thing, but if she is going to become human it is another matter."
+
+Jeekie looked at him with pity in his eyes.
+
+"Always thought white man mad at bottom," he said, shaking his big head.
+"To benighted black nigger thing so very simple. All you got to do, make
+love and cut when you get chance. Then she pleased as Punch, everything
+go smooth and Jeekie get no more kicks. Christian religion business very
+good, but won't wash in Asiki-land. Your reverend uncle find out that."
+
+Not wishing to pursue the argument, Alan changed the subject by asking
+his indignant retainer if he thought that the Asika had meant what she
+said when she offered to send the gold down to the coast.
+
+"Why not, Major? That good lady always mean what she say, and what she
+do too," and he dabbed wrathfully at the scratches made by the lion's
+claws on his face, then added, "She know her own mind, not like
+shilly-shally, see-saw white woman, who get up one thing and go to bed
+another. If she love she love, if she hate she hate. If she say she
+send gold, she send it, though pity to part with all that cash, because
+'spect someone bag it."
+
+Alan reflected a while.
+
+"Don't you see, Jeekie, that here is a chance, if a very small one, of
+getting a message to the coast. Also it is quite clear that if we are
+ever able to escape, it will be impossible for us to carry this heavy
+stuff, whereas if we send it on ahead, perhaps some of it might get
+through. We will pack it up, Jeekie, at any rate it will be something to
+do. Go now and send a message to the Asika, and ask her to let us have
+some carpenters, and a lot of well-seasoned wood."
+
+The message was sent and an hour later a dozen of the native craftsmen
+arrived with their rude tools and a supply of planks cut from a kind of
+iron-wood or ebony tree. They prostrated themselves to Alan, then the
+master of them rising, instantly began to measure Jeekie with a marked
+reed. That worthy sprang back and asked what in the name of Bonsa, Big
+and Little, they were doing, whereon the man explained with humility
+that the Asika had said that she thought the white lord wanted the
+wood to make a box to bury his servant in, as he, the said servant, had
+offended her that morning, and doubtless the white lord wished to kill
+him on that account, or perhaps to put him away under ground alive.
+
+"Oh, my golly!" said Jeekie, shaking till his great knees knocked
+together, "oh! my golly! here pretty go. She think you want bury me all
+alive. That mean she want to be rid of Jeekie, because he got sit there
+and play gooseberry when she wish talk alone with you. Oh, yes! I see
+her little game."
+
+"Well, Jeekie," said Alan, bursting into such a roar of laughter that he
+nearly shook off his mask, "you had better be careful, for you just told
+me that the Asika is not like a see-saw white woman and never changes
+her mind. Say to this man that he must tell the Asika there is a
+mistake, and that however much I should like to oblige her, I can't bury
+you because it has been prophesied to me that on the day you are buried,
+I shall be buried also, and that therefore you must be kept alive."
+
+"Capital notion that, Major," said Jeekie, much relieved. "She not want
+bury you just at present; next year perhaps, but not now. I tell him."
+And he did with much vigour.
+
+This slight misconception having been disposed of, they explained to the
+carpenters what was wanted. First, all the gold was emptied out of the
+sacks in which it remained as the priests had brought it, and divided
+into heaps, each of which weighed about forty pounds, a weight that
+with its box Alan considered would be a good load for a porter. Of these
+heaps there proved to be fifty-three, their total value, Alan reckoned,
+amounting to about �100,000 sterling. Then the carpenters were set to
+work to make a model box, which they did quickly enough and with great
+ingenuity, cutting the wood with their native saws, dovetailing it as
+a civilized craftsman would do, and finally securing it everywhere with
+ebony pegs, driven into holes which they bored with a hot iron. The
+result was a box that would stand any amount of rough usage and when
+finally pegged down, one that could only be opened with a hammer and a
+cold chisel.
+
+This box-making went on for two whole days. As each of them was filled
+and pegged down, the gold within being packed in sawdust to keep it from
+rattling, Alan amused himself in adding an address with a feather brush
+and a supply of red paint such as the Asiki priests used to decorate
+their bodies. At first he was puzzled to know what address to put, but
+finally decided upon the following:
+
+_Major A. Vernon, care of Miss Champers, The Court, near Kingswell,
+England._ Adding in the corner, _From A. V., Asiki Land, Africa._
+
+It was all childish enough, he knew, yet when it was done he regarded
+his handiwork with a sort of satisfaction. For, reflected Alan, if but
+one of those boxes should chance to get through to England, it would
+tell Barbara a great deal, and if it were addressed to himself, her
+uncle could scarcely dare to take possession of it.
+
+Then he bethought him of sending a letter, but was obliged to abandon
+the idea, as he had neither pen, pencil, ink, nor paper left to him.
+Whatever arts remained to them, that of any form of writing was now
+totally unknown to the Asiki, although marks that might be writing, it
+will be remembered, did appear on the inner side of the Little Bonsa
+mask, an evidence of its great antiquity. Even in the days when they had
+wrapped up the Egyptian, the Roman, and other early Munganas in sheets
+of gold and set them in their treasure-house, apparently they had no
+knowledge of it, for not even an hieroglyph or a rune appeared upon
+the imperishable metal shrouds. Since that time they had evidently
+decreased, not advanced, in learning till at the present day, except for
+these relics and some dim and meaningless survival of rites that once
+had been religious and were still offered to the same ancient idols,
+there was little to distinguish them from other tribes of Central
+African savages. Still Alan did something, for obtaining a piece of
+white wood, which he smoothed as well as he was able with a knife, he
+painted on it this message:
+
+"Messrs. Aston, Old Calabar. Please forward accompanying fifty-three
+packages, or as many as arrive, and cable as follows (all costs will be
+remitted): Miss Champers, Kingswell, England. Prisoner among Asiki.
+No present prospect of escape, but hope for best. Jeekie and I well.
+Allowed send this, but perhaps no future message possible. Good-bye.
+Alan."
+
+As it happened just as Alan was finishing this scrawl with a sad heart,
+he heard a movement and glancing up, perceived standing at his side
+the Asika, of whom he had seen nothing since the interview when she had
+beaten Jeekie:
+
+"What are those marks that you make upon the board, Vernoon?" she asked
+suspiciously.
+
+With the assistance of Jeekie, who kept at a respectful distance, he
+informed her that they were a message in writing to tell the white men
+at the coast to forward the gold to his starving family.
+
+"Oh!" she said, "I never heard of writing. You shall teach it me. It
+will serve to pass the time till we are married, though it will not
+be of much use afterwards, as we shall never be separated any more and
+words are better than marks upon a board. But," she added cheerfully, "I
+can send away this black dog of yours," and she looked at Jeekie, "and
+he can write to us. No, I cannot, for an accident might happen to him,
+and they tell me you say that if he dies, you die also, so he must stop
+here always. What have you in those little boxes?"
+
+"The gold you gave me, Asika, packed in loads."
+
+"A small gift enough," she answered contemptuously; "would you not like
+more, since you value that stuff? Well, another time you shall send all
+you want. Meanwhile the porters are waiting, fifty men and three, as you
+sent me word, and ten spare ones to take the place of any who die. But
+how they will find their way, I know not, since none of them have ever
+been to the coast."
+
+An idea occurred to Alan, who had small faith in Jeekie's "ma" as a
+messenger.
+
+"The Ogula prisoners could show them," he said; "at any rate as far as
+the forest, and after that they could find out. May they not go, Asika?"
+
+"If you will," she answered carelessly. "Let them be ready to start
+to-morrow at the dawn, all except their chief, Fahni, who must stop
+here as a hostage. I do not trust those Ogula, who more than once have
+threatened to make war upon us," she added, then turned and bade the
+priests bring in the bearers to receive their instructions.
+
+Presently they came, picked men all of them, under the command of an
+Asiki captain, and with them the Ogula, whom she summoned also.
+
+"Go where the white lord sends you," she said in an indifferent voice,
+"carrying with you these packages. I do not know where it is, but
+these man-eaters will show you some of the way, and if you fail in the
+business but live to come back again, you shall be sacrificed to Bonsa
+at the next feast; if you run away then your wives and children will be
+sacrificed. Food shall be given you for your journey, and gold to buy
+more when it is gone. Now, Vernoon, tell them what they have to do."
+
+So Alan, or rather Jeekie, told them, and these directions were so
+long and minute, that before they were finished the Asika grew tired
+of listening and went away, saying as she passed the captain of the
+company:
+
+"Remember my words, man, succeed or die, but of your land and its
+secrets say nothing."
+
+"I hear," answered the captain, prostrating himself.
+
+That night Alan summoned the Ogula and spoke to them through Jeekie in
+their own language. At first they declared that they would not leave
+their chief, preferring to stay and die with him.
+
+"Not so," said Fahni; "go, my children, that I may live. Go and gather
+the tribe, all the thousands of them who are men and can fight, and
+bring them up to attack Asiki-land, to rescue me if I still live, or to
+avenge me if I am dead. As for these bearers, do them no harm, but send
+them on to the coast with the white man's goods."
+
+So in the end the Ogula said that they would go, and when Alan woke
+up on the following morning, he was informed that they and the Asiki
+porters had already departed upon their journey. Then he dismissed the
+matter from his mind, for to tell the truth he never expected to hear of
+them any more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ALAN FALLS ILL
+
+After the departure of the messengers a deep melancholy fell upon Alan,
+who was sure that he had now no further hope of communicating with the
+outside world. Bitterly did he reproach himself for his folly in having
+ever journeyed to this hateful place in order to secure--what? About
+�100,000 worth of gold which of course he never could secure, as it
+would certainly vanish or be stolen on its way to the coast. For this
+gold he had become involved in a dreadful complication which must cost
+him much misery, and sooner or later life itself, since he could not
+marry that beautiful savage Asika, and if he refused her she would
+certainly kill him in her outraged pride and fury.
+
+Day by day she sent for him, and when he came, assumed a new character,
+that of a woman humbled by a sense of her own ignorance, which she was
+anxious to amend. So he must play the role of tutor to her, telling her
+of civilized peoples, their laws, customs and religions, and instructing
+her how to write and read. She listened and learned submissively enough,
+but all the while Alan felt as one might who is called upon to teach
+tricks to a drugged panther. The drug in this case was her passion for
+him, which appeared to be very genuine. But when it passed off, or when
+he was obliged to refuse her, what, he wondered, would happen then?
+
+Anxiety and confinement told on him far more than all the hardships of
+his journey. His health ran down, he began to fall ill. Then as bad luck
+would have it, walking in that damp, unwholesome cedar garden, out of
+which he might not stray, he contracted the germ of some kind of fever
+which in autumn was very common in this poisonous climate. Three days
+later he became delirious, and for a week after that hung between life
+and death. Well was it for him that his medicine-chest still remained
+intact, and that recognizing his own symptoms before his head gave way,
+he was able to instruct Jeekie what drugs to give him at the different
+stages of the disease.
+
+For the rest his memories of that dreadful illness always remained very
+vague. He had visions of Jeekie and of a robed woman whom he knew to be
+the Asika, bending over him continually. Also it seemed to him that from
+time to time he was talking with Barbara, which even then he knew must
+be absurd, for how could they talk across thousands of miles of land and
+sea.
+
+At length his mind cleared suddenly, and he awoke as from a nightmare to
+find himself lying in the hall or room where he had always been, feeling
+quite cool and without pain, but so weak that it was an effort to him to
+lift his hand. He stared about him and was astonished to see the white
+head of Jeekie rolling uneasily to and fro upon the cushions of another
+bed near by.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "are you ill too, Jeekie?"
+
+At the sound of that voice his retainer started up violently.
+
+"What, Major, you awake?" he said. "Thanks be to all gods, white and
+black, yes, and yellow too, for I thought your goose cooked. No, no,
+Major, I not ill, only Asika say so. You go to bed, so she make me go
+to bed. You get worse, she treat me cruel; you seem better, she stuff me
+with food till I burst. All because you tell her that you and I die same
+day. Oh, Lord! poor Jeekie think his end very near just now, for he know
+quite well that she not let him breathe ten minutes after you peg out.
+Jeekie never pray so hard for anyone before as he pray this week for
+you, and by Jingo! I think he do the trick, he and that medicine stuff
+which make him feel very bad in stomach," and he groaned under the
+weight of his many miseries.
+
+Weak as he was Alan began to laugh, and that laugh seemed to do him more
+good than anything that he could remember, for after it he was sure that
+he would recover.
+
+Just then an agonized whisper reached him from Jeekie.
+
+"Look out!" it said, "here come Asika. Go sleep and seem better, Major,
+please, or I catch it hot."
+
+So Alan almost shut his eyes and lay still. In another moment she was
+standing over him and he noticed that her hair was dishevelled and her
+eyes were red as though with weeping. She scanned him intently for a
+little while, then passed round to where Jeekie lay and appeared to
+pinch his ear so hard that he wriggled and uttered a stifled groan.
+
+"How is your lord, dog?" she whispered.
+
+"Better, O Asika, I think that last medicine do us good, though it make
+me very sick inside. Just now he spoke to me and said that he hoped
+that your heart was not sad because of him and that all this time in his
+dreams he had seen and thought of nobody but you, O Asika."
+
+"Did he?" asked that lady, becoming intensely interested. "Then tell me,
+dog, why is he ever calling upon one Bar-bar-a? Surely that is a woman's
+name?"
+
+"Yes, O Asika, that is the name of his mother, also of one of his
+sisters, whom, after you, he loves best of anyone in the whole world.
+When you are here he talks of them, but when you are not here he talks
+of no one but you. Although he is so sick he remembers white man's
+custom, which tells him that it is very wrong to say sweet things to
+lady's face till he is quite married to her. After that they say them
+always."
+
+She looked at him suspiciously and muttering, "Here it is otherwise. For
+your own sake, man, I trust that you do not lie," left him, and
+drawing a stool up beside Alan's bed, sat herself down and examined him
+carefully, touching his face and hands with her long thin fingers.
+Then noting how white and wasted he was, of a sudden she began to weep,
+saying between her sobs:
+
+"Oh! if you should die, Vernoon, I will die also and be born again not
+as Asika, as I have been for so many generations, but as a white woman
+that I may be with you. Only first," she added, setting her teeth, "I
+will sacrifice every wizard in this land, for they have brought the
+sickness on you by their magic, and I will burn Bonsa-town and cast its
+gods to melt in the flames, and the Mungana with them. And then amid
+their ashes I will let out my life," and again she began to weep very
+piteously and to call him by endearing names and pray him that he would
+not die.
+
+Now Alan thought it time to wake up. He opened his eyes, stared at her
+vacantly, and asked if it were raining, which indeed it might have been,
+for her big tears were falling on his face. She uttered a gasp of joy.
+
+"No, no," she answered, "the weather is very fine. It is I--I who have
+rained because I thought you die." She wiped his forehead with the soft
+linen of her robe, then went on, "But you will not die; say that you
+will live, say that you will live for me, Vernoon."
+
+He looked at her, and feeble though he was, the awfulness of the
+situation sank into his soul.
+
+"I hope that I shall live," he answered. "I am hungry, please give me
+some food."
+
+Next instant there was a tumult near by, and when Alan looked up again
+it was to see Jeekie, very lightly clad, flying through the door.
+
+"It will be here presently," she said. "Oh! if you knew what I have
+suffered, if you only knew. Now you will recover whom I thought dead,
+for this fever passes quickly and there shall be such a sacrifice--no, I
+forgot, you hate sacrifices--there shall be no sacrifice, there shall
+be a thanksgiving, and every woman in the land shall break her bonds to
+husband or to lover and take him whom she desires without reproach or
+loss. I will do as I would be done by, that is the law you taught me, is
+it not?"
+
+This novel interpretation of a sacred doctrine, worthy of Jeekie
+himself, so paralyzed Alan's enfeebled brain that he could make no
+answer, nor do anything except wonder what would happen in Asiki-land
+when the decree of its priestess took effect. Then Jeekie arrived
+with something to drink which he swallowed with the eagerness of the
+convalescent and almost immediately went to sleep in good earnest.
+
+Alan's recovery was rapid, since as the Asika had told him, if a patient
+lives through it, the kind of fever that he had taken did not last long
+enough to exhaust his vital forces. When she asked him if he needed
+anything to make him well, he answered:
+
+"Yes, air and exercise."
+
+She replied that he should have both, and next morning his hated mask
+was put upon his face and he was supported by priests to a door where a
+litter, or rather litters were waiting, one for himself and another
+for Jeekie who, although in robust health, was still supposed to be
+officially ill and not allowed to walk upon his own legs. They entered
+these litters and were borne off till presently they met a third litter
+of particularly gorgeous design carried by masked bearers, wherein was
+the Asika herself, wearing her coronet and a splendid robe.
+
+Into this litter, which was fitted with a second seat, Alan was
+transferred, the Mungana, for whom it was designed, being placed in that
+vacated by Alan, which either by accident or otherwise, was no more seen
+that day. They went up the mountain side and to the edge of the great
+fall and watched the waters thunder down, though the crest of them
+they could not reach. Next they wandered off into the huge forests that
+clothed the slopes of the hills and there halted and ate. Then as the
+sun sank they returned to the gloomy Bonsa-Town beneath them.
+
+For Alan, notwithstanding his weakness and anxieties, it was a heavenly
+day. The Asika was passive, some new mood being on her, and scarcely
+troubled him at all except to call his attention to a tree, a flower, or
+a prospect of the scenery. Here on the mountain side, too, the air was
+sweet, and for the rest--well, he who had been so near to death, was
+escaped for an hour from that gloomy home of bloodshed and superstition,
+and saw God's sky again.
+
+This journey was the first of many. Every day the litters were waiting
+and they visited some new place, although into the town itself they
+never went. Moreover, if they passed through outlying villages, though
+Alan was forced to wear his mask, their inhabitants had been warned to
+absent themselves, so that they saw no one. The crops were left untended
+and the cattle and sheep lowed hungrily in their kraals. On certain
+days, at Alan's request, they were taken to the spots where the gold was
+found in the gravel bed of an almost dry stream that during the rains
+was a torrent.
+
+He descended from the litter and with the help of the Asika and Jeekie,
+dug a little in this gravel, not without reward, for in it they found
+several nuggets. Above, too, where they went afterwards, was a huge
+quartz reef denuded by water, which evidently had been worked in past
+ages and was still so rich that in it they saw plenty of visible gold.
+Looking at it Alan bethought him of his City days and of the hundreds
+of thousands of pounds capital with which this unique proposition might
+have been floated. Afterwards they were carried to the places where
+the gems were found, stuck about in the clay, like plums in a pudding,
+though none ever sought them now. But all these things interested the
+Asika not at all.
+
+"What is the good of gold," she asked of Alan, "except to make things
+of, or the bright stones except to play with? What is the good of
+anything except food to eat and power and wisdom that can open the
+secret doors of knowledge, of things seen and things unseen, and love
+that brings the lover joy and forgetfulness of self and takes away the
+awful loneliness of the soul, if only for a little while?"
+
+Not wishing to drift into discussion on the matter of love, Alan asked
+the priestess to define her "soul," whence it came and whither she
+believed it to be going.
+
+"My soul is I, Vernoon," she answered, "and already very, very old. Thus
+it has ruled amongst this people for thousands of years."
+
+"How is that?" he asked, "seeing that the Asika dies?"
+
+"Oh! no, Vernoon, she does not die; she only changes. The old body dies,
+the spirit enters into another body which is waiting. Thus until I was
+fourteen I was but a common girl, the daughter of a headman of that
+village yonder, at least so they tell me, for of this time I have no
+memory. Then the Asika died and as I had the secret marks and the beauty
+that is hers the priests burnt her body before Big Bonsa and suffocated
+me, the child, in the smoke of the burning. But I awoke again and when
+I awoke the past was gone and the soul of the Asika filled me, bringing
+with it its awful memories, its gathered wisdom, its passion of love and
+hate, and its power to look backward and before."
+
+"Do you ever do these things?" asked Alan.
+
+"Backward, yes, before very little; since you came, not at all, because
+my heart is a coward and I fear what I might see. Oh! Vernoon, Vernoon,
+I know you and your thoughts. You think me a beautiful beast who loves
+like a beast, who loves you because you are white and different from our
+men. Well, what there is of the beast in me the gods of my people gave,
+for they are devils and I am their servant. But there is more than that,
+there is good also which I have won for myself. I knew you would come
+even before I had seen your face, I knew you would come," she went
+on passionately, "and that is why I was yours already. But what would
+befall after you came, that I neither knew, nor know, because I will not
+seek, who could learn it all."
+
+He looked at her and she saw the doubt in his eyes.
+
+"You do not believe me, Vernoon. Very well, this night you shall see,
+you and that black dog of yours, that you may know I do not trick you,
+and he shall tell me what you see, for he being but a low-born pig will
+speak the truth, not minding if it hurts me, whereas you are gentle and
+might spare, and myself I have sworn not to search the future by an oath
+that I may not break."
+
+"What of the past?" asked Alan.
+
+"We will not waste time on it, for I know it all. Vernoon, have you no
+memories of Asiki-land? Do you think you never visited it before?"
+
+"Never," said Alan; "it was my uncle who came and ran away with Little
+Bonsa on his head."
+
+"That is news indeed," she replied mockingly. "Did you then think that I
+believed it to be you, though it is true that she who went before, or
+my spirit that was in her, fell into error for an hour, and thought that
+fool-uncle of yours was _the Man_. When she found her mistake she
+let him go, and bade the god go with him that it might bring back the
+appointed Man, as it has done; yes, that Little Bonsa, who knew him of
+old, might search him out from among all the millions of men, born or
+unborn, and bring him back to me. Therefore also she chose a young black
+dog who would live for many years, and bade the god to take him with
+her, and told him of the wealth of our people that it might be a bait
+upon the hook. Do you see, Vernoon, that yellow dirt was the bait, that
+I--I am the hook? Well, you have felt it before, so it should not gall
+you overmuch."
+
+Now Alan was more frightened than he had been since he set foot in
+Asiki-land, for of a sudden this woman became terrible to him. He felt
+that she knew things which were hidden from him. For the first time
+he believed in her, believed, that she was more than a mere passionate
+savage set by chance to rule over a bloodthirsty tribe; that she was one
+who had a part in his destiny.
+
+"Felt the hook?" he muttered. "I do not understand."
+
+"You are very forgetful," she answered. "Vernoon, we have lived and
+loved before, who were twin souls from the first. That man now, whom
+I told you lived once on the great river called the Nile, have you no
+memory of him? Well, well, let it be, I will tell you afterwards. Here
+we are at the Gold House again, to-night when I am ready I will send for
+you, and this I promise, you shall leave me wiser than you were."
+
+When they were alone in their room Alan told Jeekie of the expected
+entertainment of crystal gazing, or whatever it might be, and the part
+that he was to play in it.
+
+"You say that again, Major," said Jeekie.
+
+Alan repeated the information, giving every detail that he could
+remember.
+
+"Oh!" said Jeekie, "I see Asika show us things, 'cause she afraid to
+look at them herself, or take oath, or can't, or something. She no ask
+you tell her what she see, because you too kind hurt her feeling, if
+happen to be something beastly. But Jeekie just tell her because he so
+truthful and not care curse about her feeling. Well, that all right,
+Jeekie tell her sure enough. Only, Major, don't you interrupt. Quite
+possible these magic things, I see one show, you see another. So don't
+you go say, 'Jeekie, that a lie,' and give me away to Asika just because
+you think you see different, 'cause if so you put me into dirty hole,
+and of course I catch it afterwards. You promise, Major?"
+
+"Oh! yes, I promise. But, Jeekie, do you really think we are going to
+see anything?"
+
+"Can't say, Major," and he shook his head gloomily. "P'raps all put up
+job. But lots of rum things in world, Major, specially among beastly
+African savage who very curious and always ready pay blood to bad
+Spirit. Hope Asika not get this into her head, because no one know what
+happen. P'raps we see too much and scared all our lives; but p'raps all
+tommy rot."
+
+"That's it--tommy rot," answered Alan, who was not superstitious. "Well,
+I suppose that we must go through with it. But oh! Jeekie, I wish you
+would tell me how to get out of this."
+
+"Don't know, Major, p'raps never get out; p'raps learn how to-night.
+Have to do something soon if want to go. Mungana's time nearly up, and
+then--oh my eye!"
+
+
+
+It was night, about ten o'clock indeed, the hour at which Alan generally
+went to bed. No message had come and he began to hope that the Asika had
+forgotten, or changed her mind, and was just going to say so to Jeekie
+when a light coming from behind him attracted his attention and he
+turned to see her standing in a corner of the great room, holding a lamp
+in her hand and looking towards him. Her gold breastplate and crown were
+gone, with every other ornament, and she was clad, or rather muffled in
+robes of pure white fitted with a kind of nun's hood which lay back upon
+her shoulders. Also on her arm she carried a shawl or veil. Standing
+thus, all undecked, with her long hair fastened in a simple knot, she
+still looked very beautiful, more so than she had ever been, thought
+Alan, for the cruelty of her face had faded and was replaced by a
+mystery very strange to see. She did not seem quite like a natural
+woman, and that was the reason, perhaps, that Alan for the first time
+felt attracted by her. Hitherto she had always repelled him, but this
+night it was otherwise.
+
+"How did you come here?" he asked in a more gentle voice than he
+generally used towards her.
+
+Noting the change in his tone, she smiled shyly and even coloured a
+little, then answered:
+
+"This house has many secrets, Vernoon. When you are lord of it you shall
+learn them all, till then I may not tell them to you. But, come, there
+are other secrets which I hope you shall see to-night, and, Jeekie, come
+you also, for you shall be the mouth of your lord, so that you may tell
+me what perhaps he would hide."
+
+"I will tell you everything, everything, O Asika," answered Jeekie,
+stretching out his hands and bowing almost to the ground.
+
+Then they started and following many long passages as before, although
+whether they were the same or others Alan could not tell, came at last
+to a door which he recognized, that of the Treasure House. As they
+approached this door it opened and through it, like a hunted thing, ran
+the bedizened Mungana, husband of the Asika, terror, or madness, shining
+in his eyes. Catching sight of his wife, who bore the lamp, he threw
+himself upon his knees and snatching at her robe, addressed some
+petition to her, speaking so rapidly that Alan could not follow his
+words.
+
+For a moment she listened, then dragged her dress from his hand and
+spurned him with her foot. There was something so cruel in the gesture
+and the action, so full of deadly hate and loathing, that Alan, who
+witnessed it, experienced a new revulsion of feeling towards the
+Asika. What kind of a woman must she be, he wondered, who could treat a
+discarded lover thus in the presence of his successor?
+
+With a groan or a sob, it was difficult to say which, the poor man rose
+and perceived Alan, whose face he now beheld for the first time, since
+the Asika had told him not to mask himself as they would meet no one.
+The sight of it seemed to fill him with jealous fury; at any rate he
+leapt at his rival, intending, apparently, to catch him by the throat.
+Alan, who was watching him, stepped aside, so that he came into violent
+contact with the wall of the passage and, half-stunned by the shock,
+reeled onwards into the darkness.
+
+"The hog!" said the Asika, or rather she hissed it, "the hog, who dared
+to touch me and to strike at you. Well, his time is short--would that I
+could make it shorter! Did you hear what he sought of me?"
+
+Alan, who wished for no confidences, replied by asking what the Mungana
+was doing in the Treasure House, to which she answered that the spirits
+who dwelt there were eating up his soul, and when they had devoured it
+all he would go quite mad and kill himself.
+
+"Does this happen to all Munganas?" inquired Alan.
+
+"Yes, Vernoon, if the Asika hates them, but if she loves them it is
+otherwise. Come, let us forget the wretch, who would kill you if he
+could," and she led the way into the hall and up it, passing between the
+heaps of gold.
+
+On the table where lay the necklaces of gems she set down her lamp,
+whereof the light, all there was in that great place, flickered feebly
+upon the mask of Little Bonsa, which had been moved here apparently for
+some ceremonial purpose, and still more feebly upon the hideous, golden
+countenances and winding sheets of the ancient, yellow dead who stood
+around in scores placed one above the other, each in his appointed
+niche. It was an awesome scene and one that oppressed Jeekie very much,
+for he murmured to Alan:
+
+"Oh my! Major, family vault child's play to this hole, just like----"
+here his comparison came to an end, for the Asika cut it short with a
+single glance.
+
+"Sit here in front of me," she said to Alan, "and you, Jeekie, sit at
+your lord's side, and be silent till I bid you speak."
+
+Then she crouched down in a heap behind them, threw the cloth or veil
+she carried over her head, and in some way that they did not see,
+suddenly extinguished the lamp.
+
+Now they were in deep darkness, the darkness of death, and in utter
+silence, the silence of the dead. No glimmer of light, and yet to Alan
+it seemed as though he could feel the flash of the crystal eyes of
+Little Bonsa, and of all the other eyes set in the masks of those
+departed men who once had been the husbands of the bloodstained
+priestess of the Asiki, till one by one, as she wearied of them, they
+were bewitched to madness and to doom. In that utter quiet he thought
+even that he could hear them stir within their winding sheets, or it may
+have been that the Asika had risen and moved among them on some errand
+of her own. Far away something fell to the floor, a very light object,
+such as flake of rock or a scale of gold. Yet the noise of it struck his
+nerves loud as a clap of thunder, and those of Jeekie also, for he felt
+him start at his side and heard the sudden hammerlike beat of his heart.
+
+What was the woman doing in this dreadful place, he wondered. Well,
+it was easy to guess. Doubtless she had brought them here to scare and
+impress them. Presently a voice, that of some hidden priest, would speak
+to them, and they would be asked to believe it a message from the spirit
+world, or a spirit itself might be arranged--what could be easier in
+their mood and these surroundings?
+
+Now the Asika was speaking behind them in a muffled voice. From the tone
+of it she appeared to be engaged in argument or supplication in some
+strange tongue. At any rate Alan could not understand a word of what she
+said. The argument, or prayer, went on for a long while, with pauses
+as though for answers. Then suddenly it ceased and once more they were
+plunged into that unfathomable silence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN
+
+It seemed to Alan that he went to sleep and dreamed.
+
+He dreamed that it was late autumn in England. Leaves drifted down from
+the trees beneath the breath of a strong, damp wind, and ran or floated
+along the road till they vanished into a ditch, or caught against a pile
+of stones that had been laid ready for its repair. He knew the road well
+enough; he even knew the elm tree beneath which he seemed to stand on
+the crest of a hill. It was that which ran from Mr. Champers-Haswell's
+splendid house, The Court, to the church; he could see them both, the
+house to the right, the church to the left, and his eyesight seemed to
+have improved, since he was able to observe that at either place there
+was bustle and preparation as though for some big ceremony.
+
+Now the big gates of The Court opened and through them came a funeral.
+It advanced toward him with unnatural swiftness, as though it floated
+upon air, the whole melancholy procession of it. In a few seconds it had
+come and gone and yet during those seconds he suffered agony, for there
+arose in his mind a horrible terror that this was Barbara's burying. He
+could not have endured it for another moment; he would have cried out or
+died, only now the mourners passed him following the coffin, and in the
+first carriage he saw Barbara seated, looking sad and somewhat troubled,
+but well. A little further down the line came another carriage, and in
+it was Sir Robert Aylward, staring before him with cold, impassive face.
+
+In his dream Alan thought to himself that he must have borrowed this
+carriage, which would not be strange, as he generally used motors,
+for there was a peer's coronet upon the panels and the silver-mounted
+harness.
+
+The funeral passed and suddenly vanished into the churchyard gates,
+leaving Alan wondering why his cousin Haswell was not seated at
+Barbara's side. Then it occurred to him that it might be because he was
+in the coffin, and at that moment in his dream he heard the Asika asking
+Jeekie what he saw; heard Jeekie answering also, "A burying in the
+country called England."
+
+"Of whom, Jeekie?" Then after some hesitation, the answer:
+
+"Of a lady whom my lord loves very much. They bury her."
+
+"What was her name, Jeekie?"
+
+"Her name was Barbara."
+
+"Bar-bara, why that you told me was the name of his mother and his
+sister. Which of them is buried?"
+
+"Neither, O Asika. It was another lady who loved him very much and
+wanted to marry him, and that was why he ran away to Africa. But now she
+is dead and buried."
+
+"Are all women in England called Barbara, Jeekie?"
+
+"Yes, O Asika, Barbara means woman."
+
+"If your lord loved this Barbara, why then did he run away from her?
+Well, it matters not since she is dead and buried, for whatever their
+spirits may feel, no man cares for a woman that is dead until she
+clothes herself in flesh again. That was a good vision and I will reward
+you for it."
+
+"I have earned nothing, O Asika," answered Jeekie modestly, "who only
+tell you what I see as I must. Yet, O Asika," he added with a note of
+anxiety in his voice, "why do you not read these magic writings for
+yourself?"
+
+"Because I dare not, or rather because I can not," she answered
+fiercely. "Be silent, slave, for now the power of the good broods upon
+my soul."
+
+The dream went on. A great forest appeared, such a forest as they had
+passed before they met the cannibals, and set beneath one of the trees,
+a tent and in that tent Barbara, Barbara weeping. Someone began to lift
+the flap of the tent. She sprang up, snatching at a pistol that lay
+beside her, turning its muzzle towards her breast. A man entered the
+tent. Alan saw his face, it was his own. Barbara let fall the pistol
+and fell backwards as though a bullet from it had pierced her heart. He
+leapt towards her, but before he came to where she lay everything had
+vanished and he heard Jeekie droning out his lies to the Asika, telling
+her that the vision he had seen was one of her and his master seated
+with their arms about each other in a chamber of the Golden House.
+
+A third time the dream descended on Alan like a cloud. It seemed to him
+that he was borne beyond the flaming borders of the world. Everything
+around was new and unfamiliar, vast, changing, lovely, terrible. He
+stood alone upon a pearly plain and the sky above him was lit with red
+moons, many and many of them that hung there like lamps. Spirits began
+to pass him. He could catch something of their splendour as they sped
+by with incredible swiftness; he could hear the music of their laughter.
+One rose up at his side. It was the Asika, only a thousand times more
+splendid; clothed in all the glory of hell. Majestically she bent
+towards him, her glowing eyes held his, the deadly perfume of her breath
+beat upon his brow and made him drunken.
+
+She spoke to him and her voice sounded like distant bells.
+
+"Through many a life, through many a life," she said, "bought with much
+blood, paid for with a million tears, but mine at last, the soul that I
+have won to comfort my soul in the eternal day. Come to the place I have
+made ready for you, the hell that shall turn to heaven at your step,
+come, you by whom I am redeemed, and drive away those gods that torture
+me because I was their servant that I might win you."
+
+So she spoke, and though all his soul revolted, yet the fearful strength
+that was in her seemed to draw him onward whither she would go. Then a
+light shone and that light was the face of Barbara and with a suddenness
+that was almost awful, the wild dream came to an end.
+
+
+
+Alan was in his own room again, though how he got there he did not
+recollect.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "what has happened? I seem to have had a very curious
+dream, there in the Treasure-place, and to have heard you telling the
+Asika a string of incredible falsehoods."
+
+"Oh! no, Major, Jeekie can't lie, too good Christian; he tell her what
+_he_ see, or what he think she see if she look, 'cause though p'raps
+he see nothing, she never believe that. And," he added with a burst of
+confidence, "what the dickens it matter what he tell her, so long as she
+swallow same and keep quiet? Nasty things always make women like Asika
+quite outrageous. Give them sweet to suck, say Jeekie, and if they ill
+afterwards, that no fault of his. They had sweet."
+
+"Quite so, Jeekie, quite so, only I should advise you not to play too
+many tricks upon the Asika, lest she should happen to find you out. How
+did I get back here?"
+
+"Like man that walk in his sleep, Major. She go first, you follow, just
+as little lamb after Mary in hymn."
+
+"Jeekie, did you really see anything at all?"
+
+"No, Major, nothing partic'lar, except ghost of Mrs. Jeekie and of your
+reverend uncle, both of them very angry. That magic all stuff, Major.
+Asika put something in your grub make you drunk, so that you think her
+very wise. Don't think of it no more, Major, or you go off your chump.
+If Jeekie see nothing, depend on it there nothing to see."
+
+"Perhaps so, Jeekie, but I wish I could be sure you had seen nothing.
+Listen to me; we must get out of this place somehow, or as you say, I
+shall go off my chump. It's haunted, Jeekie, its haunted, and I think
+that Asika is a devil, not a woman."
+
+"That what priests say, Major, very old devil--part of Bonsa," he
+answered, looking at his master anxiously. "Well, don't you fret, Jeekie
+not afraid of devils, Jeekie get you out in good time. Go to bed and
+leave it all to Jeekie."
+
+
+
+Fifteen more days had gone by, and it was the eve of the night of the
+second full moon when Alan was destined to become the husband of the
+Asika. She had sent for him that morning and he found her radiant with
+happiness. Whether or no she believed Jeekie's interpretation of the
+visions she had called up, it seemed quite certain that her mind was
+void of fears and doubts. She was sure that Alan was about to become her
+husband, and had summoned all the people of the Asiki to be present at
+the ceremony of their marriage, and incidentally of the death of the
+Mungana who, poor wretch, was to be forced to kill himself upon that
+occasion.
+
+Before they parted she had spoken to Alan sweetly enough.
+
+"Vernoon," she said, "I know that you do not love me as I love you, but
+the love will come, since for your sake I will change myself. I will
+grow gentle; I will shed no more blood; that of the Mungana shall be the
+last, and even him I would spare if I could, only while he lives I may
+not marry you; it is the one law that is stronger than I am, and if
+I broke it I and you would die at once. You shall even teach me your
+faith, if you will, for what is good to you is henceforth good to me.
+Ask what you wish of me, and as an earnest I will do it if I can."
+
+Now Alan looked at her. There was one thing that he wished above all
+others--that she would let him go. But this he did not dare to ask;
+moreover, it would have been utterly useless. After all, if the Asika's
+love was terrible, what would be the appearance of her outraged hate?
+What could he ask? More gold? He hated the very name of the stuff, for
+it had brought him here. He remembered the old cannibal chief, Fahni,
+who, like himself, languished a prisoner, daily expecting death. Only
+that morning he had implored him to obtain his liberty.
+
+"I thank you, Asika," he said. "Now, if your words are true, set Fahni
+free and let him return to his own country, for if he stays here he will
+die."
+
+"Surely, Vernoon, that is a small thing," she answered, smiling, "though
+it is true that when he gets there he will probably make war upon
+us. Well, let him, let him." Then she clapped her hands and summoned
+priests, whom she bade go at once and conduct Fahni out of Bonsa-Town.
+Also she bade them loose certain slaves who were of the Ogula tribe,
+that they might accompany him laden with provisions, and send on orders
+to the outposts that Fahni and his party should pass unmolested from the
+land.
+
+This done, she began to talk to Alan about many matters, however little
+he might answer her. Indeed it seemed almost as though she feared to let
+him leave her side; as though some presentiment of loss oppressed her.
+
+At length, to Alan's great relief, the time came when they must
+part, since it was necessary for her to attend a secret ceremony of
+preparation or purification that was called "Putting-off-the-Past."
+Although she had been thrice summoned, still she would not let him go.
+
+"They call you, Asika," said Alan.
+
+"Yes, yes, they call me," she replied, springing up. "Leave me, Vernoon,
+till we meet to-morrow to part no more. Oh! why is my heart so heavy in
+me? That black dog of yours read the visions that I summoned but might
+not look on, and they were good visions. They showed that the woman
+who loved you is dead; they showed us wedded, and other deeper things.
+Surely he would not dare to lie to me, knowing that if he did I would
+flay him living and throw him to the vultures. Why, then, is my heart
+so heavy in me? Would you escape me, Vernoon? Nay, you are not so cruel,
+nor could you do it except by death. Moreover, man, know that even in
+death you cannot escape me, for there be sure I shall follow you and
+claim you, to whose side my spirit has toiled for ages, and what is
+there so strong that it can snatch you from my hand?"
+
+She looked at him a moment, and seizing his hand burst into a flood of
+tears, and seizing his hand threw herself upon her knees and kissed it
+again and again.
+
+"Go now," she said, "go, and let my love go with you, through lives and
+deaths, and all the dreams beyond, oh! let my love go with you, as it
+shall, Vernoon."
+
+So he went, leaving her weeping on her knees.
+
+
+
+During the dark hours that followed Alan and madness were not far apart.
+What could he do? Escape was utterly impossible. For weeks he and Jeekie
+had considered it in vain. Even if they could win out of the Gold House
+fortress, what hope had they of making their way through the crowded,
+tortuous town where, after the African fashion, peopled walked about all
+night, every one of whom would recognize the white man, whether he were
+masked or no? Besides, beyond the town were the river and the guarded
+walls and gates and beyond them open country where they would be cut off
+or run down. No, to attempt escape was suicide. Suicide! That gave him
+an idea, why should he not kill himself? It would be easy enough, for
+he still had his revolver and a few cartridges, and surely it was
+better than to enter on such a life as awaited him as the plaything of a
+priestess of a tribe of fetish-worshipping savages.
+
+But if he killed himself, how about Barbara and how about poor old
+Jeekie, who would certainly be killed also? Besides, it was not the
+right thing to do, and while there is life there is always hope.
+
+Alan paused in his walk up and down the room and looked at Jeekie,
+who sat upon the floor with his back resting against the stone altar,
+reflectively pulling down his thick under-lip and letting it fly back,
+negro-fashion.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "time's up. What am I to do?"
+
+"Do, Major?" he replied with affected cheerfulness. "Oh! that quite
+simple. Jeekie arrange everything. You marry Asika and by and by, when
+you master here and tired of her, you give her slip. Very interesting
+experience; no white man ever have such luck before. Asika not half bad,
+_if_ she fond of you; she like little girl in song, when she good,
+she very, very good. At any rate, nothing else to do. Marry Asika or
+spiflicate, which mean, Major, that Jeekie spiflicate too, and," he
+added, shaking his white head sadly, "he no like _that_. One or two
+little things on his mind that no get time to square up yet. Daren't
+pray like Christian here, 'cause afraid of Bonsas, and Bonsas come even
+with him by and by, 'cause he been Christian, so poor Jeekie fall down
+bump between two stools. 'Postles kick him out of heaven and Bonsas kick
+him out of hell, and where Jeekie go to then?"
+
+"Don't know, I am sure," answered Alan, smiling a little in spite of his
+sorrow, "but I think the Bonsas might find a corner for you somewhere.
+Look here, Jeekie, you old scamp, I am sorry for you, for you have been
+a good friend to me and we are fond of each other. But just understand
+this, I am not going to marry that woman if I can help it. It's against
+my principles. So I shall wait till to-morrow and then I shall walk out
+of this place. If the guards try to stop me I shall shoot them while I
+have any cartridges. Then I shall go on until they kill me."
+
+"Oh! But Major, they not kill you--never; they chuck blanket over your
+head and take you back to Asika. It Jeekie they kill, skin him alive-o,
+and all the rest of it."
+
+"Hope not, Jeekie, because they think we shall die the same day. But if
+so, I can't help it. To-morrow morning I shall walk out, and now that's
+settled. I am tired and going to sleep," and he threw himself down upon
+the bed and, being worn out with weariness and anxiety, soon fell fast
+asleep.
+
+But Jeekie did not sleep, although he too lay down upon his bed. On the
+contrary, he remained wide awake and reflected, more deeply perhaps
+than he had ever done before, being sure the superstition as to the
+dependence of Alan's life upon his own was now worn very thin, and that
+his hour was at hand. He thought of making Alan's wild attempt to
+depart impossible by the simple method of warning the Asika, but,
+notwithstanding his native selfishness, was too loyal to let that idea
+take root in his mind. No, there was nothing to be done; if the Major
+wished to start, the Major must start, and he, Jeekie, must pay the
+price. Well, he deserved it, who had been fool enough to listen to the
+secret promptings of Little Bonsa and conduct him to Asiki-land.
+
+Thus he passed several hours, for the most part in melancholy
+speculations as to the exact fashion of his end, until at length
+weariness overcame him also and, shutting his eyes, Jeekie began to
+doze. Suddenly he grew aware of the presence of some other person in
+the room, but thinking that it was only the Asika prowling about in her
+uncanny fashion, or perhaps her spirit, for how her body entered the
+place he could not guess, he did not stir, but lay breathing heavily and
+watching out of the corner of his eye.
+
+Presently a figure emerged from the shadows into the faint light thrown
+by the single lamp that burned above, and though it was wrapped in
+a dark cloak, Jeekie knew at once that it was not the Asika. Very
+stealthily the figure crept towards him, as a leopard might creep,
+and bent down to examine him. The movement caused the cloak to slip
+a little, and for an instant Jeekie caught sight of the wasted,
+half-crazed face of the Mungana, and of a long, curved knife that
+glittered in his hand. Paralyzed with fear, he lay quite still, knowing
+that should he show the slightest sign of consciousness that knife would
+pierce his heart.
+
+The Mungana watched him a while, then satisfied that he slept,
+turned round and, bending himself almost double, glided with infinite
+precautions towards Alan's bed, which stood some twelve or fourteen
+feet away. Silently as a snake that uncoils itself, Jeekie slipped from
+between his blankets and crept after him, his naked feet making no noise
+upon the mat-strewn floor. So intent was the Mungana upon the deed which
+he had come to do that he never looked back, and thus it happened that
+the two of them reached the bed one immediately behind the other.
+
+Alan was lying on his back with his throat exposed, a very easy victim.
+For a moment the Mungana stared. Then he erected himself like a snake
+about to strike, and lifted the great curved knife, taking aim at Alan's
+naked breast. Jeekie erected himself also, and even as the knife began
+to fall, with one hand he caught the arm that drove it and with the
+other the murderer's throat. The Mungana fought like a wild-cat, but
+Jeekie was too strong for him. His fingers held the man's windpipe like
+a vise. He choked and weakened; the knife fell from his hand. He sank to
+the ground and lay there helpless, whereon Jeekie knelt upon his chest
+and, possessing himself of the knife, held it within an inch of his
+heart.
+
+It was at this juncture that Alan woke up and asked sleepily what was
+the matter.
+
+"Nothing, Major," answered Jeekie in low and cheerful tones. "Snake
+just going to bite you and I catch him, that all," and he gave an extra
+squeeze to the Mungana's throat, who turned black in the face and rolled
+his eyes.
+
+"Be careful, Jeekie, or you will kill the man," exclaimed Alan,
+recognizing the Mungana and taking in the situation.
+
+"Why not, Major? He want kill you, and me too afterwards. Good riddance
+of bad rubbish, as Book say."
+
+"I am not so sure, Jeekie. Give him air and let me think. Tell him that
+if he makes any noise, he dies."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, and the Mungana's darkening eyes grew bright again as he
+drew his breath in great sobs.
+
+"Now, friend," said Alan in Asiki, "why did you wish to stab me?"
+
+"Because I hate you," answered the man, "who to-morrow will take my
+place and the wife I love."
+
+"As a year or two ago you took someone else's place, eh? Well, suppose
+now that I don't want either your place or your wife."
+
+"What would that matter even it if were true, white man, since she wants
+you?"
+
+"I am thinking, friend, that there is someone else she will want when
+she hears of this. How do you suppose that you will die to-morrow? Not
+so easily as you hope, perhaps."
+
+The Mungana's eyes seemed to sink into his head, and his face to sicken
+with terror. That shaft had gone home.
+
+"Suppose I make a bargain with you," went on Alan slowly. "Supposing
+I say: 'Mungana, show me the way out of this place, as you can, now at
+once. Or if you prefer it, refuse and be given up to the Asika?' Come,
+you are not too mad to understand. Answer--and quickly."
+
+"Would you kill me afterwards?" he asked.
+
+"Not I. Why should I wish to kill you? You can come with us and go where
+you will. Or you can stay here and die as the Asika directs."
+
+"I cannot believe you, white man. It is not possible that you should
+wish to run away from so much love and glory, or to spare one who
+would have slain you. Also it would be difficult to get you out of
+Bonsa-town."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "this fellow is mad after all, I think you had
+better go to the door and shout for the priests."
+
+"No, no, lord," begged the wretched creature, "I will trust you; I will
+try, though it is you who must be mad."
+
+"Very good. Stand over him, Jeekie, while I put on my things and, yes,
+give me that mask. If he stirs, kill him at once."
+
+So Alan made himself ready. Then he mounted guard over the Mungana, as
+did Jeekie, although he shook his head over their prospect of escape.
+
+"No go," he muttered, "no go! If we get past priests, Asika catch us
+with her magic. When I bolt with your reverend uncle last time, Little
+Bonsa arrange business because she go abroad fetch you. Now likely as
+not she bowl you out, and then good-bye Jeekie."
+
+Alan sternly bade him be quiet and stop behind if he did not wish to
+come.
+
+"No, no, Major," he answered, "I come all right. Asika very prejudiced
+beggar, and if she find me here alone--oh my! Better die double after
+all, Two's company, Major. Now, all ready, _March!_" and he gave the
+unfortunate Mungana a fearful kick as a hint to proceed.
+
+So utterly crushed was the poor wretch that even this insult did not
+stir him to resentment.
+
+"Follow me, white man," he said, "and if you desire to live, be silent.
+Throw your cloaks about your heads."
+
+They did so, and holding their revolvers in their right hands, glided
+after the Mungana. In the corner of the big room they came to a little
+stair. How it opened in that place where no stair had been, they could
+not see or even guess, for it was too dark, only now they knew the means
+by which the Asika had been able to visit them at night.
+
+The Mungana went first down the stair. Jeekie followed, grasping him by
+the arm with one hand, while in the other he kept his own knife ready
+to stab him at the first sign of treachery. Alan brought up the rear,
+keeping hold of Jeekie's cloak. They passed down twelve steps of stair,
+then turned to the right along a tunnel, then to the left, then to the
+right again. In the pitch darkness it was an awful journey, since they
+knew not whither they were being led, and expected that every moment
+would be their last. At length, quite of a sudden, they emerged into
+moonlight.
+
+Alan looked about him and knew the place. It was where the feast had
+been held two months before, when the priests were poisoned and the
+Bonsas chose the victims for sacrifice. Already it was prepared for the
+great festival of to-morrow, when the Mungana should drown himself and
+Alan be married to the Asika. There on the dais were the gold chairs in
+which they were to sit, and green branches of trees mixed with curious
+flags decked the vast amphitheatre beyond. Moreover, there was the broad
+canal, and floating in the midst of it the hideous gold fetish, Big
+Bonsa. The moon shone on its glaring, deathly eyes, its fish-like snout
+and its huge, pale teeth. Alan looked at it and shivered, for the thing
+was horrid and uncanny, and the utter loneliness in which it lay staring
+up at the moon, seemed to accentuate the horror.
+
+The Mungana noticed his fear and whispered:
+
+"We must swim the water. If you have a god, white man, pray him to
+protect you from Bonsa."
+
+"Lead on," answered Alan, "I do not dread a foul fetish, only the look
+of it. But is there no way round?"
+
+The Mungana shook his head and began to enter the canal. Jeekie, whose
+teeth were chattering, hung back, but Alan pushed him from behind, so
+sharply that he stumbled and made a splash. Then Alan followed, and as
+the cold, black water rose to his chest, looked again at Big Bonsa.
+
+It seemed to him that the thing had turned round and was staring at
+them. Surely a few seconds ago its snout pointed the other way. No, that
+must be fancy. He was swimming now, they were all swimming, Alan and
+Jeekie holding their pistols and little stock of cartridges above
+their heads to keep them dry. The gold head of Big Bonsa appeared to be
+lifting itself up in the water, as a reptile might, in order to get a
+better view of these proceedings, but doubtless it was the ripples that
+they caused which gave it this appearance. Only why did the ripples make
+it come towards them, quite gently, like an investigating fish?
+
+It was about ten yards off and they were in the middle of the canal. The
+Mungana had passed it. It was in a line with Alan's head. Oh Heavens! a
+sudden smother of foam, a rush like that of a torpedo, and set low down
+between two curving waves, a flash of gold. Then a gurgling, inhuman
+laugh and a weight upon his back. Down went Alan, down and down!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE END OF THE MUNGANA
+
+The moonlight above vanished. Alan was alone in the depths with this
+devil, or whatever it might be. He could feel hands and feet gripping
+and treading on him, but they did not seem to be human, for there were
+too many of them. Also they were very cold. He gave himself up for dead
+and thought of Barbara.
+
+Then something flashed into his mind. In his hand he still held the
+revolver. He pressed it upwards against the thing that was smothering
+him, and pulled the trigger. Again he pulled it, and again, for it was a
+self-cocking weapon, and even there deep down in the water he heard the
+thud of the explosion of the damp-proof copper cartridges. His lungs
+were bursting, his senses reeled, only enough of them remained to tell
+him that he was free of that strangling grip and floating upwards. His
+head rose above the surface, and through the mouth of his mask he drew
+in the sweet air with quick gasps. Down below him in the clear water
+he saw the yellow head of Big Bonsa rocking and quivering like a great
+reflected moon, saw too that it was beginning to rise. Yet he could not
+swim away from it, the fetish seemed to have hypnotized him. He heard
+Jeekie calling to him from the shallow water near the further bank, but
+still he floated there like a log and stared down at Big Bonsa wallowing
+beneath.
+
+Jeekie plunged back into the canal and with a few strong strokes reached
+him, gripped him by the arm and began to tow him to the shore. Before
+they came there Big Bonsa rose like a huge fish and tried to follow
+them, but could not, or so it seemed. At any rate it only whirled round
+and round upon the surface, while from it poured a white fluid that
+turned the black water to the hue of milk. Then it began to scream,
+making a thin and dreadful sound more like that of an infant in pain
+than anything they had ever heard, a very sickening sound that Alan
+never could forget. He staggered to the bank and stood staring at it
+where it bled, rolled and shrieked, but because of the milky foam could
+make nothing out in that light.
+
+"What is it, Jeekie?" he said with an idiotic laugh. "What is it?"
+
+"Oh! don't know. Devil and all, perhaps. Come on, Major, before it catch
+us."
+
+"I don't think it will catch anyone just at present. Devil or not
+hollow-nosed bullets don't agree with it. Shall I give it another,
+Jeekie?" and he lifted the pistol.
+
+"No, no, Major, don't play tomfool," and Jeekie grabbed him by the arm
+and dragged him away.
+
+A few paces further on stood the Mungana like a man transfixed, and even
+then Alan noticed that he regarded him with something akin to awe.
+
+"Stronger than the god," he muttered, "stronger than the god," and
+bounded forward.
+
+Following the path that ran beside the canal, they plunged into a
+tunnel, holding each other as before. In a few minutes they were through
+it and in a place full of cedar trees outside the wall of the Gold
+House, under which evidently the tunnel passed, for there it rose behind
+them. Beneath these cedar trees they flitted like ghosts, now in the
+moonlight and now in the shadow.
+
+The great fall to the back of the town was on their left, and in front
+of them lay one of the arms of the river, at this spot a raging
+torrent not much more than a hundred feet in width, spanned by a narrow
+suspension bridge which seemed to be supported by two fibre ropes. On
+the hither side of this bridge stood a guard hut, and to their dismay
+out of this hut ran three men armed with spears, evidently to cut them
+off. One of these men sped across the bridge and took his stand at the
+further end, while the other two posted themselves in their path at the
+entrance to it.
+
+The Mungana slacked his speed and said one word--"Finished!" and Jeekie
+also hesitated, then turned and pointed behind them.
+
+Alan looked back and flitting in and out between the cedar trees, saw
+the white robes of the priests of Bonsa. Then despair seized them all,
+and they rushed at the bridge. Jeekie reached it first and dodging
+beneath the spears of the two guards, plunged his knife into the breast
+of one of them, and butted the other with his great head, so that he
+fell over the side of the bridge on to the rocks below.
+
+"Cut, Major, cut!" he said to Alan, who pushed past him. "All right
+now."
+
+They were on the narrow swaying bridge--it was but a single plank--Alan
+first, then the Mungana, then Jeekie. When they were half way across
+Alan looked before him and saw a sight he could never forget.
+
+The third guard at the further side was sawing through one of the fibre
+ropes with his spear. There they were on the middle of the bridge with
+the torrent raving fifty feet beneath them, and the man had nearly
+severed the rope! To get over before it parted was impossible; behind
+were the priests; beneath the roaring river. All three of them stopped
+as though paralyzed, for all three had seen. Something struck against
+Alan's leg, it was his pistol that still remained fastened to his wrist
+by its leather thong. He cocked and lifted it, took aim and fired.
+The shot missed, which was not wonderful considering the light and the
+platform on which the shooter stood. It missed, but the man, astonished,
+for he had never seen or heard such a thing before, stopped his sawing
+for a moment, and stared at them. Then as he began again Alan fired once
+more, and this time by good fortune the bullet struck the man somewhere
+in the body. He fell, and as he fell grasped the nearly separated rope
+and hung to it.
+
+"Get hold of the other rope and come on," yelled Alan, and once more
+they bounded forward.
+
+"My God! it's going," he yelled again. "Hold fast, Jeekie, hold fast!"
+
+Next instant the rope parted and the man vanished. The bridge tipped
+over, and supported by the remaining rope, hung edgeways up. To this
+rope the three of them clung desperately, resting their feet upon the
+edge of the swaying plank. For a few seconds they remained thus, afraid
+to stir, then Jeekie called out:
+
+"Climb on, Major, climb on like one monkey. Look bad, but quite safe
+really."
+
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan began to climb, shifting his
+feet along the plank edge and his hands along the rope, which creaked
+and stretched beneath their threefold weight.
+
+It was a horrible journey, and in his imagination took at least an hour.
+Yet they accomplished it, for at last they found themselves huddled
+together but safe upon the further bank. The sweat pouring down from
+his head almost blinded Alan; a deadly nausea worked within him, sickly
+tremors shot up and down his spine; his brain swam. Yet he could hear
+Jeekie, in whom excitement always took the form of speech, saying
+loudly:
+
+"Think that man no liar what say our great papas was monkeys. Never look
+down on monkey no more. Wake up, Major, those priests monkey-men too,
+for we all brothers, you know. Wait a bit, I stop their little game,"
+and springing up with three or four cuts of the big curved knife, he
+severed the remaining rope just as their pursuers reached the further
+side of the chasm.
+
+They shouted with rage as the long bridge swung back against the rock,
+the cut end of it falling into the torrent, and waved their spears
+threateningly. To this demonstration Jeekie replied with gestures
+of contempt such as are known to street Arabs. Then he looked at the
+Mungana, who lay upon the ground a melancholy and dilapidated spectacle,
+for the perspiration had washed lines of paint off his face and patches
+of dye from his hair, also his gorgeous robes were water-stained and
+his gem necklaces broken. Having studied him a while Jeekie kicked
+him meditatively till he got up, then asked him to set out the exact
+situation. The Mungana answered that they were safe for a while, since
+that torrent could only be crossed by the broken bridge and was too
+rapid to swim. The Asiki, he added, must go a long journey round through
+the city in order to come at them, though doubtless they would hunt them
+down in time.
+
+Here Jeekie cut him short, since he knew all that country well and
+only wished to learn whether any more bridges had been built across the
+torrent since he was a boy.
+
+"Now, Major," he said, "you get up and follow me, for I know every inch
+of ground, also by and by good short cut over mountains. You see
+Jeekie very clever boy, and when he herd sheep and goat he made note of
+everything and never forget nothing. He pull you out of this hole, never
+fear."
+
+"Glad to hear it, I am sure," answered Alan as he rose. "But what's to
+become of the Mungana?"
+
+"Don't know and don't care," said Jeekie; "no more good to us. Can go
+and see how Big Bonsa feel, if he like," and stretching out his big hand
+as though in a moment of abstraction, he removed the costly necklaces
+from their guide's neck and thrust them into the pouch he wore. Also he
+picked up the gilded linen mask which Alan had removed from his head and
+placed it in the same receptacle, remarking, that he "always taught that
+it wicked to waste anything when so many poor in the world."
+
+Then they started, the Mungana following them. Jeekie paused and waved
+him off, but the poor wretch still came on, whereon Jeekie produced the
+big, crooked knife, Mungana's own knife.
+
+"What are you going to do," said Alan, awaking to the situation.
+
+"Cut off head of that cocktail man, Major, and so save him lot of
+trouble. Also we got no grub, and if we find any he want eat a lot. Chop
+what do for two p'raps, make very short commons for three. Also he might
+play dirty trick, so much best dead."
+
+"Nonsense," said Alan sternly; "let the poor devil come along if he
+likes. One good turn deserves another."
+
+"Just so, Major; that hello-swello want cut our throats, so I want cut
+his--one good turn deserve another, as wise king say in Book, when
+he give half baby to woman what wouldn't have it. Well, so be, Major,
+specially as it no matter, for he not stop with us long."
+
+"You mean that he will run away, Jeekie?"
+
+"Oh! no, he not run away, he in too blue funk for that. But something
+run away with him, because he ought die to-morrow night. Oh! yes, you
+see, you see, and Jeekie hope that something not run away with you too,
+Major, because you ought be married at same time."
+
+"Hope not, I am sure," answered Alan, and bethinking him of Big Bonsa
+wallowing and screaming on the water and bleeding out white blood, he
+shivered a little.
+
+By this time, advancing at a trot, the Mungana running after them like a
+dog, they had entered the bush pierced with a few wandering paths. Along
+these paths they sped for hour after hour, Jeekie leading them without
+a moment's hesitation. They met no man and heard nothing, except
+occasional weird sounds which Alan put down to wild beasts, but Jeekie
+and the Mungana said were produced by ghosts. Indeed it appeared that
+all this jungle was supposed to be haunted, and no Asiki would enter it
+at night, or unless he were very bold and protected by many charms, by
+day either. Therefore it was an excellent place for fugitives who sorely
+needed a good start.
+
+At length the day began to dawn just as they reached the main road where
+it crossed the hills, whence on his journey thither Alan had his first
+view of Bonsa Town. Peering from the edge of the bush, they perceived a
+fire burning near the road and round it five or six men, who seemed
+to be asleep. Their first thought was to avoid them, but the Mungana,
+creeping up to Alan, for Jeekie he would not approach, whispered:
+
+"Not Asiki, Ogula chief and slaves who left Bonsa Town yesterday."
+
+They crept nearer the fire and saw that this was so. Then rejoicing
+exceedingly, they awoke the old chief, Fahni, who at first thought they
+must be spirits. But when he recognized Alan, he flung himself on his
+knees and kissed his hand, because to him he owed his liberty.
+
+"No time for all that, Fahni," said Alan. "Give us food."
+
+Now of this as it chanced there was plenty, since by the Asika's orders
+the slaves had been laden with as much as they could carry. They ate of
+it ravenously, and while they ate, told Fahni something of the story of
+their escape. The old chief listened amazed, but like Jeekie asked Alan
+why he had not killed the Mungana, who would have killed him.
+
+Alan, who was in no mood for long explanations, answered that he had
+kept him with them because he might be useful.
+
+"Yes, yes, friend, I see," exclaimed the old cannibal, "although he is
+so thin he will always make a meal or two at a pinch. Truly white men
+are wise and provident. Like the ants, you take thought for the morrow."
+
+As soon as they had swallowed their food they started all together, for
+although Alan pointed out to Fahni that he might be safer apart, the old
+chief who had a real affection for him, would not be persuaded to leave
+him.
+
+"Let us live or die together," he said.
+
+Now Jeekie, abandoning the main road, led them up a stream, walking in
+the water so that their footsteps might leave no trace, and thus away
+into the barren mountains which rose between them and the great swamp.
+On the crest of these mountains Alan turned and looked back towards
+Bonsa Town. There far across the fertile valley was the hateful,
+river-encircled place. There fell the great cataract in the roar of
+which he had lived for so many weeks. There were the black cedars and
+there gleamed the roofs of the Gold House, his prison where dwelt the
+Asika and the dreadful fetishes of which she was the priestess. To him
+it was like the vision of a nightmare, he could scarcely think it real.
+And yet by this time doubtless they sought him far and wide. What mood,
+he wondered, would the Asika be in when she learned of his escape and
+the fashion of it, and how would she greet him if he were recaptured and
+taken back to her? Well, he would not be recaptured. He had still some
+cartridges and he would fight till they killed him, or failing that,
+save the last of them for himself. Never, never could he endure to be
+dragged back to Bonsa Town there to live and die.
+
+They went on across the mountains, till in the afternoon once more they
+saw the road running beneath them like a ribbon, and at the end of it
+the lagoon. Now they rested a while and held a consultation while they
+ate. Across that lagoon they could not escape without a canoe.
+
+"Lord," said the Mungana presently, "yesterday when these cannibals
+were let go a swift runner was sent forward commanding that a good boat
+should be provisioned and made ready for them, and by now doubtless this
+has been done. Let them descend to the road, walk on to the bay and ask
+for the boat. Look, yonder, far away a tongue of land covered with trees
+juts out into the lake. We will make our way thither and after nightfall
+this chief can row back to it and take us into the canoe."
+
+Alan said that the plan was good, but Jeekie shook his head, asking what
+would happen if Fahni, finding himself safe upon the water, thought it
+wisest not to come to fetch them.
+
+Alan translated his words to the old chief, whereon Fahni wanted to
+fight Jeekie because of the slur that he had cast upon his honour. This
+challenge Jeekie resolutely declined, saying that already there were
+plenty of ways to die in Asiki-land without adding another to them. Then
+Fahni swore by his tribal god and by the spirit of every man he had
+ever eaten, that he would come to that promontory after dark, if he were
+still alive.
+
+So they separated, Fahni and his men slipping down to the road, which
+they did without being seen by anyone, while Alan, Jeekie and the
+Mungana bore away to the right towards the promontory. The road was long
+and rough and, though by good fortune they met no one, since the few who
+dwelt in these wild parts had gone up to Bonsa Town to be present at
+the great feast, the sun was sinking before ever they reached the place.
+Moreover, this promontory proved to be covered with dense thorn scrub,
+through which they must force a way in the gathering darkness, not
+without hurt and difficulty. Still they accomplished it and at length,
+quite exhausted, crept to the very point, where they hid themselves
+between some stones at the water's edge.
+
+Here they waited for three long hours, but no boat came.
+
+"All up a gum-tree now, Major," said Jeekie. "Old blackguard, Fanny,
+bolt and leave us here, and to-morrow morning Asika nobble us. Better
+have gone down to bay, steal his boat and leave him behind, because
+Asika no want _him_."
+
+Alan made no answer. He was too tired, and although he trusted Fahni, it
+seemed likely enough that Jeekie was right, or perhaps the cannibals had
+not been able to get the boat. Well, he had done his best, and if Fate
+overtook them it was no fault of his. He began to doze, for even their
+imminent peril could not keep his eyes open, then presently awoke with
+a start, for in his sleep he thought he heard the sounds of paddles
+beating the quiet water. Yes, there dimly seen through the mist, was a
+canoe, and seated in the stern of it Fahni. So that danger had gone by
+also.
+
+He woke his companions, who slept at his side, and very silently they
+rose, stepping from rock to rock till they reached the canoe and entered
+it. It was not a large craft, barely big enough to hold them all indeed,
+but they found room, and then at a sign from Fahni the oarsmen gave way
+so heartily that within half an hour they had lost sight of the accursed
+shores of Asiki-land, although presently its mountains showed up clearly
+beneath the moon.
+
+Meanwhile Fahni had told his tale. It appeared that when he reached the
+bay he found the Asiki headman who dwelt there, and those under him, in
+a state of considerable excitement.
+
+Rumours had reached them that someone had escaped from Bonsa Town; they
+thought it was the Mungana. Fahni asked who had brought the rumour,
+whereon the headman answered that it came "in a dream," and would say no
+more. Then he demanded the canoe which had been promised to him and his
+people, and the headman admitted that it was ready in accordance with
+orders received from the Asika, but demurred to letting him have it. A
+long argument followed, in the midst of which Fahni and his men got into
+the canoe, the headman apparently not daring to use force to prevent
+him. Just as they were pushing off a messenger arrived from Bonsa Town,
+reeling with exhaustion and his tongue hanging from his jaws, who called
+out that it was the white man who had escaped with his servant and the
+Mungana, and that although they were believed to be still hidden in the
+holy woods near Bonsa Town, none were to be allowed to leave the bay. So
+the headman shouted to Fahni to return, but he pretended not to hear
+and rowed away, nor did anyone attempt to follow him. Still it was only
+after nightfall that he dared to put the boat about and return to the
+headland to pick up Alan and the others as he had promised. That was all
+he had to say.
+
+Alan thanked him heartily for his faithfulness and they paddled on
+steadily, putting mile after mile of water between them and Asiki-land.
+He wondered whether he had seen the last of that country and its
+inhabitants. Something within him answered No. He was sure that the
+Asika would not allow him to depart in peace without making some
+desperate effort to recapture him. Far as he was away, it seemed to him
+that he could feel her fury hanging over him like a cloud, a cloud that
+would burst in a rain of blood. Doubtless it would have burst already
+had it not been for the accident that he and his companions were still
+supposed to be hiding in the woods. But that error must be discovered,
+and then would come the pursuit.
+
+He looked at the full moon shining upon him and reflected that at this
+very hour he should have been seated upon the chair of state, wedding,
+or rather being wedded by the Asika in the presence of Big and Little
+Bonsa and all the people. His eye fell upon the Mungana, who had also
+been destined to play a prominent part in that ceremony. At once he saw
+that there was something wrong with the man. A curious change had come
+over his emaciated face. It was working like that of a maniac. Foam
+appeared upon his dyed lips, his haunted eyes rolled, his thin hands
+gripped the side of the canoe and he began to sing, or rather howl like
+a dog baying at the stars. Jeekie hit him on the head and bade him be
+silent, but he took no notice, even when he hit him again more heavily.
+Presently came the climax. The man sprang up in the canoe, causing it
+to rock from side to side. He pointed to the full moon above and howled
+more loudly than before; he pointed to something that he seemed to see
+in the air near by and gibbered as though in terror. Then his eyes fixed
+themselves upon the water at which he stared.
+
+Harder and harder he stared, his head sinking lower every moment, till
+at length without another sound, very quietly and unexpectedly he
+went over the side of the boat. For a few seconds they saw his
+bright-coloured garments sinking to the depths, then he vanished.
+
+They waited a while, expecting that he would rise again. But he never
+rose. A shot-weighted corpse could not have disappeared more finally and
+completely. The thing was very awful, and for a while there was silence,
+which as usual was broken by Jeekie.
+
+"That gay dog gone," he said in a reflective voice. "All those old
+ghosts come to fetch him at proper time. No good run away from ghosts;
+they travel too quick; one jump, and pop up where you no expect. Well,
+more place for Jeekie now," and he spread himself out comfortably in the
+empty seat, adding, "like hello-swello's room much better than company,
+he go in scent-bath every day and stink too much, all that water never
+wash _him_ clean."
+
+Thus died the Mungana, and such was the poor wretch's requiem. With
+a shiver Alan reflected that had it not been for him and his insane
+jealousy, he too might have been expected to go into that same
+scent-bath and have his face painted like a chorus girl. Only would he
+escape the spell that had destroyed his predecessor in the affections of
+the priestess of the Bonsas? Or would some dim power such as had drawn
+Mungana to the death drag him back to the arms of the Asika or to the
+torture pit of "Great Swimming Head." He remembered his dream in the
+Treasure Hall and shuddered at the very thought of it, for all he had
+undergone and seen made him superstitious; then bade the men paddle
+faster, ever faster.
+
+All that night they rowed on, taking turns to rest, except Alan and
+Jeekie, who slept a good deal and as a consequence awoke at dawn much
+refreshed. When the sun rose they found themselves across the lagoon,
+over thirty miles from the borders of Asiki-land, almost at the spot
+where the river up which they had travelled some months before,
+flowed out of the lake. Whether by chance or skill Fahni had steered a
+wonderfully straight course. Now, however, they were face to face with a
+new trouble, for scarcely had they begun to descend the river when they
+discovered that at this dry season of the year it was in many places
+too shallow to allow the canoe to pass over the sand and mud banks.
+Evidently there was but one thing to be done--abandon it and walk.
+
+So they landed, ate from their store of food and began a terrible and
+toilsome journey. On either side of the river lay dessicated swamp
+covered with dead reeds ten or twelve feet high. Doubtless beyond the
+swamp there was high land, but in order to reach this, if it existed,
+they would be obliged to force a path through miles of reeds. Therefore
+they thought it safer to follow the river bank. Their progress was very
+slow, since continually they must make detours to avoid a quicksand or
+a creek, also the stones and scrubby growth delayed them so that fifteen
+or at most twenty miles was a good day's march.
+
+Still they went on steadily, seeing no man, and when their food was
+exhausted, living on the fish which they caught in plenty in the
+shallows, and on young flapper ducks that haunted the reeds. So at
+length they came to the main river into which this tributary flowed, and
+camped there thankfully, believing that if any pursuit of them had been
+undertaken, it was abandoned. At least Alan and the rest believed this,
+but Jeekie did not.
+
+On the following morning, shortly after dawn, Jeekie awoke his master.
+
+"Come here, Major," he said in a solemn voice, "I got something pretty
+show you," and he led him to the foot of an old willow tree, adding,
+"now up you go, Major, and look."
+
+So Alan went up and from the topmost fork of that tree saw a sight at
+which his blood turned cold. For there, not five miles behind them,
+on either side of the river bank, the light gleaming on their spears,
+marched two endless columns of men, who from their head-dresses he
+took to be Asiki. For a minute he looked, then descended the tree and
+approaching the others, asked what was to be done.
+
+"Hook, scoot, bolt, leg it!" exclaimed Jeekie emphatically; then he
+licked his finger, held it up to the wind and added, "but first fire
+reeds and make it hot for Bonsa crowd."
+
+This was a good suggestion and one on which they acted without delay.
+Taking red embers, they blew them into a flame and lit torches, which
+they applied to the reeds over a width of several hundred yards. The
+strong northward wind soon did the rest; indeed with a quarter of an
+hour a vast sheet of flame twenty or thirty feet in height was rushing
+towards the Asiki columns. Then they began their advance along the river
+bank, running at a steady trot, for here the ground was open.
+
+All that day they ran, pausing at intervals to get their breath, and at
+night rested because they must. When the light came upon the following
+morning they looked back from a little hill and saw the outposts of the
+Asiki advancing not a mile behind. Doubtless some of the army had been
+burned, but the rest, guessing their route, had forced a way through
+the reeds and cut across country. So they began to run again harder than
+before, and kept their lead during the morning. But when afternoon came
+the Asika gained on them. Now they were breasting a long rise, the river
+running in the cleft beneath, and Jeekie, who seemed to be absolutely
+untiring, held Alan by the hand, Fahni following close behind. Two of
+their men had fallen down and been abandoned, and the rest straggled.
+
+"No go, Jeekie," gasped Alan, "they will catch us at the top of the
+hill."
+
+"Never say die, Major, never say die," puffed Jeekie, "they get blown
+too and who know what other side of hill?"
+
+Somehow they struggled to the crest and behold! there beneath them was a
+great army of men.
+
+"Ogula!" yelled Jeekie, "Ogula! Just what I tell you, Major, who know
+what other side of _any_ hill."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A MEETING IN THE FOREST
+
+In five minutes more Alan and Jeekie were among the Ogula, who, having
+recognized their chief while he was yet some way off, greeted him with
+rapturous cheers and the clapping of hands. Then as there was no time
+for explanation, they retreated across a little stream which ran down
+the valley, four thousand or more of them, and prepared for battle. That
+evening, however, there was no fighting, for when the first of the Asiki
+reached the top of the rise and saw that the fugitives had escaped to
+the enemy, who were in strength, they halted and finally retired.
+
+Now Alan, and Fahni also, hoped that the pursuit was abandoned, but
+again Jeekie shook his big head, saying:
+
+"Not at all, Major, I know Asiki and their little ways. While one of
+them alive, not dare go back to Asika without _you_, Major."
+
+"Perhaps she is with them herself," suggested Alan, "and we might treat
+with her."
+
+"No, Major, Asika never leave Bonsa Town, that against law, and if she
+do so, priests make another Asika and kill her when they catch her."
+
+After this a council of war was held, and it was decided to camp there
+that night, since the position was good to meet an attack if one should
+be made, and the Ogula were afraid of being caught on the march with
+their backs towards the enemy. Alan was glad enough to hear this
+decision, for he was quite worn out and ready to take any risk for a
+few hours' rest. At this council he learned also that the Asiki bearers
+carrying his gold with their Ogula guides had arrived safely among
+the Ogula, who had mustered in answer to their chief's call and were
+advancing towards Asiki-land, though the business was one that did not
+please them. As for these Asiki bearers, it seemed that they had gone on
+into the forest with the gold, and nothing more had been heard of them.
+
+As they were leaving the council Alan asked Jeekie if he had any tidings
+of his mother, who had been their first messenger.
+
+"No, Major," he answered gloomily, "can't learn nothing of my ma, don't
+know where she is. Ogula camp no place for old girl if they short of
+chop and hungry. But p'raps she never get there; I nose round and find
+out."
+
+Apparently Jeekie did "nose round" to some purpose, for just as Alan
+was dropping off to sleep in his bough shelter a most fearful din
+arose without, through which he recognized the vociferations of Jeekie.
+Running out of the shelter he discovered his retainer and a great Ogula
+whom he knew again as the headman who had been imprisoned with him and
+freed by the Asika to guide the bearers, rolling over and over on the
+ground, watched by a curious crowd. Just as he arrived Jeekie, who
+notwithstanding his years was a man of enormous strength, got the better
+of the Ogula and kneeling on his stomach, was proceeding to throttle
+him. Rushing at him, Alan dragged him off and asked what was the matter.
+
+"Matter, Major!" yelled the indignant Jeekie. "My ma inside this black
+villain, _that_ the matter. Dirty cannibal got digestion of one ostrich
+and eat her up with all his mates, all except one who not like her taste
+and tell me. They catch poor old lady asleep by road so stop and lunch
+at once when Asiki bearers not looking. Let me get at him, Major, let me
+get at him. If I can't bury my ma, as all good son ought to do, I bury
+him, which next best thing."
+
+"Jeekie, Jeekie," said Alan, "exercise a Christian spirit and let
+bygones be bygones. If you don't, you will make a quarrel between us and
+the Ogula, and they will give us up to the Asiki. Perhaps the man
+did not eat your mother; I understand that he denies it, and when you
+remember what she was like, it seems incredible. At any rate he has a
+right to a trial, and I will speak to Fahni about it to-morrow."
+
+So they were separated, but as it chanced that case never came on, for
+next morning this Ogula was killed in the fighting together with two of
+his companions, while the others involved in the charge kept themselves
+out of sight. Whether Jeekie's "ma" was or was not eaten by the Ogula no
+one ever learned for certain. At least she was never heard of any more.
+
+Alan was sleeping heavily when a sound of rushing feet and of strange,
+thrilling battle-cries awoke him. He sprang up, snatching at a spear and
+shield which Jeekie had provided for him, and ran out to find from the
+position of the moon that dawn was near.
+
+"Come on, Major," said Jeekie, "Asiki make night attack; they always
+like do everything at night who love darkness, because their eye evil.
+Come on quick, Major," and he began to drag him off toward the rear.
+
+"But that's the wrong way," said Alan presently. "They are attacking
+over there."
+
+"Do you think Jeekie fool, Major, that he don't know that? He take you
+where they _not_ attacking. Plenty Ogula to be killed, but not _many_
+white men like you, and in all world only _one_ Jeekie!"
+
+"You cold-blooded old scoundrel!" ejaculated Alan as he turned and
+bolted back towards the noise of fighting, followed by his reluctant
+servant.
+
+By the time that he reached the first ranks, which were some way off,
+the worst of the attack was over. It had been short and sharp, for the
+Asiki had hoped to find the Ogula unprepared and to take their camp with
+a rush. But the Ogula, who knew their habits, were waiting for them,
+so that presently they withdrew, carrying off their wounded and leaving
+about fifty dead upon the ground. As soon as he was quite sure that the
+enemy were all gone, Jeekie, armed with a large battle-axe, went off to
+inspect these fallen soldiers. Alan, who was helping the Ogula wounded,
+wondered why he took so much interest in them. Half an hour later his
+curiosity was satisfied, for Jeekie returned with over twenty heavy gold
+rings, torques, and bracelets slung over his shoulder.
+
+"Where did you get those, Jeekie?" he asked.
+
+"Off poor chaps that peg out just now, Major. Remember Asiki soldiers
+nearly always wear these things and that they no more use to them. But
+if ever he get out of this Jeekie want spend his old age in respectable
+peace. So he fetch them. Hard work, though, for rings all in one bit
+and Asiki very tough to chop. Don't look cross, Major; you remember
+what 'postle say, that he who no provide for his own self worse than
+cannibal."
+
+Just then Fahni came up and announced that the Asiki general had sent a
+messenger into the camp proposing terms of peace.
+
+"What terms?" asked Alan.
+
+"These, white man: that we should surrender you and your servant and go
+our way unharmed."
+
+"Indeed, Fahni, and what did you answer?"
+
+"White man, I refused; but I tell you," he added warningly, "that my
+captains wished to accept. They said that I had come back to them safe
+and that they fear the Asiki, who are devils, not men, and who will
+bring the curse of Bonsa on us if we go on fighting with them. Still I
+refused, saying that if they gave you up I would go with you, who saved
+my life from the lion and afterwards from the priests of Bonsa. So the
+messenger went back and, white man, we march at once, and I pray you
+always to keep close to me that I may watch over you."
+
+Then began that long tramp down the river, which Alan always thought
+afterwards tried him more than any of the terrible events of his escape.
+For although there was but little fighting, only rearguard actions
+indeed, every day the Asiki sent messengers renewing their offers of
+peace on the sole condition of the surrender of himself and Jeekie. At
+last one evening they came to that place where Alan first met the Ogula,
+and once more he camped upon the island on which he had shot the lion.
+At nightfall, after he had eaten, Fahni visited him here and Alan boded
+evil from his face.
+
+"White man," he said, "I can protect you no longer. The Asiki messengers
+have been with us again and they say that unless we give you up
+to-morrow at the dawn, their army will push on ahead of us and destroy
+my town, which is two days' march down the river, and all the women and
+children in it, and that afterwards they will fight a great battle with
+us. Therefore my people say that I must give you up, or that if I do not
+they will elect another chief and do so themselves."
+
+"Then you will give up a dead man, Fahni."
+
+"Friend," said the old chief in a low voice, "the night is dark and the
+forest not so far away. Moreover, I have set no guards on that side of
+the river, and Jeekie here does not forget a road that he has travelled.
+Lastly, I have heard it said that there are some other white people with
+soldiers camped in the edge of the forest. Now, if you were not here in
+the morning, how could I give you up?"
+
+"I understand, Fahni. You have done your best for me, and now,
+good-night. Jeekie and I are going to take a walk. Sometimes you will
+think of the months we spent together in Bonsa-Town, will you not?"
+
+"Yes, and of you also, white man, for so long as I shall live. Walk
+fast and far, for the Asiki are clever at following a spoor. Good-night,
+Friend, and to you, Jeekie the cunning, good-night also. I go to tell my
+captains that I will surrender you at dawn," and without more words he
+vanished out of their sight and out of their lives.
+
+Meanwhile Jeekie, foreseeing the issue of this talk, was already engaged
+in doing up their few belongings, including the gold rings, some food,
+and a native cooking pot, in a bundle surrounded by a couple of bark
+blankets.
+
+"Come on, Major," he said, handing Alan one spear and taking another
+himself. "Old cannibal quite right, very nice night for a walk. Come on,
+Major, river shallow just here. I think this happen and try it before
+dark. You just follow Jeekie, that all you got to do."
+
+So leaving the fire burning in front of their bough shelter, they waded
+the stream and started up the opposing slope, meeting no man. Dark as
+it was, Jeekie seemed to have no difficulty in finding the way, for as
+Fahni said, a native does not forget the path he has once travelled. All
+night long they walked rapidly, and when dawn broke found themselves at
+the edge of the forest.
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "what did Fahni mean by that tale about white
+people?"
+
+"Don't know, Major, think perhaps he lie to let you down easy. My golly!
+what that?"
+
+As he spoke a distant echo reached their ears, the echo of a rifle shot.
+"Think Fanny not lie after all," went on Jeekie; "that white man's gun,
+sharp crack, smokeless powder, but wonder how he come in this place.
+Well, we soon find out. Come on, Major."
+
+Tired as they were they broke into a run; the prospect of seeing a white
+face again was too much for them. Half a mile or so further on they
+caught sight of a figure evidently engaged in stalking game among the
+trees, or so they judged from his cautious movements.
+
+"White man!" said Jeekie, and Alan nodded.
+
+They crept forward silently and with care, for who knew what this white
+man might be after, keeping a great tree between them and the man, till
+at length, passing round its bole, they found themselves face to face
+with him and not five yards away. Notwithstanding his unaccustomed
+tropical dress and his face burnt copper colour by the sun, Alan knew
+the man at once.
+
+"Aylward!" he gasped; "Aylward! You here?"
+
+He started. He stared at Alan. Then his countenance changed. Its
+habitual calm broke up as it was wont to do in moments of deep emotion.
+It became very evil, as though some demon of hate and jealousy were at
+work behind it. The thin lips quivered, the eyes glared, and without
+spoken word or warning, he lifted the rifle and fired straight at Alan.
+The bullet missed him, for the aim was high. Passing over Alan's head,
+it cut a neat groove through the hair of the taller Jeekie who was
+immediately behind him.
+
+Next instant, with a spring like that of a tiger Jeekie was on Aylward.
+The weight of his charge knocked him backwards to the ground, and there
+he lay, pinned fast.
+
+"What for you do that?" exclaimed the indignant Jeekie. "What for you
+shoot through wool of respectable nigger, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart.? Now
+I throttle you, you dirty hog-swine. No Magistrates' Court here in Dwarf
+Forest," and he began to suit the action to the word.
+
+"Let him go, Jeekie. Take his rifle and let him go," exclaimed Alan, who
+all this while had stood amazed. "There must be some mistake, he cannot
+have meant to murder me."
+
+"Don't know what he mean, but know his bullet go through my hair, Major,
+and give me new parting," grumbled Jeekie as he obeyed.
+
+"Of course it was a mistake, Vernon, for I suppose it is Vernon," said
+Aylward, as he rose. "I do not wonder that your servant is angry, but
+the truth is that your sudden appearance frightened me out of my wits
+and I fired automatically. We have been living in some danger here and
+my nerves are not as strong as they used to be."
+
+"Indeed," answered Alan. "No, Jeekie will carry the rifle for you; yes,
+and I think that pistol also, every ounce makes a difference walking
+in a hot climate, and I remember that you always were dangerous with
+firearms. There, you will be more comfortable so. And now, who do you
+mean by 'we'?"
+
+"I mean Barbara and myself," he answered slowly.
+
+Alan's jaw dropped, he shook upon his feet.
+
+"Barbara and yourself!" he said. "Do I understand----"
+
+"Don't you understand nothing, Major," broke in Jeekie. "Don't you
+believe one word what this pig dog say. If Miss Barbara marry him he
+no want shoot you; he ask you to tea to see the Missus and how much she
+love him, ducky! We just go on and call on Miss Barbara and hear the
+news. Walk up, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., and show us which way."
+
+"I do not choose to receive you and your impertinent servant at my
+camp," said Aylward, grinding his teeth.
+
+"We quite understand that, Sir Robert Aylward----"
+
+"Lord Aylward, if you please, Major Vernon."
+
+"I beg your pardon--Lord Aylward. I was aware of the contemplated
+purchase of that title, I did not know that it had been completed. I was
+about to add that all the same we mean to go to that camp, and that
+if any violence towards us is attempted as we approach it, you will
+remember that you are in our hands."
+
+"Yes, my Lord," added Jeekie, bowing, "and that monkeys don't tell no
+tales, my Lord, and that here there ain't no twelve Good-Trues to sit
+on noble corpse unhappily deceased, my Lord, and to bring in Crowner's
+verdict of done to death lawful or unlawful, according as evidence may
+show when got, my Lord. So march on, for we no breakfast yet. No, not
+that way, round here to left, where I think I hear kettle sing."
+
+So having no choice, Aylward came, marching between the other two and
+saying nothing. When they had gone a couple of hundred yards Alan also
+heard something, and to him it sounded like a man crying out in pain.
+Then suddenly they passed round some great trees and reached a glade in
+the forest where there was a spring of water which Alan remembered. In
+this glade the camp had been built, surrounded by a "boma" or palisade
+of rough wood, within which stood two tents and some native shelters
+made of tall grass and boughs. Outside of this camp a curious and
+unpleasant scene was in progress.
+
+To a small tree that grew there was tied a man, whom from the fashion
+of his hair Alan knew to belong to the Coast negroes, while two great
+fellows, evidently of another tribe, flogged him unmercifully with hide
+whips.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Jeekie, "that the kettle I hear sing. Think you better
+taken him off the fire, my Lord, or he boil over. Also his brothers no
+seem to like that music," and he pointed to a number of other men who
+were standing round watching the scene with sullen dissatisfaction.
+
+"A matter of camp discipline," muttered Aylward. "This man has disobeyed
+orders."
+
+By now Jeekie was shouting something to the natives in an unknown
+tongue, which they seemed to understand well enough. At any rate the
+flogging ceased, the two fellows who were inflicting it slunk away, and
+the other men ran towards them, shouting back as they came.
+
+"All right, Major. You please stop here one minute with my Lord, late
+Bart. of Bloody Hand. Some of these chaps friends of mine, I meet them
+Old Calabar while we get ready to march last rains. Now I have little
+talk with them and find out thing or two."
+
+Aylward began to bluster about interference with his servants and so
+forth. Jeekie turned on him with a very ugly grin, and showing his white
+teeth, as was his fashion when he grew fierce.
+
+"Beg pardon, Right Honourable Lord," he said, or rather snarled, "you
+do what I tell you just to please Jeekie. Jeekie no one in England, but
+Jeekie damn big Lord too out here, great medicine man, pal of Little
+Bonsa. You remember Little Bonsa, eh! These chaps think it great honour
+to meet Jeekie, so, Major, if he stir, please shoot him through head;
+Jeekie 'sponsible, not you. Or if you not like do it, I come back and
+see to job myself and don't think those fellows cry very much."
+
+There was something about Jeekie's manner that frightened Aylward, who
+understood for the first time that beneath all the negro's grotesque
+talk lay some dreadful, iron purpose, as courage lay under his affected
+cowardice and under his veneer of selfishness, fidelity. At any rate he
+halted with Alan, who stood beside him, the revolver of which Aylward
+had been relieved by Jeekie, in his hand. Meanwhile Jeekie, who held the
+rifle which he had reloaded, went on and met the natives about twenty
+yards away.
+
+"We always disliked each other, Vernon, but I must say that I never
+thought a day would come when you proposed to murder me in my own camp,"
+said Aylward.
+
+"Odd thing," answered Alan, "but a very similar idea was in my mind.
+I never thought, Lord Aylward, that however unscrupulous you might
+be--financially--a day would come when you would attempt to shoot down
+an unarmed man in an African forest. Oh! don't waste breath in lying; I
+saw you recognize me, aim, and fire, after which Jeekie would have had
+the other barrel, and who then would have remained to tell the story,
+Lord Aylward?"
+
+Aylward made no answer, but Alan felt that if wishes could kill him he
+would not live long. His eye fell upon a long, unmistakable mound of
+fresh earth, beneath a tree. He calculated its length, and with a thrill
+of terror noticed that it was too small for a negro.
+
+"Who is buried there?" he asked.
+
+"Find out for yourself," was the sneering answer.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Lord Aylward; I shall find out everything in time."
+
+The conversation between Jeekie and the natives proceeded, their heads
+were close together; it grew animated. They seemed to be coming to some
+decision. Presently one of them ran and cut the lashings of the man who
+had been bound to the tree, and he staggered towards them and joined
+in the talk, pointing to his wounds. Then the two fellows who had been
+engaged in flogging him, accompanied by eight companions of the same
+type--they appeared to be soldiers, for they carried guns--swaggered
+towards the group who were being addressed by Jeekie, of whom Alan
+counted twenty-three. As they approached Jeekie made some suggestion
+which, after one hesitating moment, the others seemed to accept, for
+they nodded their heads and separated out a little.
+
+Jeekie stepped forward and asked a question of the guards, to which they
+replied with a derisive shout. Then without a word of warning he lifted
+Aylward's express rifle which he carried, and fired first one barrel and
+then the other, shooting the two leading soldiers dead. Their companions
+halted amazed, but before they could lift their guns, Jeekie and those
+with him rushed at them and began stabbing them with spears and striking
+them with sticks. In three minutes it was over without another shot
+being fired. Most of them were despatched, and the others, throwing down
+their guns, had fled wounded into the forest.
+
+Now, shouting in jubilation, some of the men began to drag away the dead
+bodies, while others collected the rifles and the remainder, headed by
+Jeekie, advanced towards Alan and Aylward, waving their red spears. Alan
+stood staring, for he did not in the least understand the meaning of
+what had happened, but Aylward, who had turned very pale, addressed
+Jeekie, saying:
+
+"I suppose that you have come to murder me also, you black villain."
+
+"No, no, my Lord," answered Jeekie politely, "not at present. Also that
+wrong word, execute, not murder, just what you do to some of these poor
+devils," and he pointed to the mob of porters. "Besides, mustn't kill
+holy white man, poor black chap don't matter, plenty more where he come
+from. Think we all go see Miss Barbara now. You come too, my Lord Bart.,
+but p'raps best tie your hands behind you first; if you want scratch
+head, I do it for you. That only fair, you scratch mine this morning."
+
+Then at a word from Jeekie some of the natives sprang on Aylward and
+tied his hands behind his back.
+
+"Is Miss Barbara alive?" said Alan to Jeekie in an agonized whisper, at
+the same time nodding towards the grave that was so ominously short.
+
+"Hope so, think so, these cards say so, but God He know alone," answered
+Jeekie. "Go and look, that best way to find out."
+
+So they advanced into the camp through a narrow gateway made of a
+V-shaped piece of wood, to where the two tents were placed in its inner
+division. Of these tents, the first, was open, whereas the second was
+closed. As the open tent was obviously empty, they went to the second,
+whereof Jeekie began to loosen the lashings of the flap. It was a long
+business, for they seemed to have been carefully knotted inside; indeed
+at last, growing impatient, Jeekie cut the cord, using the curved knife
+with which the Mungana had tried to kill Alan.
+
+Meanwhile Alan was suffering torments, being convinced that Barbara was
+dead and buried in that new-made grave beneath the trees. He could not
+speak, he could scarcely stand, and yet a picture began to form in his
+numb mind. He saw himself seated in the dark in the Treasure-house at
+Bonsa-Town; he saw a vision in the air before him.
+
+Lo! the tent door opened and that vision reappeared.
+
+There was the pale Barbara seated, weeping. There again, as he entered
+she sprang up and snatching the pistol that lay beside her, turned it
+to her breast. Then she perceived him and the pistol sank downwards till
+from her relaxed hand it dropped to the ground. She threw up her arms
+and without a sound fell backwards, or would have fallen, had he not
+caught her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE LAST OF THE ASIKI
+
+Barbara had recovered. She sat upon her bed in the tent and by her sat
+Alan, holding her hand, while before them stood Aylward like a prisoner
+in the dock, and behind him the armed Jeekie.
+
+"Tell me the story, Barbara," said Alan, "and tell it briefly, for I
+cannot bear much more of this."
+
+She looked at him and began in a slow, even voice:
+
+"After you had gone, dear, things went on as usual for a month or two.
+Then came the great Sahara Company trouble. First there were rumours
+and the shares began to go down. My uncle bought them in by tens and
+hundreds of thousands, to hold up the market, because he was being
+threatened, but of course he did not know then that Lord Aylward--for
+I forgot to tell you, he had become a lord somehow--was secretly one of
+the principal sellers, let him deny it if he can. At last the Ottoman
+Government, through the English ambassador, published its repudiation
+of the concession, which it seems was a forgery, actually executed or
+obtained in Constantinople by my uncle. Well, there was a fearful smash.
+Writs were taken out against my uncle, but before they could be served,
+he died suddenly of heart disease. I was with him at the time and he
+kept saying he saw that gold mask which Jeekie calls Bonsa, the thing
+you took back to Africa. He had a fine funeral, for what he had done
+was not publicly known, and when his will was opened I found that he had
+left me his fortune, but made Lord Aylward there my trustee until I came
+to the full age of twenty-five under my father's will. Alan, don't force
+me to tell you what sort of a guardian he was to me; also there was no
+fortune, it had all gone; also I had very, very little left, for almost
+all my own money had gone too. In his despair he had forged papers
+to get it in order to support those Sahara Syndicate shares. Still I
+managed to borrow about �2000 from that little lawyer out of the �5000
+that remain to me, an independent sum which he was unable to touch, and,
+Alan, with it I came to find you.
+
+"Alan, Lord Aylward followed me; although everybody else was ruined, he
+remained rich, very very rich, they say, and his fancy was to marry me,
+also I think it was not comfortable for him in England. It is a long
+tale, but I got up here with about five-and-twenty servants, and Snell,
+my maid, whom you remember. Then we were both taken ill with some
+dreadful fever and had it not been for those good black people, I should
+have died, for I have been very sick, Alan. But they nursed me and I
+recovered; it was poor Snell who died, they buried her a few days ago.
+I thought that she would live, but she had a relapse. Next Lord Aylward
+appeared with twelve soldiers and some porters who, I believe, have
+run away now,--oh! you can guess, you can guess. He wanted my people to
+carry me away somewhere, to the coast, I suppose, but they were faithful
+to me and would not. Then he set his soldiers on to maltreat them. They
+shot several of them and flogged them on every opportunity; they were
+flogging one of them just now, I heard them. Well, the poor men made me
+understand that they could bear it no longer and must do what he told
+them.
+
+"And so, Alan, as I was quite hopeless and helpless, I made up my mind
+to kill myself, hoping that God would forgive me and that I should find
+you somewhere, perhaps after sleeping a while, for it was better to
+die than to be given into the power--of that man. I thought that he was
+coming for me just now and I was about to do it, but it was you instead,
+Alan, _you_, and only just in time. That is all the story, and I hope
+you will not think that I have acted very foolishly, but I did it for
+the best. If you only knew what I have suffered, Alan, what I have gone
+through in one way and another, I am sure that you would not judge me
+harshly; also I kept dreaming that you were in trouble and wanted me to
+come to you, and of course I knew where you were gone and had that map.
+Send him away, Alan, for I am still so weak and I cannot bear the sight
+of his face. If you knew everything, you would understand."
+
+Alan turned on Aylward and in a cold, quiet voice asked him what he had
+to say to this story.
+
+"I have to say, Major Vernon, that it is a clever mixture of truth
+and falsehood. It is true that your cousin, Champers-Haswell, has been
+proved guilty of some very shameful conduct. For instance it appears
+that he did forge, or rather cause to be forged that Firman from
+the Sultan, although I knew nothing of this until it was publicly
+repudiated. It is also true that fearing exposure he entirely lost his
+head and spent not only his own great fortune but that of Miss Champers
+also, in trying to support Sahara shares. I admit also that I sold many
+hundreds of thousands of those shares in the ordinary way, having made
+up my mind to retire from business when I was raised to the peerage.
+I admit further, what you knew before, that I was attached to Miss
+Champers and wished to marry her. Why should I not, especially as I had
+a good deal to offer to a lady who has been proved to be almost without
+fortune?
+
+"For the rest she set out secretly on this mad journey to Africa,
+whither both my duty as her trustee and my affection prompted me to
+follow her. I found her here recovering from an illness, and since she
+has dwelt upon the point, in self-defence I must tell you that
+whatever has taken place between us, has been with her full consent and
+encouragement. Of course I allude only to those affectionate amenities
+which are common between people who purpose to marry as soon as
+opportunity may offer."
+
+At this declaration poor Barbara gasped and leaned back against her
+pillow. Alan stood silent, though his lips turned white, while Jeekie
+thrust his big head through the tent opening and stared upwards.
+
+"What are you looking at, Jeekie?" asked Alan irritably.
+
+"Seem to want air, Major, also look to see if clouds tumble. Believe
+partickler big lie do that sometimes. Please go on, O good Lord, for
+Jeekie want his breakfast."
+
+"As regards the execution of two of Miss Champers' bearers and the
+flogging of some others, these punishments were inflicted for mutiny,"
+went on Aylward. "It was obviously necessary that she should be moved
+back to the coast, but I found out that they were trying to desert her
+in a body and to tamper with my own servants, and so was obliged to take
+strong measures."
+
+"Sure those clouds come down now," soliloquized Jeekie, "or least
+something rummy happen."
+
+"I have only to add, Major Vernon, that unless you make away with me
+first, as I daresay you will, as soon as we reach civilization again I
+shall proceed against you and this fellow for the cold-blooded murder
+of my men, in punishment of which I hope yet to live to see you hanged.
+Meanwhile, I have much pleasure in releasing Miss Champers from her
+engagement to me which, whatever she may have said to you in England,
+she was glad enough to enter on here in Africa, a country of which I
+have been told the climate frequently deteriorates the moral character."
+
+"Hear, hear!" ejaculated Jeekie, "he say something true at last; by
+accident, I think, like pig what find pearl in muck-heap."
+
+"Hold your tongue, Jeekie," said Alan. "I do not intend to kill you,
+Lord Aylward, or to do you any harm----"
+
+"Nor I neither," broke in Jeekie, "all I do to my Lord just for my
+Lord's good; who Jeekie that he wish to hurt noble British 'ristocrat?"
+
+"But I do intend that it shall be impossible that Miss Champers should
+be forced to listen to more of your insults," went on Alan, "and to make
+sure that your gun does not go off again as it did this morning. So,
+Lord Aylward, until we have settled what we are going to do, I must keep
+you under arrest. Take him to his tent, Jeekie, and put a guard over
+him."
+
+"Yes, Major, certainly, Major. Right turn, march! my Lord, and quick,
+please, since poor, common Jeekie not want dirty his black finger
+touching you."
+
+Aylward obeyed, but at the door of the tent swung round and favoured
+Alan with a very evil look.
+
+"Luck is with you for the moment, Major Vernon," he said, "but if you
+are wise you will remember that you never have been and never will be
+my match. It will turn again, I have no doubt, and then you may look to
+yourself, for I warn you I am a bad enemy."
+
+Alan did not answer, but for the first time Barbara sprang to her feet
+and spoke.
+
+"You mean that you are a bad man, Lord Aylward, and a coward too, or
+otherwise you would not have tortured me as you have done. Well, when it
+seemed impossible that I should escape from you except in one way, I was
+saved by another way of which I never dreamed. Now I tell you that I do
+not fear you any more. But I think," she added slowly, "that you would
+do well to fear for yourself. I don't know why, but it comes into my
+mind that though neither Alan nor I shall lift a finger against you,
+you have a great deal of which to be afraid. Remember what I said to you
+months ago when you were angry because I would not marry you. I believe
+it is all coming true, Lord Aylward."
+
+Then Barbara turned her back upon him, and that was the last time that
+either she or Alan ever saw his face.
+
+He was gone, and Barbara, her head upon her lover's shoulder and her
+sweet eyes filled with tears of joy and gratitude, was beginning to tell
+him everything that had befallen her when suddenly they heard a loud
+cough outside the tent.
+
+"It's that confounded Jeekie," said Alan, and he called to him to come
+in.
+
+"What's the matter now?" he asked crossly.
+
+"Breakfast, Major. His lordship got plenty good stores, borrow some from
+him and give him chit. Coming in one minute--hot coffee, kipper herring,
+rasher bacon, also butter (best Danish), and Bath Oliver biscuit."
+
+"Very well," said Alan, but Jeekie did not move.
+
+"Very well," repeated Alan.
+
+"No, Major, not very well, very ill. Thought those lies bring down
+clouds."
+
+"What do you mean, Jeekie?"
+
+"Mean, Major, that Asiki smelling about this camp. Porter-man what go
+to fetch water see them. Also believe they catch rest of those soldier
+chaps and polish them, for porter-man hear the row."
+
+Alan sprang up with an exclamation; in his new-found joy he had
+forgotten all about the Asiki.
+
+"Keep hair on, Major," said Jeekie cheerfully; "don't think they attack
+yet, plenty of time for breakfast first. When they come we make it very
+hot for them, lots of rifle and cartridge now."
+
+"Can't we run away?" asked Barbara.
+
+"No, Missy, can't run; must stop here and do best. Camp well built, open
+all round, don't think they take it. You leave everything to Jeekie, he
+see you through, but p'raps you like come breakfast outside, where you
+know all that go on."
+
+Barbara did like, but as it happened they were allowed to consume their
+meal in peace, since no Asiki appeared. As soon as it was swallowed she
+returned to her tent, while Alan and Jeekie set to work to strengthen
+the defences of the little camp as well as they were able, and to make
+ready and serve out the arms and ammunition.
+
+About midday a man whom they had posted in a tree that grew inside the
+camp announced that he saw the enemy, and next moment a company of them
+rushed towards them across the open and were greeted by a volley which
+killed and wounded several men. At this exhibition of miraculous power,
+for none of these soldiers had ever heard the report of firearms or
+seen their effect, they retreated rapidly, uttering shouts of dismay and
+carrying their dead and wounded with them.
+
+"Do you suppose they have gone, Jeekie?" asked Alan anxiously.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Think not, Major, think they frightened, by big bullet magic, and go
+consult priest. Also only a few of them here, rest of army come later
+and try rush us to-morrow morning before dawn. That Asiki custom."
+
+"Then what shall we do, Jeekie? Run for it or stop here?"
+
+"Think must stop here, Major. If we bolt, carrying Miss Barbara, who
+can't walk much, they follow on spoor and catch us. Best stick inside
+this fence and see what happen. Also once outside p'raps porters desert
+and leave us."
+
+So as there was nothing else to do they stayed, labouring all day at the
+strengthening of their fortifications till at length the boma or fence
+of boughs, supported by earth, was so high and thick that while any were
+left to fire through the loopholes, it would be very difficult to storm
+by men armed with spears.
+
+It was a dreadful and arduous day for Alan, who now had Barbara's safety
+to think of, Barbara with whom as yet he had scarcely found time to
+exchange a word. By sunset indeed he was so worn out with toil and
+anxiety that he could scarcely stand upon his feet. Jeekie, who all
+that afternoon had been strangely quiet and reflective, surveyed him
+critically, then said:
+
+"You have good drink and go sleep a bit, Major. Very good little
+shelter there by Miss Barbara's tent, and you hold her hand if you like
+underneath the canvas, which comforting and all correct. Jeekie never
+get tired, he keep good lookout and let you know if anything happen, and
+then you jump up quite fresh and fight like tom-cat in corner."
+
+At first Alan refused to listen, but when Barbara added her entreaties
+to those of Jeekie he gave way, and ten minutes later was as soundly
+asleep as he had ever been in his life.
+
+"Keep eye on him, Miss Barbara, and call me if he wake. Now I go give
+noble lord his supper and see that he quite comfortable. Jeekie seem
+very busy to-night, just like when Major have dinner-party at Yarleys
+and old cook get drunk in kitchen."
+
+If Barbara could have followed Jeekie's movements for the next few
+hours, she would probably have agreed that he was busy. First he went
+to Aylward's tent, and as he had said he would, gave him his supper,
+and with it half a bottle of whisky from the stores which he had been
+carrying about with him for some time, as he said, to prevent the
+porters from getting at it. Aylward would drink little, though as his
+arms were tied to the tent-pole, Jeekie sat beside him and fed him like
+a baby, conversing pleasantly with him all the while, informing him
+amongst other things that he had better say "big prayer," because the
+Asiki would probably cut his throat before morning.
+
+Aylward, who was in a state of sullen fury, scarcely replied to this
+talk, except to say that if so, there was one comfort, they would cut
+his and his master's also.
+
+"Yes, my Lord," answered Jeekie, "that quite true, so drink to next
+meeting, though I think you go different place to me, and when you got
+tail and I wing, you horn and I crown of glory, of course we not talk
+much together," and he held a mug of whisky and water--a great deal of
+whisky and a very little water--to his prisoner's mouth.
+
+Aylward drained it, feeling a need for stimulant.
+
+"There," said Jeekie, holding it upside down, "you drink every drop and
+not offer one to poor old Jeekie. Well, he turned teetotaller, so no
+matter. Good-night, my Lord, I call you if Asiki come."
+
+"Who are the Asiki?" asked Aylward drowsily.
+
+"Oh! you want to know? I tell you," and he began a long, rambling story.
+
+Before he ever came to the end of it Aylward had fallen on his side and
+was fast asleep.
+
+"Dear me!" said Jeekie, contemplating him, "that whisky very strong,
+though bottle say same as they drink in House of Common. That whisky
+so strong I think I pour away rest of it," and he did to the last drop,
+even taking the trouble to wash out the bottle with water. "Now you no
+tempt anyone," he said, addressing the said bottle with a very peculiar
+smile, "or if you tempt, at least do no harm--like kiss down telephone!"
+Then he laid down the bottle on its side and left the tent.
+
+Outside of it three of the head porters, who appeared to be friends
+of his, were waiting for him, and with these men he engaged in low and
+earnest conversation. Next, after they had arrived at some agreement,
+which they seemed to ratify by a curious oath that involved their
+crossing and clasping hands in an odd fashion, and other symbols known
+to West African secret societies, Jeekie went the round of the camp to
+see that everyone was at his post. Then he did what most people would
+have thought a very curious and strange thing, namely climbed the fence
+and vanished into the forest, where presently a sound was heard as of an
+owl hooting.
+
+A little while later and another owl began to hoot in the distance,
+whereat the three head porters nudged each other. Perhaps they had heard
+such owls hoot before at night, and perhaps they knew that Jeekie, who
+had "passed Bonsa," could only be harmed by the direct command of Bonsa
+speaking through the mouth of the Asika herself. Still they might have
+been interested in the nocturnal conversation of those two owls, which,
+as is common with such magical fowl in West Africa, had transformed
+themselves into human shapes, the shape of Jeekie and the shape of an
+Asiki priest, who was, as it happened, a blood relation of Jeekie.
+
+"Very good, Brother," said Owl No. 1; "all you want is this white man
+whom the Asika desires for a husband. Well, I have done my best for him,
+but I must think of myself and others, and he goes to great happiness.
+I have given him something to make him sleep; do you come presently with
+eight men, no more, or we shall kill you, to the fence of the camp, and
+we will hand over the white man, Vernoon, to you to take back to the
+Asika, who will give you a wonderful reward, such a reward as you have
+never imagined. Now let me hear your word."
+
+Then Owl No. 2 answered:
+
+"Brother, I make the bargain on behalf of the army, and swear to it by
+the double Swimming Head of Bonsa. We will come and take the white man,
+Vernoon, who is to be Mungana, and carry him away. In return we promise
+not to follow or molest you, or any others in your camp. Indeed, why
+should we, who do not desire to be killed by the dreadful magic that
+you have, a magic that makes a noise and pierces through our bodies from
+afar? What were the words of the Asika? 'Bring back Vernoon, or perish.
+I care for nothing else, bring back Vernoon to be my husband.'"
+
+"Good," said Owl No. 1, "within the half of an hour Vernoon shall be
+ready for you."
+
+"Good," answered Owl No. 2, "within half an hour eight of us will be
+without the east face of your camp to receive him."
+
+"Silently?"
+
+"Silently, my brother in Bonsa. If he cries out we will gag him. Fear
+not, none shall know your part in this matter."
+
+"Good, my brother in Bonsa. By the way, how is Big Bonsa? I fear that
+the white man, Vernoon, hurt him very much, and that is why I give him
+up--because of his sacrilege."
+
+"When I left the god was very sick and all the people mourned, but
+doubtless he is immortal."
+
+"Doubtless he is immortal, my brother, a little hard magic in his
+stomach--if he has one--cannot hurt _him_. Farewell, dear brother in
+Bonsa, I wish that I were you to get the great reward that the Asika
+will give to you. Farewell, farewell."
+
+Then the two owls flitted apart again, hooting as they went, till they
+came to their respective camps.
+
+
+
+Jeekie was in the tent performing a strange toilet upon the sleeping
+Aylward by the light of a single candle. From his pouch he produced the
+mask of linen painted with gold that Alan used to be forced to wear, and
+tied it securely over Aylward's face, murmuring:
+
+"You always love gold, my Lord Aylward, and Jeekie promise you see
+plenty of it now."
+
+Then he proceeded to remove his coat, his waistcoat, his socks, and his
+boots and to replace these articles of European attire by his own worn
+Asiki sandals and his own dirty Asiki robe.
+
+"There," he said, "think that do," and he studied him by the light of
+the candle. "Same height, same colour hair, same dirty clothes, and as
+Asiki never see Major's face because he always wear mask in public, like
+as two peas on shovel. Oh my! Jeekie clever chap, Jeekie devilish clever
+chap. But when Asika pull off that mask to give him true lover kiss, OH
+MY! wonder that happen then? Think whole of Bonsa-Town bust up; think
+big waterfall run backwards; think she not quite pleased; think my good
+Lord find himself in false position; think Jeekie glad to be on coast;
+think he not go back to Bonsa-Town no more. Oh my aunt! no, he stop in
+England and go church twice on Sunday," and pressing his big hands on
+the pit of his stomach he rocked and rolled in fierce, silent laughter.
+
+Then an owl hooted again immediately beneath the fence and Jeekie,
+blowing out the candle, opened the flap of the tent and tapped the head
+porter, who stood outside, on the shoulder. He crept in and between them
+they lifted the senseless Aylward and bore him to the V-shaped entrance
+of the boma which was immediately opposite to the tent and, oddly
+enough, half open. Here the two other porters with whom Jeekie had
+performed some ceremony, chanced to be on guard, the rest of their
+company being stationed at a distance. Jeekie and the head porter went
+through the gap like men carrying a corpse to midnight burial, and
+presently in the darkness without two owls began to hoot.
+
+Now Aylward was laid upon a litter that had been prepared, and
+eight white-robed Asiki bearers stared at his gold mask in the faint
+starlight.
+
+"I suppose he is not dead, brother," said Owl No. 2 doubtfully.
+
+"Nay, brother," said Owl No. 1, "feel his heart and his pulse. Not dead,
+only drunk. He will wake up by daylight, by which time you should be far
+upon your way. Be good and gentle to the white man Vernoon, who has been
+my master. Be careful, too, that he does not escape you, brother, for as
+you know he is very strong and cunning. Say to the Asika that Jeekie her
+servant makes his reverence to her, and hopes that she will have many,
+many happy years with the husband that he sends her; also that she will
+remember him whom she called 'Black Dog,' in her prayers to the gods and
+spirits of our people."
+
+"It shall be done, brother, but why do you not return with us?"
+
+"Because, brother, I have ties across the Black Water--dear children,
+almost white--whom I love so much that I cannot leave them. Farewell,
+brethren, the blessings of the Bonsas be on you, and may you grow fat
+and prosper in the love and favour of our lady the Asika."
+
+"Farewell," they murmured in answer. "Good fortune be your bedfellow."
+
+Another minute and they had lifted up the litter and vanished at a
+swinging trot into the shadow of the trees. Jeekie returned to the camp
+and ordered the three men to re-stop the gateway with thorns, muttering
+in their ears:
+
+"Remember, brethren, one word of this and you die, all of you, as those
+die who break the oath."
+
+"Have we not sworn?" they whispered, as they went back to their posts.
+
+Jeekie stood a while in front of the empty tent and if any had been
+there to note him, they might have seen a shadow as of compunction creep
+over his powerful black face.
+
+"When he wake up he won't know where he are," he reflected, "and when
+he get to Bonsa-Town he'll wonder where he is, and when he meet Asika!
+Well, he very big blackguard; try to murder Major, whom Jeekie nurse as
+baby, the only thing that Jeekie care for--except--Jeekie; try to make
+love to Miss Barbara against will when he catch her alone in forest,
+which not playing game. Jeekie self not such big blackguard as that
+dirt-born noble Lord; Jeekie never murder no one--not quite; Jeekie
+never make love to girl what not want him--no need, so many what do that
+he have to shove them off, like good Christian man. Mrs. Jeekie see to
+that while she live. Also better that mean white man go call on Bonsas
+than Major and Missy Barbara and all porters, and Jeekie--specially
+Jeekie--get throat cut. No, no, Jeekie nothing to be ashamed of, Jeekie
+do good day's work, though Jeekie keep it tight as wax since white folk
+such silly people, and when Major in a rage, he very nasty customer and
+see everything upside down. Now, Jeekie quite tired, so say his prayers
+and have nap. No, think not in tent, though very comfortable. Major
+might wake up, poke his nose in there, and if he see black face instead
+of white one, ask ugly question, which if Jeekie half asleep he no able
+to answer nice and neat. Still he just arrange things a little so they
+look all right."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE ASIKA'S MESSAGE
+
+Dawn began to break in the forest and Alan woke in his shelter and
+stretched himself. He had slept soundly all the night, so soundly that
+the innocent Jeekie wondered much whether by any chance he also had
+taken a tot out of that particular whisky bottle, as indeed he had
+recommended him to do. People who drink whisky after long abstinence
+from spirits are apt to sleep long, he reflected.
+
+Alan crept out of the shelter and gazed affectionately at the tent in
+which Barbara slumbered. Thank Heaven she was safe so far, as for some
+unknown reason, evidently the Asiki had postponed their attack. Just
+then a clamour arose in the air, and he perceived Jeekie striding
+towards him waving one arm in an excited fashion, while with the other
+he dragged along the captain of the porters, who appeared to be praying
+for mercy.
+
+"Here pretty go, Major," he shouted, "devil and all to pay! That my
+Lord, he gone and bolted. This silly fool say that three hours ago he
+hear something break through fence and think it only hy�na what come
+to steal, so take no notice. Well, that hy�na, you guess who he is. You
+come look, Major, you come look, and then we tie this fellow up and flog
+him."
+
+Alan ran to Aylward's tent to find it empty.
+
+"Look," said Jeekie, who had followed, "see how he do business, that
+jolly clever hy�na," and he pointed to a broken whisky bottle and some
+severed cords. "You see he manage break bottle and rub rope against cut
+glass till it come in two. Then he do hy�na dodge and hook it."
+
+Alan inspected the articles, nor did any shadow of doubt enter his mind.
+
+"Certainly he managed very well," he said, "especially for a London-bred
+man, but, Jeekie, what can have been his object?"
+
+"Oh! who know, Major? Mind of man very strange and various thing; p'raps
+he no bear to see you and Miss Barbara together; p'raps he bolt coast,
+get ear of local magistrate before you; p'raps he sit up tree to shoot
+you; p'raps nasty temper make him mad. But he gone any way, and I hope
+he no meet Asiki, poor fellow, 'cause if so, who know? P'raps they knock
+him on head, or if they think him you, they make him prisoner and keep
+him quite long while before they let him go again."
+
+"Well," said Alan, "he has gone of his own free will, so we have no
+responsibility in the matter, and I can't pretend that I am sorry to
+see the last of him, at any rate for the present. Let that poor beggar
+loose, there seems to have been enough flogging in this place, and after
+all he isn't much to blame."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, apparently with much reluctance, and just then they saw
+one of their own people running towards the camp.
+
+"'Fraid he going to tell us Asiki come attack," said Jeekie, shaking his
+head. "Hope they give us time breakfast first."
+
+"No doubt," answered Alan nervously, for he feared the result of that
+attack.
+
+Then the man arrived breathless and began to gasp out his news, which
+filled Alan with delight and caused a look of utter amazement to appear
+upon the broad face of Jeekie. It was to the effect that he had climbed
+a high tree as he had been bidden to do, and from the top of that tree
+by the light of the first rays of the rising sun, miles away on the
+plain beyond the forest, he had seen the Asiki army in full retreat.
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Alan.
+
+"Yes, Major, but that very rum story. Jeekie can't swallow it all at
+once. Must send out see none of them left behind. P'raps they play
+trick, but if they really gone, 'spose it 'cause guns frightens them
+so much. Always think powder very great 'vention, especially when enemy
+hain't got none, and quite sure of it now. Jeekie very, very seldom
+wrong. Soon believe," he added with a burst of confidence, "that Jeekie
+never wrong at all. He look for truth so long that at last he find it
+_always_."
+
+
+
+Something more than a month had gone by and Major and Mrs. Vernon, the
+latter fully restored to health and the most sweet and beautiful of
+brides, stood upon the steamship _Benin_, and as the sun sank, looked
+their last upon the coast of Western Africa.
+
+"Yes, dear," Alan was saying to his wife, "from first to last it has
+been a very queer story, but I really think that our getting that Asiki
+gold after all was one of the queerest parts of it; also uncommonly
+convenient, as things have turned out."
+
+"Namely that you have got a little pauper for a wife instead of a great
+heiress, Alan. But tell me again about the gold. I have had so much to
+think of during the last few days," and she blushed, "that I never quite
+took it all in."
+
+"Well, love, there isn't much to tell. When that forwarding agent, Mr.
+Aston, knew that we were in the town, he came to me and said that he
+had about fifty cases full of something heavy, as he supposed samples of
+ore, addressed to me to your care in England which he was proposing to
+ship on by the _Benin_. I answered 'Yes, that was all right,' and
+did not undeceive him about their contents. Then I asked how they had
+arrived, and if he had not received a letter with them. He replied that
+one morning before the warehouse was open, some natives had brought them
+down in a canoe, and dumped them at the door, telling the watchman that
+they had been paid to deliver them there by some other natives whom they
+met a long way up the river. Then they went away without leaving any
+letter or message. Well, I thanked Aston and paid his charges and
+there's an end of the matter. Those fifty-three cases are now in the
+hold invoiced as ore samples and, as I inspected them myself and am sure
+that they have not been tampered with, besides the value of the necklace
+the Asika gave me we've got �100,000 to begin our married life upon with
+something over for old Jeekie, and I daresay we shall do very well on
+that."
+
+"Yes, Alan, very well indeed." Then she reflected a while, for the
+mention of Jeekie's name seemed to have made her thoughtful, and added,
+"Alan, what _do_ you think became of Lord Aylward?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know. Jeekie and I and some of the porters went
+to see the Old Calabar officials and made affidavits as to the
+circumstances of his disappearance. We couldn't do any more, could we?"
+
+"No, Alan. But do you think that Jeekie quite understands the meaning of
+an oath? I mean it seems so strange that we should never have found the
+slightest trace of him, and, Alan, I don't know if you noticed it, but
+why did Jeekie appear that morning wearing Lord Aylward's socks and
+boots?"
+
+"He ought to know all about oaths, he has heard enough of them in
+Magistrates' Courts, but as regards the boots, I am sure I can't say,
+dear," answered Alan uneasily. "Here he comes, we will ask him," and he
+did.
+
+"Sock and boot," replied Jeekie, with a surprised air, "why, Mrs. Major,
+if that good lord go mad and cut off into forest leaving them behind,
+of course I put them on, as they no more use to him, and I just burn my
+dirty old Asiki dress and sandal and got nothing to keep jigger out of
+toe. Don't you sit up here in this damp, cold, Mrs. Major, else you
+get more fever. You go down and dress dinner, which at half-past six
+to-night. I just come tell you that."
+
+So Barbara went, leaving the other two talking about various matters,
+for they were alone together on the deck, all the passengers, of whom
+there were but few, having gone below.
+
+The short African twilight had come, a kind of soft blue haze that made
+the ship look mysterious and unnatural. By degrees their conversation
+died away. They lapsed into a silence, which Alan was the first to
+break.
+
+"What are you thinking of, Jeekie?" he asked nervously.
+
+"Thinking of Asika, Major," he answered in a scared whisper. "Seem to me
+that she about somewhere, just as she use pop up in room in Gold House;
+seem to me I feel her all down my back, likewise in head wool, which
+stand up."
+
+"It's very odd, Jeekie," replied Alan, "but so do I."
+
+"Well, Major, 'spect she thinking of us, specially of you, and just
+throw what she think at us, like boy throw stones at bird what fly away
+out of cage. Asika do all that, you know, she not quite human, full of
+plenty Bonsa devil, from gen'ration to gen'rations, amen! P'raps she
+just find out something what make her mad."
+
+"What could she find out after all this time, Jeekie?"
+
+"Oh, don't know. How I know? Jeekie can't guess. Find out you marry Miss
+Barbara, p'raps. Very sick that she lose you for this time, p'raps. Kill
+herself that she keep near you, p'raps, while she wait till you come
+round again, p'raps. Asika can do all these things if she like, Major."
+
+"Stuff and rubbish," answered Alan uneasily, for Jeekie's suggestions
+were most uncomfortable, "I believe in none of your West Coast
+superstitions."
+
+"Quite right, Major, nor don't I. Only you 'member, Major, what she show
+us there in Treasure-place--Mr. Haswell being buried, eh? Miss Barbara
+in tent, eh? t'other job what hasn't come off yet, eh? Oh! my golly!
+Major, just you look behind you and say you see nothing, please," and
+the eyes of Jeekie grew large as Maltese oranges, while with chattering
+teeth he pointed over the bulwark of the vessel.
+
+Alan turned and saw.
+
+This was what he saw or seemed to see: The figure of the Asika in her
+robes and breastplate of gold, standing upon the air, just beyond the
+ship, as though on it she might set no foot. Her waving black hair hung
+about her shoulders, but the sharp wind did not seem to stir it nor did
+her white dress flutter, and on her beautiful face was stamped a look
+of awful rage and agony, the rage of betrayal, the agony of loss. In
+her right hand she held a knife, and from a wound in her breast the
+red blood ran down her golden corselet. She pointed to Jeekie with the
+knife, she opened her arms to Alan as though in unutterable longing,
+then slowly raised them upwards towards the fading glory of the sky
+above--and was gone.
+
+
+
+Jeekie sat down upon the deck, mopping his brow with a red handkerchief,
+while Alan, who felt faint, clung to the bulwarks.
+
+"Tell you, Major, that Asika can do all that kind of thing. Never know
+where you find her next. 'Spect she come to live with us in England
+and just call in now and again when it dark. Tell you, she very awkward
+customer, think p'raps you done better stop there and marry her. Well,
+she gone now, thank Heaven! seem to drop in sea and hope she stay
+there."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, recovering himself, "listen to me; this is all
+infernal nonsense; we have gone through a great deal and the nerves of
+both of us are overstrained. We think we saw what we did not see, and
+if you dare to say a single word of it to your mistress, I'll break your
+neck. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, Major, think so. All 'fernal nonsense, nerves strained, didn't see
+what we see, and say nothing of what did see to Mrs. Major, if either
+do say anything, t'other one break his neck. That all right, quite
+understand. Anything else, Major?"
+
+"Yes, Jeekie. We have had some wonderful adventures, but they are past
+and done with and the less we talk or even think about them the better,
+for there is a lot that would be rather difficult to explain, and that
+if explained would scarcely be believed."
+
+"Yes, Major, for instance, very difficult explain Mrs. Barbara how Asika
+so fond of you if you only tell her, 'Go away, go away!' all the time,
+like old saint-gentleman to pretty girl in picture. P'raps she smell
+rat."
+
+"Stop your ribald talk," said Alan in a stern voice. "It would be better
+if instead of making jokes you gave thanks to Providence for bringing
+both of us alive and well out of very dreadful dangers. Now I am going
+to dress for dinner," and with an anxious glance seaward into the
+gathering darkness, he turned and went.
+
+
+
+Jeekie stood alone upon the empty deck, wagging his great white head to
+and fro and soliloquizing thus:
+
+"Wonder if Major see what under lady Asika's feet when she stand out
+there over nasty deep. Think not or he say something. That noble lord
+not look nice. No, private view for Jeekie only, free ticket and nothing
+to pay and me hope it no come back when I go to bed. Major know nothing
+about it, so he not see, but Jeekie know a lot. Hope that Aylward not
+write any letters home, or if he write, hope no one post them. Ghost bad
+enough, but murder, oh my!"
+
+He paused a while, then went on:
+
+"Jeekie do big sacrifice to Bonsa when he reach Yarleys, get lamb in
+back kitchen at night, or if ghost come any more, calf in wood outside.
+Not steal it, pay for it himself. Then think Jeekie turn Cath'lic;
+confess his sins, they say them priest chaps not split, and after they
+got his sins, they tackle Asika and Bonsas too," and he uttered a series
+of penitent groans, turning slowly round and round to be sure that
+nothing was behind him.
+
+Just then the full moon appeared out of a bank of clouds, and as it rose
+higher, flooding the world with light, Jeekie's spirits rose also.
+
+"Asika never come in moonshine," he said, "that not the game, against
+rule, and after all, what Jeekie done bad? He very good fellow really.
+Aylward great villain, serve him jolly well right if Asika spiflicate
+him, that not Jeekie's fault. What Jeekie do, he do to save master and
+missus who he love. Care nothing for his self, ready to die any day.
+Keep it dark to save them too, 'cause they no like the story. If once
+they know, it always leave taste in mouth, same as bad oyster. Also
+Jeekie manage very well, take Major safe Asiki-land ('cause Little Bonsa
+make him), give him very interesting time there, get him plenty gold,
+nurse him when he sick, nobble Mungana, bring him out again, find Miss
+Barbara, catch hated rival and bamboozle all Asiki army, bring
+happy pair to coast and marry them, arrange first-class honeymoon on
+ship--Jeekie do all these things, and lots more he could tell, if he
+vain and not poor humble nigger."
+
+Once more he paused a while, lost in the contemplation of his own
+modesty and virtues, then continued:
+
+"This very ungrateful world. Major there, he not say, 'Thank you,
+Jeekie, Jeekie, you great, wonderful man. Brave Jeekie, artful Jeekie.
+Jeekie smart as paint who make all world believe just what he like, and
+one too many for Asika herself.' No, no, he say nothing like that. He
+say 'thank Prov'dence,' not 'Jeekie,' as though Prov'dence do all them
+things. White folk think they clever, but great fools, really,
+don't know nothing. Prov'dence all very well in his way--p'raps, but
+Prov'dence not a patch on Jeekie.
+
+"Hullo! moon get behind cloud and there second bell; think Jeekie go
+down and wait dinner; lonely up here and sure Asika never stand 'lectric
+light."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***
+
+***** This file should be named 2857-8.txt or 2857-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/2857/
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/2857-8.zip b/old/2857-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f1adcb1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2857-8.zip
diff --git a/old/2857-h.htm.2021-01-27 b/old/2857-h.htm.2021-01-27
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..150d245
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2857-h.htm.2021-01-27
@@ -0,0 +1,11596 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Yellow God
+       An Idol of Africa
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2857]
+Last Updated: September 23, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE YELLOW GOD
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      AN IDOL OF AFRICA <br /> <br /> By H. Rider Haggard
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      SAHARA LIMITED
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., M.P., sat in his office in the City of London.
+      It was a very magnificent office, quite one of the finest that could be
+      found within half a mile of the Mansion House. Its exterior was built of
+      Aberdeen granite, a material calculated to impress the prospective
+      investor with a comfortable sense of security. Other stucco, or even
+      brick-built, offices might crumble and fall in an actual or a financial
+      sense, but this rock-like edifice of granite, surmounted by a life-sized
+      statue of Justice with her scales, admired from either corner by pleasing
+      effigies of Commerce and of Industry, would surely endure any shock.
+      Earthquake could scarcely shake its strong foundations; panic and disaster
+      would as soon affect the Bank of England. That at least was the impression
+      which it had been designed to convey, and not without success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is so much in externals,&rdquo; Mr. Champers-Haswell, Sir Robert&rsquo;s
+      partner, would say in his cheerful voice. &ldquo;We are all of us influenced by
+      them, however unconsciously. Impress the public, my dear Aylward. Let
+      solemnity without suggest opulence within, and the bread, or rather the
+      granite, which you throw upon the waters will come back to you after many
+      days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Aylward, for this conversation occurred before his merits or the depth
+      of his purse had been rewarded by a baronetcy, looked at his partner in
+      the impassive fashion for which he was famous, and answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mix your metaphors, Haswell, but if you mean that the public are
+      fools who must be caught by advertisement, I agree with you. Only this
+      particular advertisement is expensive and I do not want to wait many days
+      for my reward. However, £20,000 one way or the other is a small matter, so
+      tell that architect to do the thing in granite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert Aylward sat in his own quiet room at the back of this enduring
+      building, a very splendid room that any Secretary of State might have
+      envied, but arranged in excellent taste. Its walls were panelled with
+      figured teak, a rich carpet made the footfall noiseless, an antique Venus
+      stood upon a marble pedestal in the corner, and over the mantelpiece hung
+      a fine portrait by Gainsborough, that of a certain Miss Aylward, a famous
+      beauty in her day, with whom, be it added, its present owner could boast
+      no connection whatsoever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert was seated at his ebony desk playing with a pencil, and the
+      light from a cheerful fire fell upon his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In its own way it was a remarkable face, as he appeared then in his fourth
+      and fortieth year; very pale but with a natural pallor, very well cut and
+      on the whole impressive. His eyes were dark, matching his black hair and
+      pointed beard, and his nose was straight and rather prominent. Perhaps the
+      mouth was his weakest feature, for there was a certain shiftiness about
+      it, also the lips were thick and slightly sensuous. Sir Robert knew this,
+      and therefore he grew a moustache to veil them somewhat. To a careful
+      observer the general impression given by this face was such as is left by
+      the sudden sight of a waxen mask. &ldquo;How strong! How lifelike!&rdquo; he would
+      have said, &ldquo;but of course it isn&rsquo;t real. There may be a man behind, or
+      there may be wood, but that&rsquo;s only a mask.&rdquo; Many people of perception had
+      felt like this about Sir Robert Aylward, namely, that under the mask of
+      his pale countenance dwelt a different being whom they did not know or
+      appreciate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If these had seen him at this moment of the opening of our story, they
+      might have held that Wisdom was justified of her children. For now in the
+      solitude of his splendid office, of a sudden Sir Robert&rsquo;s mask seemed to
+      fall from him. His face broke up like ice beneath a thaw. He rose from his
+      table and began to walk up and down the room. He talked to himself aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Heavens!&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;what a game to have played, and it will go
+      through. I believe that it will go through.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped at the table, switched on an electric light and made a rapid
+      calculation on the back of a letter with a blue pencil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s my share, a million and seventeen thousand pounds
+      in cash, and two million in ordinary shares which can be worked off at a
+      discount&mdash;let us say another seven hundred and fifty thousand, plus
+      what I have got already&mdash;put that at only two hundred and fifty
+      thousand net. Two millions in all, which of course may or may not be added
+      to, probably not, unless the ordinaries boom, for I don&rsquo;t mean to
+      speculate any more. That&rsquo;s the end of twenty years&rsquo; work, Robert Aylward.
+      And to think of it, eighteen months ago, although I seemed so rich, I was
+      on the verge of bankruptcy&mdash;the very verge, not worth five thousand
+      pounds. Now what did the trick? I wonder what did the trick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked down the room and stopped opposite the ancient marble, staring
+      at it&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not Venus, I think,&rdquo; he said, with a laugh, &ldquo;Venus never made any man
+      rich.&rdquo; He turned and retraced his steps to the other end of the room,
+      which was veiled in shadow. Here upon a second marble pedestal stood an
+      object that gleamed dimly through the gloom. It was about ten inches or a
+      foot high, but in that place nothing more could be seen of it, except that
+      it was yellow and had the general appearance of a toad. For some reason it
+      seemed to attract Sir Robert Aylward, for he halted to stare at it, then
+      stretched out his hand and switched on another lamp, in the hard
+      brilliance of which the thing upon the pedestal suddenly declared itself,
+      leaping out of the darkness into light. It was a terrible object, a
+      monstrosity of indeterminate sex and nature, but surmounted by a woman&rsquo;s
+      head and face of extraordinary, if devilish loveliness, sunk back between
+      high but grotesquely small shoulders, like to those of a lizard, so that
+      it glared upwards. The workmanship of the thing was rude yet strangely
+      powerful. Whatever there is cruel, whatever there is devilish, whatever
+      there is inhuman in the dark places of the world, shone out of the
+      jewelled eyes which were set in that yellow female face, yellow because
+      its substance was of gold, a face which seemed not to belong to the
+      embryonic legs beneath, for body there was none, but to float above them.
+      A hollow, life-sized mask with two tiny frog-like legs, that was the
+      fashion of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are an ugly brute,&rdquo; muttered Sir Robert, contemplating this effigy,
+      &ldquo;but although I believe in nothing in heaven above or earth below, except
+      the abysmal folly of the British public, I am bothered if I don&rsquo;t believe
+      in you. At any rate from the day when Vernon brought you into my office,
+      my luck turned, and to judge from the smile on your sweet countenance, I
+      don&rsquo;t think it is done with yet. I wonder what those stones are in your
+      eyes. Opals, I suppose, from the way they change colour. They shine
+      uncommonly to-day, I never remember them so bright. I&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment a knock came on the door. Sir Robert turned off the lamp
+      and walked back to the fireplace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in,&rdquo; he said, and as he spoke once more his pale face grew impassive
+      and expressionless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened and a clerk entered, an imposing-looking clerk with
+      iron-grey hair, who wore an irreproachable frock coat and patent leather
+      boots. Advancing to his master, he stood respectfully silent, waiting to
+      be addressed. For quite a long while Sir Robert looked over his head as
+      though he did not see him; it was a way of his. Then his eyes rested on
+      the man dreamily and he remarked in his cold, clear voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I rang, Jeffreys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Sir Robert,&rdquo; answered the clerk, bowing as though he spoke to
+      Royalty, &ldquo;but there is a little matter about that article in <i>The Cynic</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Press business,&rdquo; said Sir Robert, lifting his eyebrows; &ldquo;you should know
+      by this time that I do not attend to such details. See Mr.
+      Champers-Haswell, or Major Vernon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are both out at the moment, Sir Robert.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on, then, Jeffreys,&rdquo; replied the head of the firm with a resigned
+      sigh, &ldquo;only be brief. I am thinking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The clerk bowed again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The <i>Cynic</i> people have just telephoned through about that article
+      we sent them. I think you saw it, sir, and you may remember it begins&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+       and he read from a typewritten copy in his hand which was headed &ldquo;Sahara
+      Limited&rdquo;:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;We are now privileged to announce that this mighty scheme which will
+      turn a desert into a rolling sea bearing the commerce of nations and cause
+      the waste places of the earth to teem with population and to blossom like
+      the rose, has been completed in its necessary if dull financial details
+      and will within a few days be submitted to investors among whom it has
+      already caused so much excitement. These details we will deal with fully
+      in succeeding articles, and therefore now need only pause to say that the
+      basis of capitalization strikes us as wonderfully advantageous to the
+      fortunate public who are asked to participate in its vast prospective
+      prosperity. Our present object is to speak of its national and imperial
+      aspects&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert lifted his eyes in remonstrance:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much more of that exceedingly dull and commonplace puff do you
+      propose to read, Jeffreys?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No more, Sir Robert. We are paying <i>The Cynic</i> thirty guineas to
+      insert this article, and the point is that they say that if they have to
+      put in the &lsquo;national and imperial&rsquo; business they must have twenty more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, Jeffreys? Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, Sir Robert&mdash;I will tell you, as you always like to hear the
+      truth&mdash;their advertisement-editor is of opinion that Sahara Limited
+      is a national and imperial swindle. He says that he won&rsquo;t drag the nation
+      and the empire into it in an editorial under fifty guineas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A faint smile flickered on Sir Robert&rsquo;s face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does he, indeed?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I wonder at his moderation. Had I been in
+      his place I should have asked more, for really the style is a little
+      flamboyant. Well, we don&rsquo;t want to quarrel with them just now&mdash;feed
+      the sharks. But surely, Jeffreys, you didn&rsquo;t come to disturb me about such
+      a trifle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not altogether, Sir Robert. There is something more important. <i>The
+      Daily Judge</i> not only declines to put any article whatsoever, but
+      refuses our advertisement, and states that it means to criticize the
+      prospectus trenchantly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said his master after a moment&rsquo;s thought, &ldquo;that <i>is</i> rather
+      serious, since people believe in the <i>Judge</i> even when it is wrong.
+      Offer them the advertisement at treble rates.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has been done, sir, and they still refuse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert walked to the corner of the room where the yellow object
+      squatted on its pedestal, and contemplated it a while, as a man often
+      studies one thing when he is thinking of another. It seemed to give him an
+      idea, for he looked over his shoulder and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do, Jeffreys. When Major Vernon comes in, give him my
+      compliments and say that I should be obliged by a word or two with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The clerk bowed and went as noiselessly as he had entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s see,&rdquo; added Sir Robert to himself. &ldquo;Old Jackson, the editor of <i>The
+      Judge</i>, was a great friend of Vernon&rsquo;s father, the late Sir William
+      Vernon, G.C.B. I believe that he was engaged to be married to his sister
+      years ago, only she died or something. So the Major ought to be able to
+      get round him if anybody can. Only the worst of it is I don&rsquo;t altogether
+      trust that young gentleman. It suited us to give him a share in the
+      business because he is an engineer who knows the country, and this Sahara
+      scheme was his notion, a very good one in a way, and for other reasons.
+      Now he shows signs of kicking over the traces, wants to know too much, is
+      developing a conscience, and so forth. As though the promoters of
+      speculative companies had any business with consciences. Ah! here he
+      comes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert seated himself at his desk and resumed his calculations upon a
+      half-sheet of note-paper, and that moment a clear, hearty voice was heard
+      speaking to the clerks in the outer office. Then came the sound of a
+      strong, firm footstep, the door opened and Major Alan Vernon appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was still quite a young man, not more than thirty-two or three years of
+      age, though he lacked the ultra robust and rubicund appearance which is
+      typical of so many Englishmen of his class at this period of life. A heavy
+      bout of blackwater fever acquired on service in West Africa, which would
+      have killed anyone of weaker constitution, had robbed his face of its
+      bloom and left it much sallower, if more interesting than once it had
+      been. For in a way there was interest about the face; also a certain
+      charm. It was a good and honest face with a rather eager, rather puzzled
+      look, that of a man who has imagination and ideas and who searches for the
+      truth but fails to find it. As for the charm, it lay for the most part in
+      the pleasant, open smile and in the frank but rather round brown eyes
+      overhung by a somewhat massive forehead which projected a little, or
+      perhaps the severe illness already alluded to had caused the rest of the
+      face to sink. Though thin, the man was bigly built, with broad shoulders
+      and well-developed limbs, measuring a trifle under six feet in height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the outward appearance of Alan Vernon. As for his mind, it was
+      able enough in certain fashions, for instance those of engineering, and
+      the soldier-like faculties to which it had been trained; frank and kindly
+      also, but in other respects not quick, perhaps from its unsuspiciousness.
+      Alan Vernon was a man slow to discover ill and slower still to believe in
+      it even when it seemed to be discovered, a weakness that may have gone far
+      to account for his presence in the office of those eminent and brilliant
+      financiers, Messrs. Aylward &amp; Champers-Haswell. Just now he looked a
+      little worried, like a fish out of water, or rather a fish which has begun
+      to suspect the quality of the water, something in its smell or taste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeffreys tells me that you want to see me, Sir Robert,&rdquo; he said in his
+      low and pleasant voice, looking at the baronet rather anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my dear Vernon, I wish to ask you to do something, if you kindly
+      will, although it is not quite in your line. Old Jackson, the editor of <i>The
+      Judge</i>, is a friend of yours, isn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a friend of my father&rsquo;s, and I used to know him slightly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s near enough. As I daresay you have heard, he is an
+      unreasonable old beggar, and has taken a dislike to our Sahara scheme.
+      Someone has set him against it and he refuses to receive advertisements,
+      threatens criticisms, etc. Now the opposition of <i>The Judge</i> or any
+      other paper won&rsquo;t kill us, and if necessary we can fight, but at the same
+      time it is always wise to agree with your enemy while he is in the way,
+      and in short&mdash;would you mind going down and explaining his mistake to
+      him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before answering Major Vernon walked to the window leisurely and looked
+      out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like asking favours from family friends,&rdquo; he replied at length,
+      &ldquo;and, as you said, I think it isn&rsquo;t quite my line. Though of course if it
+      has anything to do with the engineering possibilities, I shall be most
+      happy to see him,&rdquo; he added, brightening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it has to do with; that is what I shall be obliged if
+      you will find out,&rdquo; answered Sir Robert with some asperity. &ldquo;One can&rsquo;t
+      divide a matter of this sort into watertight compartments. It is true that
+      in so important a concern each of us has charge of his own division, but
+      the fact remains that we are jointly and severally responsible for the
+      whole. I am not sure that you bear this sufficiently in mind, my dear
+      Vernon,&rdquo; he added with slow emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His partner moved quickly; it might almost have been said that he
+      shivered, though whether the movement, or the shiver, was produced by the
+      argument of joint and several liability or by the familiarity of the &ldquo;my
+      dear Vernon,&rdquo; remains uncertain. Perhaps it was the latter, since although
+      the elder man was a baronet and the younger only a retired Major of
+      Engineers, the gulf between them, as any one of discernment could see, was
+      wide. They were born, lived, and moved in different spheres unbridged by
+      any common element or impulse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that I do bear it in mind, especially of late, Sir Robert,&rdquo;
+       answered Alan Vernon slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His partner threw a searching glance on him, for he felt that there was
+      meaning in the words, but only said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all right. My motor is outside and will take you to Fleet Street
+      in no time. Meanwhile you might tell them to telephone that you are
+      coming, and perhaps you will just look in when you get back. I haven&rsquo;t got
+      to go to the House to-night, so shall be here till dinner time, and so, I
+      think, will your cousin Haswell. Muzzle that old bulldog, Jackson,
+      somehow. No doubt he has his price like the rest of them, in meal or malt,
+      and you needn&rsquo;t stick at the figure. We don&rsquo;t want him hanging on our
+      throat for the next week or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten minutes later the splendid, two-thousand guinea motor brougham drew up
+      at the offices of the <i>Judge</i> and the obsequious motor-footman bowed
+      Major Vernon through its rather grimy doorway. Within, a small boy in a
+      kind of box asked his business, and when he heard his name, said that the
+      &ldquo;Guvnor&rdquo; had sent down word that he was go up at once&mdash;third floor,
+      first to the right and second to the left. So up he went, and when he
+      reached the indicated locality was taken possession of by a
+      worried-looking clerk who had evidently been waiting for him, and almost
+      thrust through a door to find himself in a big, worn, untidy room. At a
+      huge desk in this room sat an elderly man, also big, worn, and
+      untidy-looking, who waved a long slip of galley-proof in his hand, and was
+      engaged in scolding a sub-editor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that?&rdquo; he said, wheeling round. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m busy, can&rsquo;t see anyone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg your pardon,&rdquo; answered the Major with humility, &ldquo;your people told
+      me to come up. My name is Alan Vernon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I remember. Sit down for a moment, will you, and&mdash;Mr. Thomas,
+      oblige me by taking away this rot and rewriting it entirely in the sense I
+      have outlined.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Thomas snatched his rejected copy and vanished through another door,
+      whereon his chief remarked in an audible voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That man is a perfect fool. Lucky I thought to look at his stuff. Well,
+      he is no worse than the rest, in this weary world,&rdquo; and he burst into a
+      hearty laugh and swung his chair round, adding, &ldquo;Now then, Alan, what is
+      it? I have a quarter of an hour at your service. Why, bless me! I was
+      forgetting that it&rsquo;s more than a dozen years since we met; you were still
+      a boy then, and now you have left the army with a D.S.O. and gratuity, and
+      turned financier, which I think wouldn&rsquo;t have pleased your old father.
+      Come, sit down here and let us talk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t leave the army, Mr. Jackson,&rdquo; answered his visitor; &ldquo;it left me;
+      I was invalided out. They said I should never get my health back after
+      that last go of fever, but I did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! bad luck, very bad luck, just at the beginning of what should have
+      been a big career, for I know they thought highly of you at the War
+      Office, that is, if they can think. Well, you have grown into a
+      fine-looking fellow, like your father, very, and someone else too,&rdquo; and he
+      sighed, running his fingers through his grizzled hair. &ldquo;But you don&rsquo;t
+      remember her; she was before your time. Now let us get to business;
+      there&rsquo;s no time for reminiscences in this office. What is it, Alan, for
+      like other people I suppose that you want something?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is about that Sahara flotation, Mr. Jackson,&rdquo; he began rather
+      doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old editor&rsquo;s face darkened. &ldquo;The Sahara flotation! That accursed&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+       and he ceased abruptly. &ldquo;What have you, of all people in the world, got to
+      do with it? Oh! I remember. Someone told me that you had gone into
+      partnership with Aylward the company promoter, and that little beast,
+      Champers-Haswell, who really is the clever one. Well, set it out, set it
+      out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems, Mr. Jackson, that <i>The Judge</i> has refused not only our
+      article, but also the advertisement of the company. I don&rsquo;t know much
+      about this side of the affair myself, but Sir Robert asked me if I would
+      come round and see if things couldn&rsquo;t be arranged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean that the man sent you to try and work on me because he knew that
+      I used to be intimate with your family. Well, it is a poor errand and will
+      have a poor end. You can&rsquo;t&mdash;no one on earth can, while I sit in this
+      chair, not even my proprietors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was silence broken at last by Alan, who remarked awkwardly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that is so, I must not take up your time any longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said that I would give you a quarter of an hour, and you have only been
+      here four minutes. Now, Alan Vernon, tell me as your father&rsquo;s old friend,
+      why you have gone to herd with these gilded swine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something so earnest about the man&rsquo;s question that it did not
+      even occur to his visitor to resent its roughness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course it is not original,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;but I had this idea about
+      flooding the Desert; I spent a furlough up there a few years ago and
+      employed my time in making some rough surveys. Then I was obliged to leave
+      the Service and went down to Yarleys after my father&rsquo;s death&mdash;it&rsquo;s
+      mine now, you know, but worth nothing except a shooting rent, which just
+      pays for the repairs. There I met Champers-Haswell, who lives near and is
+      a kind of distant cousin of mine&mdash;my mother was a Champers&mdash;and
+      happened to mention the thing to him. He took it up at once and introduced
+      me to Aylward, and the end of it was, that they offered me a partnership
+      with a small share in the business, because they said I was just the man
+      they wanted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just the man they wanted,&rdquo; repeated the editor after him. &ldquo;Yes, the last
+      of the Vernons, an engineer with an old name in his county, a clean record
+      and plenty of ability. Yes, you would be just the man they wanted. And you
+      accepted?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I was on my beam ends with nothing to do; I wanted to make some
+      money. You see Yarleys has been in the family for over five hundred years,
+      and it seemed hard to have to sell it. Also&mdash;also&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and
+      he paused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ever meet Barbara Champers?&rdquo; asked Mr. Jackson inconsequently. &ldquo;I did
+      once. Wonderfully nice girl, and very good-looking too. But of course you
+      know her, and she is her uncle&rsquo;s ward, and their place isn&rsquo;t far off
+      Yarleys, you say. Must be a connection of yours also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Vernon started a little at the name and his face seemed to redden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I have met her and she is a connection.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will be a big heiress one day, I think,&rdquo; went on Mr. Jackson, &ldquo;unless old
+      Haswell makes off with her money. I think Aylward knows that; at any rate
+      he was hanging about when I saw her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vernon started again, this time very perceptibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very natural&mdash;your going into the business, I mean, under all the
+      circumstances,&rdquo; went on Mr. Jackson. &ldquo;But now, if you will take my advice,
+      you&rsquo;ll go out of it as soon as you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, Alan Vernon, I am sure you don&rsquo;t want to see your name dragged
+      in the dirt, any more than I do.&rdquo; He fumbled in a drawer and produced a
+      typewritten document. &ldquo;Take that,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and study it at your leisure.
+      It&rsquo;s a sketch of the financial career of Messrs. Aylward and
+      Champers-Haswell, also of the companies which they have promoted and been
+      connected with, and what has happened to them and to those who invested in
+      them. A man got it out for me yesterday and I&rsquo;m going to use it. As
+      regards this Sahara business, you think it all right, and so it may be
+      from an engineering point of view, but you will never live to sail upon
+      that sea which the British public is going to be asked to find so many
+      millions to make. Look here. We have only three minutes more, so I will
+      come to the point at once. It&rsquo;s Turkish territory, isn&rsquo;t it, and putting
+      aside everything else, the security for the whole thing is a Firman from
+      the Sultan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Sir Robert Aylward and Haswell procured it in Constantinople. I have
+      seen the document.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, and are you well acquainted with the Sultan&rsquo;s signature? I know
+      when they were there last autumn that potentate was very ill&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; said Major Vernon, looking up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean, Alan, that I like not the security. I won&rsquo;t say any more, as
+      there is a law of libel in this land. But <i>The Judge</i> has certain
+      sources of information. It may be that no protest will be made at once,
+      for baksheesh can stop it for a while, but sooner or later the protest or
+      repudiation will come, and perhaps some international bother; also much
+      scandal. As to the scheme itself, it is shamelessly over-capitalized for
+      the benefit of the promoters&mdash;of whom, remember, Alan, you will
+      appear as one. Now time&rsquo;s up. Perhaps you will take my advice, and perhaps
+      you won&rsquo;t, but there it is for what it&rsquo;s worth as that of a man of the
+      world and an old friend of your family. As for your puff article and your
+      prospectus, I wouldn&rsquo;t put them in <i>The Judge</i> if you paid me a
+      thousand pounds, which I daresay your friend, Aylward, would be quite
+      ready to do. Good-bye. Come and see me again sometime, and tell me what
+      has happened&mdash;and, I say&rdquo;&mdash;this last was shouted through the
+      closing door,&mdash;&ldquo;give my kind regards to Miss Barbara, for wherever
+      she happens to live, she is an honest woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE YELLOW GOD
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Alan Vernon walked thoughtfully down the lead-covered stairs, hustled by
+      eager gentlemen hurrying up to see the great editor, whose bell was
+      already ringing furiously, and was duly ushered by the obsequious
+      assistant-chauffeur back into the luxurious motor. There was an electric
+      lamp in this motor, and by the light of it, his mind being perplexed, he
+      began to read the typewritten document given to him by Mr. Jackson, which
+      he still held in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As it chanced they were blocked for a quarter of an hour near the Mansion
+      House, so that he found time, if not to master it, at least to gather
+      enough of its contents to make him open his brown eyes very wide before
+      the motor pulled up at the granite doorway of his office. Alan descended
+      from the machine, which departed silently, and stood for a moment
+      wondering what he should do. His impulse was to jump into a bus and go
+      straight to his rooms or his club, to which Sir Robert did not belong, but
+      being no coward, he dismissed it from his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His fate hung in the balance, of that he was well aware. Either he must
+      disregard Mr. Jackson&rsquo;s warning, confirmed as it was by many secret fears
+      and instincts of his own, and say nothing except that he had failed in his
+      mission, or he must take the bull by the horns and break with the firm. To
+      do the latter meant not only a good deal of moral courage, but practical
+      ruin, whereas if he chose the former course, probably within a fortnight
+      he would find himself a rich man. Whatever Jackson and a few others might
+      say in its depreciation, he was certain that the Sahara flotation would go
+      through, for it was underwritten, of course upon terms, by responsible
+      people, moreover the unissued preferred shares had already been dealt in
+      at a heavy premium. Now to say nothing of the allotment to which he was
+      entitled upon his holding in the parent Syndicate, the proportion of cash
+      due to him as a partner, would amount to quite a hundred thousand pounds.
+      In other words, he, who had so many reasons for desiring money, would be
+      wealthy. After working so hard and undergoing so much that he felt to be
+      humiliating and even degrading, why should he not take his reward and
+      clear out afterwards?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This he remembered he could do, since probably by some oversight of
+      Aylward&rsquo;s, who left such matters to his lawyers, his deed of partnership
+      did not bind him to a fixed term. It could be broken at any moment. To
+      this argument there was only one possible answer, that of his conscience.
+      If once he were convinced that things were not right, it would be
+      dishonest to participate in their profits. And he was convinced. Mr.
+      Jackson&rsquo;s arguments and his damning document had thrown a flood of light
+      upon many matters which he had suspected but never quite understood. He
+      was the partner of, well, adventurers, and the money which he received
+      would in fact be filched from the pockets of unsuspecting persons. He
+      would vouch for that of which he was doubtful and receive the price of
+      sharp practice. In other words he, Alan Vernon, who had never uttered a
+      wilful untruth or taken a halfpenny that was not his own, would before the
+      tribunal of his own mind, stand convicted as a liar and a thief. The thing
+      was not to be borne. At whatever cost it must be ended. If he were fated
+      to be a beggar, at least he would be an honest beggar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a firm step and a high head he walked straight into Sir Robert&rsquo;s
+      room, without even going through the formality of knocking, to find Mr.
+      Champers-Haswell seated at the ebony desk by his partner&rsquo;s side examining
+      some document through a reading-glass, which on his appearance, was folded
+      over and presently thrust away into a drawer. It seemed, Alan noticed, to
+      be of an unusual shape and written in some strange character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Haswell, a stout, jovial-looking, little man with a florid complexion
+      and white hair, rose at once to greet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you do, Alan,&rdquo; he said in a cheerful voice, for as a cousin by
+      marriage he called him by his Christian name. &ldquo;I am just this minute back
+      from Paris, and you will be glad to learn that they are going to support
+      us very well there; in fact I may say that the Government has taken up the
+      scheme, of course under the rose. You know the French have possessions all
+      along that coast and they won&rsquo;t be sorry to find an opportunity of
+      stretching out their hand a little further. Our difficulties as to capital
+      are at an end, for a full third of it is guaranteed in Paris, and I expect
+      that small investors and speculators for the rise will gobble a lot more.
+      We shall plant £10,000,000 worth of Sahara scrip in sunny France, my boy,
+      and foggy England has underwritten the rest. It will be a case of &lsquo;letters
+      of Allotment and regret,&rsquo; <i>and</i> regret, Alan, financially the most
+      successful issue of the last dozen years. What do you say to that?&rdquo; and in
+      his elation the little man puffed out his chest and pursing up his lips,
+      blew through them, making a sound like that of wind among wires.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, Mr. Haswell. If we are all alive I would prefer to answer
+      the question twelve months hence, or later, when we see whether the
+      company is going to be a practical success as well, or not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Mr. Haswell made the sound of wind among wires, only this time there
+      was a shriller note in it; its mellowness was gone, it was as though the
+      air had suddenly been filled with frost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A practical success!&rdquo; he repeated after him. &ldquo;That is scarcely our
+      affair, is it? Promoters should not bother themselves with long views,
+      Alan. These may be left to the investing public, the speculative parson
+      and the maiden lady who likes a flutter&mdash;those props of modern
+      enterprise. But what do you mean? You originated this idea and always said
+      that the profits should be great.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Mr. Haswell, on a moderate capitalization and provided that we are
+      sure of the co-operation of the Porte.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Haswell looked at him very searchingly and Sir Robert, who had been
+      listening, said in his cold voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that we thrashed out these points long ago, and to tell you the
+      truth I am rather tired of them, especially as it is too late to change
+      anything. How did you get on with Jackson, Vernon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not get on at all, Sir Robert. He will not touch the thing on any
+      terms, and indeed means to oppose it tooth and nail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then he will find himself in a minority when the articles come out
+      to-morrow. Of course it is a bore, but we are strong enough to snap our
+      fingers at him. You see they don&rsquo;t read <i>The Judge</i> in France, and no
+      one has ever heard of it in Constantinople. Therefore we have nothing to
+      fear&mdash;so long as we stick together,&rdquo; he added meaningly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan felt that the crisis had come. He must speak now or for ever hold his
+      peace; indeed Aylward was already looking round for his hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Robert and Mr. Haswell,&rdquo; he broke in rather nervously, &ldquo;I have
+      something to say to you, something unpleasant,&rdquo; and he paused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then please say it at once, Vernon. I want to dress for dinner, I am
+      going to the theatre to-night and must dine early,&rdquo; replied Aylward in a
+      voice of the utmost unconcern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, Sir Robert,&rdquo; went on Alan with a rush, &ldquo;that I do not like the
+      lines upon which this business is being worked, and I wish to give up my
+      interest in it and retire from the firm, as I have a right to do under our
+      deed of partnership.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you?&rdquo; said Aylward. &ldquo;Really, I forget. But, my dear fellow, do not
+      think that we should wish to keep you for one moment against your will.
+      Only, might I ask, has that old puritan, Jackson, hypnotized you, or is it
+      a case of sudden madness after influenza?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither,&rdquo; answered Alan sternly, for although he might be diffident on
+      matters that he did not thoroughly understand, he was not a man to brook
+      trifling or impertinence. &ldquo;It is what I have said, no more nor less. I am
+      not satisfied either as to the capitalization or as to the guarantee that
+      the enterprise can be really carried out. Further&rdquo;&mdash;and he paused,&mdash;&ldquo;Further,
+      I should like what I have never yet been able to obtain, more information
+      as to that Firman under which the concession is granted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For one moment a sort of tremor passed over Sir Robert&rsquo;s impassive
+      countenance, while Mr. Haswell uttered his windy whistle, this time in a
+      tone of plaintive remonstrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you have formally resigned your membership of the firm, I do not see
+      that any useful purpose can be served by discussing such matters. The
+      fullest explanations, of course, we should have been willing to give&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Alan,&rdquo; broke in Mr. Champers-Haswell, who was quite upset, &ldquo;I do
+      implore you to reflect for one moment, for your own sake. In a single week
+      you would have been a wealthy man; do you really mean to throw away
+      everything for a whim?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps Vernon remembers that he holds over 1700 of the Syndicate shares
+      which we have worked up to £18, and thinks it wiser to capture the profit
+      in sight, generally speaking a very sound principle,&rdquo; interrupted Aylward
+      sarcastically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are mistaken, Sir Robert,&rdquo; replied Alan, flushing. &ldquo;The way that
+      those shares have been artificially put up is one of the things to which I
+      most object. I shall only ask for mine the face value which I paid for
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now notwithstanding their experience, both of the senior partners did for
+      a moment look rather scared. Such folly, or such honesty, was absolutely
+      incredible to them. They felt that there must be much behind. Sir Robert,
+      however, recovered instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;it is not for us to dictate to you; you must make
+      your own bed and lie on it. To argue or remonstrate would only be rude.&rdquo;
+       He put out his hand and pushed the button of an electric bell, adding as
+      he did so, &ldquo;Of course we understand one thing, Vernon, namely, that as a
+      gentleman and a man of honour you will make no public use of the
+      information which you have acquired during your stay in this office,
+      either to our detriment, personal or financial, or to your own advantage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly you may understand that,&rdquo; replied Vernon. &ldquo;Unless my character
+      is attacked and it becomes necessary for me to defend myself, my lips are
+      sealed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will never happen&mdash;why should it?&rdquo; said Sir Robert with a
+      polite bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened and the head clerk, Jeffreys, appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Jeffreys,&rdquo; said Sir Robert, &ldquo;please find us the deed of partnership
+      between Major Vernon and ourselves, and bring it here. One moment. Please
+      make out also a transfer of Major Vernon&rsquo;s parcel of Sahara Syndicate
+      shares to Mr. Champers-Haswell and myself at par value, and fill in a
+      cheque for the amount. Please remove also Major Vernon&rsquo;s name wherever it
+      appears in the proof prospectus, and&mdash;yes&mdash;one thing more.
+      Telephone to Specton&mdash;the Right Honourable the Earl of Specton, I
+      mean, and say that after all I have been able to arrange that he shall
+      have a seat on the Board and a block of shares at a very moderate figure,
+      and that if he will wire his assent, his name shall be put into the
+      prospectus. You approve, don&rsquo;t you, Haswell?&mdash;yes&mdash;then that is
+      all, I think, Jeffreys, only please be as quick as you can, for I want to
+      get away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeffreys, the immaculate and the impassive, bowed, and casting one swift
+      glance at Vernon out of the corner of his eye, departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What is called an awkward pause ensued; in fact it was a very awkward
+      pause. The die was cast, the matter ended, and what were the principals to
+      do until the ratifications had been exchanged or, a better simile perhaps,
+      the <i>decree nisi</i> pronounced absolute. Mr. Champers-Haswell remarked
+      that the weather was very cold for April, and Alan agreed with him, while
+      Sir Robert found his hat and brushed it with his sleeve. Then Mr. Haswell,
+      in desperation, for in minor matters he was a kindly sort of man who
+      disliked scenes and unpleasantness, muttered something as to seeing him&mdash;Alan&mdash;at
+      his house, The Court, in Hertfordshire, from Saturday to Monday.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was the arrangement,&rdquo; answered Alan bluntly, &ldquo;but possibly after
+      what has happened you will not wish that it should be kept.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! why not, why not?&rdquo; said Mr. Haswell. &ldquo;Sunday is a day of rest when we
+      make it a rule not to talk business, and if we did, perhaps we might all
+      change our minds about these matters. Sir Robert is coming, and I am sure
+      that your cousin Barbara will be very disappointed if you do not turn up,
+      for she understands nothing about these city things which are Greek to
+      her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the mention of the name of Barbara Sir Robert Aylward looked up from
+      the papers which he affected to be tidying, and Alan thought that there
+      was a kind of challenge in his eyes. A moment before he had made up his
+      mind that no power on earth would induce him to spend a Sunday with his
+      late partners at The Court. Now, acting upon some instinct or impulse, he
+      reversed his opinion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if that is understood, I shall be happy to come. I
+      will drive over from Yarleys in time for dinner to-morrow. Perhaps you
+      will say so to Barbara.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She will be glad, I am sure,&rdquo; answered Mr. Haswell, &ldquo;for she told me the
+      other day that she wants to consult you about some outdoor theatricals
+      that she means to get up in July.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In July!&rdquo; answered Alan with a little laugh. &ldquo;I wonder where I shall be
+      in July.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came another pause, which seemed to affect even Sir Robert&rsquo;s nerves,
+      for abandoning the papers, he walked down the room till he came to the
+      golden object that has been described, and for the second time that day
+      stood there contemplating it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This thing is yours, Vernon,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and now that our relations are at
+      an end, I suppose that you will want to take it away. What is its history?
+      You never told me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! that&rsquo;s a long story,&rdquo; answered Alan in an absent voice. &ldquo;My uncle,
+      who was a missionary, brought it from West Africa. I rather forget the
+      facts, but Jeekie, my negro servant, knows them all, for as a lad my uncle
+      saved him from sacrifice, or something, in a place where they worship
+      these things, and he has been with us ever since. It is a fetish with
+      magical powers and all the rest of it. I believe they call it the Swimming
+      Head and other names. If you look at it, you will see that it seems to
+      swim between the shoulders, doesn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Sir Robert, &ldquo;and I admire the beautiful beast. She is cruel
+      and artistic, like&mdash;like finance. Look here, Vernon, we have
+      quarrelled, and of course henceforth are enemies, for it is no use mincing
+      matters, only fools do that. But in a way you are being hardly treated.
+      You could get £10 apiece to-day for those shares of yours in a block on
+      the market, and I am paying you £1. I understand your scruples, but there
+      is no reason why we should not square things. This fetish of yours has
+      brought me luck, so let&rsquo;s do a deal. Leave it here, and instead of a check
+      for £1700, I will make you one out for £17,000.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a very liberal offer,&rdquo; said Vernon. &ldquo;Give me a moment to think it
+      over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he also walked into the corner of the room and contemplated the
+      golden mask that seemed to float between the frog-like shoulders. The
+      shimmering eyes drew his eyes, though what he saw in them does not matter.
+      Indeed he could never remember. Only when he straightened himself again
+      there was left on his mind a determination that not for seventeen or for
+      seventy thousand pounds would he part with his ownership in this very
+      unique fetish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, thank you,&rdquo; he said presently. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I will sell the Yellow
+      God, as Jeekie calls it. Perhaps you will kindly keep her here for a week
+      or so, until I make up my mind where to stow her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Mr. Champers-Haswell uttered his windy whistle. That a man should
+      refuse £17,000 for a bit of African gold worth £100 or so, struck him as
+      miraculous. But Sir Robert did not seem in the least surprised, only very
+      disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite understand your dislike to selling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Thank you for
+      leaving it here for the present to see us through the flotation,&rdquo; and he
+      laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment Jeffreys entered the room with the documents. Sir Robert
+      handed the deed of partnership to Alan, and when he had identified it,
+      took it from him again and threw it on the fire, saying that of course the
+      formal letter of release would be posted and the dissolution notified in
+      the <i>Gazette</i>. Then the transfer was signed and the cheque delivered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, good-bye till Saturday,&rdquo; said Alan when he had received the latter,
+      and nodding to them both, he turned and left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The passage ran past the little room in which Mr. Jeffreys, the head
+      clerk, sat alone. Catching sight of him through the open door, Alan
+      entered, shutting it behind him. Finding his key ring he removed from it
+      the keys of his desk and of the office strongroom, and handed them to the
+      clerk who, methodical in everything, proceeded to write a formal receipt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are leaving us, Major Vernon?&rdquo; he said interrogatively as he signed
+      the paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Jeffreys,&rdquo; answered Alan, then prompted by some impulse, added, &ldquo;Are
+      you sorry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Jeffreys looked up and there were traces of unwonted emotion upon his
+      hard, regulated face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For myself, yes, Major&mdash;for you, on the whole, no.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean, Jeffreys? I do not quite understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean, Major, that I am sorry because you have never tried to shuffle
+      off any shady business on to my back and leave me to bear the brunt of it;
+      also because you have always treated me as a gentleman should, not as a
+      machine to be used until a better can be found, and kicked aside when it
+      goes out of order.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very kind of you to say so, Jeffreys, but I can&rsquo;t remember having
+      done anything particular.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Major, you can&rsquo;t remember what comes natural to you. But I and the
+      others remember, and that&rsquo;s why I am sorry. But for yourself I am glad,
+      since although Aylward and Haswell have put a big thing through and are
+      going to make a pot of money, this is no place for the likes of you, and
+      now that you are going I will make bold to tell you that I always wondered
+      what you were doing here. By and by, Major, the row will come, as it has
+      come more than once in the past, before your time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then?&rdquo; said Alan, for he was anxious to get to the bottom of this
+      man&rsquo;s mind, which hitherto he had always found so secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then, Major, it won&rsquo;t matter much to Messrs. Aylward and
+      Champers-Haswell, who are used to that kind of thing and will probably
+      dissolve partnership and lie quiet for a bit, and still less to folk like
+      myself, who are only servants. But if you were still here it would have
+      mattered a great deal to you, for it would blacken your name and break
+      your heart, and then what&rsquo;s the good of the money? I tell you, Major,&rdquo; the
+      clerk went on with quiet intensity, &ldquo;though I am nobody and nothing, if I
+      could afford it I would follow your example. But I can&rsquo;t, for I have a
+      sick wife and a family of delicate children who have to live half the year
+      on the south coast, to say nothing of my old mother, and&mdash;I was fool
+      enough to be taken in and back Sir Robert&rsquo;s last little venture, which
+      cost me all I had saved. So you see I must make a bit before the machine
+      is scrapped, Major. But I tell you this, that if I can get £5000 together,
+      as I hope to do out of Saharas before I am a month older, for they had to
+      give me a look-in, as I knew too much, I am off to the country, where I
+      was born, to take a farm there. No more of Messrs. Aylward and Haswell for
+      Thomas Jeffreys. That&rsquo;s my bell. Good-bye, Major, I&rsquo;ll take the liberty to
+      write you a line sometimes, for I know you won&rsquo;t give me away. Good-bye
+      and God bless you, as I am sure He will in the long run,&rdquo; and stretching
+      out his hand, he took that of the astonished Alan and wrung it warmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he was gone Alan went also, noticing that the clerks, whom some
+      rumour of these events seemed to have reached, eyed him curiously through
+      the glass screens behind which they sat at their desks, as he thought not
+      without regret and a kind of admiration. Even the magnificent be-medalled
+      porter at the door emerged from the carved teak box where he dwelt and
+      touching his cap asked if he should call a cab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, thank you, Sergeant,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;I will take a bus, and,
+      Sergeant, I think I forgot to give you a present last Xmas. Will you
+      accept this?&mdash;I wish I could make it more,&rdquo; and he presented him with
+      ten shillings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Sergeant drew himself up and saluted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you kindly, Major,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather take that from you than
+      £10 from the other gentlemen. But, Major, I wish we were out on the West
+      Coast again together. It&rsquo;s a stinking, barbarous hole, but not so bad as
+      this &lsquo;ere city.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For once these two had served as comrades, and it was through Alan that
+      the sergeant obtained his present lucrative but somewhat uncongenial post.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was outside at last. The massive granite portal vanished behind him in
+      the evening mists, much as a nightmare vanishes. He, Alan Vernon, who for
+      a year or more had been in bondage, was a free man again. All his dreams
+      of wealth had departed; indeed if anything, save in experience, he was
+      poorer than when first the shadow of yonder doorway fell upon him. But at
+      least he was safe, safe. The deed of partnership which had been as a chain
+      about his neck, was now white ashes; his name was erased from that fearful
+      prospectus of Sahara Limited, wherein millions which someone would provide
+      were spoken of like silver in the days of Solomon, as things of no
+      account. The bitterest critic could not say that he had made a halfpenny
+      out of the venture, in fact, if trouble came, his voluntary abandonment of
+      the profits due to him must go to his credit. He had plunged into the icy
+      waters of renunciation and come up clean if naked. Never since he was a
+      boy could Alan remember feeling so utterly light-hearted and free from
+      anxiety. Not for a million pounds would he have returned to gather gold in
+      that mausoleum of reputations. As for the future, he did not in the least
+      care what happened. There was no one dependent on him, and in this way or
+      in that he could always earn a crust, a nice, honest crust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He ran down the street and danced for joy like a child, yes, and presented
+      a crossing-sweeper against whom he butted with a whole sixpence in
+      compensation. Thus he reached the Mansion House, not unsuspected of
+      inebriety by the police, and clambered to the top of a bus crowded with
+      weary and anxious-looking City clerks returning home after a long day&rsquo;s
+      labour at starvation wage. In that cold company and a chilling atmosphere
+      some of his enthusiasm evaporated. He remembered that this step of his
+      meant that sooner or later, within a year or two at most, Yarleys, where
+      his family had dwelt for centuries, must go to the hammer. Why had he not
+      accepted Aylward&rsquo;s offer and sold that old fetish to him for £17,000?
+      There was no question of share-dealing there, and if a very wealthy man
+      chose to give a fancy price for a curiosity, he could take it without
+      doubt or shame. At least it would have sufficed to save Yarleys, which
+      after all was only mortgaged for £20,000. For the life of him he could not
+      tell. He had acted on impulse, a very curious impulse, and there was an
+      end of it perhaps; it might be because his uncle had told him as a boy
+      that the thing was unique, or perhaps because old Jeekie, his negro
+      servant, venerated it so much and swore that it was &ldquo;lucky.&rdquo; At any rate
+      he had declined and there was an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But another and a graver matter remained. He had desired wealth to save
+      Yarleys, but he desired it still more for a different purpose. Above
+      everything on earth he loved Barbara, his distant cousin and the niece of
+      Mr. Champers-Haswell, who until an hour ago had been his partner. Now she
+      was a great heiress, and without fortune he could not marry her, even if
+      she would marry him, which remained in doubt. For one thing her uncle and
+      guardian Haswell, under her father&rsquo;s will, had absolute discretion in this
+      matter until she reached the age of twenty-five, and for another he was
+      too proud. Therefore it would seem that in abandoning his business, he had
+      abandoned his chance of Barbara also, which was a truly dreadful thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, it was in order that he might see her, that he had agreed to visit
+      The Court on the morrow, even though it meant a meeting with his late
+      partners, who were the last people with whom he desired to foregather
+      again so soon. Then and there he made up his mind that before he bade
+      Barbara farewell, he would tell her the whole story, so that she might not
+      misjudge him. After that he would go off somewhere&mdash;to Africa
+      perhaps. Meanwhile he was quite tired out, as tired as though he had lain
+      a week in the grip of fever. He must eat some food and get to bed.
+      Sufficient unto the day was the evil thereof, yet on the whole he blessed
+      the name of Jackson, editor of <i>The Judge</i> and his father&rsquo;s old
+      friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Alan had left the office Sir Robert turned to Mr. Champers-Haswell
+      and asked him abruptly, &ldquo;What the devil does this mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Haswell looked up at the ceiling and whistled in his own peculiar
+      fashion, then answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot say for certain, but our young friend&rsquo;s strange conduct seems to
+      suggest that he has smelt a rat, possibly even that Jackson, the old
+      beast, has shown him a rat&mdash;of a large Turkish breed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vernon is a fellow who doesn&rsquo;t like rats; they seem to haunt his sleep,&rdquo;
+       he said; &ldquo;but do you think that having seen it, he will keep it in the
+      bag?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! certainly, certainly,&rdquo; answered Mr. Haswell with cheerfulness; &ldquo;the
+      man is the soul of honour; he will never give us away. Look how he behaved
+      about those shares. Still, I think that perhaps we are well rid of him.
+      Too much honour, like too much zeal, is a very dangerous quality in any
+      business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that I agree with you,&rdquo; answered Sir Robert. &ldquo;I am not sure
+      that in the long run we should not do better for a little more of the
+      article. For my part, although it will not hurt us publicly, for the thing
+      will never be noticed, I am sorry that we have lost Vernon, very sorry
+      indeed. I don&rsquo;t think him a fool, and awkward as they may be, I respect
+      his qualities.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I, so do I,&rdquo; answered Mr. Haswell, &ldquo;and of course we have acted
+      against his advice throughout, which must have been annoying to him. The
+      scheme as he suggested it was a fair business proposition that might have
+      paid ten per cent. on a small capital, but what is the good of ten per
+      cent. to you and me? We want millions and we are going to get them. Well,
+      he is coming to The Court to-morrow, and perhaps after all we shall be
+      able to arrange matters. I&rsquo;ll give Barbara a hint; she has great influence
+      with him, and you might do the same, Aylward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Champers has great influence with everyone who is fortunate enough
+      to know her,&rdquo; answered Sir Robert courteously. &ldquo;But even if she chooses to
+      use it, I doubt if it will avail in this case. Vernon has been making up
+      his mind for a long while. I have watched him and am sure of that.
+      To-night he determined to take the plunge and I do not think that we shall
+      see any more of him in this office. Haswell,&rdquo; he added with sudden energy,
+      &ldquo;I tell you that of late our luck has been too good to last. The boom, the
+      real boom, came in with Vernon, and with Vernon I think that it will go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate it must leave something pretty substantial behind it this
+      time, Aylward, my friend. Whatever happens, within a week we shall be
+      rich, really rich for life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For life, Haswell, yes, for life. But what is life? A bubble that any pin
+      may prick. Oh! I know that you do not like the subject, but it is as well
+      to look it in the face sometimes. I&rsquo;m no church-goer, but if I remember
+      right we were taught to pray the good Lord to deliver us especially &lsquo;in
+      all times of our wealth,&rsquo; which is followed by something about tribulation
+      and sudden death, for when they wrote that prayer the wheel of human
+      fortune went round just as it does to-day. There, let&rsquo;s get out of this
+      before I grow superstitious, as men who believe in nothing sometimes do,
+      because after all they must believe in something, I suppose. Got your hat
+      and coat? So have I, come on,&rdquo; and he switched off the light, so that the
+      room was left in darkness except for the faint glimmering of the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His partner grumbled audibly, for in turning he had knocked his hand
+      against the desk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave me my only economy, Haswell,&rdquo; he answered with a hard little laugh.
+      &ldquo;Electricity is strength and I hate to see strength burning to waste. Why
+      do you mind?&rdquo; he went on as he stepped towards the door. &ldquo;Is it the
+      contrast? In all times of our wealth, in all times of our tribulation,
+      from sickness and from sudden death&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Lord deliver us,&rdquo; chimed in Mr. Haswell in a shaking voice behind
+      him. &ldquo;What the devil&rsquo;s that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert looked round and saw, or thought that he saw, something very
+      strange. From the pillar on which it stood the golden fetish with a
+      woman&rsquo;s face, appeared to have floated. The firelight showed it gliding
+      towards them across, but a few inches above the floor of the great room.
+      It came very slowly, but it came. Now it reached them and paused, and now
+      it rose into the air until it attained the height of Mr. Champers-Haswell
+      and stayed there, staring into his face and not a hand&rsquo;s breadth away,
+      just as though it were a real woman glaring at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He uttered a sound, half whistle and half groan, and fell back, as it
+      chanced on to a morocco-covered seat behind him. For a moment or two the
+      gleaming, golden mask floated in the air. Then it turned very
+      deliberately, rose a little way, and moving sidelong to where Sir Robert
+      stood, hung in front of <i>his</i> face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Aylward staggered to the mantelpiece and began to fumble for the
+      switch; in the silence his nails scratching at the panelling made a sound
+      like to that of a gnawing mouse. He found it at last, and next instant the
+      office broke into a blaze of light, showing Mr. Haswell, his rubicund face
+      quite pale, his hat and umbrella on the floor, gasping like a dying man
+      upon the couch, and Sir Robert himself clinging to the mantel-shelf as a
+      person might do who had received a mortal wound, while the golden fetish
+      reposed calmly on its pillar, to all appearance as immovable and
+      undisturbed as the antique Venus which matched it at the other end of the
+      room. For a while there was silence. Then Sir Robert, recovering himself,
+      asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you notice anything unusual just now, Haswell?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; whispered his partner. &ldquo;I thought that hideous African thing which
+      Vernon brought here, came sliding across the floor and stared into my face
+      with its glittering eyes, and in the eyes&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what was in the eyes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t remember. It was a kind of picture and the meaning of it was
+      Sudden Death&mdash;oh Lord! Sudden Death. Tell me it was a fancy bred of
+      that ill-omened talk of yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you anything of the sort,&rdquo; answered Aylward in a hollow
+      voice, &ldquo;for I saw something also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo; asked his partner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Death that wasn&rsquo;t sudden, and other things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the silence fell till it was broken by Aylward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we have been over-working&mdash;too much strain, and now
+      the reaction. Keep this rubbish to yourself, or they will lock you up in
+      an asylum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, Aylward, certainly. But can&rsquo;t you get rid of that beastly
+      image?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not on any account, Haswell, even if it haunts us all day. Here it shall
+      stop until the Saharas are floated on Monday, if I have to lock it in the
+      strongroom and throw the keys into the Thames. Afterwards Vernon can take
+      it, as he has a right to do, and I am sure that with it will go our luck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the sooner our luck goes, the better,&rdquo; replied Haswell, with a mere
+      ghost of his former whistle. &ldquo;Life is better than luck, and&mdash;Aylward,
+      that Yellow God you are so fond of means to murder us. We are being fatted
+      for the sacrifice, that is all. I remember now, that was one of the things
+      I saw written in its eyes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      JEEKIE TELLS A TALE
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      The Court, Mr. Champers-Haswell&rsquo;s place, was a very fine house indeed, of
+      a sort. That is, it contained twenty-nine bedrooms, each of them with a
+      bathroom attached, a large number of sitting-rooms, ample garages,
+      stables, and offices, the whole surrounded by several acres of
+      newly-planted gardens. Incidentally it may be mentioned that it was built
+      in the most atrocious taste and looked like a suburban villa seen through
+      a magnifying glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in this matter of taste that it differed from Sir Robert Aylward&rsquo;s
+      home, Old Hall, a few miles away. Not that this was old either, for the
+      original house had fallen down or been burnt a hundred years before. But
+      Sir Robert, being gifted with artistic perception, had reared up in place
+      of it a smaller but really beautiful dwelling of soft grey stone, long and
+      low, and built in the Tudor style with many gables.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This house, charming as it was, could not of course compare with Yarleys,
+      the ancient seat of the Vernons in the same neighbourhood. Yarleys was
+      pure Elizabethan, although it contained an oak-roofed hall which was said
+      to date back to the time of King John, a remnant of a former house. There
+      was no electric light or other modern convenience at Yarleys, yet it was a
+      place that everyone went to see because of its exceeding beauty and its
+      historical associations. The moat by which it was surrounded, the grass
+      court within, for it was built on three sides of a square, the mullioned
+      windows, the towered gateway of red brick, the low-panelled rooms hung
+      with the portraits of departed Vernons, the sloping park and the splendid
+      oaks that stood about, singly or in groups, were all of them perfect in
+      their way. It was one of the most lovely of English homes, and oddly
+      enough its neglected gardens and the air of decay that pervaded it, added
+      to rather than decreased its charm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it is with The Court that we have to do at present, not with Yarleys.
+      Mr. Champers-Haswell had a week-end party. There were ten guests, all men,
+      and with the exception of Alan, who it will be remembered was one of them,
+      all rich and in business. They included two French bankers and three Jews,
+      everyone a prop of the original Sahara Syndicate and deeply interested in
+      the forthcoming flotation. To describe them is unnecessary, for they have
+      no part in our story, being only financiers of a certain class, remarkable
+      for the riches they had acquired by means that for the most part would not
+      bear examination. The riches were evident enough. Ever since the morning
+      the owners of this wealth had arrived by ones or twos in their costly
+      motorcars, attended by smart chauffeurs and valets. Their fur coats, their
+      jewelled studs and rings, something in their very faces suggested money,
+      which indeed was the bond that brought and held them together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan did not come until it was time to dress for dinner, for he knew that
+      Barbara would not appear before that meal, and it was her society he
+      sought, not that of his host or fellow guests. Accompanied by his negro
+      servant, Jeekie, for in a house like this it was necessary to have someone
+      to wait upon him, he drove over from Yarleys, a distance of ten miles,
+      arriving about eight o&rsquo;clock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Haswell as gone up to dress, Major, and so have the other gentlemen,&rdquo;
+       said the head butler, Mr. Smith, &ldquo;but Miss Champers told me to give you
+      this note and to say that dinner is at half-past eight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan took the note and asked to be shown to his room. Once there, although
+      he had only five and twenty minutes, he opened it eagerly, while Jeekie
+      unpacked his bag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear Alan,&rdquo; it ran: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be late for dinner, or I may not be able to
+      keep a place next to me. Of course Sir Robert takes me in. They are a
+      worse lot than usual this time, odious&mdash;odious!&mdash;and I can&rsquo;t
+      stand one on the left hand as well as on the right. Yours,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;B.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;P.S. What <i>have</i> you been doing? Our distinguished guests, to say
+      nothing of my uncle, seem to be in a great fuss about you. I overheard
+      them talking when I was pretending to arrange some flowers. One of them
+      called you a sanctimonious prig and an obstinate donkey, and another
+      answered&mdash;I think it was Sir Robert &mdash;&lsquo;No doubt, but obstinate
+      donkeys can kick and have been known to upset other people&rsquo;s applecarts
+      ere now.&rsquo; Is the Sahara Syndicate the applecart? If so, I&rsquo;ll forgive you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;P.P.S. Remember that we will walk to church together to-morrow, but come
+      down to breakfast in knickerbockers or something to put them off, and I&rsquo;ll
+      do the same&mdash;I mean I&rsquo;ll dress as if I were going to golf. We can
+      turn into Christians later. If we don&rsquo;t&mdash;dress like that, I mean&mdash;they&rsquo;ll
+      guess and all want to come to church, except the Jews, which would bring
+      the judgment of Heaven on us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;P.P.P.S. Don&rsquo;t be careless and leave this note lying about, for the
+      under-footman who waits upon you reads all the letters. He steams them
+      over a kettle. Smith the butler is the only respectable man in this
+      house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan laughed outright as he finished this peculiar and outspoken epistle,
+      which somehow revived his spirits, that since the previous day had been
+      low enough. It refreshed him. It was like a breath of frosty air from an
+      open window blowing clean and cold into a scented, overheated room. He
+      would have liked to keep it, but remembering Barbara&rsquo;s injunctions and the
+      under-footman, threw it onto the fire and watched it burn. Jeekie coughed
+      to intimate that it was time for his master to dress, and Alan turned and
+      looked at him in an absent-minded fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was worth looking at, was Jeekie. Let the reader imagine a very tall
+      and powerfully-built negro with a skin as black as a well-polished boot,
+      woolly hair as white as snow, a little tufted beard also white, a hand
+      like a leg of mutton, but with long delicate fingers and pink,
+      filbert-shaped nails, an immovable countenance, but set in it beneath a
+      massive brow, two extraordinary humorous and eloquent black eyes which
+      expressed every emotion passing through the brain behind them, that is
+      when their owner chose to allow them to do so. Such was Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I unlace your boots, Major?&rdquo; he said in his full, melodious voice
+      and speaking the most perfect English. &ldquo;I expect that the gong will sound
+      in nine and a half minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let it sound and be hanged to it,&rdquo; answered Alan; &ldquo;no, I forgot&mdash;I
+      must hurry. Jeekie, put that fire out and open all the windows as soon as
+      I go down. This room is like a hot-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, the fire shall be extinguished and the sleeping-chamber
+      ventilated. The other boot, if you please, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;who is stopping in this place? Have you heard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I collected some names on my way upstairs, Major. Three of the gentlemen
+      you have never met before, but,&rdquo; he added suddenly breaking away from his
+      high-flown book-learned English, as was his custom when in earnest,
+      &ldquo;Jeekie think they just black niggers like the rest, thief people. There
+      ain&rsquo;t a white man in this house, except you and Miss Barbara and me,
+      Major. Jeekie learnt all that in servant&rsquo;s hall palaver. No, not now,
+      other time. Everyone tell everything to Jeekie, poor old African fool, and
+      he look up an answer, &lsquo;O law! you don&rsquo;t say so?&rsquo; but keep his eyes and
+      ears open all the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be bound you do, Jeekie,&rdquo; replied Alan, laughing again. &ldquo;Well, go on
+      keeping them open, and give me those trousers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, reassuming his grand manner, &ldquo;I shall
+      continue to collect information which may prove to your advantage, but
+      personally I wish that you were clear of the whole caboodle, except Miss
+      Barbara.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear, hear,&rdquo; ejaculated Alan, &ldquo;there goes the gong. Mind you come in and
+      help to wait,&rdquo; and hurrying into his coat he departed downstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guests were gathered in the hall drinking sherry and bitters, a
+      proceeding that to Alan&rsquo;s mind set a stamp upon the house. His host, Mr.
+      Champers-Haswell, came forward and greeted him with much affectionate
+      enthusiasm, and Alan noticed that he looked very pale, also that his
+      thoughts seemed to be wandering, for he introduced a French banker to him
+      as a noted Jew, and the noted Jew as the French banker, although the
+      distinction between them was obvious and the gentlemen concerned evidently
+      resented the mistake. Sir Robert Aylward, catching sight of him, came
+      across the hall in his usual, direct fashion, and shook him by the hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad to see you, Vernon,&rdquo; he said, fixing his piercing eyes upon Alan as
+      though he were trying to read his thoughts. &ldquo;Pleasant change this from the
+      City and all that eternal business, isn&rsquo;t it? Ah! you are thinking that
+      one is not quite clear of business after all,&rdquo; and he glanced round at the
+      company. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of your cousin Haswell&rsquo;s faults; he can never shake
+      himself free of the thing, never get any real recreation. I&rsquo;d bet you a
+      sovereign that he has a stenographer waiting by a telephone in the next
+      room, just in case any opportunity should arise in the course of
+      conversation. That is magnificent, but it is not wise. His heart can&rsquo;t
+      stand it; it will wear him out before his time. Listen, they are all
+      talking about the Sahara. I wish I were there; it must be quiet at any
+      rate. The sands beneath, the eternal stars above. Yes, I wish I were
+      there,&rdquo; he repeated with a sigh, and Alan noted that although his face
+      could not be more pallid than its natural colour, it looked quite worn and
+      old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I,&rdquo; he answered with enthusiasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then a French gentleman on his left, having discovered that he was the
+      engineer who had formulated the great flooding scheme, began to address
+      him as &ldquo;Cher maitre,&rdquo; speaking so rapidly his own language that Alan,
+      whose French was none of the best, struggled after him in vain. Whilst he
+      was trying to answer a question which he did not understand, the door at
+      the end of the hall opened, and through it appeared Barbara Champers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a large hall and she was a long way off, which caused her to look
+      small, who indeed was only of middle height. Yet even at that distance it
+      was impossible to mistake the dignity of her appearance. A slim woman with
+      brown hair, cheerful brown eyes, a well-modelled face, a rounded figure
+      and an excellent complexion, such was Barbara. Ten thousand young ladies
+      could be found as good, or even better looking, yet something about her
+      differentiated her from the majority of her sex. There was determination
+      in her step, and overflowing health and vigour in her every movement. Her
+      eyes had a trick of looking straight into any other eyes they met, not
+      boldly, but with a kind of virginal fearlessness and enterprise that
+      people often found embarrassing. Indeed she was extremely virginal and
+      devoid of the usual fringe of feminine airs and graces, a nymph of the
+      woods and waters, who although she was three and twenty, as yet recked
+      little of men save as companions whom she liked or disliked according to
+      her instincts. For the rest she was sweetly dressed in a white robe with
+      silver on it, and wore no ornaments save a row of small pearls about her
+      throat and some lilies of the valley at her breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barbara came straight onwards, looking neither to the right or to the
+      left, till she reached her uncle, to whom she nodded. Then she walked to
+      Alan and, offering him her hand, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you do! Why did you not come over at lunch time? I wanted to play
+      a round of golf with you this afternoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan answered something about being busy at Yarleys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yarleys!&rdquo; she replied. &ldquo;I thought that you lived in the City now, making
+      money out of speculations, like everyone else that I know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Miss Champers,&rdquo; broke in Sir Robert reproachfully, &ldquo;I asked you to
+      play a round of golf before tea and you would not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;because I was waiting for my cousin. We are better
+      matched, Sir Robert.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in her voice, usually so soft and pleasant, as she
+      spoke these words, something of steeliness and defiance that caused Alan
+      to feel at once happy and uncomfortable. Apparently also it caused Aylward
+      to feel angry, for he flashed a glance at Alan over her head of which the
+      purport could not be mistaken, though his pale face remained as immovable
+      as ever. &ldquo;We are enemies. I hate you,&rdquo; said that glance. Probably Barbara
+      saw it; at any rate before either of them could speak again, she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank goodness, there is dinner at last. Sir Robert, will you take me in,
+      and, Alan, will you sit on the other side of me? My uncle will show the
+      rest their places.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The meal was long and magnificent; the price of each dish of it would have
+      kept a poor family for a month, and on the cost of the exquisite wines
+      they might have lived for a year or two. Also the last were well
+      patronized by everyone except Barbara, who drank water, and Alan, who
+      since his severe fever took nothing but weak whiskey and soda and a little
+      claret. Even Aylward, a temperate person, absorbed a good deal of
+      champagne. As a consequence the conversation grew animated, and under
+      cover of it, while Sir Robert was arguing with his neighbour on the left,
+      Barbara asked in a low voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the row, Alan? Tell me, I can&rsquo;t wait any longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have quarrelled with them,&rdquo; he answered, staring at his mutton as
+      though he were criticizing it. &ldquo;I mean, I have left the firm and have
+      nothing more to do with the business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Barbara&rsquo;s eyes lit up as she whispered back:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad of it. Best news I have heard for many a day. But then, may I ask
+      why you are here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came to see you,&rdquo; he replied humbly&mdash;&ldquo;thought perhaps you wouldn&rsquo;t
+      mind,&rdquo; and in his confusion he let his knife fall into the mutton, whence
+      it rebounded, staining his shirt front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barbara laughed, that happy, delightful little laugh of hers, presumably
+      at the accident with the knife. Whether or no she &ldquo;minded&rdquo; did not appear,
+      only she handed her handkerchief, a costly, last-fringed trifle, to Alan
+      to wipe the gravy off his shirt, which he took thinking it was a napkin,
+      and as she did so, touched his hand with a little caressing movement of
+      her fingers. Whether this was done by chance or on purpose did not appear
+      either. At least it made Alan feel extremely happy. Also when he
+      discovered what it was, he kept that gravy-stained handkerchief, nor did
+      she ever ask for it back again. Only once in after days when she happened
+      to come across it stuffed away in the corner of a despatch-box, she
+      blushed all over, and said that she had no idea that any man could be so
+      foolish out of a book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that <i>you</i> are really clear of it, I am going for them,&rdquo; she
+      said presently when the wiping process was finished. &ldquo;I have only
+      restrained myself for your sake,&rdquo; and leaning back in her chair she stared
+      at the ceiling, lost in meditation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently there came one of those silences which will fall upon
+      dinner-parties at times, however excellent and plentiful the champagne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Robert Aylward,&rdquo; said Barbara in that clear, carrying voice of hers,
+      &ldquo;will you, as an expert, instruct a very ignorant person? I want a little
+      information.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Champers,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;am I not always at your service?&rdquo; and all
+      listened to hear upon what point their hostess desired to be enlightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Robert,&rdquo; she went on calmly, &ldquo;everyone here is, I believe, what is
+      called a financier, that is except myself and Major Vernon, who only tries
+      to be and will, I am sure, fail, since Nature made him something else, a
+      soldier and&mdash;what else did Nature make you, Alan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he vouchsafed no answer to question, although Sir Robert muttered an
+      uncomplimentary one between his lips which Barbara heard, or read, she
+      continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are all very rich and successful, are you not, and are going to
+      be much richer and much more successful&mdash;next week. Now what I want
+      to ask you is&mdash;how is it done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accepting the premises for the sake of argument, Miss Champers,&rdquo; replied
+      Sir Robert, who felt that he could not refuse the challenge, &ldquo;the answer
+      is that it is done by finance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am still in the dark,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Finance, as I have heard of it, means
+      floating companies, and companies are floated to earn money for those who
+      invest in them. Now this afternoon as I was dull, I got hold of a book
+      called the Directory of Directors, and looked up all your names in it,
+      except those of the gentlemen from Paris, and the companies that you
+      direct&mdash;I found out about those in another book. Well, I could not
+      make out that any of these companies have ever earned any money, a
+      dividend, don&rsquo;t you call it? Therefore how do you all grow so rich, and
+      why do people invest in them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Sir Robert frowned, Alan coloured, two or three of the company laughed
+      outright, and one of the French gentlemen who understood English and had
+      already drunk as much as was good for him, remarked loudly to his
+      neighbour, &ldquo;Ah! she is charming. She do touch the spot, like that ointment
+      you give me to-day. How do we grow rich and why do the people invest? <i>Mon
+      Dieu!</i> why do they invest? That is the great mystery. I say that <i>cette
+      belle demoiselle, votre nièce, est ravissante. Elle a d&rsquo;esprit, mon ami
+      Haswell.</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Apparently her uncle did not share these sentiments, for he turned as red
+      as any turkey-cock, and said across the great round table:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Barbara, I wish that you would leave matters which you do not
+      understand alone. We are here to dine, not to talk about finance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, Uncle,&rdquo; she answered sweetly. &ldquo;I stand, or rather sit,
+      reproved. I suppose that I have put my foot into it as usual, and the
+      worst of it is,&rdquo; she added, turning to Sir Robert, &ldquo;that I am just as
+      ignorant as I was before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you want to master these matters, Miss Champers,&rdquo; said Aylward with a
+      rather forced laugh, &ldquo;you must go into training and worship at the shrine
+      of&rdquo;&mdash;he meant to say Mammon, then thinking that the word sounded
+      unpleasant, substituted&mdash;&ldquo;the Yellow God as we do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words Alan, who had been studying his plate, looked up quickly,
+      and her uncle&rsquo;s face turned from red to white. But the irrepressible
+      Barbara seized upon them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Yellow God,&rdquo; she repeated. &ldquo;Do you mean money or that fetish thing of
+      Major Vernon&rsquo;s with the terrible woman&rsquo;s face that I saw at the office in
+      the City. Well, to change the subject, tell us, Alan, what is that yellow
+      god of yours and where did it come from?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My uncle Austin, who was my mother&rsquo;s brother and a missionary, brought it
+      from West Africa a great many years ago. He was the first to visit the
+      tribe who worship it; in fact I do not think that anyone has ever visited
+      them since. But really I do not know all the story. Jeekie can tell you
+      about it if you want to know, for he is one of that people and escaped
+      with my uncle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Jeekie having left the room, some of the guests wished to send for
+      him, but Mr. Champers-Haswell objected. The end of it was that a
+      compromise was effected, Alan undertaking to produce his retainer
+      afterwards when they went to play billiards or cards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dinner was over at length and the diners, who had dined well, were
+      gathered in the billiard room to smoke and amuse themselves as they
+      wished. It was a very large room, sixty feet long indeed, with a wide
+      space in the centre between the two tables, which was furnished as a
+      lounge. When the gentlemen entered it they found Barbara standing by the
+      great fireplace in this central space, a little shape of white and silver
+      in its emptiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me for intruding on you,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and please do not stop
+      smoking, for I like the smell. I have sat up expressly to hear Jeekie&rsquo;s
+      story of the Yellow God. Alan, produce Jeekie, or I shall go to bed at
+      once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her uncle made a movement as though to interfere, but Sir Robert said
+      something to him which appeared to cause him to change his mind, while the
+      rest in some way or another signified an enthusiastic assent. All of them
+      were anxious to see this Jeekie and hear his tale, if he had one to tell.
+      So Jeekie was sent for and presently arrived clad in the dress clothes
+      which are common to all classes in England and America. There he stood
+      before them white-headed, ebony-faced, gigantic, imperturbable. There is
+      no doubt that his appearance produced an effect, for it was unusual and
+      indeed striking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sent for me, Major?&rdquo; he said, addressing his master, to whom he gave
+      a military salute, for he had been Alan&rsquo;s servant when he was in the Army.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Jeekie. Miss Barbara here and these gentlemen, wish you to tell them
+      all that you know about the Yellow God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The negro started and rolled his round eyes upwards till the whites of
+      them showed, then began in his school-book English:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a private subject, Major, upon which I should prefer not to
+      discourse before this very public company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A chorus of remonstrance arose and one of the Jewish gentlemen approaching
+      Jeekie, slipped a couple of sovereigns into his great hand, which he
+      promptly transferred to his pocket without seeming to notice them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Barbara, &ldquo;don&rsquo;t disappoint me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, miss, I fall in with your wishes. The Yellow God that all
+      these gentlemen worship, quite another god to that of which you desire
+      that I should tell you. You know all about him. My god is of female sex.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this statement his audience burst into laughter while Jeekie rolled his
+      eyes again and waited till they had finished. &ldquo;My god,&rdquo; he went on
+      presently, &ldquo;I mean, gentlemen, the god I used to pray to, for I am a good
+      Christian now, has so much gold that she does not care for any more,&rdquo; and
+      he paused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what does she care for?&rdquo; asked someone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blood,&rdquo; answered Jeekie. &ldquo;She is god of Death. Her name is Little Bonsa
+      or Small Swimming Head; she is wife of Big Bonsa or Great Swimming Head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again there was laughter, though less general&mdash;for instance, neither
+      Sir Robert nor Mr. Champers-Haswell laughed. This merriment seemed to
+      excite Jeekie. At any rate it caused him to cease his stilted talk and
+      relapse into the strange vernacular that is common to all negroes,
+      tinctured with a racy slang that was all his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You want to hear Yellow God palaver?&rdquo; he said rapidly. &ldquo;Very well, I tell
+      you, you cocksure white men who think you know everything, but know
+      nothing at all. My people, people of the Asiki, that mean people of
+      Spirits, what you call ghosts and say you no believe in, but always look
+      for behind door, they worship Yellow God, Bonsa Big and Bonsa Little,
+      worship both and call them one; only Little Bonsa on trip to this country
+      just now and sit and think in City office. Yellow God live long way up a
+      great river, then turn to the left and walk six days through big forest
+      where dwarf people shoot you with poisoned arrow. Then turn to the right,
+      walk up stream where many wild beasts. Then turn to the left again and go
+      in canoe through swamp where you die of fever, and across lake. Then walk
+      over grassland and mountains. Then in kloof of the mountains where big
+      black trees make a roof and river fall like thunder, find Asiki and gold
+      house of the Yellow God. All that mountain gold, full of gold and beneath
+      gold house Yellow God afloat in water. She what you call Queen, priestess,
+      live there also, always there, very beautiful woman called Asika with face
+      like Yellow God, cruel, cruel. She take a husband every year, and every
+      year he die because she always hunt for right man but never find him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does she kill him then?&rdquo; asked Barbara.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! no, she no kill him, Miss, he kill himself at end of year, glad to
+      get away from Asika and go to spirits. While he live he have a very good
+      time, plenty to eat, plenty wives, fine house, much gold as he like, only
+      nothing to spend it on, pretty necklace, nice paint for face. But Asika,
+      little bit by little bit she eat up his spirit. He see too many ghosts.
+      The house where he sleep with dead men who once have his billet, full of
+      ghosts and every night there come more and sit with him, sit all round
+      him, look at him with great eyes, just like you look at me, till at last
+      when Asika finish eating up his spirit, he go crazy, he howl like man in
+      hell, he throw away all the gold they give him, and then, sometimes after
+      one week, sometimes after one month, sometimes after one year if he be
+      strong but never more, he run out at night and jump into canal where
+      Yellow God float and god get him, while Asika sit on the bank and laugh,
+      &lsquo;cause she hungry for new man to eat up his spirit too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie&rsquo;s big voice died away to a whisper and ceased. There was a silence
+      in the room, for even in the shine of the electric light and through the
+      fumes of champagne, in more than one imagination there rose a vision of
+      that haunted water in which floated the great Yellow God, and of some mad
+      being casting himself to his death beneath the moon, while his beautiful
+      witch wife who was &ldquo;hungry for more spirits&rdquo; sat upon its edge and
+      laughed. Although his language was now commonplace enough, even ludicrous
+      at times, the negro had undoubtedly the art of narration. His auditors
+      felt that he spoke of what he knew, or had seen, that the very
+      recollection of it frightened him, therefore he frightened them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Barbara broke the silence which she felt to be awkward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do more ghosts come very night to sit with the queen&rsquo;s husband,
+      Jeekie?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;Where do they come from?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of the dead, miss, dead husbands of Asika from beginning of the
+      world; what they call Munganas. Also always they make sacrifice to Yellow
+      God. From far, far away them poor niggers send people to be sacrifice that
+      their house or tribe get luck. Sometimes they send kings, sometimes great
+      men, sometimes doctors, sometimes women what have twin babies. Also the
+      Asiki bring people what is witches, or have drunk poison stuff which
+      blacks call <i>muavi</i> and have not been sick, or perhaps son they love
+      best to take curse off their roof. All these come to Yellow God. Then
+      Asiki doctor, they have Death-palaver. On night of full moon they beat
+      drum, and drum go Wow! Wow! Wow! and doctors pick out those to die that
+      month. Once they pick out Jeekie, oh! good Lord, they pick out <i>me</i>,&rdquo;
+       and as he said the words he gasped and with his great hand wiped off the
+      sweat that started from his brow. &ldquo;But Yellow God no take Jeekie that
+      time, no want him and I escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&rdquo; asked Sir Robert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With my master, Major&rsquo;s uncle, Reverend Austin, he who come try to make
+      Asiki Christian. He snap his fingers, put on small mask of Yellow God
+      which he prig, Little Bonsa herself, that same face which sit in your
+      office now,&rdquo; and he pointed to Sir Robert, &ldquo;like one toad upon a stone.
+      Priests think that god make herself into man, want holiday, take me out
+      into forest to kill me and eat my life. So they let us go by and we go
+      just as though devil kick us&mdash;fast, fast, and never see the Asiki any
+      more. But Little Bonsa I bring with me for luck, tell truth I no dare
+      leave her behind, she not stand that; and now she sit in your office and
+      think and think and make magic there. That why you grow rich, because she
+      know you worship her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a nice way for a baptized Christian to talk,&rdquo; said Barbara,
+      adding, &ldquo;But Jeekie, what do you mean when you say that the god did not
+      take you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean this, miss; when victim offered to Big Yellow God, priest-men
+      bring him to edge of canal where the great god float. Then if Yellow God
+      want him, it turn and swim across water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Swim across water! I thought you said it was only a mask of gold?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, miss, perhaps man inside the mask, perhaps spirit. I say it
+      swim across water in the night, always in the night, and lift itself up
+      and look in victim&rsquo;s face. Then priest take him and kill him, sometimes
+      one way&mdash;sometimes another. Or if he escape and they not kill him,
+      all same for that Johnnie, he die in about one year, always die, no one
+      ever live long if Yellow God swim to him in dark and rise up and smile in
+      his face. No matter if it Big Bonsa or Little Bonsa, for they man and wife
+      joined in holy matrimony and either do trick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As these words left Jeekie&rsquo;s lips Alan became aware of some unusual
+      movement on his left and looking round, saw that Mr. Champers-Haswell, who
+      stood by him, had dropped the cigar which he held and, white as a sheet,
+      was swaying to and fro. Indeed in another instant he would have fallen had
+      not Alan caught him in his arms and supported him till others came to his
+      assistance, when between them they carried him to a sofa. On their way
+      they passed a table where spirits and soda water were set out, and to his
+      astonishment Alan noticed that Sir Robert Aylward, looking little if at
+      all better than his partner, had helped himself to half a tumbler of
+      cognac, which he was swallowing in great gulps. Then there was confusion
+      and someone went to telephone the doctor, while the deep voice of Jeekie
+      was heard exclaiming:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That Yellow God at work&mdash;oh yes, Little Bonsa on the job. Jeekie
+      Christian man but no doubt she very powerful fetish and can do anything
+      she like to them that worship her, and you see, she sit in office of these
+      gentlemen. &lsquo;Spect she make Reverend Austin and me bring her to England
+      because she got eye on firm of Messrs. Aylward &amp; Haswell, London, E.C.
+      Oh, shouldn&rsquo;t wonder at all, for Bonsa know everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, confound you and your fetish! Be off, you old donkey,&rdquo; almost shouted
+      Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Major,&rdquo; replied the offended Jeekie, assuming his grand manner and
+      language, &ldquo;it was not I who wished to narrate this history of
+      blood-stained superstitions of poor African. Mustn&rsquo;t blame old Jeekie if
+      they make Christian gents sick as Channel steamer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be off,&rdquo; repeated Alan, stamping his foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Jeekie went, but outside the door, as it chanced, he encountered one of
+      the Jew gentlemen who also appeared to be a little &ldquo;sick.&rdquo; An idea
+      striking him, he touched his white hair with his finger and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You like Jeekie&rsquo;s pretty story, sir? Well, Jeekie think that if you make
+      little present to him, like your brother in there, it please Yellow God
+      very much, and bring you plenty luck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then acting upon some unaccustomed impulse, that Jew became exceedingly
+      generous. In his pocket was a handful of sovereigns which he had been
+      prepared to stake at bridge. He grasped them all and thrust them into
+      Jeekie&rsquo;s outstretched palm, where they seemed to melt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, sir,&rdquo; said Jeekie. &ldquo;Now I sure you have plenty luck, just like
+      your grandpa Jacob in Book when he do his brudder in eye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      ALAN AND BARBARA
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      There was no bridge or billiards at the Court that night, where ordinarily
+      the play ran high enough. After Mr. Haswell had been carried to his room,
+      some of the guests, among them Sir Robert Aylward, went to bed, remarking
+      that they could do no good by sitting up, while others, more concerned,
+      waited to hear the verdict of the doctor, who must drive from six miles
+      away. He came, and half an hour later Barbara entered the billiard room
+      and told Alan, who was sitting there smoking, that her uncle had recovered
+      from his faint, and that the doctor, who was to stay all night, said that
+      he was in no danger, only suffering from a heart attack brought on
+      apparently by over-work or excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Alan woke next morning the first thing that he heard through his open
+      window was the sound of the doctor&rsquo;s departing dogcart. Then Jeekie
+      appeared and told him that Mr. Haswell was all right again, but that all
+      night he had shaken &ldquo;like one jelly.&rdquo; Alan asked what had been the matter
+      with him, but Jeekie only shrugged his shoulders and said that he did not
+      know&mdash;&ldquo;perhaps Yellow God touch him up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At breakfast, as in her note she had said she would, Barbara appeared
+      wearing a short skirt. Sir Robert, who was there, also looked extremely
+      pale even for him and with black rims round his eyes, asked her if she
+      were going to golf, to which she answered that she would think it over. It
+      was a somewhat melancholy meal, and as though by common consent no mention
+      was made of Jeekie&rsquo;s tale of the Yellow God, and beyond the usual polite
+      inquiries, very little of their host&rsquo;s seizure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Barbara went out she whispered to Alan, who opened the door for her,
+      &ldquo;Meet me at half-past ten in the kitchen garden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, having changed his clothes surreptitiously, Alan, avoiding
+      the others, made his way by a circuitous route to this kitchen garden,
+      which after the fashion of modern places was hidden behind a belt of trees
+      nearly a quarter of a mile from the house. Here he wandered about till
+      presently he heard Barbara&rsquo;s pleasant voice behind him saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t dawdle so, we shall be late for church.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they started, somewhat furtively like runaway children. As they went
+      Alan asked how her uncle was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right now,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;but he has had a bad shake. It was that
+      Yellow God story which did it. I know, for I was there when he was coming
+      to, with Sir Robert. He kept talking about it in a confused manner, saying
+      that it was swimming to him across the floor, till at last Sir Robert bent
+      over him and told him to be quiet quite sternly. Do you know, Alan, I
+      believe that your pet fetish has been manifesting itself in some
+      unpleasant fashion up there in the office?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed. If so, it must be since I left, for I never heard of anything of
+      the sort, nor are Aylward and your uncle likely people to see ghosts. In
+      fact Sir Robert wished to give me about £17,000 for the thing only the day
+      before yesterday, which doesn&rsquo;t look as though it had been frightening
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he won&rsquo;t repeat the offer, Alan, for I heard him promise my uncle
+      only this morning that it should be sent back to Yarleys at once. But why
+      did he want to buy it for such a lot of money? Tell me quickly, Alan, I am
+      dying to hear the whole story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he began and told her, omitting nothing, while she listened eagerly to
+      every word, hardly interrupting him at all. As he finished his tale they
+      reached the door of the quaint old village church just as the clock was
+      striking eleven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in, Alan,&rdquo; she said gently, &ldquo;and thank Heaven for all its mercies,
+      for you should be a grateful man to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then without giving him time to answer she entered the church and they
+      took their places in the great square pew that for generations had been
+      occupied by the owners of the ancient house which Mr. Haswell pulled down
+      when he built The Court. There were their monuments upon the wall and
+      their gravestones in the chancel floor. But now no one except Barbara ever
+      sat in their pew; even the benches set aside for the servants were empty,
+      for those who frequented The Court were not church-goers and &ldquo;like master,
+      like man.&rdquo; Indeed the gentle-faced old clergyman looked quite pleased and
+      surprised when he saw two inhabitants of that palatial residence amongst
+      his congregation, although it is true that Barbara was his friend and
+      helper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The simple service went on; the first lesson was read. It cried woe upon
+      them that joined house to house and field to field, that draw iniquity
+      with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope; that call evil
+      good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness,
+      that justify the wicked for reward; that feast full but regard not the
+      work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hand, for of such
+      it prophesied that their houses great and fair should be without
+      inhabitant and desolate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was very well read, and Alan, listening, thought that the denunciations
+      of the old seer of thousands of years ago were not inappropriate to the
+      dwellers in some houses great and fair of his own day, who, whatever they
+      did or left undone, regarded not the work of the Lord, neither considered
+      the operation of His hand. Perhaps Barbara thought so too; at any rate a
+      rather sad little smile appeared once or twice upon her sweet, firm face
+      as the immortal poem echoed down the aisle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The peace that passeth understanding was invoked upon their heads, and
+      rising with the rest of the scanty congregation they went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we walk home by the woods, Alan?&rdquo; asked Barbara. &ldquo;It is three miles
+      round, but we don&rsquo;t lunch till two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He nodded, and presently they were alone in those woods, the beautiful
+      woods through which the breath of spring was breathing, treading upon
+      carpets of bluebells, violet and primrose; quite alone, unaccompanied save
+      by the wild things that stole across their path, undisturbed save by the
+      sound of the singing birds and of the wind among the trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you mean, Barbara, when you said that I should be a grateful man
+      to-day?&rdquo; asked Alan presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barbara looked him in the eyes in that open, virginal fashion of hers and
+      answered in the words of the lesson, &ldquo;&lsquo;Woe unto them that draw iniquity
+      with the cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope, that lay
+      house to house,&rsquo;&rdquo; and through an opening in the woods she pointed to the
+      roof of The Court standing on one hill, and to the roof of Old Hall
+      standing upon another&mdash;&ldquo;&lsquo;and field to field,&rsquo;&rdquo; and with a sweep of
+      her hand she indicated all the country round, &ldquo;&lsquo;for many houses great and
+      fair that have music in their feasts shall be left desolate.&rsquo;&rdquo; Then
+      turning she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you understand now, Alan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;You mean that I have been in bad company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very bad, Alan. One of them is my own uncle, but the truth remains the
+      truth. Alan, they are no better than thieves; all this wealth is stolen,
+      and I thank God that you have found it out in time before you became one
+      of them in heart as well as in name.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you refer to the Sahara Syndicate,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the idea is sound
+      enough; indeed, I am responsible for it. The thing can be done, great
+      benefits would result, too long to go into.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, Alan, but you know that they never mean to do it, they only
+      mean to get the millions from the public. I have lived with my uncle for
+      ten years, ever since my poor father died, and I know the backstairs of
+      the business. There have been half a dozen schemes like this, and although
+      they have had their bad times, very bad times, he and Sir Robert have
+      grown richer and richer. But what has happened to those who have invested
+      in them? Oh! let us drop the subject, it is unpleasant. For myself it
+      doesn&rsquo;t matter, because although it isn&rsquo;t under my control, I have money
+      of my own. You know we are a plebeian lot on the male side, my grandfather
+      was a draper in a large way of business, my father was a coal-merchant who
+      made a great fortune. His brother, my uncle, in whom my father always
+      believed implicitly, took to what is called Finance, and when my father
+      died he left me, his only child, in his guardianship. Until I am five and
+      twenty I cannot even marry or touch a halfpenny without his consent; in
+      fact if I should marry against his will the most of my money goes to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect that he has got it already,&rdquo; said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I think not. I found out that, although it is not mine, it is not
+      his. He can&rsquo;t draw it without my signature, and I steadily refuse to sign
+      anything. Again and again they have brought me documents, and I have
+      always said that I would consider them at five and twenty, when I came of
+      age under my father&rsquo;s will. I went on the sly to a lawyer in Kingswell and
+      paid him a guinea for his advice, and he put me up to that. &lsquo;Sign
+      nothing,&rsquo; he said, and I have signed nothing, so, except by forgery
+      nothing can have gone. Still for all that it may have gone. For anything I
+      know I am not worth more than the clothes I stand in, although my father
+      was a very rich man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If so, we are about in the same boat, Barbara,&rdquo; Alan answered with a
+      laugh, &ldquo;for my present possessions are Yarleys, which brings in about £100
+      a year less than the interest on its mortgages and cost of upkeep, and the
+      £1700 that Aylward paid me back on Friday for my shares. If I had stuck to
+      them I understand that in a week or two I should have been worth £100,000,
+      and now you see, here I am, over thirty years of age without a profession,
+      invalided out of the army and having failed in finance, a mere bit of
+      driftwood without hope and without a trade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Barbara&rsquo;s brown eyes grew soft with sympathy, or was it tears?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a curious creature, Alan,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you take the
+      £17,000 for that fetish of yours? It would have been a fair deal and have
+      set you on your legs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he answered dejectedly. &ldquo;It went against the grain, so
+      what is the use of talking about it? I think my old uncle Austin told me
+      it wasn&rsquo;t to be parted with&mdash;no, perhaps it was Jeekie. Bother the
+      Yellow God! it is always cropping up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied Barbara, &ldquo;the Yellow God is always cropping up, especially
+      in this neighbourhood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked on a while in silence, till suddenly Barbara sat down upon a
+      bole of felled oak and began to cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the matter with you?&rdquo; asked Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;Everything goes wrong. I live in a kind of
+      gilded hell. I don&rsquo;t like my uncle and I loath the men he brings about the
+      place. I have no friends, I scarcely know a woman intimately, I have
+      troubles I can&rsquo;t tell you and&mdash;I am wretched. You are the only
+      creature I have left to talk to, and I suppose that after this row you
+      must go away too to make your living.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan looked at her there weeping on the log and his heart swelled within
+      him, for he had loved this girl for years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Barbara,&rdquo; he gasped, &ldquo;please don&rsquo;t cry, it upsets me. You know you are a
+      great heiress&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That remains to be proved,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;But anyway, what has it to do
+      with the case?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has everything to do with it, at least so far as I am concerned. If it
+      hadn&rsquo;t been for that I should have asked you to marry me a long while ago,
+      because I love you, as I would now, but of course it is impossible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Barbara ceased her weeping, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and
+      looked up at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alan,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I think that you are the biggest fool I ever knew&mdash;not
+      but that a fool is rather refreshing when one lives among knaves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know I am a fool,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;If I wasn&rsquo;t I should not have
+      mentioned my misfortune to you, but sometimes things are too much for one.
+      Forget it and forgive me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! yes,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I forgive you; a woman can generally forgive a man
+      for being fond of her. Whatever she may be, she is ready to take a lenient
+      view of his human weakness. But as to forgetting, that is a different
+      matter. I don&rsquo;t exactly see why I should be so anxious to forget, who
+      haven&rsquo;t many people to care about me,&rdquo; and she looked at him in quite a
+      new fashion, one indeed which gave him something of a shock, for he had
+      not thought the nymph-like Barbara capable of such a look as that. She and
+      any sort of passion had always seemed so far apart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now after all Alan was very much a man, if a modest one, with all a man&rsquo;s
+      instincts, and therefore there are appearances of the female face which
+      even such as he could not entirely misinterpret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&mdash;don&rsquo;t&mdash;mean,&rdquo; he said doubtfully, &ldquo;you don&rsquo;t really mean&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+       and he stood hesitating before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you would put your question a little more clearly, Alan, I might be
+      able to give you an answer,&rdquo; she replied, that quaint little smile of hers
+      creeping to the corners of her mouth like sunshine through a mist of rain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t really mean,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;that you care anything about me,
+      like, like I have cared for you for years?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! Alan,&rdquo; she said, laughing outright, &ldquo;why in the name of goodness
+      shouldn&rsquo;t I care about you? I didn&rsquo;t say that I do, mind, but why
+      shouldn&rsquo;t I? What is the gulf between us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old one,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;that between Dives and Lazarus&mdash;that
+      between the rich and the poor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alan,&rdquo; said Barbara, looking down, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what has come over me,
+      but for some unexplained and inexplicable reason I am inclined to give
+      Lazarus a lead&mdash;across that gulf, the first one, I mean, not the
+      second!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Like the glance which preceded it, this was a saying that even Alan could
+      not misunderstand. He sat himself on the log beside her, while she, still
+      looking down, watched him out of the corners of her eyes. He went red, he
+      went white, his heart beat very violently. Then he stretched out his big
+      brown hand and took her small white one, and as this familiarity produced
+      no remonstrance, let it fall, and passing his arm about her, drew her to
+      him and embraced her, not once, but often, with such vigour that a
+      squirrel which had been watching these proceedings from a neighbouring
+      tree, bolted round it scandalized and was seen no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love you, I love you,&rdquo; he said huskily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I gather,&rdquo; she answered in a feeble voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you care for me?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would seem that I must, Alan, otherwise I should scarcely&mdash;oh!
+      you foolish Alan,&rdquo; and heedless of her Sunday hat, which never recovered
+      from this encounter, but was kept as a holy relic, she let her head fall
+      upon his shoulder and began to cry again, this time for very happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He kissed her tears away, then as he could think of nothing else to say,
+      asked her if she would marry him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the general sequel to this kind of thing, I believe,&rdquo; she answered;
+      &ldquo;or at any rate it ought to be. But if you want a direct answer&mdash;yes,
+      I will, if my uncle will let me, which he won&rsquo;t, as you have quarrelled
+      with him, or at any rate two years hence, when I am five and twenty and my
+      own mistress; that is if we have anything to marry on, for one must eat.
+      At present our worldly possessions seem to consist chiefly of a large
+      store of mutual affection, a good stock of clothes and one Yellow God,
+      which after what happened last night, I do not think you will get another
+      chance of turning into cash.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must make money somehow,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Alan, but I am afraid it is not easy to do&mdash;honestly. Nobody
+      wants people without capital whose only stock in trade is a brief but
+      distinguished military career, and a large experience of African fever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan groaned at this veracious but discouraging remark, and she went on
+      quickly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean to spend another guinea upon my friend the lawyer at Kingswell.
+      Perhaps he can raise the wind, by a post-obit, or something,&rdquo; she added
+      vaguely, &ldquo;I mean a post-uncle-obit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he does, Barbara, I can&rsquo;t live on your money alone, it isn&rsquo;t right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! don&rsquo;t you trouble about that, Alan. If once I can get hold of those
+      dim thousands you will soon be able to make more, for unto him that hath
+      shall be given. But at present they are very dim, and for all I know may
+      be represented by stock in deceased companies. In short, the financial
+      position is extraordinarily depressed, as they say in the Market
+      Intelligence in <i>The Times</i>. But that&rsquo;s no reason why we should be
+      depressed also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Barbara, for at any rate we have got each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she answered, springing up, &ldquo;we have got each other, dear, until
+      Death do us part, and somehow I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;ll do that yet awhile; it
+      comes into my heart that he won&rsquo;t do that, Alan, that you and I are going
+      to live out our days. So what does the rest matter? In two years I shall
+      be a free woman. In fact, if the worst comes to the worst, I&rsquo;ll defy them
+      all,&rdquo; and she set her little mouth like a rock, &ldquo;and marry you straight
+      away, as being over age, I can do, even if it costs me every halfpenny
+      that I&rsquo;ve got.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it would be wrong, wrong to yourself and wrong to your
+      descendants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Alan, then, we will wait, or perhaps luck will come our way&mdash;why
+      shouldn&rsquo;t it? At any rate for my part I never felt so happy in my life;
+      for, dear Alan, we have found what we were born to find, found it once and
+      for always, and the rest is mere etceteras. What would be the use of all
+      the gold of the Asiki people that Jeekie was talking about last night, to
+      either of us, if we had not each other? We can get on without the wealth,
+      but we couldn&rsquo;t get on apart, or at least I couldn&rsquo;t and I don&rsquo;t mind
+      saying so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my darling, no,&rdquo; he answered, turning white at the very thought, &ldquo;we
+      couldn&rsquo;t get on apart&mdash;now. In fact I don&rsquo;t know how I have done so
+      so long already, except that I was always hoping that a time would come
+      when we shouldn&rsquo;t be apart. That is why I went into that infernal
+      business, to make enough money to be able to ask you to marry me. And now
+      I have gone out of the business and asked you just when I shouldn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, so you see you might as well have done it a year or two ago when
+      perhaps things would have been simpler. Well, it is a fine example of the
+      vanity of human plans, and, Alan, we must be going home to lunch. If we
+      don&rsquo;t, Sir Robert will be organizing a search party to look for us; in
+      fact, I shouldn&rsquo;t wonder if he is doing that already, in the wrong
+      direction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mention of Sir Robert Aylward&rsquo;s name fell on them both like a blast of
+      cold wind in summer, and for a while they walked in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are afraid of that man, Barbara,&rdquo; said Alan presently, guessing her
+      thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;so far as I can be afraid of anything any more.
+      And you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little also. I think that he will give us trouble. He can be very
+      malevolent and resourceful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Resourceful, Alan; well, so can I. I&rsquo;ll back my wits against his any day.
+      He shan&rsquo;t separate us by anything short of murder, which he won&rsquo;t go in
+      for. Men like that don&rsquo;t like to break the law; they have too much to
+      lose. But no doubt he will make things uncomfortable for you, if he can,
+      for several reasons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again they walked on lost in reflections, when Barbara suddenly saw her
+      lover&rsquo;s face brighten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Alan?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something that is rare enough with me, Barbara&mdash;an idea. You
+      remember speaking about that Asiki gold just now. Well, why shouldn&rsquo;t I go
+      and get it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stared at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sounds a little speculative,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;something like one of my
+      uncle&rsquo;s companies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not half so speculative as you think. I have no doubt it is there and
+      Jeekie knows the way. Also I seem to remember that there is a map and an
+      account of the whole thing in Uncle Austin&rsquo;s diaries, though to tell you
+      the truth the old fellow wrote such a fearful hand, that I have never
+      taken the trouble to read it. You see,&rdquo; he went on with enthusiasm, &ldquo;it is
+      the kind of business that I can do. I am thoroughly salted to fever, I
+      know the West Coast, where I spent three years on that Boundary
+      Commission, I have studied the natives and can talk several of their
+      dialects. Of course there would be a risk, but there are risks in
+      everything, and like you I am not afraid about that, for I believe that we
+      have got our lives before us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Read up those diaries, Alan, and we will talk the thing over again. I&rsquo;ll
+      pump Jeekie, who will tell me anything by coaxing, and try to get at the
+      truth. Meanwhile what are you going to do about my uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak to him, of course, and have the row over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;that is the best and the most honest. Of course he
+      can turn you out, but he can&rsquo;t prevent my seeing you. If he does, go home
+      to Yarleys and I&rsquo;ll come over and call. Here we are, let us go in by the
+      back door,&rdquo; and she pointed to her crushed hat, and laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      BARBARA MAKES A SPEECH
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      While Alan and Barbara, on the most momentous occasion of their lives,
+      were seated upon the fallen oak in the woods that thrilled with the breath
+      of spring, another interview was taking place in Mr. Champers-Haswell&rsquo;s
+      private suite at The Court, the decorations of which, as he was wont to
+      inform his visitors, had cost nearly £2000. Sir Robert, whose taste at any
+      rate was good, thought them so appalling that while waiting for his host
+      and partner, whom he had come to see, he took a seat in the bow window of
+      the sitting-room and studied the view that nobody had been able to spoil.
+      Presently Mr. Haswell emerged from his bedroom, wrapped in a dressing gown
+      and looking very pale and shaky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Delighted to see you all right again,&rdquo; said Sir Robert as he wheeled up a
+      chair into which Mr. Haswell sank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not all right, Aylward,&rdquo; he answered; &ldquo;I am not all right at all.
+      Never had such an upset in my life; thought I was going to die when that
+      accursed savage told his beastly tale. Aylward, you are a man of the
+      world, tell me, what is the meaning of the thing? You remember what we
+      thought we saw in the office, and then&mdash;that story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he answered; &ldquo;frankly I don&rsquo;t know. I am a man who has
+      never believed in anything I cannot see and test, one who utterly lacks
+      faith. In my leisure I have examined into the various religious systems
+      and found them to be rubbish. I am convinced that we are but
+      highly-developed mammals born by chance, and when our day is done,
+      departing into the black nothingness out of which we came. Everything
+      else, that is, what is called the higher and spiritual part, I attribute
+      to the superstitions incident to the terror of the hideous position in
+      which we find ourselves, that of gods of a sort hemmed in by a few years
+      of fearful and tormented life. But you know the old arguments, so why
+      should I enter on them? And now I am confronted with an experience which I
+      cannot explain. I certainly thought that in the office on Friday evening I
+      saw that gold mask to which I had taken so strange a fancy that I offered
+      to give Vernon £17,000 for it because I thought that it brought us luck,
+      swim across the floor of our room and look first into your face and then
+      into mine. Well, the next night that negro tells his story. What am I to
+      make of it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t tell you,&rdquo; answered Mr. Champers-Haswell with a groan. &ldquo;All I know
+      is that it nearly made a corpse of me. I am not like you, Aylward, I was
+      brought up as an Evangelical, and although I haven&rsquo;t given much thought to
+      these matters of late years&mdash;well, we don&rsquo;t shake them off in a
+      hurry. I daresay there is something somewhere, and when the black man was
+      speaking, that something seemed uncommonly near. It got up and gripped me
+      by the throat, shaking the mortal breath out of me, and upon my word,
+      Aylward, I have been wishing all the morning that I had led a different
+      kind of life, as my old parents and my brother John, Barbara&rsquo;s father, who
+      was a very religious kind of man, did before me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is rather late to think of all that now, Haswell,&rdquo; said Sir Robert,
+      shrugging his shoulders. &ldquo;One takes one&rsquo;s line and there&rsquo;s an end.
+      Personally I believe that we are overstrained with the fearful and anxious
+      work of this flotation, and have been the victims of an hallucination and
+      a coincidence. Although I confess that I came to look upon the thing as a
+      kind of mascot, I put no trust in any fetish. How can a bit of gold move,
+      and how can it know the future? Well, I have written to them to clear it
+      out of the office to-morrow, so it won&rsquo;t trouble us any more. And now I
+      have come to speak to you on another matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not business,&rdquo; said Mr. Haswell with a sigh. &ldquo;We have that all the week
+      and there will be enough of it on Monday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;something more important. About your niece Barbara.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Haswell glanced at him with those little eyes of his which were so
+      sharp that they seemed to bore like gimlets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Barbara?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What of Barbara?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t you guess, Haswell? You are pretty good at it, generally. Well, it
+      is no use beating about the bush; I want to marry her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this sudden announcement his partner became exceedingly interested.
+      Leaning back in the chair he stared at the decorated ceiling, and uttered
+      his favourite wind-in-the-wires whistle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I never knew that matrimony was in your line, Aylward,
+      any more than it has been in mine, especially as you are always preaching
+      against it. Well, has the young lady given her consent?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I have not spoken to her. I meant to do so this morning, but she has
+      slipped off somewhere, with Vernon, I suppose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Haswell whistled again, but on a new note.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray do stop that noise,&rdquo; said Sir Robert; &ldquo;it gets upon my nerves, which
+      are shaky this morning. Listen: It is a curious thing, one less to be
+      understood even than the coincidence of the Yellow God, but at my present
+      age of forty-four, for the first time in my life I have committed the
+      folly of what is called falling in love. It is not the case of a
+      successful, middle-aged man wishing to <i>ranger</i> himself and settle
+      down with a desirable <i>partie</i>, but of sheer, stark infatuation. I
+      adore Barbara; the worse she treats me the more I adore her. I had rather
+      that the Sahara flotation should fail than that she should refuse me. I
+      would rather lose three-quarters of my fortune than lose her. Do you
+      understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His partner looked at him, pursed up his lips to whistle, then remembered
+      and shook his head instead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;Barbara is a nice girl, but I should not have imagined
+      her capable of inspiring such sentiments in a man almost old enough to be
+      her father. I think that you are the victim of a kind of mania, which I
+      have heard of but never experienced. Venus&mdash;or is it Cupid?&mdash;has
+      netted you, my dear Aylward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! pray leave gods and goddesses out of it, we have had enough of them
+      already,&rdquo; he answered, exasperated. &ldquo;That is my case at any rate, and what
+      I want to know now is if I have your support in my suit. Remember, I have
+      something to offer, Haswell, for instance, a large fortune of which I will
+      settle half&mdash;it is a good thing to do in our business,&mdash;and a
+      baronetcy that will be a peerage before long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A peerage! Have you squared that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so. There will be a General Election within the next three
+      months, and on such occasions a couple of hundred thousand in cool cash
+      come in useful to a Party that is short of ready money. I think I may say
+      that it is settled. She will be the Lady Aylward, or any other name she
+      may fancy, and one of the richest women in England. Now have I your
+      support?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my dear friend, why not, though Barbara does not want money, for she
+      has plenty of her own, in first-class securities that I could never
+      persuade her to vary, for she is shrewd in that way and steadily refuses
+      to sign anything. Also she will probably be my heiress&mdash;and,
+      Aylward,&rdquo; here a sickly look of alarm spread itself over his face, &ldquo;I
+      don&rsquo;t know how long I have to live. That infernal doctor examined my heart
+      this morning and told me that it was weak. Weak was his word, but from the
+      tone in which he said it, I believe that he meant more. Aylward, I gather
+      that I may die any day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense, Haswell, so may we all,&rdquo; he replied, with an affectation of
+      cheerfulness which failed to carry conviction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Mr. Haswell, who had hidden his face in his hand, looked up with
+      a sigh and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! yes, of course you have my support, for after all she is my only
+      relation and I should be glad to see her safely married. Also, as it
+      happens, she can&rsquo;t marry anyone without my consent, at any rate until she
+      is five and twenty, for if she does, under her father&rsquo;s will all her
+      property goes away, most of it to charities, except a beggarly £200 a
+      year. You see my brother John had a great horror of imprudent marriages
+      and a still greater belief in me, which as it chances, is a good thing for
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had he?&rdquo; said Sir Robert. &ldquo;And pray why is it a good thing for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, my dear Aylward, unless my observation is at fault, there is
+      another Richard in the field, our late partner, Vernon, of whom, by the
+      way, Barbara is extremely fond, though it may only be in a friendly
+      fashion. At any rate she pays more attention to his wishes and opinions
+      than to mine and yours put together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the mention of Alan&rsquo;s name Aylward started violently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feared it,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and he is more than ten years my junior and a
+      soldier, not a man of business. Also there is no use disguising the truth,
+      although I am a baronet and shall be a peer and he is nothing but a
+      beggarly country gentleman with a D.S.O. tacked on to his name, he belongs
+      to a different class to us, as she does too on her mother&rsquo;s side. Well, I
+      can smash him up, for you remember I took over that mortgage on Yarleys,
+      and I&rsquo;ll do it if necessary. Practically our friend has not a shilling
+      that he can call his own. Therefore, Haswell, unless you play me false,
+      which I don&rsquo;t think you will, for I can be a nasty enemy,&rdquo; he added with a
+      threat in his voice, &ldquo;Alan Vernon hasn&rsquo;t much chance in that direction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, Aylward, I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; replied Haswell, shaking his white
+      head. &ldquo;Barbara is a strong-willed woman and she might choose to take the
+      man and let the money go, and then&mdash;who can stop her? Also I don&rsquo;t
+      like your idea of smashing Vernon. It isn&rsquo;t right, and it may come back on
+      our own heads, especially yours. I am sorry that he has left us, as you
+      were on Friday night, for somehow he was a good, honest stick to lean on,
+      and we want such a stick. But I am tired now, I really can&rsquo;t talk any
+      more. The doctor warned me against excitement. Get the girl&rsquo;s consent,
+      Aylward, and we&rsquo;ll see. Ah! here comes my soup. Good-bye for the present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Sir Robert came down to luncheon he found Barbara looking
+      particularly radiant and charming, already presiding at that meal and
+      conversing in her best French to the foreign gentlemen, who were paying
+      her compliments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me for being late,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;first of all I have been talking to
+      your uncle, and afterwards skimming through the articles in yesterday&rsquo;s
+      papers on our little venture which comes out to-morrow. A cheerful
+      occupation on the whole, for with one or two exceptions they are all
+      favourable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mon Dieu,&rdquo; said the French gentlemen on the right, &ldquo;seeing what they did
+      cost, that is not strange. Your English papers they are so expensive; in
+      Paris we have done it for half the money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Barbara and some of the guests laughed outright, finding this frankness
+      charming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where have you been, Miss Champers? I thought that we were going to
+      have a round of golf together. The caddies were there, I was there, the
+      greens had been specially rolled this morning, but there was no You.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;because Major Vernon and I walked to church and heard
+      a very good sermon upon the observance of the Sabbath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are severe,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Do you think it wrong for men who work hard
+      all the week to play a harmless game on Sunday?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all, Sir Robert.&rdquo; Then she looked at him and, coming to a sudden
+      decision, added, &ldquo;If you like I will play you nine holes this afternoon
+      and give you a stroke a hole, or would you prefer a foursome?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, let us fight alone and let the best player win.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Sir Robert; but you mustn&rsquo;t forget that I am handicapped.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t look angry,&rdquo; she whispered to Alan as they strolled out into the
+      garden after lunch, &ldquo;I must clear things up and know what we have to face.
+      I&rsquo;ll be back by tea-time, and we will have it out with my uncle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The nine holes had been played, and by a single stroke Barbara had won the
+      match, which pleased her very much, for she had done her best, and with
+      such heavy odds in his favour Sir Robert, who had also done his best, was
+      no mean opponent, even for a player of her skill. Indeed the fight had
+      been quite earnest, for each party knew that it was but a prelude to
+      another and more serious fight, and looked upon the result as in some
+      sense an omen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am conquered,&rdquo; he said in a voice in which vexation struggled with a
+      laugh, &ldquo;and by a woman over whom I had an advantage. It is humiliating,
+      for I confess I do not like being beaten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you think that women generally win if they mean to?&rdquo; asked Barbara.
+      &ldquo;I believe that when they fail, which is often enough, it is because they
+      don&rsquo;t care, or can&rsquo;t make up their minds. A woman in earnest is a
+      dangerous antagonist.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;or the best of allies.&rdquo; Then he gave the clubs and
+      half-a-crown to the caddies, and when they were out of hearing, added,
+      &ldquo;Miss Champers, I have been wondering for some time whether it is possible
+      that you would become such an ally to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know nothing of business, Sir Robert; my tastes do not lie that way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know well that I was not speaking of business, Miss Champers. I was
+      speaking of another kind of partnership, that which Nature has ordained
+      between men and women&mdash;marriage. Will you accept me as a husband?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She opened her lips to speak, but he lifted his hand and went on. &ldquo;Listen
+      before you give that ready answer which it is so hard to recall, or smooth
+      away. I know all my disadvantages, my years, which to you may seem many;
+      my modest origin; my trade, which, not altogether without reason, you
+      despise and dislike. Well, the first two cannot be changed except for the
+      worse; the second can be, and already is, buried beneath the gold and
+      ermine of wealth and titles. What does it matter if I am the son of a City
+      clerk who never earned more than £2 a week and was born in a tenement at
+      Battersea, when I am one of the rich men of this rich land and shall die a
+      peer in a palace, leaving millions and honours to my children? As for the
+      third, my occupation, I am prepared to give it up. It has served my turn,
+      and after next week I shall have earned the amount that years ago I
+      determined to earn. Thenceforth, set above the accidents of fortune, I
+      propose to devote myself to higher aims, those of legitimate ambition. So
+      far as my time would allow I have already taken some share in politics as
+      a worker; I intend to continue in them as a ruler which I still have the
+      health and ability to do. I mean to be one of the first men in this
+      Empire, to ride to power over the heads of all the nonentities whose only
+      claim upon the confidence of their countrymen is that they were born in a
+      certain class, with money in their pockets and without the need to spend
+      the best of their manhood in work. With you at my side I can do all these
+      things and more, and such is the future that I have to offer you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again she would have broken in upon his speech and again he stopped her,
+      reading the unspoken answer on her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen: I have not told you all. Perhaps I have put first what should
+      have come last. I have not told you that I love you earnestly and
+      sincerely, with the settled, unalterable love that sometimes comes to men
+      in middle-age who have never turned their thought that way before. I will
+      not attempt the rhapsodies of passion which at my time of life might sound
+      foolish or out of place; yet it is true that I am filled with this passion
+      which has descended on me and taken possession of me. I who often have
+      laughed at such things in other men, adore you. You are a joy to my eyes.
+      If you are not in the room, for me it is empty. I admire the uprightness
+      of your character, and even your prejudices, and to your standard I desire
+      to approximate my own. I think that no man can ever love you quite so well
+      as I do, Barbara Champers. Now speak. I am ready to meet the best or the
+      worst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After her fashion Barbara looked him straight in the face with her steady
+      eyes, and answered gently enough, for the man&rsquo;s method of presenting his
+      case, elaborate and prepared though it evidently was, had touched her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear it is the worst, Sir Robert. There are hundreds of women superior
+      to myself in every way who would be glad to give you the help and
+      companionship you ask, with their hearts thrown in. Choose one of them,
+      for I cannot do so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard and for the first time his face broke, as it were. All this while
+      it had remained masklike and immovable, even when he spoke of his love,
+      but now it broke as ice breaks at the pressure of a sudden flood beneath,
+      and she saw the depths and eddies of his nature and understood their
+      strength. Not that he revealed them in speech, angry or pleading, for that
+      remained calm and measured enough. She did not hear, she saw, and even
+      then it was marvellous to her that a mere change in a man&rsquo;s expression
+      could explain so much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those are very cruel words,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Are they unalterable?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite. I do not play in such matters, it would be wicked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask you one question, for if the answer is in the negative, I shall
+      still continue to hope? Do you care for any other man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again she looked at him with her fearless eyes and answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I am engaged to another man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Alan Vernon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When did that happen? Some years ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Heavens!&rdquo; he muttered in a hoarse voice turning his head away,
+      &ldquo;this morning. Then last night it might not have been too late, and last
+      night I should have spoken to you, I had arranged it all. Yes, if it had
+      not been for the story of that accursed fetish and your uncle&rsquo;s illness, I
+      should have spoken to you, and perhaps succeeded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think not,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned upon her and notwithstanding the tears in his eyes they burned
+      like fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think&mdash;you think,&rdquo; he gasped, &ldquo;but I know. Of course after this
+      morning it was impossible. But, Barbara, I say that I will win you yet. I
+      have never failed in any object that I set before myself, and do not
+      suppose that I shall fail in this. Although in a way I liked and respected
+      him, I have always felt that Vernon was my enemy, one destined to bring
+      grief and loss upon me, even if he did not intend to do so. Now I
+      understand why, and he shall learn that I am stronger than he. God help
+      him! I say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think He will,&rdquo; Barbara answered, calmly. &ldquo;You are speaking wildly, and
+      I understand the reason and hope that you will forget your words, but
+      whether you forget or remember, do not suppose that you frighten me. You
+      men who have made money,&rdquo; she went on with swelling indignation, &ldquo;who have
+      made money somehow, and have bought honours with the moneys somehow, think
+      yourselves great, and in your little day, your little, little day that
+      will end with three lines in small type in <i>The Times</i>, you are great
+      in this vulgar land. You can buy what you want and people creep round you
+      and ask you for doles and favours, and railway porters call you &lsquo;my Lord&rsquo; 
+      at every other step. But you forget your limitations in this world, and
+      that which lives above you. You say you will do this and that. You should
+      study a book which few of you ever read, where it tells you that you do
+      not know what you will be on the morrow; that your life is even as a
+      vapour appearing for a little time and then vanishing away. You think that
+      you can crush the man to whom I have given my heart because he is honest
+      and you are dishonest, because you are rich and he is poor, and because he
+      chances to have succeeded where you have not. Well, for myself and for him
+      I defy you. Do your worst and fail, and when you have failed, in the hour
+      of your extremity remember my words to-day. If I have given you pain by
+      refusing you it is not my fault and I am sorry, but when you threaten the
+      man who has honoured me with his love and whom I honour above every
+      creature upon the earth, then I threaten back, and may the Power that made
+      us all judge between you and me, as judge it will,&rdquo; and bursting into
+      tears she turned and left him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert watched her go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a woman!&rdquo; he said meditatively, &ldquo;what a woman&mdash;to have lost.
+      Well she has set the stakes and we will play out the game. The cards all
+      seem to be in my hands, but it would not in the least surprise me if she
+      won the rubber, for the element that I call Chance and she would call
+      something else, may come in. Still, I never refused a challenge yet and we
+      will play the game out without pity to the loser.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That night the first trick was played. When he got back to The Court Sir
+      Robert ordered his motorcar and departed on urgent business, either to his
+      own place, Old Hall, or to London, saying only that he had been summoned
+      away by telegram. As the 70-horse-power Mercedes glided out of the gates a
+      pencilled note was put into Mr. Haswell&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It ran: &ldquo;I have tried and failed&mdash;for the present. By ill-luck A.V.
+      had been before me, only this morning. If I had not missed my chance last
+      night owing to your illness, it would have been different. I do not,
+      however, in the least abandon my plan, in which of course I rely on and
+      expect your support. Keep V. in the office or let him go as you like.
+      Perhaps it would be better if you could prevail upon him to stop there
+      until after the flotation. But whatever you say at the moment, I trust to
+      you to absolutely veto any engagement between him and your niece, and to
+      that end to use all your powers and authority as her guardian. Burn this
+      note.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;R.A.&rdquo; <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      MR. HASWELL LOSES HIS TEMPER
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Alan and Barbara sat in Mr. Champers-Haswell&rsquo;s private sitting-room with
+      the awful decorations, and before them by the fire Mr. Champers-Haswell
+      reclined upon his couch. Alan in a few, brief, soldier-like words had just
+      informed him of his engagement to Barbara. During the recital of this
+      interesting fact Barbara said nothing, but Mr. Haswell had whistled
+      several times. Now at length he spoke, in that tone of forced geniality
+      which he generally adopted towards his cousin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are asking for the hand of a considerable heiress, Alan my boy,&rdquo; he
+      said, &ldquo;but you have neglected to inform me of your own position.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the use of telling you what you know already, Mr. Haswell? I
+      have left the firm, therefore I have practically nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have practically nothing, and yet&mdash;&mdash;Well, in my young days
+      men were more delicate, they did not like being called fortune-hunters,
+      but of course times have changed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan bit his lip and Barbara sat up quite straight in her chair, observing
+      which indications, Mr. Haswell went on hurriedly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now if you had stopped in the firm and earned the very handsome
+      competence in a small way which would have become due to you this week,
+      instead of throwing us over at the last moment for some quixotic reasons
+      of your own, it might have been a different matter. I do not say it would
+      have been, I say it might have been, and you may remember a proverb about
+      winks and nods and blind horses. So I ask you whether you are inclined to
+      withdraw that resignation of yours and bring up this question again let us
+      say, next Sunday?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan thought a while before he answered. As he understood Mr. Haswell
+      practically was promising to assent to the engagement upon these terms.
+      The temptation was enormously great, the fiercest that he had ever been
+      called upon to face. He looked at Barbara. She had closed her eyes and
+      made absolutely no sign. For some reason of her own she had elected that
+      he should determine this vital point without the slightest assistance from
+      her. And it must be determined at once; procrastination was impossible.
+      For a moment he hesitated. On the one side was Barbara, on the other his
+      conscience. After long doubts he had come to a certain conclusion which he
+      quite understood to be inconvenient to his partners. Should he throw it
+      over now? Should he even try to make a sure and certain bargain as the
+      price of his surrender? Probably he would not suffer if he did. The
+      flotation was underwritten and bound to go through; the scandal would come
+      afterwards, months or years hence, long before which he might get out, as
+      most of the others meant to do. No, he could not. His conscience was too
+      much for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not see any use in reconsidering that question, Mr. Haswell,&rdquo; he
+      said quietly; &ldquo;we settled it on Friday night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Barbara reopened her brown eyes and stared amiably at the painted ceiling,
+      and Mr. Haswell whistled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I am afraid,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that I do not see any use in discussing your
+      kind proposal for my niece&rsquo;s hand. Listen&mdash;I will be quite open with
+      you. I have other views for Barbara, and as it happens I have the power to
+      enforce them, or at any rate to prevent their frustration by you. If
+      Barbara marries against my will before she is five and twenty, that is
+      within the next two years, her entire fortune, with the exception of a
+      pittance, goes elsewhere. This I am sure is a fact that will influence
+      you, who have nothing and even if it did not, I presume that you are
+      scarcely so selfish as to wish to beggar her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;you need not fear that, for it would be wrong. I
+      understand that you absolutely refuse to sanction my suit on the ground of
+      my poverty, which under the circumstances is perhaps not wonderful. Well,
+      the only thing to do is to wait for two years, a long time, but not
+      endless, and meanwhile I can try to better my position.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do what you will, Alan,&rdquo; said Mr. Haswell harshly, for now all his <i>faux
+      bonhomme</i> manner had gone, leaving him revealed in his true character
+      of an unscrupulous tradesman with dark ends of his own to serve. &ldquo;Do what
+      you will, but understand that I forbid all communication between you and
+      my niece, and that the sooner you cease to trespass upon a hospitality
+      which you have abused, the better I shall be pleased.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go at once,&rdquo; said Alan, rising, &ldquo;before my temper gets the better
+      of me and I tell you some truths that I might regret, for after all you
+      are Barbara&rsquo;s uncle. But on your part I ask you to understand that I
+      refuse to cut off from my cousin, who is of full age and has promised to
+      be my wife,&rdquo; and he turned to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop a minute, Alan,&rdquo; said Barbara, who all this while had sat silent. &ldquo;I
+      have something to say which I wish you to hear. You told us just now,
+      uncle, that you have other views for me, by which you meant that you wish
+      me to marry Sir Robert Aylward, whom, as you are probably aware, I refused
+      definitely this afternoon. Now I wish to make it clear at once that no
+      earthly power will induce me to take as a husband a man whom I dislike,
+      and whose wealth, of which you think so much, has in my opinion been
+      dishonestly acquired.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you saying?&rdquo; broke in her uncle furiously. &ldquo;He has been my
+      partner for years, you are reflecting upon me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry, uncle, but I withdraw nothing. Even if Alan here were dead, I
+      would not marry that man, and perhaps you will make him understand this,&rdquo;
+       she added with emphasis. &ldquo;Indeed I had sooner die myself. You told us also
+      that if I marry against your will, you can take away all the property that
+      my father left to me. Uncle, I shall not give you that satisfaction. I
+      shall wait until I am twenty-five and do what I please with myself and my
+      fortune. Lastly, you said that you forbade us to see each other or to
+      correspond. I answer that I shall both write to and see Alan as often as I
+      like. If you attempt to prevent me from doing so, I shall go to the Court
+      of Chancery, lay all the facts before it, as I have been advised that I
+      can do&mdash;not by Alan&mdash;please remember, <i>all</i> the facts, and
+      ask for its protection and for a separate maintenance out of my estate
+      until I am twenty-five. I am sure that the Court would grant me this and
+      would declare that considering his distinguished family and record Alan is
+      a perfectly proper person to be my affianced husband. I think that is all
+      I have to say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All you have to say!&rdquo; gasped Mr. Haswell, &ldquo;all you have to say, you
+      impertinent and ungrateful minx!&rdquo; Then he fell into a furious fit of rage
+      and in language that need not be repeated, poured a stream of threats and
+      abuse upon Alan and herself. Barbara waited until he ceased from
+      exhaustion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncle,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;you should remember that your heart is weak and you
+      must not overexcite yourself, also when you are calmer, that if you speak
+      to me like that again, I shall go to the Court at once, for I will not be
+      sworn at by you or by any other man. I apologize to you, Alan; I am afraid
+      I have brought you into strange company. Come, my dear, we will go and
+      order your dogcart,&rdquo; and putting her arm affectionately through his, she
+      went with him from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder who put her up to all this?&rdquo; gasped Haswell, as the door closed
+      behind them. &ldquo;Some infernal lawyer, I&rsquo;ll be bound. Well, she has got the
+      whip hand of me, and I can&rsquo;t face an investigation in Chancery, especially
+      as the only thing against Vernon is that the value of his land has fallen.
+      But I swear that she shall never marry him while I live,&rdquo; he ended in a
+      kind of shout and the domed and painted ceiling echoed back his words&mdash;&ldquo;<i>while
+      I live</i>&rdquo; after which the room was silent, save for the heavy thumping
+      of his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Alan reached home that night after his ten-mile drive he sent Jeekie
+      to tell the housekeeper to find him some food. In his mysterious African
+      fashion the negro had already collected much intelligence as to the events
+      of the day, mostly in the servants&rsquo; hall, and more particularly from the
+      two golf-caddies, sons of one of the gardeners, who it seemed instead of
+      retiring with the clubs, had taken shelter in some tall whins and thence
+      followed the interview between Barbara and Sir Robert with the intensest
+      interest. Reflecting that this was not the time to satisfy his burning
+      curiosity, Jeekie went and in due course returned with some cold mutton
+      and a bottle of claret. Then came his chance, for Alan could scarcely
+      touch the mutton and demanded toast and butter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very inferior chop&rdquo;&mdash;that was his West African word for food&mdash;&ldquo;for
+      a gentleman, Major,&rdquo; he said, shaking his white head sympathetically and
+      pointing to the mutton,&mdash;&ldquo;specially when he has unexpectedly departed
+      from magnificent eating of The Court. Why did you not wait till after
+      dinner, Major, before retiring?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan laughed at the man&rsquo;s inflated English, and answered in a more nervous
+      and colloquial style:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I was kicked out, Jeekie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! I gathered that kicking was in the wind, Major. Sir Robert Aylward,
+      Bart., he also was kicked out, but by smaller toe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Alan laughed and, as it was a relief to talk even to Jeekie, asked
+      him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I gathered it out of atmosphere, Major; from Sir Robert&rsquo;s gentleman, from
+      two youths who watch Sir Robert and Miss Barbara talking upon golf green
+      No. 9, from the machine driver of Sir Robert whose eyes he damn in public,
+      and last but not least from his own noble countenance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see that you are observant, Jeekie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Observation, Major, it is art of life. I see Miss Barbara&rsquo;s eyes red like
+      morning sky and I deduct. I see you shot out and gloomy like evening
+      cloud, and I deduct. I listen at door of Mr. Haswell&rsquo;s room, I hear him
+      curse and swear like holy saint in Book, and you and Miss Barbara answer
+      him not like saint, though what you speak I cannot hear, and I deduct.
+      Jeekie deduct this&mdash;that you make love to Miss Barbara in proper
+      gentlemanlike, &lsquo;nogamous, Christian fashion such as your late Reverend
+      Uncle approve, and Miss Barbara, she make love to you with ten per cent.
+      compound interest, but old gent with whistle, he <i>not</i> approve; he
+      say, &lsquo;Where corresponding cash!&rsquo; He say &lsquo;Noble Sir Robert have much cash
+      and interested in identical business. I prefer Sir Robert. Get out, you
+      Cashless.&rsquo; Often I see this same thing when boy in West Africa, very
+      common wherever sun shine. I note all these matters and I deduct&mdash;that
+      Jeekie&rsquo;s way and Jeekie seldom wrong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan laughed for the third time, until the tears ran down his face indeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you are a great rascal&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; interrupted Jeekie, &ldquo;great rascal. Best thing to be in this
+      world, Major. Honourable Sir Robert, Bart., M.P., and Mr.
+      Champers-Haswell, D.L., J.P., they find that out long ago and sit on top
+      of tree of opulent renown. Jeekie great rascal and therefore have Savings
+      Bank account&mdash;go on, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Jeekie, because if you are a rascal you are kind-hearted and
+      because I believe that you care for me&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! Major,&rdquo; broke in Jeekie again, &ldquo;that most &lsquo;utterably true. Honour
+      bright I love you, Major, better than anyone on earth, except my late old
+      woman, now happily dead, gone and forgotten in best oak coffin, £4 10
+      without fittings but polished, and perhaps your holy uncle, Reverend Mr.
+      Austin, also coffined and departed, who saved me from early extinction in
+      a dark place. Major, I no like graves, I see too much of them, and can&rsquo;t
+      tell what lie on other side. Though everyone say they know, Jeekie not
+      quite sure. May be all light and crowns of glory, may be damp black hole
+      and no way out. But this at least true, that I love you better, yes,
+      better than Miss Barbara, for love of woman very poor, uncertain thing,
+      quick come, quick go. Jeekie find that out&mdash;often. Yes, if need be,
+      though death most nasty, if need be I say I die for you, which great
+      unpleasant sacrifice,&rdquo; and Jeekie in the genuine enthusiasm of his warm
+      heart, throwing himself upon his knees after the African fashion, seized
+      his master&rsquo;s hand and kissed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;very kind of you, I am sure. But we haven&rsquo;t
+      come to that yet, though no one knows what may happen later on. Now sit
+      upon that chair and take a little whisky&mdash;not too much&mdash;for I am
+      going to ask your advice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;I obey,&rdquo; and seizing the whisky bottle in a casual
+      manner, he poured out half a tumbler full, for Jeekie was fond of whisky.
+      Indeed before now this taste had brought him into conflict with the local
+      magistrates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put back three parts of that,&rdquo; said Alan, and Jeekie did so. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; he
+      went on, &ldquo;listen: this is the case, Miss Barbara and I are&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+       and he hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I know; like me and Mrs. Jeekie once,&rdquo; said Jeekie, gulping down some
+      of the neat whisky. &ldquo;Go on, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Sir Robert Aylward is&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Same thing, Major. Continue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Mr. Haswell has&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those facts all ascertained, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, contemplating his glass
+      with a mournful eye. &ldquo;Now come to the point, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, the point is, Jeekie, that I am what you called just now cashless,
+      and therefore&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Therefore,&rdquo; interrupted Jeekie again, &ldquo;stick fast in honourable intention
+      towards Miss Barbara owing to obstinate opposition of Mr. Haswell, legal
+      uncle with control of property fomented by noble Sir Robert who desire
+      same girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite right, Jeekie, but if you would talk a little less and let me talk
+      a little more, we might get on better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I henceforth silent, Major,&rdquo; and lifting his empty tumbler Jeekie looked
+      through it as if it were a telescope, a hint that Alan ignored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie, you infernal old fool, I want money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, I understand, Major. Forgive me for breaking conspiracy of
+      silence, but if £500 in Savings Bank any use, very much at your service,
+      Major; also £20 more extracted last night from terror of wealthy Jew who
+      fear fetish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie, you old donkey, I don&rsquo;t want your £500; I want a great deal more,
+      £50,000 or £500,000. Tell me how to get it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;City best place, Major. But you chuck City, too much honest man, great
+      mistake to be honest in this terrestrial sphere. Often notice that in West
+      Africa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps, Jeekie, but I have done with the City. As you would say, for me
+      it is &lsquo;wipe out, finish.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, too much pickpocket, too much dirt. Bottom always drop out of
+      bucket shop at last. I understand, end in police court and severe
+      magistrate, or perhaps even &lsquo;Gentlemen of Jury&rsquo;; etcetera.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Jeekie, then what remains? Now last night when you told us that
+      amazing yarn of yours, you said something about a mountain full of gold,
+      and houses full of gold, among your people. Jeekie, do you think&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+       and he paused, looking at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie rolled his black eyes round the room and in a fit of
+      absentmindedness helped himself to some more whisky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I think, Major, that this useless lucre could be converted into coin
+      of gracious King Edward? Not at all, Major, by no one, Major, by no one
+      whatsoever, except possibly by Major Alan Vernon, D.S.O., and by one,
+      Jeekie, Christian surname Smith.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Proceed, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, removing the whisky bottle, &ldquo;proceed and
+      explain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Major, thus: The Asiki tribe care nothing about all that gold, it no good
+      to them. Dead people who live long, long ago, no one know when, dig it up
+      and store it there and make the great fetish which they call Bonsa to keep
+      away enemy who want to steal. Also old custom when any one in country
+      round find big nugget, or pretty stone, like ladies wear on bosom, to
+      bring it as offering to Bonsa, so that there now great plenty of all this
+      stuff. But no one use it for anything except to set on walls of house of
+      Asiki, or to make basin, stool, table and pot to cook with. Once Arab come
+      there and I see the priests give him weight in gold for iron hoe, though
+      afterwards they murder him, not for the gold, but lest he go away and tell
+      their secret.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One might trade with them then, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his white head doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, perhaps, if you can find anything they want buy and can carry it
+      there. But I think there only one thing they want, and you got that,
+      Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I, Jeekie! What have I got?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The negro leant forward and tapped his master on the knee, saying in a
+      portentous whisper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You got Little Bonsa, which much more holy than anything, even than Big
+      Bonsa her husband, I mean greater, more powerful devil. That Little Bonsa
+      sit in front room Asika&rsquo;s house, and when she want see things, she put it
+      in big basin of gold, but I no tell you what it float in. Also once or
+      twice every year they take out Little Bonsa; Asika wear it on head as
+      mask, and whoever they meet they kill as offering to Little Bonsa, so that
+      spirit come back to world to be priest of Bonsa. I tell you, Major, that
+      Yellow God see many thousand of people die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;A pleasing fetish truly. I should think that the
+      Asiki must be glad it is gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not glad, very sorry. No luck for them when Little Bonsa go away, but
+      plenty luck for those who got her. That why firm Aylward &amp; Haswell
+      make so much money when you join them and bring her to office. She drop
+      green in eye of public so they no smell rat. That why you so lucky, not
+      die of blackwater fever when you should; get safe out of den of thieves in
+      City with good name; win love of sweet maiden, Miss Barbara. Little Bonsa
+      do all those things for you, and by and by do plenty more, as Little Bonsa
+      bring my old master, your holy uncle, safe out of that country because all
+      the Asiki run away when they see him wear her on head, for they think she
+      come sacrifice them after she eat up my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wonder that they ran,&rdquo; said Alan, laughing, for the vision of a
+      missionary with Little Bonsa on his head caught his fancy. &ldquo;But come to
+      the point, you old heathen. What do you mean that I should do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie not heathen now, Major, but plenty other things true in this
+      world, besides Christian religion. I no want you do anything, but I say
+      this&mdash;you go back to Asiki wearing Little Bonsa on head and dressed
+      like Reverend uncle whom you very like, for he just your age then thirty
+      years ago, and they give you all the gold you want, if you give them back
+      Little Bonsa whom they love and worship for ever and ever, for Little
+      Bonsa very, very old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan sat up in his chair and stared at Jeekie, while Jeekie nodded his
+      head at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is something in it,&rdquo; he said slowly, speaking more to himself than
+      to the negro, &ldquo;and perhaps that is why I would not sell the fetish, for as
+      you say, there are plenty of true things in the world besides those which
+      we believe. But, Jeekie, how should I find the way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No trouble, Major, Little Bonsa find way, want to get back home, very
+      hungry by now, much need sacrifice. Think it good thing kill pig to Little
+      Bonsa&mdash;or even lamb. She know you do your best, since human being not
+      to be come at in Christian land, and say &lsquo;thank you for life of pig.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop that rubbish,&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;I want a guide; if I go, will you come
+      with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this suggestion the negro looked exceedingly uncomfortable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not like to, not like to at all,&rdquo; he said, rolling his eyes. &ldquo;Asiki-land
+      very funny place for native-born. But,&rdquo; he added sadly, &ldquo;if you go Jeekie
+      must, for I servant of Little Bonsa and if I stay behind, she angry and
+      kill me because I not attend her where she walk. But perhaps if I go and
+      take her to Gold House again, she pleased and let me off. Also I able help
+      you there. Yes, if you and Little Bonsa go, think I go too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After this announcement Jeekie rose and walked down the room, carrying the
+      cold mutton in his hand. Then he returned, replaced it on the table and
+      standing in front of Alan, said earnestly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Major, I tell you all truth, just this once. Jeekie believe he <i>got</i>
+      go with you to Asiki-land. Jeekie have plenty bad dream lately, Little
+      Bonsa come in middle of the night and sit on his stomach and scratch his
+      face with her gold leg, and say, &lsquo;Jeekie, Jeekie, you son of Bonsa, you
+      get up quick and take me back Bonsa Town, for I darned tired of City fog
+      and finished all I come here to do. Now I want jolly good sacrifice and
+      got plenty business attend to there at home, things you not understand
+      just yet. You take me back sharp, or I make you sit up, Jeekie, my boy;&rsquo;&rdquo;
+       and he paused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; said Alan; &ldquo;and did she tell you anything else in her midnight
+      visitations?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major. She say, &lsquo;You take that white master of yours along also, for
+      I want come back Asiki-land on his head, and someone wish see him there,
+      old pal, what he forget but what not forget him. You tell him Little Bonsa
+      got score she wants settle with that party and wish use him to square
+      account. You tell him too that she pay him well for trip; he lose nothing
+      if he play her game &lsquo;cause she got no score against him. But if he not go,
+      that another matter, then he look out, for Little Bonsa very nasty
+      customer if she riled, as his late partners find out one day.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! shut up, Jeekie. What&rsquo;s the use of wasting time telling me your
+      nightmares?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Major, just as you like, Major. But I got other reasons why I
+      willing go. Jeekie want see his ma.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your ma? I never heard you had a ma. Besides she must be dead long ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Major, &lsquo;cause she turn up in dream too, very much alive, swear at me
+      &lsquo;cause I bag her blanket. Also she tough old woman, take lot kill her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you have a pa too,&rdquo; suggested Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think not, Major, my ma always say she forget him. What she mean, she not
+      like talk about him, he such a swell. Why Jeekie so strong, so clever and
+      with such beautiful face? No doubt because he is son of very great man.
+      All this true reason why he want to go with you, Major. Still, p&rsquo;raps poor
+      old Jeekie make mistake, p&rsquo;raps he dream &lsquo;cause he eat too much supper,
+      p&rsquo;raps his ma dead, after all. If so, p&rsquo;raps better stay at home&mdash;not
+      know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;not know. What between Little Bonsa and one thing
+      and another my head is swimming&mdash;like Little Bonsa in the water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Big Bonsa swim in water,&rdquo; interrupted Jeekie. &ldquo;Little Bonsa swim in gold
+      tub.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Big Bonsa, or Little Bonsa, I don&rsquo;t care which. I&rsquo;m going to bed
+      and you had better clear away these things and do the same. But, Jeekie,
+      if you say a word of our talk to anyone, I shall be very angry. Do you
+      understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, I understand. I understand that if I tell secrets of Little
+      Bonsa to anyone except you with whom she live in strange land far away
+      from home, Little Bonsa come at me like one lion, and cut my throat. No
+      fear Jeekie split on Little Bonsa, oh! no fear at all,&rdquo; and still shaking
+      his head solemnly, for the second time he seized the cold mutton and
+      vanished from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A farrago of superstitious nonsense,&rdquo; thought Alan to himself when he had
+      gone. &ldquo;But still there may be something to be made out of it. Evidently
+      there is lots of gold in this Asiki country, if only one can persuade the
+      people to deal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then weary of Jeekie and his tribal gods, Alan lit his pipe and sat a
+      while thinking of Barbara and all the events of that tumultuous day.
+      Notwithstanding his rebuff at the hands of Mr. Haswell and the
+      difficulties and dangers which threatened, he felt even then that it had
+      been a happy and a fortunate day. For had he not discovered that Barbara
+      loved him with all her heart and soul as he loved Barbara? And as this was
+      so, he did not care a&mdash;Little Bonsa about anything else. The future
+      must look to itself, sufficient to the day was the abiding joy thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he went to bed and for a while to sleep, but he did not sleep very
+      long, for presently he fell to dreaming, something about Big Bonsa and
+      Little Bonsa which sat, or rather floated on either side of his couch and
+      held an interminable conversation over him, while Jeekie and Sir Robert
+      Aylward, perched respectively at its head and its foot, like the symbols
+      of the good and evil genii on a Mahommedan tomb, acted as a kind of insane
+      chorus. He struck his repeater, it was only one o&rsquo;clock, so he tried to go
+      to sleep again, but failed utterly. Never had he been more painfully
+      awake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For an hour or more Alan persevered, then at last in despair he jumped out
+      of bed wondering what he could do to occupy his mind. Suddenly he
+      remembered the diary of his uncle, the Rev. Mr. Austin, which he had
+      inherited with the Yellow God and a few other possessions, but never
+      examined. They had been put away in a box in the library about fifteen
+      years before, just at the time he entered the army, and there doubtless
+      they remained. Well, as he could not sleep, why should he not examine them
+      now, and thus get through some of this weary night?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lit a candle and went down to the library, an ancient and beautiful
+      apartment with black oak panelling between the bookcases, set there in the
+      time of Elizabeth. In this panelling there were cupboards, and in one of
+      the cupboards was the box he sought, made of teak wood. On its lid was
+      painted, &ldquo;The Reverend Henry Austin. Passenger to Acra,&rdquo; showing that it
+      had once been his uncle&rsquo;s cabin box. The key hung from the handle, and
+      having lit more candles, Alan drew it out and unlocked it, to be greeted
+      by a smell of musty documents done up in great bundles. One by one he
+      placed them on the floor. It was a dreary occupation alone there in that
+      great, silent room at the dead of night, one indeed with which he was soon
+      satisfied, for somehow it reminded him of rifling coffins in a vault.
+      Before him so carefully put away lay the records of a good if not a
+      distinguished life, and until this moment he had never found the energy
+      even to look through them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length he came to the end of the bundles and saw that beneath lay a
+      number of manuscript books packed closely with their backs upwards, marked&mdash;&ldquo;Journal&rdquo;&mdash;and
+      with the year and sometimes the place of the author&rsquo;s residence. As he
+      glanced at them in dismay, for they were many, his eye caught the title of
+      one inscribed&mdash;as were several others&mdash;&ldquo;West Africa,&rdquo; and
+      written in brackets beneath&mdash;&ldquo;This vol. contains all that is left of
+      the notes of my escape with Jeekie from the Asiki Devil-worshippers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan drew it out, and having refilled and closed the box, bore it off to
+      his room, where he proceeded to read it in bed. As a matter of fact he
+      found that there was not very much to read, for the reason that most of
+      the closely-written volume had been so damaged by water, that the
+      pencilled writing had run and become utterly illegible. The centre pages,
+      however, not having been soaked, could still be deciphered, at any rate in
+      part, also there was a large manuscript map, executed in ink, apparently
+      at a later date, on the back of which was written: &ldquo;I purpose, D.V., to
+      re-write at some convenient time all the history of my visit to the
+      unknown Asiki people, as my original notes were practically destroyed when
+      the canoe overset in the rapids and most of our few possessions were lost,
+      except this book and the gold fetish mask which is called Little Bonsa or
+      Small Swimming Head. This I think I can do with the aid of Jeekie from
+      memory, but as the matter has only a personal and no religious interest,
+      seeing that I was not able even to preach the Word among those benighted
+      and blood-thirsty savages in whose country, as I verily believe, the Devil
+      has one of his principal habitations, it must stand over till a convenient
+      season, such as the time of old age or sickness. H.A.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;P.S. I ought to add with gratitude that even out of this hell fire I was
+      enabled to snatch one brand from the burning, namely, the negro lad,
+      Jeekie, to whose extraordinary resource and faithfulness I owe my escape.
+      After a long hesitation I have been able to baptize him, although I fear
+      that the taint of heathenism still clings to him. Thus not six months ago
+      I caught him sacrificing a white cock to the image, Little Bonsa, in
+      gratitude, as to my horror he explained, for my having been appointed an
+      Honorary Canon of the Cathedral. I have told him to take that ugly mask
+      which has been so often soaked in human blood, and melt it down over the
+      kitchen stove, after picking out the gems in the eyes, that the proceeds
+      may be given to the poor. <i>Note.</i> I had better see to this myself, as
+      where Little Bonsa is concerned, Jeekie is not to be trusted. He says
+      (with some excuse) that it has magic, and that if he melts it down, he
+      will melt down too, and so shall I. How dark and ridiculous are the
+      superstitions of the heathen! Perhaps, however, instead of destroying the
+      thing, which is certainly unique, I might sell it to a museum, and thus
+      spare the feelings of that weak vessel, Jeekie, who otherwise would very
+      likely take it into his head to waste away and die, as these Africans do
+      when their nerves are affected by terror of their fetish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE DIARY
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Reflecting that time evidently had made little change in Jeekie, Alan
+      studied this route map with care, and found that it started from Old
+      Calabar, in the Bight of Biafra, on the west coast of Africa, whence it
+      ran up to the Great Qua River, which it followed for a long way. Then it
+      struck across country marked &ldquo;dense forest,&rdquo; northwards, and came to a
+      river called Katsena, along the banks of which the route went eastwards.
+      Thence it turned northward again through swamps, and ended in mountains
+      called Shaku. In the middle of these mountains was written &ldquo;Asiki People
+      live here on Raaba River.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The map was roughly drawn to scale, and Alan, who was an engineer
+      accustomed to such things, easily calculated that the distance of this
+      Raaba River from Old Calabar was about 350 miles as the crow flies, though
+      probably the actual route to be travelled was nearer five hundred miles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having mastered the map, he opened the water-soaked diary. Turning page
+      after page, only here and there could he make out a sentence, such as &ldquo;so
+      I defied that beautiful but terrific woman. I, a Christian minister, the
+      husband of a heathen priestess! Perish the thought. Sooner would I be
+      sacrificed to Bonsa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came more illegible pages and again a paragraph that could be read&mdash;&ldquo;They
+      gave me &lsquo;The Bean&rsquo; in a gold cup, and knowing its deadly nature I prepared
+      myself for death. But happily for me my stomach, always delicate, rejected
+      it at once, though I felt queer for days afterwards. Whereon they clapped
+      their hands and said I was evidently innocent and a great medicine man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And again, further on&mdash;&ldquo;never did I see so much gold whether in dust,
+      nuggets, or worked articles. I imagine it must be worth millions, but at
+      that time gold was the last thing with which I wished to trouble myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After this entry many pages were utterly effaced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last legible passage ran as follows&mdash;&ldquo;So guided by the lad
+      Jeekie, and wearing the gold mask, Little Bonsa, on my head, I ran through
+      them all, holding him by the hand as though I were dragging him away. A
+      strange spectacle I must have been with my old black clergyman&rsquo;s coat
+      buttoned about me, my naked legs and the gold mask, as pretending to be a
+      devil such as they worship, I rushed through them in the moonlight,
+      blowing the whistle in the mask and bellowing like a bull. . . . Such was
+      the beginning of my dreadful six months&rsquo; journey to the coast. Setting
+      aside the mercy of Providence that preserved me for its own purposes, I
+      could never have lived to reach it had it not been for Little Bonsa, since
+      curiously enough I found this fetish known and dreaded for hundreds of
+      miles, and that by people who had never seen it, yes, even by the wild
+      cannibals. Whenever it was produced food, bearers, canoes, or whatever
+      else I might want were forthcoming as though by magic. Great is the fame
+      of Big and Little Bonsa in all that part of West Africa, although, strange
+      as it may seem, the outlying tribes seldom mention them by name. If they
+      must speak of either of these images which are supposed to be man and
+      wife, they call it the &lsquo;Yellow-God-who-lives-yonder.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not another word of all this strange history could Alan decipher, so with
+      aching eyes he shut up the stained and tattered volume, and at last, just
+      as the day was breaking, fell asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At eleven o&rsquo;clock on that same morning, for he had slept late, Alan rose
+      from his breakfast and went to smoke his pipe at the open door of the
+      beautiful old hall in Yarleys that was clad with brown Elizabethan oak for
+      which any dealer would have given hundreds of pounds. It was a charming
+      morning, one of those that comes to us sometimes in an English April when
+      the air is soft like that of Italy and the smell of the earth rises like
+      that of incense, and little clouds float idly across a sky of tender blue.
+      Standing thus he looked out upon the park where the elms already showed a
+      tinge of green and the ash-buds were coal black. Only the walnuts and the
+      great oaks, some of them pollards of a thousand years of age, remained
+      stark and stern in their winter dress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan was in a reflective mood and involuntarily began to wonder how many
+      of his forefathers had stood in that same spot upon such April mornings
+      and looked out upon those identical trees wakening in the breath of
+      spring. Only the trees and the landscape knew, those trees which had seen
+      every one of them borne to baptism, to bridal and to burial. The men and
+      women themselves were forgotten. Their portraits, each in the garb of his
+      or her generation, hung here and there upon the walls of the ancient house
+      which once they had owned or inhabited, but who remembered anything of
+      them to-day? In many cases their names even were lost, for believing that
+      they, so important in their time, could never sink into oblivion, they had
+      not thought it necessary to record them upon their pictures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the thing was coming to an end. Unless in this way or in that he
+      could save it, what remained of the old place, for the outlying lands had
+      long since been sold, must go to the hammer and become the property of
+      some pushing and successful person who desired to found a family, and
+      perhaps in days to be would claim these very pictures that hung upon the
+      walls as those of his own ancestors, declaring that he had brought in the
+      estate because he was a relative of the ancient and ruined race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, it was the way of the world, and perhaps it must be so, but the
+      thought of it made Alan Vernon sad. If he could have continued that
+      business, it might have been otherwise. By this hour his late partners,
+      Sir Robert Aylward and Mr. Champers-Haswell, were doubtless sitting in
+      their granite office in the City, probably in consultation with Lord
+      Specton, who had taken his place upon the Board of the great Company which
+      was being subscribed that day. No doubt applications for shares were
+      pouring in by the early posts and by telegram, and from time to time Mr.
+      Jeffreys respectfully reported their number and amount, while Sir Robert
+      looked unconcerned and Mr. Haswell rubbed his hands and whistled
+      cheerfully. Almost he could envy them, these men who were realizing great
+      fortunes amidst the bustle and excitement of that fierce financial life,
+      whilst he stood penniless and stared at the trees and the ewes which
+      wandered among them with their lambs, he who, after all his work, was but
+      a failure. With a sigh he turned away to fetch his cap and go out walking&mdash;there
+      was a tenant whom he must see, a shifty, new-fangled kind of man who was
+      always clamouring for fresh buildings and reductions in his rent. How was
+      he to pay for more buildings? He must put him off, or let him go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then a sharp sound caught his ear, that of an electric bell. It came
+      from the telephone which, since he had been a member of a City firm, he
+      had caused to be put into Yarleys at considerable expense in order that he
+      might be able to communicate with the office in London. &ldquo;Were they calling
+      him up from force of habit?&rdquo; he wondered. He went to the instrument which
+      was fixed in a little room he used as a study, and took down the receiver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I am Yarleys. Alan Vernon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I am Barbara,&rdquo; came the answer. &ldquo;How are you, dear? Did you sleep
+      well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, very badly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nerves&mdash;Alan, you have got nerves. Now although I had a worse day
+      than you did, I went to bed at nine, and protected by a perfect
+      conscience, slumbered till nine this morning, exactly twelve hours. Isn&rsquo;t
+      it clever of me to think of this telephone, which is more than you would
+      ever have done? My uncle has departed to London vowing that no letter from
+      you shall enter this house, but he forgot that there is a telephone in
+      every room, and in fact at this moment I am speaking round by his office
+      within a yard or two of his head. However, he can&rsquo;t hear, so that doesn&rsquo;t
+      matter. My blessing be on the man who invented telephones, which hitherto
+      I have always thought an awful nuisance. Are you feeling cheerful, Alan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very much the reverse,&rdquo; he answered; &ldquo;never was more gloomy in my life,
+      not even when I thought I had to die within six hours of blackwater fever.
+      Also I have lots that I want to talk to you about and I can&rsquo;t do it at the
+      end of this confounded wire that your uncle may be tapping.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought it might be so,&rdquo; answered Barbara, &ldquo;so I just rang you up to
+      wish you good-morning and to say that I am coming over in the motor to
+      lunch with my maid Snell as chaperone. All right, don&rsquo;t remonstrate, I <i>am
+      coming</i> over to lunch&mdash;I can&rsquo;t hear you&mdash;never mind what
+      people will say. I am coming over to lunch at one o&rsquo;clock, mind you are
+      in. Good-bye, I don&rsquo;t want much to eat, but have something for Snell and
+      the chauffeur. Good-bye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the wire went dead, nor could all Alan&rsquo;s &ldquo;Hello&rsquo;s&rdquo; and &ldquo;Are you
+      there&rsquo;s?&rdquo; extract another syllable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having ordered the best luncheon that his old housekeeper could provide
+      Alan went off for his walk in much better spirits, which were further
+      improved by his success in persuading the tenant to do without the new
+      buildings for another year. In a year, he reflected, anything might
+      happen. Then he returned by the wood where a number of new-felled oaks lay
+      ready for barking. This was not a cheerful sight; it seemed so cruel to
+      kill the great trees just as they were pushing their buds for another
+      summer of life. But he consoled himself by recalling that they had been
+      too crowded and that the timber was really needed on the estate. As he
+      reached the house again carrying a bunch of white violets which he had
+      plucked in a sheltered place for Barbara, he perceived a motor travelling
+      at much more than the legal speed up the walnut avenue which was the pride
+      of the place. In it sat that young lady herself, and her maid, Snell, a
+      middle-aged woman with whom, as it chanced, he was on very good terms, as
+      once, at some trouble to himself, he had been able to do her a kindness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The motor pulled up at the front door and out of it sprang Barbara,
+      laughing pleasantly and looking fresh and charming as the spring itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There will be a row over this, dear,&rdquo; said Alan, shaking his head
+      doubtfully when at last they were alone together in the hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, there&rsquo;ll be a row,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;I mean that there should be
+      a row. I mean to have a row every day if necessary, until they leave me
+      alone to follow my own road, and if they won&rsquo;t, as I said, to go to the
+      Court of Chancery for protection. Oh! by the way, I have brought you a
+      copy of <i>The Judge</i>. There&rsquo;s a most awful article in it about that
+      Sahara flotation, and among other things it announces that you have left
+      the firm and congratulates you upon having done so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll think I have put it in,&rdquo; groaned Alan as he glanced at the head
+      lines, which were almost libellous in their vigour, and the summaries of
+      the financial careers of Sir Robert Aylward and Mr. Champers-Haswell. &ldquo;It
+      will make them hate me more than ever, and I say, Barbara, we can&rsquo;t live
+      in an atmosphere of perpetual warfare for the next two years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can, if need be,&rdquo; answered that determined young woman. &ldquo;But I admit
+      that it would be trying for you, if you stay here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just the point, Barbara. I must not stay here, I must go away, the
+      further the better, until you are your own mistress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where to, Alan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To West Africa, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To West Africa?&rdquo; repeated Barbara, her voice trembling a little. &ldquo;After
+      that treasure, Alan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Barbara. But first come and have your lunch, then we will talk. I
+      have got lots to tell and show you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they lunched, speaking of indifferent things, for the servant was there
+      waiting on them. Just as they were finishing their meal Jeekie entered the
+      room carrying a box and a large envelope addressed to his master, which he
+      said had been sent by special messenger from the office in London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s in the box?&rdquo; asked Alan, looking somewhat nervously at the
+      envelope, which was addressed in a writing that he knew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know for certain, Major,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, &ldquo;but think Little Bonsa;
+      think I smell her through wood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, look and see,&rdquo; replied Alan, while he broke the seal of the
+      envelope and drew out its contents. They proved to be sundry documents
+      sent by the firm&rsquo;s lawyers, among which were a notice of the formal
+      dissolution of partnership to be approved by him before it appeared in the
+      <i>Gazette</i>, a second notice calling in a mortgage for fifteen thousand
+      and odd pounds on Yarleys, which as a matter of business had been taken
+      over by the firm while he was a partner; a cash account showing a small
+      balance against him, and finally a receipt for him to sign acknowledging
+      the return of the gold image that was his property.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; said Alan with a sigh, pushing over the papers to Barbara, who
+      read them carefully one by one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see,&rdquo; she answered presently. &ldquo;It is war to the knife. Alan, I hate the
+      idea of it, but perhaps you had better go away. While you are here they
+      will harass the life out of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile with the aid of a big jack-knife and the dining-room poker,
+      Jeekie had prized off the lid of the box. Chancing to look round Barbara
+      saw him on his knees muttering something in a strange tongue, and bowing
+      his white head until it touched an object that lay within the box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you doing, Jeekie?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make bow to Little Bonsa, Miss Barbara, tell her how glad I am see her
+      come back from town. She like feel welcome. Now you come bow too, Little
+      Bonsa take that as compliment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t bow, but I will look, Jeekie, for although I have heard so much
+      about it I have never really examined this Yellow God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good, you come look, miss,&rdquo; and Jeekie propped up the case upon the
+      end of the dining-room table. As from its height and position she could
+      not see its contents very well whilst standing above it, Barbara knelt
+      down to get a better view of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My goodness!&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;what a terrible face, beautiful too in its
+      way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hardly had the words left her lips when for some reason unexplained that
+      probably had to do with the shifting of the centre of gravity, Little
+      Bonsa appeared to glide or fall out of her box with a startling
+      suddenness, and project herself straight at Barbara, who, with a faint
+      scream, fearing lest the precious thing should be injured, caught it in
+      her arms and for a moment hugged it to her breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Saved!&rdquo; she exclaimed, recovering herself and placing it on the table,
+      whereon Jeekie, to their astonishment, began to execute a kind of war
+      dance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! yes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;saved, very much saved. All saved, most magnificent
+      omen. Lady kneel to Little Bonsa and Little Bonsa nip out of box, make bow
+      and jump in lady&rsquo;s arms. That splendid, first-class luck, for miss and
+      everybody. When Little Bonsa do that need fear nothing no more. All come
+      right as rain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense,&rdquo; said Barbara, laughing. Then from a cautious distance she
+      continued her examination of the fetish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See,&rdquo; said Jeekie, pointing to the misshapen little gold legs which were
+      yet so designed that it could be stood up upon them, &ldquo;when anyone wear
+      Little Bonsa, tie her on head behind by these legs; look, here same old
+      leather string. Now I put her on, for she like to be worn again,&rdquo; and with
+      a quick movement he clapped the mask on to his face, manipulated the
+      greasy black leather thongs and made them fast. Thus adorned the great
+      negro looked no less than terrific.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see you, miss,&rdquo; he said, turning the fixed eyes of opal-like stone,
+      bloodshot with little rubites, upon Barbara, &ldquo;I see you, though you no see
+      me, for these eyes made very cunning. But listen, you hear me,&rdquo; and
+      suddenly from the mask, produced by some contrivance set within it, there
+      proceeded an awful, howling sound that made her shiver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take that thing off, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;we don&rsquo;t want any banshees
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Banshees? Not know him, he poor English fetish p&rsquo;raps,&rdquo; said Jeekie, as
+      he removed the mask. &ldquo;This real African god, howl banshee and all that
+      sort into middle of next week. This Little Bonsa and no mistake, ten
+      thousand years old and more, eat up lives, so many that no one can count
+      them, and go on eating for ever, yes unto the third and fourth generation,
+      as Ten Commandments lay it down for benefit of Christian man, like me.
+      Look at her again, Miss Barbara.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Barbara took the hateful, ancient thing in her hands and studied it.
+      No one could doubt its antiquity, for the gold plate of which it was made
+      was literally worn away wherever it had touched the foreheads of the high
+      priests or priestesses who donned it upon festive occasions or days of
+      sacrifice, showing that hundreds and hundreds of them must have used it
+      thus in succession. So was the vocal apparatus within the mouth, and so
+      were the little toad-like feet upon which it was stood up. Also the
+      substance of the gold itself as here and there pitted as though with acid
+      or salts, though what those salts were she did not inquire. And yet, so
+      consummate was the art with which it had originally been fashioned, that
+      the battered beautiful face of Little Bonsa still peered at them with the
+      same devilish smile that it had worn when it left the hands of its maker,
+      perhaps before Mohammed preached his holy war, or even earlier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is all that writing on the back of it?&rdquo; asked Barbara, pointing to
+      the long lines of rune-like characters which were inscribed within it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not know, miss, think they dead tongue cut in the beginning when black
+      men could write. But Asiki priests swear they remember every one of them,
+      and that why no one can copy Little Bonsa, for they look inside and see if
+      marks all right. They say they names of those who died for Little Bonsa,
+      and when they all done, Little Bonsa begin again, for Little Bonsa never
+      die. But p&rsquo;raps priests lie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I daresay,&rdquo; said Barbara, &ldquo;but take Little Bonsa away, for however lucky
+      she may be, she makes me feel sick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where I put her, Major?&rdquo; asked Jeekie of Alan. &ldquo;In box in library where
+      she used to live, or in plate-safe with spoons? Or under your bed where
+      she always keep eye on you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! put her with the spoons,&rdquo; said Alan angrily, and Jeekie departed with
+      his treasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think, dear,&rdquo; remarked Barbara as the door closed behind him, &ldquo;that if
+      I come to lunch here any more, I shall bring my own christening present
+      with me, for I can&rsquo;t eat off silver that has been shut up with that thing.
+      Now let us get to business&mdash;show me the diary and the map.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dearest Alan,&rdquo; wrote Barbara from The Court two days later, &ldquo;I have been
+      thinking everything over, and since you are so set upon it, I suppose that
+      you had better go. To me the whole adventure seems perfectly mad, but at
+      the same time I believe in our luck, or rather in the Providence which
+      watches over us, and I don&rsquo;t believe that you, or I either, will come to
+      any harm. If you stop here, you will only eat your heart out and
+      communication between us must become increasingly difficult. My uncle is
+      furious with you, and since he discovered that we were talking over the
+      telephone, to his own great inconvenience he has had the wires cut outside
+      the house. That horrid letter of his to you saying that you had
+      &lsquo;compromised&rsquo; me in pursuance of a &lsquo;mercenary scheme&rsquo; is all part and
+      parcel of the same thing. How are you to stop here and submit to such
+      insults? I went to see my friend the lawyer, and he tells me that of
+      course we can marry if we like, but in that case my father&rsquo;s will, which
+      he has consulted at Somerset House, is absolutely definite, and if I do so
+      in opposition to my uncle&rsquo;s wishes, I must lose everything except £200 a
+      year. Now I am no money-grubber, but I will not give my uncle the
+      satisfaction of robbing me of my fortune, which may be useful to both of
+      us by and by. The lawyer says also that he does not think that the Court
+      of Chancery would interfere, having no power to do so as far as the will
+      is concerned, and not being able to make a ward of a person like myself
+      who is over age and has the protection of the common law of the country.
+      So it seems to me that the only thing to do is to be patient, and wait
+      until time unties the knot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meanwhile, if you can make some money in Africa, so much the better. So
+      go, Alan, go as soon as you like, for I do not wish to prolong this agony,
+      or to see you exposed daily to all you have to bear. Whenever you return
+      you will find me waiting for you, and if you do not return, still I shall
+      wait, as you in like circumstances will wait for me. But I think you will
+      return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then followed much that need not be written, and at the end a postscript
+      which ran:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to hear that you have succeeded in shifting the mortgage on
+      Yarleys, although the interest is so high. Write to me whenever you get a
+      chance, to the care of the lawyer, for then the letters will reach me, but
+      never to this house, or they may be stopped. I will do the same to you to
+      the address you give. Good-bye, dearest Alan, my true and only lover. I
+      wonder where and when we shall meet again. God be with us both and enable
+      us to bear our trial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;P.P.S. I hear that the Sahara flotation was <i>really</i> a success,
+      notwithstanding the <i>Judge</i> attacks. Sir Robert and my uncle have
+      made millions. I wonder how long they will keep them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A week after he received this letter Alan was on the seas heading for the
+      shores of Western Africa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE DWARF FOLK
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      It was dawn at last. All night it had rained as it can rain in West
+      Africa, falling on the wide river with a hissing splash, sullen and
+      continuous. Now, towards morning, the rain had ceased and everywhere rose
+      a soft and pearly mist that clung to the face of the waters and seemed to
+      entangle itself like strands of wool among the branches of the bordering
+      trees. On the bank of the river at a spot that had been cleared of bush,
+      stood a tent, and out of this tent emerged a white man wearing a sun
+      helmet and grey flannel shirt and trousers. It was Alan Vernon, who in
+      these surroundings looked larger and more commanding than he had done at
+      the London office, or even in his own house of Yarleys. Perhaps the
+      moustache and short brown beard which he had grown, or his skin, already
+      altered and tanned by the tropics, had changed his appearance for the
+      better. At any rate it was changed. So were his manner and bearing,
+      whereof all the diffidence had gone. Now they were those of a man
+      accustomed to command who found himself in his right place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he called, &ldquo;wake up those fellows and come and light the
+      oil-stove. I want my coffee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereon a deep voice was heard speaking in some native tongue and saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cease your snoring, you black dogs, and arouse yourselves, for your lord
+      calls you,&rdquo; an invocation that was followed by the sound of kicks, thumps,
+      and muttered curses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A minute or two later Jeekie himself appeared, and he also was much
+      changed in appearance, for now instead of his smart, European clothes, he
+      wore a white robe and sandals that gave him an air at once dignified and
+      patriarchal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-morning, Major,&rdquo; he said cheerfully. &ldquo;I hope you sleep well, Major,
+      in this low-lying and accursed situation, which is more than we do in boat
+      that half full of water, to say nothing of smell of black man and
+      prevalent mosquito. But the rain it over and gone, and presently the sun
+      shine out, so might be much worse, no cause at all complain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; answered Alan, with a shiver. &ldquo;I believe that I am fever
+      proof, but otherwise I should have caught it last night, and&mdash;just
+      give me the quinine, I will take five grains for luck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, for luck,&rdquo; answered Jeekie as he opened the medicine chest and
+      found the quinine, at the same time glancing anxiously out of the corner
+      of his eye at his master&rsquo;s face, for he knew that the spot where they had
+      slept was deadly to white men at this season of the year. &ldquo;You not catch
+      fever, Little Bonsa,&rdquo; here he dropped his voice and looked down at the box
+      which had served Alan for a pillow, &ldquo;see to that. But quinine give you
+      appetite for breakfast. Very good chop this morning. Which you like best?
+      Cold ven&rsquo;son, or fish, or one of them ducks you shoot yesterday?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! some of the cold meat, I think. Give the ducks to the boatmen, I
+      don&rsquo;t fancy them in this hot place. By the way, Jeekie, we leave the Qua
+      River here, don&rsquo;t we?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, Major, just here. I &lsquo;member spot well, for your uncle he pray
+      on it one whole hour; I pretend pray too, but in heart give thanks to
+      Little Bonsa, for heathen in those days, quite different now. This morning
+      we begin walk through forest where it rather dark and cool and
+      comfortable, that is if we no see dwarf people from whom good Lord deliver
+      us,&rdquo; and he bowed towards the box containing Little Bonsa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will those four porters come with us through the forest, Jeekie, as they
+      promised?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, they come. Last night they say they not come, too much afraid
+      of dwarf. But I settle their hash. I tell them I save up bits of their
+      hair and toe nails when they no thinking, and I mix it with medicine, and
+      if they not come, they die every one before they get home. They think me
+      great doctor and they believe. Perhaps they die if they go on. If so, I
+      tell them that because they want show white feather, and they think me
+      greater doctor still. Oh! they come, they come, no fear, or else Jeekie
+      know reason why. Now, here coffee, Major. Drink him hot before you go take
+      tub, but keep in shallow water, because crocodile he very early riser.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan laughed, and departed to &ldquo;take tub.&rdquo; Notwithstanding the mosquitoes
+      that buzzed round him in clouds, the water was cool and pleasant by
+      comparison with the hot, sticky air, and the feel of it seemed to rid him
+      of the languor resulting from his disturbed night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A month had passed since he had left Old Calabar, and owing to the
+      incessant rains the journeying had been hard. Indeed the white men there
+      thought that he was mad to attempt to go up the river at this season. Of
+      course he had said nothing to them of the objects of his expedition,
+      hinting only that he wished to explore and shoot, and perhaps prospect for
+      mines. But knowing as they did, that he was an Engineer officer with a
+      good record and much African experience, they soon made up their minds
+      that he had been sent by Government upon some secret mission that for
+      reasons of his own he preferred to keep to himself. This conclusion, which
+      Jeekie zealously fostered behind his back, in fact did Alan a good turn,
+      since owing to it he obtained boatmen and servants at a season when, had
+      he been supposed to be but a private person, these would scarcely have
+      been forthcoming at any price. Hitherto his journey had been one long
+      record of mud, mosquitoes, and misery, but otherwise devoid of incident,
+      except the eating of one of his boatmen by a crocodile which was a
+      particularly &ldquo;early riser,&rdquo; for it had pulled the poor fellow out of the
+      canoe in which he lay asleep at night. Now, however, the real dangers were
+      about to begin, since at this spot he left the great river and started
+      forward through the forest on foot with Jeekie and the four bearers whom
+      he had paid highly to accompany him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He could not conceal from himself that the undertaking seemed somewhat
+      desperate. But of this he said nothing in the long letter he had written
+      to Barbara on the previous night, sighing as he sealed it, at the thought
+      that it might well be the last which would ever reach her from him, even
+      if the boatmen got safely back to Calabar and remembered to put it in the
+      post. The enterprise had been begun and must be carried through, until it
+      ended in success&mdash;or death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later they started. First walked Alan as leader of the expedition,
+      carrying a double-barrelled gun that could be used either for ball or
+      shot, about fifty cartridges with brass cases to protect them from the
+      damp, a revolver, a hunting-knife, a cloth mackintosh, and lastly,
+      strapped upon his back like a knapsack, a tin box containing the fetish,
+      Little Bonsa, which was too precious to be trusted to anyone else. It was
+      quite a sufficient load for any white man in that climate, but being very
+      wiry, Alan did not feel its weight, at any rate at first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After him in single file came the four porters, laden with a small tent,
+      some tinned provisions and brandy, ammunition, a box containing beads,
+      watches, etc. for presents, blankets, spare clothing and so forth. These
+      were stalwart fellows enough, who knew the forest, but their dejected air
+      showed that now they had come face to face with its dangers, they heartily
+      wished themselves anywhere else. Indeed, notwithstanding their terror of
+      Jeekie&rsquo;s medicine, at the last moment they threw down their loads
+      intending to make a wild rush for the departing boat, only to be met by
+      Jeekie himself who, anticipating some such move, was waiting for them on
+      the bank with a shotgun. Here he remained until the canoe was too far out
+      in the stream for them to reach it by swimming. Then he asked them if they
+      wished to sit and starve there with the devils he would leave them for
+      company, of if they would carry out their bargain like honest men?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The end of it was they took up their loads again and marched, while behind
+      them walked the terrible and gigantic Jeekie, the barrels of the shotgun
+      which he carried at full cock and occasionally used to prod them, pointing
+      directly at their backs. A strange object he looked truly, for in addition
+      to the weapons with which he bristled, several cooking-pots were slung
+      about him, to say nothing of a cork mattress and a mackintosh sheet tied
+      in a flat bundle to his shoulders, a box containing medicines and food
+      which he carried on his head, and fastened to the top of it with string
+      like a helmet on a coffin, an enormous solar-tope stuffed full of mosquito
+      netting, of which the ends fell about him like a green veil. When Alan
+      remonstrated with him as to the cork mattress, suggesting that it should
+      be thrown away as too hot to wear, Jeekie replied that he had been cold
+      for thirty years, and wished to get warm again. Guessing that his real
+      reason for declining to part with the article, was that his master should
+      have something to lie on, other than the damp ground, Alan said no more at
+      the time, which, as will be seen, was fortunate enough for Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a mile or more their road ran through fantastic-looking mangrove trees
+      rooted in the mud, that in the mist resembled, Alan thought, many-legged
+      arboreal octopi feeling for their food, and tall reeds on the tops of
+      which sat crowds of chattering finches. Then just as the sun broke out,
+      strongly, cheering them with its warmth and sucking up the vapours, they
+      entered sparse bush with palms and great cotton trees growing here and
+      there, and so at length came to the borders of the mighty forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh! dark, dark was that forest; he who entered it from the cheerful
+      sunshine felt as though suddenly and without preparation he had wandered
+      out of the light we know into some dim Hades such as the old Greek fancy
+      painted, where strengthless ghosts flit aimlessly, mourning the lost
+      light. Everywhere the giant boles of trees shooting the height of a church
+      tower into the air without a branch; great rib-rooted trees, and beneath
+      them a fierce and hungry growth of creepers. Where a tree had fallen
+      within the last century or so, these creepers ramped upwards in
+      luxuriance, their stems thick as the body of a man, drinking the shaft of
+      light that pierced downwards, drinking it with eagerness ere the boughs
+      above met again and starved them. Where no tree had fallen the creepers
+      were thin and weak; from year to year they lived on feebly, biding their
+      time, but still they lived, knowing that some day it would come. And
+      always it was coming to those expectant parasites, since from minute to
+      minute, somewhere in the vast depths, miles and miles away perhaps, a
+      great crash echoed in the stillness, the crash of a tree that, sown when
+      the Saxons ruled in England, or perhaps before Cleopatra bewitched
+      Anthony, came to its end at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the second day of their march in the forest Alan chanced to see such a
+      tree fall, and the sight was one that he never could forget. As it
+      happened, owing to the vast spread of its branches which had killed out
+      all rivals beneath, for in its day it had been a very successful tree
+      embued with an excellent constitution by its parent, it stood somewhat
+      alone, so that from several hundred yards away as these six human beings
+      crept towards it like ants towards a sapling in a cornfield, its mighty
+      girth and bulk set upon a little mound and the luxuriant greenness of its
+      far-reaching boughs made a kind of landmark. Then in the hot noon when no
+      breath of wind stirred, suddenly the end came. Suddenly that mighty bole
+      seemed to crumble; suddenly those far-reaching arms were thrown together
+      as their support failed, gripping at each other like living things,
+      flogging the air, screaming in their last agony, and with an awful wailing
+      groan sinking, a tumbled ruin, to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silence again, and in the midst of the silence Jeekie&rsquo;s cheerful voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old tree go flop! Glad he no flop on us, thanks be to Little Bonsa. Get
+      on, you lazy nigger dog. Who pay you stand there and snivel? Get on or I
+      blow out your stupid skull,&rdquo; and he brought the muzzle of the full-cocked,
+      double-barrelled gun into sharp contact with that part of the terrified
+      porter&rsquo;s anatomy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the forest. Of their march through it for the first four days,
+      there is nothing to tell. Its depths seemed to be devoid of life, although
+      occasionally they heard the screaming of parrots in the treetops a couple
+      of hundred feet above, or caught sight of the dim shapes of monkeys
+      swinging themselves from bough to bough. That was in the daytime, when,
+      although they could not see it, they knew that the sun was shining
+      somewhere. But at night they heard nothing, since beasts of prey do not
+      come where there is no food. What puzzled Alan was that all through these
+      impenetrable recesses there ran a distinct road which they followed. To
+      the right and left rose a wall of creepers, but between them ran this
+      road, an ancient road, for nothing grew on it, and it only turned aside to
+      avoid the biggest of the trees which must have stood there from time
+      immemorial, such a tree as that which he had seen fall; indeed it was one
+      of those round which the road ran.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He asked Jeekie who made the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;People who come out Noah&rsquo;s Ark,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, &ldquo;I think they run up
+      here to get out of way of water, and sent them two elephants ahead to make
+      path. Or perhaps dwarf people make it. Or perhaps those who go up to
+      Asiki-land to do sacrifice like old Jews.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean you don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, of course don&rsquo;t know. Who know about forest path made before
+      beginning of world. You ask question, Major, I answer. More lively answer
+      than to shake head and roll eyes like them silly fool porters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on the fourth night that the trouble began. As usual they had lit a
+      huge fire made of the fallen boughs and rotting tree trunks that lay about
+      in plenty. There was no reason why the fire should be so large, since they
+      had little to cook and the air was hot, but they made it so for the same
+      reason that Jeekie answered questions, for the sake of cheerfulness. At
+      least it gave light in the darkness, leaping up in red tongues of flame
+      twenty or thirty feet high, and its roar and crackle were welcome in the
+      primeval silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan lay upon the cork mattress in the open, for here there was no need to
+      pitch the tent; if any rain fell above, the canopy of leaves absorbed it.
+      He was amusing himself while he smoked his pipe with watching the
+      reflection of the fire-light against a patch of darkness caused probably
+      by some bush about twenty yards away, and by picturing in his own mind the
+      face of Barbara, that strong, pleasant English face, as it might appear on
+      such a background. Suddenly there, on the identical spot he did see a
+      face, though one of a very different character. It was round and small and
+      hideous, resembling in its general outline that of a bloated child. At
+      this distance he could not distinguish the features, except the lips,
+      which were large and pendulous, and between them the flash of white teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here,&rdquo; he whispered to Jeekie in English, and Jeekie looked, then
+      without saying a word, lifted the shotgun that lay at his side and fired
+      straight at the bush. Instantly there arose a squeaking noise, such as
+      might be made by a wounded animal, and the four porters sprang up in
+      alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit down,&rdquo; said Jeekie to them in their own tongue, &ldquo;a leopard was
+      stalking us and I fired to frighten it away. Don&rsquo;t go near the place, as
+      it may be wounded and angry, but drag up some boughs and make a fence
+      round the fire, for fear of others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men who dreaded leopards, looking on these animals, indeed, with
+      superstitious reverence, obeyed readily enough, and as there was plenty of
+      wood lying within a few yards, soon constructed a <i>boma</i> fence that,
+      rough as it was, would serve for protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan presently as they laboured at the fence, &ldquo;that was not
+      a leopard, it was a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Major, not man, little dwarf devil, him that have poisoned arrow.
+      I shoot at once to make him sit up. Think he no come back to-night, too
+      much afraid of shot fetish. But to-morrow, can&rsquo;t say. Not tell those
+      fellows anything,&rdquo; and he nodded towards the porters, &ldquo;or perhaps they
+      bolt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you would have done better to leave the dwarf alone,&rdquo; said Alan,
+      &ldquo;and they might have left us alone. Now they will have a blood feud
+      against us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not agree, Major, only chance for us put him in blue funk. If I not
+      shoot, presently he shoot,&rdquo; and he made a sound that resembled the
+      whistling of an arrow, then added, &ldquo;Now you go sleep. I not tired, I
+      watch, my eyes see in dark better than yours. Only two more days of this
+      damn forest, then open land with tree here and there, where dwarf no come
+      because he afraid of lion and cannibal man, who like eat him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As there was nothing else to be done Alan took Jeekie&rsquo;s advice and in time
+      fell fast asleep, nor did he wake again till the faint light which for the
+      want of a better name they called dawn, was filtering down to them through
+      the canopy of boughs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Been to look,&rdquo; said Jeekie as he handed him his coffee. &ldquo;Hit that dwarf
+      man, see his blood, but think others carry him away. Jeekie very good
+      shot, stone, spear, arrow, or gun, all same to him. Now get off as quick
+      as we can before porters smell a rat. You eat chop, Major, I pack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently they started on their trudge through those endless trees, with
+      Fear for a companion. Even the porters, who had been told nothing, seemed
+      more afraid than usual, though whether this was because they &ldquo;smell rat,&rdquo;
+       as Jeekie called it, or owing to the progressive breakdown of their
+      nervous systems, Alan did not know. About midday they stopped to eat
+      because the men were too tired to walk further without rest. For an hour
+      or more they had been looking for a comparatively open place, but as it
+      chanced could find none, so were obliged to halt in dense forest. Just as
+      they had finished their meal and were preparing to proceed, that which
+      they had feared, happened, since from somewhere behind the tree boles came
+      a volley of reed arrows. One struck a porter in the neck, one fixed itself
+      in Alan&rsquo;s helmet without touching him, and no less than three hit Jeekie
+      on the back and stuck there, providentially enough in the substance of the
+      cork mattress that he still carried on his shoulders, which the feeble
+      shafts had not the strength to pierce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody sprang up and with a curious fascination instead of attempting
+      to do anything, watched the porter who had been hit in the neck somewhere
+      in the region of the jugular vein. The poor man rose to his feet with
+      great deliberation, reminding Alan in some grotesque way of a speaker who
+      has suddenly been called on to address a meeting and seeks to gain time
+      for the gathering of his thoughts. Then he turned towards that vast
+      audience of the trees, stretched out his hand with a declamatory gesture,
+      said something in a composed voice, and fell upon his face stone dead! The
+      swift poison had reached his heart and done its work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His three companions looked at him for a moment and the next with a yell
+      of terror, rushed off into the forest, hurling down their loads as they
+      ran. What became of them Alan never learned, for he saw them no more, and
+      the dwarf people keep their secrets. At the time indeed he scarcely
+      noticed their departure, for he was otherwise engaged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of their hideous little assailants, made bold by success, ventured to
+      run across an open space between two trees, showing himself for a moment.
+      Alan had a gun in his hand, and mad with rage at what had happened, he
+      raised it and swung on him as he would upon a rabbit. He was a quick and
+      practised shot and his skill did not fail him now, for just as the dwarf
+      was vanishing behind a tree, the bullet caught him and next instant he was
+      seen rolling over and over upon its further side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That very nice,&rdquo; said Jeekie reflectively, &ldquo;very nice indeed, but I think
+      we best move out of this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you hurt?&rdquo; gasped Alan. &ldquo;Your back is full of arrows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t feel nothing, Major,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;best cork mattress, 25/3 at
+      Stores, very good for poisoned arrow, but leave him behind now, because
+      perhaps points work through as I run, one scratch do trick,&rdquo; and as he
+      spoke Jeekie untied a string or several strings, letting the little
+      mattress fall to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great pity leave all those goods,&rdquo; said Jeekie, surveying the loads that
+      the porters had cast away, &ldquo;but what says Book? Life more than raiment.
+      Also take no thought for morrow. Dwarf people do that for us. Come, Major,
+      make tracks,&rdquo; and dashing at a bag of cartridges which he cast about his
+      neck, a trifling addition to his other impedimenta, and a small case of
+      potted meats that he hitched under his arm, he poked his master in the
+      back with the muzzle of his full-cocked gun as a signal that it was time
+      to start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep that cursed thing off me,&rdquo; said Alan furiously. &ldquo;How often have I
+      told you never to carry firearms at full cock?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About one thousand times, Major,&rdquo; answered Jeekie imperturbably, &ldquo;but on
+      such occasion forget discreetness. My ma just same, it run in family, but
+      story too long tell you now. Cut, Major, cut like hell. Them dwarfs be
+      back soon, but,&rdquo; he puffed, &ldquo;I think, I think Little Bonsa come square
+      with them one day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Alan &ldquo;cut&rdquo; and the huge Jeekie blundered along after him, the
+      paraphernalia with which he was hung about rattling like the hoofs of a
+      galloping giraffe. Nor for all his load did he ever turn a hair. Whether
+      it were fear within or a desire to save his master, or a belief in the
+      virtues of Little Bonsa, or that his foot was, as it were, once more upon
+      his native heath, the fact remained that notwithstanding the fifty years,
+      almost, that had whitened his wool, Jeekie was absolutely inexhaustible.
+      At least at the end of that fearful chase, which lasted all the day, and
+      through the night also, for they dared not camp, he appeared to be nearly
+      as fresh as when he started from Old Calabar, nor did his spirits fail him
+      for one moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the light came on the following morning, however, they perceived by
+      many signs and tokens that the dwarf people were all about them. Some
+      arrows were shot even, but these fell short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh!&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;all right now, they much afraid. Still, no time for
+      coffee, we best get on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they got on as they could, till towards midday the forest began to thin
+      out. Now as the light grew stronger they could see the dwarfs, of whom
+      there appeared to be several hundred, keeping a parallel course to their
+      own on either side of them at what they thought to be a safe distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try one shot, I think,&rdquo; said Jeekie, kneeling down and letting fly at a
+      clump of the little men, which scattered like a covey of partridges,
+      leaving one of its number kicking on the ground. &ldquo;Ah! my boy,&rdquo; shouted
+      Jeekie in derision, &ldquo;how you like bullet in tummy? You not know Paradox
+      guaranteed flat trajectory 250 yard. You remember that next time, sonny.&rdquo;
+       Then off they went again up a long rise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;River other side of that rise,&rdquo; said Jeekie. &ldquo;Think those tree-monkeys no
+      follow us there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the &ldquo;monkeys&rdquo; appeared to be angry and determined. They would not come
+      any more within the range of the Paradox, but they still marched on either
+      side of the two fugitives, knowing well that at last their strength must
+      fail and they would be able to creep up and murder them. So the chase went
+      on till Alan began to wonder whether it would not be better to face the
+      end at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, if say die, can&rsquo;t change mind to-morrow morning,&rdquo; gasped Jeekie
+      in a hoarse voice. &ldquo;Here top rise, much nearer than I thought. Oh, my
+      aunt! who those?&rdquo; and he pointed to a large number of big men armed with
+      spears who were marching up the further side of the hill from the river
+      that ran below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same moment these savages, who were not more than two hundred yards
+      away, caught sight of them and of their pursuers, who just then appeared
+      on the ridge to the right and left. The dwarfs, on perceiving these
+      strangers, uttered a shrill yell of terror, and wheeled about to fly to
+      their fastnesses in the forest, which evidently they regretted ever having
+      left. It was too late. With an answering shout the spearsmen, who were
+      extended in a long line, apparently hunting for game, charged after them
+      at full speed. They were fresh and their legs were long. Therefore very
+      soon they overtook the dwarfs and even got in front of them, heading them
+      off from the forest. The end may be guessed,&mdash;save a few whom they
+      reserved alive, they killed them mercilessly, and almost without loss to
+      themselves, since the little forest folk were too terrified and exhausted
+      to shoot at them with their poisoned arrows, and they had no other
+      weapons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, as Alan discovered afterwards, for generations there had been war
+      between them, since all the other tribes hate the dwarfs, whom they look
+      upon as dangerous human monkeys, and never before had the big men found
+      such a chance of squaring their account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Jeekie saw this fearful-looking company, for the first time his
+      spirits seemed to fail him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ogula!&rdquo; he exclaimed with a groan and sat himself upon a flat rock,
+      pulling Alan down beside him. &ldquo;Ogula! Know them by hair and spears,&rdquo; he
+      repeated. &ldquo;Up gum tree now, say good-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why? Who are they?&rdquo; gasped Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great cannibal, Major, eat man, eat us to-night, or perhaps to-morrow
+      morning when we nice and cool. Say prayers, Major, quick no time waste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I will shoot an Ogula or two first,&rdquo; said Alan grimly, as he
+      stood up and lifted his gun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not shoot, no good. Pretend not be afraid, best chance. Let Jeekie
+      think, let Jeekie think,&rdquo; and he slapped his forehead with his large hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Apparently the action brought inspiration, for next instant he grabbed his
+      master by the arm and dragged him back behind the shelter of a big boulder
+      which they had just passed. Then with really marvellous swiftness he cut
+      the straps of the tin box that Alan wore upon his back, and since there
+      was no time to find the key and unlock it, seized the little padlock with
+      which it was fastened between his finger and thumb, and putting out his
+      great strength, with a single wrench twisted it off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; began Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold tongue,&rdquo; he answered savagely, &ldquo;make you god, I priest. Ogula know
+      Little Bonsa. Quick, quick!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a minute it was done, the golden mask was clapped on to Alan&rsquo;s head,
+      and the leather thongs were fastened. Moreover, Jeekie himself was arrayed
+      in the solar-tope to which all this while he had clung, allowing streams
+      of green mosquito netting to hang down over his white robe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come out now, Major,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and play god. You whistle, I do palaver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then hand in hand they walked from behind the rock. By this time the
+      particular company of the cannibals that was opposite to them, which
+      happened to include their chief, had climbed the steep slope of the hill
+      and arrived within a distance of twenty yards. Having seen the two men and
+      guessed that they had taken refuge behind the rock, their spears were
+      lifted to kill them, since when he beholds anything strange, the first
+      impulse of a savage is to bring it to its death. They looked; they saw. Of
+      a sudden down went the raised spears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of those who held them fell upon their faces, while others turned to
+      fly, appalled by the vision of this strangely clad man with the head of
+      gold. Only their chief, a great yellow-toothed fellow who wore a necklace
+      of baboon claws, remained erect, staring at them with open mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan blew the whistle that was set between the lips of the mask, and they
+      shivered. Then Jeekie spoke to them in some tongue which they understood,
+      saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you, O Ogula, dare to offer violence to Little Bonsa and her priests?
+      Say now, why should we not strike you dead with the magic of the god which
+      she has borrowed from the white man?&rdquo; and he tapped the gun he held.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is witchcraft,&rdquo; answered the chief. &ldquo;We saw two men running, hunted
+      by the dwarfs, not three minutes ago, and now we see&mdash;what we see,&rdquo;
+       and he put his hand before his eyes, then after a pause went on&mdash;&ldquo;As
+      for Little Bonsa, she left this country in my father&rsquo;s day. He gave her
+      passage upon the head of a white man and the Asiki wizards have mourned
+      her ever since, or so I hear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fool,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, &ldquo;as she went, so she returns, on the head of a
+      white man. Yonder I see an elder with grey hair who doubtless knew of
+      Little Bonsa in his youth. Let him come up and look and say whether or no
+      this is the god.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; exclaimed the chief, &ldquo;go up, old man, go up,&rdquo; and he jabbed at
+      him with his spear until, unwillingly enough, he went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The elder arrived, making obeisance, and when he was near, Alan blew the
+      whistle in his face, whereon he fell to his knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Little Bonsa,&rdquo; he said in a trembling voice, &ldquo;Little Bonsa without
+      a doubt. I should know, as my father and my elder brother were sacrificed
+      to her, and I only escaped because she rejected me. Down on your face,
+      Chief, and do honour to the Yellow God before she slay you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly every man within hearing prostrated himself and lay still. Then
+      Jeekie strode up and down among them shouting out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little Bonsa has come back and brought to you, Man-eaters, a fat
+      offering, an offering of the dwarf-people whom you hate, of the
+      treacherous dwarf-people who when you walk the ancient forest path, murder
+      you with their poisoned arrows. Praise Little Bonsa who delivers you from
+      your foes, and hearken to her bidding. Send on messengers to the Asiki
+      saying that Little Bonsa comes home again from across the Black Water
+      bringing the White Preacher, whom she led away in the day of their
+      fathers. Say to them that the Asiki must send out a company that Little
+      Bonsa and the Magician with whom she ran away, may be escorted back to her
+      house with the state which has been hers from the beginning of time. Say
+      to them also that they must prepare a great offering of pure gold out of
+      their store, as much gold as fifty strong men can carry, not one handful
+      less, to be given to the White Magician who brings back Small Swimming
+      Head, for if they withhold such an offering, he and Little Bonsa will
+      vanish never to be seen again, and curses and desolation will fall upon
+      their land. Rise and obey, Chief of the Ogula.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the man scrambled to his feet and answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall be done, O Priest of the Yellow God. To-morrow at the dawn swift
+      messengers will start for the Gold House of the Asiki. To-night they
+      cannot leave, as we are all very hungry and must eat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What must you eat?&rdquo; asked Jeekie suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O Priest,&rdquo; answered the chief with a deprecatory gesture, &ldquo;when first we
+      saw you we hoped that it would be the white man and yourself, for we have
+      never tasted white man. But now we fear that you will not consent to this,
+      and as you are holy and the guardian of the god, we cannot eat you without
+      your own consent. Therefore fat dwarf must be our food, of which, however,
+      there will be plenty for you as well as us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You dog!&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie in a voice of furious indignation. &ldquo;Do you
+      think that white men and their high-born companions, such as myself, were
+      made to fill your vile stomachs? I tell you that a meal of the deadly Bean
+      would agree better with you, for if you dare so much as to look on us, or
+      on any of the white race with hunger, agony shall seize your vitals and
+      you and all your tribe shall die as though by poison. Moreover, we do not
+      touch the flesh of men, nor will we see it eaten. It is our &lsquo;<i>orunda</i>,&rsquo; 
+      it is consecrate to us, it must not pass our lips, nor may our eyes behold
+      it. Therefore we will camp apart from you further up the stream and find
+      our own food. But to-morrow at the dawn the messengers must leave as we
+      have commanded. Also you shall provide strong men and a large canoe to
+      bear Little Bonsa forward towards her own home until she finds her people
+      coming out to greet her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall be done,&rdquo; answered the chief humbly, &ldquo;Everything shall be done
+      according to the will of Little Bonsa spoken by her priest, that she may
+      leave a blessing and not a curse upon the heads of the tribe of the Ogula.
+      Say where you wish to camp and men shall run to build a house of reeds for
+      the god to dwell in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE DAWN
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie looked up and down the river and saw that in the centre of it about
+      half a mile away, there was an island on which grew some trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little Bonsa will camp yonder,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Go, make her house ready, light
+      fire and bring canoe to paddle us across. Now leave us, all of you, for if
+      you look too long upon the face of the Yellow God she will ask a
+      sacrifice, and it is not lawful that you should see where she hides
+      herself away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this saying the cannibals departed as one man, and at top speed, some
+      of the canoes and others to warn their fellows who were engaged in the
+      congenial work of hunting and killing the dwarfs, not to dare to approach
+      the white man and his companion. A third party ran to the bank of the
+      river that was opposite to the island to make ready as they had been
+      bidden, so that presently Alan and Jeekie were left quite alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Jeekie, with a gasp of satisfaction, &ldquo;<i>that</i> all right,
+      everything arranged quite comfortable. Thought Little Bonsa come out top
+      somehow and score off dirty dwarf monkeys. <i>They</i> never get home to
+      tea anyway&mdash;stay and dine with Ogula.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop chattering, Jeekie, and untie this infernal mask, I am almost
+      choked,&rdquo; broke in Alan in a hollow voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not say &lsquo;infernal mask,&rsquo; Major, say &lsquo;face of angel.&rsquo; Little Bonsa woman
+      and like it better, also true, if on this occasion only, for she save our
+      skins,&rdquo; said Jeekie as he unknotted the thongs and reverently replaced the
+      fetish in its tin box. &ldquo;My!&rdquo; he added, contemplating his master&rsquo;s
+      perspiring countenance, &ldquo;you blush like garden carrot; well, gold hot wear
+      in afternoon sun beneath Tropic of Cancer. Now we walk on quietly and I
+      tell you all I arrange for night&rsquo;s lodging and future progress of joint
+      expedition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So gathering together what remained of their few possessions, they started
+      leisurely down the slope towards the island, and as they went Jeekie
+      explained all that had happened, since Ogula was not one of the African
+      languages with which Alan was acquainted and he had only been able to
+      understand a word here and there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look,&rdquo; said Jeekie when he had finished, and turning, he pointed to the
+      cannibals who were driving the few survivors of the dwarfs before them to
+      the spot where their canoes were beached. &ldquo;Those dwarfs done for; capital
+      business, forest road quite safe to travel home by; Ogula best friends in
+      world; very remarkable escape from delicate situation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very remarkable indeed,&rdquo; said Alan; &ldquo;I shall soon begin to believe in the
+      luck of Little Bonsa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, you see she anxious to get home and make path clear. But,&rdquo; he
+      added gloomily, &ldquo;how she behave when she reach there, can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor can I, Jeekie, but meanwhile I hope she will provide us with some
+      dinner, for I am faint for want of food and all the tinned meat is lost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Food,&rdquo; repeated Jeekie. &ldquo;Yes, necessity for human stomach, which
+      unhappily built that way, so Ogula find out, and so dwarfs find out
+      presently.&rdquo; Then he looked about him and in a kind of aimless manner
+      lifted his gun and fired. &ldquo;There we are,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;Little Bonsa
+      understand bodily needs,&rdquo; and he pointed to a fat buck of the sort that in
+      South Africa is called Duiker, which his keen eyes had discovered in its
+      form against a stone where it now lay shot through the head and dying. &ldquo;No
+      further trouble on score of grub for next three day,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;Come on
+      to camp, Major. I send one savage skin and bring that buck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So on they went to the river bank, Alan so tired now that the excitement
+      was over, that he was not sorry to lean upon Jeekie&rsquo;s arm. Reaching the
+      stream they drank deep of its water, and finding that it was shallow at
+      this spot, waded through it to the island without waiting for a canoe to
+      ferry them over. Here they found a party of the cannibals already at work
+      clearing reeds with their large, curved knives, in order to make a site
+      for the hut. Another party under the command of their chief himself had
+      gone to the top end of the island, to cut the stems of a willow-like shrub
+      to serve as uprights. These people stared at Alan, which was not strange,
+      as they had never before seen the face of a white man and were wondering,
+      doubtless, what had become of the ancient and terrible fetish that he had
+      worn. Without entering into explanations Jeekie in a great voice ordered
+      two of them to fetch the buck, which the white man, whom he described as
+      &ldquo;husband of the goddess,&rdquo; had &ldquo;slain by thunder.&rdquo; When these had departed
+      upon their errand, leaving Jeekie to superintend the building operations,
+      Alan sat down upon a fallen tree, watching one of the savages making fire
+      with a pointed stick and some tinder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then from the head of the island where the willows were being cut,
+      rose the sound of loud roarings and of men crying out in affright. Seizing
+      his gun Alan ran towards the spot whence the noise came. Forcing his way
+      through a brake of reeds, he saw a curious sight. The Ogula in cutting the
+      willows which grew about some tumbled rocks, had disturbed a lioness that
+      had her lair there, and being fearless savages, had tried to kill her with
+      their spears. The brute, rendered desperate by wounds, and the
+      impossibility of escape, for here the surrounding water was deep, had
+      charged them boldly, and as it chanced, felled to the ground their chief,
+      that yellow-toothed man to whom Jeekie gave his orders. Now she was
+      standing over him looking round her royally, her great paw upon his
+      breast, which it seemed almost to cover, while the Ogula ran round and
+      round shouting, for they feared that if they tried to attack her, she
+      would kill the chief. This indeed she seemed about to do, for just as Alan
+      arrived she dropped her head as though to tear out the man&rsquo;s throat.
+      Instantly he fired. It was a snap shot, but as it chanced a good one, for
+      the bullet struck the lioness in the back of the neck just forward of and
+      between the shoulders, severing the spine so that without a sound or any
+      further movement she sank stone dead upon the prostrate cannibal. For a
+      while his followers stood astonished. They might have heard of guns from
+      the coast people, but living as they did in the interior where white folk
+      did not dare to travel, they had never seen their terrible effects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Magic!&rdquo; they cried. &ldquo;Magic!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie, who by now had arrived upon the scene.
+      &ldquo;What else did you expect from the husband of Little Bonsa? Magic, the
+      greatest of magic. Go, roll that beast away before your chief is crushed
+      to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They obeyed, and the man sat up, a fearful spectacle, for he was smothered
+      with the blood of the lion and somewhat cut by her claws, though otherwise
+      unhurt. Then feeling that the life was still whole in him, he crept on his
+      hands and knees to where Alan stood, and kissed his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aha!&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;Little Bonsa score again. Cannibal tribe our slave
+      henceforth for evermore. Yes, till kingdom come. Come on, Major, and cook
+      supper in perfect peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The supper was cooked and eaten with gratitude, for seldom had two men
+      needed a square meal more, and never did venison taste better. By the time
+      that it was finished darkness had fallen, and before they turned in to
+      sleep in the neat reed hut that the Ogula had built, Alan and Jeekie
+      walked up the island to see if the lioness had been skinned, as they
+      directed. This they found was done; even the carcase itself had been
+      removed to serve as meat for these foul-feeding people. They climbed on to
+      the pile of rocks in which the beast had made her lair, and looked down
+      the river to where, two hundred yards away, the Ogula were encamped. From
+      this camp there rose a sound of revelry, and by the light of the great
+      fires that burned there, they perceived that the hungry savages were busy
+      feasting, for some of them sat in circles, whilst others, their naked
+      forms looking at that distance like those of imps in the infernal regions,
+      flitted to and fro against the glowing background of the fires, bearing
+      strange-looking joints on prongs of wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose they are eating the lioness,&rdquo; said Alan doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Major, not lioness; eat dwarf by dozen&mdash;just like oysters at
+      seaside. But for Little Bonsa <i>we</i> sit on those forks now and look
+      uncommon small.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beasts!&rdquo; said Alan in disgust; &ldquo;they make me feel uncommon sick. Let us
+      go to bed. I suppose they won&rsquo;t murder us in our sleep, will they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not they, Major, too much afraid. Also we their blood-brothers now,
+      because we bring them first-class dinner and save chief from lion&rsquo;s fury.
+      No blame them too much, Major, good fellows really with gentle heart, but
+      grub like that from generation to generation. Every mother&rsquo;s son of them
+      have many men inside, that why they so big and strong. Ogula people cover
+      great multitude like Charity in Book. No doubt sent by Providence to keep
+      down extra pop&rsquo;lation. Not right to think too hard of poor fellows who, as
+      I say, very kind and gentle at heart and most loving in family relation,
+      except to old women whom they eat also, so that they no get bored with too
+      long life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Weary and disgusted by this abominable sight though he was, Alan burst out
+      laughing at his retainer&rsquo;s apology for the sweet-natured Ogula, who struck
+      him as the most repulsive blackguards that he had ever met or heard of in
+      all his experience of African savages. Then wishing to see and hear no
+      more of them that night, he retreated rapidly to the hut and was soon fast
+      asleep with his head pillowed on the box that hid the charms of Little
+      Bonsa. When he awoke it was broad daylight. Rising he went down to the
+      river to wash, and never had a bath been more welcome, for during all
+      their journey through the forest no such thing was obtainable. On his
+      return he found his garments well brushed with dry reeds and set upon a
+      rock in the hot sun to air, while Jeekie in a cheerful mood, was engaged
+      cooking breakfast in the frying-pan, to which he had clung through all the
+      vicissitudes of their flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No coffee, Major,&rdquo; he said regretfully, &ldquo;that stop in forest. But never
+      mind, hot water better for nerve. Ogula messengers gone in little canoe to
+      Asiki at break of day. Travel slow till they work off dwarf, but
+      afterwards go quick. I send lion skin with them as present from you to
+      great high-priestess Asika, also claws for necklace. No lions there and
+      she think much of that. Also it make her love mighty man who can kill
+      fierce lion like Samson in Book. Love of head woman very valuable ally
+      among beastly savage peoples.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure I hope it won&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Alan with earnestness, &ldquo;but no doubt it
+      is as well to keep on the soft side of the good lady if we can. What time
+      do we start?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In one hour, Major. I been to camp already, chosen best canoe and finest
+      men for rowers. Chief&mdash;he called Fanny&mdash;so grateful that he come
+      with them himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed. That is very kind of him, but I say, Jeekie, what are these
+      fellows going to live on? I can&rsquo;t stand what you call their &lsquo;favourite
+      chop.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Major, that all right. I tell them that when they travel with
+      Little Bonsa, they must keep Lent like pious Roman Catholic family that
+      live near Yarleys. They catch plenty fish in river, and perhaps we shoot
+      game, or rich &lsquo;potamus, which they like &lsquo;cause he fat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Evidently the Ogula chief, Fahni by name, not Fanny, as Jeekie called him,
+      was a man of his word, for before the hour was up he appeared at the
+      island in command of a large canoe manned by twelve splendid-looking
+      savages. Springing to land, he prostrated himself before Alan, kissing his
+      feet as he had done on the previous night, and making a long speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That very good spirit,&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie. &ldquo;Like to see heathen in his
+      darkness lick white gentleman&rsquo;s boot. He say you his lord and great
+      magician who save his life, and know all Little Bonsa&rsquo;s secrets, which
+      many and unrepeatable. He say he die for you twice a day if need be, and
+      go on dying to-morrow and all next year. He say he take you safe till you
+      meet Asiki and for your sake, though he hungry, eat no man for one whole
+      month, or perhaps longer. Now we start at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they started up the river that was called Katsena, Alan and Jeekie
+      seated in a lordly fashion near the stern of the canoe beneath an awning
+      made out of some sticks and a grass mat. In truth after their severe toil
+      and adventures in the forest, this method of journeying proved quite
+      luxurious. Except for a rapid here and there over or round which the canoe
+      must be dragged, the river was broad and the scenery on its banks
+      park-like and beautiful. Moreover the country, perhaps owing to the
+      appetites of the Ogula, appeared to be practically uninhabited except by
+      vast herds of every sort of game.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All day they sat in the canoe which the stalwart rowers propelled, in
+      silence for the most part, since they were terribly afraid of the white
+      man, and still more so of the renowned fetish which they knew he carried
+      with him. Then when evening came they moored their craft to the bank and
+      camped till the following morning. Nor did they lack for food, since game
+      being so plentiful, it was only necessary for Alan to walk a few hundred
+      yards and shoot a fat eland, or hartebeest, or other buck which in its
+      ignorance of guns would allow him to approach quite close. Elephants,
+      rhinoceros, and buffalo were also common, while great herds of giraffe
+      might be seen wandering between the scattered trees, but as they were not
+      upon a hunting trip and their ammunition was very limited, with these they
+      did not interfere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having their daily fill of meat which their souls loved, the Ogula oarsmen
+      remained in an excellent mood, indeed the chief, Fahni, informed Alan that
+      if only they had such magic tubes wherewith to slaughter game, he and his
+      tribe would gladly give up cannibalism&mdash;except on feast days. He
+      added sadly that soon they would be obliged to do so, or die, since in
+      those parts there were now few people left to eat, and they hated
+      vegetables. Moreover, they kept no cattle, it was not the custom of that
+      tribe, except a very few for milk. Alan advised them to increase their
+      herds, since, as he pointed out to them, &ldquo;dog should not eat dog&rdquo; or the
+      human being his own kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chief answered that there was a great deal in what he said, which on
+      his return he would lay before his head men. Indeed Alan, to his
+      astonishment, discovered that Jeekie had been quite right when he alleged
+      that these people, so terrible in their mode of life, were yet &ldquo;kind and
+      gentle at heart.&rdquo; They preyed upon mankind because for centuries it had
+      been their custom so to do, but if anyone had been there to show them a
+      better way, he grew sure that they would follow it gladly. At least they
+      were brave and loyal and even after their first fear of the white man had
+      worn off, fulfilled their promises without a murmur. Once, indeed, when he
+      chanced to have gone for a walk unarmed and to be charged by a bull
+      elephant, these Ogula ran at the brute with their spears and drove it
+      away, a rescue in which one of them lost his life, for the &ldquo;rogue&rdquo; caught
+      and killed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the days went on while they paddled leisurely up the river, Alan
+      employing the time by taking lessons in the Asiki tongue from Jeekie, a
+      language which he had been studying ever since he left England. The task
+      was not easy, as he had no books and Jeekie himself after some thirty
+      years of absence, was doubtful as to many of its details. Still being a
+      linguist by nature and education and finding in the tongue similarities to
+      other African dialects which he knew, he was now able to speak it a
+      little, in a halting fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the fifth day of their ascent of the river, they came to a tributary
+      that flowed into it from the north, up which the Ogula said they must
+      proceed to reach Asiki-land. The stream was narrow and sluggish, widening
+      out here and there into great swamps through which it was not easy to find
+      a channel. Also the district was so unhealthy that even several of the
+      Ogula contracted fever, of which Alan cured them by heavy doses of
+      quinine, for fortunately his travelling medicine chest remained to him.
+      These cures were effected after their chief suggested that they should be
+      thrown overboard, or left to die in the swamp as useless, with the result
+      that the white man&rsquo;s magical powers were thenceforth established beyond
+      doubt or cavil. Indeed the poor Ogula now looked on him as a god superior
+      even to Little Bonsa, whose familiar he was supposed to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey through that swamp was very trying, since in this wet season
+      often they could find no place on which to sleep at night, but must stay
+      in the canoe tormented by mosquitoes, and in constant danger of being
+      upset by the hippopotami that lived there. Moreover, as no game was now
+      available, they were obliged to live on these beasts, fish when they could
+      catch them, and wildfowl, which sometimes they were unable to cook for
+      lack of fuel. This did not trouble the Ogula, who ate them raw, as did
+      Jeekie when he was hungry. But Alan was obliged to starve until they could
+      make a fire. This it was only possible to do when they found drift or
+      other wood, since at that season the rank vegetation was in full growth.
+      Also the fearful thunderstorms which broke continually and in a few
+      minutes half filled their canoe with water, made the reeds and the soil on
+      which they grew, sodden with wet. As Jeekie said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This time of year only fit for duck and crocodile. Human should remember
+      uncontrollable forces of nature and wait till winter come in due course,
+      when quagmire bear sole of his foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This elaborate remark he made to Alan during the progress of a
+      particularly fearful tempest. The lightning blazed in the black sky and
+      seemed to strike all about them like stabbing swords of fire, the thunder
+      crashed and bellowed as it may be supposed that it will do on that day
+      when the great earth, worn out at last, shall reel and stagger to its
+      doom. The rain fell in a straight and solid sheet; the tall reeds waved
+      confusedly like millions of dim arms and while they waved, uttered a vast
+      and groaning noise; the scared wildfowl in their terror, with screams and
+      the sough of wings, rushed past them in flocks a thousand strong, now seen
+      and now lost in the vapours. To keep their canoe afloat the poor, naked
+      Ogula oarsmen, shivering with cold and fear, baled furiously with their
+      hands, or bowls of hollowed wood, and called back to Alan to save them as
+      though he were the master of the elements. Even Jeekie was depressed and
+      appeared to be offering up petitions, though whether these were directed
+      to Little Bonsa or elsewhere it was impossible to know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Alan, the heart was out of him. It is true that so far he had
+      escaped fever or other sickness, which in itself was wonderful, but he was
+      chilled through and through and practically had eaten nothing for two
+      days, and very little for a week, since his stomach turned from
+      half-cooked hippopotamus fat and wildfowl. Moreover, they had lost the
+      channel and seemed to be wandering aimlessly through a wilderness of reeds
+      broken here and there by lines of deeper water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According the Ogula they should have reached the confines of the great
+      lake several days before and landed on healthful rising ground that was
+      part of the Asiki territory. But this had not happened, and now he doubted
+      whether it ever would happen. It was more likely that they would come to
+      their deaths, there in the marsh, especially as the few ball and shot
+      cartridges which they had saved in their flight were now exhausted. Not
+      one was left; nothing was left except their revolvers with some charges,
+      which of course were quite useless for the killing of game. Therefore they
+      were in a fair way to die of hunger, for here if fish existed, they
+      refused to be caught and nought remained for them to fill themselves with
+      except water slugs, and snails which the boatmen were already gathering
+      and crunching up in their great teeth. Or, perhaps the Ogula, forgetting
+      friendship under the pressure of necessity, would murder them as they
+      slept and&mdash;revert to their usual diet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie was right, he should have remembered the &ldquo;uncontrollable forces of
+      Nature.&rdquo; Only a madman would have undertaken such an expedition in the
+      rains. No wonder that the Asiki remained a secret and hidden people when
+      their frontier was protected by such a marsh as this upon the one side
+      and, as he understood, by impassable mountains upon the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There came a lull in the tempest and the boatmen began to get the better
+      of the water, which now was up to their knees. Alan asked Jeekie if he
+      thought it was over, but that worthy shook his white head mournfully,
+      causing the spray to fly as from a twirling mop, and replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t say, cats and dogs not tumble so many for present, only pups and
+      kitties left, so to speak, but think there plenty more up there,&rdquo; and he
+      nodded at the portentous fire-laced cloud which seemed to be spreading
+      over them, its black edges visible even through the gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bad business, I am afraid, Jeekie. Shouldn&rsquo;t have brought you here, or
+      those poor beggars either,&rdquo; and he looked at the scared, frozen Ogula. &ldquo;I
+      begin to wonder&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never wonder, Major,&rdquo; broke in Jeekie in alarm. &ldquo;If wonder, not live, if
+      wonder, not be born, too much wonder about everywhere. Can&rsquo;t understand
+      nothing, so give it up. Say, &lsquo;Right-O and devil hindermost!&rsquo; Very good
+      motto for biped in tight place. Better drown here than in City bucket
+      shop. But no drown. Should be dead long ago, but Little Bonsa play the
+      game, she not want to sink in stinking swamp when so near her happy home.
+      Come out all right somehow, as from dwarf. Every cloud have silver lining,
+      Major, even that black chap up there. Oh! my golly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This last exclamation was wrung from Jeekie&rsquo;s lips by a sudden development
+      of &ldquo;forces of Nature&rdquo; which astonished even him. Instead of a silver
+      lining the &ldquo;black chap&rdquo; exhibited one of gold. In an instant it seemed to
+      turn to acres of flame; it was as though the heavens had taken fire. A
+      flash or a thunderbolt struck the water within ten yards of their canoe,
+      causing the boatmen to throw themselves upon their faces through shock or
+      terror. Then came the hurricane, which fortunately was so strong that it
+      permitted no more rain to fall. The tall reeds were beaten flat beneath
+      its breath; the canoe was seized in its grip and whirled round and round,
+      then driven forward like an arrow. Only the weight of the men and the
+      water in it prevented it from oversetting. Dense darkness fell upon them
+      and although they could see no star, they knew that it must be night. On
+      they rushed, driven by that shrieking gale, and all about and around them
+      this wall of darkness. No one spoke, for hope was abandoned, and if they
+      had, their voices could not have been heard. The last thing that Alan
+      remembered was feeling Jeekie dragging a grass mat over him to protect him
+      a little if he could. Then his senses wavered, as does a dying lamp. He
+      thought that he was back in what Jeekie had rudely called &ldquo;City bucket
+      shop,&rdquo; bargaining across the telephone wire, upon which came all the
+      sounds of the infernal regions, with a financial paper for an article on a
+      Little Bonsa Syndicate that he proposed to float. He thought he was in The
+      Court woods with Barbara, only the birds in the trees sang so unnaturally
+      loud that he could not hear her voice, and she wore Little Bonsa on her
+      head as a bonnet. Then she departed in flame, leaving him and Death alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan awoke. Above the sun shone hotly, warming him back to life, but in
+      front was a thick wall of mist and rising beyond it in the distance he saw
+      the rugged swelling forms of mountains. Doubtless these had been visible
+      before, but the tall reeds through which they travelled had hid the sight
+      of them. He looked behind him and there in a heap lay the Ogula around
+      their chief, insensible or sleeping. He counted them and found that two
+      were gone, lost in the tempest, how or where no man ever learned. He
+      looked forward and saw a peculiar sight, for in the prow of the drifting
+      canoe stood Jeekie clad in the remains of his white robe and wearing on
+      his head the battered helmet and about his shoulders the torn fragments of
+      green mosquito net. While Alan was wondering strangely why he had adopted
+      this ceremonial garb, from out of the mist there came a sound of singing,
+      of wild and solemn singing. Jeekie seemed to listen to it; then he lifted
+      up his great musical voice and sang as though in answer. What he sang Alan
+      could not understand, but he recognized that the language which he used
+      was that of the Asiki people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pause and a confused murmuring, and now again the wild song rose and
+      again Jeekie answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What the deuce are you doing? Where are we?&rdquo; asked Alan faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie turned and beamed upon him; although his teeth were chattering and
+      his face was hollow, still he beamed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You awake, Major?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Thought good old sun do trick. Feel your
+      heart now and find it beat. Pulse, too, strong, though temp&rsquo;rature not
+      normal. Well, good news this morning. Little Bonsa come out top as usual.
+      Asiki priests on bank there. Can&rsquo;t see them, but know their song and
+      answer. Same old game as thirty years ago. Asiki never change, which good
+      business when you been away long while.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang the Asiki,&rdquo; said Alan feebly, &ldquo;I think all these poor beggars are
+      dead, and he pointed to the rowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look like it, Major, but what that matter now since you and I alive?
+      Plenty more where they come from. Not dead though, think only sleep, no
+      like cold, like dormouse. But never mind cannibal pig. They serve our
+      turn, if they live, live; if they die, die and God have mercy on souls, if
+      cannibal have soul. Ah! here we are,&rdquo; and from beneath six inches of water
+      he dragged up the tin box containing Little Bonsa, from which he extracted
+      the fetish, wet but uninjured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put her on now, Major. Put her on at once and come sit in prow of canoe.
+      Must reach Asiki-land in proper style. Priests think it your reverend
+      uncle come back again, just as he leave. Make very good impression.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Alan feebly. &ldquo;I am played out, Jeekie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! buck up, Major, buck up!&rdquo; he replied imploringly. &ldquo;One kick more and
+      you win race, mustn&rsquo;t spoil ship for ha&rsquo;porth of tar. You just wear
+      fetish, whistle once on land, and then go to sleep for whole week if you
+      like. I do rest, say it all magic, and so forth&mdash;that you been dead
+      and just come out of grave, or anything you like. No matter if you turn up
+      as announced on bill and God bless hurricane that blow us here when we
+      expect die. Come, Major, quick, quick! mist melt and soon they see you.&rdquo;
+       Then without waiting for an answer Jeekie clapped the wet mask on his
+      master&rsquo;s head, tied the thongs and led Alan to the prow of the canoe,
+      where he set him down on a little cross bench, stood behind supporting him
+      and again began to sing in a great triumphant voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mist cleared away, rolling up like a curtain and revealing on the
+      shore a number of men and women clad in white robes, who were martialled
+      in ranks there, chanting and staring out at the dim waters of the lagoon.
+      Yonder upon the waters, driven forward by the gentle breeze, floated a
+      canoe and lo! in the prow of that canoe sat a white man and on his head
+      the god which they had lost a whole generation gone. On the head of a
+      white man it had departed; on the head of a white man it returned. They
+      saw and fell upon their knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blow, Major, blow!&rdquo; whispered Jeekie, and Alan blew a feeble note through
+      the whistle in the mouth of the mask. It was enough, they knew it. They
+      sprang into the water and dragged the canoe to land. They set Alan on the
+      shore and worshipped him. They haled up a lad as though for sacrifice, for
+      a priest flourished a great knife above his head, but Jeekie said
+      something that caused them to let him go. Alan thought it was to the
+      effect that Little Bonsa had changed her habits across the Black Water,
+      and wanted no blood, only food. Then he remembered no more; again the
+      darkness fell upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      BONSA TOWN
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      When consciousness returned to Alan, the first thing of which he became
+      dimly aware was the slow, swaying motion of a litter. He raised himself,
+      for he was lying at full length, and in so doing felt that there was
+      something over his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That confounded Little Bonsa,&rdquo; he thought. &ldquo;Am I expected to spend the
+      rest of my life with it on my head like the man in the iron mask?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he put up his hand and felt the thing, to find that it was not Little
+      Bonsa, but something made apparently of thin, fine linen, fitted to the
+      shape of his face, for there was a nose on it, and eyeholes through which
+      he could see, yes, and a mouth whereof the lips by some ingenious
+      contrivance could be moved up and down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little Bonsa&rsquo;s undress uniform, I expect,&rdquo; he muttered, and tried to drag
+      it off. This, however, proved to be impossible, for it was fitted tightly
+      to his head and laced or fastened at the back of his neck so securely that
+      he could not undo it. Being still weak, soon he gave up the attempt and
+      began to look about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was in a litter, a very fine litter hung round with beautifully woven
+      and coloured grass mats, inside of which were a kind of couch and cushions
+      of soft wool or hair, so arranged that he could either sit up or lie down.
+      He peeped between two of these mats and saw that they were travelling in a
+      mountainous country over a well-beaten road or trail, and that his litter
+      was borne upon the shoulders of a double line of white-robed men, while
+      all around him marched numbers of other men. They seemed to be soldiers,
+      for they were arranged in companies and carried large spears and shields.
+      Also some of them wore torques and bracelets of yellow metal that might be
+      either brass or gold. Turning himself about he found an eyehole in the
+      back of the litter so contrived that its occupant could see without being
+      seen, and perceived that his escort amounted to a veritable army of
+      splendid-looking, but sombre-faced savages of a somewhat Semitic cast of
+      countenance. Indeed many of them had aquiline features and hair that,
+      although crisped, was long and carefully arranged in something like the
+      old Egyptian fashion. Also he saw that about thirty yards behind and
+      separated from him by a bodyguard, was borne a second litter. By means of
+      a similar aperture in front he discovered yet more soldiers, and beyond
+      them, at the head of the procession, was what appeared to be a body of
+      white-robed men and women bearing strange emblems and banners. These he
+      took to be priests and priestesses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having examined everything that was within reach of his eye, Alan sank
+      back upon his cushions and began to realize that he was very faint and
+      hungry. It was just then that the sound of a familiar voice reached his
+      ears. It was the voice of Jeekie, and he did not speak, he chanted in
+      English to a melody which Alan at once recognized as a Gregorian tone,
+      apparently from the second litter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Major,&rdquo; he sang, &ldquo;have you yet awoke from refre-e-eshing sleep? If
+      so, please answer me in same tone of voice, for remember that you
+      de-e-evil of a swell, Lord of the Little Bonsa, and must not speak like
+      co-o-ommon cad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Feeble as he was Alan nearly burst out laughing, then remembering that
+      probably he was expected not to laugh, chanted his answer as directed,
+      which having a good tenor voice, he did with some effect, to the evident
+      awe and delight of all the escort within hearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am awake, most excellent Jee-e-ekie, and feel the need of food, if you
+      have such a thing abou-ou-out you and it is lawful for the Lord of Little
+      Bonsa to take nu-tri-ment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly Jeekie&rsquo;s deep voice rose in reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That good tidings upon the mountain tops, Ma-ajor. Can&rsquo;t come out to
+      bring you chop because too i-i-infra dig, for now I also biggish bug, the
+      little bird what sit upon the rose, as poet sa-a-ays. I tell these
+      Johnnies bring you grub, which you eat without qualm, for Asiki Al
+      coo-o-ook.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then followed loud orders issued by Jeekie to his immediate <i>entourage</i>,
+      and some confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a result presently Alan&rsquo;s litter was halted, the curtains were opened
+      and kneeling women thrust through them platters of wood upon which,
+      wrapped up in leaves, were the dismembered limbs of a bird which he took
+      to be chicken or guinea-fowl, and a gold cup containing water pleasantly
+      flavoured with some essence. This cup interested him very much both on
+      account of its shape and workmanship, which if rude, was striking in
+      design, resembling those drinking vessels that have been found in Mycenian
+      graves. Also it proved to him that Jeekie&rsquo;s stories of the abundance of
+      the precious metal among the Asiki had not been exaggerated. If it were
+      not very plentiful, they would scarcely, he thought, make their travelling
+      cups of gold. Evidently there was wealth in the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the food had been handed to him the litter went on again, and seated
+      upon his cushions, he ate and drank heartily enough, for now that the
+      worst of his fatigue had passed away, his hunger was great. In some absurd
+      fashion this meal reminded him of that which a traveller makes out of a
+      luncheon basket upon a railway line in Europe or America. Only there the
+      cups are not of gold and among the Asiki were no paper napkins, no salt
+      and mustard, and no three and sixpence or dollar to pay. Further, until he
+      got used to it, luncheon in a linen mask with a moveable mouth was not
+      easy. This difficulty he overcame at last by propping the imitation lips
+      apart with a piece of bone, after which things were easier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had finished he threw the platter and the remains out of the
+      litter, retaining the cup for further examination, and recommenced his
+      intoned and poetical converse with Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To set it out at length would be wearisome, but in the course of an hour
+      or so he collected a good deal of information. Thus he learned that they
+      were due to arrive at the Asiki city, which was called Bonsa Town, by
+      nightfall, or a little after. Also he was informed that the mask he wore
+      was, as he had guessed, a kind of undress uniform without which he must
+      never appear, since for anyone except the Asika herself to look upon the
+      naked countenance of an individual so mysteriously mixed up with Little
+      Bonsa, was sacrilege of the worst sort. Indeed Jeekie assured him that the
+      priests who had put on the headdress when he was insensible were first
+      blindfolded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This news depressed Alan very much, since the prospect of living in a
+      linen mask for an indefinite period was not cheerful. Recovering, he
+      chanted a query as to the fate of the Ogula crew and their chief Fahni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not de-ad,&rdquo; intoned Jeekie in reply, &ldquo;and not gone back. A-all alive-O,
+      somewhere behind there. Fanny very sick about it, for he think Asiki bring
+      them along for sacrifice, poo-or beg-gars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Finally he inquired where Little Bonsa was and was answered that he
+      himself as its lawful guardian, was sitting on the fetish in its tin box,
+      tidings that he was able to verify by groping beneath the cushions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this his voice gave out, though Jeekie continued to sing items of
+      interesting news from time to time. Indeed there were other things that
+      absorbed Alan&rsquo;s attention. Looking through the peepholes and cracks in the
+      curtains, he saw that at last they had reached the crest of a ridge up
+      which they had been climbing for hours. Before them lay a vast and fertile
+      valley, much of which seemed to be under cultivation, and down it flowed a
+      broad and placid river. Opposite to him and facing west a great tongue of
+      land ran up to a wall of mountains with stark precipices of black rock
+      that seemed to be hundreds, or even thousands, of feet high, and at the
+      tip of this tongue a mighty waterfall rushed over the precipice, looking
+      at that distance like a cascade of smoke. This torrent, which he
+      remembered was called Raaba, fell into a great pool and there divided
+      itself into two rushing branches that enclosed an ellipse of ground,
+      surrounded on all sides by water, for on its westernmost extremity the
+      branches met again and after flowing a while as one river, divided once
+      more and wound away quietly to north and south further than the eye could
+      reach. On the island thus formed, which may have been three miles long by
+      two in breadth, stood thousands of straw-roofed, square-built huts with
+      verandas, neatly arranged in blocks and lines and having between them
+      streets that were edged with palms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the hither side of the pool was what looked like a park, for here grew
+      great, black trees, which from their flat shape Alan took to be some
+      variety of cedar, and standing alone in the midst of this park where no
+      other habitations could be discovered, was a large, low building with
+      dark-coloured walls and gabled roofs that flashed like fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Gold House!&rdquo; said Alan to himself with a gasp. &ldquo;So it is not a dream
+      or a lie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The details at that distance he could not discover, nor did he try to do
+      so, for the general glory of the scene held him in its grip. At this
+      evening hour, for a little while, the level rays of the setting sun poured
+      straight up the huge, water-hollowed kloof. They struck upon the face of
+      the fall, staining it and the clouds of mist that hung above, to a hundred
+      glorious hues; indeed the substance of the foaming water seemed to be
+      interlaced with rainbows whereof the arch reached their crest and the feet
+      were lost in the sullen blackness of the pool beneath. Beautiful too was
+      the valley, glowing in the quiet light of evening, and even the native
+      town thus gilded and glorified, looked like some happy home of peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was sinking rapidly, and before the litter reached the foot of the
+      hill and began to cross the rich valley, all the glory had departed and
+      only the cataract showed white and ghost-like through the gloom. But still
+      the light, which seemed to gather to itself, gleamed upon that golden roof
+      amid the cedar trees; then the moon rose and the gold was turned to
+      silver. Alan lay back upon his cushions full of wonder, almost of awe. It
+      was a marvellous thing that he should have lived to reach this secret
+      place hidden in the heart of Africa and defended by swamps, mountains and
+      savages to which, so far as he knew, only one white man had ever
+      penetrated. And to think of it! That white man, his own uncle, had never
+      even held it worth while to make public any account of its wonders, which
+      apparently had seemed to him of no importance. Or perhaps he thought that
+      if he did he would not be believed. Well, there they were before and about
+      him, and now the question was, what would be his fate in this Gold House
+      where the great fetish dwelt with its priestess?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ah! that priestess! Somehow he shivered a little when he thought of her;
+      it was as though her influence were over him already. Next moment he
+      forgot her for a while, for they had come to the river brink and the
+      litter was being carried on to a barge or ferry, about which were gathered
+      many armed men. Evidently the Gold House was well defended both by Nature
+      and otherwise. The ferry was pulled or rowed across the river, he could
+      not see which, and they passed through a gateway into the town and up a
+      broad street where hundreds of people watched his advent. They did not
+      seem to speak, or if they spoke their voices were lost in the sound of the
+      thunder of the great cataract which dominated the place with its sullen,
+      continuous roar. It took Alan days to become accustomed to that roar, but
+      by the inhabitants of Asiki-land apparently it was not noticed; their ears
+      and voices were attuned to overcome its volume which their fathers had
+      known from the beginning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently they were through the town and a wooden gate in an inner wall
+      which surrounded the park where the cedars grew. At this spot Alan noted
+      that everybody left them except the bearers and a few men whom he took to
+      be priests. On they stole like ghosts beneath the mighty trees, from whose
+      limbs hung long festoons of moss. It was very dark there, only in places
+      where a bough was broken the moonlight lay in white gules upon the ground.
+      Another wall and another gate, and suddenly the litter was set down. Its
+      curtains opened, torches flashed, women appeared clad in white robes,
+      veiled and mysterious, who bowed before him, then half led and half lifted
+      him from his litter. He could feel their eyes on him through their veils,
+      but he could not see their faces. He could see nothing except their naked,
+      copper-coloured arms and long thin hands stretched out to assist him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan descended from the litter as slowly as he could, for somehow he
+      shrank from the quaint, carved portal which he saw before him. He did not
+      wish to pass it; its aspect filled him with reluctance. The women drew him
+      on, their hands pulled at his arms, their shoulders pressed him from
+      behind. Still he hung back, looking about him, till to his delight he saw
+      the other litter arrive and out of it emerge Jeekie, still wearing his
+      sun-helmet with its fringe of tattered mosquito curtain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here we are, Major,&rdquo; he said in his cheerful voice, &ldquo;turned up all right
+      like a bad ha&rsquo;penny, but in odd situation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very odd,&rdquo; echoed Alan. &ldquo;Could you persuade these ladies to let go of
+      me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; answered Jeekie. &ldquo;&lsquo;Spect they doubtfully your wives; &lsquo;spect
+      you have lots of wives here; don&rsquo;t get white man every day, so make most
+      of him. Best thing you do, kick out and teach them place. Rub nose in dirt
+      at once and make them good, that first-class plan with female. I no like
+      interfere in such delicate matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Terrified by this information, Alan put out his strength and shook the
+      women off him, whereon without seeming to take any offence they drew back
+      to a little distance and began to bow, like automata. Then Jeekie
+      addressed them in their own language, asking them what they meant by
+      defiling this mighty lord, born of the Heavens, with the touch of their
+      hands, whereat they went on bowing more humbly than before. Next he threw
+      aside the cushions of the litter and finding the tin box containing Little
+      Bonsa, held it before him in both hands and bade the women lead on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The march began, a bewildering march. It was like a nightmare. Veiled
+      women with torches before and behind, Jeekie stalking ahead carrying the
+      battered tin box, long passages lined with gold, a vision of black water
+      edged with a wide promenade, and finally a large lamp-lit room whereof the
+      roof was supported by gilded columns, and in the room couches of cushions,
+      wooden stools inlaid with ivory, vessels of water, great basins made of
+      some black, hard wood, and in the centre a block of stone that looked like
+      an altar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie set down the tin box upon the altar-like stone, then he turned to
+      the crowd of women and said, &ldquo;Bring food.&rdquo; Instantly they departed,
+      closing the door of the room behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now for a wash,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;unlace this confounded mask, Jeekie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mustn&rsquo;t, Major, mustn&rsquo;t. Priests tell me that. If those girls see you
+      without mask, perhaps they kill them. Wait till they gone after supper,
+      then take it off. No one allowed see you without mask except Asika
+      herself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan stepped to one of the wooden bowls full of water which stood under a
+      lamp, and gazed at his own reflection. The mask was gilded; the sham lips
+      were painted red and round the eye-holes were black lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, it is horrible,&rdquo; he exclaimed, starting back. &ldquo;I look like a devil
+      crossed with Guy Fawkes. Do you mean to tell me that I have got to live in
+      this thing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Afraid so, Major, upon all public occasion. At least they say that. You
+      holy, not lawful see your sacred face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who do the Asiki think I am, then, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They think you your reverend uncle come back after many, many year. You
+      see, Major, they not believe uncle run away with Little Bonsa; they
+      believe Little Bonsa run away with uncle just for change of air and so on,
+      and that now, when she tired of strange land, she bring him back again.
+      That why you so holy, favourite of Little Bonsa who live with you all this
+      time and keep you just same age, bloom of youth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Heaven&rsquo;s name,&rdquo; asked Alan, exasperated, &ldquo;what is Little Bonsa, beyond
+      an ancient and ugly gold fetish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;mustn&rsquo;t call her names here in her own house. Little
+      Bonsa much more than fetish, Little Bonsa alive, or so,&rdquo; he added
+      doubtfully, &ldquo;these silly niggers say. She wife of Big Bonsa, you see,
+      to-morrow p&rsquo;raps. But their story this, that she get dead sick of Big
+      Bonsa and bolt with white Medicine man, who dare preach she nothing but
+      heathen idol. She want show him whether or no she only idol. That the
+      yarn, priests tell it me to-day. They always watch for her there by the
+      edge of the lake. They always sure Little Bonsa come back. Not at all
+      surprised, but as she love you once, you stop holy; and I holy also, thank
+      goodness, because she take me too as servant. Therefore we sleep in peace,
+      for they not cut out throats, at any rate at present, though I think,&rdquo; he
+      added mournfully, &ldquo;they not let us go either.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan sat down on a stool and groaned at the appalling prospect suggested
+      by this information.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cheer up, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie sympathetically. &ldquo;Perhaps manage hook it
+      somehow, and meanwhile make best of bad business and have high old time.
+      You see you want to come Asiki-land, though I tell you it rum place, and,&rdquo;
+       he added with certitude and a circular sweep of his hand, &ldquo;by Jingo! you
+      here now and I daresay they give you all the gold you want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the good of gold unless one can get away with it? What&rsquo;s the good
+      of anything if we are prisoners among these devils?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps time show, Major. Hush! here come dinner. You sit still on stool
+      and look holy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened and through it appeared four of the women bearing dishes
+      and cups full of drink, fashioned of gold like that which had been given
+      to Alan in the litter. He noticed at once that they had removed their
+      veils and outer garments, if indeed they were the same women, and now,
+      like many other Africans, were but lightly clad in linen capes open in
+      front that hung over their shoulders, short petticoats or skirts about
+      their middles, and sandals. Such was their attire which, scanty as it
+      might be, was yet becoming enough and extremely rich. Thus the cape was
+      fastened with a brooch of worked gold, so were the sandal straps, while
+      the petticoat was adorned with beads of gold that jingled as they walked,
+      and amongst them strings of other beads of various and beautiful colours,
+      that might be glass or might be precious stones. Moreover, these women
+      were young and handsome, having splendid figures and well-cut features,
+      soft, dark eyes and rather long hair worn in the formal and attractive
+      fashion that has been described.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Advancing to Alan two of them knelt before him, holding out the trays upon
+      which was the food. So they remained while he ate, like bronze statues,
+      nor would they consent to change their posture even when he told them in
+      their language to be pleased to go away. On hearing themselves addressed
+      in the Asiki language, they seemed surprised, for their faces changed a
+      little, but go they would not. The result was that Alan grew extremely
+      nervous and ate and drank so rapidly that he scarcely noted what he was
+      putting into his mouth. Then before Jeekie, to whom the women did not
+      kneel, had half finished his dinner, Alan rose and walked away, whereon
+      two of the women gathered up everything, including the dishes that had
+      been given to Jeekie, and in spite of his remonstrances carried them out
+      of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;if you gobble chop so fast you go ill
+      inside. Poor nigger like me can&rsquo;t keep up with you and sleep hungry to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan with a little laugh, &ldquo;but I can&rsquo;t eat off
+      living tables, especially when they stare at one like that. You tell them
+      that to-morrow we will breakfast alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, I tell them, Major, but I don&rsquo;t know if they listen. They mean
+      it great compliment and only think you not like those girls and send
+      others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here, Jeekie,&rdquo; exclaimed Alan, turning his masked face towards the
+      two who remained, &ldquo;let us come to an understanding at once. Clear them
+      out. Tell them I am so holy that Little Bonsa is enough for me. Say I
+      can&rsquo;t bear the sight of females, and that if they stop here I will
+      sacrifice them. Say anything you like, only get rid of them and lock the
+      door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus adjured, Jeekie began to reason with the women, and as they treated
+      his remarks with lofty disdain, at last seized first one and then the
+      other by the elbows and literally ran them out of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;baggage gone since you make such fuss about it, though
+      I &lsquo;spect they try to give me Bean for this job&rdquo; (here he spoke not in
+      figurative English slang, but of the Calabar bean, which is a favourite
+      native poison). &ldquo;Well, dinner gone and girls gone, and we tired, so best
+      go to bed. Think we all private here now, though in Gold House never can
+      be sure,&rdquo; and he looked round him suspiciously, adding, &ldquo;rummy place, Gold
+      House, full of all sort of holes made by old fellows thousand year ago,
+      which no one know but Bonsa priests. Still, best risk it and take off your
+      face so that you have decent wash,&rdquo; and he began to unlace the mask on his
+      master&rsquo;s head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never has a City clerk dressed up for a fancy ball in the armour of a
+      Norman knight, been more glad to get rid of his costume than was Alan of
+      that hateful head-dress. At length it was gone with his other garments and
+      the much-needed wash accomplished, after which he clothed himself in a
+      kind of linen gown which apparently had been provided for him, and lay
+      down on one of the couches, placing his revolver by his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will those lamps burn all night, Jeekie?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hope so, Major, as we haven&rsquo;t got no match. Not fond of dark in Gold
+      House,&rdquo; answered Jeekie sleepily. Then he began to snore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan fell asleep, but was too excited and tired to rest very soundly. All
+      sorts of dreams came to him, one of which he remembered on awakening,
+      perhaps because it was the last. He dreamed that he heard some noise and
+      opened his eyes, to see that they were no longer alone in the room. The
+      oil lamps had burned quite low, indeed some of them were out, but by the
+      light of those that remained he saw a tall figure which seemed to appear
+      at the edge of the surrounding blackness, a woman&rsquo;s figure. It walked
+      forward to the altar-like stone upon which lay the tin box containing
+      Little Bonsa, and after several rather awkward attempts, succeeded in
+      opening it, thereby making a noise which, in his dream, finally awoke
+      Alan. For a while the figure gazed at the fetish. Then it shut the box,
+      glided to his bed and bent down as though to study him. Out of the corners
+      of his eyes he peered up at it, pretending all the while to be fast
+      asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was that of a woman wonderfully clad in gold-spangled, veil-like
+      garments with round bosses shaped to the breast, covered with thin plates
+      of gold fashioned like the scales of a fish which showed off the
+      extraordinary elegance of her lithe form. The low lamp-light shone upon
+      her face and the coronet of gold set upon her dark hair. What a face it
+      was! Never in all his days had he seen its like for evil loveliness. The
+      great, languid, oblong eyes, the rich red lips bent like a bow, the cruel
+      smile of the mouth, the broad forehead on which the hair grew low, the
+      delicately arched eyebrows and the long curving lashes of the heavy lids
+      beneath them, the rounded cheeks, smooth as a ripe fruit, the firm,
+      shapely chin, the snake-like poise of the head, the long bending neck, and
+      the feline smile; all of these combined made such a dream-vision as he had
+      never seen before, and to tell the truth, notwithstanding its beauty, for
+      that could not be doubted, never wished to see again. Somehow he felt that
+      if Satan should happen to have a copper-coloured wife, the exact picture
+      of that lady had projected itself upon his sleeping senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She seemed to study him very earnestly, with a kind of passionate
+      eagerness, indeed, moving a little now and again to let the light fall
+      upon some part that was in shadow. Once even she stretched out her rounded
+      arm and just lifted the edge of the blanket so as to expose his hand, the
+      left. As it chanced on the little finger of this hand Alan wore a plain
+      gold ring which Barbara had given him; once it had been her grandfather&rsquo;s
+      signet. This ring, which had a coat of arms cut upon its bezel seemed to
+      interest her very much as she examined it for a long while. Then she drew
+      off from her own finger another ring of gold fashioned of two snakes
+      curiously intertwined, and gently, so gently that in his sleep he scarcely
+      felt it, slipped it on to his finger above Barbara&rsquo;s ring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this she seemed to vanish away, and Alan slept soundly until the
+      morning, when he awoke to find the light of the sun pouring into the room
+      through the high-set latticed window places.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE HALL OF THE DEAD
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Alan rose and stretched himself, and hearing him, Jeekie, who had a dog&rsquo;s
+      faculty of instantly awaking from what seemed to be the deepest sleep, sat
+      up also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You rest well, Major? No dream, eh?&rdquo; he asked curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not very,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;and I had a dream, of a woman who stood over
+      me and vanished away, as dreams do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Jeekie. &ldquo;But where you find that new ring on finger, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan stared at his hand and started, for there set on it above that of
+      Barbara, was the little circlet formed of twisted snakes which he had seen
+      in his sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it must have been true,&rdquo; he said in a low and rather frightened
+      voice. &ldquo;But how did she come and go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Funny place, Gold House. I tell you that yesterday, Major. People come up
+      through hole, like rat. Never quite sure you alone in Gold House. But what
+      this lady like?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan described his visitor to the best of his ability.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;pretty girl. Big eyes, gold crown, gold stays which
+      fit tight in front, very nice and decent; sort of night-shirt with little
+      gold stars all over&mdash;by Jingo! I think that Asika herself. If so&mdash;great
+      compliment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Confound the compliment, I think it great cheek,&rdquo; answered Alan angrily.
+      &ldquo;What does she mean by poking about here at night and putting rings on my
+      finger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know, Major, but p&rsquo;raps she wish make you understand that she like
+      cut of your jib. Find out by and by. Meanwhile you wear ring, for while
+      that on finger no one do you any harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You told me that this Asika is a married woman, did you not?&rdquo; remarked
+      Alan gloomily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, Major, always married; one down, other come on, you see. But she
+      not always like her husband, and then she make him sit up, poor devil, and
+      he die double quick. Great honour to be Asika&rsquo;s husband, but soon all
+      finished. P&rsquo;raps&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he checked himself and suggested that Alan should have a bath while
+      he cleaned his clothes, an attention that they needed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely had Alan finished his toilet, donned the Arab-looking linen robe
+      over his own fragmentary flannels, and above it the hateful mask which
+      Jeekie insisted he must wear, when there came a knocking on the door.
+      Motioning to Alan to take his seat upon a stool, Jeekie undid the bars,
+      and as before women appeared with food and waited while they ate, which
+      this time, having overcome his nervousness, Alan did more leisurely. Their
+      meal done, one of the women asked Jeekie, for to his master they did not
+      seem to dare to speak, whether the white lord did not wish to walk in the
+      garden. Without waiting for an answer she led him to the end of the large
+      room and, unbarring another door that they had not noticed, revealed a
+      passage, beyond which appeared trees and flowers. Then she and her
+      companions went away with the fragments of the meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on,&rdquo; said Alan, taking up the box containing Little Bonsa, which he
+      did not dare to leave behind, &ldquo;and let us get into the air.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went down the passage and at the end of it through gates of copper
+      or gold, they knew not which, that had evidently been left open for them,
+      into the garden. It was a large place, a good many acres in extent indeed,
+      and kept with some care, for there were paths in it and flowers that
+      seemed to have been planted. Also here grew certain of the mighty cedar
+      trees that they had seen from far off, beneath those spreading boughs
+      twilight reigned, while beyond, not more than half a mile away, the
+      splendid river-fall thundered down the precipice. For the rest they could
+      find no exit to that garden which on one side was enclosed by a sheer
+      cliff of living rock, and on the others with steep stone walls beyond
+      which ran a torrent, and by the buildings of the Gold House itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a while they walked up and down the rough paths, till at last Jeekie,
+      wearying of this occupation, remarked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Melancholy hole this, Major. Remind me of Westminster Abbey in London
+      fog, where your uncle of blessed mem&rsquo;ry often take me pray and look at
+      fusty tomb of king. S&rsquo;pose we go back Gold House and see what happen.
+      Anything better than stand about under cursed old cedar tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said Alan, who through the eyeholes of his mask had been
+      studying the walls to seek a spot in them that could be climbed if
+      necessary, and found none.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they returned to the room, which had been swept and garnished in their
+      absence. No sooner had they entered it than the door opened and through it
+      came long lines of Asiki priests, each of whom staggered beneath the
+      weight of a hide bag that he bore upon his shoulder, which bags they piled
+      up about the stone altar. Then, as though at some signal, each priest
+      opened the mouth of his bag and Alan saw that they wee filled with gold,
+      gold in dust, gold in nuggets, gold in vessels perfect or broken; more
+      gold than Alan had ever seen before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do they bring all this stuff here?&rdquo; he asked, and Jeekie translated
+      his question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is an offering to the lord of Little Bonsa,&rdquo; answered the head priest,
+      bowing, &ldquo;a gift from the Asika. The heaven-born white man sent word by his
+      Ogula messengers that he desired gold. Here is the gold that he desired.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan stared at the treasure, which after all was what he had come to seek.
+      If only he had it safe in England, he would be a rich man and his troubles
+      ended. But how could he get it to England? Here it was worthless as mud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank the Asika,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I ask for porters to bear her gift back to
+      my own country, since it is too heavy for me and my servant to carry
+      alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words the priest smiled a little, then said that the Asika
+      desired to see the white lord and to receive from him Little Bonsa in
+      return for the gold, and that he could proffer his request to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; replied Alan, &ldquo;lead me to the Asika.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they started, Alan bearing the box containing Little Bonsa, and
+      Jeekie following after him. They went down passages and through sundry
+      doors till at length they came to a long and narrow hall that seemed to be
+      lined with plates of gold. At the end of this hall was a large chair of
+      black wood and ivory placed upon a dais, and sitting in this chair with
+      the light pouring on her from some opening above, was the woman of Alan&rsquo;s
+      dream, beautiful to look on in her crown and glittering garments. Upon a
+      stool at the foot of the dais sat a man, a handsome and melancholy man.
+      His hair was tied behind his head in a pigtail and gilded, his face was
+      painted red, white and yellow; he wore ropes of bright-coloured stones
+      about his neck, middle, arms and ankles, and held a kind of sceptre in his
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that creature?&rdquo; asked Alan over his shoulder to Jeekie. &ldquo;The Court
+      fool?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That husband of Asika, Major. He not fool, very big gun, but look a
+      little low now because his time soon up. Come on, Major, Asika beckon us.
+      Get on stomach and crawl; that custom here,&rdquo; he added, going down on to
+      his hands and knees, as did all the priests who followed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll see her hanged first,&rdquo; answered Alan in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then accompanied by the creeping Jeekie and the train of prostrate
+      priests, he marched up the long hall to the edge of the dais and there
+      stood still and bowed to the woman in the chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Greeting, white man,&rdquo; she said in a low voice when she had studied him
+      for a while. &ldquo;Do you understand my tongue?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little,&rdquo; he answered in Asiki, &ldquo;moreover, my servant here knows it well
+      and can translate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Tell me then, in your country do not people go on
+      to their knees before their queen, and if not, how do they greet her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered Alan with the help of Jeekie. &ldquo;They greet her by raising
+      their head-dress or kissing her hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Well, you have no head-dress, so kiss <i>my</i> hand,&rdquo;
+       and she stretched it out towards him, at the same time prodding the man
+      whom Jackie had said was her husband, in the back with her foot,
+      apparently to make him get out of the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not knowing what to do, Alan stepped on to the dais, the painted man
+      scowling at him as he passed. Then he halted and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can I kiss your hand through this mask, Asika?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; she answered, then considered a little and added, &ldquo;White man, you
+      have brought back Little Bonsa, have you not, Little Bonsa who ran away
+      with you a great many years ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have,&rdquo; he said, ignoring the rest of the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your messengers said that you required a present of gold in return for
+      Little Bonsa. I have sent you one, is it sufficient? If not, you can have
+      more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot say, O Asika, I have not examined it. But I thank you for the
+      present and desire porters to enable me to carry it away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You desire porters,&rdquo; she repeated meditatively. &ldquo;We will talk of that
+      when you have rested here a moon or two. Meanwhile, give me Little Bonsa
+      that she may be restored to her own place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan opened the tin box and lifting out the fetish, gave it to the
+      priestess, who took it and with a serpentine movement of extraordinary
+      grace glided from her chair on to her knees, holding the mask above her
+      head in both hands, then thrice covered her face with it. This done, she
+      called to the priests, bidding them take Little Bonsa to her own place and
+      give notice throughout the land that she was back again. She added that
+      the ancient Feast of Little Bonsa would be held on the night of the full
+      moon within three days, and that all preparations must be made for it as
+      she had commanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the head medicine-man, raising himself upon his knees, crept on to
+      the dais, took the fetish from her hands, and breaking into a wild song of
+      triumph, he and his companions crawled down the hall and vanished through
+      the door, leaving them alone save for the Asika&rsquo;s husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had gone the Asika looked at this man in a reflective way, and
+      Alan looked at him also through the eyeholes of his mask, finding him well
+      worth studying. As has been said, notwithstanding his paint and grotesque
+      decorations, he was very good-looking for a native, with well-cut features
+      of an Arab type. Also he was tall and muscular and not more than thirty
+      years of age. What struck Alan most, however, was none of these things,
+      nor his jewelled chains, nor even his gilded pigtail, but his eyes, which
+      were full of terrors. Seeing them, Alan remembered Jeekie&rsquo;s story, which
+      he had told to Mr. Haswell&rsquo;s guests at The Court, of how the husband of
+      the Asika was driven mad by ghosts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then she spoke to the man, addressing him by name and saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave us alone, Mungana, I wish to speak with this white lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not seem to hear her words, but continued to stare at Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hearken!&rdquo; she exclaimed in a voice of ice. &ldquo;Do my bidding and begone, or
+      you shall sleep alone to-night in a certain chamber that you know of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Mungana rose, looked at her as a dog sometimes does at a cruel master
+      who is about to beat it, yes, with just that same expression, put his
+      hands before his eyes for a little while, and turning, left the hall by a
+      side door which closed behind him. The Asika watched him go, laughed
+      musically and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a very dull thing to be married,&mdash;but how are you named, white
+      man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vernon,&rdquo; he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vernoon, Vernoon,&rdquo; she repeated, for she could not pronounce the O as we
+      do. &ldquo;Are you married, Vernoon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you been married?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;never, but I am going to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she repeated, &ldquo;you are going to be. You remember that you were near
+      to it many years ago, when Little Bonsa got jealous and ran away with you.
+      Well, she won&rsquo;t do that again, for doubtless she is tired of you now, and
+      besides,&rdquo; she added with a flash of ferocity, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d melt her with fire
+      first and set her spirit free.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While Jeekie was trying to explain this mysterious speech to Alan, the
+      Asika broke in, asking:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you always want to wear that mask?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He answered, &ldquo;Certainly not,&rdquo; whereon she bade Jeekie take it off, which
+      he did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Understand me,&rdquo; she said, fixing her great languid eyes upon his in a
+      fashion that made him exceedingly uncomfortable, &ldquo;understand, Vernoon,
+      that if you go out anywhere, it must be in your mask, which you can only
+      put off when you are alone with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, Vernoon, I do not choose that any other woman should see your
+      face. If a woman looks upon your uncovered face, remember that she dies&mdash;not
+      nicely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan stared at her blankly, being unable to find appropriate Asiki words
+      in which to reply to this threat. But the Asika only leaned back in her
+      chair and laughed at his evident confusion and dismay, till a new thought
+      struck her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your lips are free now,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;kiss my hand after the fashion of
+      your own country,&rdquo; and she stretched it out to Alan, leaving him no choice
+      but to obey her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; she went on mischievously, taking his hand and in turn touching it
+      with her red lips, &ldquo;why, are you a thief, Vernoon? That ring was mine and
+      you have stolen it. How did you steal that ring?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he answered, through Jeekie, &ldquo;I found it on my finger. I
+      cannot understand how it came there. I understand nothing of all this
+      talk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, keep it, Vernoon, only give me that other ring of yours in
+      exchange.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot,&rdquo; he replied, colouring. &ldquo;I promised to wear it always.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom did you promise?&rdquo; she asked with a flash of rage. &ldquo;Was it a woman?
+      Nay, I see, it is a man&rsquo;s ring, and that is well, for otherwise I would
+      bring a curse on her, however far off she may be dwelling. Say no more and
+      forgive my anger. A vow is a vow&mdash;keep your ring. But where is that
+      one you used to wear in bygone days? I recall that it had a cross upon it,
+      not this star and figure of an eagle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Alan remembered that his uncle owned such a ring with a cross upon it,
+      and was frightened, for how did this woman know these things?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;ask the Asika if I am mad, or if she is. How can she
+      know what I used to wear, seeing that I was never in this place till
+      yesterday, and certainly I have not met her anywhere else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She mean when you your reverend uncle,&rdquo; said Jeekie, wagging his great
+      head, &ldquo;she think you identical man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What troubles you, Vernoon,&rdquo; the Asika asked softly, then added anything
+      but softly to Jeekie, &ldquo;Translate, you dog, and be swift.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Jeekie translated in a great hurry, telling her what Alan had said, and
+      adding on his own account that he, silly white man that he was, could not
+      understand how, as she was quite a young woman, she could have seen him
+      before she was born. If that were so, she would be old and ugly now, not
+      beautiful as she was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never saw you before, and you never saw me, Lady, yet you talk as
+      though we had been friends,&rdquo; broke in Alan in his halting Asiki.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we were in the spirit, Vernoon. It was she who went before me who
+      loved that white man whose face was as your face is, but her ghost lives
+      on in me and tells me the tale. There have been many Asikas, for thousands
+      of years they have ruled in this land, yet but one spirit belongs to them
+      all; it is the string upon which the beads of their lives are threaded.
+      White man, I, whom you think young, know everything back to the beginning
+      of the world, back to the time when I was a monkey woman sitting in those
+      cedar trees, and if you wish, I can tell it you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to hear it very much indeed,&rdquo; answered Alan, when he had
+      mastered her meaning, &ldquo;though it is strange that none of the rest of us
+      remember such things. Meanwhile, O Asika, I will tell you that I desire to
+      return to my own land, taking with me that gift of gold that you have
+      given me. When will it please you to allow me to return?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not yet a while, I think,&rdquo; she said, smiling at him weirdly, for no other
+      word will describe that smile. &ldquo;My spirit remembers that it was always
+      thus. Those wanderers who came hither always wished to return again to
+      their own country, like the birds in spring. Once there was a white man
+      among them, that was more than twenty hundred years ago; he was a native
+      of a country called Roma, and wore a helmet. He wished to return, but my
+      mother of that day, she kept him and by and by I will show him to you if
+      you like. Before that there was a brown man who came from a land where a
+      great river overflows its banks every year. He was a prince of his own
+      country, who had fled from his king and the desert folk made a slave of
+      him, and so he drifted hither. He wished to return also, for my mother of
+      that day, or my spirit that dwelt in her, showed to him that if he could
+      but be there they would make him king in his own land. But my mother of
+      that day, she would not let him go, and by and by I will show him to you,
+      if you wish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bewildered, amazed, Alan listened to her. Evidently the woman was mad, or
+      else she played some mystical part for reasons of her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When will you let me go, O Asika?&rdquo; he repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not yet a while, I think,&rdquo; she said again. &ldquo;You are too comely and I like
+      you,&rdquo; and she smiled at him. There was nothing coarse in the smile, indeed
+      it had a certain spiritual quality which thrilled him. &ldquo;I like you,&rdquo; she
+      went on in her dreamy voice, &ldquo;I would keep you with me until your spirit
+      is drawn up into my spirit, making it strong and rich as all the spirits
+      that went before have done, those spirits that my mothers loved from the
+      beginning, which dwell in me to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Alan grew alarmed, desperate even.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Queen,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but just now your husband sat here, is it right then
+      that you should talk to me thus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My husband,&rdquo; she answered, laughing. &ldquo;Why, that man is but a slave who
+      plays the part of husband to satisfy an ancient law. Never has he so much
+      as kissed my finger tips; my women&mdash;those who waited on you last
+      night&mdash;are his wives, not I,&mdash;or may be, if he will. Soon he
+      will die of love for me, and then when he is dead, though not before, I
+      may take another husband, any husband that I choose, and I think that no
+      black man shall be my lord, who have other, purer blood in me. Vernoon,
+      five centuries have gone by since an Asika was really wed to a foreign man
+      who wore a green turban and called himself a son of the Prophet, a man
+      with a hooked nose and flashing eyes, who reviled our gods until they slew
+      him, even though he was the beloved of their priestess. She who went
+      before me also would have married that white man whose face was like your
+      face, but he fled with Little Bonsa, or rather Little Bonsa fled with him.
+      So she passed away unwed, and in her place I came.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did you come, if she whom you call your mother was not your mother?&rdquo;
+       asked Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that to you, white man?&rdquo; she replied haughtily. &ldquo;I am here, as my
+      spirit has been here from the first. Oh! I see you think I lie to you,
+      come then, come, and I will show you those who from the beginning have
+      been the husbands of the Asika,&rdquo; and rising from her chair she took him by
+      the hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went through doors and by long, half-lit passages till they came to
+      great gates guarded by old priests armed with spears. As they drew near to
+      these priests the Asika loosed a scarf that she wore over her breast-plate
+      of gold fish scales, and threw the star-spangled thing over Alan&rsquo;s head,
+      that even these priests should not see his face. Then she spoke a word to
+      them and they opened the gates. Here Jeekie evinced a disposition to
+      remain, remarking to his master that he thought that place, into which he
+      had never entered, &ldquo;much too holy for poor nigger like him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Asika asked him what he had said and he explained his sense of
+      unworthiness in her own tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, fellow,&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;to translate my words and to bear witness
+      that no trick is played upon your lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Still Jeekie lingered bashfully, whereon at a sign from her one of the
+      priests pricked him behind with his great spear, and uttering a low howl
+      he sprang forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Asika led the way down a passage, which they saw ended in a big hall
+      lit with lamps. Now they were in it and Alan became aware that they had
+      entered the treasure house of the Asiki, since here were piled up great
+      heaps of gold, gold in ingots, gold in nuggets, in stone jars filled with
+      dust, in vessels plain or embossed with monstrous shapes in fetishes and
+      in little squares and discs that looked as though they had served as
+      coins. Never had he seen so much gold before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are rich here, Lady,&rdquo; he said, gazing at the piles astonished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She shrugged her shoulders. &ldquo;Yes, as I have heard that some people count
+      wealth. These are the offerings brought to our gods from the beginning;
+      also all the gold found in the mountains belongs to the gods, and there is
+      much of it there. The gift I sent to you was taken from this heap, but in
+      truth it is but a poor gift, seeing that although this stuff is bright and
+      serves for cups and other things, it has no use at all and is only offered
+      to the gods because it is harder to come by than other metals. Look, these
+      are prettier than the gold,&rdquo; and from a stone table she picked up at
+      hazard a long necklace of large, uncut stones, red and white in colour and
+      set alternatively, that Alan judged to be crystals and spinels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take it,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and examine it at your leisure. It is very old. For
+      hundreds of years no more of these necklaces have been made,&rdquo; and with a
+      careless movement she threw the chain over his head so that it hung upon
+      his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan thanked her, then remembered that the man called Mungana, who was the
+      husband, real or official, of this priestess, had been somewhat similarly
+      adorned, and shivered a little as though at a presage of advancing fate.
+      Still he did not return the thing, fearing lest he should give offence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment his attention was taken from the treasure by the sound of a
+      groan behind him. Turning round he perceived Jeekie, his great eyes
+      rolling as though in an extremity of fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh my golly! Major,&rdquo; he ejaculated, pointing to the wall, &ldquo;look there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan looked, but at first in that dim light could only discover long rows
+      of gleaming objects which reached from the floor to the roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come and see,&rdquo; said the Asika, and taking a lamp from that table on which
+      lay the gems, she led him past the piles of gold to one side of the vault
+      or hall. Then he saw, and although he did not show it, like Jeekie he was
+      afraid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For there, each in his own niche and standing one above the other, were
+      what looked like hundreds of golden men with gleaming eyes. At first until
+      the utter stillness undeceived him, he thought that they <i>must</i> be
+      men. Then he understood that this was what they had been; now they were
+      corpses wrapped in sheets of thin gold and wearing golden masks with eyes
+      of crystal, each mask being beaten out to a hideous representation of the
+      man in life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All these are the husbands of my spirit,&rdquo; said the priestess, waving the
+      lamp in front of the lowest row of them, &ldquo;Munganas who were married to the
+      Asikas in the past. Look, here is he who said that he ought to be king of
+      that rich land where year after year the river overflows its banks,&rdquo; and
+      going to one of the first of the figures in the bottom row, she drew out a
+      fastening and suffered the gold mask to fall forward on a hinge, exposing
+      the face within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although it had evidently been treated with some preservative, this head
+      now was little more than a skull still covered with dark hair, but set
+      upon its brow appeared an object that Alan recognized at once, a simple
+      band of plain gold, and rising from it the head of an asp. Without doubt
+      it was the <i>uraeus</i>, that symbol which only the royalties of Old
+      Egypt dared to wear. Without doubt also either this man had brought it
+      with him from the Nile, or in memory of his rank and home he had fashioned
+      it of the gold that was so plentiful in the place of his captivity. So
+      this woman&rsquo;s story was true, an ancient Egyptian had once been husband to
+      the Asika of his day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile his guide had passed a long way down the line and halting in
+      front of another gold-wrapped figure, opened its mask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is that man,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;who told us he came from a land called
+      Roma. Look, the helmet still rests upon his head, though time has eaten
+      into it, and that ring upon your hand was taken from his finger. I have a
+      head-dress made upon the model of that helmet which I wear sometimes in
+      memory of this man who, my soul remembers, was brave and pleasant and a
+      gallant lover.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; answered Alan, looking at the sunken face above which a rim of
+      curls appeared beneath the rusting helmet. &ldquo;Well, he doesn&rsquo;t look very
+      gallant now, does he?&rdquo; Then he peered down between the body and its gold
+      casing and saw that in his body hand the man still held a short Roman
+      sword, lifted as though in salute. So she had not lied in this matter
+      either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the Asika had glided on to the end of the hall behind the heaps
+      of treasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is one more white man,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;though we know little of him,
+      for he was fierce and barbarous and died without learning our tongue,
+      after killing a great number of the priests of that day because they would
+      not let him go; yes, died cutting them down with a battle-axe and singing
+      some wild song of his own country. Come hither, slave, and bend yourself
+      so, resting your hands upon the ground.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie obeyed, and actively as a cat the priestess leaped on to his back,
+      and reaching up opened the mask of a corpse in the second row and held her
+      lamp before its face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was better preserved than the others, so that its features remained
+      comparatively perfect, and about them hung a tangle of golden hair.
+      Moreover, a broad battle-axe appeared resting on the shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A viking,&rdquo; thought Alan. &ldquo;I wonder how <i>he</i> came here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had looked the Asika leaped from Jeekie&rsquo;s back to the ground and
+      waving her arm around her, began to talk so rapidly that Alan could
+      understand nothing of her words, and asked Jeekie to translate them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She say,&rdquo; explained Jeekie between his chattering teeth, &ldquo;that all rest
+      these Johnnies very poor crew, natives and that lot except one who worship
+      false Prophet and cut throat of Asika of that time, because she infidel
+      and he teach her better; also eat his dinner out of Little Bonsa and chuck
+      her into water. Very wild man, that Arab, but priests catch him at last
+      and fill him with hot gold before Little Bonsa because he no care a damn
+      for ghosts. So he die saying Hip, hip, hurrah! for houri and green field
+      of Prophet and to hell with Asika and Bonsa, Big and Little! Now he sit up
+      there and at night time worst ghost of all the crowd, always come to
+      finish off Mungana. That all she say, and quite enough too. Come on quick,
+      she want you and no like wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By now the Asika had passed almost round the hall, and was standing
+      opposite to an empty niche beyond and above which there were perhaps a
+      score of bodies gold-plated in the usual fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is your place, Vernoon,&rdquo; she said gently, contemplating him with her
+      soft and heavy eyes, &ldquo;for it was prepared for the white man with whom
+      Little Bonsa fled away, and since then, as you see, there have been many
+      Munganas, some of whom belong to me; indeed, that one,&rdquo; and she touched a
+      corpse on which the gold looked very fresh, &ldquo;only left me last year. But
+      we always knew that Little Bonsa would bring you back again, and so you
+      see, we have kept your place empty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; remarked Alan, &ldquo;that is very kind of you,&rdquo; and feeling that he
+      would faint if he stayed longer in this horrible and haunted vault, he
+      pushed past her with little ceremony and walked out through the gates into
+      the passage beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE GOLD HOUSE
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How you like Asiki-land, Major?&rdquo; asked Jeekie, who had followed him and
+      was now leaning against a wall fanning himself feebly with his great hand.
+      &ldquo;Funny place, isn&rsquo;t it, Major? I tell you so before you come, but you no
+      believe me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very funny,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;so funny that I want to get out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Major, that what eel say in trap where he go after lob-worm, but he
+      only get out into frying pan after cook skin him alive-o. Ah! here come
+      cook&mdash;I mean Asika. She only stop shut up those stiff &lsquo;uns, who all
+      love lob-worm one day. Very pretty woman, Asika, but thank God she not set
+      cap at me, who like to be buried in open like Christian man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t stop it, Jeekie,&rdquo; replied Alan in a concentrated rage, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll
+      see that you are buried just where you are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No offence, Major, no offence, my heart full and bubble up. I wonder what
+      Miss Barbara say if she see you mooing and cooing with dark-eyed girl in
+      gold snake skin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the Asika arrived and by way of excuse for his flight, Alan
+      remarked to her that the treasure-hall was hot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not notice it,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;but he who is called my husband,
+      Mungana, says the same. The Mungana is guardian of the dead,&rdquo; she
+      explained, &ldquo;and when he is required so to do, he sleeps in the Place of
+      the Treasure and gathers wisdom from the spirits of those Munganas who
+      were before him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed. And does he like that bed-chamber?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Mungana likes what I like, not what he likes,&rdquo; she replied haughtily.
+      &ldquo;Where I send him to sleep, there he sleeps. But come, Vernoon, and I will
+      show you the Holy Water where Big Bonsa dwells; also the house in which I
+      have my home, where you shall visit me when you please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who built this place?&rdquo; asked Alan as she led him through more dark and
+      tortuous passages. &ldquo;It is very great.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My spirit does not remember when it was built, Vernoon, so old is it, but
+      I think that the Asiki were once a big and famous people who traded to the
+      water upon the west, and even to the water on the east, and that was how
+      those white men became their slaves and the Munganas of their queens. Now
+      they are small and live only by the might and fame of Big and Little
+      Bonsa, not half filling the rich land which is theirs. But,&rdquo; she added
+      reflectively and looking at him, &ldquo;I think also that this is because in the
+      past fools have been thrust upon my spirit as Munganas. What it needs is
+      the wisdom of the white man, such wisdom as yours, Vernoon. If that were
+      added to my magic, then the Asiki would grow great again, seeing that they
+      have in such plenty the gold which you have shown me the white man loves.
+      Yes, they would grow great and from coast to coast the people should bow
+      at the name of Bonsa and send him their sons for sacrifice. Perhaps you
+      will live to see that day, Vernoon. Slave,&rdquo; she added, addressing Jeekie,
+      &ldquo;set the mask upon your lord&rsquo;s head, for we come where women are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan objected, but she stamped her foot and said it must be so, having
+      once worn Little Bonsa, as her people told her he had done, his naked face
+      might not be seen. So Alan submitted to the hideous head-dress and they
+      entered the Asika&rsquo;s house by some back entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a place with many rooms in it, but they were all remarkable for
+      extreme simplicity. With a single exception no gilding or gold was to be
+      seen, although the food vessels were made of this material here as
+      everywhere. The chambers, including those in which the Asika lived and
+      slept, were panelled, or rather boarded with cedar wood that was almost
+      black with age, and their scanty furniture was mostly made of ebony. They
+      were very insufficiently lighted, like his own room, by means of barred
+      openings set high in the wall. Indeed gloom and mystery were the keynotes
+      of this place, amongst the shadows of which handsome, half-naked servants
+      or priestesses flitted to and fro at their tasks, or peered at them out of
+      dark corners. The atmosphere seemed heavy with secret sin; Alan felt that
+      in those rooms unnameable crimes and cruelties had been committed for
+      hundreds or perhaps thousands of years, and that the place was yet haunted
+      by the ghosts of them. At any rate it struck a chill to his healthy blood,
+      more even than had that Hall of the Dead and of heaped-up golden treasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does my house please you?&rdquo; the Asika asked of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not altogether,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;I think it is dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the beginning my spirit has ever loved the dark, Vernoon. I think
+      that it was shaped in some black midnight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed through the chief entrance of the house which had pillars of
+      woodwork grotesquely carved, down some steps into a walled and roofed-in
+      yard where the shadows were even more dense than in the house they had
+      left. Only at one spot was there light flowing down through a hole in the
+      roof, as it did apparently in that hall where Alan had found the Asika
+      sitting in state. The light fell on to a pedestal or column made of gold
+      which was placed behind an object like a large Saxon font, also made of
+      gold. The shape of this column reminded Alan of something, namely of a
+      very similar column, although fashioned of a different material which
+      stood in the granite-built office of Messrs. Aylward &amp; Haswell in the
+      City of London. Nor did this seem wonderful to him, since on top of it,
+      squatting on its dwarf legs, stood a horrid but familiar thing, namely
+      Little Bonsa herself come home at last. There she sat smiling cruelly, as
+      she had smiled from the beginning, forgetful doubtless of her wanderings
+      in strange lands, while round her stood a band of priests armed with
+      spears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Followed by the Asika and Jeekie, Alan walked up and looked her in the
+      face and to his excited imagination she appeared to grin at him in answer.
+      Then while the priests prostrated themselves, he examined the golden basin
+      or laver, and saw that at the further side of it was a little platform
+      approached by steps. On the top of these golden steps were two depressions
+      such as might have been worn out in the course of ages by persons kneeling
+      there. Also the flat edge of the basin which stood about thirty inches
+      above the level of the topmost step, was scored as though by hundreds of
+      sword cuts which had made deep lines in the pure metal. The basin itself
+      was empty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seeing that these things interested him, the Asika volunteered the
+      information through Jeekie, that this was a divining-bowl, and that if
+      those who went before her had wished to learn the future, they caused
+      Little Bonsa to float in it and found out all they wanted to know by her
+      movements. She, however, she added, had other and better methods of
+      learning things that were predestined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where does the water come from?&rdquo; asked Alan thoughtlessly searching the
+      bowl for some tap or inlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of the hearts of men,&rdquo; she answered with a low and dreadful laugh.
+      &ldquo;These marks are those of swords and every one of them means a life.&rdquo; Then
+      seeing that he looked incredulous she added, &ldquo;Stay, I will show you.
+      Little Bonsa must be thirsty who has fasted so long, also there are
+      matters that I desire to know. Come hither&mdash;you, and you,&rdquo; and she
+      pointed at hazard to the two priests who knelt nearest to her, &ldquo;and do you
+      bid the executioner bring his axe,&rdquo; she went on to a third.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dark faces of the men turned ashen, but they made no effort to escape
+      their doom. One of them crept up the steps and laid his neck upon the edge
+      of gold, while the other, uttering no word, threw himself on his face at
+      the foot of them, waiting his turn. Then a door opened and there appeared
+      a great and brutal-looking fellow, naked except for a loin cloth, who bore
+      in his hand a huge weapon, half knife and half axe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First he looked at the Asika, who nodded almost imperceptibly, then sprang
+      on to a prolongation of the golden steps, bowed to Little Bonsa on her
+      column behind and heaved up his knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now for the first time Alan really understood what was about to happen,
+      and that what he had imagined a stage rehearsal, was to become a hideous
+      murder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; he shouted in English, being unable to remember the native word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The executioner paused with his axe poised in mid-air; the victim turned
+      his head and looked, as though surprised; the second victim and the
+      priests their companions looked also. Jeekie fell on to his knees and
+      burst into fervent prayer addressed apparently to Little Bonsa. The Asika
+      smiled and did nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the weapon was lifted and as he felt that words were no longer of
+      any use, even if he could find them, Alan took refuge in action. Springing
+      on to the other side of the little platform, he hit out with all his
+      strength across the kneeling man. Catching the executioner on the point of
+      the chin, he knocked him straight backwards in such fashion that his head
+      struck upon the floor before any other portion of his body, so that he lay
+      there either dead or stunned. Alan never learned which, since the matter
+      was not thought of sufficient importance to be mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this sight the Asika burst into a low laugh, then asked Alan why he had
+      felled the executioner. He answered because he would not stand by and see
+      two innocent men butchered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not,&rdquo; she said in an astonished voice; &ldquo;if Little Bonsa, whose
+      priests they are, needs them, and I, who am the Mouth of the gods declare
+      that they should die? Still, she has been in your keeping for a long while
+      and you may know her will, so if you wish it, let them live. Or perhaps
+      you require other victims,&rdquo; and she fixed her eyes upon Jeekie with a
+      glance of suggestive hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh my golly!&rdquo; gasped Jeekie in English, &ldquo;tell her not for Joe, Major,
+      tell her most improper. Say Yellow God my dearest friend and go mad as
+      hatter if my throat cut&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan stopped his protestations with a secret kick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I choose no victims,&rdquo; he broke in, &ldquo;nor will I see man&rsquo;s blood shed&mdash;to
+      me it is <i>orunda</i>&mdash;unholy; I may not look on human blood, and if
+      you cause me to do so, Asika, I shall hate you because you make me break
+      my oath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Asika reflected for a moment, while Jeekie behind muttered between his
+      chattering teeth:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good missionary talk that, Major. Keep up word in season, Major. If she
+      make Christian martyr of Jeekie, who get you out of this confounded hole?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Asika spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it as you will, for I desire neither that you should hate me, nor that
+      you should look on that which is unlawful for your eyes to see. The feasts
+      and ceremonies you must attend, but if I can help it, no victim shall be
+      slain in your presence, not even that whimpering hound, your servant,&rdquo; she
+      added with a contemptuous glance at Jeekie, &ldquo;who it seems, fears to give
+      his life for the glory of the god, but who because he is yours, is safe
+      now and always.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That <i>very</i> satisfactory,&rdquo; said Jeekie, rising from his knees, his
+      face wreathed in smiles, for he knew well that a decree of the Asika could
+      not be broken. Then he began to explain to the priestess that it was not
+      fear of losing his own life that had moved him, but the certainty that
+      this occurrence would disagree morally with Little Bonsa, whose entire
+      confidence he possessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking no notice of his words, with a slight reverence to the fetish, she
+      passed on, beckoning to Alan. As he went by the two prostrate priests
+      whose lives he had saved, lifted their heads a little and looked at him
+      with heartfelt gratitude in their eyes; indeed one of them kissed the
+      place where his foot had trodden. Jeekie, following, gave him a kick to
+      intimate that he was taking a liberty, but at the same time stooped down
+      and asked the man his name. It occurred to him that these rescued priests
+      might some day be useful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan followed her through a kind of swing door which opened into another
+      of the endless halls, but when he looked for her there she was nowhere to
+      be seen. A priest who was waiting beyond the door bowed and informed him
+      that the Asika had gone to her own place, and would see him that evening.
+      Then bowing again he led them back by various passages to the room where
+      they had slept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan after their food had been brought to them, this time,
+      he observed, by men, for it was now past midday, &ldquo;you were born in
+      Asiki-land; tell me the truth of this business. What does that woman mean
+      when she talks about her spirit having been here from the beginning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She mean, Major, that every time she die her soul go into someone else,
+      whom priests find out by marks. Also Asika always die young, they never
+      let her become old woman, but how she die and where they bury her, no one
+      know &lsquo;cept priests. Sometimes she have girl child who become Asika after
+      her, but if they have boy child, they kill him. I think this Asika
+      daughter of her who make love to your reverend uncle. All that story &lsquo;bout
+      her mother not being married, lies, and all her story lies too, she often
+      marry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how about the spirit coming back, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Spect that lie too, Major, though she think it solemn fact. Priests
+      teach her all those old things. Still,&rdquo; he added doubtfully, &ldquo;Asika great
+      medicine-woman and know a lot we don&rsquo;t know, can&rsquo;t say how. Very awkward
+      customer, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite so, Jeekie, I agree with you. But to come to the point, what is her
+      game with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! Major,&rdquo; he answered with a grin, &ldquo;<i>that</i> simple enough. She
+      tired of black man, want change, mean to marry you according to law, that
+      is when Mungana dies, and he die jolly quick now. She mustn&rsquo;t kill him,
+      but polish him off all the same, stick him to sleep with those dead uns,
+      till he go like drunk man and see things and drown himself. Then she marry
+      you. But till he dead, you all right, she only talk and make eyes, &lsquo;cause
+      of Asiki law, not &lsquo;cause she want to stop there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, Jeekie, and how long do you think that Mungana will last?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps three months, Major, and perhaps two. Think not more than two.
+      Strong man, but he look devilish dicky this morning. Think he begin see
+      snakes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Jeekie. Now listen to me&mdash;you&rsquo;ve got to get us out of
+      Asiki-land by this day two months. If you don&rsquo;t, that lady will do
+      anything to oblige me and no doubt there are more executioners left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! Major, don&rsquo;t talk like silly fool. Jeekie always hate fools and
+      suffer them badly&mdash;like holy first missionary bishop. You know very
+      well this no place for ultra-Christian man like Jeekie, who only come here
+      to please you. Both in same bag, Major, if I die, you die and leave Miss
+      Barbara up gum tree. I get you out if I can. But this stuff the trouble,&rdquo;
+       and he pointed to the bags of gold. &ldquo;Not want to leave all that behind
+      after such arduous walk. No, no, I try get you out, meanwhile you play
+      game.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The game! What game, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What game? Why, Asika-game of course. If she sigh, you sigh; if she look
+      at you, you look at her; if she squeeze hand, you squeeze hand; if she
+      kiss, you kiss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am hanged if I do, Jeekie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must, Major; must or never get out of Asiki-land. What all that matter?&rdquo;
+       he added confidentially. &ldquo;Miss Barbara never know. Jeekie doesn&rsquo;t split,
+      also quite necessary in situation, and you can&rsquo;t be married till that
+      Mungana dead. All matter business, Major; make time pass pleasant as well.
+      Asika jolly enough if you stroke her fur right way, but if you put her
+      back up&mdash;oh Lor! No trouble, sit and smile and say, &lsquo;Oh, ducky, how
+      beautiful you are!&rsquo; that not hurt anybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of himself Alan burst out laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how about the Mungana?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mungana, he got take that with rest. Also I try make friends with that
+      poor devil. Tell him it all my eye. Perhaps he believe me&mdash;not sure.
+      If he me, I no believe <i>him</i>. Mungana,&rdquo; he added oracularly, &ldquo;Mungana
+      take his chance. What matter? In two months&rsquo; time he nothing but gold
+      figure, No. 2403; just like one mummy in museum. Now I try catch my ma. I
+      hear she alive somewhere. They tell me she used keep lodging house for
+      Bonsa pilgrim, but steal grub, say it cat, all that sort of thing, and get
+      run in as thief. Afraid my ma come down very much in world, not society
+      lady now, shut up long way off in suburb. Still p&rsquo;raps she useful so best
+      send her message by p&rsquo;liceman, say how much I love her; say her dear
+      little Jeekie turn up again just to see her sweet face. Only don&rsquo;t know if
+      she swallow that or if they let her out prison unless I pay for all she
+      prig.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE FEAST OF LITTLE BONSA
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      It was the night of full moon and of the great feast of the return of
+      Little Bonsa. Alan sat in his chamber waiting to be summoned to take part
+      in this ceremony and listening the while to that <i>Wow! Wow! Wow!</i> of
+      the death drums, whereof Jeekie had once spoken in England, which could be
+      clearly heard even above the perpetual boom of the cataract tumbling down
+      its cliff behind the town. By now he had recovered from the fatigue of his
+      journey and his health was good, but the same could not be said of his
+      spirits, for never in his life had he felt more downhearted, not even when
+      he was sickening for blackwater fever, or lay in bondage in the City,
+      expecting every morning to wake up and find his reputation blasted. He was
+      a prisoner in this dreadful, gloomy place where he must live like a second
+      Man in the Iron Mask, without recreation or exercise other than he could
+      find in the walled garden where grew the black cedar trees, and, so far as
+      he could see, a prisoner without hope of escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, he could no longer disguise from himself the truth; Jeekie was
+      right. The Asika had fallen in love with him, or at any rate made up her
+      mind that he should be her next husband. He hated the sight of the woman
+      and her sinuous, evil beauty, but to be free of her was impossible, and to
+      offend her, death. All day long she kept him about her, and from his sleep
+      he would wake up and as on the night of his arrival, distinguish her
+      leaning over him studying his face by the light of the faintly-burning
+      lamps, as a snake studies the bird it is about to strike. He dared not
+      stir or give the slightest sign that he saw her. Nor indeed did he always
+      see her, for he kept his eyes closely shut. But even in his heaviest
+      slumber some warning sense told him of her presence, and then above
+      Jeekie&rsquo;s snores (for on these occasions Jeekie always snored his loudest)
+      he would hear a soft footfall, as cat-like, she crept towards him, or the
+      sweep of her spangled robe, or the tinkling of the scales of her golden
+      breastplate. For a long while she would stand there, examining him
+      greedily and even the few little belongings that remained to him, and then
+      with a hungry sigh glide away and vanish in the shadows. How she came or
+      how she vanished Alan could not discover. Clearly she did not use the
+      door, and he could find no other entrance to the room. Indeed at times he
+      thought he must be suffering from delusion, but Jeekie shook his great
+      head and did not agree with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She there right enough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;She walk over me as though I log and I
+      smell stuff she put on hair, but I think she come and go by magic. Asika
+      do that if she please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I wish she would teach me the secret, Jeekie. I should soon be out
+      of Asiki-land, I can tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All that day Alan had been in her company, answering her endless questions
+      about his past, the lands that he had visited, and especially the women
+      that he had known. He had the tact to tell her that none of these were
+      half so beautiful as she was, which was true in a sense and pleased her
+      very much, for in whatever respects she differed from them, in common with
+      the rest of her sex she loved a compliment. Emboldened by her good humour,
+      he had ventured to suggest that being rested and having restored Little
+      Bonsa, he would be glad to return with her gifts to his own country. Next
+      instant he was sorry, for as soon as she understood his meaning she grew
+      almost white with rage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;you desire to leave me? Know, Vernoon, that I will see
+      you dead first and myself also, for then we shall be born again together
+      and can never more be separated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor was this all, for she burst into weeping, threw her arms about him,
+      drew him to her, kissed him on the forehead, and then thrust him away,
+      saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Curses on the priests&rsquo; law that makes us wait so long, and curses on that
+      Mungana who will not die and may not be killed. Well, he shall pay for it
+      and within two months, Vernoon, oh! within two months&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; and
+      she stretched out her arms with a gesture of infinite passion, then turned
+      and left him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My!&rdquo; said Jeekie afterwards, for he had watched all this scene
+      open-mouthed, &ldquo;my! but she mean business. Mrs. Jeekie never kiss me like
+      that, nor any other female either. She dead nuts on you, Major. Very great
+      compliment! &lsquo;Spect when you Mungana, she keep you alive a long time, four
+      or five years perhaps, if no other white man come this way. Pity you can&rsquo;t
+      take it on a bit, Major,&rdquo; he added insidiously, &ldquo;because then she grow
+      careless and make you chief and we get chance scoop out that gold house
+      and bolt with bally lot. Miss Barbara sensible woman, when she see all
+      that cash she not mind, she say &lsquo;Bravo, old boy, quite right spoil Lady
+      Potiphar in land of bondage, but Jeekie must have ten per cent. because he
+      show you how do it.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan was so depressed, and indeed terrified by this demonstration on the
+      part of his fearful hostess, that he could neither laugh at Jeekie, nor
+      swear at him. He only sat still and groaned, feeling that bad as things
+      were they were bound to become worse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Above the perpetual booming of the death drums rose a sound of wild music.
+      The door burst open, and through it came a number of priests, their nearly
+      naked bodies hideously painted and on their heads the most
+      devilish-looking masks. Some of them clashed cymbals, some blew horns and
+      some beat little drums all to time which was given to them by a bandmaster
+      with a golden rod. In front of them with painted face and decked in his
+      gorgeous apparel, walked the Mungana himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They come to take us to Bonsa worship,&rdquo; explained Jeekie. &ldquo;Cheer up,
+      Major, very exciting business, no go to sleep there, as in English church.
+      See the god all time and no sermon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan, who wore a linen robe over the remains of his European garments, and
+      whose mask was already on his head, rose listlessly and bowed to the
+      gorgeous Mungana who, poor man, answered him with a stare of hate, knowing
+      that this wanderer was destined to fill his place. Then they started,
+      Jeekie accompanying them, and walked a long way through various halls and
+      passages, bearing first to the left and then to the right again, till
+      suddenly through some side door they emerged upon a marvellous scene. The
+      first impressions that reached Alan&rsquo;s mind were those of a long stretch of
+      water, very black and still and not more than eighty feet in width. On the
+      hither edge of this canal, seated upon a raised dais in the midst of a
+      great open space of polished rock, was the Asika, or so he gathered from
+      her gold breastplate and sparkling garments, for her fierce and beautiful
+      features were hid beneath an object familiar enough to him, the yellow,
+      crystal-eyed mask of Little Bonsa. Arranged in companies about and behind
+      her were hundreds of people, male and female, clad in hideous costumes to
+      resemble demons, with masks to match. Some of these masks were semi-human
+      and some of them bore a likeness to the heads of animals and had horns on
+      them, while their wearers were adorned with skins and tails. To describe
+      them in their infinite variety would be impossible; indeed the
+      recollection that Alan carried away was one of a mediæval hell as it is
+      occasionally to be found portrayed upon &ldquo;Doom pictures&rdquo; in old churches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the further side of the water the entire Asiki people seemed to be
+      gathered, at least there were thousands of them seated upon a rising rocky
+      slope as in an amphitheatre, clad only in the ordinary costume of the
+      Western African native, and in some instances in linen cloaks. This great
+      amphitheatre was surrounded by a high wall with gates, but in the
+      moonlight he found it difficult to discern its exact limits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie nudged Alan and pointed to the centre of the canal or pool. He
+      looked and saw floating there a huge and hideous golden head, twenty times
+      as large as life perhaps, with great prominent eyes that glared up to the
+      sky. Its appearance was quite unlike anything else in the world, more
+      loathsome, more horrible, man, fish and animal, all seemed to have their
+      part in it, human mouth and teeth, fish-like eyes and snout, bestial
+      expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Big Bonsa,&rdquo; whispered Jeekie. &ldquo;Just the same as when I sweet little boy.&mdash;He
+      live here for thousand of years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Preceded by the Mungana and followed by Jeekie and the priests, the band
+      bringing up the rear, Alan was marched down a lane left open for him till
+      he came to some steps leading to the dais, upon which in addition to that
+      occupied by the Asika, stood two empty chairs. These steps the Mungana
+      motioned him to mount, but when Jeekie tried to follow him he turned and
+      struck him contemptuously in the face. At once the Asika, who was watching
+      Vernon&rsquo;s approach through the eye-holes in the Little Bonsa mask, said
+      fiercely:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who bade you strike the servant of my guest, O Mungana? Let him come also
+      that he may stand behind us and interpret.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her wretched husband, who knew that this public slight was put upon him
+      purposely, but did not dare to protest against it, bowed his head. Then
+      all three of them climbed to the dais, the priests and the musicians
+      remaining below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Welcome, Vernoon,&rdquo; said the Asika through the lips of the mask, which to
+      Alan, notwithstanding the dreadful cruelty of its expression, looked less
+      hateful than the lovely, tigerish face it hid. &ldquo;Welcome and be seated here
+      on my left hand, since on my right you may not sit&mdash;as yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He bowed and took the chair to which she pointed, while her husband placed
+      himself in the other chair upon her right, and Jeekie stood behind, his
+      great shape towering above them all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a festival of my people, Vernoon,&rdquo; she went on, &ldquo;such a festival
+      as has not been seen for years, celebrated because Little Bonsa has come
+      back to them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is to happen?&rdquo; he asked uneasily. &ldquo;I have told you, Lady, that blood
+      is <i>orunda</i> to me. I must not witness it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know, be not afraid,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;Sacrifice there must be, since it
+      is the custom and we may not defraud the gods, but you shall not see the
+      deed. Judge from this, Vernoon, how greatly I desire to please you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Alan, looking about him, saw that immediately beneath the dais and
+      between them and the edge of the water, were gathered his cannibal
+      friends, the Ogula, and Fahni their chief who had rowed him to Asiki-land,
+      and with them the messengers whom they had sent on ahead. Also he saw that
+      their arms were tied behind them and that they were guarded by men dressed
+      like devils and armed with spears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask Fahni why he and his people are bound, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;and why
+      have they not returned to their own country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie obeyed, putting the question in the Ogula language, whereon the
+      poor men turned and began to implore Alan to save their lives, Fahni
+      adding that he had been told they were to be killed that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are these men to be slain?&rdquo; asked Alan of the Asika.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I have learned that they attacked you in their own country,
+      Vernoon,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;and would have killed you had it not been for
+      Little Bonsa. It is therefore right that they should die as an offering to
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I refuse the offering since afterwards they dealt well with me. Set them
+      free and let them return to their own land, Asika.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That cannot be,&rdquo; she replied coldly. &ldquo;Here they are and here they remain.
+      Still, their lives are yours to take or to spare, so keep them as your
+      servants if you will,&rdquo; and bending down she issued a command which was
+      instantly obeyed, for the men dressed like devils cut the bonds of the
+      Ogula and brought them round to the back of the dais, where they stood
+      blessing Alan loudly in their own tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the ceremonies began with a kind of infernal ballet. On the smooth
+      space between them and the water&rsquo;s edge appeared male and female bands of
+      dancers who emerged from the shadows. For the most part they were dressed
+      up like animals and imitated the cries of the beasts that they
+      represented, although some of them wore little or no clothing. To the
+      sound of wild music of horns and drums these creatures danced a kind of
+      insane quadrille which seemed to suggest everything that is cruel and vile
+      upon the earth. They danced and danced in the moonlight till the madness
+      spread from them to the thousands who were gathered upon the farther side
+      of the water, for presently all of these began to dance also. Nor did it
+      stop there, since at length the Asika rose from her chair upon the dais
+      and joined in the performance with the Mungana her husband. Even Jeekie
+      began to prance and shout behind, so that at last Alan and the Ogula alone
+      remained still and silent in the midst of a scene and a noise which might
+      have been that of hell let loose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaving go of her husband, the Asika bounded up to Alan and tried to drag
+      him from his chair, thrusting her gold mask against his mask. He refused
+      to move and after a while she left him and returned to Mungana. Louder and
+      louder brayed the music and beat the drums, wilder and wilder grew the
+      shrieks. Individuals fell exhausted and were thrown into the water where
+      they sank or floated away on the slow moving stream, as part of some
+      inexplicable play that was being enacted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then suddenly the Asika stood still and threw up her arms and they fell
+      upon their faces and lay as though they were dead. A third time she threw
+      up her arms and they rose and remained so silent that the only sound to be
+      heard was that of their thick breathing. Then she spoke, or rather
+      screamed, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little Bonsa has come back again, bringing with her the white man whom
+      she led away,&rdquo; and all the audience answered, &ldquo;Little Bonsa has come back
+      again. Once more we see her on the head of the Asika as our fathers did.
+      Give her a sacrifice. Give her the white man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; she screamed back, &ldquo;the white man is mine. I name him as the next
+      Mungana.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oho!&rdquo; roared the audience, &ldquo;Oho! she names him as the next Mungana.
+      Good-bye, old Mungana! Greeting, new Mungana! When will be the marriage
+      feast?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell us, Mungana, tell us,&rdquo; cried the Asika, patting her wretched husband
+      on the cheek. &ldquo;Tell us when you mean to die, as you are bound to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the night of the second full moon from now,&rdquo; he answered with a
+      terrible groan that seemed to be wrung out of his heavy heart; &ldquo;on that
+      night my soul will be eaten up and my day done. But till then I am lord of
+      the Asika, and if she forgets it, death shall be her portion, according to
+      the ancient law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; shouted the multitude, &ldquo;death shall be her portion, and her
+      lover we will sacrifice. Die in honour, Mungana, as all those died that
+      went before you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank Heaven!&rdquo; muttered Alan to himself, &ldquo;I am safe from that witch for
+      the next two months,&rdquo; and through the eye-holes of his mask he
+      contemplated her with loathing and alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the moment, indeed, she was not a pleasing spectacle, for in the heat
+      and excitement of her mad dance she had cast off her gold breast-plate or
+      stomacher, leaving herself naked except for her kirtle and the thin,
+      gold-spangled robe upon her shoulders over which streamed her black,
+      disordered hair. Contrasting strangely in the silver moonlight with her
+      glistening, copper-coloured body, the mask of Little Bonsa on her head
+      glared round with its fixed crystal eyes and fiendish smile as she turned
+      her long neck from side to side. Seen thus she scarcely looked human, and
+      Alan&rsquo;s heart was filled with pity for the poor bedizened wretch she named
+      her husband, who had just been forced to announce the date of his own
+      suicide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon, however, he forgot it, for a new act in the drama had begun. Two
+      priests clad in horns and tails leapt on to the dais and at a signal
+      unlaced the mask of Little Bonsa. Now the Asika lifted it from her
+      streaming face and held it on high, then she lowered it to the level of
+      her breast, and holding it in both hands, walked to the edge of the dais,
+      whereon priests, disguised as fiends, began to leap at it, striving to
+      reach it with their fingers and snatch it from her grasp. One by one they
+      leapt with the most desperate energy, each man being allowed to make three
+      attempts, and Alan noted that this novel jumping competition was watched
+      with the deepest interest by all the audience, at the time he knew not
+      why.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first two were evidently elderly men who failed to come anywhere near
+      the mark. Their failure was received with shouts of derision. They sank
+      exhausted to the ground and from the motion of his body Alan could see
+      that one of them was weeping, while the other remained sullenly silent.
+      Then a younger man advanced and at the third try almost grasped the
+      fetish. Indeed he would have grasped it had he not met with foul play, for
+      the Asika, seeing that he was about to succeed, lifted it an inch or two,
+      so that he also missed and with a groan joined the band of the defeated.
+      Next appeared a fourth priest, even more horribly arrayed than those
+      before him, but Alan noticed that his mask was of the lightest, and that
+      his garments consisted chiefly of paint, the main idea of his make-up
+      being that of a skeleton. He was a thin active fellow, and all the
+      watching thousands greeted him with a shout. For a few seconds he stood
+      back gazing at the mask as a wolf might at an unapproachable bone. Then
+      suddenly he ran forward and sprang into the air. Such an amazing jump Alan
+      had never seen before. So high was it indeed that his head came level with
+      that of the fetish, which he snatched with both hands tearing it from
+      Asika&rsquo;s grasp. Coming to the ground again with a thud, he began to caper
+      to and fro, kissing the mask, while the audience shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little Bonsa has chosen. What fate for the fallen? Ask her, priest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man stopped his capering and held the mouth of Little Bonsa to his
+      ear, nodding from time to time as though she were speaking to him and he
+      heard what she said. Then he passed round the dais where Alan could not
+      see him, and presently reappeared holding Little Bonsa in his right hand
+      and in his left a great gold cup. A silence fell upon the place. He
+      advanced to the first man who had jumped and offered him the cup. He
+      turned his head away, but a thousand voices thundered &ldquo;Drink!&rdquo; Then he
+      took it and drank, passing it to a companion in misfortune, who in turn
+      drank also and gave it to the third priest, he who would have snatched the
+      mask had not the Asika lifted it out of his reach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This man drained it to the dregs, and with an exclamation of rage dashed
+      the empty vessel into the face of the chosen priest with such fury that
+      the man rolled upon the ground and for a while lay there stunned. Now he
+      who had drunk first began to spring about in a ludicrous fashion, and
+      presently was joined in his dance by the other two. So absurd were their
+      motions and tumblings and clownlike grimaces, for they had dragged off
+      their masks, that roars of brutal laughter rose from the audience, in
+      which the Asika joined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first Alan thought that the thing was a joke, and that the men had
+      merely been made mad drunk, till catching sight of their eyes in the
+      moonlight, he perceived that they were in great pain and turned
+      indignantly to remonstrate with the Asika.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be silent, Vernoon,&rdquo; she said savagely, &ldquo;blood is your <i>orunda</i> and
+      I respect it. Therefore by decree of the god these die of poison,&rdquo; and
+      again she fell to laughing at the contortions of the victims.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan shut his eyes, and when at length, drawn by some fearful fascination,
+      he opened them once more, it was to see that the three poor creatures had
+      thrown themselves into the water, where they rolled over and over like
+      wounded porpoises, till presently they sank and vanished there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This farce, for so they considered it, being ended and the stage, so to
+      speak, cleared, the audience having laughed itself hoarse, set itself to
+      watch the proceedings of the newly chosen high-priest of Little Bonsa, who
+      by now had recovered from the blow dealt to him by one of the murdered
+      men. With the help of some other priests he was engaged in binding the
+      fetish on to a little raft of reeds. This done he laid himself flat upon a
+      broad plank which had been made ready for him at the edge of the water,
+      placing the mask in front of him and with a few strokes of his feet that
+      hung over the sides of the plank, paddled himself out to the centre of the
+      canal where the god called Big Bonsa floated, or was anchored. Having
+      reached it he pushed the little raft off the plank into the water, and in
+      some way that Alan could not see, made it fast to Big Bonsa, so that now
+      the two of them floated one behind the other. Then while the people
+      cheered, shouting out that husband and wife had come together again at
+      last, he paddled his plank back to the water&rsquo;s edge, sat down and waited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, at a sign from the Asika, all the scores of priests and
+      priestesses who were dressed as devils had filed off to right and left,
+      and vanished, presumably to cross the water by bridges or boats that were
+      out of sight. At any rate now they began to appear upon its further side
+      and to wind their way singly among the thousands of the Asiki people who
+      were gathered upon the rocky slope beyond in order to witness this
+      fearsome entertainment. Alan observed that the spectators did not appear
+      to appreciate the arrival amongst them of these priests, from whom they
+      seemed to edge away. Indeed many of them rose and tried to depart
+      altogether, only to be driven back to their places by a double line of
+      soldiers armed with spears, who now for the first time became visible,
+      ringing in the audience. Also other soldiers and with them bodies of men
+      who looked like executioners, showed themselves upon the further brink of
+      the water and then marched off, disappearing to left and right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter now?&rdquo; Alan asked of Jeekie over his shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All in blue funk,&rdquo; whispered Jeekie back, &ldquo;joke done. Get to business
+      now. Silly fools forget that when they laugh so much. Both Bonsas very
+      hungry and Asika want wipe out old scores. Presently you see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Alan did see, for at some preconcerted signal the devil priests,
+      each of them, jumped with a yell at a person near to them, gripping him or
+      her by the hair, whereon assistants rushed in and dragged them down to the
+      bank of the canal. Here to the number of a hundred or more, a wailing,
+      struggling mass, they were confined in a pen like sheep. Then a bar was
+      lifted and one of them allowed to escape, only to find himself in a kind
+      of gangway which ran down into shallow water. Being forced along this he
+      came to an open space of water exactly opposite to the floating fetishes,
+      and there was kept a while by men armed with spears. As nothing happened
+      they lifted their spears and the man bolted up an incline and was lost
+      among the thousands of spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next one, evidently a person of rank, was not so fortunate. Jumping
+      into the pool off the gangway, he stood there like a sheep about to be
+      washed, the water reaching up to his middle. Then Alan saw a terrifying
+      thing, for suddenly the horrid, golden head of Big Bonsa, towing Little
+      Bonsa behind it, began to swim with a deliberate motion across the stream
+      until, reaching the man, it seemed to rear itself up and poke him with its
+      snout in the chest as a turtle might do. Then it sank again into the water
+      and slowly floated back to its station, directed by some agency or power
+      that Alan could not discover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the touch of the fetish the man screamed like a horse in pain or
+      terror, and soldiers leaping on him with a savage shout, dragged him up
+      another gangway opposite to that by which he had descended, whereon, to
+      all appearances more dead than alive, he departed into the shadows. The
+      horns and drums set up a bray of triumph, the Asika clapped her hands
+      approvingly, the spectators cheered, and another victim was bundled down
+      the gangway and submitted to the judgment of the Bonsas, which came at him
+      like a hungry pike at a frog. Then followed more and more, some being
+      chosen and some let go, till at last, growing weary, the priests directed
+      the soldiers to drive the prisoners down in batches until the pen in the
+      water was full as though with huddled sheep. If the horrible golden masks
+      swam at them and touched one of their number, they were all dragged away;
+      if these remained quiescent they were let go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the thing went on until at length Alan could bear no more of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lady,&rdquo; he said to the Asika when she paused for a moment from her
+      hand-clapping, &ldquo;I am weary, I would sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;do you wish to sleep on such a glorious night when
+      so many evil doers are coming to their just doom? Well, well, go if you
+      will, for then my promise is off me and I can hasten this business and
+      deal with the wicked before the people according to our custom. Good-night
+      to you, Vernoon, to-morrow we will meet,&rdquo; and she called to some priests
+      to lead him away, and with him the Ogula cannibals whom she had given to
+      him as servants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan went thankfully enough. As he plunged into one of the passages the
+      sound of frightful yelling reached his ears, followed by loud, triumphant
+      shouts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you gone they kill those who Bonsa smell out,&rdquo; said Jeekie. &ldquo;Why you
+      no wait and see? Very interesting sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold your tongue,&rdquo; answered Alan savagely. &ldquo;Did you think so years ago
+      when you were put into that pen to be butchered?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Major,&rdquo; replied the unabashed Jeekie, &ldquo;not think at all then, too far
+      gone. But see other people in there and know it not <i>you</i>, quite
+      different matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They reached their room. At the door of it Fahni and his followers were
+      led off to some quarters near by, blessing Alan as they went because he
+      had saved their lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said when they were alone, &ldquo;tell me, what makes that hellish
+      idol swim about in the water picking out some people and leaving others
+      alone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Major, I not know, no one know except top priest and Asika. Perhaps there
+      man underneath, perhaps they pull string, or perhaps fetish alive and he
+      do what he like. Please don&rsquo;t call him names, Major, or he remember and
+      come after us one time, and that bad job,&rdquo; and Jeekie shivered visibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bosh!&rdquo; answered Alan, but all the same he shivered also. &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he
+      asked again, &ldquo;what happens to those people whom the Bonsas smell out?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Case of good-bye, Major. Sometimes they chop off nut, sometimes they
+      spiflicate in gold tub, sometimes priest-man make hole in what white
+      doctor call <i>diagram</i>&mdash;and shake hands with heart.&mdash;All
+      matter of taste, Major, just as Asika please. If she like victim or they
+      old friends, chop off head; if she not like him&mdash;do worse things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      More than satisfied with his information Alan went to bed. For hour after
+      hour that night he lay tossing and turning, haunted by the recollections
+      of the dreadful sights that he had seen and of the horrible Asika,
+      horrible and half-naked, glaring at him amorously through the crystal eyes
+      of Little Bonsa. When at last he fell asleep it was to dream that he was
+      alone in the water with the god which pursued him as a shark pursues a
+      shipwrecked sailor. Never did he experience a nightmare that was half so
+      awful. Only one thing could be more awful, the reality itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE MOTHER OF JEEKIE
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan next morning, &ldquo;I tell you again that I have had enough
+      of this place, I want to get out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, that just what mouse say when he finish cheese in trap, but
+      missus come along, call him &lsquo;Pretty, pretty,&rsquo; and drown him all the same,&rdquo;
+       and he nodded in the direction of the Asika&rsquo;s house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie, it has got to be done&mdash;do you hear me? I had rather die
+      trying to get away than stop here till the next two months are up. If I am
+      here on the night of the next full moon but one, I shall shoot that Asika
+      and then shoot myself, and you must take your chance. Do you understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Understand that foolish game and poor lookout for Jeekie, Major, but
+      can&rsquo;t think of any plan.&rdquo; Then he rubbed his big nose reflectively and
+      added, &ldquo;Fahni and his people your slaves now, &lsquo;spose we have talk with
+      him. I tell priests to bring him along when they come with breakfast.
+      Leave it to me, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan did leave it to him, with the result that after long argument the
+      priests consented or obtained permission to produce Fahni and his
+      followers, and a little while after the great men arrived looking very
+      dejected, and saluted Alan humbly. Bidding the rest of them be seated, he
+      called Fahni to the end of the room and asked him through Jeekie if he and
+      his men did not wish to return home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed we do, white lord,&rdquo; answered the old chief, &ldquo;but how can we? The
+      Asika has a grudge against our tribe and but for you would have killed
+      every one of us last night. We are snared and must stop here till we die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would not your people help you if they knew, Fahni?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, lord, I think so. But how can I tell them who doubtless believe us
+      dead? Nor can I send a messenger, for this place is guarded and he would
+      be killed at once. We came here for your sake because you had Little
+      Bonsa, a god that is known in the east and the west, in the north and the
+      south, and because you saved me from the lion, and here, alas! we must
+      perish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;can you not find a messenger? Have you, who were
+      born of this people, no friend among them at all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie shook his white head and rolled his eyes. Then suddenly an idea
+      struck him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I think one, p&rsquo;raps. I mean my ma.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your ma!&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;Oh! I remember. Have you heard anything more about
+      her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major. Very old girl now, but strong on leg, so they say. Believe
+      she glad go anywhere, because she public nuisance; they tired of her in
+      prison and there no workhouse here, so they want turn her out starve,
+      which of course break my heart. Perhaps she take message. Some use that
+      way. Only think she afraid go Ogula-land because they nasty cannibal and
+      eat old woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When all this was translated to Fahni he assured Jeekie with earnestness
+      that nothing would induce the Ogula people to eat his mother; moreover,
+      that for her sake they would never look carnivorously on another old
+      woman, fat or thin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;I try again to get hold of old lady and we see. I
+      pray priests, whom you save other day, let her out of chokey as I sick to
+      fall upon bosom, which quite true, only so much to think of that no time
+      to attend to domestic relation till now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That very afternoon, on returning to his room from walking in the dismal
+      cedar garden, Alan&rsquo;s ears were greeted by a sound of shrill quarrelling.
+      Looking up he saw an extraordinary sight. A tall, gaunt, withered female
+      who might have been of any age between sixty and a hundred, had got
+      Jeekie&rsquo;s ear in one hand, and with the other was slapping him in the face
+      while she exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O thief, whom by the curse of Bonsa I brought into the world, what have
+      you done with my blanket? Was it not enough that you, my only son, should
+      leave me to earn my own living? Must you also take my best blanket with
+      you, for which reason I have been cold ever since. Where is it, thief,
+      where is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Worn out, my mother, worn out,&rdquo; he answered, trying to free himself. &ldquo;You
+      forget, honourable mother, that I grow old and you should have been dead
+      years ago. How can you expect a blanket to last so long? Leave go of my
+      ear, beloved mother, and I will give you another. I have travelled across
+      the world to find you and I want to hear news of your husband.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My husband, thief, which husband? Do you mean your father, the one with
+      the broken nose, who was sacrificed because you ran away with the white
+      man whom Bonsa loved? Well, you look out for him when you get into the
+      world of ghosts, for he said that he was going to wait for you there with
+      the biggest stick that he could find. Why I haven&rsquo;t thought of him for
+      years, but then I have had three other husbands since his time, bad
+      enough, but better than he was, so who would? And now Bonsa has got the
+      lot, and I have no children alive, and they say I am to be driven out of
+      the prison to starve next week as they won&rsquo;t feed me any longer, I who can
+      still work against any one of them, and&mdash;you&rsquo;ve got my blanket, you
+      ugly old rascal,&rdquo; and collapsing beneath the weight of her recited woes,
+      the hag burst into a melancholy howl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, my mother,&rdquo; said Jeekie, patting her on the head. &ldquo;Do what I tell
+      you and you shall have more blankets than you can wear and, as you are
+      still so handsome, another husband too if you like, and a garden and
+      slaves to work for you and plenty to eat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How shall I get all these things, my son?&rdquo; asked the old woman, looking
+      up. &ldquo;Will you take me to your home and support me, or will that white lord
+      marry me? They told me that the Asika had named him as the Mungana, and
+      she is very jealous, the most jealous Asika that I have ever known.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, mother, he would like to, but he dare not, and I cannot support you
+      as I should wish, as here I have no house or property. You will get all
+      this by taking a walk and holding your tongue. You see this man here, he
+      is Fahni, king of a great tribe, the Ogula. He wants you to carry a
+      message for him, and by and by he will marry you, won&rsquo;t you, Fahni?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! yes, yes,&rdquo; said Fahni; &ldquo;I will do anything she likes. No one shall be
+      so rich and honoured in my country, and for her sake we will never eat
+      another old woman, whereas if she stays here she will be driven to the
+      mountains to starve in a week.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Set out the matter,&rdquo; said the mother of Jeekie, who was by no means so
+      foolish as she seemed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they told her what she must do, namely, travel down to the Ogula and
+      tell them of the plight of their chief, bidding them muster all their
+      fighting men and when the swamps were dry enough, advance as near as they
+      dared to the Asiki country and, if they could not attack it, wait till
+      they had further news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The end of it was that the mother of Jeekie, who knew her case to be
+      desperate at home, where she was in no good repute, promised to attempt
+      the journey in consideration of advantages to be received. Since she was
+      to be turned adrift to meet her fate with as much food as she could carry,
+      this she could do without exciting any suspicion, for who would trouble
+      about the movements of a useless old thief? Meanwhile Jeekie gave her one
+      of the robes which the Asika had provided for Alan, also various articles
+      which she desired and, having learned Fahni&rsquo;s message by heart and
+      announced that she considered herself his affianced bride, the gaunt old
+      creature departed happy enough after exchanging embraces with her long
+      lost son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She will tell somebody all about it and we shall only get our throats
+      cut,&rdquo; said Alan wearily, for the whole thing seemed to him a foolish
+      farce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Major. I make her swear not split on ghosts of all her husbands
+      and by Big Bonsa hisself. She sit tight as wax, because she think they
+      haunt her if she don&rsquo;t and I too by and by when I dead. P&rsquo;raps she get to
+      Ogula country and p&rsquo;raps not. If she don&rsquo;t, can&rsquo;t help it and no harm
+      done. Break my heart, but only one old woman less. Anyhow she hold tongue,
+      that main point, and I really very glad find my ma, who never hoped to see
+      again. Heaven very kind to Jeekie, give him back to family bosom,&rdquo; he
+      added, unctuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That day there were no excitements, and to Alan&rsquo;s intense relief he saw
+      nothing of the Asika. After its orgy of witchcraft and bloodshed on the
+      previous night, weariness and silence seemed to have fallen upon the town.
+      At any rate no sound came from it that could be heard above the low,
+      constant thunder of the great waterfall rushing down its precipice, and in
+      the cedar-shadowed garden where Alan walked till he was weary, attended by
+      Jeekie and the Ogula savages, not a soul was to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the following morning, when he was sitting moodily in his room, two
+      priests came to conduct him to the Asika. Having no choice, followed by
+      Jeekie, he accompanied them to her house, masked as usual, for without
+      this hateful disguise he was not allowed to stir. He found her lying upon
+      a pile of cushions in a small room that he had never seen before, which
+      was better lighted than most in that melancholy abode, and seemed to serve
+      as her private chamber. In front of her lay the skin of the lion that he
+      had sent as a present, and about her throat hung a necklace made of its
+      claws, heavily set in gold, with which she was playing idly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the opening of the door she looked up with a swift smile that turned to
+      a frown when she saw that he was followed by Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Vernoon,&rdquo; she asked in her languorous voice, &ldquo;can you not stir a
+      yard without that ugly black dog at your heels? Do you bring him to
+      protect your back? If so, what is the need? Have I not sworn that you are
+      safe in my land?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan made Jeekie interpret this speech, then answered that the reason was
+      that he knew but little of her tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can I not teach it to you alone, then, without this low fellow hearing
+      all my words? Well, it will not be for long,&rdquo; and she looked at Jeekie in
+      a way that made him feel very uncomfortable. &ldquo;Get behind us, dog, and you,
+      Vernoon, come sit on these cushions at my side. Nay, not there, I said
+      upon the cushions&mdash;so. Now I will take off that ugly mask of yours,
+      for I would look into your eyes. I find them pleasant, Vernoon,&rdquo; and
+      without waiting for his permission, she sat up and did so. &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she went
+      on, &ldquo;we shall be happy when we are married, shall we not? Do not be
+      afraid, Vernoon, I will not eat out your heart as I have those of the men
+      that went before you. We will live together until we are old, and die
+      together at last, and together be born again, and so on and on till the
+      end which even I cannot foresee. Why do you not smile, Vernoon, and say
+      that you are pleased, and that you will be happy with me who loved you
+      from the moment that my eyes fell upon you in sleep? Speak, Vernoon, lest
+      I should grow angry with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what to say,&rdquo; answered Alan despairingly through Jeekie,
+      &ldquo;the honour is too great for me, who am but a wandering trader who came
+      here to barter Little Bonsa against the gold I need&rdquo;&mdash;to support my
+      wife and family, he was about to add, then remembering that this statement
+      might not be well received, substituted, &ldquo;to support my old parents and
+      eight brothers and sisters who are dependent upon me, and remain hungry
+      until I return to them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I think they will remain hungry a long time, Vernoon, for while I
+      live you shall never return. Much as I love you I would kill you first,&rdquo;
+       and her eyes glittered as she said the words. &ldquo;Still,&rdquo; she added, noting
+      the fall in his face, &ldquo;if it is gold that they need, you shall send it
+      them. Yes, my people shall take all that I gave you down to the coast, and
+      there it can be put in a big canoe and carried across the water. See to
+      the packing of the stuff, you black dog,&rdquo; she said to Jeekie over her
+      shoulder, &ldquo;and when it is ready I will send it hence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan began to thank her, though he thought it more than probable that even
+      if she kept her word, this bullion would never get to Old Calabar, and
+      much less to England. But she waived the matter aside as one in which she
+      was not interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me,&rdquo; she asked; &ldquo;would you have me other than I am? First, do you
+      think me beautiful?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Alan honestly, &ldquo;very beautiful when you are quiet as now,
+      not when you are dancing as you did the other night without your robes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When she understood what he meant the Asika actually blushed a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry,&rdquo; she answered in a voice that for her was quite humble. &ldquo;I
+      forget that it might seem strange in your eyes. It has always been the
+      custom for the Asika to do as I did at feasts and sacrifices, but perhaps
+      that is not the fashion among your women; perhaps they always remain
+      veiled, as I have heard the worshippers of the Prophet do, and therefore
+      you thought me immodest. I am very, very sorry, Vernoon. I pray you to
+      forgive me who am ignorant and only do what I have been taught.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, they always remain veiled,&rdquo; stammered Alan, though he was not
+      referring to their faces, and as the words passed his lips he wondered
+      what the Asika would think if she could see a ballet at a London
+      music-hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there anything else wrong?&rdquo; she went on gently. &ldquo;If so, tell me that I
+      may set it right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not like cruelty or sacrifices, O Asika. I have told you that
+      bloodshed is <i>orunda</i> to me, and at the feast those men were poisoned
+      and you mocked them in their pain; also many others were taken away to be
+      killed for no crime.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She opened her beautiful eyes and stared at him, answering:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Vernoon, all this is not my fault; they were sacrifices to the gods,
+      and if I did not sacrifice, I should be sacrificed by the priests and
+      wizards who live to sacrifice. Yes, myself I should be made to drink the
+      poison and be mocked at while I died like a snake with a broken back. Or
+      even if I escaped the vengeance of the people, the gods themselves would
+      kill me and raise up another in my place. Do they not sacrifice in your
+      country, Vernoon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Asika, they fight if necessary and kill those who commit murder. But
+      they have no fetish that asks for blood, and the law they have from heaven
+      is a law of mercy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stared at him again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All this is strange to me,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I was taught otherwise. Gods are
+      devils and must be appeased, lest they bring misfortune on us; men must be
+      ruled by terror, or they would rebel and pull down the great House;
+      doctors must learn magic, or how could they avert spells? wizards must be
+      killed, or the people would perish in their net. May not we who live in a
+      hell, strive to beat back its flame with the wisdom our forefathers have
+      handed on to us? Tell me, Vernoon, for I would know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You make your own hell,&rdquo; answered Alan when with the help of Jeekie he
+      understood her talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pondered over his words for a while, then said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must think. The thing is big. I wander in blackness; I will speak with
+      you again. Say now, what else is wrong with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Alan thought that he saw opportunity for a word in season and made a
+      great mistake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that you treat your husband, that man whom you call Mungana, very
+      badly. Why should you drive him to his death?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words the Asika leapt up in a rage, and seeking something to vent
+      her temper on, violently boxed Jeekie&rsquo;s ears and kicked him with her
+      sandalled foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Mungana!&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;that beast! What have I to do with him? I
+      hate him, as I hated the others. The priests thrust him on me. He has had
+      his day, let him go. In your country do they make women live with men whom
+      they loathe? I love <i>you</i>, Bonsa himself knows why? Perhaps because
+      you have a white skin and white thoughts. But I hate that man. What is the
+      use of being Asika if I cannot take what I love and reject what I hate? Go
+      away, Vernoon, go away, you have angered me, and if it were not for what
+      you have said about that new law of mercy, I think that I would cut your
+      throat,&rdquo; and again she boxed Jeekie&rsquo;s ears and kicked him in the shins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan rose and bowed himself towards the door while she stood with her back
+      towards him, sobbing. As he was about to pass it she wheeled round, wiping
+      the tears from her eyes with her hand, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I forgot, I sent for you to thank you for your presents; that,&rdquo; and she
+      pointed to the lion skin, &ldquo;which they tell me you killed with some kind of
+      thunder to save the life of that old cannibal, and this,&rdquo; and she pulled
+      off the necklace of claws, then added, &ldquo;as I am too bad to wear it, you
+      had better take it back again,&rdquo; and she threw it with all her strength
+      straight into Jeekie&rsquo;s face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fearing worse things, the much maltreated Jeekie uttered a howl and bolted
+      through the door, while Alan, picking up the necklace, returned it to her
+      with a bow. She took it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You are leaving the room without your mask and my women
+      are outside. Come here,&rdquo; and she tied the thing upon his head, setting it
+      all awry, then pushed him from the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very poor joke, Major, very poor indeed,&rdquo; said Jeekie when they had
+      reached their own apartment. &ldquo;Lady make love to <i>you</i>; <i>you</i>
+      play prig and lecture lady about holy customs of her country and she box
+      <i>my</i> ear till head sing, also kick me all over and throw sharp claws
+      in face. Please you do it no more. The next time, who knows? she stick
+      knife in <i>my</i> gizzard, then kiss <i>you</i> afterward and say she so
+      sorry and hope she no hurt <i>you</i>. But how that help poor departed
+      Jeekie who get all kicks, while you have ha&rsquo;pence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! be quiet,&rdquo; said Alan; &ldquo;you are welcome to the halfpence if you would
+      only leave me the kicks. The question is, how am I to get out of this
+      mess? While she was a beautiful savage devil, one could deal with the
+      thing, but if she is going to become human it is another matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie looked at him with pity in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Always thought white man mad at bottom,&rdquo; he said, shaking his big head.
+      &ldquo;To benighted black nigger thing so very simple. All you got to do, make
+      love and cut when you get chance. Then she pleased as Punch, everything go
+      smooth and Jeekie get no more kicks. Christian religion business very
+      good, but won&rsquo;t wash in Asiki-land. Your reverend uncle find out that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not wishing to pursue the argument, Alan changed the subject by asking his
+      indignant retainer if he thought that the Asika had meant what she said
+      when she offered to send the gold down to the coast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, Major? That good lady always mean what she say, and what she do
+      too,&rdquo; and he dabbed wrathfully at the scratches made by the lion&rsquo;s claws
+      on his face, then added, &ldquo;She know her own mind, not like shilly-shally,
+      see-saw white woman, who get up one thing and go to bed another. If she
+      love she love, if she hate she hate. If she say she send gold, she send
+      it, though pity to part with all that cash, because &lsquo;spect someone bag
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan reflected a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you see, Jeekie, that here is a chance, if a very small one, of
+      getting a message to the coast. Also it is quite clear that if we are ever
+      able to escape, it will be impossible for us to carry this heavy stuff,
+      whereas if we send it on ahead, perhaps some of it might get through. We
+      will pack it up, Jeekie, at any rate it will be something to do. Go now
+      and send a message to the Asika, and ask her to let us have some
+      carpenters, and a lot of well-seasoned wood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The message was sent and an hour later a dozen of the native craftsmen
+      arrived with their rude tools and a supply of planks cut from a kind of
+      iron-wood or ebony tree. They prostrated themselves to Alan, then the
+      master of them rising, instantly began to measure Jeekie with a marked
+      reed. That worthy sprang back and asked what in the name of Bonsa, Big and
+      Little, they were doing, whereon the man explained with humility that the
+      Asika had said that she thought the white lord wanted the wood to make a
+      box to bury his servant in, as he, the said servant, had offended her that
+      morning, and doubtless the white lord wished to kill him on that account,
+      or perhaps to put him away under ground alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my golly!&rdquo; said Jeekie, shaking till his great knees knocked
+      together, &ldquo;oh! my golly! here pretty go. She think you want bury me all
+      alive. That mean she want to be rid of Jeekie, because he got sit there
+      and play gooseberry when she wish talk alone with you. Oh, yes! I see her
+      little game.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, bursting into such a roar of laughter that he
+      nearly shook off his mask, &ldquo;you had better be careful, for you just told
+      me that the Asika is not like a see-saw white woman and never changes her
+      mind. Say to this man that he must tell the Asika there is a mistake, and
+      that however much I should like to oblige her, I can&rsquo;t bury you because it
+      has been prophesied to me that on the day you are buried, I shall be
+      buried also, and that therefore you must be kept alive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Capital notion that, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, much relieved. &ldquo;She not want
+      bury you just at present; next year perhaps, but not now. I tell him.&rdquo; And
+      he did with much vigour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This slight misconception having been disposed of, they explained to the
+      carpenters what was wanted. First, all the gold was emptied out of the
+      sacks in which it remained as the priests had brought it, and divided into
+      heaps, each of which weighed about forty pounds, a weight that with its
+      box Alan considered would be a good load for a porter. Of these heaps
+      there proved to be fifty-three, their total value, Alan reckoned,
+      amounting to about £100,000 sterling. Then the carpenters were set to work
+      to make a model box, which they did quickly enough and with great
+      ingenuity, cutting the wood with their native saws, dovetailing it as a
+      civilized craftsman would do, and finally securing it everywhere with
+      ebony pegs, driven into holes which they bored with a hot iron. The result
+      was a box that would stand any amount of rough usage and when finally
+      pegged down, one that could only be opened with a hammer and a cold
+      chisel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This box-making went on for two whole days. As each of them was filled and
+      pegged down, the gold within being packed in sawdust to keep it from
+      rattling, Alan amused himself in adding an address with a feather brush
+      and a supply of red paint such as the Asiki priests used to decorate their
+      bodies. At first he was puzzled to know what address to put, but finally
+      decided upon the following:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Major A. Vernon, care of Miss Champers, The Court, near Kingswell,
+      England.</i> Adding in the corner, <i>From A. V., Asiki Land, Africa.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was all childish enough, he knew, yet when it was done he regarded his
+      handiwork with a sort of satisfaction. For, reflected Alan, if but one of
+      those boxes should chance to get through to England, it would tell Barbara
+      a great deal, and if it were addressed to himself, her uncle could
+      scarcely dare to take possession of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he bethought him of sending a letter, but was obliged to abandon the
+      idea, as he had neither pen, pencil, ink, nor paper left to him. Whatever
+      arts remained to them, that of any form of writing was now totally unknown
+      to the Asiki, although marks that might be writing, it will be remembered,
+      did appear on the inner side of the Little Bonsa mask, an evidence of its
+      great antiquity. Even in the days when they had wrapped up the Egyptian,
+      the Roman, and other early Munganas in sheets of gold and set them in
+      their treasure-house, apparently they had no knowledge of it, for not even
+      an hieroglyph or a rune appeared upon the imperishable metal shrouds.
+      Since that time they had evidently decreased, not advanced, in learning
+      till at the present day, except for these relics and some dim and
+      meaningless survival of rites that once had been religious and were still
+      offered to the same ancient idols, there was little to distinguish them
+      from other tribes of Central African savages. Still Alan did something,
+      for obtaining a piece of white wood, which he smoothed as well as he was
+      able with a knife, he painted on it this message:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Messrs. Aston, Old Calabar. Please forward accompanying fifty-three
+      packages, or as many as arrive, and cable as follows (all costs will be
+      remitted): Miss Champers, Kingswell, England. Prisoner among Asiki. No
+      present prospect of escape, but hope for best. Jeekie and I well. Allowed
+      send this, but perhaps no future message possible. Good-bye. Alan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As it happened just as Alan was finishing this scrawl with a sad heart, he
+      heard a movement and glancing up, perceived standing at his side the
+      Asika, of whom he had seen nothing since the interview when she had beaten
+      Jeekie:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are those marks that you make upon the board, Vernoon?&rdquo; she asked
+      suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the assistance of Jeekie, who kept at a respectful distance, he
+      informed her that they were a message in writing to tell the white men at
+      the coast to forward the gold to his starving family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I never heard of writing. You shall teach it me. It will
+      serve to pass the time till we are married, though it will not be of much
+      use afterwards, as we shall never be separated any more and words are
+      better than marks upon a board. But,&rdquo; she added cheerfully, &ldquo;I can send
+      away this black dog of yours,&rdquo; and she looked at Jeekie, &ldquo;and he can write
+      to us. No, I cannot, for an accident might happen to him, and they tell me
+      you say that if he dies, you die also, so he must stop here always. What
+      have you in those little boxes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gold you gave me, Asika, packed in loads.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A small gift enough,&rdquo; she answered contemptuously; &ldquo;would you not like
+      more, since you value that stuff? Well, another time you shall send all
+      you want. Meanwhile the porters are waiting, fifty men and three, as you
+      sent me word, and ten spare ones to take the place of any who die. But how
+      they will find their way, I know not, since none of them have ever been to
+      the coast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An idea occurred to Alan, who had small faith in Jeekie&rsquo;s &ldquo;ma&rdquo; as a
+      messenger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Ogula prisoners could show them,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;at any rate as far as the
+      forest, and after that they could find out. May they not go, Asika?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will,&rdquo; she answered carelessly. &ldquo;Let them be ready to start
+      to-morrow at the dawn, all except their chief, Fahni, who must stop here
+      as a hostage. I do not trust those Ogula, who more than once have
+      threatened to make war upon us,&rdquo; she added, then turned and bade the
+      priests bring in the bearers to receive their instructions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently they came, picked men all of them, under the command of an Asiki
+      captain, and with them the Ogula, whom she summoned also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go where the white lord sends you,&rdquo; she said in an indifferent voice,
+      &ldquo;carrying with you these packages. I do not know where it is, but these
+      man-eaters will show you some of the way, and if you fail in the business
+      but live to come back again, you shall be sacrificed to Bonsa at the next
+      feast; if you run away then your wives and children will be sacrificed.
+      Food shall be given you for your journey, and gold to buy more when it is
+      gone. Now, Vernoon, tell them what they have to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Alan, or rather Jeekie, told them, and these directions were so long
+      and minute, that before they were finished the Asika grew tired of
+      listening and went away, saying as she passed the captain of the company:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Remember my words, man, succeed or die, but of your land and its secrets
+      say nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hear,&rdquo; answered the captain, prostrating himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night Alan summoned the Ogula and spoke to them through Jeekie in
+      their own language. At first they declared that they would not leave their
+      chief, preferring to stay and die with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so,&rdquo; said Fahni; &ldquo;go, my children, that I may live. Go and gather the
+      tribe, all the thousands of them who are men and can fight, and bring them
+      up to attack Asiki-land, to rescue me if I still live, or to avenge me if
+      I am dead. As for these bearers, do them no harm, but send them on to the
+      coast with the white man&rsquo;s goods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So in the end the Ogula said that they would go, and when Alan woke up on
+      the following morning, he was informed that they and the Asiki porters had
+      already departed upon their journey. Then he dismissed the matter from his
+      mind, for to tell the truth he never expected to hear of them any more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      ALAN FALLS ILL
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      After the departure of the messengers a deep melancholy fell upon Alan,
+      who was sure that he had now no further hope of communicating with the
+      outside world. Bitterly did he reproach himself for his folly in having
+      ever journeyed to this hateful place in order to secure&mdash;what? About
+      £100,000 worth of gold which of course he never could secure, as it would
+      certainly vanish or be stolen on its way to the coast. For this gold he
+      had become involved in a dreadful complication which must cost him much
+      misery, and sooner or later life itself, since he could not marry that
+      beautiful savage Asika, and if he refused her she would certainly kill him
+      in her outraged pride and fury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Day by day she sent for him, and when he came, assumed a new character,
+      that of a woman humbled by a sense of her own ignorance, which she was
+      anxious to amend. So he must play the role of tutor to her, telling her of
+      civilized peoples, their laws, customs and religions, and instructing her
+      how to write and read. She listened and learned submissively enough, but
+      all the while Alan felt as one might who is called upon to teach tricks to
+      a drugged panther. The drug in this case was her passion for him, which
+      appeared to be very genuine. But when it passed off, or when he was
+      obliged to refuse her, what, he wondered, would happen then?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anxiety and confinement told on him far more than all the hardships of his
+      journey. His health ran down, he began to fall ill. Then as bad luck would
+      have it, walking in that damp, unwholesome cedar garden, out of which he
+      might not stray, he contracted the germ of some kind of fever which in
+      autumn was very common in this poisonous climate. Three days later he
+      became delirious, and for a week after that hung between life and death.
+      Well was it for him that his medicine-chest still remained intact, and
+      that recognizing his own symptoms before his head gave way, he was able to
+      instruct Jeekie what drugs to give him at the different stages of the
+      disease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the rest his memories of that dreadful illness always remained very
+      vague. He had visions of Jeekie and of a robed woman whom he knew to be
+      the Asika, bending over him continually. Also it seemed to him that from
+      time to time he was talking with Barbara, which even then he knew must be
+      absurd, for how could they talk across thousands of miles of land and sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length his mind cleared suddenly, and he awoke as from a nightmare to
+      find himself lying in the hall or room where he had always been, feeling
+      quite cool and without pain, but so weak that it was an effort to him to
+      lift his hand. He stared about him and was astonished to see the white
+      head of Jeekie rolling uneasily to and fro upon the cushions of another
+      bed near by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;are you ill too, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the sound of that voice his retainer started up violently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, Major, you awake?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Thanks be to all gods, white and
+      black, yes, and yellow too, for I thought your goose cooked. No, no,
+      Major, I not ill, only Asika say so. You go to bed, so she make me go to
+      bed. You get worse, she treat me cruel; you seem better, she stuff me with
+      food till I burst. All because you tell her that you and I die same day.
+      Oh, Lord! poor Jeekie think his end very near just now, for he know quite
+      well that she not let him breathe ten minutes after you peg out. Jeekie
+      never pray so hard for anyone before as he pray this week for you, and by
+      Jingo! I think he do the trick, he and that medicine stuff which make him
+      feel very bad in stomach,&rdquo; and he groaned under the weight of his many
+      miseries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Weak as he was Alan began to laugh, and that laugh seemed to do him more
+      good than anything that he could remember, for after it he was sure that
+      he would recover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then an agonized whisper reached him from Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out!&rdquo; it said, &ldquo;here come Asika. Go sleep and seem better, Major,
+      please, or I catch it hot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Alan almost shut his eyes and lay still. In another moment she was
+      standing over him and he noticed that her hair was dishevelled and her
+      eyes were red as though with weeping. She scanned him intently for a
+      little while, then passed round to where Jeekie lay and appeared to pinch
+      his ear so hard that he wriggled and uttered a stifled groan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is your lord, dog?&rdquo; she whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better, O Asika, I think that last medicine do us good, though it make me
+      very sick inside. Just now he spoke to me and said that he hoped that your
+      heart was not sad because of him and that all this time in his dreams he
+      had seen and thought of nobody but you, O Asika.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he?&rdquo; asked that lady, becoming intensely interested. &ldquo;Then tell me,
+      dog, why is he ever calling upon one Bar-bar-a? Surely that is a woman&rsquo;s
+      name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, O Asika, that is the name of his mother, also of one of his sisters,
+      whom, after you, he loves best of anyone in the whole world. When you are
+      here he talks of them, but when you are not here he talks of no one but
+      you. Although he is so sick he remembers white man&rsquo;s custom, which tells
+      him that it is very wrong to say sweet things to lady&rsquo;s face till he is
+      quite married to her. After that they say them always.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him suspiciously and muttering, &ldquo;Here it is otherwise. For
+      your own sake, man, I trust that you do not lie,&rdquo; left him, and drawing a
+      stool up beside Alan&rsquo;s bed, sat herself down and examined him carefully,
+      touching his face and hands with her long thin fingers. Then noting how
+      white and wasted he was, of a sudden she began to weep, saying between her
+      sobs:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! if you should die, Vernoon, I will die also and be born again not as
+      Asika, as I have been for so many generations, but as a white woman that I
+      may be with you. Only first,&rdquo; she added, setting her teeth, &ldquo;I will
+      sacrifice every wizard in this land, for they have brought the sickness on
+      you by their magic, and I will burn Bonsa-town and cast its gods to melt
+      in the flames, and the Mungana with them. And then amid their ashes I will
+      let out my life,&rdquo; and again she began to weep very piteously and to call
+      him by endearing names and pray him that he would not die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Alan thought it time to wake up. He opened his eyes, stared at her
+      vacantly, and asked if it were raining, which indeed it might have been,
+      for her big tears were falling on his face. She uttered a gasp of joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;the weather is very fine. It is I&mdash;I who
+      have rained because I thought you die.&rdquo; She wiped his forehead with the
+      soft linen of her robe, then went on, &ldquo;But you will not die; say that you
+      will live, say that you will live for me, Vernoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her, and feeble though he was, the awfulness of the situation
+      sank into his soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope that I shall live,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;I am hungry, please give me some
+      food.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Next instant there was a tumult near by, and when Alan looked up again it
+      was to see Jeekie, very lightly clad, flying through the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be here presently,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Oh! if you knew what I have
+      suffered, if you only knew. Now you will recover whom I thought dead, for
+      this fever passes quickly and there shall be such a sacrifice&mdash;no, I
+      forgot, you hate sacrifices&mdash;there shall be no sacrifice, there shall
+      be a thanksgiving, and every woman in the land shall break her bonds to
+      husband or to lover and take him whom she desires without reproach or
+      loss. I will do as I would be done by, that is the law you taught me, is
+      it not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This novel interpretation of a sacred doctrine, worthy of Jeekie himself,
+      so paralyzed Alan&rsquo;s enfeebled brain that he could make no answer, nor do
+      anything except wonder what would happen in Asiki-land when the decree of
+      its priestess took effect. Then Jeekie arrived with something to drink
+      which he swallowed with the eagerness of the convalescent and almost
+      immediately went to sleep in good earnest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan&rsquo;s recovery was rapid, since as the Asika had told him, if a patient
+      lives through it, the kind of fever that he had taken did not last long
+      enough to exhaust his vital forces. When she asked him if he needed
+      anything to make him well, he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, air and exercise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She replied that he should have both, and next morning his hated mask was
+      put upon his face and he was supported by priests to a door where a
+      litter, or rather litters were waiting, one for himself and another for
+      Jeekie who, although in robust health, was still supposed to be officially
+      ill and not allowed to walk upon his own legs. They entered these litters
+      and were borne off till presently they met a third litter of particularly
+      gorgeous design carried by masked bearers, wherein was the Asika herself,
+      wearing her coronet and a splendid robe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Into this litter, which was fitted with a second seat, Alan was
+      transferred, the Mungana, for whom it was designed, being placed in that
+      vacated by Alan, which either by accident or otherwise, was no more seen
+      that day. They went up the mountain side and to the edge of the great fall
+      and watched the waters thunder down, though the crest of them they could
+      not reach. Next they wandered off into the huge forests that clothed the
+      slopes of the hills and there halted and ate. Then as the sun sank they
+      returned to the gloomy Bonsa-Town beneath them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For Alan, notwithstanding his weakness and anxieties, it was a heavenly
+      day. The Asika was passive, some new mood being on her, and scarcely
+      troubled him at all except to call his attention to a tree, a flower, or a
+      prospect of the scenery. Here on the mountain side, too, the air was
+      sweet, and for the rest&mdash;well, he who had been so near to death, was
+      escaped for an hour from that gloomy home of bloodshed and superstition,
+      and saw God&rsquo;s sky again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This journey was the first of many. Every day the litters were waiting and
+      they visited some new place, although into the town itself they never
+      went. Moreover, if they passed through outlying villages, though Alan was
+      forced to wear his mask, their inhabitants had been warned to absent
+      themselves, so that they saw no one. The crops were left untended and the
+      cattle and sheep lowed hungrily in their kraals. On certain days, at
+      Alan&rsquo;s request, they were taken to the spots where the gold was found in
+      the gravel bed of an almost dry stream that during the rains was a
+      torrent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He descended from the litter and with the help of the Asika and Jeekie,
+      dug a little in this gravel, not without reward, for in it they found
+      several nuggets. Above, too, where they went afterwards, was a huge quartz
+      reef denuded by water, which evidently had been worked in past ages and
+      was still so rich that in it they saw plenty of visible gold. Looking at
+      it Alan bethought him of his City days and of the hundreds of thousands of
+      pounds capital with which this unique proposition might have been floated.
+      Afterwards they were carried to the places where the gems were found,
+      stuck about in the clay, like plums in a pudding, though none ever sought
+      them now. But all these things interested the Asika not at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the good of gold,&rdquo; she asked of Alan, &ldquo;except to make things of,
+      or the bright stones except to play with? What is the good of anything
+      except food to eat and power and wisdom that can open the secret doors of
+      knowledge, of things seen and things unseen, and love that brings the
+      lover joy and forgetfulness of self and takes away the awful loneliness of
+      the soul, if only for a little while?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not wishing to drift into discussion on the matter of love, Alan asked the
+      priestess to define her &ldquo;soul,&rdquo; whence it came and whither she believed it
+      to be going.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My soul is I, Vernoon,&rdquo; she answered, &ldquo;and already very, very old. Thus
+      it has ruled amongst this people for thousands of years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is that?&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;seeing that the Asika dies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! no, Vernoon, she does not die; she only changes. The old body dies,
+      the spirit enters into another body which is waiting. Thus until I was
+      fourteen I was but a common girl, the daughter of a headman of that
+      village yonder, at least so they tell me, for of this time I have no
+      memory. Then the Asika died and as I had the secret marks and the beauty
+      that is hers the priests burnt her body before Big Bonsa and suffocated
+      me, the child, in the smoke of the burning. But I awoke again and when I
+      awoke the past was gone and the soul of the Asika filled me, bringing with
+      it its awful memories, its gathered wisdom, its passion of love and hate,
+      and its power to look backward and before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you ever do these things?&rdquo; asked Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Backward, yes, before very little; since you came, not at all, because my
+      heart is a coward and I fear what I might see. Oh! Vernoon, Vernoon, I
+      know you and your thoughts. You think me a beautiful beast who loves like
+      a beast, who loves you because you are white and different from our men.
+      Well, what there is of the beast in me the gods of my people gave, for
+      they are devils and I am their servant. But there is more than that, there
+      is good also which I have won for myself. I knew you would come even
+      before I had seen your face, I knew you would come,&rdquo; she went on
+      passionately, &ldquo;and that is why I was yours already. But what would befall
+      after you came, that I neither knew, nor know, because I will not seek,
+      who could learn it all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her and she saw the doubt in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not believe me, Vernoon. Very well, this night you shall see, you
+      and that black dog of yours, that you may know I do not trick you, and he
+      shall tell me what you see, for he being but a low-born pig will speak the
+      truth, not minding if it hurts me, whereas you are gentle and might spare,
+      and myself I have sworn not to search the future by an oath that I may not
+      break.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of the past?&rdquo; asked Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will not waste time on it, for I know it all. Vernoon, have you no
+      memories of Asiki-land? Do you think you never visited it before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never,&rdquo; said Alan; &ldquo;it was my uncle who came and ran away with Little
+      Bonsa on his head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is news indeed,&rdquo; she replied mockingly. &ldquo;Did you then think that I
+      believed it to be you, though it is true that she who went before, or my
+      spirit that was in her, fell into error for an hour, and thought that
+      fool-uncle of yours was <i>the Man</i>. When she found her mistake she let
+      him go, and bade the god go with him that it might bring back the
+      appointed Man, as it has done; yes, that Little Bonsa, who knew him of
+      old, might search him out from among all the millions of men, born or
+      unborn, and bring him back to me. Therefore also she chose a young black
+      dog who would live for many years, and bade the god to take him with her,
+      and told him of the wealth of our people that it might be a bait upon the
+      hook. Do you see, Vernoon, that yellow dirt was the bait, that I&mdash;I
+      am the hook? Well, you have felt it before, so it should not gall you
+      overmuch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Alan was more frightened than he had been since he set foot in
+      Asiki-land, for of a sudden this woman became terrible to him. He felt
+      that she knew things which were hidden from him. For the first time he
+      believed in her, believed, that she was more than a mere passionate savage
+      set by chance to rule over a bloodthirsty tribe; that she was one who had
+      a part in his destiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Felt the hook?&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;I do not understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very forgetful,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;Vernoon, we have lived and loved
+      before, who were twin souls from the first. That man now, whom I told you
+      lived once on the great river called the Nile, have you no memory of him?
+      Well, well, let it be, I will tell you afterwards. Here we are at the Gold
+      House again, to-night when I am ready I will send for you, and this I
+      promise, you shall leave me wiser than you were.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were alone in their room Alan told Jeekie of the expected
+      entertainment of crystal gazing, or whatever it might be, and the part
+      that he was to play in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say that again, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan repeated the information, giving every detail that he could remember.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;I see Asika show us things, &lsquo;cause she afraid to look
+      at them herself, or take oath, or can&rsquo;t, or something. She no ask you tell
+      her what she see, because you too kind hurt her feeling, if happen to be
+      something beastly. But Jeekie just tell her because he so truthful and not
+      care curse about her feeling. Well, that all right, Jeekie tell her sure
+      enough. Only, Major, don&rsquo;t you interrupt. Quite possible these magic
+      things, I see one show, you see another. So don&rsquo;t you go say, &lsquo;Jeekie,
+      that a lie,&rsquo; and give me away to Asika just because you think you see
+      different, &lsquo;cause if so you put me into dirty hole, and of course I catch
+      it afterwards. You promise, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! yes, I promise. But, Jeekie, do you really think we are going to see
+      anything?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t say, Major,&rdquo; and he shook his head gloomily. &ldquo;P&rsquo;raps all put up
+      job. But lots of rum things in world, Major, specially among beastly
+      African savage who very curious and always ready pay blood to bad Spirit.
+      Hope Asika not get this into her head, because no one know what happen.
+      P&rsquo;raps we see too much and scared all our lives; but p&rsquo;raps all tommy
+      rot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it&mdash;tommy rot,&rdquo; answered Alan, who was not superstitious.
+      &ldquo;Well, I suppose that we must go through with it. But oh! Jeekie, I wish
+      you would tell me how to get out of this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know, Major, p&rsquo;raps never get out; p&rsquo;raps learn how to-night. Have
+      to do something soon if want to go. Mungana&rsquo;s time nearly up, and then&mdash;oh
+      my eye!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was night, about ten o&rsquo;clock indeed, the hour at which Alan generally
+      went to bed. No message had come and he began to hope that the Asika had
+      forgotten, or changed her mind, and was just going to say so to Jeekie
+      when a light coming from behind him attracted his attention and he turned
+      to see her standing in a corner of the great room, holding a lamp in her
+      hand and looking towards him. Her gold breastplate and crown were gone,
+      with every other ornament, and she was clad, or rather muffled in robes of
+      pure white fitted with a kind of nun&rsquo;s hood which lay back upon her
+      shoulders. Also on her arm she carried a shawl or veil. Standing thus, all
+      undecked, with her long hair fastened in a simple knot, she still looked
+      very beautiful, more so than she had ever been, thought Alan, for the
+      cruelty of her face had faded and was replaced by a mystery very strange
+      to see. She did not seem quite like a natural woman, and that was the
+      reason, perhaps, that Alan for the first time felt attracted by her.
+      Hitherto she had always repelled him, but this night it was otherwise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did you come here?&rdquo; he asked in a more gentle voice than he generally
+      used towards her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Noting the change in his tone, she smiled shyly and even coloured a
+      little, then answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This house has many secrets, Vernoon. When you are lord of it you shall
+      learn them all, till then I may not tell them to you. But, come, there are
+      other secrets which I hope you shall see to-night, and, Jeekie, come you
+      also, for you shall be the mouth of your lord, so that you may tell me
+      what perhaps he would hide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tell you everything, everything, O Asika,&rdquo; answered Jeekie,
+      stretching out his hands and bowing almost to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they started and following many long passages as before, although
+      whether they were the same or others Alan could not tell, came at last to
+      a door which he recognized, that of the Treasure House. As they approached
+      this door it opened and through it, like a hunted thing, ran the bedizened
+      Mungana, husband of the Asika, terror, or madness, shining in his eyes.
+      Catching sight of his wife, who bore the lamp, he threw himself upon his
+      knees and snatching at her robe, addressed some petition to her, speaking
+      so rapidly that Alan could not follow his words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment she listened, then dragged her dress from his hand and
+      spurned him with her foot. There was something so cruel in the gesture and
+      the action, so full of deadly hate and loathing, that Alan, who witnessed
+      it, experienced a new revulsion of feeling towards the Asika. What kind of
+      a woman must she be, he wondered, who could treat a discarded lover thus
+      in the presence of his successor?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a groan or a sob, it was difficult to say which, the poor man rose
+      and perceived Alan, whose face he now beheld for the first time, since the
+      Asika had told him not to mask himself as they would meet no one. The
+      sight of it seemed to fill him with jealous fury; at any rate he leapt at
+      his rival, intending, apparently, to catch him by the throat. Alan, who
+      was watching him, stepped aside, so that he came into violent contact with
+      the wall of the passage and, half-stunned by the shock, reeled onwards
+      into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The hog!&rdquo; said the Asika, or rather she hissed it, &ldquo;the hog, who dared to
+      touch me and to strike at you. Well, his time is short&mdash;would that I
+      could make it shorter! Did you hear what he sought of me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan, who wished for no confidences, replied by asking what the Mungana
+      was doing in the Treasure House, to which she answered that the spirits
+      who dwelt there were eating up his soul, and when they had devoured it all
+      he would go quite mad and kill himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does this happen to all Munganas?&rdquo; inquired Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Vernoon, if the Asika hates them, but if she loves them it is
+      otherwise. Come, let us forget the wretch, who would kill you if he
+      could,&rdquo; and she led the way into the hall and up it, passing between the
+      heaps of gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the table where lay the necklaces of gems she set down her lamp,
+      whereof the light, all there was in that great place, flickered feebly
+      upon the mask of Little Bonsa, which had been moved here apparently for
+      some ceremonial purpose, and still more feebly upon the hideous, golden
+      countenances and winding sheets of the ancient, yellow dead who stood
+      around in scores placed one above the other, each in his appointed niche.
+      It was an awesome scene and one that oppressed Jeekie very much, for he
+      murmured to Alan:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh my! Major, family vault child&rsquo;s play to this hole, just like&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+       here his comparison came to an end, for the Asika cut it short with a
+      single glance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit here in front of me,&rdquo; she said to Alan, &ldquo;and you, Jeekie, sit at your
+      lord&rsquo;s side, and be silent till I bid you speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she crouched down in a heap behind them, threw the cloth or veil she
+      carried over her head, and in some way that they did not see, suddenly
+      extinguished the lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now they were in deep darkness, the darkness of death, and in utter
+      silence, the silence of the dead. No glimmer of light, and yet to Alan it
+      seemed as though he could feel the flash of the crystal eyes of Little
+      Bonsa, and of all the other eyes set in the masks of those departed men
+      who once had been the husbands of the bloodstained priestess of the Asiki,
+      till one by one, as she wearied of them, they were bewitched to madness
+      and to doom. In that utter quiet he thought even that he could hear them
+      stir within their winding sheets, or it may have been that the Asika had
+      risen and moved among them on some errand of her own. Far away something
+      fell to the floor, a very light object, such as flake of rock or a scale
+      of gold. Yet the noise of it struck his nerves loud as a clap of thunder,
+      and those of Jeekie also, for he felt him start at his side and heard the
+      sudden hammerlike beat of his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was the woman doing in this dreadful place, he wondered. Well, it was
+      easy to guess. Doubtless she had brought them here to scare and impress
+      them. Presently a voice, that of some hidden priest, would speak to them,
+      and they would be asked to believe it a message from the spirit world, or
+      a spirit itself might be arranged&mdash;what could be easier in their mood
+      and these surroundings?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the Asika was speaking behind them in a muffled voice. From the tone
+      of it she appeared to be engaged in argument or supplication in some
+      strange tongue. At any rate Alan could not understand a word of what she
+      said. The argument, or prayer, went on for a long while, with pauses as
+      though for answers. Then suddenly it ceased and once more they were
+      plunged into that unfathomable silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      It seemed to Alan that he went to sleep and dreamed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He dreamed that it was late autumn in England. Leaves drifted down from
+      the trees beneath the breath of a strong, damp wind, and ran or floated
+      along the road till they vanished into a ditch, or caught against a pile
+      of stones that had been laid ready for its repair. He knew the road well
+      enough; he even knew the elm tree beneath which he seemed to stand on the
+      crest of a hill. It was that which ran from Mr. Champers-Haswell&rsquo;s
+      splendid house, The Court, to the church; he could see them both, the
+      house to the right, the church to the left, and his eyesight seemed to
+      have improved, since he was able to observe that at either place there was
+      bustle and preparation as though for some big ceremony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the big gates of The Court opened and through them came a funeral. It
+      advanced toward him with unnatural swiftness, as though it floated upon
+      air, the whole melancholy procession of it. In a few seconds it had come
+      and gone and yet during those seconds he suffered agony, for there arose
+      in his mind a horrible terror that this was Barbara&rsquo;s burying. He could
+      not have endured it for another moment; he would have cried out or died,
+      only now the mourners passed him following the coffin, and in the first
+      carriage he saw Barbara seated, looking sad and somewhat troubled, but
+      well. A little further down the line came another carriage, and in it was
+      Sir Robert Aylward, staring before him with cold, impassive face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his dream Alan thought to himself that he must have borrowed this
+      carriage, which would not be strange, as he generally used motors, for
+      there was a peer&rsquo;s coronet upon the panels and the silver-mounted harness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The funeral passed and suddenly vanished into the churchyard gates,
+      leaving Alan wondering why his cousin Haswell was not seated at Barbara&rsquo;s
+      side. Then it occurred to him that it might be because he was in the
+      coffin, and at that moment in his dream he heard the Asika asking Jeekie
+      what he saw; heard Jeekie answering also, &ldquo;A burying in the country called
+      England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of whom, Jeekie?&rdquo; Then after some hesitation, the answer:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of a lady whom my lord loves very much. They bury her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was her name, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her name was Barbara.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bar-bara, why that you told me was the name of his mother and his sister.
+      Which of them is buried?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither, O Asika. It was another lady who loved him very much and wanted
+      to marry him, and that was why he ran away to Africa. But now she is dead
+      and buried.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are all women in England called Barbara, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, O Asika, Barbara means woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your lord loved this Barbara, why then did he run away from her? Well,
+      it matters not since she is dead and buried, for whatever their spirits
+      may feel, no man cares for a woman that is dead until she clothes herself
+      in flesh again. That was a good vision and I will reward you for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have earned nothing, O Asika,&rdquo; answered Jeekie modestly, &ldquo;who only tell
+      you what I see as I must. Yet, O Asika,&rdquo; he added with a note of anxiety
+      in his voice, &ldquo;why do you not read these magic writings for yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I dare not, or rather because I can not,&rdquo; she answered fiercely.
+      &ldquo;Be silent, slave, for now the power of the good broods upon my soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dream went on. A great forest appeared, such a forest as they had
+      passed before they met the cannibals, and set beneath one of the trees, a
+      tent and in that tent Barbara, Barbara weeping. Someone began to lift the
+      flap of the tent. She sprang up, snatching at a pistol that lay beside
+      her, turning its muzzle towards her breast. A man entered the tent. Alan
+      saw his face, it was his own. Barbara let fall the pistol and fell
+      backwards as though a bullet from it had pierced her heart. He leapt
+      towards her, but before he came to where she lay everything had vanished
+      and he heard Jeekie droning out his lies to the Asika, telling her that
+      the vision he had seen was one of her and his master seated with their
+      arms about each other in a chamber of the Golden House.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A third time the dream descended on Alan like a cloud. It seemed to him
+      that he was borne beyond the flaming borders of the world. Everything
+      around was new and unfamiliar, vast, changing, lovely, terrible. He stood
+      alone upon a pearly plain and the sky above him was lit with red moons,
+      many and many of them that hung there like lamps. Spirits began to pass
+      him. He could catch something of their splendour as they sped by with
+      incredible swiftness; he could hear the music of their laughter. One rose
+      up at his side. It was the Asika, only a thousand times more splendid;
+      clothed in all the glory of hell. Majestically she bent towards him, her
+      glowing eyes held his, the deadly perfume of her breath beat upon his brow
+      and made him drunken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She spoke to him and her voice sounded like distant bells.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Through many a life, through many a life,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;bought with much
+      blood, paid for with a million tears, but mine at last, the soul that I
+      have won to comfort my soul in the eternal day. Come to the place I have
+      made ready for you, the hell that shall turn to heaven at your step, come,
+      you by whom I am redeemed, and drive away those gods that torture me
+      because I was their servant that I might win you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So she spoke, and though all his soul revolted, yet the fearful strength
+      that was in her seemed to draw him onward whither she would go. Then a
+      light shone and that light was the face of Barbara and with a suddenness
+      that was almost awful, the wild dream came to an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan was in his own room again, though how he got there he did not
+      recollect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;what has happened? I seem to have had a very curious
+      dream, there in the Treasure-place, and to have heard you telling the
+      Asika a string of incredible falsehoods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! no, Major, Jeekie can&rsquo;t lie, too good Christian; he tell her what <i>he</i>
+      see, or what he think she see if she look, &lsquo;cause though p&rsquo;raps he see
+      nothing, she never believe that. And,&rdquo; he added with a burst of
+      confidence, &ldquo;what the dickens it matter what he tell her, so long as she
+      swallow same and keep quiet? Nasty things always make women like Asika
+      quite outrageous. Give them sweet to suck, say Jeekie, and if they ill
+      afterwards, that no fault of his. They had sweet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite so, Jeekie, quite so, only I should advise you not to play too many
+      tricks upon the Asika, lest she should happen to find you out. How did I
+      get back here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like man that walk in his sleep, Major. She go first, you follow, just as
+      little lamb after Mary in hymn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie, did you really see anything at all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Major, nothing partic&rsquo;lar, except ghost of Mrs. Jeekie and of your
+      reverend uncle, both of them very angry. That magic all stuff, Major.
+      Asika put something in your grub make you drunk, so that you think her
+      very wise. Don&rsquo;t think of it no more, Major, or you go off your chump. If
+      Jeekie see nothing, depend on it there nothing to see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps so, Jeekie, but I wish I could be sure you had seen nothing.
+      Listen to me; we must get out of this place somehow, or as you say, I
+      shall go off my chump. It&rsquo;s haunted, Jeekie, its haunted, and I think that
+      Asika is a devil, not a woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That what priests say, Major, very old devil&mdash;part of Bonsa,&rdquo; he
+      answered, looking at his master anxiously. &ldquo;Well, don&rsquo;t you fret, Jeekie
+      not afraid of devils, Jeekie get you out in good time. Go to bed and leave
+      it all to Jeekie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifteen more days had gone by, and it was the eve of the night of the
+      second full moon when Alan was destined to become the husband of the
+      Asika. She had sent for him that morning and he found her radiant with
+      happiness. Whether or no she believed Jeekie&rsquo;s interpretation of the
+      visions she had called up, it seemed quite certain that her mind was void
+      of fears and doubts. She was sure that Alan was about to become her
+      husband, and had summoned all the people of the Asiki to be present at the
+      ceremony of their marriage, and incidentally of the death of the Mungana
+      who, poor wretch, was to be forced to kill himself upon that occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before they parted she had spoken to Alan sweetly enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vernoon,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I know that you do not love me as I love you, but
+      the love will come, since for your sake I will change myself. I will grow
+      gentle; I will shed no more blood; that of the Mungana shall be the last,
+      and even him I would spare if I could, only while he lives I may not marry
+      you; it is the one law that is stronger than I am, and if I broke it I and
+      you would die at once. You shall even teach me your faith, if you will,
+      for what is good to you is henceforth good to me. Ask what you wish of me,
+      and as an earnest I will do it if I can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Alan looked at her. There was one thing that he wished above all
+      others&mdash;that she would let him go. But this he did not dare to ask;
+      moreover, it would have been utterly useless. After all, if the Asika&rsquo;s
+      love was terrible, what would be the appearance of her outraged hate? What
+      could he ask? More gold? He hated the very name of the stuff, for it had
+      brought him here. He remembered the old cannibal chief, Fahni, who, like
+      himself, languished a prisoner, daily expecting death. Only that morning
+      he had implored him to obtain his liberty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, Asika,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now, if your words are true, set Fahni
+      free and let him return to his own country, for if he stays here he will
+      die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, Vernoon, that is a small thing,&rdquo; she answered, smiling, &ldquo;though
+      it is true that when he gets there he will probably make war upon us.
+      Well, let him, let him.&rdquo; Then she clapped her hands and summoned priests,
+      whom she bade go at once and conduct Fahni out of Bonsa-Town. Also she
+      bade them loose certain slaves who were of the Ogula tribe, that they
+      might accompany him laden with provisions, and send on orders to the
+      outposts that Fahni and his party should pass unmolested from the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This done, she began to talk to Alan about many matters, however little he
+      might answer her. Indeed it seemed almost as though she feared to let him
+      leave her side; as though some presentiment of loss oppressed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, to Alan&rsquo;s great relief, the time came when they must part,
+      since it was necessary for her to attend a secret ceremony of preparation
+      or purification that was called &ldquo;Putting-off-the-Past.&rdquo; Although she had
+      been thrice summoned, still she would not let him go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They call you, Asika,&rdquo; said Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, they call me,&rdquo; she replied, springing up. &ldquo;Leave me, Vernoon,
+      till we meet to-morrow to part no more. Oh! why is my heart so heavy in
+      me? That black dog of yours read the visions that I summoned but might not
+      look on, and they were good visions. They showed that the woman who loved
+      you is dead; they showed us wedded, and other deeper things. Surely he
+      would not dare to lie to me, knowing that if he did I would flay him
+      living and throw him to the vultures. Why, then, is my heart so heavy in
+      me? Would you escape me, Vernoon? Nay, you are not so cruel, nor could you
+      do it except by death. Moreover, man, know that even in death you cannot
+      escape me, for there be sure I shall follow you and claim you, to whose
+      side my spirit has toiled for ages, and what is there so strong that it
+      can snatch you from my hand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him a moment, and seizing his hand burst into a flood of
+      tears, and seizing his hand threw herself upon her knees and kissed it
+      again and again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go now,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;go, and let my love go with you, through lives and
+      deaths, and all the dreams beyond, oh! let my love go with you, as it
+      shall, Vernoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he went, leaving her weeping on her knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the dark hours that followed Alan and madness were not far apart.
+      What could he do? Escape was utterly impossible. For weeks he and Jeekie
+      had considered it in vain. Even if they could win out of the Gold House
+      fortress, what hope had they of making their way through the crowded,
+      tortuous town where, after the African fashion, peopled walked about all
+      night, every one of whom would recognize the white man, whether he were
+      masked or no? Besides, beyond the town were the river and the guarded
+      walls and gates and beyond them open country where they would be cut off
+      or run down. No, to attempt escape was suicide. Suicide! That gave him an
+      idea, why should he not kill himself? It would be easy enough, for he
+      still had his revolver and a few cartridges, and surely it was better than
+      to enter on such a life as awaited him as the plaything of a priestess of
+      a tribe of fetish-worshipping savages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if he killed himself, how about Barbara and how about poor old Jeekie,
+      who would certainly be killed also? Besides, it was not the right thing to
+      do, and while there is life there is always hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan paused in his walk up and down the room and looked at Jeekie, who sat
+      upon the floor with his back resting against the stone altar, reflectively
+      pulling down his thick under-lip and letting it fly back, negro-fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;time&rsquo;s up. What am I to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do, Major?&rdquo; he replied with affected cheerfulness. &ldquo;Oh! that quite
+      simple. Jeekie arrange everything. You marry Asika and by and by, when you
+      master here and tired of her, you give her slip. Very interesting
+      experience; no white man ever have such luck before. Asika not half bad,
+      <i>if</i> she fond of you; she like little girl in song, when she good,
+      she very, very good. At any rate, nothing else to do. Marry Asika or
+      spiflicate, which mean, Major, that Jeekie spiflicate too, and,&rdquo; he added,
+      shaking his white head sadly, &ldquo;he no like <i>that</i>. One or two little
+      things on his mind that no get time to square up yet. Daren&rsquo;t pray like
+      Christian here, &lsquo;cause afraid of Bonsas, and Bonsas come even with him by
+      and by, &lsquo;cause he been Christian, so poor Jeekie fall down bump between
+      two stools. &lsquo;Postles kick him out of heaven and Bonsas kick him out of
+      hell, and where Jeekie go to then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know, I am sure,&rdquo; answered Alan, smiling a little in spite of his
+      sorrow, &ldquo;but I think the Bonsas might find a corner for you somewhere.
+      Look here, Jeekie, you old scamp, I am sorry for you, for you have been a
+      good friend to me and we are fond of each other. But just understand this,
+      I am not going to marry that woman if I can help it. It&rsquo;s against my
+      principles. So I shall wait till to-morrow and then I shall walk out of
+      this place. If the guards try to stop me I shall shoot them while I have
+      any cartridges. Then I shall go on until they kill me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! But Major, they not kill you&mdash;never; they chuck blanket over
+      your head and take you back to Asika. It Jeekie they kill, skin him
+      alive-o, and all the rest of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hope not, Jeekie, because they think we shall die the same day. But if
+      so, I can&rsquo;t help it. To-morrow morning I shall walk out, and now that&rsquo;s
+      settled. I am tired and going to sleep,&rdquo; and he threw himself down upon
+      the bed and, being worn out with weariness and anxiety, soon fell fast
+      asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Jeekie did not sleep, although he too lay down upon his bed. On the
+      contrary, he remained wide awake and reflected, more deeply perhaps than
+      he had ever done before, being sure the superstition as to the dependence
+      of Alan&rsquo;s life upon his own was now worn very thin, and that his hour was
+      at hand. He thought of making Alan&rsquo;s wild attempt to depart impossible by
+      the simple method of warning the Asika, but, notwithstanding his native
+      selfishness, was too loyal to let that idea take root in his mind. No,
+      there was nothing to be done; if the Major wished to start, the Major must
+      start, and he, Jeekie, must pay the price. Well, he deserved it, who had
+      been fool enough to listen to the secret promptings of Little Bonsa and
+      conduct him to Asiki-land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus he passed several hours, for the most part in melancholy speculations
+      as to the exact fashion of his end, until at length weariness overcame him
+      also and, shutting his eyes, Jeekie began to doze. Suddenly he grew aware
+      of the presence of some other person in the room, but thinking that it was
+      only the Asika prowling about in her uncanny fashion, or perhaps her
+      spirit, for how her body entered the place he could not guess, he did not
+      stir, but lay breathing heavily and watching out of the corner of his eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently a figure emerged from the shadows into the faint light thrown by
+      the single lamp that burned above, and though it was wrapped in a dark
+      cloak, Jeekie knew at once that it was not the Asika. Very stealthily the
+      figure crept towards him, as a leopard might creep, and bent down to
+      examine him. The movement caused the cloak to slip a little, and for an
+      instant Jeekie caught sight of the wasted, half-crazed face of the
+      Mungana, and of a long, curved knife that glittered in his hand. Paralyzed
+      with fear, he lay quite still, knowing that should he show the slightest
+      sign of consciousness that knife would pierce his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mungana watched him a while, then satisfied that he slept, turned
+      round and, bending himself almost double, glided with infinite precautions
+      towards Alan&rsquo;s bed, which stood some twelve or fourteen feet away.
+      Silently as a snake that uncoils itself, Jeekie slipped from between his
+      blankets and crept after him, his naked feet making no noise upon the
+      mat-strewn floor. So intent was the Mungana upon the deed which he had
+      come to do that he never looked back, and thus it happened that the two of
+      them reached the bed one immediately behind the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan was lying on his back with his throat exposed, a very easy victim.
+      For a moment the Mungana stared. Then he erected himself like a snake
+      about to strike, and lifted the great curved knife, taking aim at Alan&rsquo;s
+      naked breast. Jeekie erected himself also, and even as the knife began to
+      fall, with one hand he caught the arm that drove it and with the other the
+      murderer&rsquo;s throat. The Mungana fought like a wild-cat, but Jeekie was too
+      strong for him. His fingers held the man&rsquo;s windpipe like a vise. He choked
+      and weakened; the knife fell from his hand. He sank to the ground and lay
+      there helpless, whereon Jeekie knelt upon his chest and, possessing
+      himself of the knife, held it within an inch of his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this juncture that Alan woke up and asked sleepily what was the
+      matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing, Major,&rdquo; answered Jeekie in low and cheerful tones. &ldquo;Snake just
+      going to bite you and I catch him, that all,&rdquo; and he gave an extra squeeze
+      to the Mungana&rsquo;s throat, who turned black in the face and rolled his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be careful, Jeekie, or you will kill the man,&rdquo; exclaimed Alan,
+      recognizing the Mungana and taking in the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, Major? He want kill you, and me too afterwards. Good riddance of
+      bad rubbish, as Book say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not so sure, Jeekie. Give him air and let me think. Tell him that if
+      he makes any noise, he dies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie obeyed, and the Mungana&rsquo;s darkening eyes grew bright again as he
+      drew his breath in great sobs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, friend,&rdquo; said Alan in Asiki, &ldquo;why did you wish to stab me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I hate you,&rdquo; answered the man, &ldquo;who to-morrow will take my place
+      and the wife I love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As a year or two ago you took someone else&rsquo;s place, eh? Well, suppose now
+      that I don&rsquo;t want either your place or your wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would that matter even it if were true, white man, since she wants
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am thinking, friend, that there is someone else she will want when she
+      hears of this. How do you suppose that you will die to-morrow? Not so
+      easily as you hope, perhaps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mungana&rsquo;s eyes seemed to sink into his head, and his face to sicken
+      with terror. That shaft had gone home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose I make a bargain with you,&rdquo; went on Alan slowly. &ldquo;Supposing I
+      say: &lsquo;Mungana, show me the way out of this place, as you can, now at once.
+      Or if you prefer it, refuse and be given up to the Asika?&rsquo; Come, you are
+      not too mad to understand. Answer&mdash;and quickly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you kill me afterwards?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not I. Why should I wish to kill you? You can come with us and go where
+      you will. Or you can stay here and die as the Asika directs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot believe you, white man. It is not possible that you should wish
+      to run away from so much love and glory, or to spare one who would have
+      slain you. Also it would be difficult to get you out of Bonsa-town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;this fellow is mad after all, I think you had better
+      go to the door and shout for the priests.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, lord,&rdquo; begged the wretched creature, &ldquo;I will trust you; I will
+      try, though it is you who must be mad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good. Stand over him, Jeekie, while I put on my things and, yes,
+      give me that mask. If he stirs, kill him at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Alan made himself ready. Then he mounted guard over the Mungana, as did
+      Jeekie, although he shook his head over their prospect of escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No go,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;no go! If we get past priests, Asika catch us with
+      her magic. When I bolt with your reverend uncle last time, Little Bonsa
+      arrange business because she go abroad fetch you. Now likely as not she
+      bowl you out, and then good-bye Jeekie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan sternly bade him be quiet and stop behind if he did not wish to come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Major,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;I come all right. Asika very prejudiced
+      beggar, and if she find me here alone&mdash;oh my! Better die double after
+      all, Two&rsquo;s company, Major. Now, all ready, <i>March!</i>&rdquo; and he gave the
+      unfortunate Mungana a fearful kick as a hint to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So utterly crushed was the poor wretch that even this insult did not stir
+      him to resentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Follow me, white man,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and if you desire to live, be silent.
+      Throw your cloaks about your heads.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They did so, and holding their revolvers in their right hands, glided
+      after the Mungana. In the corner of the big room they came to a little
+      stair. How it opened in that place where no stair had been, they could not
+      see or even guess, for it was too dark, only now they knew the means by
+      which the Asika had been able to visit them at night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mungana went first down the stair. Jeekie followed, grasping him by
+      the arm with one hand, while in the other he kept his own knife ready to
+      stab him at the first sign of treachery. Alan brought up the rear, keeping
+      hold of Jeekie&rsquo;s cloak. They passed down twelve steps of stair, then
+      turned to the right along a tunnel, then to the left, then to the right
+      again. In the pitch darkness it was an awful journey, since they knew not
+      whither they were being led, and expected that every moment would be their
+      last. At length, quite of a sudden, they emerged into moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan looked about him and knew the place. It was where the feast had been
+      held two months before, when the priests were poisoned and the Bonsas
+      chose the victims for sacrifice. Already it was prepared for the great
+      festival of to-morrow, when the Mungana should drown himself and Alan be
+      married to the Asika. There on the dais were the gold chairs in which they
+      were to sit, and green branches of trees mixed with curious flags decked
+      the vast amphitheatre beyond. Moreover, there was the broad canal, and
+      floating in the midst of it the hideous gold fetish, Big Bonsa. The moon
+      shone on its glaring, deathly eyes, its fish-like snout and its huge, pale
+      teeth. Alan looked at it and shivered, for the thing was horrid and
+      uncanny, and the utter loneliness in which it lay staring up at the moon,
+      seemed to accentuate the horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mungana noticed his fear and whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must swim the water. If you have a god, white man, pray him to protect
+      you from Bonsa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lead on,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;I do not dread a foul fetish, only the look of
+      it. But is there no way round?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mungana shook his head and began to enter the canal. Jeekie, whose
+      teeth were chattering, hung back, but Alan pushed him from behind, so
+      sharply that he stumbled and made a splash. Then Alan followed, and as the
+      cold, black water rose to his chest, looked again at Big Bonsa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed to him that the thing had turned round and was staring at them.
+      Surely a few seconds ago its snout pointed the other way. No, that must be
+      fancy. He was swimming now, they were all swimming, Alan and Jeekie
+      holding their pistols and little stock of cartridges above their heads to
+      keep them dry. The gold head of Big Bonsa appeared to be lifting itself up
+      in the water, as a reptile might, in order to get a better view of these
+      proceedings, but doubtless it was the ripples that they caused which gave
+      it this appearance. Only why did the ripples make it come towards them,
+      quite gently, like an investigating fish?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was about ten yards off and they were in the middle of the canal. The
+      Mungana had passed it. It was in a line with Alan&rsquo;s head. Oh Heavens! a
+      sudden smother of foam, a rush like that of a torpedo, and set low down
+      between two curving waves, a flash of gold. Then a gurgling, inhuman laugh
+      and a weight upon his back. Down went Alan, down and down!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE END OF THE MUNGANA
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      The moonlight above vanished. Alan was alone in the depths with this
+      devil, or whatever it might be. He could feel hands and feet gripping and
+      treading on him, but they did not seem to be human, for there were too
+      many of them. Also they were very cold. He gave himself up for dead and
+      thought of Barbara.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then something flashed into his mind. In his hand he still held the
+      revolver. He pressed it upwards against the thing that was smothering him,
+      and pulled the trigger. Again he pulled it, and again, for it was a
+      self-cocking weapon, and even there deep down in the water he heard the
+      thud of the explosion of the damp-proof copper cartridges. His lungs were
+      bursting, his senses reeled, only enough of them remained to tell him that
+      he was free of that strangling grip and floating upwards. His head rose
+      above the surface, and through the mouth of his mask he drew in the sweet
+      air with quick gasps. Down below him in the clear water he saw the yellow
+      head of Big Bonsa rocking and quivering like a great reflected moon, saw
+      too that it was beginning to rise. Yet he could not swim away from it, the
+      fetish seemed to have hypnotized him. He heard Jeekie calling to him from
+      the shallow water near the further bank, but still he floated there like a
+      log and stared down at Big Bonsa wallowing beneath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie plunged back into the canal and with a few strong strokes reached
+      him, gripped him by the arm and began to tow him to the shore. Before they
+      came there Big Bonsa rose like a huge fish and tried to follow them, but
+      could not, or so it seemed. At any rate it only whirled round and round
+      upon the surface, while from it poured a white fluid that turned the black
+      water to the hue of milk. Then it began to scream, making a thin and
+      dreadful sound more like that of an infant in pain than anything they had
+      ever heard, a very sickening sound that Alan never could forget. He
+      staggered to the bank and stood staring at it where it bled, rolled and
+      shrieked, but because of the milky foam could make nothing out in that
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Jeekie?&rdquo; he said with an idiotic laugh. &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! don&rsquo;t know. Devil and all, perhaps. Come on, Major, before it catch
+      us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it will catch anyone just at present. Devil or not
+      hollow-nosed bullets don&rsquo;t agree with it. Shall I give it another,
+      Jeekie?&rdquo; and he lifted the pistol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Major, don&rsquo;t play tomfool,&rdquo; and Jeekie grabbed him by the arm and
+      dragged him away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few paces further on stood the Mungana like a man transfixed, and even
+      then Alan noticed that he regarded him with something akin to awe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stronger than the god,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;stronger than the god,&rdquo; and bounded
+      forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Following the path that ran beside the canal, they plunged into a tunnel,
+      holding each other as before. In a few minutes they were through it and in
+      a place full of cedar trees outside the wall of the Gold House, under
+      which evidently the tunnel passed, for there it rose behind them. Beneath
+      these cedar trees they flitted like ghosts, now in the moonlight and now
+      in the shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great fall to the back of the town was on their left, and in front of
+      them lay one of the arms of the river, at this spot a raging torrent not
+      much more than a hundred feet in width, spanned by a narrow suspension
+      bridge which seemed to be supported by two fibre ropes. On the hither side
+      of this bridge stood a guard hut, and to their dismay out of this hut ran
+      three men armed with spears, evidently to cut them off. One of these men
+      sped across the bridge and took his stand at the further end, while the
+      other two posted themselves in their path at the entrance to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mungana slacked his speed and said one word&mdash;&ldquo;Finished!&rdquo; and
+      Jeekie also hesitated, then turned and pointed behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan looked back and flitting in and out between the cedar trees, saw the
+      white robes of the priests of Bonsa. Then despair seized them all, and
+      they rushed at the bridge. Jeekie reached it first and dodging beneath the
+      spears of the two guards, plunged his knife into the breast of one of
+      them, and butted the other with his great head, so that he fell over the
+      side of the bridge on to the rocks below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cut, Major, cut!&rdquo; he said to Alan, who pushed past him. &ldquo;All right now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They were on the narrow swaying bridge&mdash;it was but a single plank&mdash;Alan
+      first, then the Mungana, then Jeekie. When they were half way across Alan
+      looked before him and saw a sight he could never forget.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third guard at the further side was sawing through one of the fibre
+      ropes with his spear. There they were on the middle of the bridge with the
+      torrent raving fifty feet beneath them, and the man had nearly severed the
+      rope! To get over before it parted was impossible; behind were the
+      priests; beneath the roaring river. All three of them stopped as though
+      paralyzed, for all three had seen. Something struck against Alan&rsquo;s leg, it
+      was his pistol that still remained fastened to his wrist by its leather
+      thong. He cocked and lifted it, took aim and fired. The shot missed, which
+      was not wonderful considering the light and the platform on which the
+      shooter stood. It missed, but the man, astonished, for he had never seen
+      or heard such a thing before, stopped his sawing for a moment, and stared
+      at them. Then as he began again Alan fired once more, and this time by
+      good fortune the bullet struck the man somewhere in the body. He fell, and
+      as he fell grasped the nearly separated rope and hung to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get hold of the other rope and come on,&rdquo; yelled Alan, and once more they
+      bounded forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My God! it&rsquo;s going,&rdquo; he yelled again. &ldquo;Hold fast, Jeekie, hold fast!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Next instant the rope parted and the man vanished. The bridge tipped over,
+      and supported by the remaining rope, hung edgeways up. To this rope the
+      three of them clung desperately, resting their feet upon the edge of the
+      swaying plank. For a few seconds they remained thus, afraid to stir, then
+      Jeekie called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Climb on, Major, climb on like one monkey. Look bad, but quite safe
+      really.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As there was nothing else to be done Alan began to climb, shifting his
+      feet along the plank edge and his hands along the rope, which creaked and
+      stretched beneath their threefold weight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a horrible journey, and in his imagination took at least an hour.
+      Yet they accomplished it, for at last they found themselves huddled
+      together but safe upon the further bank. The sweat pouring down from his
+      head almost blinded Alan; a deadly nausea worked within him, sickly
+      tremors shot up and down his spine; his brain swam. Yet he could hear
+      Jeekie, in whom excitement always took the form of speech, saying loudly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think that man no liar what say our great papas was monkeys. Never look
+      down on monkey no more. Wake up, Major, those priests monkey-men too, for
+      we all brothers, you know. Wait a bit, I stop their little game,&rdquo; and
+      springing up with three or four cuts of the big curved knife, he severed
+      the remaining rope just as their pursuers reached the further side of the
+      chasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They shouted with rage as the long bridge swung back against the rock, the
+      cut end of it falling into the torrent, and waved their spears
+      threateningly. To this demonstration Jeekie replied with gestures of
+      contempt such as are known to street Arabs. Then he looked at the Mungana,
+      who lay upon the ground a melancholy and dilapidated spectacle, for the
+      perspiration had washed lines of paint off his face and patches of dye
+      from his hair, also his gorgeous robes were water-stained and his gem
+      necklaces broken. Having studied him a while Jeekie kicked him
+      meditatively till he got up, then asked him to set out the exact
+      situation. The Mungana answered that they were safe for a while, since
+      that torrent could only be crossed by the broken bridge and was too rapid
+      to swim. The Asiki, he added, must go a long journey round through the
+      city in order to come at them, though doubtless they would hunt them down
+      in time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Jeekie cut him short, since he knew all that country well and only
+      wished to learn whether any more bridges had been built across the torrent
+      since he was a boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Major,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you get up and follow me, for I know every inch of
+      ground, also by and by good short cut over mountains. You see Jeekie very
+      clever boy, and when he herd sheep and goat he made note of everything and
+      never forget nothing. He pull you out of this hole, never fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad to hear it, I am sure,&rdquo; answered Alan as he rose. &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s to
+      become of the Mungana?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know and don&rsquo;t care,&rdquo; said Jeekie; &ldquo;no more good to us. Can go and
+      see how Big Bonsa feel, if he like,&rdquo; and stretching out his big hand as
+      though in a moment of abstraction, he removed the costly necklaces from
+      their guide&rsquo;s neck and thrust them into the pouch he wore. Also he picked
+      up the gilded linen mask which Alan had removed from his head and placed
+      it in the same receptacle, remarking, that he &ldquo;always taught that it
+      wicked to waste anything when so many poor in the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they started, the Mungana following them. Jeekie paused and waved him
+      off, but the poor wretch still came on, whereon Jeekie produced the big,
+      crooked knife, Mungana&rsquo;s own knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do,&rdquo; said Alan, awaking to the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cut off head of that cocktail man, Major, and so save him lot of trouble.
+      Also we got no grub, and if we find any he want eat a lot. Chop what do
+      for two p&rsquo;raps, make very short commons for three. Also he might play
+      dirty trick, so much best dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense,&rdquo; said Alan sternly; &ldquo;let the poor devil come along if he likes.
+      One good turn deserves another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so, Major; that hello-swello want cut our throats, so I want cut his&mdash;one
+      good turn deserve another, as wise king say in Book, when he give half
+      baby to woman what wouldn&rsquo;t have it. Well, so be, Major, specially as it
+      no matter, for he not stop with us long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean that he will run away, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! no, he not run away, he in too blue funk for that. But something run
+      away with him, because he ought die to-morrow night. Oh! yes, you see, you
+      see, and Jeekie hope that something not run away with you too, Major,
+      because you ought be married at same time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hope not, I am sure,&rdquo; answered Alan, and bethinking him of Big Bonsa
+      wallowing and screaming on the water and bleeding out white blood, he
+      shivered a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time, advancing at a trot, the Mungana running after them like a
+      dog, they had entered the bush pierced with a few wandering paths. Along
+      these paths they sped for hour after hour, Jeekie leading them without a
+      moment&rsquo;s hesitation. They met no man and heard nothing, except occasional
+      weird sounds which Alan put down to wild beasts, but Jeekie and the
+      Mungana said were produced by ghosts. Indeed it appeared that all this
+      jungle was supposed to be haunted, and no Asiki would enter it at night,
+      or unless he were very bold and protected by many charms, by day either.
+      Therefore it was an excellent place for fugitives who sorely needed a good
+      start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the day began to dawn just as they reached the main road where
+      it crossed the hills, whence on his journey thither Alan had his first
+      view of Bonsa Town. Peering from the edge of the bush, they perceived a
+      fire burning near the road and round it five or six men, who seemed to be
+      asleep. Their first thought was to avoid them, but the Mungana, creeping
+      up to Alan, for Jeekie he would not approach, whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not Asiki, Ogula chief and slaves who left Bonsa Town yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They crept nearer the fire and saw that this was so. Then rejoicing
+      exceedingly, they awoke the old chief, Fahni, who at first thought they
+      must be spirits. But when he recognized Alan, he flung himself on his
+      knees and kissed his hand, because to him he owed his liberty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No time for all that, Fahni,&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;Give us food.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now of this as it chanced there was plenty, since by the Asika&rsquo;s orders
+      the slaves had been laden with as much as they could carry. They ate of it
+      ravenously, and while they ate, told Fahni something of the story of their
+      escape. The old chief listened amazed, but like Jeekie asked Alan why he
+      had not killed the Mungana, who would have killed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan, who was in no mood for long explanations, answered that he had kept
+      him with them because he might be useful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, friend, I see,&rdquo; exclaimed the old cannibal, &ldquo;although he is so
+      thin he will always make a meal or two at a pinch. Truly white men are
+      wise and provident. Like the ants, you take thought for the morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they had swallowed their food they started all together, for
+      although Alan pointed out to Fahni that he might be safer apart, the old
+      chief who had a real affection for him, would not be persuaded to leave
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us live or die together,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Jeekie, abandoning the main road, led them up a stream, walking in the
+      water so that their footsteps might leave no trace, and thus away into the
+      barren mountains which rose between them and the great swamp. On the crest
+      of these mountains Alan turned and looked back towards Bonsa Town. There
+      far across the fertile valley was the hateful, river-encircled place.
+      There fell the great cataract in the roar of which he had lived for so
+      many weeks. There were the black cedars and there gleamed the roofs of the
+      Gold House, his prison where dwelt the Asika and the dreadful fetishes of
+      which she was the priestess. To him it was like the vision of a nightmare,
+      he could scarcely think it real. And yet by this time doubtless they
+      sought him far and wide. What mood, he wondered, would the Asika be in
+      when she learned of his escape and the fashion of it, and how would she
+      greet him if he were recaptured and taken back to her? Well, he would not
+      be recaptured. He had still some cartridges and he would fight till they
+      killed him, or failing that, save the last of them for himself. Never,
+      never could he endure to be dragged back to Bonsa Town there to live and
+      die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went on across the mountains, till in the afternoon once more they
+      saw the road running beneath them like a ribbon, and at the end of it the
+      lagoon. Now they rested a while and held a consultation while they ate.
+      Across that lagoon they could not escape without a canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord,&rdquo; said the Mungana presently, &ldquo;yesterday when these cannibals were
+      let go a swift runner was sent forward commanding that a good boat should
+      be provisioned and made ready for them, and by now doubtless this has been
+      done. Let them descend to the road, walk on to the bay and ask for the
+      boat. Look, yonder, far away a tongue of land covered with trees juts out
+      into the lake. We will make our way thither and after nightfall this chief
+      can row back to it and take us into the canoe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan said that the plan was good, but Jeekie shook his head, asking what
+      would happen if Fahni, finding himself safe upon the water, thought it
+      wisest not to come to fetch them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan translated his words to the old chief, whereon Fahni wanted to fight
+      Jeekie because of the slur that he had cast upon his honour. This
+      challenge Jeekie resolutely declined, saying that already there were
+      plenty of ways to die in Asiki-land without adding another to them. Then
+      Fahni swore by his tribal god and by the spirit of every man he had ever
+      eaten, that he would come to that promontory after dark, if he were still
+      alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they separated, Fahni and his men slipping down to the road, which they
+      did without being seen by anyone, while Alan, Jeekie and the Mungana bore
+      away to the right towards the promontory. The road was long and rough and,
+      though by good fortune they met no one, since the few who dwelt in these
+      wild parts had gone up to Bonsa Town to be present at the great feast, the
+      sun was sinking before ever they reached the place. Moreover, this
+      promontory proved to be covered with dense thorn scrub, through which they
+      must force a way in the gathering darkness, not without hurt and
+      difficulty. Still they accomplished it and at length, quite exhausted,
+      crept to the very point, where they hid themselves between some stones at
+      the water&rsquo;s edge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here they waited for three long hours, but no boat came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All up a gum-tree now, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie. &ldquo;Old blackguard, Fanny, bolt
+      and leave us here, and to-morrow morning Asika nobble us. Better have gone
+      down to bay, steal his boat and leave him behind, because Asika no want <i>him</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan made no answer. He was too tired, and although he trusted Fahni, it
+      seemed likely enough that Jeekie was right, or perhaps the cannibals had
+      not been able to get the boat. Well, he had done his best, and if Fate
+      overtook them it was no fault of his. He began to doze, for even their
+      imminent peril could not keep his eyes open, then presently awoke with a
+      start, for in his sleep he thought he heard the sounds of paddles beating
+      the quiet water. Yes, there dimly seen through the mist, was a canoe, and
+      seated in the stern of it Fahni. So that danger had gone by also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He woke his companions, who slept at his side, and very silently they
+      rose, stepping from rock to rock till they reached the canoe and entered
+      it. It was not a large craft, barely big enough to hold them all indeed,
+      but they found room, and then at a sign from Fahni the oarsmen gave way so
+      heartily that within half an hour they had lost sight of the accursed
+      shores of Asiki-land, although presently its mountains showed up clearly
+      beneath the moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Fahni had told his tale. It appeared that when he reached the
+      bay he found the Asiki headman who dwelt there, and those under him, in a
+      state of considerable excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rumours had reached them that someone had escaped from Bonsa Town; they
+      thought it was the Mungana. Fahni asked who had brought the rumour,
+      whereon the headman answered that it came &ldquo;in a dream,&rdquo; and would say no
+      more. Then he demanded the canoe which had been promised to him and his
+      people, and the headman admitted that it was ready in accordance with
+      orders received from the Asika, but demurred to letting him have it. A
+      long argument followed, in the midst of which Fahni and his men got into
+      the canoe, the headman apparently not daring to use force to prevent him.
+      Just as they were pushing off a messenger arrived from Bonsa Town, reeling
+      with exhaustion and his tongue hanging from his jaws, who called out that
+      it was the white man who had escaped with his servant and the Mungana, and
+      that although they were believed to be still hidden in the holy woods near
+      Bonsa Town, none were to be allowed to leave the bay. So the headman
+      shouted to Fahni to return, but he pretended not to hear and rowed away,
+      nor did anyone attempt to follow him. Still it was only after nightfall
+      that he dared to put the boat about and return to the headland to pick up
+      Alan and the others as he had promised. That was all he had to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan thanked him heartily for his faithfulness and they paddled on
+      steadily, putting mile after mile of water between them and Asiki-land. He
+      wondered whether he had seen the last of that country and its inhabitants.
+      Something within him answered No. He was sure that the Asika would not
+      allow him to depart in peace without making some desperate effort to
+      recapture him. Far as he was away, it seemed to him that he could feel her
+      fury hanging over him like a cloud, a cloud that would burst in a rain of
+      blood. Doubtless it would have burst already had it not been for the
+      accident that he and his companions were still supposed to be hiding in
+      the woods. But that error must be discovered, and then would come the
+      pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at the full moon shining upon him and reflected that at this
+      very hour he should have been seated upon the chair of state, wedding, or
+      rather being wedded by the Asika in the presence of Big and Little Bonsa
+      and all the people. His eye fell upon the Mungana, who had also been
+      destined to play a prominent part in that ceremony. At once he saw that
+      there was something wrong with the man. A curious change had come over his
+      emaciated face. It was working like that of a maniac. Foam appeared upon
+      his dyed lips, his haunted eyes rolled, his thin hands gripped the side of
+      the canoe and he began to sing, or rather howl like a dog baying at the
+      stars. Jeekie hit him on the head and bade him be silent, but he took no
+      notice, even when he hit him again more heavily. Presently came the
+      climax. The man sprang up in the canoe, causing it to rock from side to
+      side. He pointed to the full moon above and howled more loudly than
+      before; he pointed to something that he seemed to see in the air near by
+      and gibbered as though in terror. Then his eyes fixed themselves upon the
+      water at which he stared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harder and harder he stared, his head sinking lower every moment, till at
+      length without another sound, very quietly and unexpectedly he went over
+      the side of the boat. For a few seconds they saw his bright-coloured
+      garments sinking to the depths, then he vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They waited a while, expecting that he would rise again. But he never
+      rose. A shot-weighted corpse could not have disappeared more finally and
+      completely. The thing was very awful, and for a while there was silence,
+      which as usual was broken by Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That gay dog gone,&rdquo; he said in a reflective voice. &ldquo;All those old ghosts
+      come to fetch him at proper time. No good run away from ghosts; they
+      travel too quick; one jump, and pop up where you no expect. Well, more
+      place for Jeekie now,&rdquo; and he spread himself out comfortably in the empty
+      seat, adding, &ldquo;like hello-swello&rsquo;s room much better than company, he go in
+      scent-bath every day and stink too much, all that water never wash <i>him</i>
+      clean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus died the Mungana, and such was the poor wretch&rsquo;s requiem. With a
+      shiver Alan reflected that had it not been for him and his insane
+      jealousy, he too might have been expected to go into that same scent-bath
+      and have his face painted like a chorus girl. Only would he escape the
+      spell that had destroyed his predecessor in the affections of the
+      priestess of the Bonsas? Or would some dim power such as had drawn Mungana
+      to the death drag him back to the arms of the Asika or to the torture pit
+      of &ldquo;Great Swimming Head.&rdquo; He remembered his dream in the Treasure Hall and
+      shuddered at the very thought of it, for all he had undergone and seen
+      made him superstitious; then bade the men paddle faster, ever faster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that night they rowed on, taking turns to rest, except Alan and
+      Jeekie, who slept a good deal and as a consequence awoke at dawn much
+      refreshed. When the sun rose they found themselves across the lagoon, over
+      thirty miles from the borders of Asiki-land, almost at the spot where the
+      river up which they had travelled some months before, flowed out of the
+      lake. Whether by chance or skill Fahni had steered a wonderfully straight
+      course. Now, however, they were face to face with a new trouble, for
+      scarcely had they begun to descend the river when they discovered that at
+      this dry season of the year it was in many places too shallow to allow the
+      canoe to pass over the sand and mud banks. Evidently there was but one
+      thing to be done&mdash;abandon it and walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they landed, ate from their store of food and began a terrible and
+      toilsome journey. On either side of the river lay dessicated swamp covered
+      with dead reeds ten or twelve feet high. Doubtless beyond the swamp there
+      was high land, but in order to reach this, if it existed, they would be
+      obliged to force a path through miles of reeds. Therefore they thought it
+      safer to follow the river bank. Their progress was very slow, since
+      continually they must make detours to avoid a quicksand or a creek, also
+      the stones and scrubby growth delayed them so that fifteen or at most
+      twenty miles was a good day&rsquo;s march.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still they went on steadily, seeing no man, and when their food was
+      exhausted, living on the fish which they caught in plenty in the shallows,
+      and on young flapper ducks that haunted the reeds. So at length they came
+      to the main river into which this tributary flowed, and camped there
+      thankfully, believing that if any pursuit of them had been undertaken, it
+      was abandoned. At least Alan and the rest believed this, but Jeekie did
+      not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the following morning, shortly after dawn, Jeekie awoke his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here, Major,&rdquo; he said in a solemn voice, &ldquo;I got something pretty
+      show you,&rdquo; and he led him to the foot of an old willow tree, adding, &ldquo;now
+      up you go, Major, and look.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Alan went up and from the topmost fork of that tree saw a sight at
+      which his blood turned cold. For there, not five miles behind them, on
+      either side of the river bank, the light gleaming on their spears, marched
+      two endless columns of men, who from their head-dresses he took to be
+      Asiki. For a minute he looked, then descended the tree and approaching the
+      others, asked what was to be done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hook, scoot, bolt, leg it!&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie emphatically; then he licked
+      his finger, held it up to the wind and added, &ldquo;but first fire reeds and
+      make it hot for Bonsa crowd.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a good suggestion and one on which they acted without delay.
+      Taking red embers, they blew them into a flame and lit torches, which they
+      applied to the reeds over a width of several hundred yards. The strong
+      northward wind soon did the rest; indeed with a quarter of an hour a vast
+      sheet of flame twenty or thirty feet in height was rushing towards the
+      Asiki columns. Then they began their advance along the river bank, running
+      at a steady trot, for here the ground was open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that day they ran, pausing at intervals to get their breath, and at
+      night rested because they must. When the light came upon the following
+      morning they looked back from a little hill and saw the outposts of the
+      Asiki advancing not a mile behind. Doubtless some of the army had been
+      burned, but the rest, guessing their route, had forced a way through the
+      reeds and cut across country. So they began to run again harder than
+      before, and kept their lead during the morning. But when afternoon came
+      the Asika gained on them. Now they were breasting a long rise, the river
+      running in the cleft beneath, and Jeekie, who seemed to be absolutely
+      untiring, held Alan by the hand, Fahni following close behind. Two of
+      their men had fallen down and been abandoned, and the rest straggled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No go, Jeekie,&rdquo; gasped Alan, &ldquo;they will catch us at the top of the hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never say die, Major, never say die,&rdquo; puffed Jeekie, &ldquo;they get blown too
+      and who know what other side of hill?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Somehow they struggled to the crest and behold! there beneath them was a
+      great army of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ogula!&rdquo; yelled Jeekie, &ldquo;Ogula! Just what I tell you, Major, who know what
+      other side of <i>any</i> hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      A MEETING IN THE FOREST
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      In five minutes more Alan and Jeekie were among the Ogula, who, having
+      recognized their chief while he was yet some way off, greeted him with
+      rapturous cheers and the clapping of hands. Then as there was no time for
+      explanation, they retreated across a little stream which ran down the
+      valley, four thousand or more of them, and prepared for battle. That
+      evening, however, there was no fighting, for when the first of the Asiki
+      reached the top of the rise and saw that the fugitives had escaped to the
+      enemy, who were in strength, they halted and finally retired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Alan, and Fahni also, hoped that the pursuit was abandoned, but again
+      Jeekie shook his big head, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all, Major, I know Asiki and their little ways. While one of them
+      alive, not dare go back to Asika without <i>you</i>, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps she is with them herself,&rdquo; suggested Alan, &ldquo;and we might treat
+      with her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Major, Asika never leave Bonsa Town, that against law, and if she do
+      so, priests make another Asika and kill her when they catch her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After this a council of war was held, and it was decided to camp there
+      that night, since the position was good to meet an attack if one should be
+      made, and the Ogula were afraid of being caught on the march with their
+      backs towards the enemy. Alan was glad enough to hear this decision, for
+      he was quite worn out and ready to take any risk for a few hours&rsquo; rest. At
+      this council he learned also that the Asiki bearers carrying his gold with
+      their Ogula guides had arrived safely among the Ogula, who had mustered in
+      answer to their chief&rsquo;s call and were advancing towards Asiki-land, though
+      the business was one that did not please them. As for these Asiki bearers,
+      it seemed that they had gone on into the forest with the gold, and nothing
+      more had been heard of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they were leaving the council Alan asked Jeekie if he had any tidings
+      of his mother, who had been their first messenger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Major,&rdquo; he answered gloomily, &ldquo;can&rsquo;t learn nothing of my ma, don&rsquo;t
+      know where she is. Ogula camp no place for old girl if they short of chop
+      and hungry. But p&rsquo;raps she never get there; I nose round and find out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Apparently Jeekie did &ldquo;nose round&rdquo; to some purpose, for just as Alan was
+      dropping off to sleep in his bough shelter a most fearful din arose
+      without, through which he recognized the vociferations of Jeekie. Running
+      out of the shelter he discovered his retainer and a great Ogula whom he
+      knew again as the headman who had been imprisoned with him and freed by
+      the Asika to guide the bearers, rolling over and over on the ground,
+      watched by a curious crowd. Just as he arrived Jeekie, who notwithstanding
+      his years was a man of enormous strength, got the better of the Ogula and
+      kneeling on his stomach, was proceeding to throttle him. Rushing at him,
+      Alan dragged him off and asked what was the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Matter, Major!&rdquo; yelled the indignant Jeekie. &ldquo;My ma inside this black
+      villain, <i>that</i> the matter. Dirty cannibal got digestion of one
+      ostrich and eat her up with all his mates, all except one who not like her
+      taste and tell me. They catch poor old lady asleep by road so stop and
+      lunch at once when Asiki bearers not looking. Let me get at him, Major,
+      let me get at him. If I can&rsquo;t bury my ma, as all good son ought to do, I
+      bury him, which next best thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;exercise a Christian spirit and let bygones
+      be bygones. If you don&rsquo;t, you will make a quarrel between us and the
+      Ogula, and they will give us up to the Asiki. Perhaps the man did not eat
+      your mother; I understand that he denies it, and when you remember what
+      she was like, it seems incredible. At any rate he has a right to a trial,
+      and I will speak to Fahni about it to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they were separated, but as it chanced that case never came on, for
+      next morning this Ogula was killed in the fighting together with two of
+      his companions, while the others involved in the charge kept themselves
+      out of sight. Whether Jeekie&rsquo;s &ldquo;ma&rdquo; was or was not eaten by the Ogula no
+      one ever learned for certain. At least she was never heard of any more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan was sleeping heavily when a sound of rushing feet and of strange,
+      thrilling battle-cries awoke him. He sprang up, snatching at a spear and
+      shield which Jeekie had provided for him, and ran out to find from the
+      position of the moon that dawn was near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie, &ldquo;Asiki make night attack; they always like
+      do everything at night who love darkness, because their eye evil. Come on
+      quick, Major,&rdquo; and he began to drag him off toward the rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s the wrong way,&rdquo; said Alan presently. &ldquo;They are attacking over
+      there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think Jeekie fool, Major, that he don&rsquo;t know that? He take you
+      where they <i>not</i> attacking. Plenty Ogula to be killed, but not <i>many</i>
+      white men like you, and in all world only <i>one</i> Jeekie!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cold-blooded old scoundrel!&rdquo; ejaculated Alan as he turned and bolted
+      back towards the noise of fighting, followed by his reluctant servant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the time that he reached the first ranks, which were some way off, the
+      worst of the attack was over. It had been short and sharp, for the Asiki
+      had hoped to find the Ogula unprepared and to take their camp with a rush.
+      But the Ogula, who knew their habits, were waiting for them, so that
+      presently they withdrew, carrying off their wounded and leaving about
+      fifty dead upon the ground. As soon as he was quite sure that the enemy
+      were all gone, Jeekie, armed with a large battle-axe, went off to inspect
+      these fallen soldiers. Alan, who was helping the Ogula wounded, wondered
+      why he took so much interest in them. Half an hour later his curiosity was
+      satisfied, for Jeekie returned with over twenty heavy gold rings, torques,
+      and bracelets slung over his shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you get those, Jeekie?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Off poor chaps that peg out just now, Major. Remember Asiki soldiers
+      nearly always wear these things and that they no more use to them. But if
+      ever he get out of this Jeekie want spend his old age in respectable
+      peace. So he fetch them. Hard work, though, for rings all in one bit and
+      Asiki very tough to chop. Don&rsquo;t look cross, Major; you remember what
+      &lsquo;postle say, that he who no provide for his own self worse than cannibal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Fahni came up and announced that the Asiki general had sent a
+      messenger into the camp proposing terms of peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What terms?&rdquo; asked Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These, white man: that we should surrender you and your servant and go
+      our way unharmed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, Fahni, and what did you answer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;White man, I refused; but I tell you,&rdquo; he added warningly, &ldquo;that my
+      captains wished to accept. They said that I had come back to them safe and
+      that they fear the Asiki, who are devils, not men, and who will bring the
+      curse of Bonsa on us if we go on fighting with them. Still I refused,
+      saying that if they gave you up I would go with you, who saved my life
+      from the lion and afterwards from the priests of Bonsa. So the messenger
+      went back and, white man, we march at once, and I pray you always to keep
+      close to me that I may watch over you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then began that long tramp down the river, which Alan always thought
+      afterwards tried him more than any of the terrible events of his escape.
+      For although there was but little fighting, only rearguard actions indeed,
+      every day the Asiki sent messengers renewing their offers of peace on the
+      sole condition of the surrender of himself and Jeekie. At last one evening
+      they came to that place where Alan first met the Ogula, and once more he
+      camped upon the island on which he had shot the lion. At nightfall, after
+      he had eaten, Fahni visited him here and Alan boded evil from his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;White man,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I can protect you no longer. The Asiki messengers
+      have been with us again and they say that unless we give you up to-morrow
+      at the dawn, their army will push on ahead of us and destroy my town,
+      which is two days&rsquo; march down the river, and all the women and children in
+      it, and that afterwards they will fight a great battle with us. Therefore
+      my people say that I must give you up, or that if I do not they will elect
+      another chief and do so themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you will give up a dead man, Fahni.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Friend,&rdquo; said the old chief in a low voice, &ldquo;the night is dark and the
+      forest not so far away. Moreover, I have set no guards on that side of the
+      river, and Jeekie here does not forget a road that he has travelled.
+      Lastly, I have heard it said that there are some other white people with
+      soldiers camped in the edge of the forest. Now, if you were not here in
+      the morning, how could I give you up?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand, Fahni. You have done your best for me, and now, good-night.
+      Jeekie and I are going to take a walk. Sometimes you will think of the
+      months we spent together in Bonsa-Town, will you not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and of you also, white man, for so long as I shall live. Walk fast
+      and far, for the Asiki are clever at following a spoor. Good-night,
+      Friend, and to you, Jeekie the cunning, good-night also. I go to tell my
+      captains that I will surrender you at dawn,&rdquo; and without more words he
+      vanished out of their sight and out of their lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Jeekie, foreseeing the issue of this talk, was already engaged
+      in doing up their few belongings, including the gold rings, some food, and
+      a native cooking pot, in a bundle surrounded by a couple of bark blankets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on, Major,&rdquo; he said, handing Alan one spear and taking another
+      himself. &ldquo;Old cannibal quite right, very nice night for a walk. Come on,
+      Major, river shallow just here. I think this happen and try it before
+      dark. You just follow Jeekie, that all you got to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So leaving the fire burning in front of their bough shelter, they waded
+      the stream and started up the opposing slope, meeting no man. Dark as it
+      was, Jeekie seemed to have no difficulty in finding the way, for as Fahni
+      said, a native does not forget the path he has once travelled. All night
+      long they walked rapidly, and when dawn broke found themselves at the edge
+      of the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;what did Fahni mean by that tale about white
+      people?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know, Major, think perhaps he lie to let you down easy. My golly!
+      what that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke a distant echo reached their ears, the echo of a rifle shot.
+      &ldquo;Think Fanny not lie after all,&rdquo; went on Jeekie; &ldquo;that white man&rsquo;s gun,
+      sharp crack, smokeless powder, but wonder how he come in this place. Well,
+      we soon find out. Come on, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tired as they were they broke into a run; the prospect of seeing a white
+      face again was too much for them. Half a mile or so further on they caught
+      sight of a figure evidently engaged in stalking game among the trees, or
+      so they judged from his cautious movements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;White man!&rdquo; said Jeekie, and Alan nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They crept forward silently and with care, for who knew what this white
+      man might be after, keeping a great tree between them and the man, till at
+      length, passing round its bole, they found themselves face to face with
+      him and not five yards away. Notwithstanding his unaccustomed tropical
+      dress and his face burnt copper colour by the sun, Alan knew the man at
+      once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aylward!&rdquo; he gasped; &ldquo;Aylward! You here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He started. He stared at Alan. Then his countenance changed. Its habitual
+      calm broke up as it was wont to do in moments of deep emotion. It became
+      very evil, as though some demon of hate and jealousy were at work behind
+      it. The thin lips quivered, the eyes glared, and without spoken word or
+      warning, he lifted the rifle and fired straight at Alan. The bullet missed
+      him, for the aim was high. Passing over Alan&rsquo;s head, it cut a neat groove
+      through the hair of the taller Jeekie who was immediately behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next instant, with a spring like that of a tiger Jeekie was on Aylward.
+      The weight of his charge knocked him backwards to the ground, and there he
+      lay, pinned fast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for you do that?&rdquo; exclaimed the indignant Jeekie. &ldquo;What for you
+      shoot through wool of respectable nigger, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart.? Now I
+      throttle you, you dirty hog-swine. No Magistrates&rsquo; Court here in Dwarf
+      Forest,&rdquo; and he began to suit the action to the word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him go, Jeekie. Take his rifle and let him go,&rdquo; exclaimed Alan, who
+      all this while had stood amazed. &ldquo;There must be some mistake, he cannot
+      have meant to murder me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t know what he mean, but know his bullet go through my hair, Major,
+      and give me new parting,&rdquo; grumbled Jeekie as he obeyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course it was a mistake, Vernon, for I suppose it is Vernon,&rdquo; said
+      Aylward, as he rose. &ldquo;I do not wonder that your servant is angry, but the
+      truth is that your sudden appearance frightened me out of my wits and I
+      fired automatically. We have been living in some danger here and my nerves
+      are not as strong as they used to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; answered Alan. &ldquo;No, Jeekie will carry the rifle for you; yes,
+      and I think that pistol also, every ounce makes a difference walking in a
+      hot climate, and I remember that you always were dangerous with firearms.
+      There, you will be more comfortable so. And now, who do you mean by &lsquo;we&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean Barbara and myself,&rdquo; he answered slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan&rsquo;s jaw dropped, he shook upon his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Barbara and yourself!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Do I understand&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you understand nothing, Major,&rdquo; broke in Jeekie. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you believe
+      one word what this pig dog say. If Miss Barbara marry him he no want shoot
+      you; he ask you to tea to see the Missus and how much she love him, ducky!
+      We just go on and call on Miss Barbara and hear the news. Walk up, Sir
+      Robert Aylward, Bart., and show us which way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not choose to receive you and your impertinent servant at my camp,&rdquo;
+       said Aylward, grinding his teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We quite understand that, Sir Robert Aylward&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord Aylward, if you please, Major Vernon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg your pardon&mdash;Lord Aylward. I was aware of the contemplated
+      purchase of that title, I did not know that it had been completed. I was
+      about to add that all the same we mean to go to that camp, and that if any
+      violence towards us is attempted as we approach it, you will remember that
+      you are in our hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my Lord,&rdquo; added Jeekie, bowing, &ldquo;and that monkeys don&rsquo;t tell no
+      tales, my Lord, and that here there ain&rsquo;t no twelve Good-Trues to sit on
+      noble corpse unhappily deceased, my Lord, and to bring in Crowner&rsquo;s
+      verdict of done to death lawful or unlawful, according as evidence may
+      show when got, my Lord. So march on, for we no breakfast yet. No, not that
+      way, round here to left, where I think I hear kettle sing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So having no choice, Aylward came, marching between the other two and
+      saying nothing. When they had gone a couple of hundred yards Alan also
+      heard something, and to him it sounded like a man crying out in pain. Then
+      suddenly they passed round some great trees and reached a glade in the
+      forest where there was a spring of water which Alan remembered. In this
+      glade the camp had been built, surrounded by a &ldquo;boma&rdquo; or palisade of rough
+      wood, within which stood two tents and some native shelters made of tall
+      grass and boughs. Outside of this camp a curious and unpleasant scene was
+      in progress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To a small tree that grew there was tied a man, whom from the fashion of
+      his hair Alan knew to belong to the Coast negroes, while two great
+      fellows, evidently of another tribe, flogged him unmercifully with hide
+      whips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; exclaimed Jeekie, &ldquo;that the kettle I hear sing. Think you better
+      taken him off the fire, my Lord, or he boil over. Also his brothers no
+      seem to like that music,&rdquo; and he pointed to a number of other men who were
+      standing round watching the scene with sullen dissatisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A matter of camp discipline,&rdquo; muttered Aylward. &ldquo;This man has disobeyed
+      orders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By now Jeekie was shouting something to the natives in an unknown tongue,
+      which they seemed to understand well enough. At any rate the flogging
+      ceased, the two fellows who were inflicting it slunk away, and the other
+      men ran towards them, shouting back as they came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, Major. You please stop here one minute with my Lord, late
+      Bart. of Bloody Hand. Some of these chaps friends of mine, I meet them Old
+      Calabar while we get ready to march last rains. Now I have little talk
+      with them and find out thing or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Aylward began to bluster about interference with his servants and so
+      forth. Jeekie turned on him with a very ugly grin, and showing his white
+      teeth, as was his fashion when he grew fierce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beg pardon, Right Honourable Lord,&rdquo; he said, or rather snarled, &ldquo;you do
+      what I tell you just to please Jeekie. Jeekie no one in England, but
+      Jeekie damn big Lord too out here, great medicine man, pal of Little
+      Bonsa. You remember Little Bonsa, eh! These chaps think it great honour to
+      meet Jeekie, so, Major, if he stir, please shoot him through head; Jeekie
+      &lsquo;sponsible, not you. Or if you not like do it, I come back and see to job
+      myself and don&rsquo;t think those fellows cry very much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something about Jeekie&rsquo;s manner that frightened Aylward, who
+      understood for the first time that beneath all the negro&rsquo;s grotesque talk
+      lay some dreadful, iron purpose, as courage lay under his affected
+      cowardice and under his veneer of selfishness, fidelity. At any rate he
+      halted with Alan, who stood beside him, the revolver of which Aylward had
+      been relieved by Jeekie, in his hand. Meanwhile Jeekie, who held the rifle
+      which he had reloaded, went on and met the natives about twenty yards
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We always disliked each other, Vernon, but I must say that I never
+      thought a day would come when you proposed to murder me in my own camp,&rdquo;
+       said Aylward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Odd thing,&rdquo; answered Alan, &ldquo;but a very similar idea was in my mind. I
+      never thought, Lord Aylward, that however unscrupulous you might be&mdash;financially&mdash;a
+      day would come when you would attempt to shoot down an unarmed man in an
+      African forest. Oh! don&rsquo;t waste breath in lying; I saw you recognize me,
+      aim, and fire, after which Jeekie would have had the other barrel, and who
+      then would have remained to tell the story, Lord Aylward?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Aylward made no answer, but Alan felt that if wishes could kill him he
+      would not live long. His eye fell upon a long, unmistakable mound of fresh
+      earth, beneath a tree. He calculated its length, and with a thrill of
+      terror noticed that it was too small for a negro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is buried there?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Find out for yourself,&rdquo; was the sneering answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be afraid, Lord Aylward; I shall find out everything in time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation between Jeekie and the natives proceeded, their heads
+      were close together; it grew animated. They seemed to be coming to some
+      decision. Presently one of them ran and cut the lashings of the man who
+      had been bound to the tree, and he staggered towards them and joined in
+      the talk, pointing to his wounds. Then the two fellows who had been
+      engaged in flogging him, accompanied by eight companions of the same type&mdash;they
+      appeared to be soldiers, for they carried guns&mdash;swaggered towards the
+      group who were being addressed by Jeekie, of whom Alan counted
+      twenty-three. As they approached Jeekie made some suggestion which, after
+      one hesitating moment, the others seemed to accept, for they nodded their
+      heads and separated out a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie stepped forward and asked a question of the guards, to which they
+      replied with a derisive shout. Then without a word of warning he lifted
+      Aylward&rsquo;s express rifle which he carried, and fired first one barrel and
+      then the other, shooting the two leading soldiers dead. Their companions
+      halted amazed, but before they could lift their guns, Jeekie and those
+      with him rushed at them and began stabbing them with spears and striking
+      them with sticks. In three minutes it was over without another shot being
+      fired. Most of them were despatched, and the others, throwing down their
+      guns, had fled wounded into the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, shouting in jubilation, some of the men began to drag away the dead
+      bodies, while others collected the rifles and the remainder, headed by
+      Jeekie, advanced towards Alan and Aylward, waving their red spears. Alan
+      stood staring, for he did not in the least understand the meaning of what
+      had happened, but Aylward, who had turned very pale, addressed Jeekie,
+      saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose that you have come to murder me also, you black villain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, my Lord,&rdquo; answered Jeekie politely, &ldquo;not at present. Also that
+      wrong word, execute, not murder, just what you do to some of these poor
+      devils,&rdquo; and he pointed to the mob of porters. &ldquo;Besides, mustn&rsquo;t kill holy
+      white man, poor black chap don&rsquo;t matter, plenty more where he come from.
+      Think we all go see Miss Barbara now. You come too, my Lord Bart., but
+      p&rsquo;raps best tie your hands behind you first; if you want scratch head, I
+      do it for you. That only fair, you scratch mine this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then at a word from Jeekie some of the natives sprang on Aylward and tied
+      his hands behind his back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Miss Barbara alive?&rdquo; said Alan to Jeekie in an agonized whisper, at
+      the same time nodding towards the grave that was so ominously short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hope so, think so, these cards say so, but God He know alone,&rdquo; answered
+      Jeekie. &ldquo;Go and look, that best way to find out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they advanced into the camp through a narrow gateway made of a V-shaped
+      piece of wood, to where the two tents were placed in its inner division.
+      Of these tents, the first, was open, whereas the second was closed. As the
+      open tent was obviously empty, they went to the second, whereof Jeekie
+      began to loosen the lashings of the flap. It was a long business, for they
+      seemed to have been carefully knotted inside; indeed at last, growing
+      impatient, Jeekie cut the cord, using the curved knife with which the
+      Mungana had tried to kill Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Alan was suffering torments, being convinced that Barbara was
+      dead and buried in that new-made grave beneath the trees. He could not
+      speak, he could scarcely stand, and yet a picture began to form in his
+      numb mind. He saw himself seated in the dark in the Treasure-house at
+      Bonsa-Town; he saw a vision in the air before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lo! the tent door opened and that vision reappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was the pale Barbara seated, weeping. There again, as he entered she
+      sprang up and snatching the pistol that lay beside her, turned it to her
+      breast. Then she perceived him and the pistol sank downwards till from her
+      relaxed hand it dropped to the ground. She threw up her arms and without a
+      sound fell backwards, or would have fallen, had he not caught her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE LAST OF THE ASIKI
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Barbara had recovered. She sat upon her bed in the tent and by her sat
+      Alan, holding her hand, while before them stood Aylward like a prisoner in
+      the dock, and behind him the armed Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me the story, Barbara,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;and tell it briefly, for I
+      cannot bear much more of this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him and began in a slow, even voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After you had gone, dear, things went on as usual for a month or two.
+      Then came the great Sahara Company trouble. First there were rumours and
+      the shares began to go down. My uncle bought them in by tens and hundreds
+      of thousands, to hold up the market, because he was being threatened, but
+      of course he did not know then that Lord Aylward&mdash;for I forgot to
+      tell you, he had become a lord somehow&mdash;was secretly one of the
+      principal sellers, let him deny it if he can. At last the Ottoman
+      Government, through the English ambassador, published its repudiation of
+      the concession, which it seems was a forgery, actually executed or
+      obtained in Constantinople by my uncle. Well, there was a fearful smash.
+      Writs were taken out against my uncle, but before they could be served, he
+      died suddenly of heart disease. I was with him at the time and he kept
+      saying he saw that gold mask which Jeekie calls Bonsa, the thing you took
+      back to Africa. He had a fine funeral, for what he had done was not
+      publicly known, and when his will was opened I found that he had left me
+      his fortune, but made Lord Aylward there my trustee until I came to the
+      full age of twenty-five under my father&rsquo;s will. Alan, don&rsquo;t force me to
+      tell you what sort of a guardian he was to me; also there was no fortune,
+      it had all gone; also I had very, very little left, for almost all my own
+      money had gone too. In his despair he had forged papers to get it in order
+      to support those Sahara Syndicate shares. Still I managed to borrow about
+      £2000 from that little lawyer out of the £5000 that remain to me, an
+      independent sum which he was unable to touch, and, Alan, with it I came to
+      find you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alan, Lord Aylward followed me; although everybody else was ruined, he
+      remained rich, very very rich, they say, and his fancy was to marry me,
+      also I think it was not comfortable for him in England. It is a long tale,
+      but I got up here with about five-and-twenty servants, and Snell, my maid,
+      whom you remember. Then we were both taken ill with some dreadful fever
+      and had it not been for those good black people, I should have died, for I
+      have been very sick, Alan. But they nursed me and I recovered; it was poor
+      Snell who died, they buried her a few days ago. I thought that she would
+      live, but she had a relapse. Next Lord Aylward appeared with twelve
+      soldiers and some porters who, I believe, have run away now,&mdash;oh! you
+      can guess, you can guess. He wanted my people to carry me away somewhere,
+      to the coast, I suppose, but they were faithful to me and would not. Then
+      he set his soldiers on to maltreat them. They shot several of them and
+      flogged them on every opportunity; they were flogging one of them just
+      now, I heard them. Well, the poor men made me understand that they could
+      bear it no longer and must do what he told them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so, Alan, as I was quite hopeless and helpless, I made up my mind to
+      kill myself, hoping that God would forgive me and that I should find you
+      somewhere, perhaps after sleeping a while, for it was better to die than
+      to be given into the power&mdash;of that man. I thought that he was coming
+      for me just now and I was about to do it, but it was you instead, Alan, <i>you</i>,
+      and only just in time. That is all the story, and I hope you will not
+      think that I have acted very foolishly, but I did it for the best. If you
+      only knew what I have suffered, Alan, what I have gone through in one way
+      and another, I am sure that you would not judge me harshly; also I kept
+      dreaming that you were in trouble and wanted me to come to you, and of
+      course I knew where you were gone and had that map. Send him away, Alan,
+      for I am still so weak and I cannot bear the sight of his face. If you
+      knew everything, you would understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan turned on Aylward and in a cold, quiet voice asked him what he had to
+      say to this story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have to say, Major Vernon, that it is a clever mixture of truth and
+      falsehood. It is true that your cousin, Champers-Haswell, has been proved
+      guilty of some very shameful conduct. For instance it appears that he did
+      forge, or rather cause to be forged that Firman from the Sultan, although
+      I knew nothing of this until it was publicly repudiated. It is also true
+      that fearing exposure he entirely lost his head and spent not only his own
+      great fortune but that of Miss Champers also, in trying to support Sahara
+      shares. I admit also that I sold many hundreds of thousands of those
+      shares in the ordinary way, having made up my mind to retire from business
+      when I was raised to the peerage. I admit further, what you knew before,
+      that I was attached to Miss Champers and wished to marry her. Why should I
+      not, especially as I had a good deal to offer to a lady who has been
+      proved to be almost without fortune?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the rest she set out secretly on this mad journey to Africa, whither
+      both my duty as her trustee and my affection prompted me to follow her. I
+      found her here recovering from an illness, and since she has dwelt upon
+      the point, in self-defence I must tell you that whatever has taken place
+      between us, has been with her full consent and encouragement. Of course I
+      allude only to those affectionate amenities which are common between
+      people who purpose to marry as soon as opportunity may offer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this declaration poor Barbara gasped and leaned back against her
+      pillow. Alan stood silent, though his lips turned white, while Jeekie
+      thrust his big head through the tent opening and stared upwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you looking at, Jeekie?&rdquo; asked Alan irritably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seem to want air, Major, also look to see if clouds tumble. Believe
+      partickler big lie do that sometimes. Please go on, O good Lord, for
+      Jeekie want his breakfast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As regards the execution of two of Miss Champers&rsquo; bearers and the
+      flogging of some others, these punishments were inflicted for mutiny,&rdquo;
+       went on Aylward. &ldquo;It was obviously necessary that she should be moved back
+      to the coast, but I found out that they were trying to desert her in a
+      body and to tamper with my own servants, and so was obliged to take strong
+      measures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure those clouds come down now,&rdquo; soliloquized Jeekie, &ldquo;or least
+      something rummy happen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have only to add, Major Vernon, that unless you make away with me
+      first, as I daresay you will, as soon as we reach civilization again I
+      shall proceed against you and this fellow for the cold-blooded murder of
+      my men, in punishment of which I hope yet to live to see you hanged.
+      Meanwhile, I have much pleasure in releasing Miss Champers from her
+      engagement to me which, whatever she may have said to you in England, she
+      was glad enough to enter on here in Africa, a country of which I have been
+      told the climate frequently deteriorates the moral character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear, hear!&rdquo; ejaculated Jeekie, &ldquo;he say something true at last; by
+      accident, I think, like pig what find pearl in muck-heap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold your tongue, Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan. &ldquo;I do not intend to kill you, Lord
+      Aylward, or to do you any harm&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor I neither,&rdquo; broke in Jeekie, &ldquo;all I do to my Lord just for my Lord&rsquo;s
+      good; who Jeekie that he wish to hurt noble British &lsquo;ristocrat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I do intend that it shall be impossible that Miss Champers should be
+      forced to listen to more of your insults,&rdquo; went on Alan, &ldquo;and to make sure
+      that your gun does not go off again as it did this morning. So, Lord
+      Aylward, until we have settled what we are going to do, I must keep you
+      under arrest. Take him to his tent, Jeekie, and put a guard over him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, certainly, Major. Right turn, march! my Lord, and quick,
+      please, since poor, common Jeekie not want dirty his black finger touching
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Aylward obeyed, but at the door of the tent swung round and favoured Alan
+      with a very evil look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Luck is with you for the moment, Major Vernon,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but if you are
+      wise you will remember that you never have been and never will be my
+      match. It will turn again, I have no doubt, and then you may look to
+      yourself, for I warn you I am a bad enemy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan did not answer, but for the first time Barbara sprang to her feet and
+      spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean that you are a bad man, Lord Aylward, and a coward too, or
+      otherwise you would not have tortured me as you have done. Well, when it
+      seemed impossible that I should escape from you except in one way, I was
+      saved by another way of which I never dreamed. Now I tell you that I do
+      not fear you any more. But I think,&rdquo; she added slowly, &ldquo;that you would do
+      well to fear for yourself. I don&rsquo;t know why, but it comes into my mind
+      that though neither Alan nor I shall lift a finger against you, you have a
+      great deal of which to be afraid. Remember what I said to you months ago
+      when you were angry because I would not marry you. I believe it is all
+      coming true, Lord Aylward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Barbara turned her back upon him, and that was the last time that
+      either she or Alan ever saw his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was gone, and Barbara, her head upon her lover&rsquo;s shoulder and her sweet
+      eyes filled with tears of joy and gratitude, was beginning to tell him
+      everything that had befallen her when suddenly they heard a loud cough
+      outside the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s that confounded Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, and he called to him to come in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter now?&rdquo; he asked crossly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Breakfast, Major. His lordship got plenty good stores, borrow some from
+      him and give him chit. Coming in one minute&mdash;hot coffee, kipper
+      herring, rasher bacon, also butter (best Danish), and Bath Oliver
+      biscuit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said Alan, but Jeekie did not move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; repeated Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Major, not very well, very ill. Thought those lies bring down
+      clouds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mean, Major, that Asiki smelling about this camp. Porter-man what go to
+      fetch water see them. Also believe they catch rest of those soldier chaps
+      and polish them, for porter-man hear the row.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan sprang up with an exclamation; in his new-found joy he had forgotten
+      all about the Asiki.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep hair on, Major,&rdquo; said Jeekie cheerfully; &ldquo;don&rsquo;t think they attack
+      yet, plenty of time for breakfast first. When they come we make it very
+      hot for them, lots of rifle and cartridge now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t we run away?&rdquo; asked Barbara.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Missy, can&rsquo;t run; must stop here and do best. Camp well built, open
+      all round, don&rsquo;t think they take it. You leave everything to Jeekie, he
+      see you through, but p&rsquo;raps you like come breakfast outside, where you
+      know all that go on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Barbara did like, but as it happened they were allowed to consume their
+      meal in peace, since no Asiki appeared. As soon as it was swallowed she
+      returned to her tent, while Alan and Jeekie set to work to strengthen the
+      defences of the little camp as well as they were able, and to make ready
+      and serve out the arms and ammunition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About midday a man whom they had posted in a tree that grew inside the
+      camp announced that he saw the enemy, and next moment a company of them
+      rushed towards them across the open and were greeted by a volley which
+      killed and wounded several men. At this exhibition of miraculous power,
+      for none of these soldiers had ever heard the report of firearms or seen
+      their effect, they retreated rapidly, uttering shouts of dismay and
+      carrying their dead and wounded with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you suppose they have gone, Jeekie?&rdquo; asked Alan anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think not, Major, think they frightened, by big bullet magic, and go
+      consult priest. Also only a few of them here, rest of army come later and
+      try rush us to-morrow morning before dawn. That Asiki custom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what shall we do, Jeekie? Run for it or stop here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think must stop here, Major. If we bolt, carrying Miss Barbara, who can&rsquo;t
+      walk much, they follow on spoor and catch us. Best stick inside this fence
+      and see what happen. Also once outside p&rsquo;raps porters desert and leave
+      us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So as there was nothing else to do they stayed, labouring all day at the
+      strengthening of their fortifications till at length the boma or fence of
+      boughs, supported by earth, was so high and thick that while any were left
+      to fire through the loopholes, it would be very difficult to storm by men
+      armed with spears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a dreadful and arduous day for Alan, who now had Barbara&rsquo;s safety
+      to think of, Barbara with whom as yet he had scarcely found time to
+      exchange a word. By sunset indeed he was so worn out with toil and anxiety
+      that he could scarcely stand upon his feet. Jeekie, who all that afternoon
+      had been strangely quiet and reflective, surveyed him critically, then
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have good drink and go sleep a bit, Major. Very good little shelter
+      there by Miss Barbara&rsquo;s tent, and you hold her hand if you like underneath
+      the canvas, which comforting and all correct. Jeekie never get tired, he
+      keep good lookout and let you know if anything happen, and then you jump
+      up quite fresh and fight like tom-cat in corner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At first Alan refused to listen, but when Barbara added her entreaties to
+      those of Jeekie he gave way, and ten minutes later was as soundly asleep
+      as he had ever been in his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep eye on him, Miss Barbara, and call me if he wake. Now I go give
+      noble lord his supper and see that he quite comfortable. Jeekie seem very
+      busy to-night, just like when Major have dinner-party at Yarleys and old
+      cook get drunk in kitchen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If Barbara could have followed Jeekie&rsquo;s movements for the next few hours,
+      she would probably have agreed that he was busy. First he went to
+      Aylward&rsquo;s tent, and as he had said he would, gave him his supper, and with
+      it half a bottle of whisky from the stores which he had been carrying
+      about with him for some time, as he said, to prevent the porters from
+      getting at it. Aylward would drink little, though as his arms were tied to
+      the tent-pole, Jeekie sat beside him and fed him like a baby, conversing
+      pleasantly with him all the while, informing him amongst other things that
+      he had better say &ldquo;big prayer,&rdquo; because the Asiki would probably cut his
+      throat before morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aylward, who was in a state of sullen fury, scarcely replied to this talk,
+      except to say that if so, there was one comfort, they would cut his and
+      his master&rsquo;s also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my Lord,&rdquo; answered Jeekie, &ldquo;that quite true, so drink to next
+      meeting, though I think you go different place to me, and when you got
+      tail and I wing, you horn and I crown of glory, of course we not talk much
+      together,&rdquo; and he held a mug of whisky and water&mdash;a great deal of
+      whisky and a very little water&mdash;to his prisoner&rsquo;s mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aylward drained it, feeling a need for stimulant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; said Jeekie, holding it upside down, &ldquo;you drink every drop and
+      not offer one to poor old Jeekie. Well, he turned teetotaller, so no
+      matter. Good-night, my Lord, I call you if Asiki come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are the Asiki?&rdquo; asked Aylward drowsily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! you want to know? I tell you,&rdquo; and he began a long, rambling story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before he ever came to the end of it Aylward had fallen on his side and
+      was fast asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; said Jeekie, contemplating him, &ldquo;that whisky very strong,
+      though bottle say same as they drink in House of Common. That whisky so
+      strong I think I pour away rest of it,&rdquo; and he did to the last drop, even
+      taking the trouble to wash out the bottle with water. &ldquo;Now you no tempt
+      anyone,&rdquo; he said, addressing the said bottle with a very peculiar smile,
+      &ldquo;or if you tempt, at least do no harm&mdash;like kiss down telephone!&rdquo;
+       Then he laid down the bottle on its side and left the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside of it three of the head porters, who appeared to be friends of
+      his, were waiting for him, and with these men he engaged in low and
+      earnest conversation. Next, after they had arrived at some agreement,
+      which they seemed to ratify by a curious oath that involved their crossing
+      and clasping hands in an odd fashion, and other symbols known to West
+      African secret societies, Jeekie went the round of the camp to see that
+      everyone was at his post. Then he did what most people would have thought
+      a very curious and strange thing, namely climbed the fence and vanished
+      into the forest, where presently a sound was heard as of an owl hooting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little while later and another owl began to hoot in the distance,
+      whereat the three head porters nudged each other. Perhaps they had heard
+      such owls hoot before at night, and perhaps they knew that Jeekie, who had
+      &ldquo;passed Bonsa,&rdquo; could only be harmed by the direct command of Bonsa
+      speaking through the mouth of the Asika herself. Still they might have
+      been interested in the nocturnal conversation of those two owls, which, as
+      is common with such magical fowl in West Africa, had transformed
+      themselves into human shapes, the shape of Jeekie and the shape of an
+      Asiki priest, who was, as it happened, a blood relation of Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very good, Brother,&rdquo; said Owl No. 1; &ldquo;all you want is this white man whom
+      the Asika desires for a husband. Well, I have done my best for him, but I
+      must think of myself and others, and he goes to great happiness. I have
+      given him something to make him sleep; do you come presently with eight
+      men, no more, or we shall kill you, to the fence of the camp, and we will
+      hand over the white man, Vernoon, to you to take back to the Asika, who
+      will give you a wonderful reward, such a reward as you have never
+      imagined. Now let me hear your word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Owl No. 2 answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, I make the bargain on behalf of the army, and swear to it by the
+      double Swimming Head of Bonsa. We will come and take the white man,
+      Vernoon, who is to be Mungana, and carry him away. In return we promise
+      not to follow or molest you, or any others in your camp. Indeed, why
+      should we, who do not desire to be killed by the dreadful magic that you
+      have, a magic that makes a noise and pierces through our bodies from afar?
+      What were the words of the Asika? &lsquo;Bring back Vernoon, or perish. I care
+      for nothing else, bring back Vernoon to be my husband.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; said Owl No. 1, &ldquo;within the half of an hour Vernoon shall be ready
+      for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good,&rdquo; answered Owl No. 2, &ldquo;within half an hour eight of us will be
+      without the east face of your camp to receive him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silently?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silently, my brother in Bonsa. If he cries out we will gag him. Fear not,
+      none shall know your part in this matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good, my brother in Bonsa. By the way, how is Big Bonsa? I fear that the
+      white man, Vernoon, hurt him very much, and that is why I give him up&mdash;because
+      of his sacrilege.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I left the god was very sick and all the people mourned, but
+      doubtless he is immortal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubtless he is immortal, my brother, a little hard magic in his stomach&mdash;if
+      he has one&mdash;cannot hurt <i>him</i>. Farewell, dear brother in Bonsa,
+      I wish that I were you to get the great reward that the Asika will give to
+      you. Farewell, farewell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the two owls flitted apart again, hooting as they went, till they
+      came to their respective camps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie was in the tent performing a strange toilet upon the sleeping
+      Aylward by the light of a single candle. From his pouch he produced the
+      mask of linen painted with gold that Alan used to be forced to wear, and
+      tied it securely over Aylward&rsquo;s face, murmuring:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You always love gold, my Lord Aylward, and Jeekie promise you see plenty
+      of it now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he proceeded to remove his coat, his waistcoat, his socks, and his
+      boots and to replace these articles of European attire by his own worn
+      Asiki sandals and his own dirty Asiki robe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;think that do,&rdquo; and he studied him by the light of the
+      candle. &ldquo;Same height, same colour hair, same dirty clothes, and as Asiki
+      never see Major&rsquo;s face because he always wear mask in public, like as two
+      peas on shovel. Oh my! Jeekie clever chap, Jeekie devilish clever chap.
+      But when Asika pull off that mask to give him true lover kiss, OH MY!
+      wonder that happen then? Think whole of Bonsa-Town bust up; think big
+      waterfall run backwards; think she not quite pleased; think my good Lord
+      find himself in false position; think Jeekie glad to be on coast; think he
+      not go back to Bonsa-Town no more. Oh my aunt! no, he stop in England and
+      go church twice on Sunday,&rdquo; and pressing his big hands on the pit of his
+      stomach he rocked and rolled in fierce, silent laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then an owl hooted again immediately beneath the fence and Jeekie, blowing
+      out the candle, opened the flap of the tent and tapped the head porter,
+      who stood outside, on the shoulder. He crept in and between them they
+      lifted the senseless Aylward and bore him to the V-shaped entrance of the
+      boma which was immediately opposite to the tent and, oddly enough, half
+      open. Here the two other porters with whom Jeekie had performed some
+      ceremony, chanced to be on guard, the rest of their company being
+      stationed at a distance. Jeekie and the head porter went through the gap
+      like men carrying a corpse to midnight burial, and presently in the
+      darkness without two owls began to hoot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Aylward was laid upon a litter that had been prepared, and eight
+      white-robed Asiki bearers stared at his gold mask in the faint starlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose he is not dead, brother,&rdquo; said Owl No. 2 doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, brother,&rdquo; said Owl No. 1, &ldquo;feel his heart and his pulse. Not dead,
+      only drunk. He will wake up by daylight, by which time you should be far
+      upon your way. Be good and gentle to the white man Vernoon, who has been
+      my master. Be careful, too, that he does not escape you, brother, for as
+      you know he is very strong and cunning. Say to the Asika that Jeekie her
+      servant makes his reverence to her, and hopes that she will have many,
+      many happy years with the husband that he sends her; also that she will
+      remember him whom she called &lsquo;Black Dog,&rsquo; in her prayers to the gods and
+      spirits of our people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall be done, brother, but why do you not return with us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, brother, I have ties across the Black Water&mdash;dear children,
+      almost white&mdash;whom I love so much that I cannot leave them. Farewell,
+      brethren, the blessings of the Bonsas be on you, and may you grow fat and
+      prosper in the love and favour of our lady the Asika.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Farewell,&rdquo; they murmured in answer. &ldquo;Good fortune be your bedfellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another minute and they had lifted up the litter and vanished at a
+      swinging trot into the shadow of the trees. Jeekie returned to the camp
+      and ordered the three men to re-stop the gateway with thorns, muttering in
+      their ears:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Remember, brethren, one word of this and you die, all of you, as those
+      die who break the oath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have we not sworn?&rdquo; they whispered, as they went back to their posts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie stood a while in front of the empty tent and if any had been there
+      to note him, they might have seen a shadow as of compunction creep over
+      his powerful black face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When he wake up he won&rsquo;t know where he are,&rdquo; he reflected, &ldquo;and when he
+      get to Bonsa-Town he&rsquo;ll wonder where he is, and when he meet Asika! Well,
+      he very big blackguard; try to murder Major, whom Jeekie nurse as baby,
+      the only thing that Jeekie care for&mdash;except&mdash;Jeekie; try to make
+      love to Miss Barbara against will when he catch her alone in forest, which
+      not playing game. Jeekie self not such big blackguard as that dirt-born
+      noble Lord; Jeekie never murder no one&mdash;not quite; Jeekie never make
+      love to girl what not want him&mdash;no need, so many what do that he have
+      to shove them off, like good Christian man. Mrs. Jeekie see to that while
+      she live. Also better that mean white man go call on Bonsas than Major and
+      Missy Barbara and all porters, and Jeekie&mdash;specially Jeekie&mdash;get
+      throat cut. No, no, Jeekie nothing to be ashamed of, Jeekie do good day&rsquo;s
+      work, though Jeekie keep it tight as wax since white folk such silly
+      people, and when Major in a rage, he very nasty customer and see
+      everything upside down. Now, Jeekie quite tired, so say his prayers and
+      have nap. No, think not in tent, though very comfortable. Major might wake
+      up, poke his nose in there, and if he see black face instead of white one,
+      ask ugly question, which if Jeekie half asleep he no able to answer nice
+      and neat. Still he just arrange things a little so they look all right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE ASIKA&rsquo;S MESSAGE
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Dawn began to break in the forest and Alan woke in his shelter and
+      stretched himself. He had slept soundly all the night, so soundly that the
+      innocent Jeekie wondered much whether by any chance he also had taken a
+      tot out of that particular whisky bottle, as indeed he had recommended him
+      to do. People who drink whisky after long abstinence from spirits are apt
+      to sleep long, he reflected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan crept out of the shelter and gazed affectionately at the tent in
+      which Barbara slumbered. Thank Heaven she was safe so far, as for some
+      unknown reason, evidently the Asiki had postponed their attack. Just then
+      a clamour arose in the air, and he perceived Jeekie striding towards him
+      waving one arm in an excited fashion, while with the other he dragged
+      along the captain of the porters, who appeared to be praying for mercy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here pretty go, Major,&rdquo; he shouted, &ldquo;devil and all to pay! That my Lord,
+      he gone and bolted. This silly fool say that three hours ago he hear
+      something break through fence and think it only hyæna what come to steal,
+      so take no notice. Well, that hyæna, you guess who he is. You come look,
+      Major, you come look, and then we tie this fellow up and flog him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan ran to Aylward&rsquo;s tent to find it empty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look,&rdquo; said Jeekie, who had followed, &ldquo;see how he do business, that jolly
+      clever hyæna,&rdquo; and he pointed to a broken whisky bottle and some severed
+      cords. &ldquo;You see he manage break bottle and rub rope against cut glass till
+      it come in two. Then he do hyæna dodge and hook it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan inspected the articles, nor did any shadow of doubt enter his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly he managed very well,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;especially for a London-bred
+      man, but, Jeekie, what can have been his object?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! who know, Major? Mind of man very strange and various thing; p&rsquo;raps
+      he no bear to see you and Miss Barbara together; p&rsquo;raps he bolt coast, get
+      ear of local magistrate before you; p&rsquo;raps he sit up tree to shoot you;
+      p&rsquo;raps nasty temper make him mad. But he gone any way, and I hope he no
+      meet Asiki, poor fellow, &lsquo;cause if so, who know? P&rsquo;raps they knock him on
+      head, or if they think him you, they make him prisoner and keep him quite
+      long while before they let him go again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Alan, &ldquo;he has gone of his own free will, so we have no
+      responsibility in the matter, and I can&rsquo;t pretend that I am sorry to see
+      the last of him, at any rate for the present. Let that poor beggar loose,
+      there seems to have been enough flogging in this place, and after all he
+      isn&rsquo;t much to blame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie obeyed, apparently with much reluctance, and just then they saw one
+      of their own people running towards the camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Fraid he going to tell us Asiki come attack,&rdquo; said Jeekie, shaking his
+      head. &ldquo;Hope they give us time breakfast first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt,&rdquo; answered Alan nervously, for he feared the result of that
+      attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the man arrived breathless and began to gasp out his news, which
+      filled Alan with delight and caused a look of utter amazement to appear
+      upon the broad face of Jeekie. It was to the effect that he had climbed a
+      high tree as he had been bidden to do, and from the top of that tree by
+      the light of the first rays of the rising sun, miles away on the plain
+      beyond the forest, he had seen the Asiki army in full retreat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; exclaimed Alan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, but that very rum story. Jeekie can&rsquo;t swallow it all at once.
+      Must send out see none of them left behind. P&rsquo;raps they play trick, but if
+      they really gone, &lsquo;spose it &lsquo;cause guns frightens them so much. Always
+      think powder very great &lsquo;vention, especially when enemy hain&rsquo;t got none,
+      and quite sure of it now. Jeekie very, very seldom wrong. Soon believe,&rdquo;
+       he added with a burst of confidence, &ldquo;that Jeekie never wrong at all. He
+      look for truth so long that at last he find it <i>always</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Something more than a month had gone by and Major and Mrs. Vernon, the
+      latter fully restored to health and the most sweet and beautiful of
+      brides, stood upon the steamship <i>Benin</i>, and as the sun sank, looked
+      their last upon the coast of Western Africa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, dear,&rdquo; Alan was saying to his wife, &ldquo;from first to last it has been
+      a very queer story, but I really think that our getting that Asiki gold
+      after all was one of the queerest parts of it; also uncommonly convenient,
+      as things have turned out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Namely that you have got a little pauper for a wife instead of a great
+      heiress, Alan. But tell me again about the gold. I have had so much to
+      think of during the last few days,&rdquo; and she blushed, &ldquo;that I never quite
+      took it all in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, love, there isn&rsquo;t much to tell. When that forwarding agent, Mr.
+      Aston, knew that we were in the town, he came to me and said that he had
+      about fifty cases full of something heavy, as he supposed samples of ore,
+      addressed to me to your care in England which he was proposing to ship on
+      by the <i>Benin</i>. I answered &lsquo;Yes, that was all right,&rsquo; and did not
+      undeceive him about their contents. Then I asked how they had arrived, and
+      if he had not received a letter with them. He replied that one morning
+      before the warehouse was open, some natives had brought them down in a
+      canoe, and dumped them at the door, telling the watchman that they had
+      been paid to deliver them there by some other natives whom they met a long
+      way up the river. Then they went away without leaving any letter or
+      message. Well, I thanked Aston and paid his charges and there&rsquo;s an end of
+      the matter. Those fifty-three cases are now in the hold invoiced as ore
+      samples and, as I inspected them myself and am sure that they have not
+      been tampered with, besides the value of the necklace the Asika gave me
+      we&rsquo;ve got £100,000 to begin our married life upon with something over for
+      old Jeekie, and I daresay we shall do very well on that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Alan, very well indeed.&rdquo; Then she reflected a while, for the mention
+      of Jeekie&rsquo;s name seemed to have made her thoughtful, and added, &ldquo;Alan,
+      what <i>do</i> you think became of Lord Aylward?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure I don&rsquo;t know. Jeekie and I and some of the porters went to see
+      the Old Calabar officials and made affidavits as to the circumstances of
+      his disappearance. We couldn&rsquo;t do any more, could we?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Alan. But do you think that Jeekie quite understands the meaning of
+      an oath? I mean it seems so strange that we should never have found the
+      slightest trace of him, and, Alan, I don&rsquo;t know if you noticed it, but why
+      did Jeekie appear that morning wearing Lord Aylward&rsquo;s socks and boots?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He ought to know all about oaths, he has heard enough of them in
+      Magistrates&rsquo; Courts, but as regards the boots, I am sure I can&rsquo;t say,
+      dear,&rdquo; answered Alan uneasily. &ldquo;Here he comes, we will ask him,&rdquo; and he
+      did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sock and boot,&rdquo; replied Jeekie, with a surprised air, &ldquo;why, Mrs. Major,
+      if that good lord go mad and cut off into forest leaving them behind, of
+      course I put them on, as they no more use to him, and I just burn my dirty
+      old Asiki dress and sandal and got nothing to keep jigger out of toe.
+      Don&rsquo;t you sit up here in this damp, cold, Mrs. Major, else you get more
+      fever. You go down and dress dinner, which at half-past six to-night. I
+      just come tell you that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Barbara went, leaving the other two talking about various matters, for
+      they were alone together on the deck, all the passengers, of whom there
+      were but few, having gone below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The short African twilight had come, a kind of soft blue haze that made
+      the ship look mysterious and unnatural. By degrees their conversation died
+      away. They lapsed into a silence, which Alan was the first to break.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you thinking of, Jeekie?&rdquo; he asked nervously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thinking of Asika, Major,&rdquo; he answered in a scared whisper. &ldquo;Seem to me
+      that she about somewhere, just as she use pop up in room in Gold House;
+      seem to me I feel her all down my back, likewise in head wool, which stand
+      up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very odd, Jeekie,&rdquo; replied Alan, &ldquo;but so do I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Major, &lsquo;spect she thinking of us, specially of you, and just throw
+      what she think at us, like boy throw stones at bird what fly away out of
+      cage. Asika do all that, you know, she not quite human, full of plenty
+      Bonsa devil, from gen&rsquo;ration to gen&rsquo;rations, amen! P&rsquo;raps she just find
+      out something what make her mad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What could she find out after all this time, Jeekie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, don&rsquo;t know. How I know? Jeekie can&rsquo;t guess. Find out you marry Miss
+      Barbara, p&rsquo;raps. Very sick that she lose you for this time, p&rsquo;raps. Kill
+      herself that she keep near you, p&rsquo;raps, while she wait till you come round
+      again, p&rsquo;raps. Asika can do all these things if she like, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stuff and rubbish,&rdquo; answered Alan uneasily, for Jeekie&rsquo;s suggestions were
+      most uncomfortable, &ldquo;I believe in none of your West Coast superstitions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite right, Major, nor don&rsquo;t I. Only you &lsquo;member, Major, what she show
+      us there in Treasure-place&mdash;Mr. Haswell being buried, eh? Miss
+      Barbara in tent, eh? t&rsquo;other job what hasn&rsquo;t come off yet, eh? Oh! my
+      golly! Major, just you look behind you and say you see nothing, please,&rdquo;
+       and the eyes of Jeekie grew large as Maltese oranges, while with
+      chattering teeth he pointed over the bulwark of the vessel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alan turned and saw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was what he saw or seemed to see: The figure of the Asika in her
+      robes and breastplate of gold, standing upon the air, just beyond the
+      ship, as though on it she might set no foot. Her waving black hair hung
+      about her shoulders, but the sharp wind did not seem to stir it nor did
+      her white dress flutter, and on her beautiful face was stamped a look of
+      awful rage and agony, the rage of betrayal, the agony of loss. In her
+      right hand she held a knife, and from a wound in her breast the red blood
+      ran down her golden corselet. She pointed to Jeekie with the knife, she
+      opened her arms to Alan as though in unutterable longing, then slowly
+      raised them upwards towards the fading glory of the sky above&mdash;and
+      was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie sat down upon the deck, mopping his brow with a red handkerchief,
+      while Alan, who felt faint, clung to the bulwarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell you, Major, that Asika can do all that kind of thing. Never know
+      where you find her next. &lsquo;Spect she come to live with us in England and
+      just call in now and again when it dark. Tell you, she very awkward
+      customer, think p&rsquo;raps you done better stop there and marry her. Well, she
+      gone now, thank Heaven! seem to drop in sea and hope she stay there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie,&rdquo; said Alan, recovering himself, &ldquo;listen to me; this is all
+      infernal nonsense; we have gone through a great deal and the nerves of
+      both of us are overstrained. We think we saw what we did not see, and if
+      you dare to say a single word of it to your mistress, I&rsquo;ll break your
+      neck. Do you understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, think so. All &lsquo;fernal nonsense, nerves strained, didn&rsquo;t see
+      what we see, and say nothing of what did see to Mrs. Major, if either do
+      say anything, t&rsquo;other one break his neck. That all right, quite
+      understand. Anything else, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Jeekie. We have had some wonderful adventures, but they are past and
+      done with and the less we talk or even think about them the better, for
+      there is a lot that would be rather difficult to explain, and that if
+      explained would scarcely be believed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Major, for instance, very difficult explain Mrs. Barbara how Asika
+      so fond of you if you only tell her, &lsquo;Go away, go away!&rsquo; all the time,
+      like old saint-gentleman to pretty girl in picture. P&rsquo;raps she smell rat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop your ribald talk,&rdquo; said Alan in a stern voice. &ldquo;It would be better
+      if instead of making jokes you gave thanks to Providence for bringing both
+      of us alive and well out of very dreadful dangers. Now I am going to dress
+      for dinner,&rdquo; and with an anxious glance seaward into the gathering
+      darkness, he turned and went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jeekie stood alone upon the empty deck, wagging his great white head to
+      and fro and soliloquizing thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wonder if Major see what under lady Asika&rsquo;s feet when she stand out there
+      over nasty deep. Think not or he say something. That noble lord not look
+      nice. No, private view for Jeekie only, free ticket and nothing to pay and
+      me hope it no come back when I go to bed. Major know nothing about it, so
+      he not see, but Jeekie know a lot. Hope that Aylward not write any letters
+      home, or if he write, hope no one post them. Ghost bad enough, but murder,
+      oh my!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused a while, then went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jeekie do big sacrifice to Bonsa when he reach Yarleys, get lamb in back
+      kitchen at night, or if ghost come any more, calf in wood outside. Not
+      steal it, pay for it himself. Then think Jeekie turn Cath&rsquo;lic; confess his
+      sins, they say them priest chaps not split, and after they got his sins,
+      they tackle Asika and Bonsas too,&rdquo; and he uttered a series of penitent
+      groans, turning slowly round and round to be sure that nothing was behind
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the full moon appeared out of a bank of clouds, and as it rose
+      higher, flooding the world with light, Jeekie&rsquo;s spirits rose also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Asika never come in moonshine,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that not the game, against
+      rule, and after all, what Jeekie done bad? He very good fellow really.
+      Aylward great villain, serve him jolly well right if Asika spiflicate him,
+      that not Jeekie&rsquo;s fault. What Jeekie do, he do to save master and missus
+      who he love. Care nothing for his self, ready to die any day. Keep it dark
+      to save them too, &lsquo;cause they no like the story. If once they know, it
+      always leave taste in mouth, same as bad oyster. Also Jeekie manage very
+      well, take Major safe Asiki-land (&lsquo;cause Little Bonsa make him), give him
+      very interesting time there, get him plenty gold, nurse him when he sick,
+      nobble Mungana, bring him out again, find Miss Barbara, catch hated rival
+      and bamboozle all Asiki army, bring happy pair to coast and marry them,
+      arrange first-class honeymoon on ship&mdash;Jeekie do all these things,
+      and lots more he could tell, if he vain and not poor humble nigger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more he paused a while, lost in the contemplation of his own modesty
+      and virtues, then continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This very ungrateful world. Major there, he not say, &lsquo;Thank you, Jeekie,
+      Jeekie, you great, wonderful man. Brave Jeekie, artful Jeekie. Jeekie
+      smart as paint who make all world believe just what he like, and one too
+      many for Asika herself.&rsquo; No, no, he say nothing like that. He say &lsquo;thank
+      Prov&rsquo;dence,&rsquo; not &lsquo;Jeekie,&rsquo; as though Prov&rsquo;dence do all them things. White
+      folk think they clever, but great fools, really, don&rsquo;t know nothing.
+      Prov&rsquo;dence all very well in his way&mdash;p&rsquo;raps, but Prov&rsquo;dence not a
+      patch on Jeekie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hullo! moon get behind cloud and there second bell; think Jeekie go down
+      and wait dinner; lonely up here and sure Asika never stand &lsquo;lectric
+      light.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***
+
+***** This file should be named 2857-h.htm or 2857-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/2857/
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&ldquo;the Foundation&rdquo;
+ or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; appears, or with which the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo; is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+&ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original &ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, &ldquo;Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.&rdquo;
+ 
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+&ldquo;Defects,&rdquo; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &ldquo;Right
+of Replacement or Refund&rdquo; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you &lsquo;AS-IS&rsquo; WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm&rsquo;s
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation&rsquo;s EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state&rsquo;s laws.
+
+The Foundation&rsquo;s principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation&rsquo;s web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/2857.txt b/old/2857.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b34dc30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2857.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9949 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Yellow God
+       An Idol of Africa
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2857]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding
+
+
+
+
+
+THE YELLOW GOD
+
+AN IDOL OF AFRICA
+
+
+By H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SAHARA LIMITED
+
+Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., M.P., sat in his office in the City of
+London. It was a very magnificent office, quite one of the finest that
+could be found within half a mile of the Mansion House. Its exterior
+was built of Aberdeen granite, a material calculated to impress the
+prospective investor with a comfortable sense of security. Other stucco,
+or even brick-built, offices might crumble and fall in an actual or a
+financial sense, but this rock-like edifice of granite, surmounted by a
+life-sized statue of Justice with her scales, admired from either corner
+by pleasing effigies of Commerce and of Industry, would surely endure
+any shock. Earthquake could scarcely shake its strong foundations; panic
+and disaster would as soon affect the Bank of England. That at least
+was the impression which it had been designed to convey, and not without
+success.
+
+"There is so much in externals," Mr. Champers-Haswell, Sir Robert's
+partner, would say in his cheerful voice. "We are all of us influenced
+by them, however unconsciously. Impress the public, my dear Aylward. Let
+solemnity without suggest opulence within, and the bread, or rather the
+granite, which you throw upon the waters will come back to you after
+many days."
+
+Mr. Aylward, for this conversation occurred before his merits or the
+depth of his purse had been rewarded by a baronetcy, looked at his
+partner in the impassive fashion for which he was famous, and answered:
+
+"You mix your metaphors, Haswell, but if you mean that the public are
+fools who must be caught by advertisement, I agree with you. Only this
+particular advertisement is expensive and I do not want to wait many
+days for my reward. However, L20,000 one way or the other is a small
+matter, so tell that architect to do the thing in granite."
+
+Sir Robert Aylward sat in his own quiet room at the back of this
+enduring building, a very splendid room that any Secretary of State
+might have envied, but arranged in excellent taste. Its walls were
+panelled with figured teak, a rich carpet made the footfall noiseless,
+an antique Venus stood upon a marble pedestal in the corner, and over
+the mantelpiece hung a fine portrait by Gainsborough, that of a certain
+Miss Aylward, a famous beauty in her day, with whom, be it added, its
+present owner could boast no connection whatsoever.
+
+Sir Robert was seated at his ebony desk playing with a pencil, and the
+light from a cheerful fire fell upon his face.
+
+In its own way it was a remarkable face, as he appeared then in his
+fourth and fortieth year; very pale but with a natural pallor, very well
+cut and on the whole impressive. His eyes were dark, matching his black
+hair and pointed beard, and his nose was straight and rather prominent.
+Perhaps the mouth was his weakest feature, for there was a certain
+shiftiness about it, also the lips were thick and slightly sensuous.
+Sir Robert knew this, and therefore he grew a moustache to veil them
+somewhat. To a careful observer the general impression given by this
+face was such as is left by the sudden sight of a waxen mask. "How
+strong! How lifelike!" he would have said, "but of course it isn't
+real. There may be a man behind, or there may be wood, but that's only
+a mask." Many people of perception had felt like this about Sir Robert
+Aylward, namely, that under the mask of his pale countenance dwelt a
+different being whom they did not know or appreciate.
+
+If these had seen him at this moment of the opening of our story, they
+might have held that Wisdom was justified of her children. For now
+in the solitude of his splendid office, of a sudden Sir Robert's mask
+seemed to fall from him. His face broke up like ice beneath a thaw. He
+rose from his table and began to walk up and down the room. He talked to
+himself aloud.
+
+"Great Heavens!" he muttered, "what a game to have played, and it will
+go through. I believe that it will go through."
+
+He stopped at the table, switched on an electric light and made a rapid
+calculation on the back of a letter with a blue pencil.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that's my share, a million and seventeen thousand
+pounds in cash, and two million in ordinary shares which can be worked
+off at a discount--let us say another seven hundred and fifty thousand,
+plus what I have got already--put that at only two hundred and fifty
+thousand net. Two millions in all, which of course may or may not be
+added to, probably not, unless the ordinaries boom, for I don't mean
+to speculate any more. That's the end of twenty years' work, Robert
+Aylward. And to think of it, eighteen months ago, although I seemed so
+rich, I was on the verge of bankruptcy--the very verge, not worth five
+thousand pounds. Now what did the trick? I wonder what did the trick?"
+
+He walked down the room and stopped opposite the ancient marble, staring
+at it--
+
+"Not Venus, I think," he said, with a laugh, "Venus never made any man
+rich." He turned and retraced his steps to the other end of the room,
+which was veiled in shadow. Here upon a second marble pedestal stood an
+object that gleamed dimly through the gloom. It was about ten inches or
+a foot high, but in that place nothing more could be seen of it, except
+that it was yellow and had the general appearance of a toad. For some
+reason it seemed to attract Sir Robert Aylward, for he halted to stare
+at it, then stretched out his hand and switched on another lamp, in the
+hard brilliance of which the thing upon the pedestal suddenly declared
+itself, leaping out of the darkness into light. It was a terrible
+object, a monstrosity of indeterminate sex and nature, but surmounted by
+a woman's head and face of extraordinary, if devilish loveliness, sunk
+back between high but grotesquely small shoulders, like to those of a
+lizard, so that it glared upwards. The workmanship of the thing was
+rude yet strangely powerful. Whatever there is cruel, whatever there
+is devilish, whatever there is inhuman in the dark places of the world,
+shone out of the jewelled eyes which were set in that yellow female
+face, yellow because its substance was of gold, a face which seemed not
+to belong to the embryonic legs beneath, for body there was none, but
+to float above them. A hollow, life-sized mask with two tiny frog-like
+legs, that was the fashion of it.
+
+"You are an ugly brute," muttered Sir Robert, contemplating this effigy,
+"but although I believe in nothing in heaven above or earth below,
+except the abysmal folly of the British public, I am bothered if I don't
+believe in you. At any rate from the day when Vernon brought you into
+my office, my luck turned, and to judge from the smile on your sweet
+countenance, I don't think it is done with yet. I wonder what those
+stones are in your eyes. Opals, I suppose, from the way they change
+colour. They shine uncommonly to-day, I never remember them so bright.
+I----"
+
+At this moment a knock came on the door. Sir Robert turned off the lamp
+and walked back to the fireplace.
+
+"Come in," he said, and as he spoke once more his pale face grew
+impassive and expressionless.
+
+The door opened and a clerk entered, an imposing-looking clerk with
+iron-grey hair, who wore an irreproachable frock coat and patent leather
+boots. Advancing to his master, he stood respectfully silent, waiting to
+be addressed. For quite a long while Sir Robert looked over his head as
+though he did not see him; it was a way of his. Then his eyes rested on
+the man dreamily and he remarked in his cold, clear voice:
+
+"I don't think I rang, Jeffreys."
+
+"No, Sir Robert," answered the clerk, bowing as though he spoke to
+Royalty, "but there is a little matter about that article in _The
+Cynic_."
+
+"Press business," said Sir Robert, lifting his eyebrows; "you should
+know by this time that I do not attend to such details. See Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, or Major Vernon."
+
+"They are both out at the moment, Sir Robert."
+
+"Go on, then, Jeffreys," replied the head of the firm with a resigned
+sigh, "only be brief. I am thinking."
+
+The clerk bowed again.
+
+"The _Cynic_ people have just telephoned through about that article we
+sent them. I think you saw it, sir, and you may remember it begins----"
+and he read from a typewritten copy in his hand which was headed "Sahara
+Limited":
+
+"'We are now privileged to announce that this mighty scheme which will
+turn a desert into a rolling sea bearing the commerce of nations and
+cause the waste places of the earth to teem with population and to
+blossom like the rose, has been completed in its necessary if dull
+financial details and will within a few days be submitted to investors
+among whom it has already caused so much excitement. These details we
+will deal with fully in succeeding articles, and therefore now need only
+pause to say that the basis of capitalization strikes us as wonderfully
+advantageous to the fortunate public who are asked to participate in
+its vast prospective prosperity. Our present object is to speak of its
+national and imperial aspects----'"
+
+Sir Robert lifted his eyes in remonstrance:
+
+"How much more of that exceedingly dull and commonplace puff do you
+propose to read, Jeffreys?" he asked.
+
+"No more, Sir Robert. We are paying _The Cynic_ thirty guineas to insert
+this article, and the point is that they say that if they have to put in
+the 'national and imperial' business they must have twenty more."
+
+"Indeed, Jeffreys? Why?"
+
+"Because, Sir Robert--I will tell you, as you always like to hear the
+truth--their advertisement-editor is of opinion that Sahara Limited is a
+national and imperial swindle. He says that he won't drag the nation and
+the empire into it in an editorial under fifty guineas."
+
+A faint smile flickered on Sir Robert's face.
+
+"Does he, indeed?" he asked. "I wonder at his moderation. Had I been
+in his place I should have asked more, for really the style is a little
+flamboyant. Well, we don't want to quarrel with them just now--feed the
+sharks. But surely, Jeffreys, you didn't come to disturb me about such a
+trifle?"
+
+"Not altogether, Sir Robert. There is something more important. _The
+Daily Judge_ not only declines to put any article whatsoever, but
+refuses our advertisement, and states that it means to criticize the
+prospectus trenchantly."
+
+"Ah!" said his master after a moment's thought, "that _is_ rather
+serious, since people believe in the _Judge_ even when it is wrong.
+Offer them the advertisement at treble rates."
+
+"It has been done, sir, and they still refuse."
+
+Sir Robert walked to the corner of the room where the yellow object
+squatted on its pedestal, and contemplated it a while, as a man often
+studies one thing when he is thinking of another. It seemed to give him
+an idea, for he looked over his shoulder and said:
+
+"That will do, Jeffreys. When Major Vernon comes in, give him my
+compliments and say that I should be obliged by a word or two with him."
+
+The clerk bowed and went as noiselessly as he had entered.
+
+"Let's see," added Sir Robert to himself. "Old Jackson, the editor of
+_The Judge_, was a great friend of Vernon's father, the late Sir William
+Vernon, G.C.B. I believe that he was engaged to be married to his sister
+years ago, only she died or something. So the Major ought to be able to
+get round him if anybody can. Only the worst of it is I don't altogether
+trust that young gentleman. It suited us to give him a share in the
+business because he is an engineer who knows the country, and this
+Sahara scheme was his notion, a very good one in a way, and for other
+reasons. Now he shows signs of kicking over the traces, wants to know
+too much, is developing a conscience, and so forth. As though the
+promoters of speculative companies had any business with consciences.
+Ah! here he comes."
+
+Sir Robert seated himself at his desk and resumed his calculations upon
+a half-sheet of note-paper, and that moment a clear, hearty voice was
+heard speaking to the clerks in the outer office. Then came the sound of
+a strong, firm footstep, the door opened and Major Alan Vernon appeared.
+
+He was still quite a young man, not more than thirty-two or three years
+of age, though he lacked the ultra robust and rubicund appearance which
+is typical of so many Englishmen of his class at this period of life. A
+heavy bout of blackwater fever acquired on service in West Africa, which
+would have killed anyone of weaker constitution, had robbed his face of
+its bloom and left it much sallower, if more interesting than once it
+had been. For in a way there was interest about the face; also a certain
+charm. It was a good and honest face with a rather eager, rather puzzled
+look, that of a man who has imagination and ideas and who searches for
+the truth but fails to find it. As for the charm, it lay for the most
+part in the pleasant, open smile and in the frank but rather round brown
+eyes overhung by a somewhat massive forehead which projected a little,
+or perhaps the severe illness already alluded to had caused the rest
+of the face to sink. Though thin, the man was bigly built, with broad
+shoulders and well-developed limbs, measuring a trifle under six feet in
+height.
+
+Such was the outward appearance of Alan Vernon. As for his mind, it was
+able enough in certain fashions, for instance those of engineering,
+and the soldier-like faculties to which it had been trained; frank
+and kindly also, but in other respects not quick, perhaps from its
+unsuspiciousness. Alan Vernon was a man slow to discover ill and slower
+still to believe in it even when it seemed to be discovered, a weakness
+that may have gone far to account for his presence in the office
+of those eminent and brilliant financiers, Messrs. Aylward &
+Champers-Haswell. Just now he looked a little worried, like a fish out
+of water, or rather a fish which has begun to suspect the quality of the
+water, something in its smell or taste.
+
+"Jeffreys tells me that you want to see me, Sir Robert," he said in his
+low and pleasant voice, looking at the baronet rather anxiously.
+
+"Yes, my dear Vernon, I wish to ask you to do something, if you kindly
+will, although it is not quite in your line. Old Jackson, the editor of
+_The Judge_, is a friend of yours, isn't he?"
+
+"He was a friend of my father's, and I used to know him slightly."
+
+"Well, that's near enough. As I daresay you have heard, he is an
+unreasonable old beggar, and has taken a dislike to our Sahara scheme.
+Someone has set him against it and he refuses to receive advertisements,
+threatens criticisms, etc. Now the opposition of _The Judge_ or any
+other paper won't kill us, and if necessary we can fight, but at the
+same time it is always wise to agree with your enemy while he is in the
+way, and in short--would you mind going down and explaining his mistake
+to him?"
+
+Before answering Major Vernon walked to the window leisurely and looked
+out.
+
+"I don't like asking favours from family friends," he replied at length,
+"and, as you said, I think it isn't quite my line. Though of course if
+it has anything to do with the engineering possibilities, I shall be
+most happy to see him," he added, brightening.
+
+"I don't know what it has to do with; that is what I shall be obliged if
+you will find out," answered Sir Robert with some asperity. "One can't
+divide a matter of this sort into watertight compartments. It is
+true that in so important a concern each of us has charge of his
+own division, but the fact remains that we are jointly and severally
+responsible for the whole. I am not sure that you bear this sufficiently
+in mind, my dear Vernon," he added with slow emphasis.
+
+His partner moved quickly; it might almost have been said that he
+shivered, though whether the movement, or the shiver, was produced by
+the argument of joint and several liability or by the familiarity of the
+"my dear Vernon," remains uncertain. Perhaps it was the latter, since
+although the elder man was a baronet and the younger only a retired
+Major of Engineers, the gulf between them, as any one of discernment
+could see, was wide. They were born, lived, and moved in different
+spheres unbridged by any common element or impulse.
+
+"I think that I do bear it in mind, especially of late, Sir Robert,"
+answered Alan Vernon slowly.
+
+His partner threw a searching glance on him, for he felt that there was
+meaning in the words, but only said:
+
+"That's all right. My motor is outside and will take you to Fleet Street
+in no time. Meanwhile you might tell them to telephone that you are
+coming, and perhaps you will just look in when you get back. I haven't
+got to go to the House to-night, so shall be here till dinner time, and
+so, I think, will your cousin Haswell. Muzzle that old bulldog, Jackson,
+somehow. No doubt he has his price like the rest of them, in meal or
+malt, and you needn't stick at the figure. We don't want him hanging on
+our throat for the next week or two."
+
+Ten minutes later the splendid, two-thousand guinea motor brougham drew
+up at the offices of the _Judge_ and the obsequious motor-footman bowed
+Major Vernon through its rather grimy doorway. Within, a small boy in
+a kind of box asked his business, and when he heard his name, said that
+the "Guvnor" had sent down word that he was go up at once--third floor,
+first to the right and second to the left. So up he went, and when
+he reached the indicated locality was taken possession of by a
+worried-looking clerk who had evidently been waiting for him, and almost
+thrust through a door to find himself in a big, worn, untidy room. At
+a huge desk in this room sat an elderly man, also big, worn, and
+untidy-looking, who waved a long slip of galley-proof in his hand, and
+was engaged in scolding a sub-editor.
+
+"Who is that?" he said, wheeling round. "I'm busy, can't see anyone."
+
+"I beg your pardon," answered the Major with humility, "your people told
+me to come up. My name is Alan Vernon."
+
+"Oh! I remember. Sit down for a moment, will you, and--Mr. Thomas,
+oblige me by taking away this rot and rewriting it entirely in the sense
+I have outlined."
+
+Mr. Thomas snatched his rejected copy and vanished through another door,
+whereon his chief remarked in an audible voice:
+
+"That man is a perfect fool. Lucky I thought to look at his stuff. Well,
+he is no worse than the rest, in this weary world," and he burst into a
+hearty laugh and swung his chair round, adding, "Now then, Alan, what
+is it? I have a quarter of an hour at your service. Why, bless me! I
+was forgetting that it's more than a dozen years since we met; you
+were still a boy then, and now you have left the army with a D.S.O. and
+gratuity, and turned financier, which I think wouldn't have pleased your
+old father. Come, sit down here and let us talk."
+
+"I didn't leave the army, Mr. Jackson," answered his visitor; "it left
+me; I was invalided out. They said I should never get my health back
+after that last go of fever, but I did."
+
+"Ah! bad luck, very bad luck, just at the beginning of what should have
+been a big career, for I know they thought highly of you at the
+War Office, that is, if they can think. Well, you have grown into a
+fine-looking fellow, like your father, very, and someone else too," and
+he sighed, running his fingers through his grizzled hair. "But you don't
+remember her; she was before your time. Now let us get to business;
+there's no time for reminiscences in this office. What is it, Alan, for
+like other people I suppose that you want something?"
+
+"It is about that Sahara flotation, Mr. Jackson," he began rather
+doubtfully.
+
+The old editor's face darkened. "The Sahara flotation! That
+accursed----" and he ceased abruptly. "What have you, of all people in
+the world, got to do with it? Oh! I remember. Someone told me that you
+had gone into partnership with Aylward the company promoter, and that
+little beast, Champers-Haswell, who really is the clever one. Well, set
+it out, set it out."
+
+"It seems, Mr. Jackson, that _The Judge_ has refused not only our
+article, but also the advertisement of the company. I don't know much
+about this side of the affair myself, but Sir Robert asked me if I would
+come round and see if things couldn't be arranged."
+
+"You mean that the man sent you to try and work on me because he knew
+that I used to be intimate with your family. Well, it is a poor errand
+and will have a poor end. You can't--no one on earth can, while I sit in
+this chair, not even my proprietors."
+
+There was silence broken at last by Alan, who remarked awkwardly:
+
+"If that is so, I must not take up your time any longer."
+
+"I said that I would give you a quarter of an hour, and you have only
+been here four minutes. Now, Alan Vernon, tell me as your father's old
+friend, why you have gone to herd with these gilded swine?"
+
+There was something so earnest about the man's question that it did not
+even occur to his visitor to resent its roughness.
+
+"Of course it is not original," he answered, "but I had this idea about
+flooding the Desert; I spent a furlough up there a few years ago and
+employed my time in making some rough surveys. Then I was obliged to
+leave the Service and went down to Yarleys after my father's death--it's
+mine now, you know, but worth nothing except a shooting rent, which just
+pays for the repairs. There I met Champers-Haswell, who lives near
+and is a kind of distant cousin of mine--my mother was a Champers--and
+happened to mention the thing to him. He took it up at once and
+introduced me to Aylward, and the end of it was, that they offered me a
+partnership with a small share in the business, because they said I was
+just the man they wanted."
+
+"Just the man they wanted," repeated the editor after him. "Yes, the
+last of the Vernons, an engineer with an old name in his county, a
+clean record and plenty of ability. Yes, you would be just the man they
+wanted. And you accepted?"
+
+"Yes. I was on my beam ends with nothing to do; I wanted to make some
+money. You see Yarleys has been in the family for over five hundred
+years, and it seemed hard to have to sell it. Also--also----" and he
+paused.
+
+"Ever meet Barbara Champers?" asked Mr. Jackson inconsequently. "I did
+once. Wonderfully nice girl, and very good-looking too. But of course
+you know her, and she is her uncle's ward, and their place isn't far off
+Yarleys, you say. Must be a connection of yours also."
+
+Major Vernon started a little at the name and his face seemed to redden.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I have met her and she is a connection."
+
+"Will be a big heiress one day, I think," went on Mr. Jackson, "unless
+old Haswell makes off with her money. I think Aylward knows that; at any
+rate he was hanging about when I saw her."
+
+Vernon started again, this time very perceptibly.
+
+"Very natural--your going into the business, I mean, under all the
+circumstances," went on Mr. Jackson. "But now, if you will take my
+advice, you'll go out of it as soon as you can."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, Alan Vernon, I am sure you don't want to see your name dragged
+in the dirt, any more than I do." He fumbled in a drawer and produced
+a typewritten document. "Take that," he said, "and study it at your
+leisure. It's a sketch of the financial career of Messrs. Aylward and
+Champers-Haswell, also of the companies which they have promoted and
+been connected with, and what has happened to them and to those who
+invested in them. A man got it out for me yesterday and I'm going to use
+it. As regards this Sahara business, you think it all right, and so it
+may be from an engineering point of view, but you will never live to
+sail upon that sea which the British public is going to be asked to find
+so many millions to make. Look here. We have only three minutes more, so
+I will come to the point at once. It's Turkish territory, isn't it, and
+putting aside everything else, the security for the whole thing is a
+Firman from the Sultan?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Robert Aylward and Haswell procured it in Constantinople. I
+have seen the document."
+
+"Indeed, and are you well acquainted with the Sultan's signature? I know
+when they were there last autumn that potentate was very ill----"
+
+"You mean----" said Major Vernon, looking up.
+
+"I mean, Alan, that I like not the security. I won't say any more,
+as there is a law of libel in this land. But _The Judge_ has certain
+sources of information. It may be that no protest will be made at once,
+for baksheesh can stop it for a while, but sooner or later the protest
+or repudiation will come, and perhaps some international bother;
+also much scandal. As to the scheme itself, it is shamelessly
+over-capitalized for the benefit of the promoters--of whom, remember,
+Alan, you will appear as one. Now time's up. Perhaps you will take my
+advice, and perhaps you won't, but there it is for what it's worth as
+that of a man of the world and an old friend of your family. As for your
+puff article and your prospectus, I wouldn't put them in _The Judge_
+if you paid me a thousand pounds, which I daresay your friend, Aylward,
+would be quite ready to do. Good-bye. Come and see me again sometime,
+and tell me what has happened--and, I say"--this last was shouted
+through the closing door,--"give my kind regards to Miss Barbara, for
+wherever she happens to live, she is an honest woman."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE YELLOW GOD
+
+Alan Vernon walked thoughtfully down the lead-covered stairs, hustled
+by eager gentlemen hurrying up to see the great editor, whose bell
+was already ringing furiously, and was duly ushered by the obsequious
+assistant-chauffeur back into the luxurious motor. There was an electric
+lamp in this motor, and by the light of it, his mind being perplexed,
+he began to read the typewritten document given to him by Mr. Jackson,
+which he still held in his hand.
+
+As it chanced they were blocked for a quarter of an hour near the
+Mansion House, so that he found time, if not to master it, at least to
+gather enough of its contents to make him open his brown eyes very wide
+before the motor pulled up at the granite doorway of his office. Alan
+descended from the machine, which departed silently, and stood for a
+moment wondering what he should do. His impulse was to jump into a bus
+and go straight to his rooms or his club, to which Sir Robert did not
+belong, but being no coward, he dismissed it from his mind.
+
+His fate hung in the balance, of that he was well aware. Either he must
+disregard Mr. Jackson's warning, confirmed as it was by many secret
+fears and instincts of his own, and say nothing except that he had
+failed in his mission, or he must take the bull by the horns and break
+with the firm. To do the latter meant not only a good deal of moral
+courage, but practical ruin, whereas if he chose the former course,
+probably within a fortnight he would find himself a rich man. Whatever
+Jackson and a few others might say in its depreciation, he was certain
+that the Sahara flotation would go through, for it was underwritten,
+of course upon terms, by responsible people, moreover the unissued
+preferred shares had already been dealt in at a heavy premium. Now to
+say nothing of the allotment to which he was entitled upon his holding
+in the parent Syndicate, the proportion of cash due to him as a partner,
+would amount to quite a hundred thousand pounds. In other words, he, who
+had so many reasons for desiring money, would be wealthy. After working
+so hard and undergoing so much that he felt to be humiliating and even
+degrading, why should he not take his reward and clear out afterwards?
+
+This he remembered he could do, since probably by some oversight of
+Aylward's, who left such matters to his lawyers, his deed of partnership
+did not bind him to a fixed term. It could be broken at any moment.
+To this argument there was only one possible answer, that of his
+conscience. If once he were convinced that things were not right,
+it would be dishonest to participate in their profits. And he was
+convinced. Mr. Jackson's arguments and his damning document had thrown a
+flood of light upon many matters which he had suspected but never quite
+understood. He was the partner of, well, adventurers, and the money
+which he received would in fact be filched from the pockets of
+unsuspecting persons. He would vouch for that of which he was doubtful
+and receive the price of sharp practice. In other words he, Alan Vernon,
+who had never uttered a wilful untruth or taken a halfpenny that was not
+his own, would before the tribunal of his own mind, stand convicted as
+a liar and a thief. The thing was not to be borne. At whatever cost it
+must be ended. If he were fated to be a beggar, at least he would be an
+honest beggar.
+
+With a firm step and a high head he walked straight into Sir Robert's
+room, without even going through the formality of knocking, to find
+Mr. Champers-Haswell seated at the ebony desk by his partner's
+side examining some document through a reading-glass, which on his
+appearance, was folded over and presently thrust away into a drawer.
+It seemed, Alan noticed, to be of an unusual shape and written in some
+strange character.
+
+Mr. Haswell, a stout, jovial-looking, little man with a florid
+complexion and white hair, rose at once to greet him.
+
+"How do you do, Alan," he said in a cheerful voice, for as a cousin by
+marriage he called him by his Christian name. "I am just this minute
+back from Paris, and you will be glad to learn that they are going to
+support us very well there; in fact I may say that the Government has
+taken up the scheme, of course under the rose. You know the French have
+possessions all along that coast and they won't be sorry to find
+an opportunity of stretching out their hand a little further. Our
+difficulties as to capital are at an end, for a full third of it is
+guaranteed in Paris, and I expect that small investors and speculators
+for the rise will gobble a lot more. We shall plant L10,000,000 worth of
+Sahara scrip in sunny France, my boy, and foggy England has underwritten
+the rest. It will be a case of 'letters of Allotment and regret,' _and_
+regret, Alan, financially the most successful issue of the last dozen
+years. What do you say to that?" and in his elation the little man
+puffed out his chest and pursing up his lips, blew through them, making
+a sound like that of wind among wires.
+
+"I don't know, Mr. Haswell. If we are all alive I would prefer to answer
+the question twelve months hence, or later, when we see whether the
+company is going to be a practical success as well, or not."
+
+Again Mr. Haswell made the sound of wind among wires, only this time
+there was a shriller note in it; its mellowness was gone, it was as
+though the air had suddenly been filled with frost.
+
+"A practical success!" he repeated after him. "That is scarcely our
+affair, is it? Promoters should not bother themselves with long views,
+Alan. These may be left to the investing public, the speculative
+parson and the maiden lady who likes a flutter--those props of modern
+enterprise. But what do you mean? You originated this idea and always
+said that the profits should be great."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Haswell, on a moderate capitalization and provided that we are
+sure of the co-operation of the Porte."
+
+Mr. Haswell looked at him very searchingly and Sir Robert, who had been
+listening, said in his cold voice:
+
+"I think that we thrashed out these points long ago, and to tell you the
+truth I am rather tired of them, especially as it is too late to change
+anything. How did you get on with Jackson, Vernon?"
+
+"I did not get on at all, Sir Robert. He will not touch the thing on any
+terms, and indeed means to oppose it tooth and nail."
+
+"Then he will find himself in a minority when the articles come out
+to-morrow. Of course it is a bore, but we are strong enough to snap our
+fingers at him. You see they don't read _The Judge_ in France, and no
+one has ever heard of it in Constantinople. Therefore we have nothing to
+fear--so long as we stick together," he added meaningly.
+
+Alan felt that the crisis had come. He must speak now or for ever hold
+his peace; indeed Aylward was already looking round for his hat.
+
+"Sir Robert and Mr. Haswell," he broke in rather nervously, "I have
+something to say to you, something unpleasant," and he paused.
+
+"Then please say it at once, Vernon. I want to dress for dinner, I am
+going to the theatre to-night and must dine early," replied Aylward in a
+voice of the utmost unconcern.
+
+"It is, Sir Robert," went on Alan with a rush, "that I do not like the
+lines upon which this business is being worked, and I wish to give up my
+interest in it and retire from the firm, as I have a right to do under
+our deed of partnership."
+
+"Have you?" said Aylward. "Really, I forget. But, my dear fellow, do not
+think that we should wish to keep you for one moment against your will.
+Only, might I ask, has that old puritan, Jackson, hypnotized you, or is
+it a case of sudden madness after influenza?"
+
+"Neither," answered Alan sternly, for although he might be diffident on
+matters that he did not thoroughly understand, he was not a man to brook
+trifling or impertinence. "It is what I have said, no more nor less. I
+am not satisfied either as to the capitalization or as to the guarantee
+that the enterprise can be really carried out. Further"--and he
+paused,--"Further, I should like what I have never yet been able to
+obtain, more information as to that Firman under which the concession is
+granted."
+
+For one moment a sort of tremor passed over Sir Robert's impassive
+countenance, while Mr. Haswell uttered his windy whistle, this time in a
+tone of plaintive remonstrance.
+
+"As you have formally resigned your membership of the firm, I do not see
+that any useful purpose can be served by discussing such matters.
+The fullest explanations, of course, we should have been willing to
+give----"
+
+"My dear Alan," broke in Mr. Champers-Haswell, who was quite upset, "I
+do implore you to reflect for one moment, for your own sake. In a single
+week you would have been a wealthy man; do you really mean to throw away
+everything for a whim?"
+
+"Perhaps Vernon remembers that he holds over 1700 of the Syndicate
+shares which we have worked up to L18, and thinks it wiser to capture
+the profit in sight, generally speaking a very sound principle,"
+interrupted Aylward sarcastically.
+
+"You are mistaken, Sir Robert," replied Alan, flushing. "The way that
+those shares have been artificially put up is one of the things to which
+I most object. I shall only ask for mine the face value which I paid for
+them."
+
+Now notwithstanding their experience, both of the senior partners
+did for a moment look rather scared. Such folly, or such honesty, was
+absolutely incredible to them. They felt that there must be much behind.
+Sir Robert, however, recovered instantly.
+
+"Very well," he said; "it is not for us to dictate to you; you must make
+your own bed and lie on it. To argue or remonstrate would only be rude."
+He put out his hand and pushed the button of an electric bell, adding as
+he did so, "Of course we understand one thing, Vernon, namely, that as
+a gentleman and a man of honour you will make no public use of the
+information which you have acquired during your stay in this office,
+either to our detriment, personal or financial, or to your own
+advantage."
+
+"Certainly you may understand that," replied Vernon. "Unless my
+character is attacked and it becomes necessary for me to defend myself,
+my lips are sealed."
+
+"That will never happen--why should it?" said Sir Robert with a polite
+bow.
+
+The door opened and the head clerk, Jeffreys, appeared.
+
+"Mr. Jeffreys," said Sir Robert, "please find us the deed of partnership
+between Major Vernon and ourselves, and bring it here. One moment.
+Please make out also a transfer of Major Vernon's parcel of Sahara
+Syndicate shares to Mr. Champers-Haswell and myself at par value, and
+fill in a cheque for the amount. Please remove also Major Vernon's name
+wherever it appears in the proof prospectus, and--yes--one thing more.
+Telephone to Specton--the Right Honourable the Earl of Specton, I mean,
+and say that after all I have been able to arrange that he shall have a
+seat on the Board and a block of shares at a very moderate figure,
+and that if he will wire his assent, his name shall be put into the
+prospectus. You approve, don't you, Haswell?--yes--then that is all, I
+think, Jeffreys, only please be as quick as you can, for I want to get
+away."
+
+Jeffreys, the immaculate and the impassive, bowed, and casting one swift
+glance at Vernon out of the corner of his eye, departed.
+
+What is called an awkward pause ensued; in fact it was a very awkward
+pause. The die was cast, the matter ended, and what were the principals
+to do until the ratifications had been exchanged or, a better simile
+perhaps, the _decree nisi_ pronounced absolute. Mr. Champers-Haswell
+remarked that the weather was very cold for April, and Alan agreed with
+him, while Sir Robert found his hat and brushed it with his sleeve. Then
+Mr. Haswell, in desperation, for in minor matters he was a kindly sort
+of man who disliked scenes and unpleasantness, muttered something as
+to seeing him--Alan--at his house, The Court, in Hertfordshire, from
+Saturday to Monday.
+
+"That was the arrangement," answered Alan bluntly, "but possibly after
+what has happened you will not wish that it should be kept."
+
+"Oh! why not, why not?" said Mr. Haswell. "Sunday is a day of rest when
+we make it a rule not to talk business, and if we did, perhaps we might
+all change our minds about these matters. Sir Robert is coming, and I
+am sure that your cousin Barbara will be very disappointed if you do not
+turn up, for she understands nothing about these city things which are
+Greek to her."
+
+At the mention of the name of Barbara Sir Robert Aylward looked up from
+the papers which he affected to be tidying, and Alan thought that there
+was a kind of challenge in his eyes. A moment before he had made up his
+mind that no power on earth would induce him to spend a Sunday with his
+late partners at The Court. Now, acting upon some instinct or impulse,
+he reversed his opinion.
+
+"Thanks," he said, "if that is understood, I shall be happy to come. I
+will drive over from Yarleys in time for dinner to-morrow. Perhaps you
+will say so to Barbara."
+
+"She will be glad, I am sure," answered Mr. Haswell, "for she told
+me the other day that she wants to consult you about some outdoor
+theatricals that she means to get up in July."
+
+"In July!" answered Alan with a little laugh. "I wonder where I shall be
+in July."
+
+Then came another pause, which seemed to affect even Sir Robert's
+nerves, for abandoning the papers, he walked down the room till he came
+to the golden object that has been described, and for the second time
+that day stood there contemplating it.
+
+"This thing is yours, Vernon," he said, "and now that our relations are
+at an end, I suppose that you will want to take it away. What is its
+history? You never told me."
+
+"Oh! that's a long story," answered Alan in an absent voice. "My uncle,
+who was a missionary, brought it from West Africa. I rather forget the
+facts, but Jeekie, my negro servant, knows them all, for as a lad my
+uncle saved him from sacrifice, or something, in a place where they
+worship these things, and he has been with us ever since. It is a fetish
+with magical powers and all the rest of it. I believe they call it the
+Swimming Head and other names. If you look at it, you will see that it
+seems to swim between the shoulders, doesn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said Sir Robert, "and I admire the beautiful beast. She is cruel
+and artistic, like--like finance. Look here, Vernon, we have quarrelled,
+and of course henceforth are enemies, for it is no use mincing matters,
+only fools do that. But in a way you are being hardly treated. You
+could get L10 apiece to-day for those shares of yours in a block on the
+market, and I am paying you L1. I understand your scruples, but there
+is no reason why we should not square things. This fetish of yours has
+brought me luck, so let's do a deal. Leave it here, and instead of a
+check for L1700, I will make you one out for L17,000."
+
+"That's a very liberal offer," said Vernon. "Give me a moment to think
+it over."
+
+Then he also walked into the corner of the room and contemplated the
+golden mask that seemed to float between the frog-like shoulders. The
+shimmering eyes drew his eyes, though what he saw in them does not
+matter. Indeed he could never remember. Only when he straightened
+himself again there was left on his mind a determination that not
+for seventeen or for seventy thousand pounds would he part with his
+ownership in this very unique fetish.
+
+"No, thank you," he said presently. "I don't think I will sell the
+Yellow God, as Jeekie calls it. Perhaps you will kindly keep her here
+for a week or so, until I make up my mind where to stow her."
+
+Again Mr. Champers-Haswell uttered his windy whistle. That a man should
+refuse L17,000 for a bit of African gold worth L100 or so, struck him
+as miraculous. But Sir Robert did not seem in the least surprised, only
+very disappointed.
+
+"I quite understand your dislike to selling," he said. "Thank you for
+leaving it here for the present to see us through the flotation," and he
+laughed.
+
+At that moment Jeffreys entered the room with the documents. Sir Robert
+handed the deed of partnership to Alan, and when he had identified it,
+took it from him again and threw it on the fire, saying that of course
+the formal letter of release would be posted and the dissolution
+notified in the _Gazette_. Then the transfer was signed and the cheque
+delivered.
+
+"Well, good-bye till Saturday," said Alan when he had received the
+latter, and nodding to them both, he turned and left the room.
+
+The passage ran past the little room in which Mr. Jeffreys, the head
+clerk, sat alone. Catching sight of him through the open door, Alan
+entered, shutting it behind him. Finding his key ring he removed from
+it the keys of his desk and of the office strongroom, and handed them
+to the clerk who, methodical in everything, proceeded to write a formal
+receipt.
+
+"You are leaving us, Major Vernon?" he said interrogatively as he signed
+the paper.
+
+"Yes, Jeffreys," answered Alan, then prompted by some impulse, added,
+"Are you sorry?"
+
+Mr. Jeffreys looked up and there were traces of unwonted emotion upon
+his hard, regulated face.
+
+"For myself, yes, Major--for you, on the whole, no."
+
+"What do you mean, Jeffreys? I do not quite understand."
+
+"I mean, Major, that I am sorry because you have never tried to shuffle
+off any shady business on to my back and leave me to bear the brunt of
+it; also because you have always treated me as a gentleman should, not
+as a machine to be used until a better can be found, and kicked aside
+when it goes out of order."
+
+"It is very kind of you to say so, Jeffreys, but I can't remember having
+done anything particular."
+
+"No, Major, you can't remember what comes natural to you. But I and the
+others remember, and that's why I am sorry. But for yourself I am glad,
+since although Aylward and Haswell have put a big thing through and are
+going to make a pot of money, this is no place for the likes of you,
+and now that you are going I will make bold to tell you that I always
+wondered what you were doing here. By and by, Major, the row will come,
+as it has come more than once in the past, before your time."
+
+"And then?" said Alan, for he was anxious to get to the bottom of this
+man's mind, which hitherto he had always found so secret.
+
+"And then, Major, it won't matter much to Messrs. Aylward and
+Champers-Haswell, who are used to that kind of thing and will probably
+dissolve partnership and lie quiet for a bit, and still less to folk
+like myself, who are only servants. But if you were still here it would
+have mattered a great deal to you, for it would blacken your name and
+break your heart, and then what's the good of the money? I tell you,
+Major," the clerk went on with quiet intensity, "though I am nobody and
+nothing, if I could afford it I would follow your example. But I can't,
+for I have a sick wife and a family of delicate children who have to
+live half the year on the south coast, to say nothing of my old mother,
+and--I was fool enough to be taken in and back Sir Robert's last little
+venture, which cost me all I had saved. So you see I must make a bit
+before the machine is scrapped, Major. But I tell you this, that if I
+can get L5000 together, as I hope to do out of Saharas before I am a
+month older, for they had to give me a look-in, as I knew too much, I am
+off to the country, where I was born, to take a farm there. No more
+of Messrs. Aylward and Haswell for Thomas Jeffreys. That's my bell.
+Good-bye, Major, I'll take the liberty to write you a line sometimes,
+for I know you won't give me away. Good-bye and God bless you, as I am
+sure He will in the long run," and stretching out his hand, he took that
+of the astonished Alan and wrung it warmly.
+
+When he was gone Alan went also, noticing that the clerks, whom some
+rumour of these events seemed to have reached, eyed him curiously
+through the glass screens behind which they sat at their desks, as
+he thought not without regret and a kind of admiration. Even the
+magnificent be-medalled porter at the door emerged from the carved teak
+box where he dwelt and touching his cap asked if he should call a cab.
+
+"No, thank you, Sergeant," answered Alan, "I will take a bus, and,
+Sergeant, I think I forgot to give you a present last Xmas. Will you
+accept this?--I wish I could make it more," and he presented him with
+ten shillings.
+
+The Sergeant drew himself up and saluted.
+
+"Thank you kindly, Major," he said. "I'd rather take that from you than
+L10 from the other gentlemen. But, Major, I wish we were out on the West
+Coast again together. It's a stinking, barbarous hole, but not so bad as
+this 'ere city."
+
+For once these two had served as comrades, and it was through Alan that
+the sergeant obtained his present lucrative but somewhat uncongenial
+post.
+
+He was outside at last. The massive granite portal vanished behind him
+in the evening mists, much as a nightmare vanishes. He, Alan Vernon, who
+for a year or more had been in bondage, was a free man again. All his
+dreams of wealth had departed; indeed if anything, save in experience,
+he was poorer than when first the shadow of yonder doorway fell upon
+him. But at least he was safe, safe. The deed of partnership which had
+been as a chain about his neck, was now white ashes; his name was erased
+from that fearful prospectus of Sahara Limited, wherein millions which
+someone would provide were spoken of like silver in the days of Solomon,
+as things of no account. The bitterest critic could not say that he
+had made a halfpenny out of the venture, in fact, if trouble came, his
+voluntary abandonment of the profits due to him must go to his credit.
+He had plunged into the icy waters of renunciation and come up clean if
+naked. Never since he was a boy could Alan remember feeling so utterly
+light-hearted and free from anxiety. Not for a million pounds would he
+have returned to gather gold in that mausoleum of reputations. As for
+the future, he did not in the least care what happened. There was no
+one dependent on him, and in this way or in that he could always earn a
+crust, a nice, honest crust.
+
+He ran down the street and danced for joy like a child, yes, and
+presented a crossing-sweeper against whom he butted with a whole
+sixpence in compensation. Thus he reached the Mansion House, not
+unsuspected of inebriety by the police, and clambered to the top of a
+bus crowded with weary and anxious-looking City clerks returning home
+after a long day's labour at starvation wage. In that cold company and
+a chilling atmosphere some of his enthusiasm evaporated. He remembered
+that this step of his meant that sooner or later, within a year or two
+at most, Yarleys, where his family had dwelt for centuries, must go to
+the hammer. Why had he not accepted Aylward's offer and sold that old
+fetish to him for L17,000? There was no question of share-dealing there,
+and if a very wealthy man chose to give a fancy price for a curiosity,
+he could take it without doubt or shame. At least it would have sufficed
+to save Yarleys, which after all was only mortgaged for L20,000. For the
+life of him he could not tell. He had acted on impulse, a very curious
+impulse, and there was an end of it perhaps; it might be because his
+uncle had told him as a boy that the thing was unique, or perhaps
+because old Jeekie, his negro servant, venerated it so much and swore
+that it was "lucky." At any rate he had declined and there was an end.
+
+But another and a graver matter remained. He had desired wealth to save
+Yarleys, but he desired it still more for a different purpose. Above
+everything on earth he loved Barbara, his distant cousin and the niece
+of Mr. Champers-Haswell, who until an hour ago had been his partner.
+Now she was a great heiress, and without fortune he could not marry her,
+even if she would marry him, which remained in doubt. For one thing
+her uncle and guardian Haswell, under her father's will, had absolute
+discretion in this matter until she reached the age of twenty-five, and
+for another he was too proud. Therefore it would seem that in abandoning
+his business, he had abandoned his chance of Barbara also, which was a
+truly dreadful thought.
+
+Well, it was in order that he might see her, that he had agreed to visit
+The Court on the morrow, even though it meant a meeting with his late
+partners, who were the last people with whom he desired to foregather
+again so soon. Then and there he made up his mind that before he bade
+Barbara farewell, he would tell her the whole story, so that she might
+not misjudge him. After that he would go off somewhere--to Africa
+perhaps. Meanwhile he was quite tired out, as tired as though he had
+lain a week in the grip of fever. He must eat some food and get to
+bed. Sufficient unto the day was the evil thereof, yet on the whole he
+blessed the name of Jackson, editor of _The Judge_ and his father's old
+friend.
+
+
+
+When Alan had left the office Sir Robert turned to Mr. Champers-Haswell
+and asked him abruptly, "What the devil does this mean?"
+
+Mr. Haswell looked up at the ceiling and whistled in his own peculiar
+fashion, then answered:
+
+"I cannot say for certain, but our young friend's strange conduct seems
+to suggest that he has smelt a rat, possibly even that Jackson, the old
+beast, has shown him a rat--of a large Turkish breed."
+
+Sir Robert nodded.
+
+"Vernon is a fellow who doesn't like rats; they seem to haunt his
+sleep," he said; "but do you think that having seen it, he will keep it
+in the bag?"
+
+"Oh! certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Haswell with cheerfulness;
+"the man is the soul of honour; he will never give us away. Look how he
+behaved about those shares. Still, I think that perhaps we are well rid
+of him. Too much honour, like too much zeal, is a very dangerous quality
+in any business."
+
+"I don't know that I agree with you," answered Sir Robert. "I am not
+sure that in the long run we should not do better for a little more of
+the article. For my part, although it will not hurt us publicly, for the
+thing will never be noticed, I am sorry that we have lost Vernon, very
+sorry indeed. I don't think him a fool, and awkward as they may be, I
+respect his qualities."
+
+"So do I, so do I," answered Mr. Haswell, "and of course we have acted
+against his advice throughout, which must have been annoying to him.
+The scheme as he suggested it was a fair business proposition that might
+have paid ten per cent. on a small capital, but what is the good of ten
+per cent. to you and me? We want millions and we are going to get them.
+Well, he is coming to The Court to-morrow, and perhaps after all we
+shall be able to arrange matters. I'll give Barbara a hint; she has
+great influence with him, and you might do the same, Aylward."
+
+"Miss Champers has great influence with everyone who is fortunate enough
+to know her," answered Sir Robert courteously. "But even if she chooses
+to use it, I doubt if it will avail in this case. Vernon has been making
+up his mind for a long while. I have watched him and am sure of that.
+To-night he determined to take the plunge and I do not think that we
+shall see any more of him in this office. Haswell," he added with sudden
+energy, "I tell you that of late our luck has been too good to last. The
+boom, the real boom, came in with Vernon, and with Vernon I think that
+it will go."
+
+"At any rate it must leave something pretty substantial behind it this
+time, Aylward, my friend. Whatever happens, within a week we shall be
+rich, really rich for life."
+
+"For life, Haswell, yes, for life. But what is life? A bubble that any
+pin may prick. Oh! I know that you do not like the subject, but it is
+as well to look it in the face sometimes. I'm no church-goer, but if
+I remember right we were taught to pray the good Lord to deliver us
+especially 'in all times of our wealth,' which is followed by something
+about tribulation and sudden death, for when they wrote that prayer the
+wheel of human fortune went round just as it does to-day. There, let's
+get out of this before I grow superstitious, as men who believe in
+nothing sometimes do, because after all they must believe in something,
+I suppose. Got your hat and coat? So have I, come on," and he switched
+off the light, so that the room was left in darkness except for the
+faint glimmering of the fire.
+
+His partner grumbled audibly, for in turning he had knocked his hand
+against the desk.
+
+"Leave me my only economy, Haswell," he answered with a hard little
+laugh. "Electricity is strength and I hate to see strength burning to
+waste. Why do you mind?" he went on as he stepped towards the door.
+"Is it the contrast? In all times of our wealth, in all times of our
+tribulation, from sickness and from sudden death----"
+
+"Good Lord deliver us," chimed in Mr. Haswell in a shaking voice behind
+him. "What the devil's that?"
+
+Sir Robert looked round and saw, or thought that he saw, something very
+strange. From the pillar on which it stood the golden fetish with a
+woman's face, appeared to have floated. The firelight showed it gliding
+towards them across, but a few inches above the floor of the great room.
+It came very slowly, but it came. Now it reached them and paused,
+and now it rose into the air until it attained the height of Mr.
+Champers-Haswell and stayed there, staring into his face and not a
+hand's breadth away, just as though it were a real woman glaring at him.
+
+He uttered a sound, half whistle and half groan, and fell back, as it
+chanced on to a morocco-covered seat behind him. For a moment or two
+the gleaming, golden mask floated in the air. Then it turned very
+deliberately, rose a little way, and moving sidelong to where Sir Robert
+stood, hung in front of _his_ face.
+
+Presently Aylward staggered to the mantelpiece and began to fumble for
+the switch; in the silence his nails scratching at the panelling made
+a sound like to that of a gnawing mouse. He found it at last, and next
+instant the office broke into a blaze of light, showing Mr. Haswell,
+his rubicund face quite pale, his hat and umbrella on the floor, gasping
+like a dying man upon the couch, and Sir Robert himself clinging to the
+mantel-shelf as a person might do who had received a mortal wound, while
+the golden fetish reposed calmly on its pillar, to all appearance as
+immovable and undisturbed as the antique Venus which matched it at the
+other end of the room. For a while there was silence. Then Sir Robert,
+recovering himself, asked:
+
+"Did you notice anything unusual just now, Haswell?"
+
+"Yes," whispered his partner. "I thought that hideous African thing
+which Vernon brought here, came sliding across the floor and stared into
+my face with its glittering eyes, and in the eyes----"
+
+"Well, what was in the eyes?"
+
+"I can't remember. It was a kind of picture and the meaning of it was
+Sudden Death--oh Lord! Sudden Death. Tell me it was a fancy bred of that
+ill-omened talk of yours?"
+
+"I can't tell you anything of the sort," answered Aylward in a hollow
+voice, "for I saw something also."
+
+"What?" asked his partner.
+
+"Death that wasn't sudden, and other things."
+
+Again the silence fell till it was broken by Aylward.
+
+"Come," he said, "we have been over-working--too much strain, and now
+the reaction. Keep this rubbish to yourself, or they will lock you up in
+an asylum."
+
+"Certainly, Aylward, certainly. But can't you get rid of that beastly
+image?"
+
+"Not on any account, Haswell, even if it haunts us all day. Here it
+shall stop until the Saharas are floated on Monday, if I have to lock it
+in the strongroom and throw the keys into the Thames. Afterwards Vernon
+can take it, as he has a right to do, and I am sure that with it will go
+our luck."
+
+"Then the sooner our luck goes, the better," replied Haswell, with
+a mere ghost of his former whistle. "Life is better than luck,
+and--Aylward, that Yellow God you are so fond of means to murder us. We
+are being fatted for the sacrifice, that is all. I remember now, that
+was one of the things I saw written in its eyes!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JEEKIE TELLS A TALE
+
+The Court, Mr. Champers-Haswell's place, was a very fine house indeed,
+of a sort. That is, it contained twenty-nine bedrooms, each of them with
+a bathroom attached, a large number of sitting-rooms, ample garages,
+stables, and offices, the whole surrounded by several acres of
+newly-planted gardens. Incidentally it may be mentioned that it was
+built in the most atrocious taste and looked like a suburban villa seen
+through a magnifying glass.
+
+It was in this matter of taste that it differed from Sir Robert
+Aylward's home, Old Hall, a few miles away. Not that this was old
+either, for the original house had fallen down or been burnt a hundred
+years before. But Sir Robert, being gifted with artistic perception, had
+reared up in place of it a smaller but really beautiful dwelling of soft
+grey stone, long and low, and built in the Tudor style with many gables.
+
+This house, charming as it was, could not of course compare with
+Yarleys, the ancient seat of the Vernons in the same neighbourhood.
+Yarleys was pure Elizabethan, although it contained an oak-roofed hall
+which was said to date back to the time of King John, a remnant of a
+former house. There was no electric light or other modern convenience
+at Yarleys, yet it was a place that everyone went to see because of its
+exceeding beauty and its historical associations. The moat by which it
+was surrounded, the grass court within, for it was built on three sides
+of a square, the mullioned windows, the towered gateway of red brick,
+the low-panelled rooms hung with the portraits of departed Vernons,
+the sloping park and the splendid oaks that stood about, singly or in
+groups, were all of them perfect in their way. It was one of the most
+lovely of English homes, and oddly enough its neglected gardens and the
+air of decay that pervaded it, added to rather than decreased its charm.
+
+But it is with The Court that we have to do at present, not with
+Yarleys. Mr. Champers-Haswell had a week-end party. There were ten
+guests, all men, and with the exception of Alan, who it will be
+remembered was one of them, all rich and in business. They included two
+French bankers and three Jews, everyone a prop of the original Sahara
+Syndicate and deeply interested in the forthcoming flotation. To
+describe them is unnecessary, for they have no part in our story, being
+only financiers of a certain class, remarkable for the riches they had
+acquired by means that for the most part would not bear examination. The
+riches were evident enough. Ever since the morning the owners of this
+wealth had arrived by ones or twos in their costly motorcars, attended
+by smart chauffeurs and valets. Their fur coats, their jewelled studs
+and rings, something in their very faces suggested money, which indeed
+was the bond that brought and held them together.
+
+Alan did not come until it was time to dress for dinner, for he knew
+that Barbara would not appear before that meal, and it was her society
+he sought, not that of his host or fellow guests. Accompanied by his
+negro servant, Jeekie, for in a house like this it was necessary to have
+someone to wait upon him, he drove over from Yarleys, a distance of ten
+miles, arriving about eight o'clock.
+
+"Mr. Haswell as gone up to dress, Major, and so have the other
+gentlemen," said the head butler, Mr. Smith, "but Miss Champers told me
+to give you this note and to say that dinner is at half-past eight."
+
+Alan took the note and asked to be shown to his room. Once there,
+although he had only five and twenty minutes, he opened it eagerly,
+while Jeekie unpacked his bag.
+
+"Dear Alan," it ran: "Don't be late for dinner, or I may not be able to
+keep a place next to me. Of course Sir Robert takes me in. They are a
+worse lot than usual this time, odious--odious!--and I can't stand one
+on the left hand as well as on the right. Yours,
+
+"B.
+
+
+"P.S. What _have_ you been doing? Our distinguished guests, to say
+nothing of my uncle, seem to be in a great fuss about you. I overheard
+them talking when I was pretending to arrange some flowers. One of them
+called you a sanctimonious prig and an obstinate donkey, and another
+answered--I think it was Sir Robert --'No doubt, but obstinate donkeys
+can kick and have been known to upset other people's applecarts ere
+now.' Is the Sahara Syndicate the applecart? If so, I'll forgive you.
+
+"P.P.S. Remember that we will walk to church together to-morrow, but
+come down to breakfast in knickerbockers or something to put them off,
+and I'll do the same--I mean I'll dress as if I were going to golf.
+We can turn into Christians later. If we don't--dress like that, I
+mean--they'll guess and all want to come to church, except the Jews,
+which would bring the judgment of Heaven on us.
+
+"P.P.P.S. Don't be careless and leave this note lying about, for the
+under-footman who waits upon you reads all the letters. He steams them
+over a kettle. Smith the butler is the only respectable man in this
+house."
+
+Alan laughed outright as he finished this peculiar and outspoken
+epistle, which somehow revived his spirits, that since the previous day
+had been low enough. It refreshed him. It was like a breath of
+frosty air from an open window blowing clean and cold into a scented,
+overheated room. He would have liked to keep it, but remembering
+Barbara's injunctions and the under-footman, threw it onto the fire and
+watched it burn. Jeekie coughed to intimate that it was time for his
+master to dress, and Alan turned and looked at him in an absent-minded
+fashion.
+
+He was worth looking at, was Jeekie. Let the reader imagine a very tall
+and powerfully-built negro with a skin as black as a well-polished boot,
+woolly hair as white as snow, a little tufted beard also white, a
+hand like a leg of mutton, but with long delicate fingers and pink,
+filbert-shaped nails, an immovable countenance, but set in it beneath a
+massive brow, two extraordinary humorous and eloquent black eyes which
+expressed every emotion passing through the brain behind them, that is
+when their owner chose to allow them to do so. Such was Jeekie.
+
+"Shall I unlace your boots, Major?" he said in his full, melodious voice
+and speaking the most perfect English. "I expect that the gong will
+sound in nine and a half minutes."
+
+"Then let it sound and be hanged to it," answered Alan; "no, I forgot--I
+must hurry. Jeekie, put that fire out and open all the windows as soon
+as I go down. This room is like a hot-house."
+
+"Yes, Major, the fire shall be extinguished and the sleeping-chamber
+ventilated. The other boot, if you please, Major."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "who is stopping in this place? Have you heard?"
+
+"I collected some names on my way upstairs, Major. Three of the
+gentlemen you have never met before, but," he added suddenly breaking
+away from his high-flown book-learned English, as was his custom when
+in earnest, "Jeekie think they just black niggers like the rest, thief
+people. There ain't a white man in this house, except you and Miss
+Barbara and me, Major. Jeekie learnt all that in servant's hall palaver.
+No, not now, other time. Everyone tell everything to Jeekie, poor old
+African fool, and he look up an answer, 'O law! you don't say so?' but
+keep his eyes and ears open all the same."
+
+"I'll be bound you do, Jeekie," replied Alan, laughing again. "Well, go
+on keeping them open, and give me those trousers."
+
+"Yes, Major," answered Jeekie, reassuming his grand manner, "I shall
+continue to collect information which may prove to your advantage, but
+personally I wish that you were clear of the whole caboodle, except Miss
+Barbara."
+
+"Hear, hear," ejaculated Alan, "there goes the gong. Mind you come in
+and help to wait," and hurrying into his coat he departed downstairs.
+
+The guests were gathered in the hall drinking sherry and bitters, a
+proceeding that to Alan's mind set a stamp upon the house. His host, Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, came forward and greeted him with much affectionate
+enthusiasm, and Alan noticed that he looked very pale, also that his
+thoughts seemed to be wandering, for he introduced a French banker to
+him as a noted Jew, and the noted Jew as the French banker, although
+the distinction between them was obvious and the gentlemen concerned
+evidently resented the mistake. Sir Robert Aylward, catching sight of
+him, came across the hall in his usual, direct fashion, and shook him by
+the hand.
+
+"Glad to see you, Vernon," he said, fixing his piercing eyes upon Alan
+as though he were trying to read his thoughts. "Pleasant change this
+from the City and all that eternal business, isn't it? Ah! you are
+thinking that one is not quite clear of business after all," and he
+glanced round at the company. "That's one of your cousin Haswell's
+faults; he can never shake himself free of the thing, never get any real
+recreation. I'd bet you a sovereign that he has a stenographer waiting
+by a telephone in the next room, just in case any opportunity should
+arise in the course of conversation. That is magnificent, but it is not
+wise. His heart can't stand it; it will wear him out before his time.
+Listen, they are all talking about the Sahara. I wish I were there; it
+must be quiet at any rate. The sands beneath, the eternal stars above.
+Yes, I wish I were there," he repeated with a sigh, and Alan noted that
+although his face could not be more pallid than its natural colour, it
+looked quite worn and old.
+
+"So do I," he answered with enthusiasm.
+
+Then a French gentleman on his left, having discovered that he was the
+engineer who had formulated the great flooding scheme, began to address
+him as "Cher maitre," speaking so rapidly his own language that Alan,
+whose French was none of the best, struggled after him in vain. Whilst
+he was trying to answer a question which he did not understand, the door
+at the end of the hall opened, and through it appeared Barbara Champers.
+
+It was a large hall and she was a long way off, which caused her to look
+small, who indeed was only of middle height. Yet even at that distance
+it was impossible to mistake the dignity of her appearance. A slim woman
+with brown hair, cheerful brown eyes, a well-modelled face, a rounded
+figure and an excellent complexion, such was Barbara. Ten thousand young
+ladies could be found as good, or even better looking, yet something
+about her differentiated her from the majority of her sex. There was
+determination in her step, and overflowing health and vigour in her
+every movement. Her eyes had a trick of looking straight into any other
+eyes they met, not boldly, but with a kind of virginal fearlessness
+and enterprise that people often found embarrassing. Indeed she was
+extremely virginal and devoid of the usual fringe of feminine airs and
+graces, a nymph of the woods and waters, who although she was three and
+twenty, as yet recked little of men save as companions whom she liked
+or disliked according to her instincts. For the rest she was sweetly
+dressed in a white robe with silver on it, and wore no ornaments save
+a row of small pearls about her throat and some lilies of the valley at
+her breast.
+
+Barbara came straight onwards, looking neither to the right or to the
+left, till she reached her uncle, to whom she nodded. Then she walked to
+Alan and, offering him her hand, said:
+
+"How do you do! Why did you not come over at lunch time? I wanted to
+play a round of golf with you this afternoon."
+
+Alan answered something about being busy at Yarleys.
+
+"Yarleys!" she replied. "I thought that you lived in the City now,
+making money out of speculations, like everyone else that I know."
+
+"Why, Miss Champers," broke in Sir Robert reproachfully, "I asked you to
+play a round of golf before tea and you would not."
+
+"No," she answered, "because I was waiting for my cousin. We are better
+matched, Sir Robert."
+
+There was something in her voice, usually so soft and pleasant, as she
+spoke these words, something of steeliness and defiance that caused
+Alan to feel at once happy and uncomfortable. Apparently also it caused
+Aylward to feel angry, for he flashed a glance at Alan over her head of
+which the purport could not be mistaken, though his pale face remained
+as immovable as ever. "We are enemies. I hate you," said that glance.
+Probably Barbara saw it; at any rate before either of them could speak
+again, she said:
+
+"Thank goodness, there is dinner at last. Sir Robert, will you take me
+in, and, Alan, will you sit on the other side of me? My uncle will show
+the rest their places."
+
+The meal was long and magnificent; the price of each dish of it would
+have kept a poor family for a month, and on the cost of the exquisite
+wines they might have lived for a year or two. Also the last were well
+patronized by everyone except Barbara, who drank water, and Alan, who
+since his severe fever took nothing but weak whiskey and soda and a
+little claret. Even Aylward, a temperate person, absorbed a good deal
+of champagne. As a consequence the conversation grew animated, and under
+cover of it, while Sir Robert was arguing with his neighbour on the
+left, Barbara asked in a low voice:
+
+"What is the row, Alan? Tell me, I can't wait any longer."
+
+"I have quarrelled with them," he answered, staring at his mutton as
+though he were criticizing it. "I mean, I have left the firm and have
+nothing more to do with the business."
+
+Barbara's eyes lit up as she whispered back:
+
+"Glad of it. Best news I have heard for many a day. But then, may I ask
+why you are here?"
+
+"I came to see you," he replied humbly--"thought perhaps you wouldn't
+mind," and in his confusion he let his knife fall into the mutton,
+whence it rebounded, staining his shirt front.
+
+Barbara laughed, that happy, delightful little laugh of hers, presumably
+at the accident with the knife. Whether or no she "minded" did not
+appear, only she handed her handkerchief, a costly, last-fringed trifle,
+to Alan to wipe the gravy off his shirt, which he took thinking it was
+a napkin, and as she did so, touched his hand with a little caressing
+movement of her fingers. Whether this was done by chance or on purpose
+did not appear either. At least it made Alan feel extremely happy. Also
+when he discovered what it was, he kept that gravy-stained handkerchief,
+nor did she ever ask for it back again. Only once in after days when she
+happened to come across it stuffed away in the corner of a despatch-box,
+she blushed all over, and said that she had no idea that any man could
+be so foolish out of a book.
+
+"Now that _you_ are really clear of it, I am going for them," she said
+presently when the wiping process was finished. "I have only restrained
+myself for your sake," and leaning back in her chair she stared at the
+ceiling, lost in meditation.
+
+Presently there came one of those silences which will fall upon
+dinner-parties at times, however excellent and plentiful the champagne.
+
+"Sir Robert Aylward," said Barbara in that clear, carrying voice of
+hers, "will you, as an expert, instruct a very ignorant person? I want a
+little information."
+
+"Miss Champers," he answered, "am I not always at your service?" and
+all listened to hear upon what point their hostess desired to be
+enlightened.
+
+"Sir Robert," she went on calmly, "everyone here is, I believe, what
+is called a financier, that is except myself and Major Vernon, who only
+tries to be and will, I am sure, fail, since Nature made him something
+else, a soldier and--what else did Nature make you, Alan?"
+
+As he vouchsafed no answer to question, although Sir Robert muttered an
+uncomplimentary one between his lips which Barbara heard, or read, she
+continued:
+
+"And you are all very rich and successful, are you not, and are going to
+be much richer and much more successful--next week. Now what I want to
+ask you is--how is it done?"
+
+"Accepting the premises for the sake of argument, Miss Champers,"
+replied Sir Robert, who felt that he could not refuse the challenge,
+"the answer is that it is done by finance."
+
+"I am still in the dark," she said. "Finance, as I have heard of it,
+means floating companies, and companies are floated to earn money for
+those who invest in them. Now this afternoon as I was dull, I got hold
+of a book called the Directory of Directors, and looked up all your
+names in it, except those of the gentlemen from Paris, and the companies
+that you direct--I found out about those in another book. Well, I could
+not make out that any of these companies have ever earned any money, a
+dividend, don't you call it? Therefore how do you all grow so rich, and
+why do people invest in them?"
+
+Now Sir Robert frowned, Alan coloured, two or three of the company
+laughed outright, and one of the French gentlemen who understood English
+and had already drunk as much as was good for him, remarked loudly to
+his neighbour, "Ah! she is charming. She do touch the spot, like that
+ointment you give me to-day. How do we grow rich and why do the people
+invest? _Mon Dieu!_ why do they invest? That is the great mystery. I
+say that _cette belle demoiselle, votre niece, est ravissante. Elle a
+d'esprit, mon ami Haswell._"
+
+Apparently her uncle did not share these sentiments, for he turned as
+red as any turkey-cock, and said across the great round table:
+
+"My dear Barbara, I wish that you would leave matters which you do not
+understand alone. We are here to dine, not to talk about finance."
+
+"Certainly, Uncle," she answered sweetly. "I stand, or rather sit,
+reproved. I suppose that I have put my foot into it as usual, and the
+worst of it is," she added, turning to Sir Robert, "that I am just as
+ignorant as I was before."
+
+"If you want to master these matters, Miss Champers," said Aylward with
+a rather forced laugh, "you must go into training and worship at the
+shrine of"--he meant to say Mammon, then thinking that the word sounded
+unpleasant, substituted--"the Yellow God as we do."
+
+At these words Alan, who had been studying his plate, looked up quickly,
+and her uncle's face turned from red to white. But the irrepressible
+Barbara seized upon them.
+
+"The Yellow God," she repeated. "Do you mean money or that fetish thing
+of Major Vernon's with the terrible woman's face that I saw at the
+office in the City. Well, to change the subject, tell us, Alan, what is
+that yellow god of yours and where did it come from?"
+
+"My uncle Austin, who was my mother's brother and a missionary, brought
+it from West Africa a great many years ago. He was the first to visit
+the tribe who worship it; in fact I do not think that anyone has ever
+visited them since. But really I do not know all the story. Jeekie can
+tell you about it if you want to know, for he is one of that people and
+escaped with my uncle."
+
+Now Jeekie having left the room, some of the guests wished to send
+for him, but Mr. Champers-Haswell objected. The end of it was that
+a compromise was effected, Alan undertaking to produce his retainer
+afterwards when they went to play billiards or cards.
+
+
+
+Dinner was over at length and the diners, who had dined well, were
+gathered in the billiard room to smoke and amuse themselves as they
+wished. It was a very large room, sixty feet long indeed, with a wide
+space in the centre between the two tables, which was furnished as a
+lounge. When the gentlemen entered it they found Barbara standing by
+the great fireplace in this central space, a little shape of white and
+silver in its emptiness.
+
+"Forgive me for intruding on you," she said, "and please do not stop
+smoking, for I like the smell. I have sat up expressly to hear Jeekie's
+story of the Yellow God. Alan, produce Jeekie, or I shall go to bed at
+once."
+
+Her uncle made a movement as though to interfere, but Sir Robert said
+something to him which appeared to cause him to change his mind, while
+the rest in some way or another signified an enthusiastic assent. All of
+them were anxious to see this Jeekie and hear his tale, if he had one
+to tell. So Jeekie was sent for and presently arrived clad in the dress
+clothes which are common to all classes in England and America. There
+he stood before them white-headed, ebony-faced, gigantic, imperturbable.
+There is no doubt that his appearance produced an effect, for it was
+unusual and indeed striking.
+
+"You sent for me, Major?" he said, addressing his master, to whom he
+gave a military salute, for he had been Alan's servant when he was in
+the Army.
+
+"Yes, Jeekie. Miss Barbara here and these gentlemen, wish you to tell
+them all that you know about the Yellow God."
+
+The negro started and rolled his round eyes upwards till the whites of
+them showed, then began in his school-book English:
+
+"That is a private subject, Major, upon which I should prefer not to
+discourse before this very public company."
+
+A chorus of remonstrance arose and one of the Jewish gentlemen
+approaching Jeekie, slipped a couple of sovereigns into his great hand,
+which he promptly transferred to his pocket without seeming to notice
+them.
+
+"Jeekie," said Barbara, "don't disappoint me."
+
+"Very well, miss, I fall in with your wishes. The Yellow God that all
+these gentlemen worship, quite another god to that of which you desire
+that I should tell you. You know all about him. My god is of female
+sex."
+
+At this statement his audience burst into laughter while Jeekie rolled
+his eyes again and waited till they had finished. "My god," he went on
+presently, "I mean, gentlemen, the god I used to pray to, for I am a
+good Christian now, has so much gold that she does not care for any
+more," and he paused.
+
+"Then what does she care for?" asked someone.
+
+"Blood," answered Jeekie. "She is god of Death. Her name is Little
+Bonsa or Small Swimming Head; she is wife of Big Bonsa or Great Swimming
+Head."
+
+Again there was laughter, though less general--for instance, neither Sir
+Robert nor Mr. Champers-Haswell laughed. This merriment seemed to excite
+Jeekie. At any rate it caused him to cease his stilted talk and relapse
+into the strange vernacular that is common to all negroes, tinctured
+with a racy slang that was all his own.
+
+"You want to hear Yellow God palaver?" he said rapidly. "Very well, I
+tell you, you cocksure white men who think you know everything, but
+know nothing at all. My people, people of the Asiki, that mean people of
+Spirits, what you call ghosts and say you no believe in, but always look
+for behind door, they worship Yellow God, Bonsa Big and Bonsa Little,
+worship both and call them one; only Little Bonsa on trip to this
+country just now and sit and think in City office. Yellow God live long
+way up a great river, then turn to the left and walk six days through
+big forest where dwarf people shoot you with poisoned arrow. Then turn
+to the right, walk up stream where many wild beasts. Then turn to the
+left again and go in canoe through swamp where you die of fever, and
+across lake. Then walk over grassland and mountains. Then in kloof of
+the mountains where big black trees make a roof and river fall like
+thunder, find Asiki and gold house of the Yellow God. All that mountain
+gold, full of gold and beneath gold house Yellow God afloat in water.
+She what you call Queen, priestess, live there also, always there, very
+beautiful woman called Asika with face like Yellow God, cruel, cruel.
+She take a husband every year, and every year he die because she always
+hunt for right man but never find him."
+
+"Does she kill him then?" asked Barbara.
+
+"Oh! no, she no kill him, Miss, he kill himself at end of year, glad to
+get away from Asika and go to spirits. While he live he have a very good
+time, plenty to eat, plenty wives, fine house, much gold as he like,
+only nothing to spend it on, pretty necklace, nice paint for face. But
+Asika, little bit by little bit she eat up his spirit. He see too many
+ghosts. The house where he sleep with dead men who once have his billet,
+full of ghosts and every night there come more and sit with him, sit all
+round him, look at him with great eyes, just like you look at me, till
+at last when Asika finish eating up his spirit, he go crazy, he howl
+like man in hell, he throw away all the gold they give him, and then,
+sometimes after one week, sometimes after one month, sometimes after one
+year if he be strong but never more, he run out at night and jump into
+canal where Yellow God float and god get him, while Asika sit on the
+bank and laugh, 'cause she hungry for new man to eat up his spirit too."
+
+Jeekie's big voice died away to a whisper and ceased. There was a
+silence in the room, for even in the shine of the electric light and
+through the fumes of champagne, in more than one imagination there rose
+a vision of that haunted water in which floated the great Yellow God,
+and of some mad being casting himself to his death beneath the moon,
+while his beautiful witch wife who was "hungry for more spirits" sat
+upon its edge and laughed. Although his language was now commonplace
+enough, even ludicrous at times, the negro had undoubtedly the art of
+narration. His auditors felt that he spoke of what he knew, or had seen,
+that the very recollection of it frightened him, therefore he frightened
+them.
+
+Again Barbara broke the silence which she felt to be awkward.
+
+"Why do more ghosts come very night to sit with the queen's husband,
+Jeekie?" she asked. "Where do they come from?"
+
+"Out of the dead, miss, dead husbands of Asika from beginning of the
+world; what they call Munganas. Also always they make sacrifice to
+Yellow God. From far, far away them poor niggers send people to be
+sacrifice that their house or tribe get luck. Sometimes they send kings,
+sometimes great men, sometimes doctors, sometimes women what have twin
+babies. Also the Asiki bring people what is witches, or have drunk
+poison stuff which blacks call _muavi_ and have not been sick, or
+perhaps son they love best to take curse off their roof. All these come
+to Yellow God. Then Asiki doctor, they have Death-palaver. On night of
+full moon they beat drum, and drum go Wow! Wow! Wow! and doctors pick
+out those to die that month. Once they pick out Jeekie, oh! good Lord,
+they pick out _me_," and as he said the words he gasped and with his
+great hand wiped off the sweat that started from his brow. "But Yellow
+God no take Jeekie that time, no want him and I escape."
+
+"How?" asked Sir Robert.
+
+"With my master, Major's uncle, Reverend Austin, he who come try to make
+Asiki Christian. He snap his fingers, put on small mask of Yellow God
+which he prig, Little Bonsa herself, that same face which sit in your
+office now," and he pointed to Sir Robert, "like one toad upon a stone.
+Priests think that god make herself into man, want holiday, take me out
+into forest to kill me and eat my life. So they let us go by and we go
+just as though devil kick us--fast, fast, and never see the Asiki any
+more. But Little Bonsa I bring with me for luck, tell truth I no dare
+leave her behind, she not stand that; and now she sit in your office and
+think and think and make magic there. That why you grow rich, because
+she know you worship her."
+
+"That's a nice way for a baptized Christian to talk," said Barbara,
+adding, "But Jeekie, what do you mean when you say that the god did not
+take you?"
+
+"I mean this, miss; when victim offered to Big Yellow God, priest-men
+bring him to edge of canal where the great god float. Then if Yellow God
+want him, it turn and swim across water."
+
+"Swim across water! I thought you said it was only a mask of gold?"
+
+"I don't know, miss, perhaps man inside the mask, perhaps spirit. I say
+it swim across water in the night, always in the night, and lift
+itself up and look in victim's face. Then priest take him and kill him,
+sometimes one way--sometimes another. Or if he escape and they not kill
+him, all same for that Johnnie, he die in about one year, always die,
+no one ever live long if Yellow God swim to him in dark and rise up and
+smile in his face. No matter if it Big Bonsa or Little Bonsa, for they
+man and wife joined in holy matrimony and either do trick."
+
+As these words left Jeekie's lips Alan became aware of some unusual
+movement on his left and looking round, saw that Mr. Champers-Haswell,
+who stood by him, had dropped the cigar which he held and, white as a
+sheet, was swaying to and fro. Indeed in another instant he would have
+fallen had not Alan caught him in his arms and supported him till others
+came to his assistance, when between them they carried him to a sofa. On
+their way they passed a table where spirits and soda water were set out,
+and to his astonishment Alan noticed that Sir Robert Aylward, looking
+little if at all better than his partner, had helped himself to half a
+tumbler of cognac, which he was swallowing in great gulps. Then there
+was confusion and someone went to telephone the doctor, while the deep
+voice of Jeekie was heard exclaiming:
+
+"That Yellow God at work--oh yes, Little Bonsa on the job. Jeekie
+Christian man but no doubt she very powerful fetish and can do anything
+she like to them that worship her, and you see, she sit in office of
+these gentlemen. 'Spect she make Reverend Austin and me bring her
+to England because she got eye on firm of Messrs. Aylward & Haswell,
+London, E.C. Oh, shouldn't wonder at all, for Bonsa know everything."
+
+"Oh, confound you and your fetish! Be off, you old donkey," almost
+shouted Alan.
+
+"Major," replied the offended Jeekie, assuming his grand manner
+and language, "it was not I who wished to narrate this history of
+blood-stained superstitions of poor African. Mustn't blame old Jeekie if
+they make Christian gents sick as Channel steamer."
+
+"Be off," repeated Alan, stamping his foot.
+
+So Jeekie went, but outside the door, as it chanced, he encountered one
+of the Jew gentlemen who also appeared to be a little "sick." An idea
+striking him, he touched his white hair with his finger and said:
+
+"You like Jeekie's pretty story, sir? Well, Jeekie think that if you
+make little present to him, like your brother in there, it please Yellow
+God very much, and bring you plenty luck."
+
+Then acting upon some unaccustomed impulse, that Jew became exceedingly
+generous. In his pocket was a handful of sovereigns which he had been
+prepared to stake at bridge. He grasped them all and thrust them into
+Jeekie's outstretched palm, where they seemed to melt.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Jeekie. "Now I sure you have plenty luck, just
+like your grandpa Jacob in Book when he do his brudder in eye."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ALAN AND BARBARA
+
+There was no bridge or billiards at the Court that night, where
+ordinarily the play ran high enough. After Mr. Haswell had been carried
+to his room, some of the guests, among them Sir Robert Aylward, went to
+bed, remarking that they could do no good by sitting up, while others,
+more concerned, waited to hear the verdict of the doctor, who must drive
+from six miles away. He came, and half an hour later Barbara entered
+the billiard room and told Alan, who was sitting there smoking, that her
+uncle had recovered from his faint, and that the doctor, who was to stay
+all night, said that he was in no danger, only suffering from a heart
+attack brought on apparently by over-work or excitement.
+
+When Alan woke next morning the first thing that he heard through his
+open window was the sound of the doctor's departing dogcart. Then Jeekie
+appeared and told him that Mr. Haswell was all right again, but that
+all night he had shaken "like one jelly." Alan asked what had been the
+matter with him, but Jeekie only shrugged his shoulders and said that he
+did not know--"perhaps Yellow God touch him up."
+
+At breakfast, as in her note she had said she would, Barbara appeared
+wearing a short skirt. Sir Robert, who was there, also looked extremely
+pale even for him and with black rims round his eyes, asked her if she
+were going to golf, to which she answered that she would think it over.
+It was a somewhat melancholy meal, and as though by common consent no
+mention was made of Jeekie's tale of the Yellow God, and beyond the
+usual polite inquiries, very little of their host's seizure.
+
+As Barbara went out she whispered to Alan, who opened the door for her,
+"Meet me at half-past ten in the kitchen garden."
+
+Accordingly, having changed his clothes surreptitiously, Alan, avoiding
+the others, made his way by a circuitous route to this kitchen garden,
+which after the fashion of modern places was hidden behind a belt of
+trees nearly a quarter of a mile from the house. Here he wandered about
+till presently he heard Barbara's pleasant voice behind him saying:
+
+"Don't dawdle so, we shall be late for church."
+
+So they started, somewhat furtively like runaway children. As they went
+Alan asked how her uncle was.
+
+"All right now," she answered, "but he has had a bad shake. It was
+that Yellow God story which did it. I know, for I was there when he
+was coming to, with Sir Robert. He kept talking about it in a confused
+manner, saying that it was swimming to him across the floor, till at
+last Sir Robert bent over him and told him to be quiet quite sternly.
+Do you know, Alan, I believe that your pet fetish has been manifesting
+itself in some unpleasant fashion up there in the office?"
+
+"Indeed. If so, it must be since I left, for I never heard of anything
+of the sort, nor are Aylward and your uncle likely people to see ghosts.
+In fact Sir Robert wished to give me about L17,000 for the thing only
+the day before yesterday, which doesn't look as though it had been
+frightening him."
+
+"Well, he won't repeat the offer, Alan, for I heard him promise my uncle
+only this morning that it should be sent back to Yarleys at once. But
+why did he want to buy it for such a lot of money? Tell me quickly,
+Alan, I am dying to hear the whole story."
+
+So he began and told her, omitting nothing, while she listened eagerly
+to every word, hardly interrupting him at all. As he finished his tale
+they reached the door of the quaint old village church just as the clock
+was striking eleven.
+
+"Come in, Alan," she said gently, "and thank Heaven for all its mercies,
+for you should be a grateful man to-day."
+
+Then without giving him time to answer she entered the church and they
+took their places in the great square pew that for generations had been
+occupied by the owners of the ancient house which Mr. Haswell pulled
+down when he built The Court. There were their monuments upon the
+wall and their gravestones in the chancel floor. But now no one except
+Barbara ever sat in their pew; even the benches set aside for the
+servants were empty, for those who frequented The Court were not
+church-goers and "like master, like man." Indeed the gentle-faced old
+clergyman looked quite pleased and surprised when he saw two inhabitants
+of that palatial residence amongst his congregation, although it is true
+that Barbara was his friend and helper.
+
+The simple service went on; the first lesson was read. It cried woe upon
+them that joined house to house and field to field, that draw iniquity
+with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope; that call evil
+good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness,
+that justify the wicked for reward; that feast full but regard not the
+work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hand, for of
+such it prophesied that their houses great and fair should be without
+inhabitant and desolate.
+
+It was very well read, and Alan, listening, thought that the
+denunciations of the old seer of thousands of years ago were not
+inappropriate to the dwellers in some houses great and fair of his own
+day, who, whatever they did or left undone, regarded not the work of
+the Lord, neither considered the operation of His hand. Perhaps Barbara
+thought so too; at any rate a rather sad little smile appeared once or
+twice upon her sweet, firm face as the immortal poem echoed down the
+aisle.
+
+The peace that passeth understanding was invoked upon their heads, and
+rising with the rest of the scanty congregation they went away.
+
+"Shall we walk home by the woods, Alan?" asked Barbara. "It is three
+miles round, but we don't lunch till two."
+
+He nodded, and presently they were alone in those woods, the beautiful
+woods through which the breath of spring was breathing, treading upon
+carpets of bluebells, violet and primrose; quite alone, unaccompanied
+save by the wild things that stole across their path, undisturbed save
+by the sound of the singing birds and of the wind among the trees.
+
+"What did you mean, Barbara, when you said that I should be a grateful
+man to-day?" asked Alan presently.
+
+Barbara looked him in the eyes in that open, virginal fashion of hers
+and answered in the words of the lesson, "'Woe unto them that draw
+iniquity with the cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope,
+that lay house to house,'" and through an opening in the woods she
+pointed to the roof of The Court standing on one hill, and to the roof
+of Old Hall standing upon another--"'and field to field,'" and with a
+sweep of her hand she indicated all the country round, "'for many houses
+great and fair that have music in their feasts shall be left desolate.'"
+Then turning she said:
+
+"Do you understand now, Alan?"
+
+"I think so," he answered. "You mean that I have been in bad company."
+
+"Very bad, Alan. One of them is my own uncle, but the truth remains the
+truth. Alan, they are no better than thieves; all this wealth is stolen,
+and I thank God that you have found it out in time before you became one
+of them in heart as well as in name."
+
+"If you refer to the Sahara Syndicate," he said, "the idea is sound
+enough; indeed, I am responsible for it. The thing can be done, great
+benefits would result, too long to go into."
+
+"Yes, yes, Alan, but you know that they never mean to do it, they only
+mean to get the millions from the public. I have lived with my uncle for
+ten years, ever since my poor father died, and I know the backstairs
+of the business. There have been half a dozen schemes like this, and
+although they have had their bad times, very bad times, he and Sir
+Robert have grown richer and richer. But what has happened to those who
+have invested in them? Oh! let us drop the subject, it is unpleasant.
+For myself it doesn't matter, because although it isn't under my
+control, I have money of my own. You know we are a plebeian lot on the
+male side, my grandfather was a draper in a large way of business, my
+father was a coal-merchant who made a great fortune. His brother, my
+uncle, in whom my father always believed implicitly, took to what is
+called Finance, and when my father died he left me, his only child,
+in his guardianship. Until I am five and twenty I cannot even marry or
+touch a halfpenny without his consent; in fact if I should marry against
+his will the most of my money goes to him."
+
+"I expect that he has got it already," said Alan.
+
+"No, I think not. I found out that, although it is not mine, it is not
+his. He can't draw it without my signature, and I steadily refuse to
+sign anything. Again and again they have brought me documents, and I
+have always said that I would consider them at five and twenty, when
+I came of age under my father's will. I went on the sly to a lawyer
+in Kingswell and paid him a guinea for his advice, and he put me up to
+that. 'Sign nothing,' he said, and I have signed nothing, so, except by
+forgery nothing can have gone. Still for all that it may have gone.
+For anything I know I am not worth more than the clothes I stand in,
+although my father was a very rich man."
+
+"If so, we are about in the same boat, Barbara," Alan answered with a
+laugh, "for my present possessions are Yarleys, which brings in about
+L100 a year less than the interest on its mortgages and cost of upkeep,
+and the L1700 that Aylward paid me back on Friday for my shares. If I
+had stuck to them I understand that in a week or two I should have been
+worth L100,000, and now you see, here I am, over thirty years of age
+without a profession, invalided out of the army and having failed in
+finance, a mere bit of driftwood without hope and without a trade."
+
+Barbara's brown eyes grew soft with sympathy, or was it tears?
+
+"You are a curious creature, Alan," she said. "Why didn't you take the
+L17,000 for that fetish of yours? It would have been a fair deal and
+have set you on your legs."
+
+"I don't know," he answered dejectedly. "It went against the grain, so
+what is the use of talking about it? I think my old uncle Austin told
+me it wasn't to be parted with--no, perhaps it was Jeekie. Bother the
+Yellow God! it is always cropping up."
+
+"Yes," replied Barbara, "the Yellow God is always cropping up,
+especially in this neighbourhood."
+
+They walked on a while in silence, till suddenly Barbara sat down upon a
+bole of felled oak and began to cry.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" asked Alan.
+
+"I don't know," she answered. "Everything goes wrong. I live in a kind
+of gilded hell. I don't like my uncle and I loath the men he brings
+about the place. I have no friends, I scarcely know a woman intimately,
+I have troubles I can't tell you and--I am wretched. You are the only
+creature I have left to talk to, and I suppose that after this row you
+must go away too to make your living."
+
+Alan looked at her there weeping on the log and his heart swelled within
+him, for he had loved this girl for years.
+
+"Barbara," he gasped, "please don't cry, it upsets me. You know you are
+a great heiress----"
+
+"That remains to be proved," she answered. "But anyway, what has it to
+do with the case?"
+
+"It has everything to do with it, at least so far as I am concerned. If
+it hadn't been for that I should have asked you to marry me a long
+while ago, because I love you, as I would now, but of course it is
+impossible."
+
+Barbara ceased her weeping, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand,
+and looked up at him.
+
+"Alan," she said, "I think that you are the biggest fool I ever
+knew--not but that a fool is rather refreshing when one lives among
+knaves."
+
+"I know I am a fool," he answered. "If I wasn't I should not have
+mentioned my misfortune to you, but sometimes things are too much for
+one. Forget it and forgive me."
+
+"Oh! yes," she said; "I forgive you; a woman can generally forgive a
+man for being fond of her. Whatever she may be, she is ready to take
+a lenient view of his human weakness. But as to forgetting, that is
+a different matter. I don't exactly see why I should be so anxious to
+forget, who haven't many people to care about me," and she looked at him
+in quite a new fashion, one indeed which gave him something of a shock,
+for he had not thought the nymph-like Barbara capable of such a look as
+that. She and any sort of passion had always seemed so far apart.
+
+Now after all Alan was very much a man, if a modest one, with all a
+man's instincts, and therefore there are appearances of the female face
+which even such as he could not entirely misinterpret.
+
+"You--don't--mean," he said doubtfully, "you don't really mean----" and
+he stood hesitating before her.
+
+"If you would put your question a little more clearly, Alan, I might be
+able to give you an answer," she replied, that quaint little smile of
+hers creeping to the corners of her mouth like sunshine through a mist
+of rain.
+
+"You don't really mean," he went on, "that you care anything about me,
+like, like I have cared for you for years?"
+
+"Oh! Alan," she said, laughing outright, "why in the name of goodness
+shouldn't I care about you? I didn't say that I do, mind, but why
+shouldn't I? What is the gulf between us?"
+
+"The old one," he answered, "that between Dives and Lazarus--that
+between the rich and the poor."
+
+"Alan," said Barbara, looking down, "I don't know what has come over me,
+but for some unexplained and inexplicable reason I am inclined to
+give Lazarus a lead--across that gulf, the first one, I mean, not the
+second!"
+
+Like the glance which preceded it, this was a saying that even Alan
+could not misunderstand. He sat himself on the log beside her, while
+she, still looking down, watched him out of the corners of her eyes.
+He went red, he went white, his heart beat very violently. Then he
+stretched out his big brown hand and took her small white one, and as
+this familiarity produced no remonstrance, let it fall, and passing his
+arm about her, drew her to him and embraced her, not once, but
+often, with such vigour that a squirrel which had been watching these
+proceedings from a neighbouring tree, bolted round it scandalized and
+was seen no more.
+
+"I love you, I love you," he said huskily.
+
+"So I gather," she answered in a feeble voice.
+
+"Do you care for me?" he asked.
+
+"It would seem that I must, Alan, otherwise I should scarcely--oh! you
+foolish Alan," and heedless of her Sunday hat, which never recovered
+from this encounter, but was kept as a holy relic, she let her head fall
+upon his shoulder and began to cry again, this time for very happiness.
+
+He kissed her tears away, then as he could think of nothing else to say,
+asked her if she would marry him.
+
+"It is the general sequel to this kind of thing, I believe," she
+answered; "or at any rate it ought to be. But if you want a direct
+answer--yes, I will, if my uncle will let me, which he won't, as you
+have quarrelled with him, or at any rate two years hence, when I am five
+and twenty and my own mistress; that is if we have anything to marry
+on, for one must eat. At present our worldly possessions seem to consist
+chiefly of a large store of mutual affection, a good stock of clothes
+and one Yellow God, which after what happened last night, I do not think
+you will get another chance of turning into cash."
+
+"I must make money somehow," he said.
+
+"Yes, Alan, but I am afraid it is not easy to do--honestly. Nobody
+wants people without capital whose only stock in trade is a brief but
+distinguished military career, and a large experience of African fever."
+
+Alan groaned at this veracious but discouraging remark, and she went on
+quickly:
+
+"I mean to spend another guinea upon my friend the lawyer at Kingswell.
+Perhaps he can raise the wind, by a post-obit, or something," she added
+vaguely, "I mean a post-uncle-obit."
+
+"If he does, Barbara, I can't live on your money alone, it isn't right."
+
+"Oh! don't you trouble about that, Alan. If once I can get hold of those
+dim thousands you will soon be able to make more, for unto him that hath
+shall be given. But at present they are very dim, and for all I know may
+be represented by stock in deceased companies. In short, the financial
+position is extraordinarily depressed, as they say in the Market
+Intelligence in _The Times_. But that's no reason why we should be
+depressed also."
+
+"No, Barbara, for at any rate we have got each other."
+
+"Yes," she answered, springing up, "we have got each other, dear, until
+Death do us part, and somehow I don't think he'll do that yet awhile;
+it comes into my heart that he won't do that, Alan, that you and I are
+going to live out our days. So what does the rest matter? In two years
+I shall be a free woman. In fact, if the worst comes to the worst, I'll
+defy them all," and she set her little mouth like a rock, "and marry you
+straight away, as being over age, I can do, even if it costs me every
+halfpenny that I've got."
+
+"No, no," he said, "it would be wrong, wrong to yourself and wrong to
+your descendants."
+
+"Very well, Alan, then, we will wait, or perhaps luck will come our
+way--why shouldn't it? At any rate for my part I never felt so happy in
+my life; for, dear Alan, we have found what we were born to find, found
+it once and for always, and the rest is mere etceteras. What would be
+the use of all the gold of the Asiki people that Jeekie was talking
+about last night, to either of us, if we had not each other? We can
+get on without the wealth, but we couldn't get on apart, or at least I
+couldn't and I don't mind saying so."
+
+"No, my darling, no," he answered, turning white at the very thought,
+"we couldn't get on apart--now. In fact I don't know how I have done so
+so long already, except that I was always hoping that a time would
+come when we shouldn't be apart. That is why I went into that infernal
+business, to make enough money to be able to ask you to marry me.
+And now I have gone out of the business and asked you just when I
+shouldn't."
+
+"Yes, so you see you might as well have done it a year or two ago when
+perhaps things would have been simpler. Well, it is a fine example of
+the vanity of human plans, and, Alan, we must be going home to lunch. If
+we don't, Sir Robert will be organizing a search party to look for us;
+in fact, I shouldn't wonder if he is doing that already, in the wrong
+direction."
+
+The mention of Sir Robert Aylward's name fell on them both like a blast
+of cold wind in summer, and for a while they walked in silence.
+
+"You are afraid of that man, Barbara," said Alan presently, guessing her
+thoughts.
+
+"A little," she answered, "so far as I can be afraid of anything any
+more. And you?"
+
+"A little also. I think that he will give us trouble. He can be very
+malevolent and resourceful."
+
+"Resourceful, Alan; well, so can I. I'll back my wits against his any
+day. He shan't separate us by anything short of murder, which he won't
+go in for. Men like that don't like to break the law; they have too much
+to lose. But no doubt he will make things uncomfortable for you, if he
+can, for several reasons."
+
+Again they walked on lost in reflections, when Barbara suddenly saw her
+lover's face brighten.
+
+"What is it, Alan?" she asked.
+
+"Something that is rare enough with me, Barbara--an idea. You remember
+speaking about that Asiki gold just now. Well, why shouldn't I go and
+get it?"
+
+She stared at him.
+
+"It sounds a little speculative," she said; "something like one of my
+uncle's companies."
+
+"Not half so speculative as you think. I have no doubt it is there and
+Jeekie knows the way. Also I seem to remember that there is a map and an
+account of the whole thing in Uncle Austin's diaries, though to tell you
+the truth the old fellow wrote such a fearful hand, that I have never
+taken the trouble to read it. You see," he went on with enthusiasm, "it
+is the kind of business that I can do. I am thoroughly salted to fever,
+I know the West Coast, where I spent three years on that Boundary
+Commission, I have studied the natives and can talk several of their
+dialects. Of course there would be a risk, but there are risks in
+everything, and like you I am not afraid about that, for I believe that
+we have got our lives before us."
+
+"Read up those diaries, Alan, and we will talk the thing over again.
+I'll pump Jeekie, who will tell me anything by coaxing, and try to get
+at the truth. Meanwhile what are you going to do about my uncle?"
+
+"Speak to him, of course, and have the row over."
+
+"Yes," she answered, "that is the best and the most honest. Of course
+he can turn you out, but he can't prevent my seeing you. If he does, go
+home to Yarleys and I'll come over and call. Here we are, let us go in
+by the back door," and she pointed to her crushed hat, and laughed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BARBARA MAKES A SPEECH
+
+While Alan and Barbara, on the most momentous occasion of their lives,
+were seated upon the fallen oak in the woods that thrilled with
+the breath of spring, another interview was taking place in Mr.
+Champers-Haswell's private suite at The Court, the decorations of
+which, as he was wont to inform his visitors, had cost nearly L2000. Sir
+Robert, whose taste at any rate was good, thought them so appalling that
+while waiting for his host and partner, whom he had come to see, he took
+a seat in the bow window of the sitting-room and studied the view that
+nobody had been able to spoil. Presently Mr. Haswell emerged from his
+bedroom, wrapped in a dressing gown and looking very pale and shaky.
+
+"Delighted to see you all right again," said Sir Robert as he wheeled up
+a chair into which Mr. Haswell sank.
+
+"I am not all right, Aylward," he answered; "I am not all right at all.
+Never had such an upset in my life; thought I was going to die when that
+accursed savage told his beastly tale. Aylward, you are a man of the
+world, tell me, what is the meaning of the thing? You remember what we
+thought we saw in the office, and then--that story."
+
+"I don't know," he answered; "frankly I don't know. I am a man who has
+never believed in anything I cannot see and test, one who utterly lacks
+faith. In my leisure I have examined into the various religious
+systems and found them to be rubbish. I am convinced that we are but
+highly-developed mammals born by chance, and when our day is done,
+departing into the black nothingness out of which we came. Everything
+else, that is, what is called the higher and spiritual part, I attribute
+to the superstitions incident to the terror of the hideous position in
+which we find ourselves, that of gods of a sort hemmed in by a few years
+of fearful and tormented life. But you know the old arguments, so why
+should I enter on them? And now I am confronted with an experience
+which I cannot explain. I certainly thought that in the office on Friday
+evening I saw that gold mask to which I had taken so strange a fancy
+that I offered to give Vernon L17,000 for it because I thought that it
+brought us luck, swim across the floor of our room and look first into
+your face and then into mine. Well, the next night that negro tells his
+story. What am I to make of it?"
+
+"Can't tell you," answered Mr. Champers-Haswell with a groan. "All I
+know is that it nearly made a corpse of me. I am not like you, Aylward,
+I was brought up as an Evangelical, and although I haven't given much
+thought to these matters of late years--well, we don't shake them off in
+a hurry. I daresay there is something somewhere, and when the black
+man was speaking, that something seemed uncommonly near. It got up and
+gripped me by the throat, shaking the mortal breath out of me, and upon
+my word, Aylward, I have been wishing all the morning that I had led a
+different kind of life, as my old parents and my brother John, Barbara's
+father, who was a very religious kind of man, did before me."
+
+"It is rather late to think of all that now, Haswell," said Sir Robert,
+shrugging his shoulders. "One takes one's line and there's an end.
+Personally I believe that we are overstrained with the fearful and
+anxious work of this flotation, and have been the victims of an
+hallucination and a coincidence. Although I confess that I came to look
+upon the thing as a kind of mascot, I put no trust in any fetish. How
+can a bit of gold move, and how can it know the future? Well, I have
+written to them to clear it out of the office to-morrow, so it won't
+trouble us any more. And now I have come to speak to you on another
+matter."
+
+"Not business," said Mr. Haswell with a sigh. "We have that all the week
+and there will be enough of it on Monday."
+
+"No," he answered, "something more important. About your niece Barbara."
+
+Mr. Haswell glanced at him with those little eyes of his which were so
+sharp that they seemed to bore like gimlets.
+
+"Barbara?" he said. "What of Barbara?"
+
+"Can't you guess, Haswell? You are pretty good at it, generally. Well,
+it is no use beating about the bush; I want to marry her."
+
+At this sudden announcement his partner became exceedingly interested.
+Leaning back in the chair he stared at the decorated ceiling, and
+uttered his favourite wind-in-the-wires whistle.
+
+"Indeed," he said. "I never knew that matrimony was in your line,
+Aylward, any more than it has been in mine, especially as you are always
+preaching against it. Well, has the young lady given her consent?"
+
+"No, I have not spoken to her. I meant to do so this morning, but she
+has slipped off somewhere, with Vernon, I suppose."
+
+Mr. Haswell whistled again, but on a new note.
+
+"Pray do stop that noise," said Sir Robert; "it gets upon my nerves,
+which are shaky this morning. Listen: It is a curious thing, one less
+to be understood even than the coincidence of the Yellow God, but at
+my present age of forty-four, for the first time in my life I have
+committed the folly of what is called falling in love. It is not the
+case of a successful, middle-aged man wishing to _ranger_ himself and
+settle down with a desirable _partie_, but of sheer, stark infatuation.
+I adore Barbara; the worse she treats me the more I adore her. I had
+rather that the Sahara flotation should fail than that she should refuse
+me. I would rather lose three-quarters of my fortune than lose her. Do
+you understand?"
+
+His partner looked at him, pursed up his lips to whistle, then
+remembered and shook his head instead.
+
+"No," he answered. "Barbara is a nice girl, but I should not have
+imagined her capable of inspiring such sentiments in a man almost old
+enough to be her father. I think that you are the victim of a kind of
+mania, which I have heard of but never experienced. Venus--or is it
+Cupid?--has netted you, my dear Aylward."
+
+"Oh! pray leave gods and goddesses out of it, we have had enough of them
+already," he answered, exasperated. "That is my case at any rate, and
+what I want to know now is if I have your support in my suit. Remember,
+I have something to offer, Haswell, for instance, a large fortune of
+which I will settle half--it is a good thing to do in our business,--and
+a baronetcy that will be a peerage before long."
+
+"A peerage! Have you squared that?"
+
+"I think so. There will be a General Election within the next three
+months, and on such occasions a couple of hundred thousand in cool cash
+come in useful to a Party that is short of ready money. I think I may
+say that it is settled. She will be the Lady Aylward, or any other name
+she may fancy, and one of the richest women in England. Now have I your
+support?"
+
+"Yes, my dear friend, why not, though Barbara does not want money, for
+she has plenty of her own, in first-class securities that I could never
+persuade her to vary, for she is shrewd in that way and steadily refuses
+to sign anything. Also she will probably be my heiress--and, Aylward,"
+here a sickly look of alarm spread itself over his face, "I don't know
+how long I have to live. That infernal doctor examined my heart this
+morning and told me that it was weak. Weak was his word, but from the
+tone in which he said it, I believe that he meant more. Aylward, I
+gather that I may die any day."
+
+"Nonsense, Haswell, so may we all," he replied, with an affectation of
+cheerfulness which failed to carry conviction.
+
+Presently Mr. Haswell, who had hidden his face in his hand, looked up
+with a sigh and said:
+
+"Oh! yes, of course you have my support, for after all she is my only
+relation and I should be glad to see her safely married. Also, as it
+happens, she can't marry anyone without my consent, at any rate until
+she is five and twenty, for if she does, under her father's will all her
+property goes away, most of it to charities, except a beggarly L200 a
+year. You see my brother John had a great horror of imprudent marriages
+and a still greater belief in me, which as it chances, is a good thing
+for you."
+
+"Had he?" said Sir Robert. "And pray why is it a good thing for me?"
+
+"Because, my dear Aylward, unless my observation is at fault, there is
+another Richard in the field, our late partner, Vernon, of whom, by
+the way, Barbara is extremely fond, though it may only be in a friendly
+fashion. At any rate she pays more attention to his wishes and opinions
+than to mine and yours put together."
+
+At the mention of Alan's name Aylward started violently.
+
+"I feared it," he said, "and he is more than ten years my junior and
+a soldier, not a man of business. Also there is no use disguising the
+truth, although I am a baronet and shall be a peer and he is nothing
+but a beggarly country gentleman with a D.S.O. tacked on to his name,
+he belongs to a different class to us, as she does too on her mother's
+side. Well, I can smash him up, for you remember I took over that
+mortgage on Yarleys, and I'll do it if necessary. Practically our friend
+has not a shilling that he can call his own. Therefore, Haswell, unless
+you play me false, which I don't think you will, for I can be a nasty
+enemy," he added with a threat in his voice, "Alan Vernon hasn't much
+chance in that direction."
+
+"I don't know, Aylward, I don't know," replied Haswell, shaking his
+white head. "Barbara is a strong-willed woman and she might choose to
+take the man and let the money go, and then--who can stop her? Also I
+don't like your idea of smashing Vernon. It isn't right, and it may come
+back on our own heads, especially yours. I am sorry that he has left us,
+as you were on Friday night, for somehow he was a good, honest stick to
+lean on, and we want such a stick. But I am tired now, I really can't
+talk any more. The doctor warned me against excitement. Get the girl's
+consent, Aylward, and we'll see. Ah! here comes my soup. Good-bye for
+the present."
+
+When Sir Robert came down to luncheon he found Barbara looking
+particularly radiant and charming, already presiding at that meal and
+conversing in her best French to the foreign gentlemen, who were paying
+her compliments.
+
+"Forgive me for being late," he said; "first of all I have been
+talking to your uncle, and afterwards skimming through the articles in
+yesterday's papers on our little venture which comes out to-morrow. A
+cheerful occupation on the whole, for with one or two exceptions they
+are all favourable."
+
+"Mon Dieu," said the French gentlemen on the right, "seeing what
+they did cost, that is not strange. Your English papers they are so
+expensive; in Paris we have done it for half the money."
+
+Barbara and some of the guests laughed outright, finding this frankness
+charming.
+
+"But where have you been, Miss Champers? I thought that we were going to
+have a round of golf together. The caddies were there, I was there, the
+greens had been specially rolled this morning, but there was no You."
+
+"No," she answered, "because Major Vernon and I walked to church and
+heard a very good sermon upon the observance of the Sabbath."
+
+"You are severe," he said. "Do you think it wrong for men who work hard
+all the week to play a harmless game on Sunday?"
+
+"Not at all, Sir Robert." Then she looked at him and, coming to a sudden
+decision, added, "If you like I will play you nine holes this afternoon
+and give you a stroke a hole, or would you prefer a foursome?"
+
+"No, let us fight alone and let the best player win."
+
+"Very well, Sir Robert; but you mustn't forget that I am handicapped."
+
+"Don't look angry," she whispered to Alan as they strolled out into the
+garden after lunch, "I must clear things up and know what we have to
+face. I'll be back by tea-time, and we will have it out with my uncle."
+
+
+
+The nine holes had been played, and by a single stroke Barbara had won
+the match, which pleased her very much, for she had done her best, and
+with such heavy odds in his favour Sir Robert, who had also done his
+best, was no mean opponent, even for a player of her skill. Indeed the
+fight had been quite earnest, for each party knew that it was but a
+prelude to another and more serious fight, and looked upon the result as
+in some sense an omen.
+
+"I am conquered," he said in a voice in which vexation struggled with a
+laugh, "and by a woman over whom I had an advantage. It is humiliating,
+for I confess I do not like being beaten."
+
+"Don't you think that women generally win if they mean to?" asked
+Barbara. "I believe that when they fail, which is often enough, it
+is because they don't care, or can't make up their minds. A woman in
+earnest is a dangerous antagonist."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "or the best of allies." Then he gave the clubs and
+half-a-crown to the caddies, and when they were out of hearing, added,
+"Miss Champers, I have been wondering for some time whether it is
+possible that you would become such an ally to me."
+
+"I know nothing of business, Sir Robert; my tastes do not lie that way."
+
+"You know well that I was not speaking of business, Miss Champers. I was
+speaking of another kind of partnership, that which Nature has ordained
+between men and women--marriage. Will you accept me as a husband?"
+
+She opened her lips to speak, but he lifted his hand and went on.
+"Listen before you give that ready answer which it is so hard to recall,
+or smooth away. I know all my disadvantages, my years, which to you may
+seem many; my modest origin; my trade, which, not altogether without
+reason, you despise and dislike. Well, the first two cannot be changed
+except for the worse; the second can be, and already is, buried beneath
+the gold and ermine of wealth and titles. What does it matter if I am
+the son of a City clerk who never earned more than L2 a week and was
+born in a tenement at Battersea, when I am one of the rich men of this
+rich land and shall die a peer in a palace, leaving millions and honours
+to my children? As for the third, my occupation, I am prepared to give
+it up. It has served my turn, and after next week I shall have earned
+the amount that years ago I determined to earn. Thenceforth, set above
+the accidents of fortune, I propose to devote myself to higher aims,
+those of legitimate ambition. So far as my time would allow I have
+already taken some share in politics as a worker; I intend to continue
+in them as a ruler which I still have the health and ability to do. I
+mean to be one of the first men in this Empire, to ride to power over
+the heads of all the nonentities whose only claim upon the confidence of
+their countrymen is that they were born in a certain class, with money
+in their pockets and without the need to spend the best of their manhood
+in work. With you at my side I can do all these things and more, and
+such is the future that I have to offer you."
+
+Again she would have broken in upon his speech and again he stopped her,
+reading the unspoken answer on her lips.
+
+"Listen: I have not told you all. Perhaps I have put first what should
+have come last. I have not told you that I love you earnestly and
+sincerely, with the settled, unalterable love that sometimes comes to
+men in middle-age who have never turned their thought that way before.
+I will not attempt the rhapsodies of passion which at my time of life
+might sound foolish or out of place; yet it is true that I am filled
+with this passion which has descended on me and taken possession of me.
+I who often have laughed at such things in other men, adore you. You
+are a joy to my eyes. If you are not in the room, for me it is empty. I
+admire the uprightness of your character, and even your prejudices, and
+to your standard I desire to approximate my own. I think that no man can
+ever love you quite so well as I do, Barbara Champers. Now speak. I am
+ready to meet the best or the worst."
+
+After her fashion Barbara looked him straight in the face with her
+steady eyes, and answered gently enough, for the man's method of
+presenting his case, elaborate and prepared though it evidently was, had
+touched her.
+
+"I fear it is the worst, Sir Robert. There are hundreds of women
+superior to myself in every way who would be glad to give you the help
+and companionship you ask, with their hearts thrown in. Choose one of
+them, for I cannot do so."
+
+He heard and for the first time his face broke, as it were. All this
+while it had remained masklike and immovable, even when he spoke of his
+love, but now it broke as ice breaks at the pressure of a sudden flood
+beneath, and she saw the depths and eddies of his nature and understood
+their strength. Not that he revealed them in speech, angry or pleading,
+for that remained calm and measured enough. She did not hear, she saw,
+and even then it was marvellous to her that a mere change in a man's
+expression could explain so much.
+
+"Those are very cruel words," he said. "Are they unalterable?"
+
+"Quite. I do not play in such matters, it would be wicked."
+
+"May I ask you one question, for if the answer is in the negative, I
+shall still continue to hope? Do you care for any other man?"
+
+Again she looked at him with her fearless eyes and answered:
+
+"Yes, I am engaged to another man."
+
+"To Alan Vernon?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"When did that happen? Some years ago?"
+
+"No, this morning."
+
+"Great Heavens!" he muttered in a hoarse voice turning his head away,
+"this morning. Then last night it might not have been too late, and last
+night I should have spoken to you, I had arranged it all. Yes, if it had
+not been for the story of that accursed fetish and your uncle's illness,
+I should have spoken to you, and perhaps succeeded."
+
+"I think not," she said.
+
+He turned upon her and notwithstanding the tears in his eyes they burned
+like fire.
+
+"You think--you think," he gasped, "but I know. Of course after this
+morning it was impossible. But, Barbara, I say that I will win you yet.
+I have never failed in any object that I set before myself, and do
+not suppose that I shall fail in this. Although in a way I liked and
+respected him, I have always felt that Vernon was my enemy, one destined
+to bring grief and loss upon me, even if he did not intend to do so.
+Now I understand why, and he shall learn that I am stronger than he. God
+help him! I say."
+
+"I think He will," Barbara answered, calmly. "You are speaking wildly,
+and I understand the reason and hope that you will forget your words,
+but whether you forget or remember, do not suppose that you frighten
+me. You men who have made money," she went on with swelling indignation,
+"who have made money somehow, and have bought honours with the moneys
+somehow, think yourselves great, and in your little day, your little,
+little day that will end with three lines in small type in _The Times_,
+you are great in this vulgar land. You can buy what you want and people
+creep round you and ask you for doles and favours, and railway porters
+call you 'my Lord' at every other step. But you forget your limitations
+in this world, and that which lives above you. You say you will do this
+and that. You should study a book which few of you ever read, where it
+tells you that you do not know what you will be on the morrow; that your
+life is even as a vapour appearing for a little time and then vanishing
+away. You think that you can crush the man to whom I have given my heart
+because he is honest and you are dishonest, because you are rich and he
+is poor, and because he chances to have succeeded where you have not.
+Well, for myself and for him I defy you. Do your worst and fail, and
+when you have failed, in the hour of your extremity remember my words
+to-day. If I have given you pain by refusing you it is not my fault and
+I am sorry, but when you threaten the man who has honoured me with
+his love and whom I honour above every creature upon the earth, then I
+threaten back, and may the Power that made us all judge between you and
+me, as judge it will," and bursting into tears she turned and left him.
+
+Sir Robert watched her go.
+
+"What a woman!" he said meditatively, "what a woman--to have lost. Well
+she has set the stakes and we will play out the game. The cards all seem
+to be in my hands, but it would not in the least surprise me if she
+won the rubber, for the element that I call Chance and she would call
+something else, may come in. Still, I never refused a challenge yet and
+we will play the game out without pity to the loser."
+
+
+
+That night the first trick was played. When he got back to The Court Sir
+Robert ordered his motorcar and departed on urgent business, either
+to his own place, Old Hall, or to London, saying only that he had been
+summoned away by telegram. As the 70-horse-power Mercedes glided out of
+the gates a pencilled note was put into Mr. Haswell's hand.
+
+It ran: "I have tried and failed--for the present. By ill-luck A.V. had
+been before me, only this morning. If I had not missed my chance last
+night owing to your illness, it would have been different. I do not,
+however, in the least abandon my plan, in which of course I rely on and
+expect your support. Keep V. in the office or let him go as you like.
+Perhaps it would be better if you could prevail upon him to stop there
+until after the flotation. But whatever you say at the moment, I trust
+to you to absolutely veto any engagement between him and your niece, and
+to that end to use all your powers and authority as her guardian. Burn
+this note.
+
+"R.A."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MR. HASWELL LOSES HIS TEMPER
+
+Alan and Barbara sat in Mr. Champers-Haswell's private sitting-room with
+the awful decorations, and before them by the fire Mr. Champers-Haswell
+reclined upon his couch. Alan in a few, brief, soldier-like words had
+just informed him of his engagement to Barbara. During the recital of
+this interesting fact Barbara said nothing, but Mr. Haswell had whistled
+several times. Now at length he spoke, in that tone of forced geniality
+which he generally adopted towards his cousin.
+
+"You are asking for the hand of a considerable heiress, Alan my boy," he
+said, "but you have neglected to inform me of your own position."
+
+"Where is the use of telling you what you know already, Mr. Haswell? I
+have left the firm, therefore I have practically nothing."
+
+"You have practically nothing, and yet----Well, in my young days men
+were more delicate, they did not like being called fortune-hunters, but
+of course times have changed."
+
+Alan bit his lip and Barbara sat up quite straight in her chair,
+observing which indications, Mr. Haswell went on hurriedly:
+
+"Now if you had stopped in the firm and earned the very handsome
+competence in a small way which would have become due to you this week,
+instead of throwing us over at the last moment for some quixotic reasons
+of your own, it might have been a different matter. I do not say it
+would have been, I say it might have been, and you may remember a
+proverb about winks and nods and blind horses. So I ask you whether you
+are inclined to withdraw that resignation of yours and bring up this
+question again let us say, next Sunday?"
+
+Alan thought a while before he answered. As he understood Mr. Haswell
+practically was promising to assent to the engagement upon these terms.
+The temptation was enormously great, the fiercest that he had ever been
+called upon to face. He looked at Barbara. She had closed her eyes and
+made absolutely no sign. For some reason of her own she had elected that
+he should determine this vital point without the slightest assistance
+from her. And it must be determined at once; procrastination was
+impossible. For a moment he hesitated. On the one side was Barbara, on
+the other his conscience. After long doubts he had come to a certain
+conclusion which he quite understood to be inconvenient to his partners.
+Should he throw it over now? Should he even try to make a sure and
+certain bargain as the price of his surrender? Probably he would
+not suffer if he did. The flotation was underwritten and bound to go
+through; the scandal would come afterwards, months or years hence, long
+before which he might get out, as most of the others meant to do. No, he
+could not. His conscience was too much for him.
+
+"I do not see any use in reconsidering that question, Mr. Haswell," he
+said quietly; "we settled it on Friday night."
+
+Barbara reopened her brown eyes and stared amiably at the painted
+ceiling, and Mr. Haswell whistled.
+
+"Then I am afraid," he said, "that I do not see any use in discussing
+your kind proposal for my niece's hand. Listen--I will be quite open
+with you. I have other views for Barbara, and as it happens I have the
+power to enforce them, or at any rate to prevent their frustration by
+you. If Barbara marries against my will before she is five and twenty,
+that is within the next two years, her entire fortune, with the
+exception of a pittance, goes elsewhere. This I am sure is a fact that
+will influence you, who have nothing and even if it did not, I presume
+that you are scarcely so selfish as to wish to beggar her."
+
+"No," answered Alan, "you need not fear that, for it would be wrong. I
+understand that you absolutely refuse to sanction my suit on the ground
+of my poverty, which under the circumstances is perhaps not wonderful.
+Well, the only thing to do is to wait for two years, a long time, but
+not endless, and meanwhile I can try to better my position."
+
+"Do what you will, Alan," said Mr. Haswell harshly, for now all his
+_faux bonhomme_ manner had gone, leaving him revealed in his true
+character of an unscrupulous tradesman with dark ends of his own to
+serve. "Do what you will, but understand that I forbid all communication
+between you and my niece, and that the sooner you cease to trespass upon
+a hospitality which you have abused, the better I shall be pleased."
+
+"I will go at once," said Alan, rising, "before my temper gets the
+better of me and I tell you some truths that I might regret, for after
+all you are Barbara's uncle. But on your part I ask you to understand
+that I refuse to cut off from my cousin, who is of full age and has
+promised to be my wife," and he turned to go.
+
+"Stop a minute, Alan," said Barbara, who all this while had sat silent.
+"I have something to say which I wish you to hear. You told us just now,
+uncle, that you have other views for me, by which you meant that you
+wish me to marry Sir Robert Aylward, whom, as you are probably aware, I
+refused definitely this afternoon. Now I wish to make it clear at once
+that no earthly power will induce me to take as a husband a man whom I
+dislike, and whose wealth, of which you think so much, has in my opinion
+been dishonestly acquired."
+
+"What are you saying?" broke in her uncle furiously. "He has been my
+partner for years, you are reflecting upon me."
+
+"I am sorry, uncle, but I withdraw nothing. Even if Alan here were dead,
+I would not marry that man, and perhaps you will make him understand
+this," she added with emphasis. "Indeed I had sooner die myself. You
+told us also that if I marry against your will, you can take away all
+the property that my father left to me. Uncle, I shall not give you that
+satisfaction. I shall wait until I am twenty-five and do what I please
+with myself and my fortune. Lastly, you said that you forbade us to see
+each other or to correspond. I answer that I shall both write to and see
+Alan as often as I like. If you attempt to prevent me from doing so,
+I shall go to the Court of Chancery, lay all the facts before it, as I
+have been advised that I can do--not by Alan--please remember, _all_ the
+facts, and ask for its protection and for a separate maintenance out of
+my estate until I am twenty-five. I am sure that the Court would grant
+me this and would declare that considering his distinguished family and
+record Alan is a perfectly proper person to be my affianced husband. I
+think that is all I have to say."
+
+"All you have to say!" gasped Mr. Haswell, "all you have to say, you
+impertinent and ungrateful minx!" Then he fell into a furious fit of
+rage and in language that need not be repeated, poured a stream of
+threats and abuse upon Alan and herself. Barbara waited until he ceased
+from exhaustion.
+
+"Uncle," she said, "you should remember that your heart is weak and
+you must not overexcite yourself, also when you are calmer, that if you
+speak to me like that again, I shall go to the Court at once, for I will
+not be sworn at by you or by any other man. I apologize to you, Alan;
+I am afraid I have brought you into strange company. Come, my dear,
+we will go and order your dogcart," and putting her arm affectionately
+through his, she went with him from the room.
+
+"I wonder who put her up to all this?" gasped Haswell, as the door
+closed behind them. "Some infernal lawyer, I'll be bound. Well, she has
+got the whip hand of me, and I can't face an investigation in Chancery,
+especially as the only thing against Vernon is that the value of his
+land has fallen. But I swear that she shall never marry him while I
+live," he ended in a kind of shout and the domed and painted ceiling
+echoed back his words--"_while I live_" after which the room was silent,
+save for the heavy thumping of his heart.
+
+
+
+When Alan reached home that night after his ten-mile drive he sent
+Jeekie to tell the housekeeper to find him some food. In his mysterious
+African fashion the negro had already collected much intelligence as
+to the events of the day, mostly in the servants' hall, and more
+particularly from the two golf-caddies, sons of one of the gardeners,
+who it seemed instead of retiring with the clubs, had taken shelter in
+some tall whins and thence followed the interview between Barbara and
+Sir Robert with the intensest interest. Reflecting that this was not
+the time to satisfy his burning curiosity, Jeekie went and in due course
+returned with some cold mutton and a bottle of claret. Then came his
+chance, for Alan could scarcely touch the mutton and demanded toast and
+butter.
+
+"Very inferior chop"--that was his West African word for food--"for a
+gentleman, Major," he said, shaking his white head sympathetically and
+pointing to the mutton,--"specially when he has unexpectedly departed
+from magnificent eating of The Court. Why did you not wait till after
+dinner, Major, before retiring?"
+
+Alan laughed at the man's inflated English, and answered in a more
+nervous and colloquial style:
+
+"Because I was kicked out, Jeekie."
+
+"Ah! I gathered that kicking was in the wind, Major. Sir Robert Aylward,
+Bart., he also was kicked out, but by smaller toe."
+
+Again Alan laughed and, as it was a relief to talk even to Jeekie, asked
+him:
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"I gathered it out of atmosphere, Major; from Sir Robert's gentleman,
+from two youths who watch Sir Robert and Miss Barbara talking upon golf
+green No. 9, from the machine driver of Sir Robert whose eyes he damn in
+public, and last but not least from his own noble countenance."
+
+"I see that you are observant, Jeekie."
+
+"Observation, Major, it is art of life. I see Miss Barbara's eyes
+red like morning sky and I deduct. I see you shot out and gloomy like
+evening cloud, and I deduct. I listen at door of Mr. Haswell's room,
+I hear him curse and swear like holy saint in Book, and you and Miss
+Barbara answer him not like saint, though what you speak I cannot hear,
+and I deduct. Jeekie deduct this--that you make love to Miss Barbara
+in proper gentlemanlike, 'nogamous, Christian fashion such as your late
+Reverend Uncle approve, and Miss Barbara, she make love to you with
+ten per cent. compound interest, but old gent with whistle, he _not_
+approve; he say, 'Where corresponding cash!' He say 'Noble Sir Robert
+have much cash and interested in identical business. I prefer Sir
+Robert. Get out, you Cashless.' Often I see this same thing when boy in
+West Africa, very common wherever sun shine. I note all these matters
+and I deduct--that Jeekie's way and Jeekie seldom wrong."
+
+Alan laughed for the third time, until the tears ran down his face
+indeed.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "you are a great rascal----"
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted Jeekie, "great rascal. Best thing to be in
+this world, Major. Honourable Sir Robert, Bart., M.P., and Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, D.L., J.P., they find that out long ago and sit on
+top of tree of opulent renown. Jeekie great rascal and therefore have
+Savings Bank account--go on, Major."
+
+"Well, Jeekie, because if you are a rascal you are kind-hearted and
+because I believe that you care for me----"
+
+"Oh! Major," broke in Jeekie again, "that most 'utterably true. Honour
+bright I love you, Major, better than anyone on earth, except my late
+old woman, now happily dead, gone and forgotten in best oak coffin, L4
+10 without fittings but polished, and perhaps your holy uncle, Reverend
+Mr. Austin, also coffined and departed, who saved me from early
+extinction in a dark place. Major, I no like graves, I see too much of
+them, and can't tell what lie on other side. Though everyone say they
+know, Jeekie not quite sure. May be all light and crowns of glory, may
+be damp black hole and no way out. But this at least true, that I love
+you better, yes, better than Miss Barbara, for love of woman very poor,
+uncertain thing, quick come, quick go. Jeekie find that out--often. Yes,
+if need be, though death most nasty, if need be I say I die for you,
+which great unpleasant sacrifice," and Jeekie in the genuine enthusiasm
+of his warm heart, throwing himself upon his knees after the African
+fashion, seized his master's hand and kissed it.
+
+"Thanks, Jeekie," said Alan, "very kind of you, I am sure. But we
+haven't come to that yet, though no one knows what may happen later on.
+Now sit upon that chair and take a little whisky--not too much--for I am
+going to ask your advice."
+
+"Major," said Jeekie, "I obey," and seizing the whisky bottle in a
+casual manner, he poured out half a tumbler full, for Jeekie was fond of
+whisky. Indeed before now this taste had brought him into conflict with
+the local magistrates.
+
+"Put back three parts of that," said Alan, and Jeekie did so. "Now," he
+went on, "listen: this is the case, Miss Barbara and I are----" and he
+hesitated.
+
+"Oh! I know; like me and Mrs. Jeekie once," said Jeekie, gulping down
+some of the neat whisky. "Go on, Major."
+
+"And Sir Robert Aylward is----"
+
+"Same thing, Major. Continue."
+
+"And Mr. Haswell has----"
+
+"Those facts all ascertained, Major," said Jeekie, contemplating his
+glass with a mournful eye. "Now come to the point, Major."
+
+"Well, the point is, Jeekie, that I am what you called just now
+cashless, and therefore----"
+
+"Therefore," interrupted Jeekie again, "stick fast in honourable
+intention towards Miss Barbara owing to obstinate opposition of Mr.
+Haswell, legal uncle with control of property fomented by noble Sir
+Robert who desire same girl."
+
+"Quite right, Jeekie, but if you would talk a little less and let me
+talk a little more, we might get on better."
+
+"I henceforth silent, Major," and lifting his empty tumbler Jeekie
+looked through it as if it were a telescope, a hint that Alan ignored.
+
+"Jeekie, you infernal old fool, I want money."
+
+"Yes, Major, I understand, Major. Forgive me for breaking conspiracy of
+silence, but if L500 in Savings Bank any use, very much at your service,
+Major; also L20 more extracted last night from terror of wealthy Jew who
+fear fetish."
+
+"Jeekie, you old donkey, I don't want your L500; I want a great deal
+more, L50,000 or L500,000. Tell me how to get it."
+
+"City best place, Major. But you chuck City, too much honest man, great
+mistake to be honest in this terrestrial sphere. Often notice that in
+West Africa."
+
+"Perhaps, Jeekie, but I have done with the City. As you would say, for
+me it is 'wipe out, finish.'"
+
+"Yes, Major, too much pickpocket, too much dirt. Bottom always drop out
+of bucket shop at last. I understand, end in police court and severe
+magistrate, or perhaps even 'Gentlemen of Jury'; etcetera."
+
+"Well, Jeekie, then what remains? Now last night when you told us that
+amazing yarn of yours, you said something about a mountain full of gold,
+and houses full of gold, among your people. Jeekie, do you think----"
+and he paused, looking at him.
+
+Jeekie rolled his black eyes round the room and in a fit of
+absentmindedness helped himself to some more whisky.
+
+"Do I think, Major, that this useless lucre could be converted into coin
+of gracious King Edward? Not at all, Major, by no one, Major, by no one
+whatsoever, except possibly by Major Alan Vernon, D.S.O., and by one,
+Jeekie, Christian surname Smith."
+
+"Proceed, Jeekie," said Alan, removing the whisky bottle, "proceed and
+explain."
+
+"Major, thus: The Asiki tribe care nothing about all that gold, it no
+good to them. Dead people who live long, long ago, no one know when, dig
+it up and store it there and make the great fetish which they call Bonsa
+to keep away enemy who want to steal. Also old custom when any one in
+country round find big nugget, or pretty stone, like ladies wear on
+bosom, to bring it as offering to Bonsa, so that there now great plenty
+of all this stuff. But no one use it for anything except to set on walls
+of house of Asiki, or to make basin, stool, table and pot to cook with.
+Once Arab come there and I see the priests give him weight in gold for
+iron hoe, though afterwards they murder him, not for the gold, but lest
+he go away and tell their secret."
+
+"One might trade with them then, Jeekie?"
+
+He shook his white head doubtfully.
+
+"Yes, perhaps, if you can find anything they want buy and can carry it
+there. But I think there only one thing they want, and you got that,
+Major."
+
+"I, Jeekie! What have I got?"
+
+The negro leant forward and tapped his master on the knee, saying in a
+portentous whisper:
+
+"You got Little Bonsa, which much more holy than anything, even than
+Big Bonsa her husband, I mean greater, more powerful devil. That Little
+Bonsa sit in front room Asika's house, and when she want see things, she
+put it in big basin of gold, but I no tell you what it float in. Also
+once or twice every year they take out Little Bonsa; Asika wear it on
+head as mask, and whoever they meet they kill as offering to Little
+Bonsa, so that spirit come back to world to be priest of Bonsa. I tell
+you, Major, that Yellow God see many thousand of people die."
+
+"Indeed," said Alan. "A pleasing fetish truly. I should think that the
+Asiki must be glad it is gone."
+
+"No, not glad, very sorry. No luck for them when Little Bonsa go away,
+but plenty luck for those who got her. That why firm Aylward & Haswell
+make so much money when you join them and bring her to office. She drop
+green in eye of public so they no smell rat. That why you so lucky, not
+die of blackwater fever when you should; get safe out of den of thieves
+in City with good name; win love of sweet maiden, Miss Barbara. Little
+Bonsa do all those things for you, and by and by do plenty more, as
+Little Bonsa bring my old master, your holy uncle, safe out of that
+country because all the Asiki run away when they see him wear her on
+head, for they think she come sacrifice them after she eat up my life."
+
+"I don't wonder that they ran," said Alan, laughing, for the vision of a
+missionary with Little Bonsa on his head caught his fancy. "But come to
+the point, you old heathen. What do you mean that I should do?"
+
+"Jeekie not heathen now, Major, but plenty other things true in this
+world, besides Christian religion. I no want you do anything, but I say
+this--you go back to Asiki wearing Little Bonsa on head and dressed
+like Reverend uncle whom you very like, for he just your age then thirty
+years ago, and they give you all the gold you want, if you give them
+back Little Bonsa whom they love and worship for ever and ever, for
+Little Bonsa very, very old."
+
+Alan sat up in his chair and stared at Jeekie, while Jeekie nodded his
+head at him.
+
+"There is something in it," he said slowly, speaking more to himself
+than to the negro, "and perhaps that is why I would not sell the fetish,
+for as you say, there are plenty of true things in the world besides
+those which we believe. But, Jeekie, how should I find the way?"
+
+"No trouble, Major, Little Bonsa find way, want to get back home, very
+hungry by now, much need sacrifice. Think it good thing kill pig to
+Little Bonsa--or even lamb. She know you do your best, since human being
+not to be come at in Christian land, and say 'thank you for life of
+pig.'"
+
+"Stop that rubbish," said Alan. "I want a guide; if I go, will you come
+with me?"
+
+At this suggestion the negro looked exceedingly uncomfortable.
+
+"Not like to, not like to at all," he said, rolling his eyes.
+"Asiki-land very funny place for native-born. But," he added sadly, "if
+you go Jeekie must, for I servant of Little Bonsa and if I stay behind,
+she angry and kill me because I not attend her where she walk. But
+perhaps if I go and take her to Gold House again, she pleased and let me
+off. Also I able help you there. Yes, if you and Little Bonsa go, think
+I go too."
+
+After this announcement Jeekie rose and walked down the room, carrying
+the cold mutton in his hand. Then he returned, replaced it on the table
+and standing in front of Alan, said earnestly:
+
+"Major, I tell you all truth, just this once. Jeekie believe he _got_
+go with you to Asiki-land. Jeekie have plenty bad dream lately, Little
+Bonsa come in middle of the night and sit on his stomach and scratch his
+face with her gold leg, and say, 'Jeekie, Jeekie, you son of Bonsa, you
+get up quick and take me back Bonsa Town, for I darned tired of City fog
+and finished all I come here to do. Now I want jolly good sacrifice and
+got plenty business attend to there at home, things you not understand
+just yet. You take me back sharp, or I make you sit up, Jeekie, my
+boy;'" and he paused.
+
+"Indeed," said Alan; "and did she tell you anything else in her midnight
+visitations?"
+
+"Yes, Major. She say, 'You take that white master of yours along also,
+for I want come back Asiki-land on his head, and someone wish see him
+there, old pal, what he forget but what not forget him. You tell him
+Little Bonsa got score she wants settle with that party and wish use him
+to square account. You tell him too that she pay him well for trip; he
+lose nothing if he play her game 'cause she got no score against him.
+But if he not go, that another matter, then he look out, for Little
+Bonsa very nasty customer if she riled, as his late partners find out
+one day.'"
+
+"Oh! shut up, Jeekie. What's the use of wasting time telling me your
+nightmares?"
+
+"Very well, Major, just as you like, Major. But I got other reasons why
+I willing go. Jeekie want see his ma."
+
+"Your ma? I never heard you had a ma. Besides she must be dead long
+ago."
+
+"No, Major, 'cause she turn up in dream too, very much alive, swear at
+me 'cause I bag her blanket. Also she tough old woman, take lot kill
+her."
+
+"Perhaps you have a pa too," suggested Alan.
+
+"Think not, Major, my ma always say she forget him. What she mean,
+she not like talk about him, he such a swell. Why Jeekie so strong, so
+clever and with such beautiful face? No doubt because he is son of
+very great man. All this true reason why he want to go with you, Major.
+Still, p'raps poor old Jeekie make mistake, p'raps he dream 'cause he
+eat too much supper, p'raps his ma dead, after all. If so, p'raps better
+stay at home--not know."
+
+"No," answered Alan, "not know. What between Little Bonsa and one thing
+and another my head is swimming--like Little Bonsa in the water."
+
+"Big Bonsa swim in water," interrupted Jeekie. "Little Bonsa swim in
+gold tub."
+
+"Well, Big Bonsa, or Little Bonsa, I don't care which. I'm going to bed
+and you had better clear away these things and do the same. But, Jeekie,
+if you say a word of our talk to anyone, I shall be very angry. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, Major, I understand. I understand that if I tell secrets of Little
+Bonsa to anyone except you with whom she live in strange land far away
+from home, Little Bonsa come at me like one lion, and cut my throat.
+No fear Jeekie split on Little Bonsa, oh! no fear at all," and still
+shaking his head solemnly, for the second time he seized the cold mutton
+and vanished from the room.
+
+"A farrago of superstitious nonsense," thought Alan to himself when
+he had gone. "But still there may be something to be made out of it.
+Evidently there is lots of gold in this Asiki country, if only one can
+persuade the people to deal."
+
+Then weary of Jeekie and his tribal gods, Alan lit his pipe and sat a
+while thinking of Barbara and all the events of that tumultuous
+day. Notwithstanding his rebuff at the hands of Mr. Haswell and the
+difficulties and dangers which threatened, he felt even then that it had
+been a happy and a fortunate day. For had he not discovered that Barbara
+loved him with all her heart and soul as he loved Barbara? And as this
+was so, he did not care a--Little Bonsa about anything else. The future
+must look to itself, sufficient to the day was the abiding joy thereof.
+
+So he went to bed and for a while to sleep, but he did not sleep very
+long, for presently he fell to dreaming, something about Big Bonsa and
+Little Bonsa which sat, or rather floated on either side of his couch
+and held an interminable conversation over him, while Jeekie and Sir
+Robert Aylward, perched respectively at its head and its foot, like the
+symbols of the good and evil genii on a Mahommedan tomb, acted as a kind
+of insane chorus. He struck his repeater, it was only one o'clock, so he
+tried to go to sleep again, but failed utterly. Never had he been more
+painfully awake.
+
+For an hour or more Alan persevered, then at last in despair he jumped
+out of bed wondering what he could do to occupy his mind. Suddenly he
+remembered the diary of his uncle, the Rev. Mr. Austin, which he had
+inherited with the Yellow God and a few other possessions, but never
+examined. They had been put away in a box in the library about fifteen
+years before, just at the time he entered the army, and there doubtless
+they remained. Well, as he could not sleep, why should he not examine
+them now, and thus get through some of this weary night?
+
+He lit a candle and went down to the library, an ancient and beautiful
+apartment with black oak panelling between the bookcases, set there in
+the time of Elizabeth. In this panelling there were cupboards, and in
+one of the cupboards was the box he sought, made of teak wood. On its
+lid was painted, "The Reverend Henry Austin. Passenger to Acra," showing
+that it had once been his uncle's cabin box. The key hung from the
+handle, and having lit more candles, Alan drew it out and unlocked it,
+to be greeted by a smell of musty documents done up in great bundles.
+One by one he placed them on the floor. It was a dreary occupation alone
+there in that great, silent room at the dead of night, one indeed with
+which he was soon satisfied, for somehow it reminded him of rifling
+coffins in a vault. Before him so carefully put away lay the records of
+a good if not a distinguished life, and until this moment he had never
+found the energy even to look through them.
+
+At length he came to the end of the bundles and saw that beneath lay
+a number of manuscript books packed closely with their backs upwards,
+marked--"Journal"--and with the year and sometimes the place of the
+author's residence. As he glanced at them in dismay, for they were many,
+his eye caught the title of one inscribed--as were several others--"West
+Africa," and written in brackets beneath--"This vol. contains all
+that is left of the notes of my escape with Jeekie from the Asiki
+Devil-worshippers."
+
+Alan drew it out, and having refilled and closed the box, bore it off to
+his room, where he proceeded to read it in bed. As a matter of fact he
+found that there was not very much to read, for the reason that most
+of the closely-written volume had been so damaged by water, that the
+pencilled writing had run and become utterly illegible. The centre
+pages, however, not having been soaked, could still be deciphered, at
+any rate in part, also there was a large manuscript map, executed in
+ink, apparently at a later date, on the back of which was written: "I
+purpose, D.V., to re-write at some convenient time all the history of my
+visit to the unknown Asiki people, as my original notes were practically
+destroyed when the canoe overset in the rapids and most of our few
+possessions were lost, except this book and the gold fetish mask which
+is called Little Bonsa or Small Swimming Head. This I think I can
+do with the aid of Jeekie from memory, but as the matter has only a
+personal and no religious interest, seeing that I was not able even to
+preach the Word among those benighted and blood-thirsty savages in
+whose country, as I verily believe, the Devil has one of his principal
+habitations, it must stand over till a convenient season, such as the
+time of old age or sickness. H.A."
+
+"P.S. I ought to add with gratitude that even out of this hell fire I
+was enabled to snatch one brand from the burning, namely, the negro
+lad, Jeekie, to whose extraordinary resource and faithfulness I owe
+my escape. After a long hesitation I have been able to baptize him,
+although I fear that the taint of heathenism still clings to him. Thus
+not six months ago I caught him sacrificing a white cock to the image,
+Little Bonsa, in gratitude, as to my horror he explained, for my having
+been appointed an Honorary Canon of the Cathedral. I have told him to
+take that ugly mask which has been so often soaked in human blood, and
+melt it down over the kitchen stove, after picking out the gems in the
+eyes, that the proceeds may be given to the poor. _Note._ I had better
+see to this myself, as where Little Bonsa is concerned, Jeekie is not to
+be trusted. He says (with some excuse) that it has magic, and that if
+he melts it down, he will melt down too, and so shall I. How dark and
+ridiculous are the superstitions of the heathen! Perhaps, however,
+instead of destroying the thing, which is certainly unique, I might sell
+it to a museum, and thus spare the feelings of that weak vessel, Jeekie,
+who otherwise would very likely take it into his head to waste away and
+die, as these Africans do when their nerves are affected by terror of
+their fetish."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE DIARY
+
+Reflecting that time evidently had made little change in Jeekie, Alan
+studied this route map with care, and found that it started from Old
+Calabar, in the Bight of Biafra, on the west coast of Africa, whence it
+ran up to the Great Qua River, which it followed for a long way. Then it
+struck across country marked "dense forest," northwards, and came to a
+river called Katsena, along the banks of which the route went eastwards.
+Thence it turned northward again through swamps, and ended in mountains
+called Shaku. In the middle of these mountains was written "Asiki People
+live here on Raaba River."
+
+The map was roughly drawn to scale, and Alan, who was an engineer
+accustomed to such things, easily calculated that the distance of this
+Raaba River from Old Calabar was about 350 miles as the crow flies,
+though probably the actual route to be travelled was nearer five hundred
+miles.
+
+Having mastered the map, he opened the water-soaked diary. Turning page
+after page, only here and there could he make out a sentence, such as
+"so I defied that beautiful but terrific woman. I, a Christian minister,
+the husband of a heathen priestess! Perish the thought. Sooner would I
+be sacrificed to Bonsa."
+
+Then came more illegible pages and again a paragraph that could be
+read--"They gave me 'The Bean' in a gold cup, and knowing its deadly
+nature I prepared myself for death. But happily for me my stomach,
+always delicate, rejected it at once, though I felt queer for days
+afterwards. Whereon they clapped their hands and said I was evidently
+innocent and a great medicine man."
+
+And again, further on--"never did I see so much gold whether in dust,
+nuggets, or worked articles. I imagine it must be worth millions, but
+at that time gold was the last thing with which I wished to trouble
+myself."
+
+After this entry many pages were utterly effaced.
+
+The last legible passage ran as follows--"So guided by the lad Jeekie,
+and wearing the gold mask, Little Bonsa, on my head, I ran through
+them all, holding him by the hand as though I were dragging him away.
+A strange spectacle I must have been with my old black clergyman's coat
+buttoned about me, my naked legs and the gold mask, as pretending to be
+a devil such as they worship, I rushed through them in the moonlight,
+blowing the whistle in the mask and bellowing like a bull. . . . Such
+was the beginning of my dreadful six months' journey to the coast.
+Setting aside the mercy of Providence that preserved me for its own
+purposes, I could never have lived to reach it had it not been for
+Little Bonsa, since curiously enough I found this fetish known and
+dreaded for hundreds of miles, and that by people who had never seen it,
+yes, even by the wild cannibals. Whenever it was produced food, bearers,
+canoes, or whatever else I might want were forthcoming as though by
+magic. Great is the fame of Big and Little Bonsa in all that part of
+West Africa, although, strange as it may seem, the outlying tribes
+seldom mention them by name. If they must speak of either of these
+images which are supposed to be man and wife, they call it the
+'Yellow-God-who-lives-yonder.'"
+
+Not another word of all this strange history could Alan decipher, so
+with aching eyes he shut up the stained and tattered volume, and at
+last, just as the day was breaking, fell asleep.
+
+At eleven o'clock on that same morning, for he had slept late, Alan rose
+from his breakfast and went to smoke his pipe at the open door of the
+beautiful old hall in Yarleys that was clad with brown Elizabethan
+oak for which any dealer would have given hundreds of pounds. It was a
+charming morning, one of those that comes to us sometimes in an English
+April when the air is soft like that of Italy and the smell of the earth
+rises like that of incense, and little clouds float idly across a sky
+of tender blue. Standing thus he looked out upon the park where the elms
+already showed a tinge of green and the ash-buds were coal black. Only
+the walnuts and the great oaks, some of them pollards of a thousand
+years of age, remained stark and stern in their winter dress.
+
+Alan was in a reflective mood and involuntarily began to wonder how many
+of his forefathers had stood in that same spot upon such April mornings
+and looked out upon those identical trees wakening in the breath of
+spring. Only the trees and the landscape knew, those trees which had
+seen every one of them borne to baptism, to bridal and to burial. The
+men and women themselves were forgotten. Their portraits, each in the
+garb of his or her generation, hung here and there upon the walls of the
+ancient house which once they had owned or inhabited, but who remembered
+anything of them to-day? In many cases their names even were lost, for
+believing that they, so important in their time, could never sink into
+oblivion, they had not thought it necessary to record them upon their
+pictures.
+
+And now the thing was coming to an end. Unless in this way or in that
+he could save it, what remained of the old place, for the outlying lands
+had long since been sold, must go to the hammer and become the property
+of some pushing and successful person who desired to found a family, and
+perhaps in days to be would claim these very pictures that hung upon the
+walls as those of his own ancestors, declaring that he had brought in
+the estate because he was a relative of the ancient and ruined race.
+
+Well, it was the way of the world, and perhaps it must be so, but the
+thought of it made Alan Vernon sad. If he could have continued that
+business, it might have been otherwise. By this hour his late partners,
+Sir Robert Aylward and Mr. Champers-Haswell, were doubtless sitting in
+their granite office in the City, probably in consultation with Lord
+Specton, who had taken his place upon the Board of the great Company
+which was being subscribed that day. No doubt applications for shares
+were pouring in by the early posts and by telegram, and from time to
+time Mr. Jeffreys respectfully reported their number and amount, while
+Sir Robert looked unconcerned and Mr. Haswell rubbed his hands and
+whistled cheerfully. Almost he could envy them, these men who were
+realizing great fortunes amidst the bustle and excitement of that fierce
+financial life, whilst he stood penniless and stared at the trees and
+the ewes which wandered among them with their lambs, he who, after all
+his work, was but a failure. With a sigh he turned away to fetch his
+cap and go out walking--there was a tenant whom he must see, a shifty,
+new-fangled kind of man who was always clamouring for fresh buildings
+and reductions in his rent. How was he to pay for more buildings? He
+must put him off, or let him go.
+
+Just then a sharp sound caught his ear, that of an electric bell. It
+came from the telephone which, since he had been a member of a City
+firm, he had caused to be put into Yarleys at considerable expense in
+order that he might be able to communicate with the office in London.
+"Were they calling him up from force of habit?" he wondered. He went to
+the instrument which was fixed in a little room he used as a study, and
+took down the receiver.
+
+"Who is it?" he asked. "I am Yarleys. Alan Vernon."
+
+"And I am Barbara," came the answer. "How are you, dear? Did you sleep
+well?"
+
+"No, very badly."
+
+"Nerves--Alan, you have got nerves. Now although I had a worse day than
+you did, I went to bed at nine, and protected by a perfect conscience,
+slumbered till nine this morning, exactly twelve hours. Isn't it clever
+of me to think of this telephone, which is more than you would ever have
+done? My uncle has departed to London vowing that no letter from you
+shall enter this house, but he forgot that there is a telephone in
+every room, and in fact at this moment I am speaking round by his
+office within a yard or two of his head. However, he can't hear, so that
+doesn't matter. My blessing be on the man who invented telephones,
+which hitherto I have always thought an awful nuisance. Are you feeling
+cheerful, Alan?"
+
+"Very much the reverse," he answered; "never was more gloomy in my life,
+not even when I thought I had to die within six hours of blackwater
+fever. Also I have lots that I want to talk to you about and I can't do
+it at the end of this confounded wire that your uncle may be tapping."
+
+"I thought it might be so," answered Barbara, "so I just rang you up to
+wish you good-morning and to say that I am coming over in the motor to
+lunch with my maid Snell as chaperone. All right, don't remonstrate, I
+_am coming_ over to lunch--I can't hear you--never mind what people
+will say. I am coming over to lunch at one o'clock, mind you are in.
+Good-bye, I don't want much to eat, but have something for Snell and the
+chauffeur. Good-bye."
+
+Then the wire went dead, nor could all Alan's "Hello's" and "Are you
+there's?" extract another syllable.
+
+Having ordered the best luncheon that his old housekeeper could provide
+Alan went off for his walk in much better spirits, which were further
+improved by his success in persuading the tenant to do without the new
+buildings for another year. In a year, he reflected, anything might
+happen. Then he returned by the wood where a number of new-felled oaks
+lay ready for barking. This was not a cheerful sight; it seemed so cruel
+to kill the great trees just as they were pushing their buds for another
+summer of life. But he consoled himself by recalling that they had been
+too crowded and that the timber was really needed on the estate. As he
+reached the house again carrying a bunch of white violets which he
+had plucked in a sheltered place for Barbara, he perceived a motor
+travelling at much more than the legal speed up the walnut avenue which
+was the pride of the place. In it sat that young lady herself, and her
+maid, Snell, a middle-aged woman with whom, as it chanced, he was on
+very good terms, as once, at some trouble to himself, he had been able
+to do her a kindness.
+
+The motor pulled up at the front door and out of it sprang Barbara,
+laughing pleasantly and looking fresh and charming as the spring itself.
+
+"There will be a row over this, dear," said Alan, shaking his head
+doubtfully when at last they were alone together in the hall.
+
+"Of course, there'll be a row," she answered. "I mean that there should
+be a row. I mean to have a row every day if necessary, until they leave
+me alone to follow my own road, and if they won't, as I said, to go to
+the Court of Chancery for protection. Oh! by the way, I have brought
+you a copy of _The Judge_. There's a most awful article in it about that
+Sahara flotation, and among other things it announces that you have left
+the firm and congratulates you upon having done so."
+
+"They'll think I have put it in," groaned Alan as he glanced at the head
+lines, which were almost libellous in their vigour, and the summaries
+of the financial careers of Sir Robert Aylward and Mr. Champers-Haswell.
+"It will make them hate me more than ever, and I say, Barbara, we can't
+live in an atmosphere of perpetual warfare for the next two years."
+
+"I can, if need be," answered that determined young woman. "But I admit
+that it would be trying for you, if you stay here."
+
+"That's just the point, Barbara. I must not stay here, I must go away,
+the further the better, until you are your own mistress."
+
+"Where to, Alan?"
+
+"To West Africa, I think."
+
+"To West Africa?" repeated Barbara, her voice trembling a little. "After
+that treasure, Alan?"
+
+"Yes, Barbara. But first come and have your lunch, then we will talk. I
+have got lots to tell and show you."
+
+So they lunched, speaking of indifferent things, for the servant was
+there waiting on them. Just as they were finishing their meal Jeekie
+entered the room carrying a box and a large envelope addressed to his
+master, which he said had been sent by special messenger from the office
+in London.
+
+"What's in the box?" asked Alan, looking somewhat nervously at the
+envelope, which was addressed in a writing that he knew.
+
+"Don't know for certain, Major," answered Jeekie, "but think Little
+Bonsa; think I smell her through wood."
+
+"Well, look and see," replied Alan, while he broke the seal of the
+envelope and drew out its contents. They proved to be sundry documents
+sent by the firm's lawyers, among which were a notice of the formal
+dissolution of partnership to be approved by him before it appeared
+in the _Gazette_, a second notice calling in a mortgage for fifteen
+thousand and odd pounds on Yarleys, which as a matter of business had
+been taken over by the firm while he was a partner; a cash account
+showing a small balance against him, and finally a receipt for him to
+sign acknowledging the return of the gold image that was his property.
+
+"You see," said Alan with a sigh, pushing over the papers to Barbara,
+who read them carefully one by one.
+
+"I see," she answered presently. "It is war to the knife. Alan, I hate
+the idea of it, but perhaps you had better go away. While you are here
+they will harass the life out of you."
+
+Meanwhile with the aid of a big jack-knife and the dining-room poker,
+Jeekie had prized off the lid of the box. Chancing to look round Barbara
+saw him on his knees muttering something in a strange tongue, and bowing
+his white head until it touched an object that lay within the box.
+
+"What are you doing, Jeekie?" she asked.
+
+"Make bow to Little Bonsa, Miss Barbara, tell her how glad I am see her
+come back from town. She like feel welcome. Now you come bow too, Little
+Bonsa take that as compliment."
+
+"I won't bow, but I will look, Jeekie, for although I have heard so much
+about it I have never really examined this Yellow God."
+
+"Very good, you come look, miss," and Jeekie propped up the case upon
+the end of the dining-room table. As from its height and position she
+could not see its contents very well whilst standing above it, Barbara
+knelt down to get a better view of it.
+
+"My goodness!" she exclaimed, "what a terrible face, beautiful too in
+its way."
+
+Hardly had the words left her lips when for some reason unexplained that
+probably had to do with the shifting of the centre of gravity, Little
+Bonsa appeared to glide or fall out of her box with a startling
+suddenness, and project herself straight at Barbara, who, with a faint
+scream, fearing lest the precious thing should be injured, caught it in
+her arms and for a moment hugged it to her breast.
+
+"Saved!" she exclaimed, recovering herself and placing it on the table,
+whereon Jeekie, to their astonishment, began to execute a kind of war
+dance.
+
+"Oh! yes," he said, "saved, very much saved. All saved, most magnificent
+omen. Lady kneel to Little Bonsa and Little Bonsa nip out of box, make
+bow and jump in lady's arms. That splendid, first-class luck, for miss
+and everybody. When Little Bonsa do that need fear nothing no more. All
+come right as rain."
+
+"Nonsense," said Barbara, laughing. Then from a cautious distance she
+continued her examination of the fetish.
+
+"See," said Jeekie, pointing to the misshapen little gold legs which
+were yet so designed that it could be stood up upon them, "when anyone
+wear Little Bonsa, tie her on head behind by these legs; look, here same
+old leather string. Now I put her on, for she like to be worn
+again," and with a quick movement he clapped the mask on to his face,
+manipulated the greasy black leather thongs and made them fast. Thus
+adorned the great negro looked no less than terrific.
+
+"I see you, miss," he said, turning the fixed eyes of opal-like stone,
+bloodshot with little rubites, upon Barbara, "I see you, though you no
+see me, for these eyes made very cunning. But listen, you hear me,"
+and suddenly from the mask, produced by some contrivance set within it,
+there proceeded an awful, howling sound that made her shiver.
+
+"Take that thing off, Jeekie," said Alan, "we don't want any banshees
+here."
+
+"Banshees? Not know him, he poor English fetish p'raps," said Jeekie, as
+he removed the mask. "This real African god, howl banshee and all that
+sort into middle of next week. This Little Bonsa and no mistake, ten
+thousand years old and more, eat up lives, so many that no one can
+count them, and go on eating for ever, yes unto the third and fourth
+generation, as Ten Commandments lay it down for benefit of Christian
+man, like me. Look at her again, Miss Barbara."
+
+Miss Barbara took the hateful, ancient thing in her hands and studied
+it. No one could doubt its antiquity, for the gold plate of which it was
+made was literally worn away wherever it had touched the foreheads of
+the high priests or priestesses who donned it upon festive occasions or
+days of sacrifice, showing that hundreds and hundreds of them must have
+used it thus in succession. So was the vocal apparatus within the mouth,
+and so were the little toad-like feet upon which it was stood up. Also
+the substance of the gold itself as here and there pitted as though with
+acid or salts, though what those salts were she did not inquire.
+And yet, so consummate was the art with which it had originally been
+fashioned, that the battered beautiful face of Little Bonsa still peered
+at them with the same devilish smile that it had worn when it left the
+hands of its maker, perhaps before Mohammed preached his holy war, or
+even earlier.
+
+"What is all that writing on the back of it?" asked Barbara, pointing to
+the long lines of rune-like characters which were inscribed within it.
+
+"Not know, miss, think they dead tongue cut in the beginning when black
+men could write. But Asiki priests swear they remember every one of
+them, and that why no one can copy Little Bonsa, for they look inside
+and see if marks all right. They say they names of those who died for
+Little Bonsa, and when they all done, Little Bonsa begin again, for
+Little Bonsa never die. But p'raps priests lie."
+
+"I daresay," said Barbara, "but take Little Bonsa away, for however
+lucky she may be, she makes me feel sick."
+
+"Where I put her, Major?" asked Jeekie of Alan. "In box in library where
+she used to live, or in plate-safe with spoons? Or under your bed where
+she always keep eye on you?"
+
+"Oh! put her with the spoons," said Alan angrily, and Jeekie departed
+with his treasure.
+
+"I think, dear," remarked Barbara as the door closed behind him, "that
+if I come to lunch here any more, I shall bring my own christening
+present with me, for I can't eat off silver that has been shut up with
+that thing. Now let us get to business--show me the diary and the map."
+
+"Dearest Alan," wrote Barbara from The Court two days later, "I have
+been thinking everything over, and since you are so set upon it,
+I suppose that you had better go. To me the whole adventure seems
+perfectly mad, but at the same time I believe in our luck, or rather in
+the Providence which watches over us, and I don't believe that you, or I
+either, will come to any harm. If you stop here, you will only eat
+your heart out and communication between us must become increasingly
+difficult. My uncle is furious with you, and since he discovered that we
+were talking over the telephone, to his own great inconvenience he has
+had the wires cut outside the house. That horrid letter of his to
+you saying that you had 'compromised' me in pursuance of a 'mercenary
+scheme' is all part and parcel of the same thing. How are you to stop
+here and submit to such insults? I went to see my friend the lawyer, and
+he tells me that of course we can marry if we like, but in that case my
+father's will, which he has consulted at Somerset House, is absolutely
+definite, and if I do so in opposition to my uncle's wishes, I must lose
+everything except L200 a year. Now I am no money-grubber, but I will not
+give my uncle the satisfaction of robbing me of my fortune, which may
+be useful to both of us by and by. The lawyer says also that he does not
+think that the Court of Chancery would interfere, having no power to do
+so as far as the will is concerned, and not being able to make a ward
+of a person like myself who is over age and has the protection of the
+common law of the country. So it seems to me that the only thing to do
+is to be patient, and wait until time unties the knot.
+
+"Meanwhile, if you can make some money in Africa, so much the better.
+So go, Alan, go as soon as you like, for I do not wish to prolong this
+agony, or to see you exposed daily to all you have to bear. Whenever you
+return you will find me waiting for you, and if you do not return, still
+I shall wait, as you in like circumstances will wait for me. But I think
+you will return."
+
+Then followed much that need not be written, and at the end a postscript
+which ran:
+
+"I am glad to hear that you have succeeded in shifting the mortgage on
+Yarleys, although the interest is so high. Write to me whenever you get
+a chance, to the care of the lawyer, for then the letters will reach me,
+but never to this house, or they may be stopped. I will do the same to
+you to the address you give. Good-bye, dearest Alan, my true and only
+lover. I wonder where and when we shall meet again. God be with us both
+and enable us to bear our trial.
+
+"P.P.S. I hear that the Sahara flotation was _really_ a success,
+notwithstanding the _Judge_ attacks. Sir Robert and my uncle have made
+millions. I wonder how long they will keep them."
+
+A week after he received this letter Alan was on the seas heading for
+the shores of Western Africa.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE DWARF FOLK
+
+It was dawn at last. All night it had rained as it can rain in West
+Africa, falling on the wide river with a hissing splash, sullen and
+continuous. Now, towards morning, the rain had ceased and everywhere
+rose a soft and pearly mist that clung to the face of the waters and
+seemed to entangle itself like strands of wool among the branches of
+the bordering trees. On the bank of the river at a spot that had been
+cleared of bush, stood a tent, and out of this tent emerged a white man
+wearing a sun helmet and grey flannel shirt and trousers. It was Alan
+Vernon, who in these surroundings looked larger and more commanding than
+he had done at the London office, or even in his own house of Yarleys.
+Perhaps the moustache and short brown beard which he had grown, or
+his skin, already altered and tanned by the tropics, had changed his
+appearance for the better. At any rate it was changed. So were his
+manner and bearing, whereof all the diffidence had gone. Now they were
+those of a man accustomed to command who found himself in his right
+place.
+
+"Jeekie," he called, "wake up those fellows and come and light the
+oil-stove. I want my coffee."
+
+Thereon a deep voice was heard speaking in some native tongue and
+saying:
+
+"Cease your snoring, you black dogs, and arouse yourselves, for your
+lord calls you," an invocation that was followed by the sound of kicks,
+thumps, and muttered curses.
+
+A minute or two later Jeekie himself appeared, and he also was much
+changed in appearance, for now instead of his smart, European clothes,
+he wore a white robe and sandals that gave him an air at once dignified
+and patriarchal.
+
+"Good-morning, Major," he said cheerfully. "I hope you sleep well,
+Major, in this low-lying and accursed situation, which is more than we
+do in boat that half full of water, to say nothing of smell of black man
+and prevalent mosquito. But the rain it over and gone, and presently the
+sun shine out, so might be much worse, no cause at all complain."
+
+"I don't know," answered Alan, with a shiver. "I believe that I am fever
+proof, but otherwise I should have caught it last night, and--just give
+me the quinine, I will take five grains for luck."
+
+"Yes, yes, for luck," answered Jeekie as he opened the medicine chest
+and found the quinine, at the same time glancing anxiously out of the
+corner of his eye at his master's face, for he knew that the spot where
+they had slept was deadly to white men at this season of the year. "You
+not catch fever, Little Bonsa," here he dropped his voice and looked
+down at the box which had served Alan for a pillow, "see to that. But
+quinine give you appetite for breakfast. Very good chop this morning.
+Which you like best? Cold ven'son, or fish, or one of them ducks you
+shoot yesterday?"
+
+"Oh! some of the cold meat, I think. Give the ducks to the boatmen, I
+don't fancy them in this hot place. By the way, Jeekie, we leave the Qua
+River here, don't we?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Major, just here. I 'member spot well, for your uncle he pray
+on it one whole hour; I pretend pray too, but in heart give thanks
+to Little Bonsa, for heathen in those days, quite different now. This
+morning we begin walk through forest where it rather dark and cool
+and comfortable, that is if we no see dwarf people from whom good Lord
+deliver us," and he bowed towards the box containing Little Bonsa.
+
+"Will those four porters come with us through the forest, Jeekie, as
+they promised?"
+
+"Yes, yes, they come. Last night they say they not come, too much afraid
+of dwarf. But I settle their hash. I tell them I save up bits of their
+hair and toe nails when they no thinking, and I mix it with medicine,
+and if they not come, they die every one before they get home. They
+think me great doctor and they believe. Perhaps they die if they go on.
+If so, I tell them that because they want show white feather, and they
+think me greater doctor still. Oh! they come, they come, no fear, or
+else Jeekie know reason why. Now, here coffee, Major. Drink him hot
+before you go take tub, but keep in shallow water, because crocodile he
+very early riser."
+
+Alan laughed, and departed to "take tub." Notwithstanding the mosquitoes
+that buzzed round him in clouds, the water was cool and pleasant by
+comparison with the hot, sticky air, and the feel of it seemed to rid
+him of the languor resulting from his disturbed night.
+
+A month had passed since he had left Old Calabar, and owing to the
+incessant rains the journeying had been hard. Indeed the white men there
+thought that he was mad to attempt to go up the river at this season.
+Of course he had said nothing to them of the objects of his expedition,
+hinting only that he wished to explore and shoot, and perhaps prospect
+for mines. But knowing as they did, that he was an Engineer officer with
+a good record and much African experience, they soon made up their minds
+that he had been sent by Government upon some secret mission that for
+reasons of his own he preferred to keep to himself. This conclusion,
+which Jeekie zealously fostered behind his back, in fact did Alan a good
+turn, since owing to it he obtained boatmen and servants at a season
+when, had he been supposed to be but a private person, these would
+scarcely have been forthcoming at any price. Hitherto his journey had
+been one long record of mud, mosquitoes, and misery, but otherwise
+devoid of incident, except the eating of one of his boatmen by a
+crocodile which was a particularly "early riser," for it had pulled
+the poor fellow out of the canoe in which he lay asleep at night. Now,
+however, the real dangers were about to begin, since at this spot he
+left the great river and started forward through the forest on foot with
+Jeekie and the four bearers whom he had paid highly to accompany him.
+
+He could not conceal from himself that the undertaking seemed somewhat
+desperate. But of this he said nothing in the long letter he had written
+to Barbara on the previous night, sighing as he sealed it, at the
+thought that it might well be the last which would ever reach her from
+him, even if the boatmen got safely back to Calabar and remembered to
+put it in the post. The enterprise had been begun and must be carried
+through, until it ended in success--or death.
+
+An hour later they started. First walked Alan as leader of the
+expedition, carrying a double-barrelled gun that could be used either
+for ball or shot, about fifty cartridges with brass cases to protect
+them from the damp, a revolver, a hunting-knife, a cloth mackintosh, and
+lastly, strapped upon his back like a knapsack, a tin box containing
+the fetish, Little Bonsa, which was too precious to be trusted to anyone
+else. It was quite a sufficient load for any white man in that climate,
+but being very wiry, Alan did not feel its weight, at any rate at first.
+
+After him in single file came the four porters, laden with a small tent,
+some tinned provisions and brandy, ammunition, a box containing beads,
+watches, etc. for presents, blankets, spare clothing and so forth. These
+were stalwart fellows enough, who knew the forest, but their dejected
+air showed that now they had come face to face with its dangers, they
+heartily wished themselves anywhere else. Indeed, notwithstanding their
+terror of Jeekie's medicine, at the last moment they threw down their
+loads intending to make a wild rush for the departing boat, only to be
+met by Jeekie himself who, anticipating some such move, was waiting for
+them on the bank with a shotgun. Here he remained until the canoe was
+too far out in the stream for them to reach it by swimming. Then he
+asked them if they wished to sit and starve there with the devils he
+would leave them for company, of if they would carry out their bargain
+like honest men?
+
+The end of it was they took up their loads again and marched, while
+behind them walked the terrible and gigantic Jeekie, the barrels of
+the shotgun which he carried at full cock and occasionally used to
+prod them, pointing directly at their backs. A strange object he looked
+truly, for in addition to the weapons with which he bristled, several
+cooking-pots were slung about him, to say nothing of a cork mattress
+and a mackintosh sheet tied in a flat bundle to his shoulders, a box
+containing medicines and food which he carried on his head, and fastened
+to the top of it with string like a helmet on a coffin, an enormous
+solar-tope stuffed full of mosquito netting, of which the ends fell
+about him like a green veil. When Alan remonstrated with him as to the
+cork mattress, suggesting that it should be thrown away as too hot to
+wear, Jeekie replied that he had been cold for thirty years, and wished
+to get warm again. Guessing that his real reason for declining to part
+with the article, was that his master should have something to lie on,
+other than the damp ground, Alan said no more at the time, which, as
+will be seen, was fortunate enough for Jeekie.
+
+For a mile or more their road ran through fantastic-looking mangrove
+trees rooted in the mud, that in the mist resembled, Alan thought,
+many-legged arboreal octopi feeling for their food, and tall reeds on
+the tops of which sat crowds of chattering finches. Then just as the sun
+broke out, strongly, cheering them with its warmth and sucking up the
+vapours, they entered sparse bush with palms and great cotton trees
+growing here and there, and so at length came to the borders of the
+mighty forest.
+
+Oh! dark, dark was that forest; he who entered it from the cheerful
+sunshine felt as though suddenly and without preparation he had wandered
+out of the light we know into some dim Hades such as the old Greek fancy
+painted, where strengthless ghosts flit aimlessly, mourning the lost
+light. Everywhere the giant boles of trees shooting the height of a
+church tower into the air without a branch; great rib-rooted trees, and
+beneath them a fierce and hungry growth of creepers. Where a tree had
+fallen within the last century or so, these creepers ramped upwards in
+luxuriance, their stems thick as the body of a man, drinking the shaft
+of light that pierced downwards, drinking it with eagerness ere the
+boughs above met again and starved them. Where no tree had fallen the
+creepers were thin and weak; from year to year they lived on feebly,
+biding their time, but still they lived, knowing that some day it would
+come. And always it was coming to those expectant parasites, since from
+minute to minute, somewhere in the vast depths, miles and miles away
+perhaps, a great crash echoed in the stillness, the crash of a tree
+that, sown when the Saxons ruled in England, or perhaps before Cleopatra
+bewitched Anthony, came to its end at last.
+
+On the second day of their march in the forest Alan chanced to see such
+a tree fall, and the sight was one that he never could forget. As it
+happened, owing to the vast spread of its branches which had killed out
+all rivals beneath, for in its day it had been a very successful tree
+embued with an excellent constitution by its parent, it stood somewhat
+alone, so that from several hundred yards away as these six human beings
+crept towards it like ants towards a sapling in a cornfield, its mighty
+girth and bulk set upon a little mound and the luxuriant greenness of
+its far-reaching boughs made a kind of landmark. Then in the hot noon
+when no breath of wind stirred, suddenly the end came. Suddenly that
+mighty bole seemed to crumble; suddenly those far-reaching arms were
+thrown together as their support failed, gripping at each other like
+living things, flogging the air, screaming in their last agony, and with
+an awful wailing groan sinking, a tumbled ruin, to the earth.
+
+Silence again, and in the midst of the silence Jeekie's cheerful voice.
+
+"Old tree go flop! Glad he no flop on us, thanks be to Little Bonsa. Get
+on, you lazy nigger dog. Who pay you stand there and snivel? Get on or
+I blow out your stupid skull," and he brought the muzzle of the
+full-cocked, double-barrelled gun into sharp contact with that part of
+the terrified porter's anatomy.
+
+Such was the forest. Of their march through it for the first four
+days, there is nothing to tell. Its depths seemed to be devoid of
+life, although occasionally they heard the screaming of parrots in the
+treetops a couple of hundred feet above, or caught sight of the dim
+shapes of monkeys swinging themselves from bough to bough. That was in
+the daytime, when, although they could not see it, they knew that the
+sun was shining somewhere. But at night they heard nothing, since beasts
+of prey do not come where there is no food. What puzzled Alan was that
+all through these impenetrable recesses there ran a distinct road
+which they followed. To the right and left rose a wall of creepers, but
+between them ran this road, an ancient road, for nothing grew on it, and
+it only turned aside to avoid the biggest of the trees which must have
+stood there from time immemorial, such a tree as that which he had seen
+fall; indeed it was one of those round which the road ran.
+
+He asked Jeekie who made the road.
+
+"People who come out Noah's Ark," answered Jeekie, "I think they run up
+here to get out of way of water, and sent them two elephants ahead to
+make path. Or perhaps dwarf people make it. Or perhaps those who go up
+to Asiki-land to do sacrifice like old Jews."
+
+"You mean you don't know," said Alan.
+
+"No, of course don't know. Who know about forest path made before
+beginning of world. You ask question, Major, I answer. More lively
+answer than to shake head and roll eyes like them silly fool porters."
+
+It was on the fourth night that the trouble began. As usual they had lit
+a huge fire made of the fallen boughs and rotting tree trunks that lay
+about in plenty. There was no reason why the fire should be so large,
+since they had little to cook and the air was hot, but they made it
+so for the same reason that Jeekie answered questions, for the sake of
+cheerfulness. At least it gave light in the darkness, leaping up in red
+tongues of flame twenty or thirty feet high, and its roar and crackle
+were welcome in the primeval silence.
+
+Alan lay upon the cork mattress in the open, for here there was no need
+to pitch the tent; if any rain fell above, the canopy of leaves absorbed
+it. He was amusing himself while he smoked his pipe with watching the
+reflection of the fire-light against a patch of darkness caused probably
+by some bush about twenty yards away, and by picturing in his own mind
+the face of Barbara, that strong, pleasant English face, as it might
+appear on such a background. Suddenly there, on the identical spot he
+did see a face, though one of a very different character. It was round
+and small and hideous, resembling in its general outline that of a
+bloated child. At this distance he could not distinguish the features,
+except the lips, which were large and pendulous, and between them the
+flash of white teeth.
+
+"Look here," he whispered to Jeekie in English, and Jeekie looked, then
+without saying a word, lifted the shotgun that lay at his side and fired
+straight at the bush. Instantly there arose a squeaking noise, such as
+might be made by a wounded animal, and the four porters sprang up in
+alarm.
+
+"Sit down," said Jeekie to them in their own tongue, "a leopard was
+stalking us and I fired to frighten it away. Don't go near the place,
+as it may be wounded and angry, but drag up some boughs and make a fence
+round the fire, for fear of others."
+
+The men who dreaded leopards, looking on these animals, indeed, with
+superstitious reverence, obeyed readily enough, and as there was plenty
+of wood lying within a few yards, soon constructed a _boma_ fence that,
+rough as it was, would serve for protection.
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan presently as they laboured at the fence, "that was
+not a leopard, it was a man."
+
+"No, no, Major, not man, little dwarf devil, him that have poisoned
+arrow. I shoot at once to make him sit up. Think he no come back
+to-night, too much afraid of shot fetish. But to-morrow, can't say. Not
+tell those fellows anything," and he nodded towards the porters, "or
+perhaps they bolt."
+
+"I think you would have done better to leave the dwarf alone," said
+Alan, "and they might have left us alone. Now they will have a blood
+feud against us."
+
+"Not agree, Major, only chance for us put him in blue funk. If I not
+shoot, presently he shoot," and he made a sound that resembled the
+whistling of an arrow, then added, "Now you go sleep. I not tired, I
+watch, my eyes see in dark better than yours. Only two more days of this
+damn forest, then open land with tree here and there, where dwarf no
+come because he afraid of lion and cannibal man, who like eat him."
+
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan took Jeekie's advice and in
+time fell fast asleep, nor did he wake again till the faint light which
+for the want of a better name they called dawn, was filtering down to
+them through the canopy of boughs.
+
+"Been to look," said Jeekie as he handed him his coffee. "Hit that dwarf
+man, see his blood, but think others carry him away. Jeekie very good
+shot, stone, spear, arrow, or gun, all same to him. Now get off as quick
+as we can before porters smell a rat. You eat chop, Major, I pack."
+
+Presently they started on their trudge through those endless trees,
+with Fear for a companion. Even the porters, who had been told nothing,
+seemed more afraid than usual, though whether this was because they
+"smell rat," as Jeekie called it, or owing to the progressive breakdown
+of their nervous systems, Alan did not know. About midday they stopped
+to eat because the men were too tired to walk further without rest. For
+an hour or more they had been looking for a comparatively open place,
+but as it chanced could find none, so were obliged to halt in dense
+forest. Just as they had finished their meal and were preparing to
+proceed, that which they had feared, happened, since from somewhere
+behind the tree boles came a volley of reed arrows. One struck a porter
+in the neck, one fixed itself in Alan's helmet without touching him,
+and no less than three hit Jeekie on the back and stuck there,
+providentially enough in the substance of the cork mattress that he
+still carried on his shoulders, which the feeble shafts had not the
+strength to pierce.
+
+Everybody sprang up and with a curious fascination instead of attempting
+to do anything, watched the porter who had been hit in the neck
+somewhere in the region of the jugular vein. The poor man rose to his
+feet with great deliberation, reminding Alan in some grotesque way of a
+speaker who has suddenly been called on to address a meeting and seeks
+to gain time for the gathering of his thoughts. Then he turned
+towards that vast audience of the trees, stretched out his hand with a
+declamatory gesture, said something in a composed voice, and fell upon
+his face stone dead! The swift poison had reached his heart and done its
+work.
+
+His three companions looked at him for a moment and the next with a yell
+of terror, rushed off into the forest, hurling down their loads as they
+ran. What became of them Alan never learned, for he saw them no more,
+and the dwarf people keep their secrets. At the time indeed he scarcely
+noticed their departure, for he was otherwise engaged.
+
+One of their hideous little assailants, made bold by success, ventured
+to run across an open space between two trees, showing himself for
+a moment. Alan had a gun in his hand, and mad with rage at what had
+happened, he raised it and swung on him as he would upon a rabbit. He
+was a quick and practised shot and his skill did not fail him now, for
+just as the dwarf was vanishing behind a tree, the bullet caught him and
+next instant he was seen rolling over and over upon its further side.
+
+"That very nice," said Jeekie reflectively, "very nice indeed, but I
+think we best move out of this."
+
+"Aren't you hurt?" gasped Alan. "Your back is full of arrows."
+
+"Don't feel nothing, Major," he answered, "best cork mattress, 25/3 at
+Stores, very good for poisoned arrow, but leave him behind now, because
+perhaps points work through as I run, one scratch do trick," and as
+he spoke Jeekie untied a string or several strings, letting the little
+mattress fall to the ground.
+
+"Great pity leave all those goods," said Jeekie, surveying the loads
+that the porters had cast away, "but what says Book? Life more than
+raiment. Also take no thought for morrow. Dwarf people do that for us.
+Come, Major, make tracks," and dashing at a bag of cartridges which he
+cast about his neck, a trifling addition to his other impedimenta, and
+a small case of potted meats that he hitched under his arm, he poked his
+master in the back with the muzzle of his full-cocked gun as a signal
+that it was time to start.
+
+"Keep that cursed thing off me," said Alan furiously. "How often have I
+told you never to carry firearms at full cock?"
+
+"About one thousand times, Major," answered Jeekie imperturbably, "but
+on such occasion forget discreetness. My ma just same, it run in family,
+but story too long tell you now. Cut, Major, cut like hell. Them dwarfs
+be back soon, but," he puffed, "I think, I think Little Bonsa come
+square with them one day."
+
+So Alan "cut" and the huge Jeekie blundered along after him, the
+paraphernalia with which he was hung about rattling like the hoofs of a
+galloping giraffe. Nor for all his load did he ever turn a hair. Whether
+it were fear within or a desire to save his master, or a belief in the
+virtues of Little Bonsa, or that his foot was, as it were, once more
+upon his native heath, the fact remained that notwithstanding the
+fifty years, almost, that had whitened his wool, Jeekie was absolutely
+inexhaustible. At least at the end of that fearful chase, which lasted
+all the day, and through the night also, for they dared not camp, he
+appeared to be nearly as fresh as when he started from Old Calabar, nor
+did his spirits fail him for one moment.
+
+When the light came on the following morning, however, they perceived
+by many signs and tokens that the dwarf people were all about them. Some
+arrows were shot even, but these fell short.
+
+"Pooh!" said Jeekie, "all right now, they much afraid. Still, no time
+for coffee, we best get on."
+
+So they got on as they could, till towards midday the forest began to
+thin out. Now as the light grew stronger they could see the dwarfs, of
+whom there appeared to be several hundred, keeping a parallel course
+to their own on either side of them at what they thought to be a safe
+distance.
+
+"Try one shot, I think," said Jeekie, kneeling down and letting fly at
+a clump of the little men, which scattered like a covey of partridges,
+leaving one of its number kicking on the ground. "Ah! my boy," shouted
+Jeekie in derision, "how you like bullet in tummy? You not know Paradox
+guaranteed flat trajectory 250 yard. You remember that next time,
+sonny." Then off they went again up a long rise.
+
+"River other side of that rise," said Jeekie. "Think those tree-monkeys
+no follow us there."
+
+But the "monkeys" appeared to be angry and determined. They would not
+come any more within the range of the Paradox, but they still marched
+on either side of the two fugitives, knowing well that at last their
+strength must fail and they would be able to creep up and murder them.
+So the chase went on till Alan began to wonder whether it would not be
+better to face the end at once.
+
+"No, no, if say die, can't change mind to-morrow morning," gasped Jeekie
+in a hoarse voice. "Here top rise, much nearer than I thought. Oh, my
+aunt! who those?" and he pointed to a large number of big men armed with
+spears who were marching up the further side of the hill from the river
+that ran below.
+
+At the same moment these savages, who were not more than two hundred
+yards away, caught sight of them and of their pursuers, who just then
+appeared on the ridge to the right and left. The dwarfs, on perceiving
+these strangers, uttered a shrill yell of terror, and wheeled about to
+fly to their fastnesses in the forest, which evidently they regretted
+ever having left. It was too late. With an answering shout the
+spearsmen, who were extended in a long line, apparently hunting for
+game, charged after them at full speed. They were fresh and their legs
+were long. Therefore very soon they overtook the dwarfs and even got
+in front of them, heading them off from the forest. The end may
+be guessed,--save a few whom they reserved alive, they killed them
+mercilessly, and almost without loss to themselves, since the little
+forest folk were too terrified and exhausted to shoot at them with their
+poisoned arrows, and they had no other weapons.
+
+In fact, as Alan discovered afterwards, for generations there had been
+war between them, since all the other tribes hate the dwarfs, whom they
+look upon as dangerous human monkeys, and never before had the big men
+found such a chance of squaring their account.
+
+When Jeekie saw this fearful-looking company, for the first time his
+spirits seemed to fail him.
+
+"Ogula!" he exclaimed with a groan and sat himself upon a flat rock,
+pulling Alan down beside him. "Ogula! Know them by hair and spears," he
+repeated. "Up gum tree now, say good-night."
+
+"Why? Who are they?" gasped Alan.
+
+"Great cannibal, Major, eat man, eat us to-night, or perhaps to-morrow
+morning when we nice and cool. Say prayers, Major, quick no time waste."
+
+"I think I will shoot an Ogula or two first," said Alan grimly, as he
+stood up and lifted his gun.
+
+"No, not shoot, no good. Pretend not be afraid, best chance. Let Jeekie
+think, let Jeekie think," and he slapped his forehead with his large
+hand.
+
+Apparently the action brought inspiration, for next instant he grabbed
+his master by the arm and dragged him back behind the shelter of a
+big boulder which they had just passed. Then with really marvellous
+swiftness he cut the straps of the tin box that Alan wore upon his back,
+and since there was no time to find the key and unlock it, seized the
+little padlock with which it was fastened between his finger and thumb,
+and putting out his great strength, with a single wrench twisted it off.
+
+"What are you----" began Alan.
+
+"Hold tongue," he answered savagely, "make you god, I priest. Ogula know
+Little Bonsa. Quick, quick!"
+
+In a minute it was done, the golden mask was clapped on to Alan's head,
+and the leather thongs were fastened. Moreover, Jeekie himself was
+arrayed in the solar-tope to which all this while he had clung, allowing
+streams of green mosquito netting to hang down over his white robe.
+
+"Come out now, Major," he said, "and play god. You whistle, I do
+palaver."
+
+Then hand in hand they walked from behind the rock. By this time the
+particular company of the cannibals that was opposite to them, which
+happened to include their chief, had climbed the steep slope of the hill
+and arrived within a distance of twenty yards. Having seen the two men
+and guessed that they had taken refuge behind the rock, their spears
+were lifted to kill them, since when he beholds anything strange, the
+first impulse of a savage is to bring it to its death. They looked; they
+saw. Of a sudden down went the raised spears.
+
+Some of those who held them fell upon their faces, while others turned
+to fly, appalled by the vision of this strangely clad man with the head
+of gold. Only their chief, a great yellow-toothed fellow who wore a
+necklace of baboon claws, remained erect, staring at them with open
+mouth.
+
+Alan blew the whistle that was set between the lips of the mask, and
+they shivered. Then Jeekie spoke to them in some tongue which they
+understood, saying:
+
+"Do you, O Ogula, dare to offer violence to Little Bonsa and her
+priests? Say now, why should we not strike you dead with the magic of
+the god which she has borrowed from the white man?" and he tapped the
+gun he held.
+
+"This is witchcraft," answered the chief. "We saw two men running,
+hunted by the dwarfs, not three minutes ago, and now we see--what we
+see," and he put his hand before his eyes, then after a pause went
+on--"As for Little Bonsa, she left this country in my father's day. He
+gave her passage upon the head of a white man and the Asiki wizards have
+mourned her ever since, or so I hear."
+
+"Fool," answered Jeekie, "as she went, so she returns, on the head of
+a white man. Yonder I see an elder with grey hair who doubtless knew of
+Little Bonsa in his youth. Let him come up and look and say whether or
+no this is the god."
+
+"Yes, yes," exclaimed the chief, "go up, old man, go up," and he jabbed
+at him with his spear until, unwillingly enough, he went.
+
+The elder arrived, making obeisance, and when he was near, Alan blew the
+whistle in his face, whereon he fell to his knees.
+
+"It is Little Bonsa," he said in a trembling voice, "Little Bonsa
+without a doubt. I should know, as my father and my elder brother were
+sacrificed to her, and I only escaped because she rejected me. Down on
+your face, Chief, and do honour to the Yellow God before she slay you."
+
+Instantly every man within hearing prostrated himself and lay still.
+Then Jeekie strode up and down among them shouting out:
+
+"Little Bonsa has come back and brought to you, Man-eaters, a fat
+offering, an offering of the dwarf-people whom you hate, of the
+treacherous dwarf-people who when you walk the ancient forest path,
+murder you with their poisoned arrows. Praise Little Bonsa who delivers
+you from your foes, and hearken to her bidding. Send on messengers to
+the Asiki saying that Little Bonsa comes home again from across the
+Black Water bringing the White Preacher, whom she led away in the day of
+their fathers. Say to them that the Asiki must send out a company that
+Little Bonsa and the Magician with whom she ran away, may be escorted
+back to her house with the state which has been hers from the beginning
+of time. Say to them also that they must prepare a great offering of
+pure gold out of their store, as much gold as fifty strong men can
+carry, not one handful less, to be given to the White Magician who
+brings back Small Swimming Head, for if they withhold such an offering,
+he and Little Bonsa will vanish never to be seen again, and curses
+and desolation will fall upon their land. Rise and obey, Chief of the
+Ogula."
+
+Then the man scrambled to his feet and answered:
+
+"It shall be done, O Priest of the Yellow God. To-morrow at the dawn
+swift messengers will start for the Gold House of the Asiki. To-night
+they cannot leave, as we are all very hungry and must eat."
+
+"What must you eat?" asked Jeekie suspiciously.
+
+"O Priest," answered the chief with a deprecatory gesture, "when first
+we saw you we hoped that it would be the white man and yourself, for we
+have never tasted white man. But now we fear that you will not consent
+to this, and as you are holy and the guardian of the god, we cannot eat
+you without your own consent. Therefore fat dwarf must be our food, of
+which, however, there will be plenty for you as well as us."
+
+"You dog!" exclaimed Jeekie in a voice of furious indignation. "Do you
+think that white men and their high-born companions, such as myself,
+were made to fill your vile stomachs? I tell you that a meal of the
+deadly Bean would agree better with you, for if you dare so much as to
+look on us, or on any of the white race with hunger, agony shall seize
+your vitals and you and all your tribe shall die as though by poison.
+Moreover, we do not touch the flesh of men, nor will we see it eaten.
+It is our '_orunda_,' it is consecrate to us, it must not pass our
+lips, nor may our eyes behold it. Therefore we will camp apart from you
+further up the stream and find our own food. But to-morrow at the dawn
+the messengers must leave as we have commanded. Also you shall provide
+strong men and a large canoe to bear Little Bonsa forward towards her
+own home until she finds her people coming out to greet her.
+
+"It shall be done," answered the chief humbly, "Everything shall be done
+according to the will of Little Bonsa spoken by her priest, that she
+may leave a blessing and not a curse upon the heads of the tribe of the
+Ogula. Say where you wish to camp and men shall run to build a house of
+reeds for the god to dwell in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE DAWN
+
+Jeekie looked up and down the river and saw that in the centre of it
+about half a mile away, there was an island on which grew some trees.
+
+"Little Bonsa will camp yonder," he said. "Go, make her house ready,
+light fire and bring canoe to paddle us across. Now leave us, all of
+you, for if you look too long upon the face of the Yellow God she will
+ask a sacrifice, and it is not lawful that you should see where she
+hides herself away."
+
+At this saying the cannibals departed as one man, and at top speed, some
+of the canoes and others to warn their fellows who were engaged in
+the congenial work of hunting and killing the dwarfs, not to dare to
+approach the white man and his companion. A third party ran to the bank
+of the river that was opposite to the island to make ready as they had
+been bidden, so that presently Alan and Jeekie were left quite alone.
+
+"Ah!" said Jeekie, with a gasp of satisfaction, "_that_ all right,
+everything arranged quite comfortable. Thought Little Bonsa come out top
+somehow and score off dirty dwarf monkeys. _They_ never get home to tea
+anyway--stay and dine with Ogula."
+
+"Stop chattering, Jeekie, and untie this infernal mask, I am almost
+choked," broke in Alan in a hollow voice.
+
+"Not say 'infernal mask,' Major, say 'face of angel.' Little Bonsa woman
+and like it better, also true, if on this occasion only, for she save
+our skins," said Jeekie as he unknotted the thongs and reverently
+replaced the fetish in its tin box. "My!" he added, contemplating his
+master's perspiring countenance, "you blush like garden carrot; well,
+gold hot wear in afternoon sun beneath Tropic of Cancer. Now we walk
+on quietly and I tell you all I arrange for night's lodging and future
+progress of joint expedition."
+
+So gathering together what remained of their few possessions, they
+started leisurely down the slope towards the island, and as they went
+Jeekie explained all that had happened, since Ogula was not one of the
+African languages with which Alan was acquainted and he had only been
+able to understand a word here and there.
+
+"Look," said Jeekie when he had finished, and turning, he pointed to the
+cannibals who were driving the few survivors of the dwarfs before them
+to the spot where their canoes were beached. "Those dwarfs done for;
+capital business, forest road quite safe to travel home by; Ogula best
+friends in world; very remarkable escape from delicate situation."
+
+"Very remarkable indeed," said Alan; "I shall soon begin to believe in
+the luck of Little Bonsa."
+
+"Yes, Major, you see she anxious to get home and make path clear. But,"
+he added gloomily, "how she behave when she reach there, can't say."
+
+"Nor can I, Jeekie, but meanwhile I hope she will provide us with some
+dinner, for I am faint for want of food and all the tinned meat is
+lost."
+
+"Food," repeated Jeekie. "Yes, necessity for human stomach, which
+unhappily built that way, so Ogula find out, and so dwarfs find out
+presently." Then he looked about him and in a kind of aimless manner
+lifted his gun and fired. "There we are," he said, "Little Bonsa
+understand bodily needs," and he pointed to a fat buck of the sort that
+in South Africa is called Duiker, which his keen eyes had discovered
+in its form against a stone where it now lay shot through the head and
+dying. "No further trouble on score of grub for next three day," he
+added. "Come on to camp, Major. I send one savage skin and bring that
+buck."
+
+So on they went to the river bank, Alan so tired now that the excitement
+was over, that he was not sorry to lean upon Jeekie's arm. Reaching the
+stream they drank deep of its water, and finding that it was shallow at
+this spot, waded through it to the island without waiting for a canoe
+to ferry them over. Here they found a party of the cannibals already at
+work clearing reeds with their large, curved knives, in order to make a
+site for the hut. Another party under the command of their chief himself
+had gone to the top end of the island, to cut the stems of a willow-like
+shrub to serve as uprights. These people stared at Alan, which was not
+strange, as they had never before seen the face of a white man and were
+wondering, doubtless, what had become of the ancient and terrible fetish
+that he had worn. Without entering into explanations Jeekie in a great
+voice ordered two of them to fetch the buck, which the white man, whom
+he described as "husband of the goddess," had "slain by thunder." When
+these had departed upon their errand, leaving Jeekie to superintend the
+building operations, Alan sat down upon a fallen tree, watching one of
+the savages making fire with a pointed stick and some tinder.
+
+Just then from the head of the island where the willows were being
+cut, rose the sound of loud roarings and of men crying out in affright.
+Seizing his gun Alan ran towards the spot whence the noise came. Forcing
+his way through a brake of reeds, he saw a curious sight. The Ogula in
+cutting the willows which grew about some tumbled rocks, had disturbed
+a lioness that had her lair there, and being fearless savages, had tried
+to kill her with their spears. The brute, rendered desperate by wounds,
+and the impossibility of escape, for here the surrounding water was
+deep, had charged them boldly, and as it chanced, felled to the ground
+their chief, that yellow-toothed man to whom Jeekie gave his orders. Now
+she was standing over him looking round her royally, her great paw upon
+his breast, which it seemed almost to cover, while the Ogula ran round
+and round shouting, for they feared that if they tried to attack her,
+she would kill the chief. This indeed she seemed about to do, for just
+as Alan arrived she dropped her head as though to tear out the man's
+throat. Instantly he fired. It was a snap shot, but as it chanced a
+good one, for the bullet struck the lioness in the back of the neck just
+forward of and between the shoulders, severing the spine so that without
+a sound or any further movement she sank stone dead upon the prostrate
+cannibal. For a while his followers stood astonished. They might have
+heard of guns from the coast people, but living as they did in the
+interior where white folk did not dare to travel, they had never seen
+their terrible effects.
+
+"Magic!" they cried. "Magic!"
+
+"Of course," exclaimed Jeekie, who by now had arrived upon the scene.
+"What else did you expect from the husband of Little Bonsa? Magic, the
+greatest of magic. Go, roll that beast away before your chief is crushed
+to death."
+
+They obeyed, and the man sat up, a fearful spectacle, for he was
+smothered with the blood of the lion and somewhat cut by her claws,
+though otherwise unhurt. Then feeling that the life was still whole in
+him, he crept on his hands and knees to where Alan stood, and kissed his
+feet.
+
+"Aha!" said Jeekie, "Little Bonsa score again. Cannibal tribe our slave
+henceforth for evermore. Yes, till kingdom come. Come on, Major, and
+cook supper in perfect peace."
+
+The supper was cooked and eaten with gratitude, for seldom had two men
+needed a square meal more, and never did venison taste better. By the
+time that it was finished darkness had fallen, and before they turned in
+to sleep in the neat reed hut that the Ogula had built, Alan and Jeekie
+walked up the island to see if the lioness had been skinned, as they
+directed. This they found was done; even the carcase itself had been
+removed to serve as meat for these foul-feeding people. They climbed on
+to the pile of rocks in which the beast had made her lair, and looked
+down the river to where, two hundred yards away, the Ogula were
+encamped. From this camp there rose a sound of revelry, and by the light
+of the great fires that burned there, they perceived that the hungry
+savages were busy feasting, for some of them sat in circles, whilst
+others, their naked forms looking at that distance like those of imps in
+the infernal regions, flitted to and fro against the glowing background
+of the fires, bearing strange-looking joints on prongs of wood.
+
+"I suppose they are eating the lioness," said Alan doubtfully.
+
+"No, no, Major, not lioness; eat dwarf by dozen--just like oysters
+at seaside. But for Little Bonsa _we_ sit on those forks now and look
+uncommon small."
+
+"Beasts!" said Alan in disgust; "they make me feel uncommon sick. Let us
+go to bed. I suppose they won't murder us in our sleep, will they?"
+
+"Not they, Major, too much afraid. Also we their blood-brothers now,
+because we bring them first-class dinner and save chief from lion's
+fury. No blame them too much, Major, good fellows really with gentle
+heart, but grub like that from generation to generation. Every mother's
+son of them have many men inside, that why they so big and strong. Ogula
+people cover great multitude like Charity in Book. No doubt sent by
+Providence to keep down extra pop'lation. Not right to think too hard
+of poor fellows who, as I say, very kind and gentle at heart and most
+loving in family relation, except to old women whom they eat also, so
+that they no get bored with too long life."
+
+Weary and disgusted by this abominable sight though he was, Alan burst
+out laughing at his retainer's apology for the sweet-natured Ogula, who
+struck him as the most repulsive blackguards that he had ever met or
+heard of in all his experience of African savages. Then wishing to see
+and hear no more of them that night, he retreated rapidly to the hut
+and was soon fast asleep with his head pillowed on the box that hid the
+charms of Little Bonsa. When he awoke it was broad daylight. Rising he
+went down to the river to wash, and never had a bath been more welcome,
+for during all their journey through the forest no such thing was
+obtainable. On his return he found his garments well brushed with dry
+reeds and set upon a rock in the hot sun to air, while Jeekie in a
+cheerful mood, was engaged cooking breakfast in the frying-pan, to which
+he had clung through all the vicissitudes of their flight.
+
+"No coffee, Major," he said regretfully, "that stop in forest. But never
+mind, hot water better for nerve. Ogula messengers gone in little canoe
+to Asiki at break of day. Travel slow till they work off dwarf, but
+afterwards go quick. I send lion skin with them as present from you to
+great high-priestess Asika, also claws for necklace. No lions there and
+she think much of that. Also it make her love mighty man who can kill
+fierce lion like Samson in Book. Love of head woman very valuable ally
+among beastly savage peoples."
+
+"I am sure I hope it won't," said Alan with earnestness, "but no doubt
+it is as well to keep on the soft side of the good lady if we can. What
+time do we start?"
+
+"In one hour, Major. I been to camp already, chosen best canoe and
+finest men for rowers. Chief--he called Fanny--so grateful that he come
+with them himself."
+
+"Indeed. That is very kind of him, but I say, Jeekie, what are these
+fellows going to live on? I can't stand what you call their 'favourite
+chop.'"
+
+"No, no, Major, that all right. I tell them that when they travel with
+Little Bonsa, they must keep Lent like pious Roman Catholic family that
+live near Yarleys. They catch plenty fish in river, and perhaps we shoot
+game, or rich 'potamus, which they like 'cause he fat."
+
+Evidently the Ogula chief, Fahni by name, not Fanny, as Jeekie called
+him, was a man of his word, for before the hour was up he appeared at
+the island in command of a large canoe manned by twelve splendid-looking
+savages. Springing to land, he prostrated himself before Alan, kissing
+his feet as he had done on the previous night, and making a long speech.
+
+"That very good spirit," exclaimed Jeekie. "Like to see heathen in his
+darkness lick white gentleman's boot. He say you his lord and great
+magician who save his life, and know all Little Bonsa's secrets, which
+many and unrepeatable. He say he die for you twice a day if need be, and
+go on dying to-morrow and all next year. He say he take you safe till
+you meet Asiki and for your sake, though he hungry, eat no man for one
+whole month, or perhaps longer. Now we start at once."
+
+So they started up the river that was called Katsena, Alan and Jeekie
+seated in a lordly fashion near the stern of the canoe beneath an awning
+made out of some sticks and a grass mat. In truth after their severe
+toil and adventures in the forest, this method of journeying proved
+quite luxurious. Except for a rapid here and there over or round which
+the canoe must be dragged, the river was broad and the scenery on its
+banks park-like and beautiful. Moreover the country, perhaps owing
+to the appetites of the Ogula, appeared to be practically uninhabited
+except by vast herds of every sort of game.
+
+All day they sat in the canoe which the stalwart rowers propelled, in
+silence for the most part, since they were terribly afraid of the white
+man, and still more so of the renowned fetish which they knew he carried
+with him. Then when evening came they moored their craft to the bank
+and camped till the following morning. Nor did they lack for food, since
+game being so plentiful, it was only necessary for Alan to walk a few
+hundred yards and shoot a fat eland, or hartebeest, or other buck
+which in its ignorance of guns would allow him to approach quite close.
+Elephants, rhinoceros, and buffalo were also common, while great herds
+of giraffe might be seen wandering between the scattered trees, but as
+they were not upon a hunting trip and their ammunition was very limited,
+with these they did not interfere.
+
+Having their daily fill of meat which their souls loved, the Ogula
+oarsmen remained in an excellent mood, indeed the chief, Fahni, informed
+Alan that if only they had such magic tubes wherewith to slaughter game,
+he and his tribe would gladly give up cannibalism--except on feast days.
+He added sadly that soon they would be obliged to do so, or die, since
+in those parts there were now few people left to eat, and they hated
+vegetables. Moreover, they kept no cattle, it was not the custom of that
+tribe, except a very few for milk. Alan advised them to increase their
+herds, since, as he pointed out to them, "dog should not eat dog" or the
+human being his own kind.
+
+The chief answered that there was a great deal in what he said, which
+on his return he would lay before his head men. Indeed Alan, to his
+astonishment, discovered that Jeekie had been quite right when he
+alleged that these people, so terrible in their mode of life, were
+yet "kind and gentle at heart." They preyed upon mankind because for
+centuries it had been their custom so to do, but if anyone had been
+there to show them a better way, he grew sure that they would follow it
+gladly. At least they were brave and loyal and even after their first
+fear of the white man had worn off, fulfilled their promises without a
+murmur. Once, indeed, when he chanced to have gone for a walk unarmed
+and to be charged by a bull elephant, these Ogula ran at the brute with
+their spears and drove it away, a rescue in which one of them lost his
+life, for the "rogue" caught and killed him.
+
+So the days went on while they paddled leisurely up the river, Alan
+employing the time by taking lessons in the Asiki tongue from Jeekie, a
+language which he had been studying ever since he left England. The task
+was not easy, as he had no books and Jeekie himself after some thirty
+years of absence, was doubtful as to many of its details. Still being a
+linguist by nature and education and finding in the tongue similarities
+to other African dialects which he knew, he was now able to speak it a
+little, in a halting fashion.
+
+On the fifth day of their ascent of the river, they came to a tributary
+that flowed into it from the north, up which the Ogula said they
+must proceed to reach Asiki-land. The stream was narrow and sluggish,
+widening out here and there into great swamps through which it was not
+easy to find a channel. Also the district was so unhealthy that even
+several of the Ogula contracted fever, of which Alan cured them by heavy
+doses of quinine, for fortunately his travelling medicine chest remained
+to him. These cures were effected after their chief suggested that they
+should be thrown overboard, or left to die in the swamp as useless,
+with the result that the white man's magical powers were thenceforth
+established beyond doubt or cavil. Indeed the poor Ogula now looked
+on him as a god superior even to Little Bonsa, whose familiar he was
+supposed to be.
+
+The journey through that swamp was very trying, since in this wet season
+often they could find no place on which to sleep at night, but must stay
+in the canoe tormented by mosquitoes, and in constant danger of being
+upset by the hippopotami that lived there. Moreover, as no game was now
+available, they were obliged to live on these beasts, fish when they
+could catch them, and wildfowl, which sometimes they were unable to cook
+for lack of fuel. This did not trouble the Ogula, who ate them raw, as
+did Jeekie when he was hungry. But Alan was obliged to starve until they
+could make a fire. This it was only possible to do when they found drift
+or other wood, since at that season the rank vegetation was in full
+growth. Also the fearful thunderstorms which broke continually and in a
+few minutes half filled their canoe with water, made the reeds and the
+soil on which they grew, sodden with wet. As Jeekie said:
+
+"This time of year only fit for duck and crocodile. Human should
+remember uncontrollable forces of nature and wait till winter come in
+due course, when quagmire bear sole of his foot."
+
+This elaborate remark he made to Alan during the progress of a
+particularly fearful tempest. The lightning blazed in the black sky
+and seemed to strike all about them like stabbing swords of fire, the
+thunder crashed and bellowed as it may be supposed that it will do on
+that day when the great earth, worn out at last, shall reel and stagger
+to its doom. The rain fell in a straight and solid sheet; the tall reeds
+waved confusedly like millions of dim arms and while they waved, uttered
+a vast and groaning noise; the scared wildfowl in their terror, with
+screams and the sough of wings, rushed past them in flocks a thousand
+strong, now seen and now lost in the vapours. To keep their canoe afloat
+the poor, naked Ogula oarsmen, shivering with cold and fear, baled
+furiously with their hands, or bowls of hollowed wood, and called back
+to Alan to save them as though he were the master of the elements. Even
+Jeekie was depressed and appeared to be offering up petitions, though
+whether these were directed to Little Bonsa or elsewhere it was
+impossible to know.
+
+As for Alan, the heart was out of him. It is true that so far he had
+escaped fever or other sickness, which in itself was wonderful, but he
+was chilled through and through and practically had eaten nothing for
+two days, and very little for a week, since his stomach turned from
+half-cooked hippopotamus fat and wildfowl. Moreover, they had lost the
+channel and seemed to be wandering aimlessly through a wilderness of
+reeds broken here and there by lines of deeper water.
+
+According the Ogula they should have reached the confines of the great
+lake several days before and landed on healthful rising ground that
+was part of the Asiki territory. But this had not happened, and now he
+doubted whether it ever would happen. It was more likely that they would
+come to their deaths, there in the marsh, especially as the few ball and
+shot cartridges which they had saved in their flight were now exhausted.
+Not one was left; nothing was left except their revolvers with some
+charges, which of course were quite useless for the killing of game.
+Therefore they were in a fair way to die of hunger, for here if fish
+existed, they refused to be caught and nought remained for them to fill
+themselves with except water slugs, and snails which the boatmen were
+already gathering and crunching up in their great teeth. Or, perhaps
+the Ogula, forgetting friendship under the pressure of necessity, would
+murder them as they slept and--revert to their usual diet.
+
+Jeekie was right, he should have remembered the "uncontrollable forces
+of Nature." Only a madman would have undertaken such an expedition in
+the rains. No wonder that the Asiki remained a secret and hidden people
+when their frontier was protected by such a marsh as this upon the one
+side and, as he understood, by impassable mountains upon the other.
+
+There came a lull in the tempest and the boatmen began to get the better
+of the water, which now was up to their knees. Alan asked Jeekie if he
+thought it was over, but that worthy shook his white head mournfully,
+causing the spray to fly as from a twirling mop, and replied:
+
+"Can't say, cats and dogs not tumble so many for present, only pups and
+kitties left, so to speak, but think there plenty more up there," and he
+nodded at the portentous fire-laced cloud which seemed to be spreading
+over them, its black edges visible even through the gloom.
+
+"Bad business, I am afraid, Jeekie. Shouldn't have brought you here, or
+those poor beggars either," and he looked at the scared, frozen Ogula.
+"I begin to wonder----"
+
+"Never wonder, Major," broke in Jeekie in alarm. "If wonder, not
+live, if wonder, not be born, too much wonder about everywhere. Can't
+understand nothing, so give it up. Say, 'Right-O and devil hindermost!'
+Very good motto for biped in tight place. Better drown here than in City
+bucket shop. But no drown. Should be dead long ago, but Little Bonsa
+play the game, she not want to sink in stinking swamp when so near her
+happy home. Come out all right somehow, as from dwarf. Every cloud have
+silver lining, Major, even that black chap up there. Oh! my golly!"
+
+This last exclamation was wrung from Jeekie's lips by a sudden
+development of "forces of Nature" which astonished even him. Instead of
+a silver lining the "black chap" exhibited one of gold. In an instant it
+seemed to turn to acres of flame; it was as though the heavens had taken
+fire. A flash or a thunderbolt struck the water within ten yards of
+their canoe, causing the boatmen to throw themselves upon their faces
+through shock or terror. Then came the hurricane, which fortunately was
+so strong that it permitted no more rain to fall. The tall reeds were
+beaten flat beneath its breath; the canoe was seized in its grip and
+whirled round and round, then driven forward like an arrow. Only the
+weight of the men and the water in it prevented it from oversetting.
+Dense darkness fell upon them and although they could see no star, they
+knew that it must be night. On they rushed, driven by that shrieking
+gale, and all about and around them this wall of darkness. No one spoke,
+for hope was abandoned, and if they had, their voices could not have
+been heard. The last thing that Alan remembered was feeling Jeekie
+dragging a grass mat over him to protect him a little if he could. Then
+his senses wavered, as does a dying lamp. He thought that he was back in
+what Jeekie had rudely called "City bucket shop," bargaining across the
+telephone wire, upon which came all the sounds of the infernal regions,
+with a financial paper for an article on a Little Bonsa Syndicate that
+he proposed to float. He thought he was in The Court woods with Barbara,
+only the birds in the trees sang so unnaturally loud that he could not
+hear her voice, and she wore Little Bonsa on her head as a bonnet. Then
+she departed in flame, leaving him and Death alone.
+
+
+
+Alan awoke. Above the sun shone hotly, warming him back to life, but in
+front was a thick wall of mist and rising beyond it in the distance he
+saw the rugged swelling forms of mountains. Doubtless these had been
+visible before, but the tall reeds through which they travelled had
+hid the sight of them. He looked behind him and there in a heap lay the
+Ogula around their chief, insensible or sleeping. He counted them and
+found that two were gone, lost in the tempest, how or where no man ever
+learned. He looked forward and saw a peculiar sight, for in the prow of
+the drifting canoe stood Jeekie clad in the remains of his white robe
+and wearing on his head the battered helmet and about his shoulders the
+torn fragments of green mosquito net. While Alan was wondering strangely
+why he had adopted this ceremonial garb, from out of the mist there came
+a sound of singing, of wild and solemn singing. Jeekie seemed to listen
+to it; then he lifted up his great musical voice and sang as though in
+answer. What he sang Alan could not understand, but he recognized that
+the language which he used was that of the Asiki people.
+
+A pause and a confused murmuring, and now again the wild song rose and
+again Jeekie answered.
+
+"What the deuce are you doing? Where are we?" asked Alan faintly.
+
+Jeekie turned and beamed upon him; although his teeth were chattering
+and his face was hollow, still he beamed.
+
+"You awake, Major?" he said. "Thought good old sun do trick. Feel your
+heart now and find it beat. Pulse, too, strong, though temp'rature
+not normal. Well, good news this morning. Little Bonsa come out top as
+usual. Asiki priests on bank there. Can't see them, but know their song
+and answer. Same old game as thirty years ago. Asiki never change, which
+good business when you been away long while."
+
+"Hang the Asiki," said Alan feebly, "I think all these poor beggars are
+dead, and he pointed to the rowers.
+
+"Look like it, Major, but what that matter now since you and I alive?
+Plenty more where they come from. Not dead though, think only sleep, no
+like cold, like dormouse. But never mind cannibal pig. They serve our
+turn, if they live, live; if they die, die and God have mercy on souls,
+if cannibal have soul. Ah! here we are," and from beneath six inches of
+water he dragged up the tin box containing Little Bonsa, from which he
+extracted the fetish, wet but uninjured.
+
+"Put her on now, Major. Put her on at once and come sit in prow of
+canoe. Must reach Asiki-land in proper style. Priests think it your
+reverend uncle come back again, just as he leave. Make very good
+impression."
+
+"I can't," said Alan feebly. "I am played out, Jeekie."
+
+"Oh! buck up, Major, buck up!" he replied imploringly. "One kick more
+and you win race, mustn't spoil ship for ha'porth of tar. You just wear
+fetish, whistle once on land, and then go to sleep for whole week if you
+like. I do rest, say it all magic, and so forth--that you been dead and
+just come out of grave, or anything you like. No matter if you turn up
+as announced on bill and God bless hurricane that blow us here when we
+expect die. Come, Major, quick, quick! mist melt and soon they see you."
+Then without waiting for an answer Jeekie clapped the wet mask on his
+master's head, tied the thongs and led Alan to the prow of the canoe,
+where he set him down on a little cross bench, stood behind supporting
+him and again began to sing in a great triumphant voice.
+
+The mist cleared away, rolling up like a curtain and revealing on the
+shore a number of men and women clad in white robes, who were martialled
+in ranks there, chanting and staring out at the dim waters of the
+lagoon. Yonder upon the waters, driven forward by the gentle breeze,
+floated a canoe and lo! in the prow of that canoe sat a white man and
+on his head the god which they had lost a whole generation gone. On
+the head of a white man it had departed; on the head of a white man it
+returned. They saw and fell upon their knees.
+
+"Blow, Major, blow!" whispered Jeekie, and Alan blew a feeble note
+through the whistle in the mouth of the mask. It was enough, they knew
+it. They sprang into the water and dragged the canoe to land. They set
+Alan on the shore and worshipped him. They haled up a lad as though for
+sacrifice, for a priest flourished a great knife above his head, but
+Jeekie said something that caused them to let him go. Alan thought it
+was to the effect that Little Bonsa had changed her habits across the
+Black Water, and wanted no blood, only food. Then he remembered no more;
+again the darkness fell upon him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BONSA TOWN
+
+When consciousness returned to Alan, the first thing of which he became
+dimly aware was the slow, swaying motion of a litter. He raised himself,
+for he was lying at full length, and in so doing felt that there was
+something over his face.
+
+"That confounded Little Bonsa," he thought. "Am I expected to spend the
+rest of my life with it on my head like the man in the iron mask?"
+
+Then he put up his hand and felt the thing, to find that it was not
+Little Bonsa, but something made apparently of thin, fine linen, fitted
+to the shape of his face, for there was a nose on it, and eyeholes
+through which he could see, yes, and a mouth whereof the lips by some
+ingenious contrivance could be moved up and down.
+
+"Little Bonsa's undress uniform, I expect," he muttered, and tried to
+drag it off. This, however, proved to be impossible, for it was fitted
+tightly to his head and laced or fastened at the back of his neck so
+securely that he could not undo it. Being still weak, soon he gave up
+the attempt and began to look about him.
+
+He was in a litter, a very fine litter hung round with beautifully
+woven and coloured grass mats, inside of which were a kind of couch and
+cushions of soft wool or hair, so arranged that he could either sit up
+or lie down. He peeped between two of these mats and saw that they were
+travelling in a mountainous country over a well-beaten road or trail,
+and that his litter was borne upon the shoulders of a double line of
+white-robed men, while all around him marched numbers of other men. They
+seemed to be soldiers, for they were arranged in companies and carried
+large spears and shields. Also some of them wore torques and bracelets
+of yellow metal that might be either brass or gold. Turning himself
+about he found an eyehole in the back of the litter so contrived that
+its occupant could see without being seen, and perceived that his escort
+amounted to a veritable army of splendid-looking, but sombre-faced
+savages of a somewhat Semitic cast of countenance. Indeed many of them
+had aquiline features and hair that, although crisped, was long and
+carefully arranged in something like the old Egyptian fashion. Also
+he saw that about thirty yards behind and separated from him by a
+bodyguard, was borne a second litter. By means of a similar aperture in
+front he discovered yet more soldiers, and beyond them, at the head of
+the procession, was what appeared to be a body of white-robed men and
+women bearing strange emblems and banners. These he took to be priests
+and priestesses.
+
+Having examined everything that was within reach of his eye, Alan sank
+back upon his cushions and began to realize that he was very faint and
+hungry. It was just then that the sound of a familiar voice reached his
+ears. It was the voice of Jeekie, and he did not speak, he chanted in
+English to a melody which Alan at once recognized as a Gregorian tone,
+apparently from the second litter.
+
+"Oh, Major," he sang, "have you yet awoke from refre-e-eshing sleep?
+If so, please answer me in same tone of voice, for remember that you
+de-e-evil of a swell, Lord of the Little Bonsa, and must not speak like
+co-o-ommon cad."
+
+Feeble as he was Alan nearly burst out laughing, then remembering that
+probably he was expected not to laugh, chanted his answer as directed,
+which having a good tenor voice, he did with some effect, to the evident
+awe and delight of all the escort within hearing.
+
+"I am awake, most excellent Jee-e-ekie, and feel the need of food, if
+you have such a thing abou-ou-out you and it is lawful for the Lord of
+Little Bonsa to take nu-tri-ment."
+
+Instantly Jeekie's deep voice rose in reply.
+
+"That good tidings upon the mountain tops, Ma-ajor. Can't come out to
+bring you chop because too i-i-infra dig, for now I also biggish bug,
+the little bird what sit upon the rose, as poet sa-a-ays. I tell these
+Johnnies bring you grub, which you eat without qualm, for Asiki Al
+coo-o-ook."
+
+Then followed loud orders issued by Jeekie to his immediate _entourage_,
+and some confusion.
+
+As a result presently Alan's litter was halted, the curtains were opened
+and kneeling women thrust through them platters of wood upon which,
+wrapped up in leaves, were the dismembered limbs of a bird which he took
+to be chicken or guinea-fowl, and a gold cup containing water pleasantly
+flavoured with some essence. This cup interested him very much both on
+account of its shape and workmanship, which if rude, was striking
+in design, resembling those drinking vessels that have been found in
+Mycenian graves. Also it proved to him that Jeekie's stories of
+the abundance of the precious metal among the Asiki had not been
+exaggerated. If it were not very plentiful, they would scarcely, he
+thought, make their travelling cups of gold. Evidently there was wealth
+in the land.
+
+After the food had been handed to him the litter went on again, and
+seated upon his cushions, he ate and drank heartily enough, for now that
+the worst of his fatigue had passed away, his hunger was great. In some
+absurd fashion this meal reminded him of that which a traveller makes
+out of a luncheon basket upon a railway line in Europe or America.
+Only there the cups are not of gold and among the Asiki were no paper
+napkins, no salt and mustard, and no three and sixpence or dollar to
+pay. Further, until he got used to it, luncheon in a linen mask with
+a moveable mouth was not easy. This difficulty he overcame at last by
+propping the imitation lips apart with a piece of bone, after which
+things were easier.
+
+When he had finished he threw the platter and the remains out of the
+litter, retaining the cup for further examination, and recommenced his
+intoned and poetical converse with Jeekie.
+
+To set it out at length would be wearisome, but in the course of an hour
+or so he collected a good deal of information. Thus he learned that they
+were due to arrive at the Asiki city, which was called Bonsa Town, by
+nightfall, or a little after. Also he was informed that the mask he wore
+was, as he had guessed, a kind of undress uniform without which he must
+never appear, since for anyone except the Asika herself to look upon the
+naked countenance of an individual so mysteriously mixed up with Little
+Bonsa, was sacrilege of the worst sort. Indeed Jeekie assured him that
+the priests who had put on the headdress when he was insensible were
+first blindfolded.
+
+This news depressed Alan very much, since the prospect of living in a
+linen mask for an indefinite period was not cheerful. Recovering, he
+chanted a query as to the fate of the Ogula crew and their chief Fahni.
+
+"Not de-ad," intoned Jeekie in reply, "and not gone back. A-all alive-O,
+somewhere behind there. Fanny very sick about it, for he think Asiki
+bring them along for sacrifice, poo-or beg-gars."
+
+Finally he inquired where Little Bonsa was and was answered that he
+himself as its lawful guardian, was sitting on the fetish in its tin
+box, tidings that he was able to verify by groping beneath the cushions.
+
+After this his voice gave out, though Jeekie continued to sing items of
+interesting news from time to time. Indeed there were other things that
+absorbed Alan's attention. Looking through the peepholes and cracks in
+the curtains, he saw that at last they had reached the crest of a ridge
+up which they had been climbing for hours. Before them lay a vast and
+fertile valley, much of which seemed to be under cultivation, and down
+it flowed a broad and placid river. Opposite to him and facing west a
+great tongue of land ran up to a wall of mountains with stark precipices
+of black rock that seemed to be hundreds, or even thousands, of feet
+high, and at the tip of this tongue a mighty waterfall rushed over
+the precipice, looking at that distance like a cascade of smoke. This
+torrent, which he remembered was called Raaba, fell into a great pool
+and there divided itself into two rushing branches that enclosed
+an ellipse of ground, surrounded on all sides by water, for on its
+westernmost extremity the branches met again and after flowing a while
+as one river, divided once more and wound away quietly to north and
+south further than the eye could reach. On the island thus formed, which
+may have been three miles long by two in breadth, stood thousands of
+straw-roofed, square-built huts with verandas, neatly arranged in blocks
+and lines and having between them streets that were edged with palms.
+
+On the hither side of the pool was what looked like a park, for here
+grew great, black trees, which from their flat shape Alan took to be
+some variety of cedar, and standing alone in the midst of this park
+where no other habitations could be discovered, was a large, low
+building with dark-coloured walls and gabled roofs that flashed like
+fire.
+
+"The Gold House!" said Alan to himself with a gasp. "So it is not a
+dream or a lie."
+
+The details at that distance he could not discover, nor did he try to
+do so, for the general glory of the scene held him in its grip. At this
+evening hour, for a little while, the level rays of the setting sun
+poured straight up the huge, water-hollowed kloof. They struck upon the
+face of the fall, staining it and the clouds of mist that hung above,
+to a hundred glorious hues; indeed the substance of the foaming water
+seemed to be interlaced with rainbows whereof the arch reached their
+crest and the feet were lost in the sullen blackness of the pool
+beneath. Beautiful too was the valley, glowing in the quiet light of
+evening, and even the native town thus gilded and glorified, looked like
+some happy home of peace.
+
+The sun was sinking rapidly, and before the litter reached the foot of
+the hill and began to cross the rich valley, all the glory had departed
+and only the cataract showed white and ghost-like through the gloom.
+But still the light, which seemed to gather to itself, gleamed upon that
+golden roof amid the cedar trees; then the moon rose and the gold was
+turned to silver. Alan lay back upon his cushions full of wonder, almost
+of awe. It was a marvellous thing that he should have lived to reach
+this secret place hidden in the heart of Africa and defended by swamps,
+mountains and savages to which, so far as he knew, only one white man
+had ever penetrated. And to think of it! That white man, his own uncle,
+had never even held it worth while to make public any account of its
+wonders, which apparently had seemed to him of no importance. Or perhaps
+he thought that if he did he would not be believed. Well, there they
+were before and about him, and now the question was, what would be his
+fate in this Gold House where the great fetish dwelt with its priestess?
+
+Ah! that priestess! Somehow he shivered a little when he thought of her;
+it was as though her influence were over him already. Next moment he
+forgot her for a while, for they had come to the river brink and the
+litter was being carried on to a barge or ferry, about which were
+gathered many armed men. Evidently the Gold House was well defended both
+by Nature and otherwise. The ferry was pulled or rowed across the river,
+he could not see which, and they passed through a gateway into the town
+and up a broad street where hundreds of people watched his advent. They
+did not seem to speak, or if they spoke their voices were lost in the
+sound of the thunder of the great cataract which dominated the place
+with its sullen, continuous roar. It took Alan days to become accustomed
+to that roar, but by the inhabitants of Asiki-land apparently it was not
+noticed; their ears and voices were attuned to overcome its volume which
+their fathers had known from the beginning.
+
+Presently they were through the town and a wooden gate in an inner wall
+which surrounded the park where the cedars grew. At this spot Alan noted
+that everybody left them except the bearers and a few men whom he took
+to be priests. On they stole like ghosts beneath the mighty trees, from
+whose limbs hung long festoons of moss. It was very dark there, only in
+places where a bough was broken the moonlight lay in white gules upon
+the ground. Another wall and another gate, and suddenly the litter was
+set down. Its curtains opened, torches flashed, women appeared clad in
+white robes, veiled and mysterious, who bowed before him, then half led
+and half lifted him from his litter. He could feel their eyes on him
+through their veils, but he could not see their faces. He could see
+nothing except their naked, copper-coloured arms and long thin hands
+stretched out to assist him.
+
+Alan descended from the litter as slowly as he could, for somehow he
+shrank from the quaint, carved portal which he saw before him. He did
+not wish to pass it; its aspect filled him with reluctance. The women
+drew him on, their hands pulled at his arms, their shoulders pressed him
+from behind. Still he hung back, looking about him, till to his delight
+he saw the other litter arrive and out of it emerge Jeekie, still
+wearing his sun-helmet with its fringe of tattered mosquito curtain.
+
+"Here we are, Major," he said in his cheerful voice, "turned up all
+right like a bad ha'penny, but in odd situation."
+
+"Very odd," echoed Alan. "Could you persuade these ladies to let go of
+me?"
+
+"Don't know," answered Jeekie. "'Spect they doubtfully your wives;
+'spect you have lots of wives here; don't get white man every day, so
+make most of him. Best thing you do, kick out and teach them place.
+Rub nose in dirt at once and make them good, that first-class plan with
+female. I no like interfere in such delicate matter."
+
+Terrified by this information, Alan put out his strength and shook the
+women off him, whereon without seeming to take any offence they drew
+back to a little distance and began to bow, like automata. Then Jeekie
+addressed them in their own language, asking them what they meant by
+defiling this mighty lord, born of the Heavens, with the touch of their
+hands, whereat they went on bowing more humbly than before. Next
+he threw aside the cushions of the litter and finding the tin box
+containing Little Bonsa, held it before him in both hands and bade the
+women lead on.
+
+The march began, a bewildering march. It was like a nightmare. Veiled
+women with torches before and behind, Jeekie stalking ahead carrying the
+battered tin box, long passages lined with gold, a vision of black water
+edged with a wide promenade, and finally a large lamp-lit room whereof
+the roof was supported by gilded columns, and in the room couches of
+cushions, wooden stools inlaid with ivory, vessels of water, great
+basins made of some black, hard wood, and in the centre a block of stone
+that looked like an altar.
+
+Jeekie set down the tin box upon the altar-like stone, then he turned
+to the crowd of women and said, "Bring food." Instantly they departed,
+closing the door of the room behind them.
+
+"Now for a wash," said Alan, "unlace this confounded mask, Jeekie."
+
+"Mustn't, Major, mustn't. Priests tell me that. If those girls see you
+without mask, perhaps they kill them. Wait till they gone after supper,
+then take it off. No one allowed see you without mask except Asika
+herself."
+
+Alan stepped to one of the wooden bowls full of water which stood under
+a lamp, and gazed at his own reflection. The mask was gilded; the sham
+lips were painted red and round the eye-holes were black lines.
+
+"Why, it is horrible," he exclaimed, starting back. "I look like a devil
+crossed with Guy Fawkes. Do you mean to tell me that I have got to live
+in this thing?"
+
+"Afraid so, Major, upon all public occasion. At least they say that. You
+holy, not lawful see your sacred face."
+
+"Who do the Asiki think I am, then, Jeekie?"
+
+"They think you your reverend uncle come back after many, many year.
+You see, Major, they not believe uncle run away with Little Bonsa; they
+believe Little Bonsa run away with uncle just for change of air and so
+on, and that now, when she tired of strange land, she bring him back
+again. That why you so holy, favourite of Little Bonsa who live with you
+all this time and keep you just same age, bloom of youth."
+
+"In Heaven's name," asked Alan, exasperated, "what is Little Bonsa,
+beyond an ancient and ugly gold fetish?"
+
+"Hush," said Jeekie, "mustn't call her names here in her own house.
+Little Bonsa much more than fetish, Little Bonsa alive, or so," he added
+doubtfully, "these silly niggers say. She wife of Big Bonsa, you see,
+to-morrow p'raps. But their story this, that she get dead sick of Big
+Bonsa and bolt with white Medicine man, who dare preach she nothing but
+heathen idol. She want show him whether or no she only idol. That the
+yarn, priests tell it me to-day. They always watch for her there by the
+edge of the lake. They always sure Little Bonsa come back. Not at all
+surprised, but as she love you once, you stop holy; and I holy also,
+thank goodness, because she take me too as servant. Therefore we sleep
+in peace, for they not cut out throats, at any rate at present, though I
+think," he added mournfully, "they not let us go either."
+
+Alan sat down on a stool and groaned at the appalling prospect suggested
+by this information.
+
+"Cheer up, Major," said Jeekie sympathetically. "Perhaps manage hook it
+somehow, and meanwhile make best of bad business and have high old time.
+You see you want to come Asiki-land, though I tell you it rum place,
+and," he added with certitude and a circular sweep of his hand, "by
+Jingo! you here now and I daresay they give you all the gold you want."
+
+"What's the good of gold unless one can get away with it? What's the
+good of anything if we are prisoners among these devils?"
+
+"Perhaps time show, Major. Hush! here come dinner. You sit still on
+stool and look holy."
+
+The door opened and through it appeared four of the women bearing dishes
+and cups full of drink, fashioned of gold like that which had been given
+to Alan in the litter. He noticed at once that they had removed their
+veils and outer garments, if indeed they were the same women, and now,
+like many other Africans, were but lightly clad in linen capes open in
+front that hung over their shoulders, short petticoats or skirts about
+their middles, and sandals. Such was their attire which, scanty as it
+might be, was yet becoming enough and extremely rich. Thus the cape was
+fastened with a brooch of worked gold, so were the sandal straps,
+while the petticoat was adorned with beads of gold that jingled as they
+walked, and amongst them strings of other beads of various and beautiful
+colours, that might be glass or might be precious stones. Moreover,
+these women were young and handsome, having splendid figures and
+well-cut features, soft, dark eyes and rather long hair worn in the
+formal and attractive fashion that has been described.
+
+Advancing to Alan two of them knelt before him, holding out the trays
+upon which was the food. So they remained while he ate, like bronze
+statues, nor would they consent to change their posture even when
+he told them in their language to be pleased to go away. On hearing
+themselves addressed in the Asiki language, they seemed surprised, for
+their faces changed a little, but go they would not. The result was
+that Alan grew extremely nervous and ate and drank so rapidly that he
+scarcely noted what he was putting into his mouth. Then before Jeekie,
+to whom the women did not kneel, had half finished his dinner, Alan
+rose and walked away, whereon two of the women gathered up everything,
+including the dishes that had been given to Jeekie, and in spite of his
+remonstrances carried them out of the room.
+
+"I say, Major," said Jeekie, "if you gobble chop so fast you go ill
+inside. Poor nigger like me can't keep up with you and sleep hungry
+to-night."
+
+"I am sorry, Jeekie," said Alan with a little laugh, "but I can't eat
+off living tables, especially when they stare at one like that. You tell
+them that to-morrow we will breakfast alone."
+
+"Oh, yes, I tell them, Major, but I don't know if they listen. They mean
+it great compliment and only think you not like those girls and send
+others."
+
+"Look here, Jeekie," exclaimed Alan, turning his masked face towards the
+two who remained, "let us come to an understanding at once. Clear them
+out. Tell them I am so holy that Little Bonsa is enough for me. Say
+I can't bear the sight of females, and that if they stop here I will
+sacrifice them. Say anything you like, only get rid of them and lock the
+door."
+
+Thus adjured, Jeekie began to reason with the women, and as they treated
+his remarks with lofty disdain, at last seized first one and then the
+other by the elbows and literally ran them out of the room.
+
+"There," he said, "baggage gone since you make such fuss about it,
+though I 'spect they try to give me Bean for this job" (here he spoke
+not in figurative English slang, but of the Calabar bean, which is a
+favourite native poison). "Well, dinner gone and girls gone, and we
+tired, so best go to bed. Think we all private here now, though in Gold
+House never can be sure," and he looked round him suspiciously, adding,
+"rummy place, Gold House, full of all sort of holes made by old fellows
+thousand year ago, which no one know but Bonsa priests. Still, best risk
+it and take off your face so that you have decent wash," and he began to
+unlace the mask on his master's head.
+
+Never has a City clerk dressed up for a fancy ball in the armour of a
+Norman knight, been more glad to get rid of his costume than was Alan of
+that hateful head-dress. At length it was gone with his other garments
+and the much-needed wash accomplished, after which he clothed himself in
+a kind of linen gown which apparently had been provided for him, and lay
+down on one of the couches, placing his revolver by his side.
+
+"Will those lamps burn all night, Jeekie?" he asked.
+
+"Hope so, Major, as we haven't got no match. Not fond of dark in Gold
+House," answered Jeekie sleepily. Then he began to snore.
+
+Alan fell asleep, but was too excited and tired to rest very soundly.
+All sorts of dreams came to him, one of which he remembered on
+awakening, perhaps because it was the last. He dreamed that he heard
+some noise and opened his eyes, to see that they were no longer alone in
+the room. The oil lamps had burned quite low, indeed some of them were
+out, but by the light of those that remained he saw a tall figure which
+seemed to appear at the edge of the surrounding blackness, a woman's
+figure. It walked forward to the altar-like stone upon which lay the tin
+box containing Little Bonsa, and after several rather awkward attempts,
+succeeded in opening it, thereby making a noise which, in his dream,
+finally awoke Alan. For a while the figure gazed at the fetish. Then it
+shut the box, glided to his bed and bent down as though to study him.
+Out of the corners of his eyes he peered up at it, pretending all the
+while to be fast asleep.
+
+It was that of a woman wonderfully clad in gold-spangled, veil-like
+garments with round bosses shaped to the breast, covered with thin
+plates of gold fashioned like the scales of a fish which showed off the
+extraordinary elegance of her lithe form. The low lamp-light shone upon
+her face and the coronet of gold set upon her dark hair. What a face it
+was! Never in all his days had he seen its like for evil loveliness.
+The great, languid, oblong eyes, the rich red lips bent like a bow, the
+cruel smile of the mouth, the broad forehead on which the hair grew low,
+the delicately arched eyebrows and the long curving lashes of the heavy
+lids beneath them, the rounded cheeks, smooth as a ripe fruit, the firm,
+shapely chin, the snake-like poise of the head, the long bending neck,
+and the feline smile; all of these combined made such a dream-vision
+as he had never seen before, and to tell the truth, notwithstanding
+its beauty, for that could not be doubted, never wished to see again.
+Somehow he felt that if Satan should happen to have a copper-coloured
+wife, the exact picture of that lady had projected itself upon his
+sleeping senses.
+
+She seemed to study him very earnestly, with a kind of passionate
+eagerness, indeed, moving a little now and again to let the light fall
+upon some part that was in shadow. Once even she stretched out her
+rounded arm and just lifted the edge of the blanket so as to expose his
+hand, the left. As it chanced on the little finger of this hand Alan
+wore a plain gold ring which Barbara had given him; once it had been her
+grandfather's signet. This ring, which had a coat of arms cut upon its
+bezel seemed to interest her very much as she examined it for a long
+while. Then she drew off from her own finger another ring of gold
+fashioned of two snakes curiously intertwined, and gently, so gently
+that in his sleep he scarcely felt it, slipped it on to his finger above
+Barbara's ring.
+
+After this she seemed to vanish away, and Alan slept soundly until the
+morning, when he awoke to find the light of the sun pouring into the
+room through the high-set latticed window places.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE HALL OF THE DEAD
+
+Alan rose and stretched himself, and hearing him, Jeekie, who had a
+dog's faculty of instantly awaking from what seemed to be the deepest
+sleep, sat up also.
+
+"You rest well, Major? No dream, eh?" he asked curiously.
+
+"Not very," answered Alan, "and I had a dream, of a woman who stood over
+me and vanished away, as dreams do."
+
+"Ah!" said Jeekie. "But where you find that new ring on finger, Major?"
+
+Alan stared at his hand and started, for there set on it above that of
+Barbara, was the little circlet formed of twisted snakes which he had
+seen in his sleep.
+
+"Then it must have been true," he said in a low and rather frightened
+voice. "But how did she come and go?"
+
+"Funny place, Gold House. I tell you that yesterday, Major. People come
+up through hole, like rat. Never quite sure you alone in Gold House. But
+what this lady like?"
+
+Alan described his visitor to the best of his ability.
+
+"Ah!" said Jeekie, "pretty girl. Big eyes, gold crown, gold stays which
+fit tight in front, very nice and decent; sort of night-shirt with
+little gold stars all over--by Jingo! I think that Asika herself. If
+so--great compliment."
+
+"Confound the compliment, I think it great cheek," answered Alan
+angrily. "What does she mean by poking about here at night and putting
+rings on my finger?"
+
+"Don't know, Major, but p'raps she wish make you understand that she
+like cut of your jib. Find out by and by. Meanwhile you wear ring, for
+while that on finger no one do you any harm."
+
+"You told me that this Asika is a married woman, did you not?" remarked
+Alan gloomily.
+
+"Oh, yes, Major, always married; one down, other come on, you see. But
+she not always like her husband, and then she make him sit up, poor
+devil, and he die double quick. Great honour to be Asika's husband, but
+soon all finished. P'raps----"
+
+Then he checked himself and suggested that Alan should have a bath while
+he cleaned his clothes, an attention that they needed.
+
+Scarcely had Alan finished his toilet, donned the Arab-looking linen
+robe over his own fragmentary flannels, and above it the hateful mask
+which Jeekie insisted he must wear, when there came a knocking on the
+door. Motioning to Alan to take his seat upon a stool, Jeekie undid the
+bars, and as before women appeared with food and waited while they
+ate, which this time, having overcome his nervousness, Alan did more
+leisurely. Their meal done, one of the women asked Jeekie, for to his
+master they did not seem to dare to speak, whether the white lord did
+not wish to walk in the garden. Without waiting for an answer she led
+him to the end of the large room and, unbarring another door that they
+had not noticed, revealed a passage, beyond which appeared trees and
+flowers. Then she and her companions went away with the fragments of the
+meal.
+
+"Come on," said Alan, taking up the box containing Little Bonsa, which
+he did not dare to leave behind, "and let us get into the air."
+
+So they went down the passage and at the end of it through gates of
+copper or gold, they knew not which, that had evidently been left open
+for them, into the garden. It was a large place, a good many acres in
+extent indeed, and kept with some care, for there were paths in it and
+flowers that seemed to have been planted. Also here grew certain of
+the mighty cedar trees that they had seen from far off, beneath those
+spreading boughs twilight reigned, while beyond, not more than half a
+mile away, the splendid river-fall thundered down the precipice. For
+the rest they could find no exit to that garden which on one side was
+enclosed by a sheer cliff of living rock, and on the others with steep
+stone walls beyond which ran a torrent, and by the buildings of the Gold
+House itself.
+
+For a while they walked up and down the rough paths, till at last
+Jeekie, wearying of this occupation, remarked:
+
+"Melancholy hole this, Major. Remind me of Westminster Abbey in London
+fog, where your uncle of blessed mem'ry often take me pray and look at
+fusty tomb of king. S'pose we go back Gold House and see what happen.
+Anything better than stand about under cursed old cedar tree."
+
+"All right," said Alan, who through the eyeholes of his mask had been
+studying the walls to seek a spot in them that could be climbed if
+necessary, and found none.
+
+So they returned to the room, which had been swept and garnished in
+their absence. No sooner had they entered it than the door opened and
+through it came long lines of Asiki priests, each of whom staggered
+beneath the weight of a hide bag that he bore upon his shoulder, which
+bags they piled up about the stone altar. Then, as though at some
+signal, each priest opened the mouth of his bag and Alan saw that they
+wee filled with gold, gold in dust, gold in nuggets, gold in vessels
+perfect or broken; more gold than Alan had ever seen before.
+
+"Why do they bring all this stuff here?" he asked, and Jeekie translated
+his question.
+
+"It is an offering to the lord of Little Bonsa," answered the head
+priest, bowing, "a gift from the Asika. The heaven-born white man sent
+word by his Ogula messengers that he desired gold. Here is the gold that
+he desired."
+
+Alan stared at the treasure, which after all was what he had come to
+seek. If only he had it safe in England, he would be a rich man and
+his troubles ended. But how could he get it to England? Here it was
+worthless as mud.
+
+"I thank the Asika," he said. "I ask for porters to bear her gift back
+to my own country, since it is too heavy for me and my servant to carry
+alone."
+
+At these words the priest smiled a little, then said that the Asika
+desired to see the white lord and to receive from him Little Bonsa in
+return for the gold, and that he could proffer his request to her.
+
+"Good," replied Alan, "lead me to the Asika."
+
+Then they started, Alan bearing the box containing Little Bonsa, and
+Jeekie following after him. They went down passages and through sundry
+doors till at length they came to a long and narrow hall that seemed to
+be lined with plates of gold. At the end of this hall was a large chair
+of black wood and ivory placed upon a dais, and sitting in this chair
+with the light pouring on her from some opening above, was the woman of
+Alan's dream, beautiful to look on in her crown and glittering
+garments. Upon a stool at the foot of the dais sat a man, a handsome
+and melancholy man. His hair was tied behind his head in a pigtail and
+gilded, his face was painted red, white and yellow; he wore ropes of
+bright-coloured stones about his neck, middle, arms and ankles, and held
+a kind of sceptre in his hand.
+
+"Who is that creature?" asked Alan over his shoulder to Jeekie. "The
+Court fool?"
+
+"That husband of Asika, Major. He not fool, very big gun, but look a
+little low now because his time soon up. Come on, Major, Asika beckon
+us. Get on stomach and crawl; that custom here," he added, going down on
+to his hands and knees, as did all the priests who followed them.
+
+"I'll see her hanged first," answered Alan in English.
+
+Then accompanied by the creeping Jeekie and the train of prostrate
+priests, he marched up the long hall to the edge of the dais and there
+stood still and bowed to the woman in the chair.
+
+"Greeting, white man," she said in a low voice when she had studied him
+for a while. "Do you understand my tongue?"
+
+"A little," he answered in Asiki, "moreover, my servant here knows it
+well and can translate."
+
+"I am glad," she said. "Tell me then, in your country do not people
+go on to their knees before their queen, and if not, how do they greet
+her?"
+
+"No," answered Alan with the help of Jeekie. "They greet her by raising
+their head-dress or kissing her hand."
+
+"Ah!" she said. "Well, you have no head-dress, so kiss _my_ hand," and
+she stretched it out towards him, at the same time prodding the man whom
+Jackie had said was her husband, in the back with her foot, apparently
+to make him get out of the way.
+
+Not knowing what to do, Alan stepped on to the dais, the painted man
+scowling at him as he passed. Then he halted and said:
+
+"How can I kiss your hand through this mask, Asika?"
+
+"True," she answered, then considered a little and added, "White man,
+you have brought back Little Bonsa, have you not, Little Bonsa who ran
+away with you a great many years ago?"
+
+"I have," he said, ignoring the rest of the question.
+
+"Your messengers said that you required a present of gold in return for
+Little Bonsa. I have sent you one, is it sufficient? If not, you can
+have more."
+
+"I cannot say, O Asika, I have not examined it. But I thank you for the
+present and desire porters to enable me to carry it away."
+
+"You desire porters," she repeated meditatively. "We will talk of that
+when you have rested here a moon or two. Meanwhile, give me Little Bonsa
+that she may be restored to her own place."
+
+Alan opened the tin box and lifting out the fetish, gave it to the
+priestess, who took it and with a serpentine movement of extraordinary
+grace glided from her chair on to her knees, holding the mask above her
+head in both hands, then thrice covered her face with it. This done, she
+called to the priests, bidding them take Little Bonsa to her own place
+and give notice throughout the land that she was back again. She added
+that the ancient Feast of Little Bonsa would be held on the night of the
+full moon within three days, and that all preparations must be made for
+it as she had commanded.
+
+Then the head medicine-man, raising himself upon his knees, crept on to
+the dais, took the fetish from her hands, and breaking into a wild song
+of triumph, he and his companions crawled down the hall and vanished
+through the door, leaving them alone save for the Asika's husband.
+
+When they had gone the Asika looked at this man in a reflective way, and
+Alan looked at him also through the eyeholes of his mask, finding him
+well worth studying. As has been said, notwithstanding his paint and
+grotesque decorations, he was very good-looking for a native, with
+well-cut features of an Arab type. Also he was tall and muscular and not
+more than thirty years of age. What struck Alan most, however, was none
+of these things, nor his jewelled chains, nor even his gilded pigtail,
+but his eyes, which were full of terrors. Seeing them, Alan remembered
+Jeekie's story, which he had told to Mr. Haswell's guests at The Court,
+of how the husband of the Asika was driven mad by ghosts.
+
+Just then she spoke to the man, addressing him by name and saying:
+
+"Leave us alone, Mungana, I wish to speak with this white lord."
+
+He did not seem to hear her words, but continued to stare at Alan.
+
+"Hearken!" she exclaimed in a voice of ice. "Do my bidding and begone,
+or you shall sleep alone to-night in a certain chamber that you know
+of."
+
+Then Mungana rose, looked at her as a dog sometimes does at a cruel
+master who is about to beat it, yes, with just that same expression, put
+his hands before his eyes for a little while, and turning, left the
+hall by a side door which closed behind him. The Asika watched him go,
+laughed musically and said:
+
+"It is a very dull thing to be married,--but how are you named, white
+man?"
+
+"Vernon," he answered.
+
+"Vernoon, Vernoon," she repeated, for she could not pronounce the O as
+we do. "Are you married, Vernoon?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Have you been married?"
+
+"No," he answered, "never, but I am going to be."
+
+"Yes," she repeated, "you are going to be. You remember that you were
+near to it many years ago, when Little Bonsa got jealous and ran away
+with you. Well, she won't do that again, for doubtless she is tired of
+you now, and besides," she added with a flash of ferocity, "I'd melt her
+with fire first and set her spirit free."
+
+While Jeekie was trying to explain this mysterious speech to Alan, the
+Asika broke in, asking:
+
+"Do you always want to wear that mask?"
+
+He answered, "Certainly not," whereon she bade Jeekie take it off, which
+he did.
+
+"Understand me," she said, fixing her great languid eyes upon his in a
+fashion that made him exceedingly uncomfortable, "understand, Vernoon,
+that if you go out anywhere, it must be in your mask, which you can only
+put off when you are alone with me?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, Vernoon, I do not choose that any other woman should see
+your face. If a woman looks upon your uncovered face, remember that she
+dies--not nicely."
+
+Alan stared at her blankly, being unable to find appropriate Asiki words
+in which to reply to this threat. But the Asika only leaned back in
+her chair and laughed at his evident confusion and dismay, till a new
+thought struck her.
+
+"Your lips are free now," she said; "kiss my hand after the fashion
+of your own country," and she stretched it out to Alan, leaving him no
+choice but to obey her.
+
+"Why," she went on mischievously, taking his hand and in turn touching
+it with her red lips, "why, are you a thief, Vernoon? That ring was mine
+and you have stolen it. How did you steal that ring?"
+
+"I don't know," he answered, through Jeekie, "I found it on my finger.
+I cannot understand how it came there. I understand nothing of all this
+talk."
+
+"Well, well, keep it, Vernoon, only give me that other ring of yours in
+exchange."
+
+"I cannot," he replied, colouring. "I promised to wear it always."
+
+"Whom did you promise?" she asked with a flash of rage. "Was it a woman?
+Nay, I see, it is a man's ring, and that is well, for otherwise I would
+bring a curse on her, however far off she may be dwelling. Say no more
+and forgive my anger. A vow is a vow--keep your ring. But where is that
+one you used to wear in bygone days? I recall that it had a cross upon
+it, not this star and figure of an eagle."
+
+Now Alan remembered that his uncle owned such a ring with a cross upon
+it, and was frightened, for how did this woman know these things?
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "ask the Asika if I am mad, or if she is. How can
+she know what I used to wear, seeing that I was never in this place till
+yesterday, and certainly I have not met her anywhere else."
+
+"She mean when you your reverend uncle," said Jeekie, wagging his great
+head, "she think you identical man."
+
+"What troubles you, Vernoon," the Asika asked softly, then added
+anything but softly to Jeekie, "Translate, you dog, and be swift."
+
+So Jeekie translated in a great hurry, telling her what Alan had said,
+and adding on his own account that he, silly white man that he was,
+could not understand how, as she was quite a young woman, she could have
+seen him before she was born. If that were so, she would be old and ugly
+now, not beautiful as she was.
+
+"I never saw you before, and you never saw me, Lady, yet you talk as
+though we had been friends," broke in Alan in his halting Asiki.
+
+"So we were in the spirit, Vernoon. It was she who went before me who
+loved that white man whose face was as your face is, but her ghost
+lives on in me and tells me the tale. There have been many Asikas, for
+thousands of years they have ruled in this land, yet but one spirit
+belongs to them all; it is the string upon which the beads of their
+lives are threaded. White man, I, whom you think young, know everything
+back to the beginning of the world, back to the time when I was a monkey
+woman sitting in those cedar trees, and if you wish, I can tell it you."
+
+"I should like to hear it very much indeed," answered Alan, when he had
+mastered her meaning, "though it is strange that none of the rest of us
+remember such things. Meanwhile, O Asika, I will tell you that I desire
+to return to my own land, taking with me that gift of gold that you have
+given me. When will it please you to allow me to return?"
+
+"Not yet a while, I think," she said, smiling at him weirdly, for no
+other word will describe that smile. "My spirit remembers that it was
+always thus. Those wanderers who came hither always wished to return
+again to their own country, like the birds in spring. Once there was a
+white man among them, that was more than twenty hundred years ago; he
+was a native of a country called Roma, and wore a helmet. He wished to
+return, but my mother of that day, she kept him and by and by I will
+show him to you if you like. Before that there was a brown man who came
+from a land where a great river overflows its banks every year. He was
+a prince of his own country, who had fled from his king and the desert
+folk made a slave of him, and so he drifted hither. He wished to return
+also, for my mother of that day, or my spirit that dwelt in her, showed
+to him that if he could but be there they would make him king in his own
+land. But my mother of that day, she would not let him go, and by and by
+I will show him to you, if you wish."
+
+Bewildered, amazed, Alan listened to her. Evidently the woman was mad,
+or else she played some mystical part for reasons of her own.
+
+"When will you let me go, O Asika?" he repeated.
+
+"Not yet a while, I think," she said again. "You are too comely and I
+like you," and she smiled at him. There was nothing coarse in the smile,
+indeed it had a certain spiritual quality which thrilled him. "I like
+you," she went on in her dreamy voice, "I would keep you with me until
+your spirit is drawn up into my spirit, making it strong and rich as all
+the spirits that went before have done, those spirits that my mothers
+loved from the beginning, which dwell in me to-day."
+
+Now Alan grew alarmed, desperate even.
+
+"Queen," he said, "but just now your husband sat here, is it right then
+that you should talk to me thus?"
+
+"My husband," she answered, laughing. "Why, that man is but a slave who
+plays the part of husband to satisfy an ancient law. Never has he so
+much as kissed my finger tips; my women--those who waited on you last
+night--are his wives, not I,--or may be, if he will. Soon he will die
+of love for me, and then when he is dead, though not before, I may take
+another husband, any husband that I choose, and I think that no black
+man shall be my lord, who have other, purer blood in me. Vernoon, five
+centuries have gone by since an Asika was really wed to a foreign man
+who wore a green turban and called himself a son of the Prophet, a man
+with a hooked nose and flashing eyes, who reviled our gods until they
+slew him, even though he was the beloved of their priestess. She who
+went before me also would have married that white man whose face was
+like your face, but he fled with Little Bonsa, or rather Little Bonsa
+fled with him. So she passed away unwed, and in her place I came."
+
+"How did you come, if she whom you call your mother was not your
+mother?" asked Alan.
+
+"What is that to you, white man?" she replied haughtily. "I am here,
+as my spirit has been here from the first. Oh! I see you think I lie to
+you, come then, come, and I will show you those who from the beginning
+have been the husbands of the Asika," and rising from her chair she took
+him by the hand.
+
+They went through doors and by long, half-lit passages till they came to
+great gates guarded by old priests armed with spears. As they drew
+near to these priests the Asika loosed a scarf that she wore over her
+breast-plate of gold fish scales, and threw the star-spangled thing over
+Alan's head, that even these priests should not see his face. Then she
+spoke a word to them and they opened the gates. Here Jeekie evinced
+a disposition to remain, remarking to his master that he thought that
+place, into which he had never entered, "much too holy for poor nigger
+like him."
+
+The Asika asked him what he had said and he explained his sense of
+unworthiness in her own tongue.
+
+"Come, fellow," she exclaimed, "to translate my words and to bear
+witness that no trick is played upon your lord."
+
+Still Jeekie lingered bashfully, whereon at a sign from her one of the
+priests pricked him behind with his great spear, and uttering a low howl
+he sprang forward.
+
+The Asika led the way down a passage, which they saw ended in a big hall
+lit with lamps. Now they were in it and Alan became aware that they had
+entered the treasure house of the Asiki, since here were piled up great
+heaps of gold, gold in ingots, gold in nuggets, in stone jars filled
+with dust, in vessels plain or embossed with monstrous shapes in
+fetishes and in little squares and discs that looked as though they had
+served as coins. Never had he seen so much gold before.
+
+"You are rich here, Lady," he said, gazing at the piles astonished.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. "Yes, as I have heard that some people count
+wealth. These are the offerings brought to our gods from the beginning;
+also all the gold found in the mountains belongs to the gods, and there
+is much of it there. The gift I sent to you was taken from this heap,
+but in truth it is but a poor gift, seeing that although this stuff is
+bright and serves for cups and other things, it has no use at all and
+is only offered to the gods because it is harder to come by than other
+metals. Look, these are prettier than the gold," and from a stone table
+she picked up at hazard a long necklace of large, uncut stones, red and
+white in colour and set alternatively, that Alan judged to be crystals
+and spinels.
+
+"Take it," she said, "and examine it at your leisure. It is very old.
+For hundreds of years no more of these necklaces have been made," and
+with a careless movement she threw the chain over his head so that it
+hung upon his shoulders.
+
+Alan thanked her, then remembered that the man called Mungana, who was
+the husband, real or official, of this priestess, had been somewhat
+similarly adorned, and shivered a little as though at a presage of
+advancing fate. Still he did not return the thing, fearing lest he
+should give offence.
+
+At this moment his attention was taken from the treasure by the sound
+of a groan behind him. Turning round he perceived Jeekie, his great eyes
+rolling as though in an extremity of fear.
+
+"Oh my golly! Major," he ejaculated, pointing to the wall, "look there."
+
+Alan looked, but at first in that dim light could only discover long
+rows of gleaming objects which reached from the floor to the roof.
+
+"Come and see," said the Asika, and taking a lamp from that table on
+which lay the gems, she led him past the piles of gold to one side of
+the vault or hall. Then he saw, and although he did not show it, like
+Jeekie he was afraid.
+
+For there, each in his own niche and standing one above the other, were
+what looked like hundreds of golden men with gleaming eyes. At first
+until the utter stillness undeceived him, he thought that they _must_ be
+men. Then he understood that this was what they had been; now they were
+corpses wrapped in sheets of thin gold and wearing golden masks with
+eyes of crystal, each mask being beaten out to a hideous representation
+of the man in life.
+
+"All these are the husbands of my spirit," said the priestess, waving
+the lamp in front of the lowest row of them, "Munganas who were married
+to the Asikas in the past. Look, here is he who said that he ought to
+be king of that rich land where year after year the river overflows its
+banks," and going to one of the first of the figures in the bottom row,
+she drew out a fastening and suffered the gold mask to fall forward on a
+hinge, exposing the face within.
+
+Although it had evidently been treated with some preservative, this head
+now was little more than a skull still covered with dark hair, but set
+upon its brow appeared an object that Alan recognized at once, a simple
+band of plain gold, and rising from it the head of an asp. Without doubt
+it was the _uraeus_, that symbol which only the royalties of Old Egypt
+dared to wear. Without doubt also either this man had brought it with
+him from the Nile, or in memory of his rank and home he had fashioned it
+of the gold that was so plentiful in the place of his captivity. So this
+woman's story was true, an ancient Egyptian had once been husband to the
+Asika of his day.
+
+Meanwhile his guide had passed a long way down the line and halting in
+front of another gold-wrapped figure, opened its mask.
+
+"This is that man," she said, "who told us he came from a land called
+Roma. Look, the helmet still rests upon his head, though time has eaten
+into it, and that ring upon your hand was taken from his finger. I have
+a head-dress made upon the model of that helmet which I wear sometimes
+in memory of this man who, my soul remembers, was brave and pleasant and
+a gallant lover."
+
+"Indeed," answered Alan, looking at the sunken face above which a rim of
+curls appeared beneath the rusting helmet. "Well, he doesn't look very
+gallant now, does he?" Then he peered down between the body and its gold
+casing and saw that in his body hand the man still held a short Roman
+sword, lifted as though in salute. So she had not lied in this matter
+either.
+
+Meanwhile the Asika had glided on to the end of the hall behind the
+heaps of treasure.
+
+"There is one more white man," she said, "though we know little of him,
+for he was fierce and barbarous and died without learning our tongue,
+after killing a great number of the priests of that day because they
+would not let him go; yes, died cutting them down with a battle-axe and
+singing some wild song of his own country. Come hither, slave, and bend
+yourself so, resting your hands upon the ground."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, and actively as a cat the priestess leaped on to his
+back, and reaching up opened the mask of a corpse in the second row and
+held her lamp before its face.
+
+It was better preserved than the others, so that its features remained
+comparatively perfect, and about them hung a tangle of golden hair.
+Moreover, a broad battle-axe appeared resting on the shoulder.
+
+"A viking," thought Alan. "I wonder how _he_ came here."
+
+When he had looked the Asika leaped from Jeekie's back to the ground
+and waving her arm around her, began to talk so rapidly that Alan could
+understand nothing of her words, and asked Jeekie to translate them.
+
+"She say," explained Jeekie between his chattering teeth, "that all
+rest these Johnnies very poor crew, natives and that lot except one who
+worship false Prophet and cut throat of Asika of that time, because she
+infidel and he teach her better; also eat his dinner out of Little Bonsa
+and chuck her into water. Very wild man, that Arab, but priests catch
+him at last and fill him with hot gold before Little Bonsa because he no
+care a damn for ghosts. So he die saying Hip, hip, hurrah! for houri and
+green field of Prophet and to hell with Asika and Bonsa, Big and Little!
+Now he sit up there and at night time worst ghost of all the crowd,
+always come to finish off Mungana. That all she say, and quite enough
+too. Come on quick, she want you and no like wait."
+
+By now the Asika had passed almost round the hall, and was standing
+opposite to an empty niche beyond and above which there were perhaps a
+score of bodies gold-plated in the usual fashion.
+
+"That is your place, Vernoon," she said gently, contemplating him with
+her soft and heavy eyes, "for it was prepared for the white man with
+whom Little Bonsa fled away, and since then, as you see, there have been
+many Munganas, some of whom belong to me; indeed, that one," and she
+touched a corpse on which the gold looked very fresh, "only left me last
+year. But we always knew that Little Bonsa would bring you back again,
+and so you see, we have kept your place empty."
+
+"Indeed," remarked Alan, "that is very kind of you," and feeling that he
+would faint if he stayed longer in this horrible and haunted vault, he
+pushed past her with little ceremony and walked out through the gates
+into the passage beyond.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GOLD HOUSE
+
+"How you like Asiki-land, Major?" asked Jeekie, who had followed him
+and was now leaning against a wall fanning himself feebly with his great
+hand. "Funny place, isn't it, Major? I tell you so before you come, but
+you no believe me."
+
+"Very funny," answered Alan, "so funny that I want to get out."
+
+"Ah! Major, that what eel say in trap where he go after lob-worm, but he
+only get out into frying pan after cook skin him alive-o. Ah! here come
+cook--I mean Asika. She only stop shut up those stiff 'uns, who all love
+lob-worm one day. Very pretty woman, Asika, but thank God she not set
+cap at me, who like to be buried in open like Christian man."
+
+"If you don't stop it, Jeekie," replied Alan in a concentrated rage,
+"I'll see that you are buried just where you are."
+
+"No offence, Major, no offence, my heart full and bubble up. I wonder
+what Miss Barbara say if she see you mooing and cooing with dark-eyed
+girl in gold snake skin?"
+
+Just then the Asika arrived and by way of excuse for his flight, Alan
+remarked to her that the treasure-hall was hot.
+
+"I did not notice it," she answered, "but he who is called my husband,
+Mungana, says the same. The Mungana is guardian of the dead," she
+explained, "and when he is required so to do, he sleeps in the Place of
+the Treasure and gathers wisdom from the spirits of those Munganas who
+were before him."
+
+"Indeed. And does he like that bed-chamber?"
+
+"The Mungana likes what I like, not what he likes," she replied
+haughtily. "Where I send him to sleep, there he sleeps. But come,
+Vernoon, and I will show you the Holy Water where Big Bonsa dwells; also
+the house in which I have my home, where you shall visit me when you
+please."
+
+"Who built this place?" asked Alan as she led him through more dark and
+tortuous passages. "It is very great."
+
+"My spirit does not remember when it was built, Vernoon, so old is it,
+but I think that the Asiki were once a big and famous people who traded
+to the water upon the west, and even to the water on the east, and that
+was how those white men became their slaves and the Munganas of their
+queens. Now they are small and live only by the might and fame of Big
+and Little Bonsa, not half filling the rich land which is theirs. But,"
+she added reflectively and looking at him, "I think also that this is
+because in the past fools have been thrust upon my spirit as Munganas.
+What it needs is the wisdom of the white man, such wisdom as yours,
+Vernoon. If that were added to my magic, then the Asiki would grow great
+again, seeing that they have in such plenty the gold which you have
+shown me the white man loves. Yes, they would grow great and from coast
+to coast the people should bow at the name of Bonsa and send him their
+sons for sacrifice. Perhaps you will live to see that day, Vernoon.
+Slave," she added, addressing Jeekie, "set the mask upon your lord's
+head, for we come where women are."
+
+Alan objected, but she stamped her foot and said it must be so, having
+once worn Little Bonsa, as her people told her he had done, his naked
+face might not be seen. So Alan submitted to the hideous head-dress and
+they entered the Asika's house by some back entrance.
+
+It was a place with many rooms in it, but they were all remarkable for
+extreme simplicity. With a single exception no gilding or gold was to
+be seen, although the food vessels were made of this material here as
+everywhere. The chambers, including those in which the Asika lived and
+slept, were panelled, or rather boarded with cedar wood that was almost
+black with age, and their scanty furniture was mostly made of ebony.
+They were very insufficiently lighted, like his own room, by means of
+barred openings set high in the wall. Indeed gloom and mystery were
+the keynotes of this place, amongst the shadows of which handsome,
+half-naked servants or priestesses flitted to and fro at their tasks,
+or peered at them out of dark corners. The atmosphere seemed heavy
+with secret sin; Alan felt that in those rooms unnameable crimes and
+cruelties had been committed for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years,
+and that the place was yet haunted by the ghosts of them. At any rate it
+struck a chill to his healthy blood, more even than had that Hall of the
+Dead and of heaped-up golden treasure.
+
+"Does my house please you?" the Asika asked of him.
+
+"Not altogether," he answered, "I think it is dark."
+
+"From the beginning my spirit has ever loved the dark, Vernoon. I think
+that it was shaped in some black midnight."
+
+They passed through the chief entrance of the house which had pillars of
+woodwork grotesquely carved, down some steps into a walled and roofed-in
+yard where the shadows were even more dense than in the house they had
+left. Only at one spot was there light flowing down through a hole in
+the roof, as it did apparently in that hall where Alan had found the
+Asika sitting in state. The light fell on to a pedestal or column made
+of gold which was placed behind an object like a large Saxon font,
+also made of gold. The shape of this column reminded Alan of something,
+namely of a very similar column, although fashioned of a different
+material which stood in the granite-built office of Messrs. Aylward &
+Haswell in the City of London. Nor did this seem wonderful to him, since
+on top of it, squatting on its dwarf legs, stood a horrid but familiar
+thing, namely Little Bonsa herself come home at last. There she sat
+smiling cruelly, as she had smiled from the beginning, forgetful
+doubtless of her wanderings in strange lands, while round her stood a
+band of priests armed with spears.
+
+Followed by the Asika and Jeekie, Alan walked up and looked her in
+the face and to his excited imagination she appeared to grin at him in
+answer. Then while the priests prostrated themselves, he examined the
+golden basin or laver, and saw that at the further side of it was a
+little platform approached by steps. On the top of these golden steps
+were two depressions such as might have been worn out in the course of
+ages by persons kneeling there. Also the flat edge of the basin which
+stood about thirty inches above the level of the topmost step, was
+scored as though by hundreds of sword cuts which had made deep lines in
+the pure metal. The basin itself was empty.
+
+Seeing that these things interested him, the Asika volunteered the
+information through Jeekie, that this was a divining-bowl, and that if
+those who went before her had wished to learn the future, they caused
+Little Bonsa to float in it and found out all they wanted to know by
+her movements. She, however, she added, had other and better methods of
+learning things that were predestined.
+
+"Where does the water come from?" asked Alan thoughtlessly searching the
+bowl for some tap or inlet.
+
+"Out of the hearts of men," she answered with a low and dreadful laugh.
+"These marks are those of swords and every one of them means a life."
+Then seeing that he looked incredulous she added, "Stay, I will show
+you. Little Bonsa must be thirsty who has fasted so long, also there
+are matters that I desire to know. Come hither--you, and you," and she
+pointed at hazard to the two priests who knelt nearest to her, "and do
+you bid the executioner bring his axe," she went on to a third.
+
+The dark faces of the men turned ashen, but they made no effort to
+escape their doom. One of them crept up the steps and laid his neck upon
+the edge of gold, while the other, uttering no word, threw himself on
+his face at the foot of them, waiting his turn. Then a door opened and
+there appeared a great and brutal-looking fellow, naked except for a
+loin cloth, who bore in his hand a huge weapon, half knife and half axe.
+
+First he looked at the Asika, who nodded almost imperceptibly, then
+sprang on to a prolongation of the golden steps, bowed to Little Bonsa
+on her column behind and heaved up his knife.
+
+Now for the first time Alan really understood what was about to happen,
+and that what he had imagined a stage rehearsal, was to become a hideous
+murder.
+
+"Stop!" he shouted in English, being unable to remember the native word.
+
+The executioner paused with his axe poised in mid-air; the victim turned
+his head and looked, as though surprised; the second victim and the
+priests their companions looked also. Jeekie fell on to his knees and
+burst into fervent prayer addressed apparently to Little Bonsa. The
+Asika smiled and did nothing.
+
+Again the weapon was lifted and as he felt that words were no longer
+of any use, even if he could find them, Alan took refuge in action.
+Springing on to the other side of the little platform, he hit out with
+all his strength across the kneeling man. Catching the executioner on
+the point of the chin, he knocked him straight backwards in such fashion
+that his head struck upon the floor before any other portion of his
+body, so that he lay there either dead or stunned. Alan never learned
+which, since the matter was not thought of sufficient importance to be
+mentioned.
+
+At this sight the Asika burst into a low laugh, then asked Alan why he
+had felled the executioner. He answered because he would not stand by
+and see two innocent men butchered.
+
+"Why not," she said in an astonished voice; "if Little Bonsa, whose
+priests they are, needs them, and I, who am the Mouth of the gods
+declare that they should die? Still, she has been in your keeping for a
+long while and you may know her will, so if you wish it, let them live.
+Or perhaps you require other victims," and she fixed her eyes upon
+Jeekie with a glance of suggestive hope.
+
+"Oh my golly!" gasped Jeekie in English, "tell her not for Joe, Major,
+tell her most improper. Say Yellow God my dearest friend and go mad as
+hatter if my throat cut----"
+
+Alan stopped his protestations with a secret kick.
+
+"I choose no victims," he broke in, "nor will I see man's blood shed--to
+me it is _orunda_--unholy; I may not look on human blood, and if you
+cause me to do so, Asika, I shall hate you because you make me break my
+oath."
+
+The Asika reflected for a moment, while Jeekie behind muttered between
+his chattering teeth:
+
+"Good missionary talk that, Major. Keep up word in season, Major. If
+she make Christian martyr of Jeekie, who get you out of this confounded
+hole?"
+
+Then the Asika spoke.
+
+"Be it as you will, for I desire neither that you should hate me, nor
+that you should look on that which is unlawful for your eyes to see. The
+feasts and ceremonies you must attend, but if I can help it, no victim
+shall be slain in your presence, not even that whimpering hound, your
+servant," she added with a contemptuous glance at Jeekie, "who it seems,
+fears to give his life for the glory of the god, but who because he is
+yours, is safe now and always."
+
+"That _very_ satisfactory," said Jeekie, rising from his knees, his face
+wreathed in smiles, for he knew well that a decree of the Asika could
+not be broken. Then he began to explain to the priestess that it was not
+fear of losing his own life that had moved him, but the certainty that
+this occurrence would disagree morally with Little Bonsa, whose entire
+confidence he possessed.
+
+Taking no notice of his words, with a slight reverence to the fetish,
+she passed on, beckoning to Alan. As he went by the two prostrate
+priests whose lives he had saved, lifted their heads a little and looked
+at him with heartfelt gratitude in their eyes; indeed one of them kissed
+the place where his foot had trodden. Jeekie, following, gave him a kick
+to intimate that he was taking a liberty, but at the same time stooped
+down and asked the man his name. It occurred to him that these rescued
+priests might some day be useful.
+
+Alan followed her through a kind of swing door which opened into another
+of the endless halls, but when he looked for her there she was nowhere
+to be seen. A priest who was waiting beyond the door bowed and informed
+him that the Asika had gone to her own place, and would see him that
+evening. Then bowing again he led them back by various passages to the
+room where they had slept.
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan after their food had been brought to them, this
+time, he observed, by men, for it was now past midday, "you were born
+in Asiki-land; tell me the truth of this business. What does that
+woman mean when she talks about her spirit having been here from the
+beginning."
+
+"She mean, Major, that every time she die her soul go into someone else,
+whom priests find out by marks. Also Asika always die young, they never
+let her become old woman, but how she die and where they bury her, no
+one know 'cept priests. Sometimes she have girl child who become Asika
+after her, but if they have boy child, they kill him. I think this Asika
+daughter of her who make love to your reverend uncle. All that story
+'bout her mother not being married, lies, and all her story lies too,
+she often marry."
+
+"But how about the spirit coming back, Jeekie?"
+
+"'Spect that lie too, Major, though she think it solemn fact. Priests
+teach her all those old things. Still," he added doubtfully, "Asika
+great medicine-woman and know a lot we don't know, can't say how. Very
+awkward customer, Major."
+
+"Quite so, Jeekie, I agree with you. But to come to the point, what is
+her game with me?"
+
+"Oh! Major," he answered with a grin, "_that_ simple enough. She tired
+of black man, want change, mean to marry you according to law, that is
+when Mungana dies, and he die jolly quick now. She mustn't kill him,
+but polish him off all the same, stick him to sleep with those dead uns,
+till he go like drunk man and see things and drown himself. Then she
+marry you. But till he dead, you all right, she only talk and make eyes,
+'cause of Asiki law, not 'cause she want to stop there."
+
+"Indeed, Jeekie, and how long do you think that Mungana will last?"
+
+"Perhaps three months, Major, and perhaps two. Think not more than two.
+Strong man, but he look devilish dicky this morning. Think he begin see
+snakes."
+
+"Very well, Jeekie. Now listen to me--you've got to get us out of
+Asiki-land by this day two months. If you don't, that lady will do
+anything to oblige me and no doubt there are more executioners left."
+
+"Oh! Major, don't talk like silly fool. Jeekie always hate fools and
+suffer them badly--like holy first missionary bishop. You know very well
+this no place for ultra-Christian man like Jeekie, who only come here
+to please you. Both in same bag, Major, if I die, you die and leave
+Miss Barbara up gum tree. I get you out if I can. But this stuff the
+trouble," and he pointed to the bags of gold. "Not want to leave
+all that behind after such arduous walk. No, no, I try get you out,
+meanwhile you play game."
+
+"The game! What game, Jeekie?"
+
+"What game? Why, Asika-game of course. If she sigh, you sigh; if she
+look at you, you look at her; if she squeeze hand, you squeeze hand; if
+she kiss, you kiss."
+
+"I am hanged if I do, Jeekie."
+
+"Must, Major; must or never get out of Asiki-land. What all that
+matter?" he added confidentially. "Miss Barbara never know. Jeekie
+doesn't split, also quite necessary in situation, and you can't be
+married till that Mungana dead. All matter business, Major; make time
+pass pleasant as well. Asika jolly enough if you stroke her fur right
+way, but if you put her back up--oh Lor! No trouble, sit and smile and
+say, 'Oh, ducky, how beautiful you are!' that not hurt anybody."
+
+In spite of himself Alan burst out laughing.
+
+"But how about the Mungana?" he asked.
+
+"Mungana, he got take that with rest. Also I try make friends with that
+poor devil. Tell him it all my eye. Perhaps he believe me--not sure. If
+he me, I no believe _him_. Mungana," he added oracularly, "Mungana take
+his chance. What matter? In two months' time he nothing but gold figure,
+No. 2403; just like one mummy in museum. Now I try catch my ma. I hear
+she alive somewhere. They tell me she used keep lodging house for Bonsa
+pilgrim, but steal grub, say it cat, all that sort of thing, and get run
+in as thief. Afraid my ma come down very much in world, not society lady
+now, shut up long way off in suburb. Still p'raps she useful so best
+send her message by p'liceman, say how much I love her; say her dear
+little Jeekie turn up again just to see her sweet face. Only don't know
+if she swallow that or if they let her out prison unless I pay for all
+she prig."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE FEAST OF LITTLE BONSA
+
+It was the night of full moon and of the great feast of the return of
+Little Bonsa. Alan sat in his chamber waiting to be summoned to take
+part in this ceremony and listening the while to that _Wow! Wow! Wow!_
+of the death drums, whereof Jeekie had once spoken in England, which
+could be clearly heard even above the perpetual boom of the cataract
+tumbling down its cliff behind the town. By now he had recovered from
+the fatigue of his journey and his health was good, but the same could
+not be said of his spirits, for never in his life had he felt more
+downhearted, not even when he was sickening for blackwater fever, or lay
+in bondage in the City, expecting every morning to wake up and find his
+reputation blasted. He was a prisoner in this dreadful, gloomy
+place where he must live like a second Man in the Iron Mask, without
+recreation or exercise other than he could find in the walled garden
+where grew the black cedar trees, and, so far as he could see, a
+prisoner without hope of escape.
+
+Moreover, he could no longer disguise from himself the truth; Jeekie was
+right. The Asika had fallen in love with him, or at any rate made up her
+mind that he should be her next husband. He hated the sight of the woman
+and her sinuous, evil beauty, but to be free of her was impossible, and
+to offend her, death. All day long she kept him about her, and from his
+sleep he would wake up and as on the night of his arrival,
+distinguish her leaning over him studying his face by the light of
+the faintly-burning lamps, as a snake studies the bird it is about to
+strike. He dared not stir or give the slightest sign that he saw her.
+Nor indeed did he always see her, for he kept his eyes closely shut.
+But even in his heaviest slumber some warning sense told him of her
+presence, and then above Jeekie's snores (for on these occasions Jeekie
+always snored his loudest) he would hear a soft footfall, as cat-like,
+she crept towards him, or the sweep of her spangled robe, or the
+tinkling of the scales of her golden breastplate. For a long while
+she would stand there, examining him greedily and even the few little
+belongings that remained to him, and then with a hungry sigh glide away
+and vanish in the shadows. How she came or how she vanished Alan could
+not discover. Clearly she did not use the door, and he could find
+no other entrance to the room. Indeed at times he thought he must be
+suffering from delusion, but Jeekie shook his great head and did not
+agree with him.
+
+"She there right enough," he said. "She walk over me as though I log
+and I smell stuff she put on hair, but I think she come and go by magic.
+Asika do that if she please."
+
+"Then I wish she would teach me the secret, Jeekie. I should soon be out
+of Asiki-land, I can tell you."
+
+All that day Alan had been in her company, answering her endless
+questions about his past, the lands that he had visited, and especially
+the women that he had known. He had the tact to tell her that none of
+these were half so beautiful as she was, which was true in a sense and
+pleased her very much, for in whatever respects she differed from them,
+in common with the rest of her sex she loved a compliment. Emboldened by
+her good humour, he had ventured to suggest that being rested and having
+restored Little Bonsa, he would be glad to return with her gifts to his
+own country. Next instant he was sorry, for as soon as she understood
+his meaning she grew almost white with rage.
+
+"What!" she said; "you desire to leave me? Know, Vernoon, that I will
+see you dead first and myself also, for then we shall be born again
+together and can never more be separated."
+
+Nor was this all, for she burst into weeping, threw her arms about him,
+drew him to her, kissed him on the forehead, and then thrust him away,
+saying:
+
+"Curses on the priests' law that makes us wait so long, and curses on
+that Mungana who will not die and may not be killed. Well, he shall pay
+for it and within two months, Vernoon, oh! within two months----" and
+she stretched out her arms with a gesture of infinite passion, then
+turned and left him.
+
+"My!" said Jeekie afterwards, for he had watched all this scene
+open-mouthed, "my! but she mean business. Mrs. Jeekie never kiss me like
+that, nor any other female either. She dead nuts on you, Major. Very
+great compliment! 'Spect when you Mungana, she keep you alive a long
+time, four or five years perhaps, if no other white man come this way.
+Pity you can't take it on a bit, Major," he added insidiously, "because
+then she grow careless and make you chief and we get chance scoop out
+that gold house and bolt with bally lot. Miss Barbara sensible woman,
+when she see all that cash she not mind, she say 'Bravo, old boy, quite
+right spoil Lady Potiphar in land of bondage, but Jeekie must have ten
+per cent. because he show you how do it.'"
+
+Alan was so depressed, and indeed terrified by this demonstration on the
+part of his fearful hostess, that he could neither laugh at Jeekie, nor
+swear at him. He only sat still and groaned, feeling that bad as things
+were they were bound to become worse.
+
+
+
+Above the perpetual booming of the death drums rose a sound of wild
+music. The door burst open, and through it came a number of priests,
+their nearly naked bodies hideously painted and on their heads the most
+devilish-looking masks. Some of them clashed cymbals, some blew horns
+and some beat little drums all to time which was given to them by a
+bandmaster with a golden rod. In front of them with painted face and
+decked in his gorgeous apparel, walked the Mungana himself.
+
+"They come to take us to Bonsa worship," explained Jeekie. "Cheer up,
+Major, very exciting business, no go to sleep there, as in English
+church. See the god all time and no sermon."
+
+Alan, who wore a linen robe over the remains of his European garments,
+and whose mask was already on his head, rose listlessly and bowed to
+the gorgeous Mungana who, poor man, answered him with a stare of hate,
+knowing that this wanderer was destined to fill his place. Then they
+started, Jeekie accompanying them, and walked a long way through various
+halls and passages, bearing first to the left and then to the right
+again, till suddenly through some side door they emerged upon a
+marvellous scene. The first impressions that reached Alan's mind were
+those of a long stretch of water, very black and still and not more than
+eighty feet in width. On the hither edge of this canal, seated upon a
+raised dais in the midst of a great open space of polished rock, was
+the Asika, or so he gathered from her gold breastplate and sparkling
+garments, for her fierce and beautiful features were hid beneath an
+object familiar enough to him, the yellow, crystal-eyed mask of Little
+Bonsa. Arranged in companies about and behind her were hundreds of
+people, male and female, clad in hideous costumes to resemble demons,
+with masks to match. Some of these masks were semi-human and some of
+them bore a likeness to the heads of animals and had horns on them,
+while their wearers were adorned with skins and tails. To describe them
+in their infinite variety would be impossible; indeed the recollection
+that Alan carried away was one of a mediaeval hell as it is occasionally
+to be found portrayed upon "Doom pictures" in old churches.
+
+On the further side of the water the entire Asiki people seemed to be
+gathered, at least there were thousands of them seated upon a rising
+rocky slope as in an amphitheatre, clad only in the ordinary costume of
+the Western African native, and in some instances in linen cloaks. This
+great amphitheatre was surrounded by a high wall with gates, but in the
+moonlight he found it difficult to discern its exact limits.
+
+Jeekie nudged Alan and pointed to the centre of the canal or pool. He
+looked and saw floating there a huge and hideous golden head, twenty
+times as large as life perhaps, with great prominent eyes that glared up
+to the sky. Its appearance was quite unlike anything else in the world,
+more loathsome, more horrible, man, fish and animal, all seemed to
+have their part in it, human mouth and teeth, fish-like eyes and snout,
+bestial expression.
+
+"Big Bonsa," whispered Jeekie. "Just the same as when I sweet little
+boy.--He live here for thousand of years."
+
+Preceded by the Mungana and followed by Jeekie and the priests, the band
+bringing up the rear, Alan was marched down a lane left open for him
+till he came to some steps leading to the dais, upon which in addition
+to that occupied by the Asika, stood two empty chairs. These steps the
+Mungana motioned him to mount, but when Jeekie tried to follow him he
+turned and struck him contemptuously in the face. At once the Asika, who
+was watching Vernon's approach through the eye-holes in the Little Bonsa
+mask, said fiercely:
+
+"Who bade you strike the servant of my guest, O Mungana? Let him come
+also that he may stand behind us and interpret."
+
+Her wretched husband, who knew that this public slight was put upon him
+purposely, but did not dare to protest against it, bowed his head. Then
+all three of them climbed to the dais, the priests and the musicians
+remaining below.
+
+"Welcome, Vernoon," said the Asika through the lips of the mask, which
+to Alan, notwithstanding the dreadful cruelty of its expression, looked
+less hateful than the lovely, tigerish face it hid. "Welcome and be
+seated here on my left hand, since on my right you may not sit--as yet."
+
+He bowed and took the chair to which she pointed, while her husband
+placed himself in the other chair upon her right, and Jeekie stood
+behind, his great shape towering above them all.
+
+"This is a festival of my people, Vernoon," she went on, "such a
+festival as has not been seen for years, celebrated because Little Bonsa
+has come back to them."
+
+"What is to happen?" he asked uneasily. "I have told you, Lady, that
+blood is _orunda_ to me. I must not witness it."
+
+"I know, be not afraid," she answered. "Sacrifice there must be, since
+it is the custom and we may not defraud the gods, but you shall not see
+the deed. Judge from this, Vernoon, how greatly I desire to please you."
+
+Now Alan, looking about him, saw that immediately beneath the dais
+and between them and the edge of the water, were gathered his cannibal
+friends, the Ogula, and Fahni their chief who had rowed him to
+Asiki-land, and with them the messengers whom they had sent on ahead.
+Also he saw that their arms were tied behind them and that they were
+guarded by men dressed like devils and armed with spears.
+
+"Ask Fahni why he and his people are bound, Jeekie," said Alan, "and why
+have they not returned to their own country."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, putting the question in the Ogula language, whereon the
+poor men turned and began to implore Alan to save their lives, Fahni
+adding that he had been told they were to be killed that night.
+
+"Why are these men to be slain?" asked Alan of the Asika.
+
+"Because I have learned that they attacked you in their own country,
+Vernoon," she answered, "and would have killed you had it not been for
+Little Bonsa. It is therefore right that they should die as an offering
+to you."
+
+"I refuse the offering since afterwards they dealt well with me. Set
+them free and let them return to their own land, Asika."
+
+"That cannot be," she replied coldly. "Here they are and here they
+remain. Still, their lives are yours to take or to spare, so keep them
+as your servants if you will," and bending down she issued a command
+which was instantly obeyed, for the men dressed like devils cut the
+bonds of the Ogula and brought them round to the back of the dais, where
+they stood blessing Alan loudly in their own tongue.
+
+Then the ceremonies began with a kind of infernal ballet. On the smooth
+space between them and the water's edge appeared male and female bands
+of dancers who emerged from the shadows. For the most part they were
+dressed up like animals and imitated the cries of the beasts that they
+represented, although some of them wore little or no clothing. To the
+sound of wild music of horns and drums these creatures danced a kind of
+insane quadrille which seemed to suggest everything that is cruel and
+vile upon the earth. They danced and danced in the moonlight till the
+madness spread from them to the thousands who were gathered upon the
+farther side of the water, for presently all of these began to dance
+also. Nor did it stop there, since at length the Asika rose from her
+chair upon the dais and joined in the performance with the Mungana her
+husband. Even Jeekie began to prance and shout behind, so that at last
+Alan and the Ogula alone remained still and silent in the midst of a
+scene and a noise which might have been that of hell let loose.
+
+Leaving go of her husband, the Asika bounded up to Alan and tried to
+drag him from his chair, thrusting her gold mask against his mask. He
+refused to move and after a while she left him and returned to Mungana.
+Louder and louder brayed the music and beat the drums, wilder and wilder
+grew the shrieks. Individuals fell exhausted and were thrown into the
+water where they sank or floated away on the slow moving stream, as part
+of some inexplicable play that was being enacted.
+
+Then suddenly the Asika stood still and threw up her arms and they fell
+upon their faces and lay as though they were dead. A third time she
+threw up her arms and they rose and remained so silent that the only
+sound to be heard was that of their thick breathing. Then she spoke, or
+rather screamed, saying:
+
+"Little Bonsa has come back again, bringing with her the white man whom
+she led away," and all the audience answered, "Little Bonsa has come
+back again. Once more we see her on the head of the Asika as our fathers
+did. Give her a sacrifice. Give her the white man."
+
+"Nay," she screamed back, "the white man is mine. I name him as the next
+Mungana."
+
+"Oho!" roared the audience, "Oho! she names him as the next Mungana.
+Good-bye, old Mungana! Greeting, new Mungana! When will be the marriage
+feast?"
+
+"Tell us, Mungana, tell us," cried the Asika, patting her wretched
+husband on the cheek. "Tell us when you mean to die, as you are bound to
+do."
+
+"On the night of the second full moon from now," he answered with a
+terrible groan that seemed to be wrung out of his heavy heart; "on that
+night my soul will be eaten up and my day done. But till then I am
+lord of the Asika, and if she forgets it, death shall be her portion,
+according to the ancient law."
+
+"Yes, yes," shouted the multitude, "death shall be her portion, and her
+lover we will sacrifice. Die in honour, Mungana, as all those died that
+went before you."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" muttered Alan to himself, "I am safe from that witch
+for the next two months," and through the eye-holes of his mask he
+contemplated her with loathing and alarm.
+
+At the moment, indeed, she was not a pleasing spectacle, for in the heat
+and excitement of her mad dance she had cast off her gold breast-plate
+or stomacher, leaving herself naked except for her kirtle and the thin,
+gold-spangled robe upon her shoulders over which streamed her black,
+disordered hair. Contrasting strangely in the silver moonlight with her
+glistening, copper-coloured body, the mask of Little Bonsa on her head
+glared round with its fixed crystal eyes and fiendish smile as she
+turned her long neck from side to side. Seen thus she scarcely looked
+human, and Alan's heart was filled with pity for the poor bedizened
+wretch she named her husband, who had just been forced to announce the
+date of his own suicide.
+
+Soon, however, he forgot it, for a new act in the drama had begun. Two
+priests clad in horns and tails leapt on to the dais and at a signal
+unlaced the mask of Little Bonsa. Now the Asika lifted it from her
+streaming face and held it on high, then she lowered it to the level
+of her breast, and holding it in both hands, walked to the edge of
+the dais, whereon priests, disguised as fiends, began to leap at it,
+striving to reach it with their fingers and snatch it from her grasp.
+One by one they leapt with the most desperate energy, each man being
+allowed to make three attempts, and Alan noted that this novel jumping
+competition was watched with the deepest interest by all the audience,
+at the time he knew not why.
+
+The first two were evidently elderly men who failed to come anywhere
+near the mark. Their failure was received with shouts of derision. They
+sank exhausted to the ground and from the motion of his body Alan could
+see that one of them was weeping, while the other remained sullenly
+silent. Then a younger man advanced and at the third try almost grasped
+the fetish. Indeed he would have grasped it had he not met with foul
+play, for the Asika, seeing that he was about to succeed, lifted it an
+inch or two, so that he also missed and with a groan joined the band of
+the defeated. Next appeared a fourth priest, even more horribly arrayed
+than those before him, but Alan noticed that his mask was of the
+lightest, and that his garments consisted chiefly of paint, the main
+idea of his make-up being that of a skeleton. He was a thin active
+fellow, and all the watching thousands greeted him with a shout. For
+a few seconds he stood back gazing at the mask as a wolf might at an
+unapproachable bone. Then suddenly he ran forward and sprang into the
+air. Such an amazing jump Alan had never seen before. So high was
+it indeed that his head came level with that of the fetish, which he
+snatched with both hands tearing it from Asika's grasp. Coming to the
+ground again with a thud, he began to caper to and fro, kissing the
+mask, while the audience shouted:
+
+"Little Bonsa has chosen. What fate for the fallen? Ask her, priest?"
+
+The man stopped his capering and held the mouth of Little Bonsa to his
+ear, nodding from time to time as though she were speaking to him and he
+heard what she said. Then he passed round the dais where Alan could not
+see him, and presently reappeared holding Little Bonsa in his right
+hand and in his left a great gold cup. A silence fell upon the place.
+He advanced to the first man who had jumped and offered him the cup. He
+turned his head away, but a thousand voices thundered "Drink!" Then he
+took it and drank, passing it to a companion in misfortune, who in turn
+drank also and gave it to the third priest, he who would have snatched
+the mask had not the Asika lifted it out of his reach.
+
+This man drained it to the dregs, and with an exclamation of rage dashed
+the empty vessel into the face of the chosen priest with such fury that
+the man rolled upon the ground and for a while lay there stunned. Now
+he who had drunk first began to spring about in a ludicrous fashion, and
+presently was joined in his dance by the other two. So absurd were their
+motions and tumblings and clownlike grimaces, for they had dragged off
+their masks, that roars of brutal laughter rose from the audience, in
+which the Asika joined.
+
+At first Alan thought that the thing was a joke, and that the men had
+merely been made mad drunk, till catching sight of their eyes in
+the moonlight, he perceived that they were in great pain and turned
+indignantly to remonstrate with the Asika.
+
+"Be silent, Vernoon," she said savagely, "blood is your _orunda_ and
+I respect it. Therefore by decree of the god these die of poison," and
+again she fell to laughing at the contortions of the victims.
+
+Alan shut his eyes, and when at length, drawn by some fearful
+fascination, he opened them once more, it was to see that the three poor
+creatures had thrown themselves into the water, where they rolled over
+and over like wounded porpoises, till presently they sank and vanished
+there.
+
+This farce, for so they considered it, being ended and the stage, so to
+speak, cleared, the audience having laughed itself hoarse, set itself to
+watch the proceedings of the newly chosen high-priest of Little Bonsa,
+who by now had recovered from the blow dealt to him by one of the
+murdered men. With the help of some other priests he was engaged in
+binding the fetish on to a little raft of reeds. This done he laid
+himself flat upon a broad plank which had been made ready for him at
+the edge of the water, placing the mask in front of him and with a
+few strokes of his feet that hung over the sides of the plank, paddled
+himself out to the centre of the canal where the god called Big Bonsa
+floated, or was anchored. Having reached it he pushed the little raft
+off the plank into the water, and in some way that Alan could not see,
+made it fast to Big Bonsa, so that now the two of them floated one
+behind the other. Then while the people cheered, shouting out that
+husband and wife had come together again at last, he paddled his plank
+back to the water's edge, sat down and waited.
+
+Meanwhile, at a sign from the Asika, all the scores of priests and
+priestesses who were dressed as devils had filed off to right and left,
+and vanished, presumably to cross the water by bridges or boats that
+were out of sight. At any rate now they began to appear upon its further
+side and to wind their way singly among the thousands of the Asiki
+people who were gathered upon the rocky slope beyond in order to witness
+this fearsome entertainment. Alan observed that the spectators did not
+appear to appreciate the arrival amongst them of these priests, from
+whom they seemed to edge away. Indeed many of them rose and tried to
+depart altogether, only to be driven back to their places by a double
+line of soldiers armed with spears, who now for the first time became
+visible, ringing in the audience. Also other soldiers and with them
+bodies of men who looked like executioners, showed themselves upon the
+further brink of the water and then marched off, disappearing to left
+and right.
+
+"What's the matter now?" Alan asked of Jeekie over his shoulder.
+
+"All in blue funk," whispered Jeekie back, "joke done. Get to business
+now. Silly fools forget that when they laugh so much. Both Bonsas very
+hungry and Asika want wipe out old scores. Presently you see."
+
+Presently Alan did see, for at some preconcerted signal the devil
+priests, each of them, jumped with a yell at a person near to them,
+gripping him or her by the hair, whereon assistants rushed in and
+dragged them down to the bank of the canal. Here to the number of a
+hundred or more, a wailing, struggling mass, they were confined in a
+pen like sheep. Then a bar was lifted and one of them allowed to escape,
+only to find himself in a kind of gangway which ran down into shallow
+water. Being forced along this he came to an open space of water exactly
+opposite to the floating fetishes, and there was kept a while by men
+armed with spears. As nothing happened they lifted their spears and the
+man bolted up an incline and was lost among the thousands of spectators.
+
+The next one, evidently a person of rank, was not so fortunate. Jumping
+into the pool off the gangway, he stood there like a sheep about to be
+washed, the water reaching up to his middle. Then Alan saw a terrifying
+thing, for suddenly the horrid, golden head of Big Bonsa, towing Little
+Bonsa behind it, began to swim with a deliberate motion across the
+stream until, reaching the man, it seemed to rear itself up and poke
+him with its snout in the chest as a turtle might do. Then it sank again
+into the water and slowly floated back to its station, directed by some
+agency or power that Alan could not discover.
+
+At the touch of the fetish the man screamed like a horse in pain or
+terror, and soldiers leaping on him with a savage shout, dragged him up
+another gangway opposite to that by which he had descended, whereon, to
+all appearances more dead than alive, he departed into the shadows. The
+horns and drums set up a bray of triumph, the Asika clapped her hands
+approvingly, the spectators cheered, and another victim was bundled down
+the gangway and submitted to the judgment of the Bonsas, which came
+at him like a hungry pike at a frog. Then followed more and more, some
+being chosen and some let go, till at last, growing weary, the priests
+directed the soldiers to drive the prisoners down in batches until the
+pen in the water was full as though with huddled sheep. If the horrible
+golden masks swam at them and touched one of their number, they were all
+dragged away; if these remained quiescent they were let go.
+
+So the thing went on until at length Alan could bear no more of it.
+
+"Lady," he said to the Asika when she paused for a moment from her
+hand-clapping, "I am weary, I would sleep."
+
+"What!" she exclaimed, "do you wish to sleep on such a glorious night
+when so many evil doers are coming to their just doom? Well, well, go if
+you will, for then my promise is off me and I can hasten this business
+and deal with the wicked before the people according to our custom.
+Good-night to you, Vernoon, to-morrow we will meet," and she called to
+some priests to lead him away, and with him the Ogula cannibals whom she
+had given to him as servants.
+
+Alan went thankfully enough. As he plunged into one of the passages
+the sound of frightful yelling reached his ears, followed by loud,
+triumphant shouts.
+
+"Now you gone they kill those who Bonsa smell out," said Jeekie. "Why
+you no wait and see? Very interesting sight."
+
+"Hold your tongue," answered Alan savagely. "Did you think so years ago
+when you were put into that pen to be butchered?"
+
+"No, Major," replied the unabashed Jeekie, "not think at all then, too
+far gone. But see other people in there and know it not _you_, quite
+different matter."
+
+They reached their room. At the door of it Fahni and his followers were
+led off to some quarters near by, blessing Alan as they went because he
+had saved their lives.
+
+"Jeekie," he said when they were alone, "tell me, what makes that
+hellish idol swim about in the water picking out some people and leaving
+others alone?"
+
+"Major, I not know, no one know except top priest and Asika. Perhaps
+there man underneath, perhaps they pull string, or perhaps fetish
+alive and he do what he like. Please don't call him names, Major, or
+he remember and come after us one time, and that bad job," and Jeekie
+shivered visibly.
+
+"Bosh!" answered Alan, but all the same he shivered also. "Jeekie," he
+asked again, "what happens to those people whom the Bonsas smell out?"
+
+"Case of good-bye, Major. Sometimes they chop off nut, sometimes they
+spiflicate in gold tub, sometimes priest-man make hole in what white
+doctor call _diagram_--and shake hands with heart.--All matter of taste,
+Major, just as Asika please. If she like victim or they old friends,
+chop off head; if she not like him--do worse things."
+
+More than satisfied with his information Alan went to bed. For hour
+after hour that night he lay tossing and turning, haunted by the
+recollections of the dreadful sights that he had seen and of the
+horrible Asika, horrible and half-naked, glaring at him amorously
+through the crystal eyes of Little Bonsa. When at last he fell asleep it
+was to dream that he was alone in the water with the god which pursued
+him as a shark pursues a shipwrecked sailor. Never did he experience a
+nightmare that was half so awful. Only one thing could be more awful,
+the reality itself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE MOTHER OF JEEKIE
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan next morning, "I tell you again that I have had
+enough of this place, I want to get out."
+
+"Yes, Major, that just what mouse say when he finish cheese in trap,
+but missus come along, call him 'Pretty, pretty,' and drown him all the
+same," and he nodded in the direction of the Asika's house.
+
+"Jeekie, it has got to be done--do you hear me? I had rather die trying
+to get away than stop here till the next two months are up. If I am here
+on the night of the next full moon but one, I shall shoot that Asika and
+then shoot myself, and you must take your chance. Do you understand?"
+
+"Understand that foolish game and poor lookout for Jeekie, Major, but
+can't think of any plan." Then he rubbed his big nose reflectively and
+added, "Fahni and his people your slaves now, 'spose we have talk with
+him. I tell priests to bring him along when they come with breakfast.
+Leave it to me, Major."
+
+Alan did leave it to him, with the result that after long argument
+the priests consented or obtained permission to produce Fahni and his
+followers, and a little while after the great men arrived looking very
+dejected, and saluted Alan humbly. Bidding the rest of them be seated,
+he called Fahni to the end of the room and asked him through Jeekie if
+he and his men did not wish to return home.
+
+"Indeed we do, white lord," answered the old chief, "but how can we? The
+Asika has a grudge against our tribe and but for you would have killed
+every one of us last night. We are snared and must stop here till we
+die."
+
+"Would not your people help you if they knew, Fahni?"
+
+"Yes, lord, I think so. But how can I tell them who doubtless believe us
+dead? Nor can I send a messenger, for this place is guarded and he would
+be killed at once. We came here for your sake because you had Little
+Bonsa, a god that is known in the east and the west, in the north and
+the south, and because you saved me from the lion, and here, alas! we
+must perish."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "can you not find a messenger? Have you, who were
+born of this people, no friend among them at all?"
+
+Jeekie shook his white head and rolled his eyes. Then suddenly an idea
+struck him.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I think one, p'raps. I mean my ma."
+
+"Your ma!" said Alan. "Oh! I remember. Have you heard anything more
+about her?"
+
+"Yes, Major. Very old girl now, but strong on leg, so they say. Believe
+she glad go anywhere, because she public nuisance; they tired of her in
+prison and there no workhouse here, so they want turn her out starve,
+which of course break my heart. Perhaps she take message. Some use that
+way. Only think she afraid go Ogula-land because they nasty cannibal and
+eat old woman."
+
+When all this was translated to Fahni he assured Jeekie with earnestness
+that nothing would induce the Ogula people to eat his mother; moreover,
+that for her sake they would never look carnivorously on another old
+woman, fat or thin.
+
+"Well," said Jeekie, "I try again to get hold of old lady and we see. I
+pray priests, whom you save other day, let her out of chokey as I sick
+to fall upon bosom, which quite true, only so much to think of that no
+time to attend to domestic relation till now."
+
+That very afternoon, on returning to his room from walking in the dismal
+cedar garden, Alan's ears were greeted by a sound of shrill quarrelling.
+Looking up he saw an extraordinary sight. A tall, gaunt, withered female
+who might have been of any age between sixty and a hundred, had got
+Jeekie's ear in one hand, and with the other was slapping him in the
+face while she exclaimed:
+
+"O thief, whom by the curse of Bonsa I brought into the world, what
+have you done with my blanket? Was it not enough that you, my only
+son, should leave me to earn my own living? Must you also take my best
+blanket with you, for which reason I have been cold ever since. Where is
+it, thief, where is it?"
+
+"Worn out, my mother, worn out," he answered, trying to free himself.
+"You forget, honourable mother, that I grow old and you should have been
+dead years ago. How can you expect a blanket to last so long? Leave go
+of my ear, beloved mother, and I will give you another. I have travelled
+across the world to find you and I want to hear news of your husband."
+
+"My husband, thief, which husband? Do you mean your father, the one with
+the broken nose, who was sacrificed because you ran away with the white
+man whom Bonsa loved? Well, you look out for him when you get into the
+world of ghosts, for he said that he was going to wait for you there
+with the biggest stick that he could find. Why I haven't thought of him
+for years, but then I have had three other husbands since his time, bad
+enough, but better than he was, so who would? And now Bonsa has got the
+lot, and I have no children alive, and they say I am to be driven out of
+the prison to starve next week as they won't feed me any longer, I who
+can still work against any one of them, and--you've got my blanket, you
+ugly old rascal," and collapsing beneath the weight of her recited woes,
+the hag burst into a melancholy howl.
+
+"Peace, my mother," said Jeekie, patting her on the head. "Do what I
+tell you and you shall have more blankets than you can wear and, as you
+are still so handsome, another husband too if you like, and a garden and
+slaves to work for you and plenty to eat."
+
+"How shall I get all these things, my son?" asked the old woman, looking
+up. "Will you take me to your home and support me, or will that white
+lord marry me? They told me that the Asika had named him as the Mungana,
+and she is very jealous, the most jealous Asika that I have ever known."
+
+"No, mother, he would like to, but he dare not, and I cannot support you
+as I should wish, as here I have no house or property. You will get all
+this by taking a walk and holding your tongue. You see this man here,
+he is Fahni, king of a great tribe, the Ogula. He wants you to carry a
+message for him, and by and by he will marry you, won't you, Fahni?"
+
+"Oh! yes, yes," said Fahni; "I will do anything she likes. No one shall
+be so rich and honoured in my country, and for her sake we will never
+eat another old woman, whereas if she stays here she will be driven to
+the mountains to starve in a week."
+
+"Set out the matter," said the mother of Jeekie, who was by no means so
+foolish as she seemed.
+
+So they told her what she must do, namely, travel down to the Ogula and
+tell them of the plight of their chief, bidding them muster all their
+fighting men and when the swamps were dry enough, advance as near as
+they dared to the Asiki country and, if they could not attack it, wait
+till they had further news.
+
+The end of it was that the mother of Jeekie, who knew her case to be
+desperate at home, where she was in no good repute, promised to attempt
+the journey in consideration of advantages to be received. Since she
+was to be turned adrift to meet her fate with as much food as she could
+carry, this she could do without exciting any suspicion, for who would
+trouble about the movements of a useless old thief? Meanwhile Jeekie
+gave her one of the robes which the Asika had provided for Alan, also
+various articles which she desired and, having learned Fahni's message
+by heart and announced that she considered herself his affianced bride,
+the gaunt old creature departed happy enough after exchanging embraces
+with her long lost son.
+
+"She will tell somebody all about it and we shall only get our throats
+cut," said Alan wearily, for the whole thing seemed to him a foolish
+farce.
+
+"No, no, Major. I make her swear not split on ghosts of all her husbands
+and by Big Bonsa hisself. She sit tight as wax, because she think they
+haunt her if she don't and I too by and by when I dead. P'raps she get
+to Ogula country and p'raps not. If she don't, can't help it and no
+harm done. Break my heart, but only one old woman less. Anyhow she hold
+tongue, that main point, and I really very glad find my ma, who never
+hoped to see again. Heaven very kind to Jeekie, give him back to family
+bosom," he added, unctuously.
+
+That day there were no excitements, and to Alan's intense relief he saw
+nothing of the Asika. After its orgy of witchcraft and bloodshed on the
+previous night, weariness and silence seemed to have fallen upon the
+town. At any rate no sound came from it that could be heard above the
+low, constant thunder of the great waterfall rushing down its precipice,
+and in the cedar-shadowed garden where Alan walked till he was weary,
+attended by Jeekie and the Ogula savages, not a soul was to be seen.
+
+On the following morning, when he was sitting moodily in his room, two
+priests came to conduct him to the Asika. Having no choice, followed by
+Jeekie, he accompanied them to her house, masked as usual, for without
+this hateful disguise he was not allowed to stir. He found her lying
+upon a pile of cushions in a small room that he had never seen before,
+which was better lighted than most in that melancholy abode, and seemed
+to serve as her private chamber. In front of her lay the skin of the
+lion that he had sent as a present, and about her throat hung a necklace
+made of its claws, heavily set in gold, with which she was playing idly.
+
+At the opening of the door she looked up with a swift smile that turned
+to a frown when she saw that he was followed by Jeekie.
+
+"Say, Vernoon," she asked in her languorous voice, "can you not stir
+a yard without that ugly black dog at your heels? Do you bring him to
+protect your back? If so, what is the need? Have I not sworn that you
+are safe in my land?"
+
+Alan made Jeekie interpret this speech, then answered that the reason
+was that he knew but little of her tongue.
+
+"Can I not teach it to you alone, then, without this low fellow hearing
+all my words? Well, it will not be for long," and she looked at Jeekie
+in a way that made him feel very uncomfortable. "Get behind us, dog, and
+you, Vernoon, come sit on these cushions at my side. Nay, not there, I
+said upon the cushions--so. Now I will take off that ugly mask of yours,
+for I would look into your eyes. I find them pleasant, Vernoon," and
+without waiting for his permission, she sat up and did so. "Ah!" she
+went on, "we shall be happy when we are married, shall we not? Do not
+be afraid, Vernoon, I will not eat out your heart as I have those of the
+men that went before you. We will live together until we are old, and
+die together at last, and together be born again, and so on and on till
+the end which even I cannot foresee. Why do you not smile, Vernoon, and
+say that you are pleased, and that you will be happy with me who loved
+you from the moment that my eyes fell upon you in sleep? Speak, Vernoon,
+lest I should grow angry with you."
+
+"I don't know what to say," answered Alan despairingly through Jeekie,
+"the honour is too great for me, who am but a wandering trader who came
+here to barter Little Bonsa against the gold I need"--to support my wife
+and family, he was about to add, then remembering that this statement
+might not be well received, substituted, "to support my old parents and
+eight brothers and sisters who are dependent upon me, and remain hungry
+until I return to them."
+
+"Then I think they will remain hungry a long time, Vernoon, for while I
+live you shall never return. Much as I love you I would kill you first,"
+and her eyes glittered as she said the words. "Still," she added, noting
+the fall in his face, "if it is gold that they need, you shall send it
+them. Yes, my people shall take all that I gave you down to the coast,
+and there it can be put in a big canoe and carried across the water. See
+to the packing of the stuff, you black dog," she said to Jeekie over her
+shoulder, "and when it is ready I will send it hence."
+
+Alan began to thank her, though he thought it more than probable that
+even if she kept her word, this bullion would never get to Old Calabar,
+and much less to England. But she waived the matter aside as one in
+which she was not interested.
+
+"Tell me," she asked; "would you have me other than I am? First, do you
+think me beautiful?"
+
+"Yes," answered Alan honestly, "very beautiful when you are quiet as
+now, not when you are dancing as you did the other night without your
+robes."
+
+When she understood what he meant the Asika actually blushed a little.
+
+"I am sorry," she answered in a voice that for her was quite humble. "I
+forget that it might seem strange in your eyes. It has always been
+the custom for the Asika to do as I did at feasts and sacrifices, but
+perhaps that is not the fashion among your women; perhaps they always
+remain veiled, as I have heard the worshippers of the Prophet do, and
+therefore you thought me immodest. I am very, very sorry, Vernoon. I
+pray you to forgive me who am ignorant and only do what I have been
+taught."
+
+"Yes, they always remain veiled," stammered Alan, though he was not
+referring to their faces, and as the words passed his lips he wondered
+what the Asika would think if she could see a ballet at a London
+music-hall.
+
+"Is there anything else wrong?" she went on gently. "If so, tell me that
+I may set it right."
+
+"I do not like cruelty or sacrifices, O Asika. I have told you that
+bloodshed is _orunda_ to me, and at the feast those men were poisoned
+and you mocked them in their pain; also many others were taken away to
+be killed for no crime."
+
+She opened her beautiful eyes and stared at him, answering:
+
+"But, Vernoon, all this is not my fault; they were sacrifices to the
+gods, and if I did not sacrifice, I should be sacrificed by the priests
+and wizards who live to sacrifice. Yes, myself I should be made to drink
+the poison and be mocked at while I died like a snake with a broken
+back. Or even if I escaped the vengeance of the people, the gods
+themselves would kill me and raise up another in my place. Do they not
+sacrifice in your country, Vernoon?"
+
+"No, Asika, they fight if necessary and kill those who commit murder.
+But they have no fetish that asks for blood, and the law they have from
+heaven is a law of mercy."
+
+She stared at him again.
+
+"All this is strange to me," she said. "I was taught otherwise. Gods are
+devils and must be appeased, lest they bring misfortune on us; men must
+be ruled by terror, or they would rebel and pull down the great House;
+doctors must learn magic, or how could they avert spells? wizards must
+be killed, or the people would perish in their net. May not we who live
+in a hell, strive to beat back its flame with the wisdom our forefathers
+have handed on to us? Tell me, Vernoon, for I would know."
+
+"You make your own hell," answered Alan when with the help of Jeekie he
+understood her talk.
+
+She pondered over his words for a while, then said:
+
+"I must think. The thing is big. I wander in blackness; I will speak
+with you again. Say now, what else is wrong with me?"
+
+Now Alan thought that he saw opportunity for a word in season and made a
+great mistake.
+
+"I think that you treat your husband, that man whom you call Mungana,
+very badly. Why should you drive him to his death?"
+
+At these words the Asika leapt up in a rage, and seeking something to
+vent her temper on, violently boxed Jeekie's ears and kicked him with
+her sandalled foot.
+
+"The Mungana!" she exclaimed, "that beast! What have I to do with him?
+I hate him, as I hated the others. The priests thrust him on me. He has
+had his day, let him go. In your country do they make women live with
+men whom they loathe? I love _you_, Bonsa himself knows why? Perhaps
+because you have a white skin and white thoughts. But I hate that man.
+What is the use of being Asika if I cannot take what I love and reject
+what I hate? Go away, Vernoon, go away, you have angered me, and if it
+were not for what you have said about that new law of mercy, I think
+that I would cut your throat," and again she boxed Jeekie's ears and
+kicked him in the shins.
+
+Alan rose and bowed himself towards the door while she stood with her
+back towards him, sobbing. As he was about to pass it she wheeled round,
+wiping the tears from her eyes with her hand, and said:
+
+"I forgot, I sent for you to thank you for your presents; that," and she
+pointed to the lion skin, "which they tell me you killed with some kind
+of thunder to save the life of that old cannibal, and this," and she
+pulled off the necklace of claws, then added, "as I am too bad to wear
+it, you had better take it back again," and she threw it with all her
+strength straight into Jeekie's face.
+
+Fearing worse things, the much maltreated Jeekie uttered a howl and
+bolted through the door, while Alan, picking up the necklace, returned
+it to her with a bow. She took it.
+
+"Stop," she said. "You are leaving the room without your mask and my
+women are outside. Come here," and she tied the thing upon his head,
+setting it all awry, then pushed him from the place.
+
+"Very poor joke, Major, very poor indeed," said Jeekie when they had
+reached their own apartment. "Lady make love to _you_; _you_ play prig
+and lecture lady about holy customs of her country and she box _my_ ear
+till head sing, also kick me all over and throw sharp claws in face.
+Please you do it no more. The next time, who knows? she stick knife in
+_my_ gizzard, then kiss _you_ afterward and say she so sorry and hope
+she no hurt _you_. But how that help poor departed Jeekie who get all
+kicks, while you have ha'pence?"
+
+"Oh! be quiet," said Alan; "you are welcome to the halfpence if you
+would only leave me the kicks. The question is, how am I to get out of
+this mess? While she was a beautiful savage devil, one could deal with
+the thing, but if she is going to become human it is another matter."
+
+Jeekie looked at him with pity in his eyes.
+
+"Always thought white man mad at bottom," he said, shaking his big head.
+"To benighted black nigger thing so very simple. All you got to do, make
+love and cut when you get chance. Then she pleased as Punch, everything
+go smooth and Jeekie get no more kicks. Christian religion business very
+good, but won't wash in Asiki-land. Your reverend uncle find out that."
+
+Not wishing to pursue the argument, Alan changed the subject by asking
+his indignant retainer if he thought that the Asika had meant what she
+said when she offered to send the gold down to the coast.
+
+"Why not, Major? That good lady always mean what she say, and what she
+do too," and he dabbed wrathfully at the scratches made by the lion's
+claws on his face, then added, "She know her own mind, not like
+shilly-shally, see-saw white woman, who get up one thing and go to bed
+another. If she love she love, if she hate she hate. If she say she
+send gold, she send it, though pity to part with all that cash, because
+'spect someone bag it."
+
+Alan reflected a while.
+
+"Don't you see, Jeekie, that here is a chance, if a very small one, of
+getting a message to the coast. Also it is quite clear that if we are
+ever able to escape, it will be impossible for us to carry this heavy
+stuff, whereas if we send it on ahead, perhaps some of it might get
+through. We will pack it up, Jeekie, at any rate it will be something to
+do. Go now and send a message to the Asika, and ask her to let us have
+some carpenters, and a lot of well-seasoned wood."
+
+The message was sent and an hour later a dozen of the native craftsmen
+arrived with their rude tools and a supply of planks cut from a kind of
+iron-wood or ebony tree. They prostrated themselves to Alan, then the
+master of them rising, instantly began to measure Jeekie with a marked
+reed. That worthy sprang back and asked what in the name of Bonsa, Big
+and Little, they were doing, whereon the man explained with humility
+that the Asika had said that she thought the white lord wanted the
+wood to make a box to bury his servant in, as he, the said servant, had
+offended her that morning, and doubtless the white lord wished to kill
+him on that account, or perhaps to put him away under ground alive.
+
+"Oh, my golly!" said Jeekie, shaking till his great knees knocked
+together, "oh! my golly! here pretty go. She think you want bury me all
+alive. That mean she want to be rid of Jeekie, because he got sit there
+and play gooseberry when she wish talk alone with you. Oh, yes! I see
+her little game."
+
+"Well, Jeekie," said Alan, bursting into such a roar of laughter that he
+nearly shook off his mask, "you had better be careful, for you just told
+me that the Asika is not like a see-saw white woman and never changes
+her mind. Say to this man that he must tell the Asika there is a
+mistake, and that however much I should like to oblige her, I can't bury
+you because it has been prophesied to me that on the day you are buried,
+I shall be buried also, and that therefore you must be kept alive."
+
+"Capital notion that, Major," said Jeekie, much relieved. "She not want
+bury you just at present; next year perhaps, but not now. I tell him."
+And he did with much vigour.
+
+This slight misconception having been disposed of, they explained to the
+carpenters what was wanted. First, all the gold was emptied out of the
+sacks in which it remained as the priests had brought it, and divided
+into heaps, each of which weighed about forty pounds, a weight that
+with its box Alan considered would be a good load for a porter. Of these
+heaps there proved to be fifty-three, their total value, Alan reckoned,
+amounting to about L100,000 sterling. Then the carpenters were set to
+work to make a model box, which they did quickly enough and with great
+ingenuity, cutting the wood with their native saws, dovetailing it as
+a civilized craftsman would do, and finally securing it everywhere with
+ebony pegs, driven into holes which they bored with a hot iron. The
+result was a box that would stand any amount of rough usage and when
+finally pegged down, one that could only be opened with a hammer and a
+cold chisel.
+
+This box-making went on for two whole days. As each of them was filled
+and pegged down, the gold within being packed in sawdust to keep it from
+rattling, Alan amused himself in adding an address with a feather brush
+and a supply of red paint such as the Asiki priests used to decorate
+their bodies. At first he was puzzled to know what address to put, but
+finally decided upon the following:
+
+_Major A. Vernon, care of Miss Champers, The Court, near Kingswell,
+England._ Adding in the corner, _From A. V., Asiki Land, Africa._
+
+It was all childish enough, he knew, yet when it was done he regarded
+his handiwork with a sort of satisfaction. For, reflected Alan, if but
+one of those boxes should chance to get through to England, it would
+tell Barbara a great deal, and if it were addressed to himself, her
+uncle could scarcely dare to take possession of it.
+
+Then he bethought him of sending a letter, but was obliged to abandon
+the idea, as he had neither pen, pencil, ink, nor paper left to him.
+Whatever arts remained to them, that of any form of writing was now
+totally unknown to the Asiki, although marks that might be writing, it
+will be remembered, did appear on the inner side of the Little Bonsa
+mask, an evidence of its great antiquity. Even in the days when they had
+wrapped up the Egyptian, the Roman, and other early Munganas in sheets
+of gold and set them in their treasure-house, apparently they had no
+knowledge of it, for not even an hieroglyph or a rune appeared upon
+the imperishable metal shrouds. Since that time they had evidently
+decreased, not advanced, in learning till at the present day, except for
+these relics and some dim and meaningless survival of rites that once
+had been religious and were still offered to the same ancient idols,
+there was little to distinguish them from other tribes of Central
+African savages. Still Alan did something, for obtaining a piece of
+white wood, which he smoothed as well as he was able with a knife, he
+painted on it this message:
+
+"Messrs. Aston, Old Calabar. Please forward accompanying fifty-three
+packages, or as many as arrive, and cable as follows (all costs will be
+remitted): Miss Champers, Kingswell, England. Prisoner among Asiki.
+No present prospect of escape, but hope for best. Jeekie and I well.
+Allowed send this, but perhaps no future message possible. Good-bye.
+Alan."
+
+As it happened just as Alan was finishing this scrawl with a sad heart,
+he heard a movement and glancing up, perceived standing at his side
+the Asika, of whom he had seen nothing since the interview when she had
+beaten Jeekie:
+
+"What are those marks that you make upon the board, Vernoon?" she asked
+suspiciously.
+
+With the assistance of Jeekie, who kept at a respectful distance, he
+informed her that they were a message in writing to tell the white men
+at the coast to forward the gold to his starving family.
+
+"Oh!" she said, "I never heard of writing. You shall teach it me. It
+will serve to pass the time till we are married, though it will not
+be of much use afterwards, as we shall never be separated any more and
+words are better than marks upon a board. But," she added cheerfully, "I
+can send away this black dog of yours," and she looked at Jeekie, "and
+he can write to us. No, I cannot, for an accident might happen to him,
+and they tell me you say that if he dies, you die also, so he must stop
+here always. What have you in those little boxes?"
+
+"The gold you gave me, Asika, packed in loads."
+
+"A small gift enough," she answered contemptuously; "would you not like
+more, since you value that stuff? Well, another time you shall send all
+you want. Meanwhile the porters are waiting, fifty men and three, as you
+sent me word, and ten spare ones to take the place of any who die. But
+how they will find their way, I know not, since none of them have ever
+been to the coast."
+
+An idea occurred to Alan, who had small faith in Jeekie's "ma" as a
+messenger.
+
+"The Ogula prisoners could show them," he said; "at any rate as far as
+the forest, and after that they could find out. May they not go, Asika?"
+
+"If you will," she answered carelessly. "Let them be ready to start
+to-morrow at the dawn, all except their chief, Fahni, who must stop
+here as a hostage. I do not trust those Ogula, who more than once have
+threatened to make war upon us," she added, then turned and bade the
+priests bring in the bearers to receive their instructions.
+
+Presently they came, picked men all of them, under the command of an
+Asiki captain, and with them the Ogula, whom she summoned also.
+
+"Go where the white lord sends you," she said in an indifferent voice,
+"carrying with you these packages. I do not know where it is, but
+these man-eaters will show you some of the way, and if you fail in the
+business but live to come back again, you shall be sacrificed to Bonsa
+at the next feast; if you run away then your wives and children will be
+sacrificed. Food shall be given you for your journey, and gold to buy
+more when it is gone. Now, Vernoon, tell them what they have to do."
+
+So Alan, or rather Jeekie, told them, and these directions were so
+long and minute, that before they were finished the Asika grew tired
+of listening and went away, saying as she passed the captain of the
+company:
+
+"Remember my words, man, succeed or die, but of your land and its
+secrets say nothing."
+
+"I hear," answered the captain, prostrating himself.
+
+That night Alan summoned the Ogula and spoke to them through Jeekie in
+their own language. At first they declared that they would not leave
+their chief, preferring to stay and die with him.
+
+"Not so," said Fahni; "go, my children, that I may live. Go and gather
+the tribe, all the thousands of them who are men and can fight, and
+bring them up to attack Asiki-land, to rescue me if I still live, or to
+avenge me if I am dead. As for these bearers, do them no harm, but send
+them on to the coast with the white man's goods."
+
+So in the end the Ogula said that they would go, and when Alan woke
+up on the following morning, he was informed that they and the Asiki
+porters had already departed upon their journey. Then he dismissed the
+matter from his mind, for to tell the truth he never expected to hear of
+them any more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ALAN FALLS ILL
+
+After the departure of the messengers a deep melancholy fell upon Alan,
+who was sure that he had now no further hope of communicating with the
+outside world. Bitterly did he reproach himself for his folly in having
+ever journeyed to this hateful place in order to secure--what? About
+L100,000 worth of gold which of course he never could secure, as it
+would certainly vanish or be stolen on its way to the coast. For this
+gold he had become involved in a dreadful complication which must cost
+him much misery, and sooner or later life itself, since he could not
+marry that beautiful savage Asika, and if he refused her she would
+certainly kill him in her outraged pride and fury.
+
+Day by day she sent for him, and when he came, assumed a new character,
+that of a woman humbled by a sense of her own ignorance, which she was
+anxious to amend. So he must play the role of tutor to her, telling her
+of civilized peoples, their laws, customs and religions, and instructing
+her how to write and read. She listened and learned submissively enough,
+but all the while Alan felt as one might who is called upon to teach
+tricks to a drugged panther. The drug in this case was her passion for
+him, which appeared to be very genuine. But when it passed off, or when
+he was obliged to refuse her, what, he wondered, would happen then?
+
+Anxiety and confinement told on him far more than all the hardships of
+his journey. His health ran down, he began to fall ill. Then as bad luck
+would have it, walking in that damp, unwholesome cedar garden, out of
+which he might not stray, he contracted the germ of some kind of fever
+which in autumn was very common in this poisonous climate. Three days
+later he became delirious, and for a week after that hung between life
+and death. Well was it for him that his medicine-chest still remained
+intact, and that recognizing his own symptoms before his head gave way,
+he was able to instruct Jeekie what drugs to give him at the different
+stages of the disease.
+
+For the rest his memories of that dreadful illness always remained very
+vague. He had visions of Jeekie and of a robed woman whom he knew to be
+the Asika, bending over him continually. Also it seemed to him that from
+time to time he was talking with Barbara, which even then he knew must
+be absurd, for how could they talk across thousands of miles of land and
+sea.
+
+At length his mind cleared suddenly, and he awoke as from a nightmare to
+find himself lying in the hall or room where he had always been, feeling
+quite cool and without pain, but so weak that it was an effort to him to
+lift his hand. He stared about him and was astonished to see the white
+head of Jeekie rolling uneasily to and fro upon the cushions of another
+bed near by.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "are you ill too, Jeekie?"
+
+At the sound of that voice his retainer started up violently.
+
+"What, Major, you awake?" he said. "Thanks be to all gods, white and
+black, yes, and yellow too, for I thought your goose cooked. No, no,
+Major, I not ill, only Asika say so. You go to bed, so she make me go
+to bed. You get worse, she treat me cruel; you seem better, she stuff me
+with food till I burst. All because you tell her that you and I die same
+day. Oh, Lord! poor Jeekie think his end very near just now, for he know
+quite well that she not let him breathe ten minutes after you peg out.
+Jeekie never pray so hard for anyone before as he pray this week for
+you, and by Jingo! I think he do the trick, he and that medicine stuff
+which make him feel very bad in stomach," and he groaned under the
+weight of his many miseries.
+
+Weak as he was Alan began to laugh, and that laugh seemed to do him more
+good than anything that he could remember, for after it he was sure that
+he would recover.
+
+Just then an agonized whisper reached him from Jeekie.
+
+"Look out!" it said, "here come Asika. Go sleep and seem better, Major,
+please, or I catch it hot."
+
+So Alan almost shut his eyes and lay still. In another moment she was
+standing over him and he noticed that her hair was dishevelled and her
+eyes were red as though with weeping. She scanned him intently for a
+little while, then passed round to where Jeekie lay and appeared to
+pinch his ear so hard that he wriggled and uttered a stifled groan.
+
+"How is your lord, dog?" she whispered.
+
+"Better, O Asika, I think that last medicine do us good, though it make
+me very sick inside. Just now he spoke to me and said that he hoped
+that your heart was not sad because of him and that all this time in his
+dreams he had seen and thought of nobody but you, O Asika."
+
+"Did he?" asked that lady, becoming intensely interested. "Then tell me,
+dog, why is he ever calling upon one Bar-bar-a? Surely that is a woman's
+name?"
+
+"Yes, O Asika, that is the name of his mother, also of one of his
+sisters, whom, after you, he loves best of anyone in the whole world.
+When you are here he talks of them, but when you are not here he talks
+of no one but you. Although he is so sick he remembers white man's
+custom, which tells him that it is very wrong to say sweet things to
+lady's face till he is quite married to her. After that they say them
+always."
+
+She looked at him suspiciously and muttering, "Here it is otherwise. For
+your own sake, man, I trust that you do not lie," left him, and
+drawing a stool up beside Alan's bed, sat herself down and examined him
+carefully, touching his face and hands with her long thin fingers.
+Then noting how white and wasted he was, of a sudden she began to weep,
+saying between her sobs:
+
+"Oh! if you should die, Vernoon, I will die also and be born again not
+as Asika, as I have been for so many generations, but as a white woman
+that I may be with you. Only first," she added, setting her teeth, "I
+will sacrifice every wizard in this land, for they have brought the
+sickness on you by their magic, and I will burn Bonsa-town and cast its
+gods to melt in the flames, and the Mungana with them. And then amid
+their ashes I will let out my life," and again she began to weep very
+piteously and to call him by endearing names and pray him that he would
+not die.
+
+Now Alan thought it time to wake up. He opened his eyes, stared at her
+vacantly, and asked if it were raining, which indeed it might have been,
+for her big tears were falling on his face. She uttered a gasp of joy.
+
+"No, no," she answered, "the weather is very fine. It is I--I who have
+rained because I thought you die." She wiped his forehead with the soft
+linen of her robe, then went on, "But you will not die; say that you
+will live, say that you will live for me, Vernoon."
+
+He looked at her, and feeble though he was, the awfulness of the
+situation sank into his soul.
+
+"I hope that I shall live," he answered. "I am hungry, please give me
+some food."
+
+Next instant there was a tumult near by, and when Alan looked up again
+it was to see Jeekie, very lightly clad, flying through the door.
+
+"It will be here presently," she said. "Oh! if you knew what I have
+suffered, if you only knew. Now you will recover whom I thought dead,
+for this fever passes quickly and there shall be such a sacrifice--no, I
+forgot, you hate sacrifices--there shall be no sacrifice, there shall
+be a thanksgiving, and every woman in the land shall break her bonds to
+husband or to lover and take him whom she desires without reproach or
+loss. I will do as I would be done by, that is the law you taught me, is
+it not?"
+
+This novel interpretation of a sacred doctrine, worthy of Jeekie
+himself, so paralyzed Alan's enfeebled brain that he could make no
+answer, nor do anything except wonder what would happen in Asiki-land
+when the decree of its priestess took effect. Then Jeekie arrived
+with something to drink which he swallowed with the eagerness of the
+convalescent and almost immediately went to sleep in good earnest.
+
+Alan's recovery was rapid, since as the Asika had told him, if a patient
+lives through it, the kind of fever that he had taken did not last long
+enough to exhaust his vital forces. When she asked him if he needed
+anything to make him well, he answered:
+
+"Yes, air and exercise."
+
+She replied that he should have both, and next morning his hated mask
+was put upon his face and he was supported by priests to a door where a
+litter, or rather litters were waiting, one for himself and another
+for Jeekie who, although in robust health, was still supposed to be
+officially ill and not allowed to walk upon his own legs. They entered
+these litters and were borne off till presently they met a third litter
+of particularly gorgeous design carried by masked bearers, wherein was
+the Asika herself, wearing her coronet and a splendid robe.
+
+Into this litter, which was fitted with a second seat, Alan was
+transferred, the Mungana, for whom it was designed, being placed in that
+vacated by Alan, which either by accident or otherwise, was no more seen
+that day. They went up the mountain side and to the edge of the great
+fall and watched the waters thunder down, though the crest of them
+they could not reach. Next they wandered off into the huge forests that
+clothed the slopes of the hills and there halted and ate. Then as the
+sun sank they returned to the gloomy Bonsa-Town beneath them.
+
+For Alan, notwithstanding his weakness and anxieties, it was a heavenly
+day. The Asika was passive, some new mood being on her, and scarcely
+troubled him at all except to call his attention to a tree, a flower, or
+a prospect of the scenery. Here on the mountain side, too, the air was
+sweet, and for the rest--well, he who had been so near to death, was
+escaped for an hour from that gloomy home of bloodshed and superstition,
+and saw God's sky again.
+
+This journey was the first of many. Every day the litters were waiting
+and they visited some new place, although into the town itself they
+never went. Moreover, if they passed through outlying villages, though
+Alan was forced to wear his mask, their inhabitants had been warned to
+absent themselves, so that they saw no one. The crops were left untended
+and the cattle and sheep lowed hungrily in their kraals. On certain
+days, at Alan's request, they were taken to the spots where the gold was
+found in the gravel bed of an almost dry stream that during the rains
+was a torrent.
+
+He descended from the litter and with the help of the Asika and Jeekie,
+dug a little in this gravel, not without reward, for in it they found
+several nuggets. Above, too, where they went afterwards, was a huge
+quartz reef denuded by water, which evidently had been worked in past
+ages and was still so rich that in it they saw plenty of visible gold.
+Looking at it Alan bethought him of his City days and of the hundreds
+of thousands of pounds capital with which this unique proposition might
+have been floated. Afterwards they were carried to the places where
+the gems were found, stuck about in the clay, like plums in a pudding,
+though none ever sought them now. But all these things interested the
+Asika not at all.
+
+"What is the good of gold," she asked of Alan, "except to make things
+of, or the bright stones except to play with? What is the good of
+anything except food to eat and power and wisdom that can open the
+secret doors of knowledge, of things seen and things unseen, and love
+that brings the lover joy and forgetfulness of self and takes away the
+awful loneliness of the soul, if only for a little while?"
+
+Not wishing to drift into discussion on the matter of love, Alan asked
+the priestess to define her "soul," whence it came and whither she
+believed it to be going.
+
+"My soul is I, Vernoon," she answered, "and already very, very old. Thus
+it has ruled amongst this people for thousands of years."
+
+"How is that?" he asked, "seeing that the Asika dies?"
+
+"Oh! no, Vernoon, she does not die; she only changes. The old body dies,
+the spirit enters into another body which is waiting. Thus until I was
+fourteen I was but a common girl, the daughter of a headman of that
+village yonder, at least so they tell me, for of this time I have no
+memory. Then the Asika died and as I had the secret marks and the beauty
+that is hers the priests burnt her body before Big Bonsa and suffocated
+me, the child, in the smoke of the burning. But I awoke again and when
+I awoke the past was gone and the soul of the Asika filled me, bringing
+with it its awful memories, its gathered wisdom, its passion of love and
+hate, and its power to look backward and before."
+
+"Do you ever do these things?" asked Alan.
+
+"Backward, yes, before very little; since you came, not at all, because
+my heart is a coward and I fear what I might see. Oh! Vernoon, Vernoon,
+I know you and your thoughts. You think me a beautiful beast who loves
+like a beast, who loves you because you are white and different from our
+men. Well, what there is of the beast in me the gods of my people gave,
+for they are devils and I am their servant. But there is more than that,
+there is good also which I have won for myself. I knew you would come
+even before I had seen your face, I knew you would come," she went
+on passionately, "and that is why I was yours already. But what would
+befall after you came, that I neither knew, nor know, because I will not
+seek, who could learn it all."
+
+He looked at her and she saw the doubt in his eyes.
+
+"You do not believe me, Vernoon. Very well, this night you shall see,
+you and that black dog of yours, that you may know I do not trick you,
+and he shall tell me what you see, for he being but a low-born pig will
+speak the truth, not minding if it hurts me, whereas you are gentle and
+might spare, and myself I have sworn not to search the future by an oath
+that I may not break."
+
+"What of the past?" asked Alan.
+
+"We will not waste time on it, for I know it all. Vernoon, have you no
+memories of Asiki-land? Do you think you never visited it before?"
+
+"Never," said Alan; "it was my uncle who came and ran away with Little
+Bonsa on his head."
+
+"That is news indeed," she replied mockingly. "Did you then think that I
+believed it to be you, though it is true that she who went before, or
+my spirit that was in her, fell into error for an hour, and thought that
+fool-uncle of yours was _the Man_. When she found her mistake she
+let him go, and bade the god go with him that it might bring back the
+appointed Man, as it has done; yes, that Little Bonsa, who knew him of
+old, might search him out from among all the millions of men, born or
+unborn, and bring him back to me. Therefore also she chose a young black
+dog who would live for many years, and bade the god to take him with
+her, and told him of the wealth of our people that it might be a bait
+upon the hook. Do you see, Vernoon, that yellow dirt was the bait, that
+I--I am the hook? Well, you have felt it before, so it should not gall
+you overmuch."
+
+Now Alan was more frightened than he had been since he set foot in
+Asiki-land, for of a sudden this woman became terrible to him. He felt
+that she knew things which were hidden from him. For the first time
+he believed in her, believed, that she was more than a mere passionate
+savage set by chance to rule over a bloodthirsty tribe; that she was one
+who had a part in his destiny.
+
+"Felt the hook?" he muttered. "I do not understand."
+
+"You are very forgetful," she answered. "Vernoon, we have lived and
+loved before, who were twin souls from the first. That man now, whom
+I told you lived once on the great river called the Nile, have you no
+memory of him? Well, well, let it be, I will tell you afterwards. Here
+we are at the Gold House again, to-night when I am ready I will send for
+you, and this I promise, you shall leave me wiser than you were."
+
+When they were alone in their room Alan told Jeekie of the expected
+entertainment of crystal gazing, or whatever it might be, and the part
+that he was to play in it.
+
+"You say that again, Major," said Jeekie.
+
+Alan repeated the information, giving every detail that he could
+remember.
+
+"Oh!" said Jeekie, "I see Asika show us things, 'cause she afraid to
+look at them herself, or take oath, or can't, or something. She no ask
+you tell her what she see, because you too kind hurt her feeling, if
+happen to be something beastly. But Jeekie just tell her because he so
+truthful and not care curse about her feeling. Well, that all right,
+Jeekie tell her sure enough. Only, Major, don't you interrupt. Quite
+possible these magic things, I see one show, you see another. So don't
+you go say, 'Jeekie, that a lie,' and give me away to Asika just because
+you think you see different, 'cause if so you put me into dirty hole,
+and of course I catch it afterwards. You promise, Major?"
+
+"Oh! yes, I promise. But, Jeekie, do you really think we are going to
+see anything?"
+
+"Can't say, Major," and he shook his head gloomily. "P'raps all put up
+job. But lots of rum things in world, Major, specially among beastly
+African savage who very curious and always ready pay blood to bad
+Spirit. Hope Asika not get this into her head, because no one know what
+happen. P'raps we see too much and scared all our lives; but p'raps all
+tommy rot."
+
+"That's it--tommy rot," answered Alan, who was not superstitious. "Well,
+I suppose that we must go through with it. But oh! Jeekie, I wish you
+would tell me how to get out of this."
+
+"Don't know, Major, p'raps never get out; p'raps learn how to-night.
+Have to do something soon if want to go. Mungana's time nearly up, and
+then--oh my eye!"
+
+
+
+It was night, about ten o'clock indeed, the hour at which Alan generally
+went to bed. No message had come and he began to hope that the Asika had
+forgotten, or changed her mind, and was just going to say so to Jeekie
+when a light coming from behind him attracted his attention and he
+turned to see her standing in a corner of the great room, holding a lamp
+in her hand and looking towards him. Her gold breastplate and crown were
+gone, with every other ornament, and she was clad, or rather muffled in
+robes of pure white fitted with a kind of nun's hood which lay back upon
+her shoulders. Also on her arm she carried a shawl or veil. Standing
+thus, all undecked, with her long hair fastened in a simple knot, she
+still looked very beautiful, more so than she had ever been, thought
+Alan, for the cruelty of her face had faded and was replaced by a
+mystery very strange to see. She did not seem quite like a natural
+woman, and that was the reason, perhaps, that Alan for the first time
+felt attracted by her. Hitherto she had always repelled him, but this
+night it was otherwise.
+
+"How did you come here?" he asked in a more gentle voice than he
+generally used towards her.
+
+Noting the change in his tone, she smiled shyly and even coloured a
+little, then answered:
+
+"This house has many secrets, Vernoon. When you are lord of it you shall
+learn them all, till then I may not tell them to you. But, come, there
+are other secrets which I hope you shall see to-night, and, Jeekie, come
+you also, for you shall be the mouth of your lord, so that you may tell
+me what perhaps he would hide."
+
+"I will tell you everything, everything, O Asika," answered Jeekie,
+stretching out his hands and bowing almost to the ground.
+
+Then they started and following many long passages as before, although
+whether they were the same or others Alan could not tell, came at last
+to a door which he recognized, that of the Treasure House. As they
+approached this door it opened and through it, like a hunted thing, ran
+the bedizened Mungana, husband of the Asika, terror, or madness, shining
+in his eyes. Catching sight of his wife, who bore the lamp, he threw
+himself upon his knees and snatching at her robe, addressed some
+petition to her, speaking so rapidly that Alan could not follow his
+words.
+
+For a moment she listened, then dragged her dress from his hand and
+spurned him with her foot. There was something so cruel in the gesture
+and the action, so full of deadly hate and loathing, that Alan, who
+witnessed it, experienced a new revulsion of feeling towards the
+Asika. What kind of a woman must she be, he wondered, who could treat a
+discarded lover thus in the presence of his successor?
+
+With a groan or a sob, it was difficult to say which, the poor man rose
+and perceived Alan, whose face he now beheld for the first time, since
+the Asika had told him not to mask himself as they would meet no one.
+The sight of it seemed to fill him with jealous fury; at any rate he
+leapt at his rival, intending, apparently, to catch him by the throat.
+Alan, who was watching him, stepped aside, so that he came into violent
+contact with the wall of the passage and, half-stunned by the shock,
+reeled onwards into the darkness.
+
+"The hog!" said the Asika, or rather she hissed it, "the hog, who dared
+to touch me and to strike at you. Well, his time is short--would that I
+could make it shorter! Did you hear what he sought of me?"
+
+Alan, who wished for no confidences, replied by asking what the Mungana
+was doing in the Treasure House, to which she answered that the spirits
+who dwelt there were eating up his soul, and when they had devoured it
+all he would go quite mad and kill himself.
+
+"Does this happen to all Munganas?" inquired Alan.
+
+"Yes, Vernoon, if the Asika hates them, but if she loves them it is
+otherwise. Come, let us forget the wretch, who would kill you if he
+could," and she led the way into the hall and up it, passing between the
+heaps of gold.
+
+On the table where lay the necklaces of gems she set down her lamp,
+whereof the light, all there was in that great place, flickered feebly
+upon the mask of Little Bonsa, which had been moved here apparently for
+some ceremonial purpose, and still more feebly upon the hideous, golden
+countenances and winding sheets of the ancient, yellow dead who stood
+around in scores placed one above the other, each in his appointed
+niche. It was an awesome scene and one that oppressed Jeekie very much,
+for he murmured to Alan:
+
+"Oh my! Major, family vault child's play to this hole, just like----"
+here his comparison came to an end, for the Asika cut it short with a
+single glance.
+
+"Sit here in front of me," she said to Alan, "and you, Jeekie, sit at
+your lord's side, and be silent till I bid you speak."
+
+Then she crouched down in a heap behind them, threw the cloth or veil
+she carried over her head, and in some way that they did not see,
+suddenly extinguished the lamp.
+
+Now they were in deep darkness, the darkness of death, and in utter
+silence, the silence of the dead. No glimmer of light, and yet to Alan
+it seemed as though he could feel the flash of the crystal eyes of
+Little Bonsa, and of all the other eyes set in the masks of those
+departed men who once had been the husbands of the bloodstained
+priestess of the Asiki, till one by one, as she wearied of them, they
+were bewitched to madness and to doom. In that utter quiet he thought
+even that he could hear them stir within their winding sheets, or it may
+have been that the Asika had risen and moved among them on some errand
+of her own. Far away something fell to the floor, a very light object,
+such as flake of rock or a scale of gold. Yet the noise of it struck his
+nerves loud as a clap of thunder, and those of Jeekie also, for he felt
+him start at his side and heard the sudden hammerlike beat of his heart.
+
+What was the woman doing in this dreadful place, he wondered. Well,
+it was easy to guess. Doubtless she had brought them here to scare and
+impress them. Presently a voice, that of some hidden priest, would speak
+to them, and they would be asked to believe it a message from the spirit
+world, or a spirit itself might be arranged--what could be easier in
+their mood and these surroundings?
+
+Now the Asika was speaking behind them in a muffled voice. From the tone
+of it she appeared to be engaged in argument or supplication in some
+strange tongue. At any rate Alan could not understand a word of what she
+said. The argument, or prayer, went on for a long while, with pauses
+as though for answers. Then suddenly it ceased and once more they were
+plunged into that unfathomable silence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN
+
+It seemed to Alan that he went to sleep and dreamed.
+
+He dreamed that it was late autumn in England. Leaves drifted down from
+the trees beneath the breath of a strong, damp wind, and ran or floated
+along the road till they vanished into a ditch, or caught against a pile
+of stones that had been laid ready for its repair. He knew the road well
+enough; he even knew the elm tree beneath which he seemed to stand on
+the crest of a hill. It was that which ran from Mr. Champers-Haswell's
+splendid house, The Court, to the church; he could see them both, the
+house to the right, the church to the left, and his eyesight seemed to
+have improved, since he was able to observe that at either place there
+was bustle and preparation as though for some big ceremony.
+
+Now the big gates of The Court opened and through them came a funeral.
+It advanced toward him with unnatural swiftness, as though it floated
+upon air, the whole melancholy procession of it. In a few seconds it had
+come and gone and yet during those seconds he suffered agony, for there
+arose in his mind a horrible terror that this was Barbara's burying. He
+could not have endured it for another moment; he would have cried out or
+died, only now the mourners passed him following the coffin, and in the
+first carriage he saw Barbara seated, looking sad and somewhat troubled,
+but well. A little further down the line came another carriage, and in
+it was Sir Robert Aylward, staring before him with cold, impassive face.
+
+In his dream Alan thought to himself that he must have borrowed this
+carriage, which would not be strange, as he generally used motors,
+for there was a peer's coronet upon the panels and the silver-mounted
+harness.
+
+The funeral passed and suddenly vanished into the churchyard gates,
+leaving Alan wondering why his cousin Haswell was not seated at
+Barbara's side. Then it occurred to him that it might be because he was
+in the coffin, and at that moment in his dream he heard the Asika asking
+Jeekie what he saw; heard Jeekie answering also, "A burying in the
+country called England."
+
+"Of whom, Jeekie?" Then after some hesitation, the answer:
+
+"Of a lady whom my lord loves very much. They bury her."
+
+"What was her name, Jeekie?"
+
+"Her name was Barbara."
+
+"Bar-bara, why that you told me was the name of his mother and his
+sister. Which of them is buried?"
+
+"Neither, O Asika. It was another lady who loved him very much and
+wanted to marry him, and that was why he ran away to Africa. But now she
+is dead and buried."
+
+"Are all women in England called Barbara, Jeekie?"
+
+"Yes, O Asika, Barbara means woman."
+
+"If your lord loved this Barbara, why then did he run away from her?
+Well, it matters not since she is dead and buried, for whatever their
+spirits may feel, no man cares for a woman that is dead until she
+clothes herself in flesh again. That was a good vision and I will reward
+you for it."
+
+"I have earned nothing, O Asika," answered Jeekie modestly, "who only
+tell you what I see as I must. Yet, O Asika," he added with a note of
+anxiety in his voice, "why do you not read these magic writings for
+yourself?"
+
+"Because I dare not, or rather because I can not," she answered
+fiercely. "Be silent, slave, for now the power of the good broods upon
+my soul."
+
+The dream went on. A great forest appeared, such a forest as they had
+passed before they met the cannibals, and set beneath one of the trees,
+a tent and in that tent Barbara, Barbara weeping. Someone began to lift
+the flap of the tent. She sprang up, snatching at a pistol that lay
+beside her, turning its muzzle towards her breast. A man entered the
+tent. Alan saw his face, it was his own. Barbara let fall the pistol
+and fell backwards as though a bullet from it had pierced her heart. He
+leapt towards her, but before he came to where she lay everything had
+vanished and he heard Jeekie droning out his lies to the Asika, telling
+her that the vision he had seen was one of her and his master seated
+with their arms about each other in a chamber of the Golden House.
+
+A third time the dream descended on Alan like a cloud. It seemed to him
+that he was borne beyond the flaming borders of the world. Everything
+around was new and unfamiliar, vast, changing, lovely, terrible. He
+stood alone upon a pearly plain and the sky above him was lit with red
+moons, many and many of them that hung there like lamps. Spirits began
+to pass him. He could catch something of their splendour as they sped
+by with incredible swiftness; he could hear the music of their laughter.
+One rose up at his side. It was the Asika, only a thousand times more
+splendid; clothed in all the glory of hell. Majestically she bent
+towards him, her glowing eyes held his, the deadly perfume of her breath
+beat upon his brow and made him drunken.
+
+She spoke to him and her voice sounded like distant bells.
+
+"Through many a life, through many a life," she said, "bought with much
+blood, paid for with a million tears, but mine at last, the soul that I
+have won to comfort my soul in the eternal day. Come to the place I have
+made ready for you, the hell that shall turn to heaven at your step,
+come, you by whom I am redeemed, and drive away those gods that torture
+me because I was their servant that I might win you."
+
+So she spoke, and though all his soul revolted, yet the fearful strength
+that was in her seemed to draw him onward whither she would go. Then a
+light shone and that light was the face of Barbara and with a suddenness
+that was almost awful, the wild dream came to an end.
+
+
+
+Alan was in his own room again, though how he got there he did not
+recollect.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "what has happened? I seem to have had a very curious
+dream, there in the Treasure-place, and to have heard you telling the
+Asika a string of incredible falsehoods."
+
+"Oh! no, Major, Jeekie can't lie, too good Christian; he tell her what
+_he_ see, or what he think she see if she look, 'cause though p'raps
+he see nothing, she never believe that. And," he added with a burst of
+confidence, "what the dickens it matter what he tell her, so long as she
+swallow same and keep quiet? Nasty things always make women like Asika
+quite outrageous. Give them sweet to suck, say Jeekie, and if they ill
+afterwards, that no fault of his. They had sweet."
+
+"Quite so, Jeekie, quite so, only I should advise you not to play too
+many tricks upon the Asika, lest she should happen to find you out. How
+did I get back here?"
+
+"Like man that walk in his sleep, Major. She go first, you follow, just
+as little lamb after Mary in hymn."
+
+"Jeekie, did you really see anything at all?"
+
+"No, Major, nothing partic'lar, except ghost of Mrs. Jeekie and of your
+reverend uncle, both of them very angry. That magic all stuff, Major.
+Asika put something in your grub make you drunk, so that you think her
+very wise. Don't think of it no more, Major, or you go off your chump.
+If Jeekie see nothing, depend on it there nothing to see."
+
+"Perhaps so, Jeekie, but I wish I could be sure you had seen nothing.
+Listen to me; we must get out of this place somehow, or as you say, I
+shall go off my chump. It's haunted, Jeekie, its haunted, and I think
+that Asika is a devil, not a woman."
+
+"That what priests say, Major, very old devil--part of Bonsa," he
+answered, looking at his master anxiously. "Well, don't you fret, Jeekie
+not afraid of devils, Jeekie get you out in good time. Go to bed and
+leave it all to Jeekie."
+
+
+
+Fifteen more days had gone by, and it was the eve of the night of the
+second full moon when Alan was destined to become the husband of the
+Asika. She had sent for him that morning and he found her radiant with
+happiness. Whether or no she believed Jeekie's interpretation of the
+visions she had called up, it seemed quite certain that her mind was
+void of fears and doubts. She was sure that Alan was about to become her
+husband, and had summoned all the people of the Asiki to be present at
+the ceremony of their marriage, and incidentally of the death of the
+Mungana who, poor wretch, was to be forced to kill himself upon that
+occasion.
+
+Before they parted she had spoken to Alan sweetly enough.
+
+"Vernoon," she said, "I know that you do not love me as I love you, but
+the love will come, since for your sake I will change myself. I will
+grow gentle; I will shed no more blood; that of the Mungana shall be the
+last, and even him I would spare if I could, only while he lives I may
+not marry you; it is the one law that is stronger than I am, and if
+I broke it I and you would die at once. You shall even teach me your
+faith, if you will, for what is good to you is henceforth good to me.
+Ask what you wish of me, and as an earnest I will do it if I can."
+
+Now Alan looked at her. There was one thing that he wished above all
+others--that she would let him go. But this he did not dare to ask;
+moreover, it would have been utterly useless. After all, if the Asika's
+love was terrible, what would be the appearance of her outraged hate?
+What could he ask? More gold? He hated the very name of the stuff, for
+it had brought him here. He remembered the old cannibal chief, Fahni,
+who, like himself, languished a prisoner, daily expecting death. Only
+that morning he had implored him to obtain his liberty.
+
+"I thank you, Asika," he said. "Now, if your words are true, set Fahni
+free and let him return to his own country, for if he stays here he will
+die."
+
+"Surely, Vernoon, that is a small thing," she answered, smiling, "though
+it is true that when he gets there he will probably make war upon
+us. Well, let him, let him." Then she clapped her hands and summoned
+priests, whom she bade go at once and conduct Fahni out of Bonsa-Town.
+Also she bade them loose certain slaves who were of the Ogula tribe,
+that they might accompany him laden with provisions, and send on orders
+to the outposts that Fahni and his party should pass unmolested from the
+land.
+
+This done, she began to talk to Alan about many matters, however little
+he might answer her. Indeed it seemed almost as though she feared to let
+him leave her side; as though some presentiment of loss oppressed her.
+
+At length, to Alan's great relief, the time came when they must
+part, since it was necessary for her to attend a secret ceremony of
+preparation or purification that was called "Putting-off-the-Past."
+Although she had been thrice summoned, still she would not let him go.
+
+"They call you, Asika," said Alan.
+
+"Yes, yes, they call me," she replied, springing up. "Leave me, Vernoon,
+till we meet to-morrow to part no more. Oh! why is my heart so heavy in
+me? That black dog of yours read the visions that I summoned but might
+not look on, and they were good visions. They showed that the woman
+who loved you is dead; they showed us wedded, and other deeper things.
+Surely he would not dare to lie to me, knowing that if he did I would
+flay him living and throw him to the vultures. Why, then, is my heart
+so heavy in me? Would you escape me, Vernoon? Nay, you are not so cruel,
+nor could you do it except by death. Moreover, man, know that even in
+death you cannot escape me, for there be sure I shall follow you and
+claim you, to whose side my spirit has toiled for ages, and what is
+there so strong that it can snatch you from my hand?"
+
+She looked at him a moment, and seizing his hand burst into a flood of
+tears, and seizing his hand threw herself upon her knees and kissed it
+again and again.
+
+"Go now," she said, "go, and let my love go with you, through lives and
+deaths, and all the dreams beyond, oh! let my love go with you, as it
+shall, Vernoon."
+
+So he went, leaving her weeping on her knees.
+
+
+
+During the dark hours that followed Alan and madness were not far apart.
+What could he do? Escape was utterly impossible. For weeks he and Jeekie
+had considered it in vain. Even if they could win out of the Gold House
+fortress, what hope had they of making their way through the crowded,
+tortuous town where, after the African fashion, peopled walked about all
+night, every one of whom would recognize the white man, whether he were
+masked or no? Besides, beyond the town were the river and the guarded
+walls and gates and beyond them open country where they would be cut off
+or run down. No, to attempt escape was suicide. Suicide! That gave him
+an idea, why should he not kill himself? It would be easy enough, for
+he still had his revolver and a few cartridges, and surely it was
+better than to enter on such a life as awaited him as the plaything of a
+priestess of a tribe of fetish-worshipping savages.
+
+But if he killed himself, how about Barbara and how about poor old
+Jeekie, who would certainly be killed also? Besides, it was not the
+right thing to do, and while there is life there is always hope.
+
+Alan paused in his walk up and down the room and looked at Jeekie,
+who sat upon the floor with his back resting against the stone altar,
+reflectively pulling down his thick under-lip and letting it fly back,
+negro-fashion.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "time's up. What am I to do?"
+
+"Do, Major?" he replied with affected cheerfulness. "Oh! that quite
+simple. Jeekie arrange everything. You marry Asika and by and by, when
+you master here and tired of her, you give her slip. Very interesting
+experience; no white man ever have such luck before. Asika not half bad,
+_if_ she fond of you; she like little girl in song, when she good,
+she very, very good. At any rate, nothing else to do. Marry Asika or
+spiflicate, which mean, Major, that Jeekie spiflicate too, and," he
+added, shaking his white head sadly, "he no like _that_. One or two
+little things on his mind that no get time to square up yet. Daren't
+pray like Christian here, 'cause afraid of Bonsas, and Bonsas come even
+with him by and by, 'cause he been Christian, so poor Jeekie fall down
+bump between two stools. 'Postles kick him out of heaven and Bonsas kick
+him out of hell, and where Jeekie go to then?"
+
+"Don't know, I am sure," answered Alan, smiling a little in spite of his
+sorrow, "but I think the Bonsas might find a corner for you somewhere.
+Look here, Jeekie, you old scamp, I am sorry for you, for you have been
+a good friend to me and we are fond of each other. But just understand
+this, I am not going to marry that woman if I can help it. It's against
+my principles. So I shall wait till to-morrow and then I shall walk out
+of this place. If the guards try to stop me I shall shoot them while I
+have any cartridges. Then I shall go on until they kill me."
+
+"Oh! But Major, they not kill you--never; they chuck blanket over your
+head and take you back to Asika. It Jeekie they kill, skin him alive-o,
+and all the rest of it."
+
+"Hope not, Jeekie, because they think we shall die the same day. But if
+so, I can't help it. To-morrow morning I shall walk out, and now that's
+settled. I am tired and going to sleep," and he threw himself down upon
+the bed and, being worn out with weariness and anxiety, soon fell fast
+asleep.
+
+But Jeekie did not sleep, although he too lay down upon his bed. On the
+contrary, he remained wide awake and reflected, more deeply perhaps
+than he had ever done before, being sure the superstition as to the
+dependence of Alan's life upon his own was now worn very thin, and that
+his hour was at hand. He thought of making Alan's wild attempt to
+depart impossible by the simple method of warning the Asika, but,
+notwithstanding his native selfishness, was too loyal to let that idea
+take root in his mind. No, there was nothing to be done; if the Major
+wished to start, the Major must start, and he, Jeekie, must pay the
+price. Well, he deserved it, who had been fool enough to listen to the
+secret promptings of Little Bonsa and conduct him to Asiki-land.
+
+Thus he passed several hours, for the most part in melancholy
+speculations as to the exact fashion of his end, until at length
+weariness overcame him also and, shutting his eyes, Jeekie began to
+doze. Suddenly he grew aware of the presence of some other person in
+the room, but thinking that it was only the Asika prowling about in her
+uncanny fashion, or perhaps her spirit, for how her body entered the
+place he could not guess, he did not stir, but lay breathing heavily and
+watching out of the corner of his eye.
+
+Presently a figure emerged from the shadows into the faint light thrown
+by the single lamp that burned above, and though it was wrapped in
+a dark cloak, Jeekie knew at once that it was not the Asika. Very
+stealthily the figure crept towards him, as a leopard might creep,
+and bent down to examine him. The movement caused the cloak to slip
+a little, and for an instant Jeekie caught sight of the wasted,
+half-crazed face of the Mungana, and of a long, curved knife that
+glittered in his hand. Paralyzed with fear, he lay quite still, knowing
+that should he show the slightest sign of consciousness that knife would
+pierce his heart.
+
+The Mungana watched him a while, then satisfied that he slept,
+turned round and, bending himself almost double, glided with infinite
+precautions towards Alan's bed, which stood some twelve or fourteen
+feet away. Silently as a snake that uncoils itself, Jeekie slipped from
+between his blankets and crept after him, his naked feet making no noise
+upon the mat-strewn floor. So intent was the Mungana upon the deed which
+he had come to do that he never looked back, and thus it happened that
+the two of them reached the bed one immediately behind the other.
+
+Alan was lying on his back with his throat exposed, a very easy victim.
+For a moment the Mungana stared. Then he erected himself like a snake
+about to strike, and lifted the great curved knife, taking aim at Alan's
+naked breast. Jeekie erected himself also, and even as the knife began
+to fall, with one hand he caught the arm that drove it and with the
+other the murderer's throat. The Mungana fought like a wild-cat, but
+Jeekie was too strong for him. His fingers held the man's windpipe like
+a vise. He choked and weakened; the knife fell from his hand. He sank to
+the ground and lay there helpless, whereon Jeekie knelt upon his chest
+and, possessing himself of the knife, held it within an inch of his
+heart.
+
+It was at this juncture that Alan woke up and asked sleepily what was
+the matter.
+
+"Nothing, Major," answered Jeekie in low and cheerful tones. "Snake
+just going to bite you and I catch him, that all," and he gave an extra
+squeeze to the Mungana's throat, who turned black in the face and rolled
+his eyes.
+
+"Be careful, Jeekie, or you will kill the man," exclaimed Alan,
+recognizing the Mungana and taking in the situation.
+
+"Why not, Major? He want kill you, and me too afterwards. Good riddance
+of bad rubbish, as Book say."
+
+"I am not so sure, Jeekie. Give him air and let me think. Tell him that
+if he makes any noise, he dies."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, and the Mungana's darkening eyes grew bright again as he
+drew his breath in great sobs.
+
+"Now, friend," said Alan in Asiki, "why did you wish to stab me?"
+
+"Because I hate you," answered the man, "who to-morrow will take my
+place and the wife I love."
+
+"As a year or two ago you took someone else's place, eh? Well, suppose
+now that I don't want either your place or your wife."
+
+"What would that matter even it if were true, white man, since she wants
+you?"
+
+"I am thinking, friend, that there is someone else she will want when
+she hears of this. How do you suppose that you will die to-morrow? Not
+so easily as you hope, perhaps."
+
+The Mungana's eyes seemed to sink into his head, and his face to sicken
+with terror. That shaft had gone home.
+
+"Suppose I make a bargain with you," went on Alan slowly. "Supposing
+I say: 'Mungana, show me the way out of this place, as you can, now at
+once. Or if you prefer it, refuse and be given up to the Asika?' Come,
+you are not too mad to understand. Answer--and quickly."
+
+"Would you kill me afterwards?" he asked.
+
+"Not I. Why should I wish to kill you? You can come with us and go where
+you will. Or you can stay here and die as the Asika directs."
+
+"I cannot believe you, white man. It is not possible that you should
+wish to run away from so much love and glory, or to spare one who
+would have slain you. Also it would be difficult to get you out of
+Bonsa-town."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "this fellow is mad after all, I think you had
+better go to the door and shout for the priests."
+
+"No, no, lord," begged the wretched creature, "I will trust you; I will
+try, though it is you who must be mad."
+
+"Very good. Stand over him, Jeekie, while I put on my things and, yes,
+give me that mask. If he stirs, kill him at once."
+
+So Alan made himself ready. Then he mounted guard over the Mungana, as
+did Jeekie, although he shook his head over their prospect of escape.
+
+"No go," he muttered, "no go! If we get past priests, Asika catch us
+with her magic. When I bolt with your reverend uncle last time, Little
+Bonsa arrange business because she go abroad fetch you. Now likely as
+not she bowl you out, and then good-bye Jeekie."
+
+Alan sternly bade him be quiet and stop behind if he did not wish to
+come.
+
+"No, no, Major," he answered, "I come all right. Asika very prejudiced
+beggar, and if she find me here alone--oh my! Better die double after
+all, Two's company, Major. Now, all ready, _March!_" and he gave the
+unfortunate Mungana a fearful kick as a hint to proceed.
+
+So utterly crushed was the poor wretch that even this insult did not
+stir him to resentment.
+
+"Follow me, white man," he said, "and if you desire to live, be silent.
+Throw your cloaks about your heads."
+
+They did so, and holding their revolvers in their right hands, glided
+after the Mungana. In the corner of the big room they came to a little
+stair. How it opened in that place where no stair had been, they could
+not see or even guess, for it was too dark, only now they knew the means
+by which the Asika had been able to visit them at night.
+
+The Mungana went first down the stair. Jeekie followed, grasping him by
+the arm with one hand, while in the other he kept his own knife ready
+to stab him at the first sign of treachery. Alan brought up the rear,
+keeping hold of Jeekie's cloak. They passed down twelve steps of stair,
+then turned to the right along a tunnel, then to the left, then to the
+right again. In the pitch darkness it was an awful journey, since they
+knew not whither they were being led, and expected that every moment
+would be their last. At length, quite of a sudden, they emerged into
+moonlight.
+
+Alan looked about him and knew the place. It was where the feast had
+been held two months before, when the priests were poisoned and the
+Bonsas chose the victims for sacrifice. Already it was prepared for the
+great festival of to-morrow, when the Mungana should drown himself and
+Alan be married to the Asika. There on the dais were the gold chairs in
+which they were to sit, and green branches of trees mixed with curious
+flags decked the vast amphitheatre beyond. Moreover, there was the broad
+canal, and floating in the midst of it the hideous gold fetish, Big
+Bonsa. The moon shone on its glaring, deathly eyes, its fish-like snout
+and its huge, pale teeth. Alan looked at it and shivered, for the thing
+was horrid and uncanny, and the utter loneliness in which it lay staring
+up at the moon, seemed to accentuate the horror.
+
+The Mungana noticed his fear and whispered:
+
+"We must swim the water. If you have a god, white man, pray him to
+protect you from Bonsa."
+
+"Lead on," answered Alan, "I do not dread a foul fetish, only the look
+of it. But is there no way round?"
+
+The Mungana shook his head and began to enter the canal. Jeekie, whose
+teeth were chattering, hung back, but Alan pushed him from behind, so
+sharply that he stumbled and made a splash. Then Alan followed, and as
+the cold, black water rose to his chest, looked again at Big Bonsa.
+
+It seemed to him that the thing had turned round and was staring at
+them. Surely a few seconds ago its snout pointed the other way. No, that
+must be fancy. He was swimming now, they were all swimming, Alan and
+Jeekie holding their pistols and little stock of cartridges above
+their heads to keep them dry. The gold head of Big Bonsa appeared to be
+lifting itself up in the water, as a reptile might, in order to get a
+better view of these proceedings, but doubtless it was the ripples that
+they caused which gave it this appearance. Only why did the ripples make
+it come towards them, quite gently, like an investigating fish?
+
+It was about ten yards off and they were in the middle of the canal. The
+Mungana had passed it. It was in a line with Alan's head. Oh Heavens! a
+sudden smother of foam, a rush like that of a torpedo, and set low down
+between two curving waves, a flash of gold. Then a gurgling, inhuman
+laugh and a weight upon his back. Down went Alan, down and down!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE END OF THE MUNGANA
+
+The moonlight above vanished. Alan was alone in the depths with this
+devil, or whatever it might be. He could feel hands and feet gripping
+and treading on him, but they did not seem to be human, for there were
+too many of them. Also they were very cold. He gave himself up for dead
+and thought of Barbara.
+
+Then something flashed into his mind. In his hand he still held the
+revolver. He pressed it upwards against the thing that was smothering
+him, and pulled the trigger. Again he pulled it, and again, for it was a
+self-cocking weapon, and even there deep down in the water he heard the
+thud of the explosion of the damp-proof copper cartridges. His lungs
+were bursting, his senses reeled, only enough of them remained to tell
+him that he was free of that strangling grip and floating upwards. His
+head rose above the surface, and through the mouth of his mask he drew
+in the sweet air with quick gasps. Down below him in the clear water
+he saw the yellow head of Big Bonsa rocking and quivering like a great
+reflected moon, saw too that it was beginning to rise. Yet he could not
+swim away from it, the fetish seemed to have hypnotized him. He heard
+Jeekie calling to him from the shallow water near the further bank, but
+still he floated there like a log and stared down at Big Bonsa wallowing
+beneath.
+
+Jeekie plunged back into the canal and with a few strong strokes reached
+him, gripped him by the arm and began to tow him to the shore. Before
+they came there Big Bonsa rose like a huge fish and tried to follow
+them, but could not, or so it seemed. At any rate it only whirled round
+and round upon the surface, while from it poured a white fluid that
+turned the black water to the hue of milk. Then it began to scream,
+making a thin and dreadful sound more like that of an infant in pain
+than anything they had ever heard, a very sickening sound that Alan
+never could forget. He staggered to the bank and stood staring at it
+where it bled, rolled and shrieked, but because of the milky foam could
+make nothing out in that light.
+
+"What is it, Jeekie?" he said with an idiotic laugh. "What is it?"
+
+"Oh! don't know. Devil and all, perhaps. Come on, Major, before it catch
+us."
+
+"I don't think it will catch anyone just at present. Devil or not
+hollow-nosed bullets don't agree with it. Shall I give it another,
+Jeekie?" and he lifted the pistol.
+
+"No, no, Major, don't play tomfool," and Jeekie grabbed him by the arm
+and dragged him away.
+
+A few paces further on stood the Mungana like a man transfixed, and even
+then Alan noticed that he regarded him with something akin to awe.
+
+"Stronger than the god," he muttered, "stronger than the god," and
+bounded forward.
+
+Following the path that ran beside the canal, they plunged into a
+tunnel, holding each other as before. In a few minutes they were through
+it and in a place full of cedar trees outside the wall of the Gold
+House, under which evidently the tunnel passed, for there it rose behind
+them. Beneath these cedar trees they flitted like ghosts, now in the
+moonlight and now in the shadow.
+
+The great fall to the back of the town was on their left, and in front
+of them lay one of the arms of the river, at this spot a raging
+torrent not much more than a hundred feet in width, spanned by a narrow
+suspension bridge which seemed to be supported by two fibre ropes. On
+the hither side of this bridge stood a guard hut, and to their dismay
+out of this hut ran three men armed with spears, evidently to cut them
+off. One of these men sped across the bridge and took his stand at the
+further end, while the other two posted themselves in their path at the
+entrance to it.
+
+The Mungana slacked his speed and said one word--"Finished!" and Jeekie
+also hesitated, then turned and pointed behind them.
+
+Alan looked back and flitting in and out between the cedar trees, saw
+the white robes of the priests of Bonsa. Then despair seized them all,
+and they rushed at the bridge. Jeekie reached it first and dodging
+beneath the spears of the two guards, plunged his knife into the breast
+of one of them, and butted the other with his great head, so that he
+fell over the side of the bridge on to the rocks below.
+
+"Cut, Major, cut!" he said to Alan, who pushed past him. "All right
+now."
+
+They were on the narrow swaying bridge--it was but a single plank--Alan
+first, then the Mungana, then Jeekie. When they were half way across
+Alan looked before him and saw a sight he could never forget.
+
+The third guard at the further side was sawing through one of the fibre
+ropes with his spear. There they were on the middle of the bridge with
+the torrent raving fifty feet beneath them, and the man had nearly
+severed the rope! To get over before it parted was impossible; behind
+were the priests; beneath the roaring river. All three of them stopped
+as though paralyzed, for all three had seen. Something struck against
+Alan's leg, it was his pistol that still remained fastened to his wrist
+by its leather thong. He cocked and lifted it, took aim and fired.
+The shot missed, which was not wonderful considering the light and the
+platform on which the shooter stood. It missed, but the man, astonished,
+for he had never seen or heard such a thing before, stopped his sawing
+for a moment, and stared at them. Then as he began again Alan fired once
+more, and this time by good fortune the bullet struck the man somewhere
+in the body. He fell, and as he fell grasped the nearly separated rope
+and hung to it.
+
+"Get hold of the other rope and come on," yelled Alan, and once more
+they bounded forward.
+
+"My God! it's going," he yelled again. "Hold fast, Jeekie, hold fast!"
+
+Next instant the rope parted and the man vanished. The bridge tipped
+over, and supported by the remaining rope, hung edgeways up. To this
+rope the three of them clung desperately, resting their feet upon the
+edge of the swaying plank. For a few seconds they remained thus, afraid
+to stir, then Jeekie called out:
+
+"Climb on, Major, climb on like one monkey. Look bad, but quite safe
+really."
+
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan began to climb, shifting his
+feet along the plank edge and his hands along the rope, which creaked
+and stretched beneath their threefold weight.
+
+It was a horrible journey, and in his imagination took at least an hour.
+Yet they accomplished it, for at last they found themselves huddled
+together but safe upon the further bank. The sweat pouring down from
+his head almost blinded Alan; a deadly nausea worked within him, sickly
+tremors shot up and down his spine; his brain swam. Yet he could hear
+Jeekie, in whom excitement always took the form of speech, saying
+loudly:
+
+"Think that man no liar what say our great papas was monkeys. Never look
+down on monkey no more. Wake up, Major, those priests monkey-men too,
+for we all brothers, you know. Wait a bit, I stop their little game,"
+and springing up with three or four cuts of the big curved knife, he
+severed the remaining rope just as their pursuers reached the further
+side of the chasm.
+
+They shouted with rage as the long bridge swung back against the rock,
+the cut end of it falling into the torrent, and waved their spears
+threateningly. To this demonstration Jeekie replied with gestures
+of contempt such as are known to street Arabs. Then he looked at the
+Mungana, who lay upon the ground a melancholy and dilapidated spectacle,
+for the perspiration had washed lines of paint off his face and patches
+of dye from his hair, also his gorgeous robes were water-stained and
+his gem necklaces broken. Having studied him a while Jeekie kicked
+him meditatively till he got up, then asked him to set out the exact
+situation. The Mungana answered that they were safe for a while, since
+that torrent could only be crossed by the broken bridge and was too
+rapid to swim. The Asiki, he added, must go a long journey round through
+the city in order to come at them, though doubtless they would hunt them
+down in time.
+
+Here Jeekie cut him short, since he knew all that country well and
+only wished to learn whether any more bridges had been built across the
+torrent since he was a boy.
+
+"Now, Major," he said, "you get up and follow me, for I know every inch
+of ground, also by and by good short cut over mountains. You see
+Jeekie very clever boy, and when he herd sheep and goat he made note of
+everything and never forget nothing. He pull you out of this hole, never
+fear."
+
+"Glad to hear it, I am sure," answered Alan as he rose. "But what's to
+become of the Mungana?"
+
+"Don't know and don't care," said Jeekie; "no more good to us. Can go
+and see how Big Bonsa feel, if he like," and stretching out his big hand
+as though in a moment of abstraction, he removed the costly necklaces
+from their guide's neck and thrust them into the pouch he wore. Also he
+picked up the gilded linen mask which Alan had removed from his head and
+placed it in the same receptacle, remarking, that he "always taught that
+it wicked to waste anything when so many poor in the world."
+
+Then they started, the Mungana following them. Jeekie paused and waved
+him off, but the poor wretch still came on, whereon Jeekie produced the
+big, crooked knife, Mungana's own knife.
+
+"What are you going to do," said Alan, awaking to the situation.
+
+"Cut off head of that cocktail man, Major, and so save him lot of
+trouble. Also we got no grub, and if we find any he want eat a lot. Chop
+what do for two p'raps, make very short commons for three. Also he might
+play dirty trick, so much best dead."
+
+"Nonsense," said Alan sternly; "let the poor devil come along if he
+likes. One good turn deserves another."
+
+"Just so, Major; that hello-swello want cut our throats, so I want cut
+his--one good turn deserve another, as wise king say in Book, when
+he give half baby to woman what wouldn't have it. Well, so be, Major,
+specially as it no matter, for he not stop with us long."
+
+"You mean that he will run away, Jeekie?"
+
+"Oh! no, he not run away, he in too blue funk for that. But something
+run away with him, because he ought die to-morrow night. Oh! yes, you
+see, you see, and Jeekie hope that something not run away with you too,
+Major, because you ought be married at same time."
+
+"Hope not, I am sure," answered Alan, and bethinking him of Big Bonsa
+wallowing and screaming on the water and bleeding out white blood, he
+shivered a little.
+
+By this time, advancing at a trot, the Mungana running after them like a
+dog, they had entered the bush pierced with a few wandering paths. Along
+these paths they sped for hour after hour, Jeekie leading them without
+a moment's hesitation. They met no man and heard nothing, except
+occasional weird sounds which Alan put down to wild beasts, but Jeekie
+and the Mungana said were produced by ghosts. Indeed it appeared that
+all this jungle was supposed to be haunted, and no Asiki would enter it
+at night, or unless he were very bold and protected by many charms, by
+day either. Therefore it was an excellent place for fugitives who sorely
+needed a good start.
+
+At length the day began to dawn just as they reached the main road where
+it crossed the hills, whence on his journey thither Alan had his first
+view of Bonsa Town. Peering from the edge of the bush, they perceived a
+fire burning near the road and round it five or six men, who seemed
+to be asleep. Their first thought was to avoid them, but the Mungana,
+creeping up to Alan, for Jeekie he would not approach, whispered:
+
+"Not Asiki, Ogula chief and slaves who left Bonsa Town yesterday."
+
+They crept nearer the fire and saw that this was so. Then rejoicing
+exceedingly, they awoke the old chief, Fahni, who at first thought they
+must be spirits. But when he recognized Alan, he flung himself on his
+knees and kissed his hand, because to him he owed his liberty.
+
+"No time for all that, Fahni," said Alan. "Give us food."
+
+Now of this as it chanced there was plenty, since by the Asika's orders
+the slaves had been laden with as much as they could carry. They ate of
+it ravenously, and while they ate, told Fahni something of the story of
+their escape. The old chief listened amazed, but like Jeekie asked Alan
+why he had not killed the Mungana, who would have killed him.
+
+Alan, who was in no mood for long explanations, answered that he had
+kept him with them because he might be useful.
+
+"Yes, yes, friend, I see," exclaimed the old cannibal, "although he is
+so thin he will always make a meal or two at a pinch. Truly white men
+are wise and provident. Like the ants, you take thought for the morrow."
+
+As soon as they had swallowed their food they started all together, for
+although Alan pointed out to Fahni that he might be safer apart, the old
+chief who had a real affection for him, would not be persuaded to leave
+him.
+
+"Let us live or die together," he said.
+
+Now Jeekie, abandoning the main road, led them up a stream, walking in
+the water so that their footsteps might leave no trace, and thus away
+into the barren mountains which rose between them and the great swamp.
+On the crest of these mountains Alan turned and looked back towards
+Bonsa Town. There far across the fertile valley was the hateful,
+river-encircled place. There fell the great cataract in the roar of
+which he had lived for so many weeks. There were the black cedars and
+there gleamed the roofs of the Gold House, his prison where dwelt the
+Asika and the dreadful fetishes of which she was the priestess. To him
+it was like the vision of a nightmare, he could scarcely think it real.
+And yet by this time doubtless they sought him far and wide. What mood,
+he wondered, would the Asika be in when she learned of his escape and
+the fashion of it, and how would she greet him if he were recaptured and
+taken back to her? Well, he would not be recaptured. He had still some
+cartridges and he would fight till they killed him, or failing that,
+save the last of them for himself. Never, never could he endure to be
+dragged back to Bonsa Town there to live and die.
+
+They went on across the mountains, till in the afternoon once more they
+saw the road running beneath them like a ribbon, and at the end of it
+the lagoon. Now they rested a while and held a consultation while they
+ate. Across that lagoon they could not escape without a canoe.
+
+"Lord," said the Mungana presently, "yesterday when these cannibals
+were let go a swift runner was sent forward commanding that a good boat
+should be provisioned and made ready for them, and by now doubtless this
+has been done. Let them descend to the road, walk on to the bay and ask
+for the boat. Look, yonder, far away a tongue of land covered with trees
+juts out into the lake. We will make our way thither and after nightfall
+this chief can row back to it and take us into the canoe."
+
+Alan said that the plan was good, but Jeekie shook his head, asking what
+would happen if Fahni, finding himself safe upon the water, thought it
+wisest not to come to fetch them.
+
+Alan translated his words to the old chief, whereon Fahni wanted to
+fight Jeekie because of the slur that he had cast upon his honour. This
+challenge Jeekie resolutely declined, saying that already there were
+plenty of ways to die in Asiki-land without adding another to them. Then
+Fahni swore by his tribal god and by the spirit of every man he had
+ever eaten, that he would come to that promontory after dark, if he were
+still alive.
+
+So they separated, Fahni and his men slipping down to the road, which
+they did without being seen by anyone, while Alan, Jeekie and the
+Mungana bore away to the right towards the promontory. The road was long
+and rough and, though by good fortune they met no one, since the few who
+dwelt in these wild parts had gone up to Bonsa Town to be present at
+the great feast, the sun was sinking before ever they reached the place.
+Moreover, this promontory proved to be covered with dense thorn scrub,
+through which they must force a way in the gathering darkness, not
+without hurt and difficulty. Still they accomplished it and at length,
+quite exhausted, crept to the very point, where they hid themselves
+between some stones at the water's edge.
+
+Here they waited for three long hours, but no boat came.
+
+"All up a gum-tree now, Major," said Jeekie. "Old blackguard, Fanny,
+bolt and leave us here, and to-morrow morning Asika nobble us. Better
+have gone down to bay, steal his boat and leave him behind, because
+Asika no want _him_."
+
+Alan made no answer. He was too tired, and although he trusted Fahni, it
+seemed likely enough that Jeekie was right, or perhaps the cannibals had
+not been able to get the boat. Well, he had done his best, and if Fate
+overtook them it was no fault of his. He began to doze, for even their
+imminent peril could not keep his eyes open, then presently awoke with
+a start, for in his sleep he thought he heard the sounds of paddles
+beating the quiet water. Yes, there dimly seen through the mist, was a
+canoe, and seated in the stern of it Fahni. So that danger had gone by
+also.
+
+He woke his companions, who slept at his side, and very silently they
+rose, stepping from rock to rock till they reached the canoe and entered
+it. It was not a large craft, barely big enough to hold them all indeed,
+but they found room, and then at a sign from Fahni the oarsmen gave way
+so heartily that within half an hour they had lost sight of the accursed
+shores of Asiki-land, although presently its mountains showed up clearly
+beneath the moon.
+
+Meanwhile Fahni had told his tale. It appeared that when he reached the
+bay he found the Asiki headman who dwelt there, and those under him, in
+a state of considerable excitement.
+
+Rumours had reached them that someone had escaped from Bonsa Town; they
+thought it was the Mungana. Fahni asked who had brought the rumour,
+whereon the headman answered that it came "in a dream," and would say no
+more. Then he demanded the canoe which had been promised to him and his
+people, and the headman admitted that it was ready in accordance with
+orders received from the Asika, but demurred to letting him have it. A
+long argument followed, in the midst of which Fahni and his men got into
+the canoe, the headman apparently not daring to use force to prevent
+him. Just as they were pushing off a messenger arrived from Bonsa Town,
+reeling with exhaustion and his tongue hanging from his jaws, who called
+out that it was the white man who had escaped with his servant and the
+Mungana, and that although they were believed to be still hidden in the
+holy woods near Bonsa Town, none were to be allowed to leave the bay. So
+the headman shouted to Fahni to return, but he pretended not to hear
+and rowed away, nor did anyone attempt to follow him. Still it was only
+after nightfall that he dared to put the boat about and return to the
+headland to pick up Alan and the others as he had promised. That was all
+he had to say.
+
+Alan thanked him heartily for his faithfulness and they paddled on
+steadily, putting mile after mile of water between them and Asiki-land.
+He wondered whether he had seen the last of that country and its
+inhabitants. Something within him answered No. He was sure that the
+Asika would not allow him to depart in peace without making some
+desperate effort to recapture him. Far as he was away, it seemed to him
+that he could feel her fury hanging over him like a cloud, a cloud that
+would burst in a rain of blood. Doubtless it would have burst already
+had it not been for the accident that he and his companions were still
+supposed to be hiding in the woods. But that error must be discovered,
+and then would come the pursuit.
+
+He looked at the full moon shining upon him and reflected that at this
+very hour he should have been seated upon the chair of state, wedding,
+or rather being wedded by the Asika in the presence of Big and Little
+Bonsa and all the people. His eye fell upon the Mungana, who had also
+been destined to play a prominent part in that ceremony. At once he saw
+that there was something wrong with the man. A curious change had come
+over his emaciated face. It was working like that of a maniac. Foam
+appeared upon his dyed lips, his haunted eyes rolled, his thin hands
+gripped the side of the canoe and he began to sing, or rather howl like
+a dog baying at the stars. Jeekie hit him on the head and bade him be
+silent, but he took no notice, even when he hit him again more heavily.
+Presently came the climax. The man sprang up in the canoe, causing it
+to rock from side to side. He pointed to the full moon above and howled
+more loudly than before; he pointed to something that he seemed to see
+in the air near by and gibbered as though in terror. Then his eyes fixed
+themselves upon the water at which he stared.
+
+Harder and harder he stared, his head sinking lower every moment, till
+at length without another sound, very quietly and unexpectedly he
+went over the side of the boat. For a few seconds they saw his
+bright-coloured garments sinking to the depths, then he vanished.
+
+They waited a while, expecting that he would rise again. But he never
+rose. A shot-weighted corpse could not have disappeared more finally and
+completely. The thing was very awful, and for a while there was silence,
+which as usual was broken by Jeekie.
+
+"That gay dog gone," he said in a reflective voice. "All those old
+ghosts come to fetch him at proper time. No good run away from ghosts;
+they travel too quick; one jump, and pop up where you no expect. Well,
+more place for Jeekie now," and he spread himself out comfortably in the
+empty seat, adding, "like hello-swello's room much better than company,
+he go in scent-bath every day and stink too much, all that water never
+wash _him_ clean."
+
+Thus died the Mungana, and such was the poor wretch's requiem. With
+a shiver Alan reflected that had it not been for him and his insane
+jealousy, he too might have been expected to go into that same
+scent-bath and have his face painted like a chorus girl. Only would he
+escape the spell that had destroyed his predecessor in the affections of
+the priestess of the Bonsas? Or would some dim power such as had drawn
+Mungana to the death drag him back to the arms of the Asika or to the
+torture pit of "Great Swimming Head." He remembered his dream in the
+Treasure Hall and shuddered at the very thought of it, for all he had
+undergone and seen made him superstitious; then bade the men paddle
+faster, ever faster.
+
+All that night they rowed on, taking turns to rest, except Alan and
+Jeekie, who slept a good deal and as a consequence awoke at dawn much
+refreshed. When the sun rose they found themselves across the lagoon,
+over thirty miles from the borders of Asiki-land, almost at the spot
+where the river up which they had travelled some months before,
+flowed out of the lake. Whether by chance or skill Fahni had steered a
+wonderfully straight course. Now, however, they were face to face with a
+new trouble, for scarcely had they begun to descend the river when they
+discovered that at this dry season of the year it was in many places
+too shallow to allow the canoe to pass over the sand and mud banks.
+Evidently there was but one thing to be done--abandon it and walk.
+
+So they landed, ate from their store of food and began a terrible and
+toilsome journey. On either side of the river lay dessicated swamp
+covered with dead reeds ten or twelve feet high. Doubtless beyond the
+swamp there was high land, but in order to reach this, if it existed,
+they would be obliged to force a path through miles of reeds. Therefore
+they thought it safer to follow the river bank. Their progress was very
+slow, since continually they must make detours to avoid a quicksand or
+a creek, also the stones and scrubby growth delayed them so that fifteen
+or at most twenty miles was a good day's march.
+
+Still they went on steadily, seeing no man, and when their food was
+exhausted, living on the fish which they caught in plenty in the
+shallows, and on young flapper ducks that haunted the reeds. So at
+length they came to the main river into which this tributary flowed, and
+camped there thankfully, believing that if any pursuit of them had been
+undertaken, it was abandoned. At least Alan and the rest believed this,
+but Jeekie did not.
+
+On the following morning, shortly after dawn, Jeekie awoke his master.
+
+"Come here, Major," he said in a solemn voice, "I got something pretty
+show you," and he led him to the foot of an old willow tree, adding,
+"now up you go, Major, and look."
+
+So Alan went up and from the topmost fork of that tree saw a sight at
+which his blood turned cold. For there, not five miles behind them,
+on either side of the river bank, the light gleaming on their spears,
+marched two endless columns of men, who from their head-dresses he
+took to be Asiki. For a minute he looked, then descended the tree and
+approaching the others, asked what was to be done.
+
+"Hook, scoot, bolt, leg it!" exclaimed Jeekie emphatically; then he
+licked his finger, held it up to the wind and added, "but first fire
+reeds and make it hot for Bonsa crowd."
+
+This was a good suggestion and one on which they acted without delay.
+Taking red embers, they blew them into a flame and lit torches, which
+they applied to the reeds over a width of several hundred yards. The
+strong northward wind soon did the rest; indeed with a quarter of an
+hour a vast sheet of flame twenty or thirty feet in height was rushing
+towards the Asiki columns. Then they began their advance along the river
+bank, running at a steady trot, for here the ground was open.
+
+All that day they ran, pausing at intervals to get their breath, and at
+night rested because they must. When the light came upon the following
+morning they looked back from a little hill and saw the outposts of the
+Asiki advancing not a mile behind. Doubtless some of the army had been
+burned, but the rest, guessing their route, had forced a way through
+the reeds and cut across country. So they began to run again harder than
+before, and kept their lead during the morning. But when afternoon came
+the Asika gained on them. Now they were breasting a long rise, the river
+running in the cleft beneath, and Jeekie, who seemed to be absolutely
+untiring, held Alan by the hand, Fahni following close behind. Two of
+their men had fallen down and been abandoned, and the rest straggled.
+
+"No go, Jeekie," gasped Alan, "they will catch us at the top of the
+hill."
+
+"Never say die, Major, never say die," puffed Jeekie, "they get blown
+too and who know what other side of hill?"
+
+Somehow they struggled to the crest and behold! there beneath them was a
+great army of men.
+
+"Ogula!" yelled Jeekie, "Ogula! Just what I tell you, Major, who know
+what other side of _any_ hill."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A MEETING IN THE FOREST
+
+In five minutes more Alan and Jeekie were among the Ogula, who, having
+recognized their chief while he was yet some way off, greeted him with
+rapturous cheers and the clapping of hands. Then as there was no time
+for explanation, they retreated across a little stream which ran down
+the valley, four thousand or more of them, and prepared for battle. That
+evening, however, there was no fighting, for when the first of the Asiki
+reached the top of the rise and saw that the fugitives had escaped to
+the enemy, who were in strength, they halted and finally retired.
+
+Now Alan, and Fahni also, hoped that the pursuit was abandoned, but
+again Jeekie shook his big head, saying:
+
+"Not at all, Major, I know Asiki and their little ways. While one of
+them alive, not dare go back to Asika without _you_, Major."
+
+"Perhaps she is with them herself," suggested Alan, "and we might treat
+with her."
+
+"No, Major, Asika never leave Bonsa Town, that against law, and if she
+do so, priests make another Asika and kill her when they catch her."
+
+After this a council of war was held, and it was decided to camp there
+that night, since the position was good to meet an attack if one should
+be made, and the Ogula were afraid of being caught on the march with
+their backs towards the enemy. Alan was glad enough to hear this
+decision, for he was quite worn out and ready to take any risk for a
+few hours' rest. At this council he learned also that the Asiki bearers
+carrying his gold with their Ogula guides had arrived safely among
+the Ogula, who had mustered in answer to their chief's call and were
+advancing towards Asiki-land, though the business was one that did not
+please them. As for these Asiki bearers, it seemed that they had gone on
+into the forest with the gold, and nothing more had been heard of them.
+
+As they were leaving the council Alan asked Jeekie if he had any tidings
+of his mother, who had been their first messenger.
+
+"No, Major," he answered gloomily, "can't learn nothing of my ma, don't
+know where she is. Ogula camp no place for old girl if they short of
+chop and hungry. But p'raps she never get there; I nose round and find
+out."
+
+Apparently Jeekie did "nose round" to some purpose, for just as Alan
+was dropping off to sleep in his bough shelter a most fearful din
+arose without, through which he recognized the vociferations of Jeekie.
+Running out of the shelter he discovered his retainer and a great Ogula
+whom he knew again as the headman who had been imprisoned with him and
+freed by the Asika to guide the bearers, rolling over and over on the
+ground, watched by a curious crowd. Just as he arrived Jeekie, who
+notwithstanding his years was a man of enormous strength, got the better
+of the Ogula and kneeling on his stomach, was proceeding to throttle
+him. Rushing at him, Alan dragged him off and asked what was the matter.
+
+"Matter, Major!" yelled the indignant Jeekie. "My ma inside this black
+villain, _that_ the matter. Dirty cannibal got digestion of one ostrich
+and eat her up with all his mates, all except one who not like her taste
+and tell me. They catch poor old lady asleep by road so stop and lunch
+at once when Asiki bearers not looking. Let me get at him, Major, let me
+get at him. If I can't bury my ma, as all good son ought to do, I bury
+him, which next best thing."
+
+"Jeekie, Jeekie," said Alan, "exercise a Christian spirit and let
+bygones be bygones. If you don't, you will make a quarrel between us and
+the Ogula, and they will give us up to the Asiki. Perhaps the man
+did not eat your mother; I understand that he denies it, and when you
+remember what she was like, it seems incredible. At any rate he has a
+right to a trial, and I will speak to Fahni about it to-morrow."
+
+So they were separated, but as it chanced that case never came on, for
+next morning this Ogula was killed in the fighting together with two of
+his companions, while the others involved in the charge kept themselves
+out of sight. Whether Jeekie's "ma" was or was not eaten by the Ogula no
+one ever learned for certain. At least she was never heard of any more.
+
+Alan was sleeping heavily when a sound of rushing feet and of strange,
+thrilling battle-cries awoke him. He sprang up, snatching at a spear and
+shield which Jeekie had provided for him, and ran out to find from the
+position of the moon that dawn was near.
+
+"Come on, Major," said Jeekie, "Asiki make night attack; they always
+like do everything at night who love darkness, because their eye evil.
+Come on quick, Major," and he began to drag him off toward the rear.
+
+"But that's the wrong way," said Alan presently. "They are attacking
+over there."
+
+"Do you think Jeekie fool, Major, that he don't know that? He take you
+where they _not_ attacking. Plenty Ogula to be killed, but not _many_
+white men like you, and in all world only _one_ Jeekie!"
+
+"You cold-blooded old scoundrel!" ejaculated Alan as he turned and
+bolted back towards the noise of fighting, followed by his reluctant
+servant.
+
+By the time that he reached the first ranks, which were some way off,
+the worst of the attack was over. It had been short and sharp, for the
+Asiki had hoped to find the Ogula unprepared and to take their camp with
+a rush. But the Ogula, who knew their habits, were waiting for them,
+so that presently they withdrew, carrying off their wounded and leaving
+about fifty dead upon the ground. As soon as he was quite sure that the
+enemy were all gone, Jeekie, armed with a large battle-axe, went off to
+inspect these fallen soldiers. Alan, who was helping the Ogula wounded,
+wondered why he took so much interest in them. Half an hour later his
+curiosity was satisfied, for Jeekie returned with over twenty heavy gold
+rings, torques, and bracelets slung over his shoulder.
+
+"Where did you get those, Jeekie?" he asked.
+
+"Off poor chaps that peg out just now, Major. Remember Asiki soldiers
+nearly always wear these things and that they no more use to them. But
+if ever he get out of this Jeekie want spend his old age in respectable
+peace. So he fetch them. Hard work, though, for rings all in one bit
+and Asiki very tough to chop. Don't look cross, Major; you remember
+what 'postle say, that he who no provide for his own self worse than
+cannibal."
+
+Just then Fahni came up and announced that the Asiki general had sent a
+messenger into the camp proposing terms of peace.
+
+"What terms?" asked Alan.
+
+"These, white man: that we should surrender you and your servant and go
+our way unharmed."
+
+"Indeed, Fahni, and what did you answer?"
+
+"White man, I refused; but I tell you," he added warningly, "that my
+captains wished to accept. They said that I had come back to them safe
+and that they fear the Asiki, who are devils, not men, and who will
+bring the curse of Bonsa on us if we go on fighting with them. Still I
+refused, saying that if they gave you up I would go with you, who saved
+my life from the lion and afterwards from the priests of Bonsa. So the
+messenger went back and, white man, we march at once, and I pray you
+always to keep close to me that I may watch over you."
+
+Then began that long tramp down the river, which Alan always thought
+afterwards tried him more than any of the terrible events of his escape.
+For although there was but little fighting, only rearguard actions
+indeed, every day the Asiki sent messengers renewing their offers of
+peace on the sole condition of the surrender of himself and Jeekie. At
+last one evening they came to that place where Alan first met the Ogula,
+and once more he camped upon the island on which he had shot the lion.
+At nightfall, after he had eaten, Fahni visited him here and Alan boded
+evil from his face.
+
+"White man," he said, "I can protect you no longer. The Asiki messengers
+have been with us again and they say that unless we give you up
+to-morrow at the dawn, their army will push on ahead of us and destroy
+my town, which is two days' march down the river, and all the women and
+children in it, and that afterwards they will fight a great battle with
+us. Therefore my people say that I must give you up, or that if I do not
+they will elect another chief and do so themselves."
+
+"Then you will give up a dead man, Fahni."
+
+"Friend," said the old chief in a low voice, "the night is dark and the
+forest not so far away. Moreover, I have set no guards on that side of
+the river, and Jeekie here does not forget a road that he has travelled.
+Lastly, I have heard it said that there are some other white people with
+soldiers camped in the edge of the forest. Now, if you were not here in
+the morning, how could I give you up?"
+
+"I understand, Fahni. You have done your best for me, and now,
+good-night. Jeekie and I are going to take a walk. Sometimes you will
+think of the months we spent together in Bonsa-Town, will you not?"
+
+"Yes, and of you also, white man, for so long as I shall live. Walk
+fast and far, for the Asiki are clever at following a spoor. Good-night,
+Friend, and to you, Jeekie the cunning, good-night also. I go to tell my
+captains that I will surrender you at dawn," and without more words he
+vanished out of their sight and out of their lives.
+
+Meanwhile Jeekie, foreseeing the issue of this talk, was already engaged
+in doing up their few belongings, including the gold rings, some food,
+and a native cooking pot, in a bundle surrounded by a couple of bark
+blankets.
+
+"Come on, Major," he said, handing Alan one spear and taking another
+himself. "Old cannibal quite right, very nice night for a walk. Come on,
+Major, river shallow just here. I think this happen and try it before
+dark. You just follow Jeekie, that all you got to do."
+
+So leaving the fire burning in front of their bough shelter, they waded
+the stream and started up the opposing slope, meeting no man. Dark as
+it was, Jeekie seemed to have no difficulty in finding the way, for as
+Fahni said, a native does not forget the path he has once travelled. All
+night long they walked rapidly, and when dawn broke found themselves at
+the edge of the forest.
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "what did Fahni mean by that tale about white
+people?"
+
+"Don't know, Major, think perhaps he lie to let you down easy. My golly!
+what that?"
+
+As he spoke a distant echo reached their ears, the echo of a rifle shot.
+"Think Fanny not lie after all," went on Jeekie; "that white man's gun,
+sharp crack, smokeless powder, but wonder how he come in this place.
+Well, we soon find out. Come on, Major."
+
+Tired as they were they broke into a run; the prospect of seeing a white
+face again was too much for them. Half a mile or so further on they
+caught sight of a figure evidently engaged in stalking game among the
+trees, or so they judged from his cautious movements.
+
+"White man!" said Jeekie, and Alan nodded.
+
+They crept forward silently and with care, for who knew what this white
+man might be after, keeping a great tree between them and the man, till
+at length, passing round its bole, they found themselves face to face
+with him and not five yards away. Notwithstanding his unaccustomed
+tropical dress and his face burnt copper colour by the sun, Alan knew
+the man at once.
+
+"Aylward!" he gasped; "Aylward! You here?"
+
+He started. He stared at Alan. Then his countenance changed. Its
+habitual calm broke up as it was wont to do in moments of deep emotion.
+It became very evil, as though some demon of hate and jealousy were at
+work behind it. The thin lips quivered, the eyes glared, and without
+spoken word or warning, he lifted the rifle and fired straight at Alan.
+The bullet missed him, for the aim was high. Passing over Alan's head,
+it cut a neat groove through the hair of the taller Jeekie who was
+immediately behind him.
+
+Next instant, with a spring like that of a tiger Jeekie was on Aylward.
+The weight of his charge knocked him backwards to the ground, and there
+he lay, pinned fast.
+
+"What for you do that?" exclaimed the indignant Jeekie. "What for you
+shoot through wool of respectable nigger, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart.? Now
+I throttle you, you dirty hog-swine. No Magistrates' Court here in Dwarf
+Forest," and he began to suit the action to the word.
+
+"Let him go, Jeekie. Take his rifle and let him go," exclaimed Alan, who
+all this while had stood amazed. "There must be some mistake, he cannot
+have meant to murder me."
+
+"Don't know what he mean, but know his bullet go through my hair, Major,
+and give me new parting," grumbled Jeekie as he obeyed.
+
+"Of course it was a mistake, Vernon, for I suppose it is Vernon," said
+Aylward, as he rose. "I do not wonder that your servant is angry, but
+the truth is that your sudden appearance frightened me out of my wits
+and I fired automatically. We have been living in some danger here and
+my nerves are not as strong as they used to be."
+
+"Indeed," answered Alan. "No, Jeekie will carry the rifle for you; yes,
+and I think that pistol also, every ounce makes a difference walking
+in a hot climate, and I remember that you always were dangerous with
+firearms. There, you will be more comfortable so. And now, who do you
+mean by 'we'?"
+
+"I mean Barbara and myself," he answered slowly.
+
+Alan's jaw dropped, he shook upon his feet.
+
+"Barbara and yourself!" he said. "Do I understand----"
+
+"Don't you understand nothing, Major," broke in Jeekie. "Don't you
+believe one word what this pig dog say. If Miss Barbara marry him he
+no want shoot you; he ask you to tea to see the Missus and how much she
+love him, ducky! We just go on and call on Miss Barbara and hear the
+news. Walk up, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., and show us which way."
+
+"I do not choose to receive you and your impertinent servant at my
+camp," said Aylward, grinding his teeth.
+
+"We quite understand that, Sir Robert Aylward----"
+
+"Lord Aylward, if you please, Major Vernon."
+
+"I beg your pardon--Lord Aylward. I was aware of the contemplated
+purchase of that title, I did not know that it had been completed. I was
+about to add that all the same we mean to go to that camp, and that
+if any violence towards us is attempted as we approach it, you will
+remember that you are in our hands."
+
+"Yes, my Lord," added Jeekie, bowing, "and that monkeys don't tell no
+tales, my Lord, and that here there ain't no twelve Good-Trues to sit
+on noble corpse unhappily deceased, my Lord, and to bring in Crowner's
+verdict of done to death lawful or unlawful, according as evidence may
+show when got, my Lord. So march on, for we no breakfast yet. No, not
+that way, round here to left, where I think I hear kettle sing."
+
+So having no choice, Aylward came, marching between the other two and
+saying nothing. When they had gone a couple of hundred yards Alan also
+heard something, and to him it sounded like a man crying out in pain.
+Then suddenly they passed round some great trees and reached a glade in
+the forest where there was a spring of water which Alan remembered. In
+this glade the camp had been built, surrounded by a "boma" or palisade
+of rough wood, within which stood two tents and some native shelters
+made of tall grass and boughs. Outside of this camp a curious and
+unpleasant scene was in progress.
+
+To a small tree that grew there was tied a man, whom from the fashion
+of his hair Alan knew to belong to the Coast negroes, while two great
+fellows, evidently of another tribe, flogged him unmercifully with hide
+whips.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Jeekie, "that the kettle I hear sing. Think you better
+taken him off the fire, my Lord, or he boil over. Also his brothers no
+seem to like that music," and he pointed to a number of other men who
+were standing round watching the scene with sullen dissatisfaction.
+
+"A matter of camp discipline," muttered Aylward. "This man has disobeyed
+orders."
+
+By now Jeekie was shouting something to the natives in an unknown
+tongue, which they seemed to understand well enough. At any rate the
+flogging ceased, the two fellows who were inflicting it slunk away, and
+the other men ran towards them, shouting back as they came.
+
+"All right, Major. You please stop here one minute with my Lord, late
+Bart. of Bloody Hand. Some of these chaps friends of mine, I meet them
+Old Calabar while we get ready to march last rains. Now I have little
+talk with them and find out thing or two."
+
+Aylward began to bluster about interference with his servants and so
+forth. Jeekie turned on him with a very ugly grin, and showing his white
+teeth, as was his fashion when he grew fierce.
+
+"Beg pardon, Right Honourable Lord," he said, or rather snarled, "you
+do what I tell you just to please Jeekie. Jeekie no one in England, but
+Jeekie damn big Lord too out here, great medicine man, pal of Little
+Bonsa. You remember Little Bonsa, eh! These chaps think it great honour
+to meet Jeekie, so, Major, if he stir, please shoot him through head;
+Jeekie 'sponsible, not you. Or if you not like do it, I come back and
+see to job myself and don't think those fellows cry very much."
+
+There was something about Jeekie's manner that frightened Aylward, who
+understood for the first time that beneath all the negro's grotesque
+talk lay some dreadful, iron purpose, as courage lay under his affected
+cowardice and under his veneer of selfishness, fidelity. At any rate he
+halted with Alan, who stood beside him, the revolver of which Aylward
+had been relieved by Jeekie, in his hand. Meanwhile Jeekie, who held the
+rifle which he had reloaded, went on and met the natives about twenty
+yards away.
+
+"We always disliked each other, Vernon, but I must say that I never
+thought a day would come when you proposed to murder me in my own camp,"
+said Aylward.
+
+"Odd thing," answered Alan, "but a very similar idea was in my mind.
+I never thought, Lord Aylward, that however unscrupulous you might
+be--financially--a day would come when you would attempt to shoot down
+an unarmed man in an African forest. Oh! don't waste breath in lying; I
+saw you recognize me, aim, and fire, after which Jeekie would have had
+the other barrel, and who then would have remained to tell the story,
+Lord Aylward?"
+
+Aylward made no answer, but Alan felt that if wishes could kill him he
+would not live long. His eye fell upon a long, unmistakable mound of
+fresh earth, beneath a tree. He calculated its length, and with a thrill
+of terror noticed that it was too small for a negro.
+
+"Who is buried there?" he asked.
+
+"Find out for yourself," was the sneering answer.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Lord Aylward; I shall find out everything in time."
+
+The conversation between Jeekie and the natives proceeded, their heads
+were close together; it grew animated. They seemed to be coming to some
+decision. Presently one of them ran and cut the lashings of the man who
+had been bound to the tree, and he staggered towards them and joined
+in the talk, pointing to his wounds. Then the two fellows who had been
+engaged in flogging him, accompanied by eight companions of the same
+type--they appeared to be soldiers, for they carried guns--swaggered
+towards the group who were being addressed by Jeekie, of whom Alan
+counted twenty-three. As they approached Jeekie made some suggestion
+which, after one hesitating moment, the others seemed to accept, for
+they nodded their heads and separated out a little.
+
+Jeekie stepped forward and asked a question of the guards, to which they
+replied with a derisive shout. Then without a word of warning he lifted
+Aylward's express rifle which he carried, and fired first one barrel and
+then the other, shooting the two leading soldiers dead. Their companions
+halted amazed, but before they could lift their guns, Jeekie and those
+with him rushed at them and began stabbing them with spears and striking
+them with sticks. In three minutes it was over without another shot
+being fired. Most of them were despatched, and the others, throwing down
+their guns, had fled wounded into the forest.
+
+Now, shouting in jubilation, some of the men began to drag away the dead
+bodies, while others collected the rifles and the remainder, headed by
+Jeekie, advanced towards Alan and Aylward, waving their red spears. Alan
+stood staring, for he did not in the least understand the meaning of
+what had happened, but Aylward, who had turned very pale, addressed
+Jeekie, saying:
+
+"I suppose that you have come to murder me also, you black villain."
+
+"No, no, my Lord," answered Jeekie politely, "not at present. Also that
+wrong word, execute, not murder, just what you do to some of these poor
+devils," and he pointed to the mob of porters. "Besides, mustn't kill
+holy white man, poor black chap don't matter, plenty more where he come
+from. Think we all go see Miss Barbara now. You come too, my Lord Bart.,
+but p'raps best tie your hands behind you first; if you want scratch
+head, I do it for you. That only fair, you scratch mine this morning."
+
+Then at a word from Jeekie some of the natives sprang on Aylward and
+tied his hands behind his back.
+
+"Is Miss Barbara alive?" said Alan to Jeekie in an agonized whisper, at
+the same time nodding towards the grave that was so ominously short.
+
+"Hope so, think so, these cards say so, but God He know alone," answered
+Jeekie. "Go and look, that best way to find out."
+
+So they advanced into the camp through a narrow gateway made of a
+V-shaped piece of wood, to where the two tents were placed in its inner
+division. Of these tents, the first, was open, whereas the second was
+closed. As the open tent was obviously empty, they went to the second,
+whereof Jeekie began to loosen the lashings of the flap. It was a long
+business, for they seemed to have been carefully knotted inside; indeed
+at last, growing impatient, Jeekie cut the cord, using the curved knife
+with which the Mungana had tried to kill Alan.
+
+Meanwhile Alan was suffering torments, being convinced that Barbara was
+dead and buried in that new-made grave beneath the trees. He could not
+speak, he could scarcely stand, and yet a picture began to form in his
+numb mind. He saw himself seated in the dark in the Treasure-house at
+Bonsa-Town; he saw a vision in the air before him.
+
+Lo! the tent door opened and that vision reappeared.
+
+There was the pale Barbara seated, weeping. There again, as he entered
+she sprang up and snatching the pistol that lay beside her, turned it
+to her breast. Then she perceived him and the pistol sank downwards till
+from her relaxed hand it dropped to the ground. She threw up her arms
+and without a sound fell backwards, or would have fallen, had he not
+caught her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE LAST OF THE ASIKI
+
+Barbara had recovered. She sat upon her bed in the tent and by her sat
+Alan, holding her hand, while before them stood Aylward like a prisoner
+in the dock, and behind him the armed Jeekie.
+
+"Tell me the story, Barbara," said Alan, "and tell it briefly, for I
+cannot bear much more of this."
+
+She looked at him and began in a slow, even voice:
+
+"After you had gone, dear, things went on as usual for a month or two.
+Then came the great Sahara Company trouble. First there were rumours
+and the shares began to go down. My uncle bought them in by tens and
+hundreds of thousands, to hold up the market, because he was being
+threatened, but of course he did not know then that Lord Aylward--for
+I forgot to tell you, he had become a lord somehow--was secretly one of
+the principal sellers, let him deny it if he can. At last the Ottoman
+Government, through the English ambassador, published its repudiation
+of the concession, which it seems was a forgery, actually executed or
+obtained in Constantinople by my uncle. Well, there was a fearful smash.
+Writs were taken out against my uncle, but before they could be served,
+he died suddenly of heart disease. I was with him at the time and he
+kept saying he saw that gold mask which Jeekie calls Bonsa, the thing
+you took back to Africa. He had a fine funeral, for what he had done
+was not publicly known, and when his will was opened I found that he had
+left me his fortune, but made Lord Aylward there my trustee until I came
+to the full age of twenty-five under my father's will. Alan, don't force
+me to tell you what sort of a guardian he was to me; also there was no
+fortune, it had all gone; also I had very, very little left, for almost
+all my own money had gone too. In his despair he had forged papers
+to get it in order to support those Sahara Syndicate shares. Still I
+managed to borrow about L2000 from that little lawyer out of the L5000
+that remain to me, an independent sum which he was unable to touch, and,
+Alan, with it I came to find you.
+
+"Alan, Lord Aylward followed me; although everybody else was ruined, he
+remained rich, very very rich, they say, and his fancy was to marry me,
+also I think it was not comfortable for him in England. It is a long
+tale, but I got up here with about five-and-twenty servants, and Snell,
+my maid, whom you remember. Then we were both taken ill with some
+dreadful fever and had it not been for those good black people, I should
+have died, for I have been very sick, Alan. But they nursed me and I
+recovered; it was poor Snell who died, they buried her a few days ago.
+I thought that she would live, but she had a relapse. Next Lord Aylward
+appeared with twelve soldiers and some porters who, I believe, have
+run away now,--oh! you can guess, you can guess. He wanted my people to
+carry me away somewhere, to the coast, I suppose, but they were faithful
+to me and would not. Then he set his soldiers on to maltreat them. They
+shot several of them and flogged them on every opportunity; they were
+flogging one of them just now, I heard them. Well, the poor men made me
+understand that they could bear it no longer and must do what he told
+them.
+
+"And so, Alan, as I was quite hopeless and helpless, I made up my mind
+to kill myself, hoping that God would forgive me and that I should find
+you somewhere, perhaps after sleeping a while, for it was better to
+die than to be given into the power--of that man. I thought that he was
+coming for me just now and I was about to do it, but it was you instead,
+Alan, _you_, and only just in time. That is all the story, and I hope
+you will not think that I have acted very foolishly, but I did it for
+the best. If you only knew what I have suffered, Alan, what I have gone
+through in one way and another, I am sure that you would not judge me
+harshly; also I kept dreaming that you were in trouble and wanted me to
+come to you, and of course I knew where you were gone and had that map.
+Send him away, Alan, for I am still so weak and I cannot bear the sight
+of his face. If you knew everything, you would understand."
+
+Alan turned on Aylward and in a cold, quiet voice asked him what he had
+to say to this story.
+
+"I have to say, Major Vernon, that it is a clever mixture of truth
+and falsehood. It is true that your cousin, Champers-Haswell, has been
+proved guilty of some very shameful conduct. For instance it appears
+that he did forge, or rather cause to be forged that Firman from
+the Sultan, although I knew nothing of this until it was publicly
+repudiated. It is also true that fearing exposure he entirely lost his
+head and spent not only his own great fortune but that of Miss Champers
+also, in trying to support Sahara shares. I admit also that I sold many
+hundreds of thousands of those shares in the ordinary way, having made
+up my mind to retire from business when I was raised to the peerage.
+I admit further, what you knew before, that I was attached to Miss
+Champers and wished to marry her. Why should I not, especially as I had
+a good deal to offer to a lady who has been proved to be almost without
+fortune?
+
+"For the rest she set out secretly on this mad journey to Africa,
+whither both my duty as her trustee and my affection prompted me to
+follow her. I found her here recovering from an illness, and since she
+has dwelt upon the point, in self-defence I must tell you that
+whatever has taken place between us, has been with her full consent and
+encouragement. Of course I allude only to those affectionate amenities
+which are common between people who purpose to marry as soon as
+opportunity may offer."
+
+At this declaration poor Barbara gasped and leaned back against her
+pillow. Alan stood silent, though his lips turned white, while Jeekie
+thrust his big head through the tent opening and stared upwards.
+
+"What are you looking at, Jeekie?" asked Alan irritably.
+
+"Seem to want air, Major, also look to see if clouds tumble. Believe
+partickler big lie do that sometimes. Please go on, O good Lord, for
+Jeekie want his breakfast."
+
+"As regards the execution of two of Miss Champers' bearers and the
+flogging of some others, these punishments were inflicted for mutiny,"
+went on Aylward. "It was obviously necessary that she should be moved
+back to the coast, but I found out that they were trying to desert her
+in a body and to tamper with my own servants, and so was obliged to take
+strong measures."
+
+"Sure those clouds come down now," soliloquized Jeekie, "or least
+something rummy happen."
+
+"I have only to add, Major Vernon, that unless you make away with me
+first, as I daresay you will, as soon as we reach civilization again I
+shall proceed against you and this fellow for the cold-blooded murder
+of my men, in punishment of which I hope yet to live to see you hanged.
+Meanwhile, I have much pleasure in releasing Miss Champers from her
+engagement to me which, whatever she may have said to you in England,
+she was glad enough to enter on here in Africa, a country of which I
+have been told the climate frequently deteriorates the moral character."
+
+"Hear, hear!" ejaculated Jeekie, "he say something true at last; by
+accident, I think, like pig what find pearl in muck-heap."
+
+"Hold your tongue, Jeekie," said Alan. "I do not intend to kill you,
+Lord Aylward, or to do you any harm----"
+
+"Nor I neither," broke in Jeekie, "all I do to my Lord just for my
+Lord's good; who Jeekie that he wish to hurt noble British 'ristocrat?"
+
+"But I do intend that it shall be impossible that Miss Champers should
+be forced to listen to more of your insults," went on Alan, "and to make
+sure that your gun does not go off again as it did this morning. So,
+Lord Aylward, until we have settled what we are going to do, I must keep
+you under arrest. Take him to his tent, Jeekie, and put a guard over
+him."
+
+"Yes, Major, certainly, Major. Right turn, march! my Lord, and quick,
+please, since poor, common Jeekie not want dirty his black finger
+touching you."
+
+Aylward obeyed, but at the door of the tent swung round and favoured
+Alan with a very evil look.
+
+"Luck is with you for the moment, Major Vernon," he said, "but if you
+are wise you will remember that you never have been and never will be
+my match. It will turn again, I have no doubt, and then you may look to
+yourself, for I warn you I am a bad enemy."
+
+Alan did not answer, but for the first time Barbara sprang to her feet
+and spoke.
+
+"You mean that you are a bad man, Lord Aylward, and a coward too, or
+otherwise you would not have tortured me as you have done. Well, when it
+seemed impossible that I should escape from you except in one way, I was
+saved by another way of which I never dreamed. Now I tell you that I do
+not fear you any more. But I think," she added slowly, "that you would
+do well to fear for yourself. I don't know why, but it comes into my
+mind that though neither Alan nor I shall lift a finger against you,
+you have a great deal of which to be afraid. Remember what I said to you
+months ago when you were angry because I would not marry you. I believe
+it is all coming true, Lord Aylward."
+
+Then Barbara turned her back upon him, and that was the last time that
+either she or Alan ever saw his face.
+
+He was gone, and Barbara, her head upon her lover's shoulder and her
+sweet eyes filled with tears of joy and gratitude, was beginning to tell
+him everything that had befallen her when suddenly they heard a loud
+cough outside the tent.
+
+"It's that confounded Jeekie," said Alan, and he called to him to come
+in.
+
+"What's the matter now?" he asked crossly.
+
+"Breakfast, Major. His lordship got plenty good stores, borrow some from
+him and give him chit. Coming in one minute--hot coffee, kipper herring,
+rasher bacon, also butter (best Danish), and Bath Oliver biscuit."
+
+"Very well," said Alan, but Jeekie did not move.
+
+"Very well," repeated Alan.
+
+"No, Major, not very well, very ill. Thought those lies bring down
+clouds."
+
+"What do you mean, Jeekie?"
+
+"Mean, Major, that Asiki smelling about this camp. Porter-man what go
+to fetch water see them. Also believe they catch rest of those soldier
+chaps and polish them, for porter-man hear the row."
+
+Alan sprang up with an exclamation; in his new-found joy he had
+forgotten all about the Asiki.
+
+"Keep hair on, Major," said Jeekie cheerfully; "don't think they attack
+yet, plenty of time for breakfast first. When they come we make it very
+hot for them, lots of rifle and cartridge now."
+
+"Can't we run away?" asked Barbara.
+
+"No, Missy, can't run; must stop here and do best. Camp well built, open
+all round, don't think they take it. You leave everything to Jeekie, he
+see you through, but p'raps you like come breakfast outside, where you
+know all that go on."
+
+Barbara did like, but as it happened they were allowed to consume their
+meal in peace, since no Asiki appeared. As soon as it was swallowed she
+returned to her tent, while Alan and Jeekie set to work to strengthen
+the defences of the little camp as well as they were able, and to make
+ready and serve out the arms and ammunition.
+
+About midday a man whom they had posted in a tree that grew inside the
+camp announced that he saw the enemy, and next moment a company of them
+rushed towards them across the open and were greeted by a volley which
+killed and wounded several men. At this exhibition of miraculous power,
+for none of these soldiers had ever heard the report of firearms or
+seen their effect, they retreated rapidly, uttering shouts of dismay and
+carrying their dead and wounded with them.
+
+"Do you suppose they have gone, Jeekie?" asked Alan anxiously.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Think not, Major, think they frightened, by big bullet magic, and go
+consult priest. Also only a few of them here, rest of army come later
+and try rush us to-morrow morning before dawn. That Asiki custom."
+
+"Then what shall we do, Jeekie? Run for it or stop here?"
+
+"Think must stop here, Major. If we bolt, carrying Miss Barbara, who
+can't walk much, they follow on spoor and catch us. Best stick inside
+this fence and see what happen. Also once outside p'raps porters desert
+and leave us."
+
+So as there was nothing else to do they stayed, labouring all day at the
+strengthening of their fortifications till at length the boma or fence
+of boughs, supported by earth, was so high and thick that while any were
+left to fire through the loopholes, it would be very difficult to storm
+by men armed with spears.
+
+It was a dreadful and arduous day for Alan, who now had Barbara's safety
+to think of, Barbara with whom as yet he had scarcely found time to
+exchange a word. By sunset indeed he was so worn out with toil and
+anxiety that he could scarcely stand upon his feet. Jeekie, who all
+that afternoon had been strangely quiet and reflective, surveyed him
+critically, then said:
+
+"You have good drink and go sleep a bit, Major. Very good little
+shelter there by Miss Barbara's tent, and you hold her hand if you like
+underneath the canvas, which comforting and all correct. Jeekie never
+get tired, he keep good lookout and let you know if anything happen, and
+then you jump up quite fresh and fight like tom-cat in corner."
+
+At first Alan refused to listen, but when Barbara added her entreaties
+to those of Jeekie he gave way, and ten minutes later was as soundly
+asleep as he had ever been in his life.
+
+"Keep eye on him, Miss Barbara, and call me if he wake. Now I go give
+noble lord his supper and see that he quite comfortable. Jeekie seem
+very busy to-night, just like when Major have dinner-party at Yarleys
+and old cook get drunk in kitchen."
+
+If Barbara could have followed Jeekie's movements for the next few
+hours, she would probably have agreed that he was busy. First he went
+to Aylward's tent, and as he had said he would, gave him his supper,
+and with it half a bottle of whisky from the stores which he had been
+carrying about with him for some time, as he said, to prevent the
+porters from getting at it. Aylward would drink little, though as his
+arms were tied to the tent-pole, Jeekie sat beside him and fed him like
+a baby, conversing pleasantly with him all the while, informing him
+amongst other things that he had better say "big prayer," because the
+Asiki would probably cut his throat before morning.
+
+Aylward, who was in a state of sullen fury, scarcely replied to this
+talk, except to say that if so, there was one comfort, they would cut
+his and his master's also.
+
+"Yes, my Lord," answered Jeekie, "that quite true, so drink to next
+meeting, though I think you go different place to me, and when you got
+tail and I wing, you horn and I crown of glory, of course we not talk
+much together," and he held a mug of whisky and water--a great deal of
+whisky and a very little water--to his prisoner's mouth.
+
+Aylward drained it, feeling a need for stimulant.
+
+"There," said Jeekie, holding it upside down, "you drink every drop and
+not offer one to poor old Jeekie. Well, he turned teetotaller, so no
+matter. Good-night, my Lord, I call you if Asiki come."
+
+"Who are the Asiki?" asked Aylward drowsily.
+
+"Oh! you want to know? I tell you," and he began a long, rambling story.
+
+Before he ever came to the end of it Aylward had fallen on his side and
+was fast asleep.
+
+"Dear me!" said Jeekie, contemplating him, "that whisky very strong,
+though bottle say same as they drink in House of Common. That whisky
+so strong I think I pour away rest of it," and he did to the last drop,
+even taking the trouble to wash out the bottle with water. "Now you no
+tempt anyone," he said, addressing the said bottle with a very peculiar
+smile, "or if you tempt, at least do no harm--like kiss down telephone!"
+Then he laid down the bottle on its side and left the tent.
+
+Outside of it three of the head porters, who appeared to be friends
+of his, were waiting for him, and with these men he engaged in low and
+earnest conversation. Next, after they had arrived at some agreement,
+which they seemed to ratify by a curious oath that involved their
+crossing and clasping hands in an odd fashion, and other symbols known
+to West African secret societies, Jeekie went the round of the camp to
+see that everyone was at his post. Then he did what most people would
+have thought a very curious and strange thing, namely climbed the fence
+and vanished into the forest, where presently a sound was heard as of an
+owl hooting.
+
+A little while later and another owl began to hoot in the distance,
+whereat the three head porters nudged each other. Perhaps they had heard
+such owls hoot before at night, and perhaps they knew that Jeekie, who
+had "passed Bonsa," could only be harmed by the direct command of Bonsa
+speaking through the mouth of the Asika herself. Still they might have
+been interested in the nocturnal conversation of those two owls, which,
+as is common with such magical fowl in West Africa, had transformed
+themselves into human shapes, the shape of Jeekie and the shape of an
+Asiki priest, who was, as it happened, a blood relation of Jeekie.
+
+"Very good, Brother," said Owl No. 1; "all you want is this white man
+whom the Asika desires for a husband. Well, I have done my best for him,
+but I must think of myself and others, and he goes to great happiness.
+I have given him something to make him sleep; do you come presently with
+eight men, no more, or we shall kill you, to the fence of the camp, and
+we will hand over the white man, Vernoon, to you to take back to the
+Asika, who will give you a wonderful reward, such a reward as you have
+never imagined. Now let me hear your word."
+
+Then Owl No. 2 answered:
+
+"Brother, I make the bargain on behalf of the army, and swear to it by
+the double Swimming Head of Bonsa. We will come and take the white man,
+Vernoon, who is to be Mungana, and carry him away. In return we promise
+not to follow or molest you, or any others in your camp. Indeed, why
+should we, who do not desire to be killed by the dreadful magic that
+you have, a magic that makes a noise and pierces through our bodies from
+afar? What were the words of the Asika? 'Bring back Vernoon, or perish.
+I care for nothing else, bring back Vernoon to be my husband.'"
+
+"Good," said Owl No. 1, "within the half of an hour Vernoon shall be
+ready for you."
+
+"Good," answered Owl No. 2, "within half an hour eight of us will be
+without the east face of your camp to receive him."
+
+"Silently?"
+
+"Silently, my brother in Bonsa. If he cries out we will gag him. Fear
+not, none shall know your part in this matter."
+
+"Good, my brother in Bonsa. By the way, how is Big Bonsa? I fear that
+the white man, Vernoon, hurt him very much, and that is why I give him
+up--because of his sacrilege."
+
+"When I left the god was very sick and all the people mourned, but
+doubtless he is immortal."
+
+"Doubtless he is immortal, my brother, a little hard magic in his
+stomach--if he has one--cannot hurt _him_. Farewell, dear brother in
+Bonsa, I wish that I were you to get the great reward that the Asika
+will give to you. Farewell, farewell."
+
+Then the two owls flitted apart again, hooting as they went, till they
+came to their respective camps.
+
+
+
+Jeekie was in the tent performing a strange toilet upon the sleeping
+Aylward by the light of a single candle. From his pouch he produced the
+mask of linen painted with gold that Alan used to be forced to wear, and
+tied it securely over Aylward's face, murmuring:
+
+"You always love gold, my Lord Aylward, and Jeekie promise you see
+plenty of it now."
+
+Then he proceeded to remove his coat, his waistcoat, his socks, and his
+boots and to replace these articles of European attire by his own worn
+Asiki sandals and his own dirty Asiki robe.
+
+"There," he said, "think that do," and he studied him by the light of
+the candle. "Same height, same colour hair, same dirty clothes, and as
+Asiki never see Major's face because he always wear mask in public, like
+as two peas on shovel. Oh my! Jeekie clever chap, Jeekie devilish clever
+chap. But when Asika pull off that mask to give him true lover kiss, OH
+MY! wonder that happen then? Think whole of Bonsa-Town bust up; think
+big waterfall run backwards; think she not quite pleased; think my good
+Lord find himself in false position; think Jeekie glad to be on coast;
+think he not go back to Bonsa-Town no more. Oh my aunt! no, he stop in
+England and go church twice on Sunday," and pressing his big hands on
+the pit of his stomach he rocked and rolled in fierce, silent laughter.
+
+Then an owl hooted again immediately beneath the fence and Jeekie,
+blowing out the candle, opened the flap of the tent and tapped the head
+porter, who stood outside, on the shoulder. He crept in and between them
+they lifted the senseless Aylward and bore him to the V-shaped entrance
+of the boma which was immediately opposite to the tent and, oddly
+enough, half open. Here the two other porters with whom Jeekie had
+performed some ceremony, chanced to be on guard, the rest of their
+company being stationed at a distance. Jeekie and the head porter went
+through the gap like men carrying a corpse to midnight burial, and
+presently in the darkness without two owls began to hoot.
+
+Now Aylward was laid upon a litter that had been prepared, and
+eight white-robed Asiki bearers stared at his gold mask in the faint
+starlight.
+
+"I suppose he is not dead, brother," said Owl No. 2 doubtfully.
+
+"Nay, brother," said Owl No. 1, "feel his heart and his pulse. Not dead,
+only drunk. He will wake up by daylight, by which time you should be far
+upon your way. Be good and gentle to the white man Vernoon, who has been
+my master. Be careful, too, that he does not escape you, brother, for as
+you know he is very strong and cunning. Say to the Asika that Jeekie her
+servant makes his reverence to her, and hopes that she will have many,
+many happy years with the husband that he sends her; also that she will
+remember him whom she called 'Black Dog,' in her prayers to the gods and
+spirits of our people."
+
+"It shall be done, brother, but why do you not return with us?"
+
+"Because, brother, I have ties across the Black Water--dear children,
+almost white--whom I love so much that I cannot leave them. Farewell,
+brethren, the blessings of the Bonsas be on you, and may you grow fat
+and prosper in the love and favour of our lady the Asika."
+
+"Farewell," they murmured in answer. "Good fortune be your bedfellow."
+
+Another minute and they had lifted up the litter and vanished at a
+swinging trot into the shadow of the trees. Jeekie returned to the camp
+and ordered the three men to re-stop the gateway with thorns, muttering
+in their ears:
+
+"Remember, brethren, one word of this and you die, all of you, as those
+die who break the oath."
+
+"Have we not sworn?" they whispered, as they went back to their posts.
+
+Jeekie stood a while in front of the empty tent and if any had been
+there to note him, they might have seen a shadow as of compunction creep
+over his powerful black face.
+
+"When he wake up he won't know where he are," he reflected, "and when
+he get to Bonsa-Town he'll wonder where he is, and when he meet Asika!
+Well, he very big blackguard; try to murder Major, whom Jeekie nurse as
+baby, the only thing that Jeekie care for--except--Jeekie; try to make
+love to Miss Barbara against will when he catch her alone in forest,
+which not playing game. Jeekie self not such big blackguard as that
+dirt-born noble Lord; Jeekie never murder no one--not quite; Jeekie
+never make love to girl what not want him--no need, so many what do that
+he have to shove them off, like good Christian man. Mrs. Jeekie see to
+that while she live. Also better that mean white man go call on Bonsas
+than Major and Missy Barbara and all porters, and Jeekie--specially
+Jeekie--get throat cut. No, no, Jeekie nothing to be ashamed of, Jeekie
+do good day's work, though Jeekie keep it tight as wax since white folk
+such silly people, and when Major in a rage, he very nasty customer and
+see everything upside down. Now, Jeekie quite tired, so say his prayers
+and have nap. No, think not in tent, though very comfortable. Major
+might wake up, poke his nose in there, and if he see black face instead
+of white one, ask ugly question, which if Jeekie half asleep he no able
+to answer nice and neat. Still he just arrange things a little so they
+look all right."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE ASIKA'S MESSAGE
+
+Dawn began to break in the forest and Alan woke in his shelter and
+stretched himself. He had slept soundly all the night, so soundly that
+the innocent Jeekie wondered much whether by any chance he also had
+taken a tot out of that particular whisky bottle, as indeed he had
+recommended him to do. People who drink whisky after long abstinence
+from spirits are apt to sleep long, he reflected.
+
+Alan crept out of the shelter and gazed affectionately at the tent in
+which Barbara slumbered. Thank Heaven she was safe so far, as for some
+unknown reason, evidently the Asiki had postponed their attack. Just
+then a clamour arose in the air, and he perceived Jeekie striding
+towards him waving one arm in an excited fashion, while with the other
+he dragged along the captain of the porters, who appeared to be praying
+for mercy.
+
+"Here pretty go, Major," he shouted, "devil and all to pay! That my
+Lord, he gone and bolted. This silly fool say that three hours ago he
+hear something break through fence and think it only hyaena what come
+to steal, so take no notice. Well, that hyaena, you guess who he is. You
+come look, Major, you come look, and then we tie this fellow up and flog
+him."
+
+Alan ran to Aylward's tent to find it empty.
+
+"Look," said Jeekie, who had followed, "see how he do business, that
+jolly clever hyaena," and he pointed to a broken whisky bottle and some
+severed cords. "You see he manage break bottle and rub rope against cut
+glass till it come in two. Then he do hyaena dodge and hook it."
+
+Alan inspected the articles, nor did any shadow of doubt enter his mind.
+
+"Certainly he managed very well," he said, "especially for a London-bred
+man, but, Jeekie, what can have been his object?"
+
+"Oh! who know, Major? Mind of man very strange and various thing; p'raps
+he no bear to see you and Miss Barbara together; p'raps he bolt coast,
+get ear of local magistrate before you; p'raps he sit up tree to shoot
+you; p'raps nasty temper make him mad. But he gone any way, and I hope
+he no meet Asiki, poor fellow, 'cause if so, who know? P'raps they knock
+him on head, or if they think him you, they make him prisoner and keep
+him quite long while before they let him go again."
+
+"Well," said Alan, "he has gone of his own free will, so we have no
+responsibility in the matter, and I can't pretend that I am sorry to
+see the last of him, at any rate for the present. Let that poor beggar
+loose, there seems to have been enough flogging in this place, and after
+all he isn't much to blame."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, apparently with much reluctance, and just then they saw
+one of their own people running towards the camp.
+
+"'Fraid he going to tell us Asiki come attack," said Jeekie, shaking his
+head. "Hope they give us time breakfast first."
+
+"No doubt," answered Alan nervously, for he feared the result of that
+attack.
+
+Then the man arrived breathless and began to gasp out his news, which
+filled Alan with delight and caused a look of utter amazement to appear
+upon the broad face of Jeekie. It was to the effect that he had climbed
+a high tree as he had been bidden to do, and from the top of that tree
+by the light of the first rays of the rising sun, miles away on the
+plain beyond the forest, he had seen the Asiki army in full retreat.
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Alan.
+
+"Yes, Major, but that very rum story. Jeekie can't swallow it all at
+once. Must send out see none of them left behind. P'raps they play
+trick, but if they really gone, 'spose it 'cause guns frightens them
+so much. Always think powder very great 'vention, especially when enemy
+hain't got none, and quite sure of it now. Jeekie very, very seldom
+wrong. Soon believe," he added with a burst of confidence, "that Jeekie
+never wrong at all. He look for truth so long that at last he find it
+_always_."
+
+
+
+Something more than a month had gone by and Major and Mrs. Vernon, the
+latter fully restored to health and the most sweet and beautiful of
+brides, stood upon the steamship _Benin_, and as the sun sank, looked
+their last upon the coast of Western Africa.
+
+"Yes, dear," Alan was saying to his wife, "from first to last it has
+been a very queer story, but I really think that our getting that Asiki
+gold after all was one of the queerest parts of it; also uncommonly
+convenient, as things have turned out."
+
+"Namely that you have got a little pauper for a wife instead of a great
+heiress, Alan. But tell me again about the gold. I have had so much to
+think of during the last few days," and she blushed, "that I never quite
+took it all in."
+
+"Well, love, there isn't much to tell. When that forwarding agent, Mr.
+Aston, knew that we were in the town, he came to me and said that he
+had about fifty cases full of something heavy, as he supposed samples of
+ore, addressed to me to your care in England which he was proposing to
+ship on by the _Benin_. I answered 'Yes, that was all right,' and
+did not undeceive him about their contents. Then I asked how they had
+arrived, and if he had not received a letter with them. He replied that
+one morning before the warehouse was open, some natives had brought them
+down in a canoe, and dumped them at the door, telling the watchman that
+they had been paid to deliver them there by some other natives whom they
+met a long way up the river. Then they went away without leaving any
+letter or message. Well, I thanked Aston and paid his charges and
+there's an end of the matter. Those fifty-three cases are now in the
+hold invoiced as ore samples and, as I inspected them myself and am sure
+that they have not been tampered with, besides the value of the necklace
+the Asika gave me we've got L100,000 to begin our married life upon with
+something over for old Jeekie, and I daresay we shall do very well on
+that."
+
+"Yes, Alan, very well indeed." Then she reflected a while, for the
+mention of Jeekie's name seemed to have made her thoughtful, and added,
+"Alan, what _do_ you think became of Lord Aylward?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know. Jeekie and I and some of the porters went
+to see the Old Calabar officials and made affidavits as to the
+circumstances of his disappearance. We couldn't do any more, could we?"
+
+"No, Alan. But do you think that Jeekie quite understands the meaning of
+an oath? I mean it seems so strange that we should never have found the
+slightest trace of him, and, Alan, I don't know if you noticed it, but
+why did Jeekie appear that morning wearing Lord Aylward's socks and
+boots?"
+
+"He ought to know all about oaths, he has heard enough of them in
+Magistrates' Courts, but as regards the boots, I am sure I can't say,
+dear," answered Alan uneasily. "Here he comes, we will ask him," and he
+did.
+
+"Sock and boot," replied Jeekie, with a surprised air, "why, Mrs. Major,
+if that good lord go mad and cut off into forest leaving them behind,
+of course I put them on, as they no more use to him, and I just burn my
+dirty old Asiki dress and sandal and got nothing to keep jigger out of
+toe. Don't you sit up here in this damp, cold, Mrs. Major, else you
+get more fever. You go down and dress dinner, which at half-past six
+to-night. I just come tell you that."
+
+So Barbara went, leaving the other two talking about various matters,
+for they were alone together on the deck, all the passengers, of whom
+there were but few, having gone below.
+
+The short African twilight had come, a kind of soft blue haze that made
+the ship look mysterious and unnatural. By degrees their conversation
+died away. They lapsed into a silence, which Alan was the first to
+break.
+
+"What are you thinking of, Jeekie?" he asked nervously.
+
+"Thinking of Asika, Major," he answered in a scared whisper. "Seem to me
+that she about somewhere, just as she use pop up in room in Gold House;
+seem to me I feel her all down my back, likewise in head wool, which
+stand up."
+
+"It's very odd, Jeekie," replied Alan, "but so do I."
+
+"Well, Major, 'spect she thinking of us, specially of you, and just
+throw what she think at us, like boy throw stones at bird what fly away
+out of cage. Asika do all that, you know, she not quite human, full of
+plenty Bonsa devil, from gen'ration to gen'rations, amen! P'raps she
+just find out something what make her mad."
+
+"What could she find out after all this time, Jeekie?"
+
+"Oh, don't know. How I know? Jeekie can't guess. Find out you marry Miss
+Barbara, p'raps. Very sick that she lose you for this time, p'raps. Kill
+herself that she keep near you, p'raps, while she wait till you come
+round again, p'raps. Asika can do all these things if she like, Major."
+
+"Stuff and rubbish," answered Alan uneasily, for Jeekie's suggestions
+were most uncomfortable, "I believe in none of your West Coast
+superstitions."
+
+"Quite right, Major, nor don't I. Only you 'member, Major, what she show
+us there in Treasure-place--Mr. Haswell being buried, eh? Miss Barbara
+in tent, eh? t'other job what hasn't come off yet, eh? Oh! my golly!
+Major, just you look behind you and say you see nothing, please," and
+the eyes of Jeekie grew large as Maltese oranges, while with chattering
+teeth he pointed over the bulwark of the vessel.
+
+Alan turned and saw.
+
+This was what he saw or seemed to see: The figure of the Asika in her
+robes and breastplate of gold, standing upon the air, just beyond the
+ship, as though on it she might set no foot. Her waving black hair hung
+about her shoulders, but the sharp wind did not seem to stir it nor did
+her white dress flutter, and on her beautiful face was stamped a look
+of awful rage and agony, the rage of betrayal, the agony of loss. In
+her right hand she held a knife, and from a wound in her breast the
+red blood ran down her golden corselet. She pointed to Jeekie with the
+knife, she opened her arms to Alan as though in unutterable longing,
+then slowly raised them upwards towards the fading glory of the sky
+above--and was gone.
+
+
+
+Jeekie sat down upon the deck, mopping his brow with a red handkerchief,
+while Alan, who felt faint, clung to the bulwarks.
+
+"Tell you, Major, that Asika can do all that kind of thing. Never know
+where you find her next. 'Spect she come to live with us in England
+and just call in now and again when it dark. Tell you, she very awkward
+customer, think p'raps you done better stop there and marry her. Well,
+she gone now, thank Heaven! seem to drop in sea and hope she stay
+there."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, recovering himself, "listen to me; this is all
+infernal nonsense; we have gone through a great deal and the nerves of
+both of us are overstrained. We think we saw what we did not see, and
+if you dare to say a single word of it to your mistress, I'll break your
+neck. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, Major, think so. All 'fernal nonsense, nerves strained, didn't see
+what we see, and say nothing of what did see to Mrs. Major, if either
+do say anything, t'other one break his neck. That all right, quite
+understand. Anything else, Major?"
+
+"Yes, Jeekie. We have had some wonderful adventures, but they are past
+and done with and the less we talk or even think about them the better,
+for there is a lot that would be rather difficult to explain, and that
+if explained would scarcely be believed."
+
+"Yes, Major, for instance, very difficult explain Mrs. Barbara how Asika
+so fond of you if you only tell her, 'Go away, go away!' all the time,
+like old saint-gentleman to pretty girl in picture. P'raps she smell
+rat."
+
+"Stop your ribald talk," said Alan in a stern voice. "It would be better
+if instead of making jokes you gave thanks to Providence for bringing
+both of us alive and well out of very dreadful dangers. Now I am going
+to dress for dinner," and with an anxious glance seaward into the
+gathering darkness, he turned and went.
+
+
+
+Jeekie stood alone upon the empty deck, wagging his great white head to
+and fro and soliloquizing thus:
+
+"Wonder if Major see what under lady Asika's feet when she stand out
+there over nasty deep. Think not or he say something. That noble lord
+not look nice. No, private view for Jeekie only, free ticket and nothing
+to pay and me hope it no come back when I go to bed. Major know nothing
+about it, so he not see, but Jeekie know a lot. Hope that Aylward not
+write any letters home, or if he write, hope no one post them. Ghost bad
+enough, but murder, oh my!"
+
+He paused a while, then went on:
+
+"Jeekie do big sacrifice to Bonsa when he reach Yarleys, get lamb in
+back kitchen at night, or if ghost come any more, calf in wood outside.
+Not steal it, pay for it himself. Then think Jeekie turn Cath'lic;
+confess his sins, they say them priest chaps not split, and after they
+got his sins, they tackle Asika and Bonsas too," and he uttered a series
+of penitent groans, turning slowly round and round to be sure that
+nothing was behind him.
+
+Just then the full moon appeared out of a bank of clouds, and as it rose
+higher, flooding the world with light, Jeekie's spirits rose also.
+
+"Asika never come in moonshine," he said, "that not the game, against
+rule, and after all, what Jeekie done bad? He very good fellow really.
+Aylward great villain, serve him jolly well right if Asika spiflicate
+him, that not Jeekie's fault. What Jeekie do, he do to save master and
+missus who he love. Care nothing for his self, ready to die any day.
+Keep it dark to save them too, 'cause they no like the story. If once
+they know, it always leave taste in mouth, same as bad oyster. Also
+Jeekie manage very well, take Major safe Asiki-land ('cause Little Bonsa
+make him), give him very interesting time there, get him plenty gold,
+nurse him when he sick, nobble Mungana, bring him out again, find Miss
+Barbara, catch hated rival and bamboozle all Asiki army, bring
+happy pair to coast and marry them, arrange first-class honeymoon on
+ship--Jeekie do all these things, and lots more he could tell, if he
+vain and not poor humble nigger."
+
+Once more he paused a while, lost in the contemplation of his own
+modesty and virtues, then continued:
+
+"This very ungrateful world. Major there, he not say, 'Thank you,
+Jeekie, Jeekie, you great, wonderful man. Brave Jeekie, artful Jeekie.
+Jeekie smart as paint who make all world believe just what he like, and
+one too many for Asika herself.' No, no, he say nothing like that. He
+say 'thank Prov'dence,' not 'Jeekie,' as though Prov'dence do all them
+things. White folk think they clever, but great fools, really,
+don't know nothing. Prov'dence all very well in his way--p'raps, but
+Prov'dence not a patch on Jeekie.
+
+"Hullo! moon get behind cloud and there second bell; think Jeekie go
+down and wait dinner; lonely up here and sure Asika never stand 'lectric
+light."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW GOD ***
+
+***** This file should be named 2857.txt or 2857.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/2857/
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/2857.zip b/old/2857.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d031337
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/2857.zip
diff --git a/old/ylwgd10.txt b/old/ylwgd10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6be0ec4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/ylwgd10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10094 @@
+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+#27 in our series by H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.  Do not remove this.
+
+This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book.
+Do not change or edit it without written permission.  The words
+are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they
+need about what they can legally do with the texts.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in:
+Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota,
+Iowa, Indiana, and Vermont. As the requirements for other states
+are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will
+begin in the additional states. These donations should be made to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655
+
+
+Title:  The Yellow God
+Title:  An Idol of Africa
+
+Author:  H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date:  October, 2001  [Etext #2857]
+
+Edition:  10
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+****This file should be named ylwgd10.txt or ylwgd10.zip******
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ylwgd11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ylwgd10a.txt
+
+Etext prepared by John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz
+Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com
+and Emma Dudding, emma_302@hotmail.com
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
+of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after
+the official publication date.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+
+Those of you who want to download our Etexts before announcment
+can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext01
+or
+ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext01
+
+Or /etext00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext
+files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding.
+
+Something is needed to create a future for Project Gutenberg for
+the next 100 years.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in:
+Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota,
+Iowa, Indiana, and Vermont. As the requirements for other states
+are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will
+begin in the additional states.
+
+All donations should be made to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and will be tax deductible to the extent
+permitted by law.
+
+Mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Avenue
+Oxford, MS 38655  [USA]
+
+We are working with the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation to build more stable support and ensure the
+future of Project Gutenberg.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+You can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
+if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
+it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
+
+We would prefer to send you this information by email.
+
+
+Example command-line FTP session:
+
+ftp metalab.unc.edu
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext01, etc.
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
+etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
+officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
+and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
+indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
+[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
+or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
+     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain etexts, and royalty free copyright licenses.
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Etext prepared by John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz
+Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com
+and Emma Dudding, emma_302@hotmail.com
+
+
+
+
+
+The Yellow God
+An Idol of Africa
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SAHARA LIMITED
+
+Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., M.P., sat in his office in the City of
+London. It was a very magnificent office, quite one of the finest that
+could be found within half a mile of the Mansion House. Its exterior
+was built of Aberdeen granite, a material calculated to impress the
+prospective investor with a comfortable sense of security. Other
+stucco, or even brick-built, offices might crumble and fall in an
+actual or a financial sense, but this rock-like edifice of granite,
+surmounted by a life-sized statue of Justice with her scales, admired
+from either corner by pleasing effigies of Commerce and of Industry,
+would surely endure any shock. Earthquake could scarcely shake its
+strong foundations; panic and disaster would as soon affect the Bank
+of England. That at least was the impression which it had been
+designed to convey, and not without success.
+
+"There is so much in externals," Mr. Champers-Haswell, Sir Robert's
+partner, would say in his cheerful voice. "We are all of us influenced
+by them, however unconsciously. Impress the public, my dear Aylward.
+Let solemnity without suggest opulence within, and the bread, or
+rather the granite, which you throw upon the waters will come back to
+you after many days."
+
+Mr. Aylward, for this conversation occurred before his merits or the
+depth of his purse had been rewarded by a baronetcy, looked at his
+partner in the impassive fashion for which he was famous, and
+answered:
+
+"You mix your metaphors, Haswell, but if you mean that the public are
+fools who must be caught by advertisement, I agree with you. Only this
+particular advertisement is expensive and I do not want to wait many
+days for my reward. However, �20,000 one way or the other is a small
+matter, so tell that architect to do the thing in granite."
+
+Sir Robert Aylward sat in his own quiet room at the back of this
+enduring building, a very splendid room that any Secretary of State
+might have envied, but arranged in excellent taste. Its walls were
+panelled with figured teak, a rich carpet made the footfall noiseless,
+an antique Venus stood upon a marble pedestal in the corner, and over
+the mantelpiece hung a fine portrait by Gainsborough, that of a
+certain Miss Aylward, a famous beauty in her day, with whom, be it
+added, its present owner could boast no connection whatsoever.
+
+Sir Robert was seated at his ebony desk playing with a pencil, and the
+light from a cheerful fire fell upon his face.
+
+In its own way it was a remarkable face, as he appeared then in his
+fourth and fortieth year; very pale but with a natural pallor, very
+well cut and on the whole impressive. His eyes were dark, matching his
+black hair and pointed beard, and his nose was straight and rather
+prominent. Perhaps the mouth was his weakest feature, for there was a
+certain shiftiness about it, also the lips were thick and slightly
+sensuous. Sir Robert knew this, and therefore he grew a moustache to
+veil them somewhat. To a careful observer the general impression given
+by this face was such as is left by the sudden sight of a waxen mask.
+"How strong! How lifelike!" he would have said, "but of course it
+isn't real. There may be a man behind, or there may be wood, but
+that's only a mask." Many people of perception had felt like this
+about Sir Robert Aylward, namely, that under the mask of his pale
+countenance dwelt a different being whom they did not know or
+appreciate.
+
+If these had seen him at this moment of the opening of our story, they
+might have held that Wisdom was justified of her children. For now in
+the solitude of his splendid office, of a sudden Sir Robert's mask
+seemed to fall from him. His face broke up like ice beneath a thaw. He
+rose from his table and began to walk up and down the room. He talked
+to himself aloud.
+
+"Great Heavens!" he muttered, "what a game to have played, and it will
+go through. I believe that it will go through."
+
+He stopped at the table, switched on an electric light and made a
+rapid calculation on the back of a letter with a blue pencil.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that's my share, a million and seventeen thousand
+pounds in cash, and two million in ordinary shares which can be worked
+off at a discount--let us say another seven hundred and fifty
+thousand, plus what I have got already--put that at only two hundred
+and fifty thousand net. Two millions in all, which of course may or
+may not be added to, probably not, unless the ordinaries boom, for I
+don't mean to speculate any more. That's the end of twenty years'
+work, Robert Aylward. And to think of it, eighteen months ago,
+although I seemed so rich, I was on the verge of bankruptcy--the very
+verge, not worth five thousand pounds. Now what did the trick? I
+wonder what did the trick?"
+
+He walked down the room and stopped opposite the ancient marble,
+staring at it--
+
+"Not Venus, I think," he said, with a laugh, "Venus never made any man
+rich." He turned and retraced his steps to the other end of the room,
+which was veiled in shadow. Here upon a second marble pedestal stood
+an object that gleamed dimly through the gloom. It was about ten
+inches or a foot high, but in that place nothing more could be seen of
+it, except that it was yellow and had the general appearance of a
+toad. For some reason it seemed to attract Sir Robert Aylward, for he
+halted to stare at it, then stretched out his hand and switched on
+another lamp, in the hard brilliance of which the thing upon the
+pedestal suddenly declared itself, leaping out of the darkness into
+light. It was a terrible object, a monstrosity of indeterminate sex
+and nature, but surmounted by a woman's head and face of
+extraordinary, if devilish loveliness, sunk back between high but
+grotesquely small shoulders, like to those of a lizard, so that it
+glared upwards. The workmanship of the thing was rude yet strangely
+powerful. Whatever there is cruel, whatever there is devilish,
+whatever there is inhuman in the dark places of the world, shone out
+of the jewelled eyes which were set in that yellow female face, yellow
+because its substance was of gold, a face which seemed not to belong
+to the embryonic legs beneath, for body there was none, but to float
+above them. A hollow, life-sized mask with two tiny frog-like legs,
+that was the fashion of it.
+
+"You are an ugly brute," muttered Sir Robert, contemplating this
+effigy, "but although I believe in nothing in heaven above or earth
+below, except the abysmal folly of the British public, I am bothered
+if I don't believe in you. At any rate from the day when Vernon
+brought you into my office, my luck turned, and to judge from the
+smile on your sweet countenance, I don't think it is done with yet. I
+wonder what those stones are in your eyes. Opals, I suppose, from the
+way they change colour. They shine uncommonly to-day, I never remember
+them so bright. I----"
+
+At this moment a knock came on the door. Sir Robert turned off the
+lamp and walked back to the fireplace.
+
+"Come in," he said, and as he spoke once more his pale face grew
+impassive and expressionless.
+
+The door opened and a clerk entered, an imposing-looking clerk with
+iron-grey hair, who wore an irreproachable frock coat and patent
+leather boots. Advancing to his master, he stood respectfully silent,
+waiting to be addressed. For quite a long while Sir Robert looked over
+his head as though he did not see him; it was a way of his. Then his
+eyes rested on the man dreamily and he remarked in his cold, clear
+voice:
+
+"I don't think I rang, Jeffreys."
+
+"No, Sir Robert," answered the clerk, bowing as though he spoke to
+Royalty, "but there is a little matter about that article in /The
+Cynic/."
+
+"Press business," said Sir Robert, lifting his eyebrows; "you should
+know by this time that I do not attend to such details. See Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, or Major Vernon."
+
+"They are both out at the moment, Sir Robert."
+
+"Go on, then, Jeffreys," replied the head of the firm with a resigned
+sigh, "only be brief. I am thinking."
+
+The clerk bowed again.
+
+"The /Cynic/ people have just telephoned through about that article we
+sent them. I think you saw it, sir, and you may remember it
+begins----" and he read from a typewritten copy in his hand which was
+headed "Sahara Limited":
+
+"'We are now privileged to announce that this mighty scheme which will
+turn a desert into a rolling sea bearing the commerce of nations and
+cause the waste places of the earth to teem with population and to
+blossom like the rose, has been completed in its necessary if dull
+financial details and will within a few days be submitted to investors
+among whom it has already caused so much excitement. These details we
+will deal with fully in succeeding articles, and therefore now need
+only pause to say that the basis of capitalization strikes us as
+wonderfully advantageous to the fortunate public who are asked to
+participate in its vast prospective prosperity. Our present object is
+to speak of its national and imperial aspects----'"
+
+Sir Robert lifted his eyes in remonstrance:
+
+"How much more of that exceedingly dull and commonplace puff do you
+propose to read, Jeffreys?" he asked.
+
+"No more, Sir Robert. We are paying /The Cynic/ thirty guineas to
+insert this article, and the point is that they say that if they have
+to put in the 'national and imperial' business they must have twenty
+more."
+
+"Indeed, Jeffreys? Why?"
+
+"Because, Sir Robert--I will tell you, as you always like to hear the
+truth--their advertisement-editor is of opinion that Sahara Limited is
+a national and imperial swindle. He says that he won't drag the nation
+and the empire into it in an editorial under fifty guineas."
+
+A faint smile flickered on Sir Robert's face.
+
+"Does he, indeed?" he asked. "I wonder at his moderation. Had I been
+in his place I should have asked more, for really the style is a
+little flamboyant. Well, we don't want to quarrel with them just now--
+feed the sharks. But surely, Jeffreys, you didn't come to disturb me
+about such a trifle?"
+
+"Not altogether, Sir Robert. There is something more important. /The
+Daily Judge/ not only declines to put any article whatsoever, but
+refuses our advertisement, and states that it means to criticize the
+prospectus trenchantly."
+
+"Ah!" said his master after a moment's thought, "that /is/ rather
+serious, since people believe in the /Judge/ even when it is wrong.
+Offer them the advertisement at treble rates."
+
+"It has been done, sir, and they still refuse."
+
+Sir Robert walked to the corner of the room where the yellow object
+squatted on its pedestal, and contemplated it a while, as a man often
+studies one thing when he is thinking of another. It seemed to give
+him an idea, for he looked over his shoulder and said:
+
+"That will do, Jeffreys. When Major Vernon comes in, give him my
+compliments and say that I should be obliged by a word or two with
+him."
+
+The clerk bowed and went as noiselessly as he had entered.
+
+"Let's see," added Sir Robert to himself. "Old Jackson, the editor of
+/The Judge/, was a great friend of Vernon's father, the late Sir
+William Vernon, G.C.B. I believe that he was engaged to be married to
+his sister years ago, only she died or something. So the Major ought
+to be able to get round him if anybody can. Only the worst of it is I
+don't altogether trust that young gentleman. It suited us to give him
+a share in the business because he is an engineer who knows the
+country, and this Sahara scheme was his notion, a very good one in a
+way, and for other reasons. Now he shows signs of kicking over the
+traces, wants to know too much, is developing a conscience, and so
+forth. As though the promoters of speculative companies had any
+business with consciences. Ah! here he comes."
+
+Sir Robert seated himself at his desk and resumed his calculations
+upon a half-sheet of note-paper, and that moment a clear, hearty voice
+was heard speaking to the clerks in the outer office. Then came the
+sound of a strong, firm footstep, the door opened and Major Alan
+Vernon appeared.
+
+He was still quite a young man, not more than thirty-two or three
+years of age, though he lacked the ultra robust and rubicund
+appearance which is typical of so many Englishmen of his class at this
+period of life. A heavy bout of blackwater fever acquired on service
+in West Africa, which would have killed anyone of weaker constitution,
+had robbed his face of its bloom and left it much sallower, if more
+interesting than once it had been. For in a way there was interest
+about the face; also a certain charm. It was a good and honest face
+with a rather eager, rather puzzled look, that of a man who has
+imagination and ideas and who searches for the truth but fails to find
+it. As for the charm, it lay for the most part in the pleasant, open
+smile and in the frank but rather round brown eyes overhung by a
+somewhat massive forehead which projected a little, or perhaps the
+severe illness already alluded to had caused the rest of the face to
+sink. Though thin, the man was bigly built, with broad shoulders and
+well-developed limbs, measuring a trifle under six feet in height.
+
+Such was the outward appearance of Alan Vernon. As for his mind, it
+was able enough in certain fashions, for instance those of
+engineering, and the soldier-like faculties to which it had been
+trained; frank and kindly also, but in other respects not quick,
+perhaps from its unsuspiciousness. Alan Vernon was a man slow to
+discover ill and slower still to believe in it even when it seemed to
+be discovered, a weakness that may have gone far to account for his
+presence in the office of those eminent and brilliant financiers,
+Messrs. Aylward & Champers-Haswell. Just now he looked a little
+worried, like a fish out of water, or rather a fish which has begun to
+suspect the quality of the water, something in its smell or taste.
+
+"Jeffreys tells me that you want to see me, Sir Robert," he said in
+his low and pleasant voice, looking at the baronet rather anxiously.
+
+"Yes, my dear Vernon, I wish to ask you to do something, if you kindly
+will, although it is not quite in your line. Old Jackson, the editor
+of /The Judge/, is a friend of yours, isn't he?"
+
+"He was a friend of my father's, and I used to know him slightly."
+
+"Well, that's near enough. As I daresay you have heard, he is an
+unreasonable old beggar, and has taken a dislike to our Sahara scheme.
+Someone has set him against it and he refuses to receive
+advertisements, threatens criticisms, etc. Now the opposition of /The
+Judge/ or any other paper won't kill us, and if necessary we can
+fight, but at the same time it is always wise to agree with your enemy
+while he is in the way, and in short--would you mind going down and
+explaining his mistake to him?"
+
+Before answering Major Vernon walked to the window leisurely and
+looked out.
+
+"I don't like asking favours from family friends," he replied at
+length, "and, as you said, I think it isn't quite my line. Though of
+course if it has anything to do with the engineering possibilities, I
+shall be most happy to see him," he added, brightening.
+
+"I don't know what it has to do with; that is what I shall be obliged
+if you will find out," answered Sir Robert with some asperity. "One
+can't divide a matter of this sort into watertight compartments. It is
+true that in so important a concern each of us has charge of his own
+division, but the fact remains that we are jointly and severally
+responsible for the whole. I am not sure that you bear this
+sufficiently in mind, my dear Vernon," he added with slow emphasis.
+
+His partner moved quickly; it might almost have been said that he
+shivered, though whether the movement, or the shiver, was produced by
+the argument of joint and several liability or by the familiarity of
+the "my dear Vernon," remains uncertain. Perhaps it was the latter,
+since although the elder man was a baronet and the younger only a
+retired Major of Engineers, the gulf between them, as any one of
+discernment could see, was wide. They were born, lived, and moved in
+different spheres unbridged by any common element or impulse.
+
+"I think that I do bear it in mind, especially of late, Sir Robert,"
+answered Alan Vernon slowly.
+
+His partner threw a searching glance on him, for he felt that there
+was meaning in the words, but only said:
+
+"That's all right. My motor is outside and will take you to Fleet
+Street in no time. Meanwhile you might tell them to telephone that you
+are coming, and perhaps you will just look in when you get back. I
+haven't got to go to the House to-night, so shall be here till dinner
+time, and so, I think, will your cousin Haswell. Muzzle that old
+bulldog, Jackson, somehow. No doubt he has his price like the rest of
+them, in meal or malt, and you needn't stick at the figure. We don't
+want him hanging on our throat for the next week or two."
+
+Ten minutes later the splendid, two-thousand guinea motor brougham
+drew up at the offices of the /Judge/ and the obsequious motor-footman
+bowed Major Vernon through its rather grimy doorway. Within, a small
+boy in a kind of box asked his business, and when he heard his name,
+said that the "Guvnor" had sent down word that he was go up at once--
+third floor, first to the right and second to the left. So up he went,
+and when he reached the indicated locality was taken possession of by
+a worried-looking clerk who had evidently been waiting for him, and
+almost thrust through a door to find himself in a big, worn, untidy
+room. At a huge desk in this room sat an elderly man, also big, worn,
+and untidy-looking, who waved a long slip of galley-proof in his hand,
+and was engaged in scolding a sub-editor.
+
+"Who is that?" he said, wheeling round. "I'm busy, can't see anyone."
+
+"I beg your pardon," answered the Major with humility, "your people
+told me to come up. My name is Alan Vernon."
+
+"Oh! I remember. Sit down for a moment, will you, and--Mr. Thomas,
+oblige me by taking away this rot and rewriting it entirely in the
+sense I have outlined."
+
+Mr. Thomas snatched his rejected copy and vanished through another
+door, whereon his chief remarked in an audible voice:
+
+"That man is a perfect fool. Lucky I thought to look at his stuff.
+Well, he is no worse than the rest, in this weary world," and he burst
+into a hearty laugh and swung his chair round, adding, "Now then,
+Alan, what is it? I have a quarter of an hour at your service. Why,
+bless me! I was forgetting that it's more than a dozen years since we
+met; you were still a boy then, and now you have left the army with a
+D.S.O. and gratuity, and turned financier, which I think wouldn't have
+pleased your old father. Come, sit down here and let us talk."
+
+"I didn't leave the army, Mr. Jackson," answered his visitor; "it left
+me; I was invalided out. They said I should never get my health back
+after that last go of fever, but I did."
+
+"Ah! bad luck, very bad luck, just at the beginning of what should
+have been a big career, for I know they thought highly of you at the
+War Office, that is, if they can think. Well, you have grown into a
+fine-looking fellow, like your father, very, and someone else too,"
+and he sighed, running his fingers through his grizzled hair. "But you
+don't remember her; she was before your time. Now let us get to
+business; there's no time for reminiscences in this office. What is
+it, Alan, for like other people I suppose that you want something?"
+
+"It is about that Sahara flotation, Mr. Jackson," he began rather
+doubtfully.
+
+The old editor's face darkened. "The Sahara flotation! That
+accursed----" and he ceased abruptly. "What have you, of all people in
+the world, got to do with it? Oh! I remember. Someone told me that you
+had gone into partnership with Aylward the company promoter, and that
+little beast, Champers-Haswell, who really is the clever one. Well,
+set it out, set it out."
+
+"It seems, Mr. Jackson, that /The Judge/ has refused not only our
+article, but also the advertisement of the company. I don't know much
+about this side of the affair myself, but Sir Robert asked me if I
+would come round and see if things couldn't be arranged."
+
+"You mean that the man sent you to try and work on me because he knew
+that I used to be intimate with your family. Well, it is a poor errand
+and will have a poor end. You can't--no one on earth can, while I sit
+in this chair, not even my proprietors."
+
+There was silence broken at last by Alan, who remarked awkwardly:
+
+"If that is so, I must not take up your time any longer."
+
+"I said that I would give you a quarter of an hour, and you have only
+been here four minutes. Now, Alan Vernon, tell me as your father's old
+friend, why you have gone to herd with these gilded swine?"
+
+There was something so earnest about the man's question that it did
+not even occur to his visitor to resent its roughness.
+
+"Of course it is not original," he answered, "but I had this idea
+about flooding the Desert; I spent a furlough up there a few years ago
+and employed my time in making some rough surveys. Then I was obliged
+to leave the Service and went down to Yarleys after my father's death
+--it's mine now, you know, but worth nothing except a shooting rent,
+which just pays for the repairs. There I met Champers-Haswell, who
+lives near and is a kind of distant cousin of mine--my mother was a
+Champers--and happened to mention the thing to him. He took it up at
+once and introduced me to Aylward, and the end of it was, that they
+offered me a partnership with a small share in the business, because
+they said I was just the man they wanted."
+
+"Just the man they wanted," repeated the editor after him. "Yes, the
+last of the Vernons, an engineer with an old name in his county, a
+clean record and plenty of ability. Yes, you would be just the man
+they wanted. And you accepted?"
+
+"Yes. I was on my beam ends with nothing to do; I wanted to make some
+money. You see Yarleys has been in the family for over five hundred
+years, and it seemed hard to have to sell it. Also--also----" and he
+paused.
+
+"Ever meet Barbara Champers?" asked Mr. Jackson inconsequently. "I did
+once. Wonderfully nice girl, and very good-looking too. But of course
+you know her, and she is her uncle's ward, and their place isn't far
+off Yarleys, you say. Must be a connection of yours also."
+
+Major Vernon started a little at the name and his face seemed to
+redden.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I have met her and she is a connection."
+
+"Will be a big heiress one day, I think," went on Mr. Jackson, "unless
+old Haswell makes off with her money. I think Aylward knows that; at
+any rate he was hanging about when I saw her."
+
+Vernon started again, this time very perceptibly.
+
+"Very natural--your going into the business, I mean, under all the
+circumstances," went on Mr. Jackson. "But now, if you will take my
+advice, you'll go out of it as soon as you can."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, Alan Vernon, I am sure you don't want to see your name
+dragged in the dirt, any more than I do." He fumbled in a drawer and
+produced a typewritten document. "Take that," he said, "and study it
+at your leisure. It's a sketch of the financial career of Messrs.
+Aylward and Champers-Haswell, also of the companies which they have
+promoted and been connected with, and what has happened to them and to
+those who invested in them. A man got it out for me yesterday and I'm
+going to use it. As regards this Sahara business, you think it all
+right, and so it may be from an engineering point of view, but you
+will never live to sail upon that sea which the British public is
+going to be asked to find so many millions to make. Look here. We have
+only three minutes more, so I will come to the point at once. It's
+Turkish territory, isn't it, and putting aside everything else, the
+security for the whole thing is a Firman from the Sultan?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Robert Aylward and Haswell procured it in Constantinople. I
+have seen the document."
+
+"Indeed, and are you well acquainted with the Sultan's signature? I
+know when they were there last autumn that potentate was very ill----"
+
+"You mean----" said Major Vernon, looking up.
+
+"I mean, Alan, that I like not the security. I won't say any more, as
+there is a law of libel in this land. But /The Judge/ has certain
+sources of information. It may be that no protest will be made at
+once, for baksheesh can stop it for a while, but sooner or later the
+protest or repudiation will come, and perhaps some international
+bother; also much scandal. As to the scheme itself, it is shamelessly
+over-capitalized for the benefit of the promoters--of whom, remember,
+Alan, you will appear as one. Now time's up. Perhaps you will take my
+advice, and perhaps you won't, but there it is for what it's worth as
+that of a man of the world and an old friend of your family. As for
+your puff article and your prospectus, I wouldn't put them in /The
+Judge/ if you paid me a thousand pounds, which I daresay your friend,
+Aylward, would be quite ready to do. Good-bye. Come and see me again
+sometime, and tell me what has happened--and, I say"--this last was
+shouted through the closing door,--"give my kind regards to Miss
+Barbara, for wherever she happens to live, she is an honest woman."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE YELLOW GOD
+
+Alan Vernon walked thoughtfully down the lead-covered stairs, hustled
+by eager gentlemen hurrying up to see the great editor, whose bell was
+already ringing furiously, and was duly ushered by the obsequious
+assistant-chauffeur back into the luxurious motor. There was an
+electric lamp in this motor, and by the light of it, his mind being
+perplexed, he began to read the typewritten document given to him by
+Mr. Jackson, which he still held in his hand.
+
+As it chanced they were blocked for a quarter of an hour near the
+Mansion House, so that he found time, if not to master it, at least to
+gather enough of its contents to make him open his brown eyes very
+wide before the motor pulled up at the granite doorway of his office.
+Alan descended from the machine, which departed silently, and stood
+for a moment wondering what he should do. His impulse was to jump into
+a bus and go straight to his rooms or his club, to which Sir Robert
+did not belong, but being no coward, he dismissed it from his mind.
+
+His fate hung in the balance, of that he was well aware. Either he
+must disregard Mr. Jackson's warning, confirmed as it was by many
+secret fears and instincts of his own, and say nothing except that he
+had failed in his mission, or he must take the bull by the horns and
+break with the firm. To do the latter meant not only a good deal of
+moral courage, but practical ruin, whereas if he chose the former
+course, probably within a fortnight he would find himself a rich man.
+Whatever Jackson and a few others might say in its depreciation, he
+was certain that the Sahara flotation would go through, for it was
+underwritten, of course upon terms, by responsible people, moreover
+the unissued preferred shares had already been dealt in at a heavy
+premium. Now to say nothing of the allotment to which he was entitled
+upon his holding in the parent Syndicate, the proportion of cash due
+to him as a partner, would amount to quite a hundred thousand pounds.
+In other words, he, who had so many reasons for desiring money, would
+be wealthy. After working so hard and undergoing so much that he felt
+to be humiliating and even degrading, why should he not take his
+reward and clear out afterwards?
+
+This he remembered he could do, since probably by some oversight of
+Aylward's, who left such matters to his lawyers, his deed of
+partnership did not bind him to a fixed term. It could be broken at
+any moment. To this argument there was only one possible answer, that
+of his conscience. If once he were convinced that things were not
+right, it would be dishonest to participate in their profits. And he
+was convinced. Mr. Jackson's arguments and his damning document had
+thrown a flood of light upon many matters which he had suspected but
+never quite understood. He was the partner of, well, adventurers, and
+the money which he received would in fact be filched from the pockets
+of unsuspecting persons. He would vouch for that of which he was
+doubtful and receive the price of sharp practice. In other words he,
+Alan Vernon, who had never uttered a wilful untruth or taken a
+halfpenny that was not his own, would before the tribunal of his own
+mind, stand convicted as a liar and a thief. The thing was not to be
+borne. At whatever cost it must be ended. If he were fated to be a
+beggar, at least he would be an honest beggar.
+
+With a firm step and a high head he walked straight into Sir Robert's
+room, without even going through the formality of knocking, to find
+Mr. Champers-Haswell seated at the ebony desk by his partner's side
+examining some document through a reading-glass, which on his
+appearance, was folded over and presently thrust away into a drawer.
+It seemed, Alan noticed, to be of an unusual shape and written in some
+strange character.
+
+Mr. Haswell, a stout, jovial-looking, little man with a florid
+complexion and white hair, rose at once to greet him.
+
+"How do you do, Alan," he said in a cheerful voice, for as a cousin by
+marriage he called him by his Christian name. "I am just this minute
+back from Paris, and you will be glad to learn that they are going to
+support us very well there; in fact I may say that the Government has
+taken up the scheme, of course under the rose. You know the French
+have possessions all along that coast and they won't be sorry to find
+an opportunity of stretching out their hand a little further. Our
+difficulties as to capital are at an end, for a full third of it is
+guaranteed in Paris, and I expect that small investors and speculators
+for the rise will gobble a lot more. We shall plant �10,000,000 worth
+of Sahara scrip in sunny France, my boy, and foggy England has
+underwritten the rest. It will be a case of 'letters of Allotment and
+regret,' /and/ regret, Alan, financially the most successful issue of
+the last dozen years. What do you say to that?" and in his elation the
+little man puffed out his chest and pursing up his lips, blew through
+them, making a sound like that of wind among wires.
+
+"I don't know, Mr. Haswell. If we are all alive I would prefer to
+answer the question twelve months hence, or later, when we see whether
+the company is going to be a practical success as well, or not."
+
+Again Mr. Haswell made the sound of wind among wires, only this time
+there was a shriller note in it; its mellowness was gone, it was as
+though the air had suddenly been filled with frost.
+
+"A practical success!" he repeated after him. "That is scarcely our
+affair, is it? Promoters should not bother themselves with long views,
+Alan. These may be left to the investing public, the speculative
+parson and the maiden lady who likes a flutter--those props of modern
+enterprise. But what do you mean? You originated this idea and always
+said that the profits should be great."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Haswell, on a moderate capitalization and provided that we
+are sure of the co-operation of the Porte."
+
+Mr. Haswell looked at him very searchingly and Sir Robert, who had
+been listening, said in his cold voice:
+
+"I think that we thrashed out these points long ago, and to tell you
+the truth I am rather tired of them, especially as it is too late to
+change anything. How did you get on with Jackson, Vernon?"
+
+"I did not get on at all, Sir Robert. He will not touch the thing on
+any terms, and indeed means to oppose it tooth and nail."
+
+"Then he will find himself in a minority when the articles come out
+to-morrow. Of course it is a bore, but we are strong enough to snap
+our fingers at him. You see they don't read /The Judge/ in France, and
+no one has ever heard of it in Constantinople. Therefore we have
+nothing to fear--so long as we stick together," he added meaningly.
+
+Alan felt that the crisis had come. He must speak now or for ever hold
+his peace; indeed Aylward was already looking round for his hat.
+
+"Sir Robert and Mr. Haswell," he broke in rather nervously, "I have
+something to say to you, something unpleasant," and he paused.
+
+"Then please say it at once, Vernon. I want to dress for dinner, I am
+going to the theatre to-night and must dine early," replied Aylward in
+a voice of the utmost unconcern.
+
+"It is, Sir Robert," went on Alan with a rush, "that I do not like the
+lines upon which this business is being worked, and I wish to give up
+my interest in it and retire from the firm, as I have a right to do
+under our deed of partnership."
+
+"Have you?" said Aylward. "Really, I forget. But, my dear fellow, do
+not think that we should wish to keep you for one moment against your
+will. Only, might I ask, has that old puritan, Jackson, hypnotized
+you, or is it a case of sudden madness after influenza?"
+
+"Neither," answered Alan sternly, for although he might be diffident
+on matters that he did not thoroughly understand, he was not a man to
+brook trifling or impertinence. "It is what I have said, no more nor
+less. I am not satisfied either as to the capitalization or as to the
+guarantee that the enterprise can be really carried out. Further"--and
+he paused,--"Further, I should like what I have never yet been able to
+obtain, more information as to that Firman under which the concession
+is granted."
+
+For one moment a sort of tremor passed over Sir Robert's impassive
+countenance, while Mr. Haswell uttered his windy whistle, this time in
+a tone of plaintive remonstrance.
+
+"As you have formally resigned your membership of the firm, I do not
+see that any useful purpose can be served by discussing such matters.
+The fullest explanations, of course, we should have been willing to
+give----"
+
+"My dear Alan," broke in Mr. Champers-Haswell, who was quite upset, "I
+do implore you to reflect for one moment, for your own sake. In a
+single week you would have been a wealthy man; do you really mean to
+throw away everything for a whim?"
+
+"Perhaps Vernon remembers that he holds over 1700 of the Syndicate
+shares which we have worked up to �18, and thinks it wiser to capture
+the profit in sight, generally speaking a very sound principle,"
+interrupted Aylward sarcastically.
+
+"You are mistaken, Sir Robert," replied Alan, flushing. "The way that
+those shares have been artificially put up is one of the things to
+which I most object. I shall only ask for mine the face value which I
+paid for them."
+
+Now notwithstanding their experience, both of the senior partners did
+for a moment look rather scared. Such folly, or such honesty, was
+absolutely incredible to them. They felt that there must be much
+behind. Sir Robert, however, recovered instantly.
+
+"Very well," he said; "it is not for us to dictate to you; you must
+make your own bed and lie on it. To argue or remonstrate would only be
+rude." He put out his hand and pushed the button of an electric bell,
+adding as he did so, "Of course we understand one thing, Vernon,
+namely, that as a gentleman and a man of honour you will make no
+public use of the information which you have acquired during your stay
+in this office, either to our detriment, personal or financial, or to
+your own advantage."
+
+"Certainly you may understand that," replied Vernon. "Unless my
+character is attacked and it becomes necessary for me to defend
+myself, my lips are sealed."
+
+"That will never happen--why should it?" said Sir Robert with a polite
+bow.
+
+The door opened and the head clerk, Jeffreys, appeared.
+
+"Mr. Jeffreys," said Sir Robert, "please find us the deed of
+partnership between Major Vernon and ourselves, and bring it here. One
+moment. Please make out also a transfer of Major Vernon's parcel of
+Sahara Syndicate shares to Mr. Champers-Haswell and myself at par
+value, and fill in a cheque for the amount. Please remove also Major
+Vernon's name wherever it appears in the proof prospectus, and--yes--
+one thing more. Telephone to Specton--the Right Honourable the Earl of
+Specton, I mean, and say that after all I have been able to arrange
+that he shall have a seat on the Board and a block of shares at a very
+moderate figure, and that if he will wire his assent, his name shall
+be put into the prospectus. You approve, don't you, Haswell?--yes--
+then that is all, I think, Jeffreys, only please be as quick as you
+can, for I want to get away."
+
+Jeffreys, the immaculate and the impassive, bowed, and casting one
+swift glance at Vernon out of the corner of his eye, departed.
+
+What is called an awkward pause ensued; in fact it was a very awkward
+pause. The die was cast, the matter ended, and what were the
+principals to do until the ratifications had been exchanged or, a
+better simile perhaps, the /decree nisi/ pronounced absolute. Mr.
+Champers-Haswell remarked that the weather was very cold for April,
+and Alan agreed with him, while Sir Robert found his hat and brushed
+it with his sleeve. Then Mr. Haswell, in desperation, for in minor
+matters he was a kindly sort of man who disliked scenes and
+unpleasantness, muttered something as to seeing him--Alan--at his
+house, The Court, in Hertfordshire, from Saturday to Monday.
+
+"That was the arrangement," answered Alan bluntly, "but possibly after
+what has happened you will not wish that it should be kept."
+
+"Oh! why not, why not?" said Mr. Haswell. "Sunday is a day of rest
+when we make it a rule not to talk business, and if we did, perhaps we
+might all change our minds about these matters. Sir Robert is coming,
+and I am sure that your cousin Barbara will be very disappointed if
+you do not turn up, for she understands nothing about these city
+things which are Greek to her."
+
+At the mention of the name of Barbara Sir Robert Aylward looked up
+from the papers which he affected to be tidying, and Alan thought that
+there was a kind of challenge in his eyes. A moment before he had made
+up his mind that no power on earth would induce him to spend a Sunday
+with his late partners at The Court. Now, acting upon some instinct or
+impulse, he reversed his opinion.
+
+"Thanks," he said, "if that is understood, I shall be happy to come. I
+will drive over from Yarleys in time for dinner to-morrow. Perhaps you
+will say so to Barbara."
+
+"She will be glad, I am sure," answered Mr. Haswell, "for she told me
+the other day that she wants to consult you about some outdoor
+theatricals that she means to get up in July."
+
+"In July!" answered Alan with a little laugh. "I wonder where I shall
+be in July."
+
+Then came another pause, which seemed to affect even Sir Robert's
+nerves, for abandoning the papers, he walked down the room till he
+came to the golden object that has been described, and for the second
+time that day stood there contemplating it.
+
+"This thing is yours, Vernon," he said, "and now that our relations
+are at an end, I suppose that you will want to take it away. What is
+its history? You never told me."
+
+"Oh! that's a long story," answered Alan in an absent voice. "My
+uncle, who was a missionary, brought it from West Africa. I rather
+forget the facts, but Jeekie, my negro servant, knows them all, for as
+a lad my uncle saved him from sacrifice, or something, in a place
+where they worship these things, and he has been with us ever since.
+It is a fetish with magical powers and all the rest of it. I believe
+they call it the Swimming Head and other names. If you look at it, you
+will see that it seems to swim between the shoulders, doesn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said Sir Robert, "and I admire the beautiful beast. She is
+cruel and artistic, like--like finance. Look here, Vernon, we have
+quarrelled, and of course henceforth are enemies, for it is no use
+mincing matters, only fools do that. But in a way you are being hardly
+treated. You could get �10 apiece to-day for those shares of yours in
+a block on the market, and I am paying you �1. I understand your
+scruples, but there is no reason why we should not square things. This
+fetish of yours has brought me luck, so let's do a deal. Leave it
+here, and instead of a check for �1700, I will make you one out for
+�17,000."
+
+"That's a very liberal offer," said Vernon. "Give me a moment to think
+it over."
+
+Then he also walked into the corner of the room and contemplated the
+golden mask that seemed to float between the frog-like shoulders. The
+shimmering eyes drew his eyes, though what he saw in them does not
+matter. Indeed he could never remember. Only when he straightened
+himself again there was left on his mind a determination that not for
+seventeen or for seventy thousand pounds would he part with his
+ownership in this very unique fetish.
+
+"No, thank you," he said presently. "I don't think I will sell the
+Yellow God, as Jeekie calls it. Perhaps you will kindly keep her here
+for a week or so, until I make up my mind where to stow her."
+
+Again Mr. Champers-Haswell uttered his windy whistle. That a man
+should refuse �17,000 for a bit of African gold worth �100 or so,
+struck him as miraculous. But Sir Robert did not seem in the least
+surprised, only very disappointed.
+
+"I quite understand your dislike to selling," he said. "Thank you for
+leaving it here for the present to see us through the flotation," and
+he laughed.
+
+At that moment Jeffreys entered the room with the documents. Sir
+Robert handed the deed of partnership to Alan, and when he had
+identified it, took it from him again and threw it on the fire, saying
+that of course the formal letter of release would be posted and the
+dissolution notified in the /Gazette/. Then the transfer was signed
+and the cheque delivered.
+
+"Well, good-bye till Saturday," said Alan when he had received the
+latter, and nodding to them both, he turned and left the room.
+
+The passage ran past the little room in which Mr. Jeffreys, the head
+clerk, sat alone. Catching sight of him through the open door, Alan
+entered, shutting it behind him. Finding his key ring he removed from
+it the keys of his desk and of the office strongroom, and handed them
+to the clerk who, methodical in everything, proceeded to write a
+formal receipt.
+
+"You are leaving us, Major Vernon?" he said interrogatively as he
+signed the paper.
+
+"Yes, Jeffreys," answered Alan, then prompted by some impulse, added,
+"Are you sorry?"
+
+Mr. Jeffreys looked up and there were traces of unwonted emotion upon
+his hard, regulated face.
+
+"For myself, yes, Major--for you, on the whole, no."
+
+"What do you mean, Jeffreys? I do not quite understand."
+
+"I mean, Major, that I am sorry because you have never tried to
+shuffle off any shady business on to my back and leave me to bear the
+brunt of it; also because you have always treated me as a gentleman
+should, not as a machine to be used until a better can be found, and
+kicked aside when it goes out of order."
+
+"It is very kind of you to say so, Jeffreys, but I can't remember
+having done anything particular."
+
+"No, Major, you can't remember what comes natural to you. But I and
+the others remember, and that's why I am sorry. But for yourself I am
+glad, since although Aylward and Haswell have put a big thing through
+and are going to make a pot of money, this is no place for the likes
+of you, and now that you are going I will make bold to tell you that I
+always wondered what you were doing here. By and by, Major, the row
+will come, as it has come more than once in the past, before your
+time."
+
+"And then?" said Alan, for he was anxious to get to the bottom of this
+man's mind, which hitherto he had always found so secret.
+
+"And then, Major, it won't matter much to Messrs. Aylward and
+Champers-Haswell, who are used to that kind of thing and will probably
+dissolve partnership and lie quiet for a bit, and still less to folk
+like myself, who are only servants. But if you were still here it
+would have mattered a great deal to you, for it would blacken your
+name and break your heart, and then what's the good of the money? I
+tell you, Major," the clerk went on with quiet intensity, "though I am
+nobody and nothing, if I could afford it I would follow your example.
+But I can't, for I have a sick wife and a family of delicate children
+who have to live half the year on the south coast, to say nothing of
+my old mother, and--I was fool enough to be taken in and back Sir
+Robert's last little venture, which cost me all I had saved. So you
+see I must make a bit before the machine is scrapped, Major. But I
+tell you this, that if I can get �5000 together, as I hope to do out
+of Saharas before I am a month older, for they had to give me a look-
+in, as I knew too much, I am off to the country, where I was born, to
+take a farm there. No more of Messrs. Aylward and Haswell for Thomas
+Jeffreys. That's my bell. Good-bye, Major, I'll take the liberty to
+write you a line sometimes, for I know you won't give me away. Good-
+bye and God bless you, as I am sure He will in the long run," and
+stretching out his hand, he took that of the astonished Alan and wrung
+it warmly.
+
+When he was gone Alan went also, noticing that the clerks, whom some
+rumour of these events seemed to have reached, eyed him curiously
+through the glass screens behind which they sat at their desks, as he
+thought not without regret and a kind of admiration. Even the
+magnificent be-medalled porter at the door emerged from the carved
+teak box where he dwelt and touching his cap asked if he should call a
+cab.
+
+"No, thank you, Sergeant," answered Alan, "I will take a bus, and,
+Sergeant, I think I forgot to give you a present last Xmas. Will you
+accept this?--I wish I could make it more," and he presented him with
+ten shillings.
+
+The Sergeant drew himself up and saluted.
+
+"Thank you kindly, Major," he said. "I'd rather take that from you
+than �10 from the other gentlemen. But, Major, I wish we were out on
+the West Coast again together. It's a stinking, barbarous hole, but
+not so bad as this 'ere city."
+
+For once these two had served as comrades, and it was through Alan
+that the sergeant obtained his present lucrative but somewhat
+uncongenial post.
+
+He was outside at last. The massive granite portal vanished behind him
+in the evening mists, much as a nightmare vanishes. He, Alan Vernon,
+who for a year or more had been in bondage, was a free man again. All
+his dreams of wealth had departed; indeed if anything, save in
+experience, he was poorer than when first the shadow of yonder doorway
+fell upon him. But at least he was safe, safe. The deed of partnership
+which had been as a chain about his neck, was now white ashes; his
+name was erased from that fearful prospectus of Sahara Limited,
+wherein millions which someone would provide were spoken of like
+silver in the days of Solomon, as things of no account. The bitterest
+critic could not say that he had made a halfpenny out of the venture,
+in fact, if trouble came, his voluntary abandonment of the profits due
+to him must go to his credit. He had plunged into the icy waters of
+renunciation and come up clean if naked. Never since he was a boy
+could Alan remember feeling so utterly light-hearted and free from
+anxiety. Not for a million pounds would he have returned to gather
+gold in that mausoleum of reputations. As for the future, he did not
+in the least care what happened. There was no one dependent on him,
+and in this way or in that he could always earn a crust, a nice,
+honest crust.
+
+He ran down the street and danced for joy like a child, yes, and
+presented a crossing-sweeper against whom he butted with a whole
+sixpence in compensation. Thus he reached the Mansion House, not
+unsuspected of inebriety by the police, and clambered to the top of a
+bus crowded with weary and anxious-looking City clerks returning home
+after a long day's labour at starvation wage. In that cold company and
+a chilling atmosphere some of his enthusiasm evaporated. He remembered
+that this step of his meant that sooner or later, within a year or two
+at most, Yarleys, where his family had dwelt for centuries, must go to
+the hammer. Why had he not accepted Aylward's offer and sold that old
+fetish to him for �17,000? There was no question of share-dealing
+there, and if a very wealthy man chose to give a fancy price for a
+curiosity, he could take it without doubt or shame. At least it would
+have sufficed to save Yarleys, which after all was only mortgaged for
+�20,000. For the life of him he could not tell. He had acted on
+impulse, a very curious impulse, and there was an end of it perhaps;
+it might be because his uncle had told him as a boy that the thing was
+unique, or perhaps because old Jeekie, his negro servant, venerated it
+so much and swore that it was "lucky." At any rate he had declined and
+there was an end.
+
+But another and a graver matter remained. He had desired wealth to
+save Yarleys, but he desired it still more for a different purpose.
+Above everything on earth he loved Barbara, his distant cousin and the
+niece of Mr. Champers-Haswell, who until an hour ago had been his
+partner. Now she was a great heiress, and without fortune he could not
+marry her, even if she would marry him, which remained in doubt. For
+one thing her uncle and guardian Haswell, under her father's will, had
+absolute discretion in this matter until she reached the age of
+twenty-five, and for another he was too proud. Therefore it would seem
+that in abandoning his business, he had abandoned his chance of
+Barbara also, which was a truly dreadful thought.
+
+Well, it was in order that he might see her, that he had agreed to
+visit The Court on the morrow, even though it meant a meeting with his
+late partners, who were the last people with whom he desired to
+foregather again so soon. Then and there he made up his mind that
+before he bade Barbara farewell, he would tell her the whole story, so
+that she might not misjudge him. After that he would go off somewhere
+--to Africa perhaps. Meanwhile he was quite tired out, as tired as
+though he had lain a week in the grip of fever. He must eat some food
+and get to bed. Sufficient unto the day was the evil thereof, yet on
+the whole he blessed the name of Jackson, editor of /The Judge/ and
+his father's old friend.
+
+
+
+When Alan had left the office Sir Robert turned to Mr. Champers-
+Haswell and asked him abruptly, "What the devil does this mean?"
+
+Mr. Haswell looked up at the ceiling and whistled in his own peculiar
+fashion, then answered:
+
+"I cannot say for certain, but our young friend's strange conduct
+seems to suggest that he has smelt a rat, possibly even that Jackson,
+the old beast, has shown him a rat--of a large Turkish breed."
+
+Sir Robert nodded.
+
+"Vernon is a fellow who doesn't like rats; they seem to haunt his
+sleep," he said; "but do you think that having seen it, he will keep
+it in the bag?"
+
+"Oh! certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Haswell with cheerfulness;
+"the man is the soul of honour; he will never give us away. Look how
+he behaved about those shares. Still, I think that perhaps we are well
+rid of him. Too much honour, like too much zeal, is a very dangerous
+quality in any business."
+
+"I don't know that I agree with you," answered Sir Robert. "I am not
+sure that in the long run we should not do better for a little more of
+the article. For my part, although it will not hurt us publicly, for
+the thing will never be noticed, I am sorry that we have lost Vernon,
+very sorry indeed. I don't think him a fool, and awkward as they may
+be, I respect his qualities."
+
+"So do I, so do I," answered Mr. Haswell, "and of course we have acted
+against his advice throughout, which must have been annoying to him.
+The scheme as he suggested it was a fair business proposition that
+might have paid ten per cent. on a small capital, but what is the good
+of ten per cent. to you and me? We want millions and we are going to
+get them. Well, he is coming to The Court to-morrow, and perhaps after
+all we shall be able to arrange matters. I'll give Barbara a hint; she
+has great influence with him, and you might do the same, Aylward."
+
+"Miss Champers has great influence with everyone who is fortunate
+enough to know her," answered Sir Robert courteously. "But even if she
+chooses to use it, I doubt if it will avail in this case. Vernon has
+been making up his mind for a long while. I have watched him and am
+sure of that. To-night he determined to take the plunge and I do not
+think that we shall see any more of him in this office. Haswell," he
+added with sudden energy, "I tell you that of late our luck has been
+too good to last. The boom, the real boom, came in with Vernon, and
+with Vernon I think that it will go."
+
+"At any rate it must leave something pretty substantial behind it this
+time, Aylward, my friend. Whatever happens, within a week we shall be
+rich, really rich for life."
+
+"For life, Haswell, yes, for life. But what is life? A bubble that any
+pin may prick. Oh! I know that you do not like the subject, but it is
+as well to look it in the face sometimes. I'm no church-goer, but if I
+remember right we were taught to pray the good Lord to deliver us
+especially 'in all times of our wealth,' which is followed by
+something about tribulation and sudden death, for when they wrote that
+prayer the wheel of human fortune went round just as it does to-day.
+There, let's get out of this before I grow superstitious, as men who
+believe in nothing sometimes do, because after all they must believe
+in something, I suppose. Got your hat and coat? So have I, come on,"
+and he switched off the light, so that the room was left in darkness
+except for the faint glimmering of the fire.
+
+His partner grumbled audibly, for in turning he had knocked his hand
+against the desk.
+
+"Leave me my only economy, Haswell," he answered with a hard little
+laugh. "Electricity is strength and I hate to see strength burning to
+waste. Why do you mind?" he went on as he stepped towards the door.
+"Is it the contrast? In all times of our wealth, in all times of our
+tribulation, from sickness and from sudden death----"
+
+"Good Lord deliver us," chimed in Mr. Haswell in a shaking voice
+behind him. "What the devil's that?"
+
+Sir Robert looked round and saw, or thought that he saw, something
+very strange. From the pillar on which it stood the golden fetish with
+a woman's face, appeared to have floated. The firelight showed it
+gliding towards them across, but a few inches above the floor of the
+great room. It came very slowly, but it came. Now it reached them and
+paused, and now it rose into the air until it attained the height of
+Mr. Champers-Haswell and stayed there, staring into his face and not a
+hand's breadth away, just as though it were a real woman glaring at
+him.
+
+He uttered a sound, half whistle and half groan, and fell back, as it
+chanced on to a morocco-covered seat behind him. For a moment or two
+the gleaming, golden mask floated in the air. Then it turned very
+deliberately, rose a little way, and moving sidelong to where Sir
+Robert stood, hung in front of /his/ face.
+
+Presently Aylward staggered to the mantelpiece and began to fumble for
+the switch; in the silence his nails scratching at the panelling made
+a sound like to that of a gnawing mouse. He found it at last, and next
+instant the office broke into a blaze of light, showing Mr. Haswell,
+his rubicund face quite pale, his hat and umbrella on the floor,
+gasping like a dying man upon the couch, and Sir Robert himself
+clinging to the mantel-shelf as a person might do who had received a
+mortal wound, while the golden fetish reposed calmly on its pillar, to
+all appearance as immovable and undisturbed as the antique Venus which
+matched it at the other end of the room. For a while there was
+silence. Then Sir Robert, recovering himself, asked:
+
+"Did you notice anything unusual just now, Haswell?"
+
+"Yes," whispered his partner. "I thought that hideous African thing
+which Vernon brought here, came sliding across the floor and stared
+into my face with its glittering eyes, and in the eyes----"
+
+"Well, what was in the eyes?"
+
+"I can't remember. It was a kind of picture and the meaning of it was
+Sudden Death--oh Lord! Sudden Death. Tell me it was a fancy bred of
+that ill-omened talk of yours?"
+
+"I can't tell you anything of the sort," answered Aylward in a hollow
+voice, "for I saw something also."
+
+"What?" asked his partner.
+
+"Death that wasn't sudden, and other things."
+
+Again the silence fell till it was broken by Aylward.
+
+"Come," he said, "we have been over-working--too much strain, and now
+the reaction. Keep this rubbish to yourself, or they will lock you up
+in an asylum."
+
+"Certainly, Aylward, certainly. But can't you get rid of that beastly
+image?"
+
+"Not on any account, Haswell, even if it haunts us all day. Here it
+shall stop until the Saharas are floated on Monday, if I have to lock
+it in the strongroom and throw the keys into the Thames. Afterwards
+Vernon can take it, as he has a right to do, and I am sure that with
+it will go our luck."
+
+"Then the sooner our luck goes, the better," replied Haswell, with a
+mere ghost of his former whistle. "Life is better than luck, and--
+Aylward, that Yellow God you are so fond of means to murder us. We are
+being fatted for the sacrifice, that is all. I remember now, that was
+one of the things I saw written in its eyes!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JEEKIE TELLS A TALE
+
+The Court, Mr. Champers-Haswell's place, was a very fine house indeed,
+of a sort. That is, it contained twenty-nine bedrooms, each of them
+with a bathroom attached, a large number of sitting-rooms, ample
+garages, stables, and offices, the whole surrounded by several acres
+of newly-planted gardens. Incidentally it may be mentioned that it was
+built in the most atrocious taste and looked like a suburban villa
+seen through a magnifying glass.
+
+It was in this matter of taste that it differed from Sir Robert
+Aylward's home, Old Hall, a few miles away. Not that this was old
+either, for the original house had fallen down or been burnt a hundred
+years before. But Sir Robert, being gifted with artistic perception,
+had reared up in place of it a smaller but really beautiful dwelling
+of soft grey stone, long and low, and built in the Tudor style with
+many gables.
+
+This house, charming as it was, could not of course compare with
+Yarleys, the ancient seat of the Vernons in the same neighbourhood.
+Yarleys was pure Elizabethan, although it contained an oak-roofed hall
+which was said to date back to the time of King John, a remnant of a
+former house. There was no electric light or other modern convenience
+at Yarleys, yet it was a place that everyone went to see because of
+its exceeding beauty and its historical associations. The moat by
+which it was surrounded, the grass court within, for it was built on
+three sides of a square, the mullioned windows, the towered gateway of
+red brick, the low-panelled rooms hung with the portraits of departed
+Vernons, the sloping park and the splendid oaks that stood about,
+singly or in groups, were all of them perfect in their way. It was one
+of the most lovely of English homes, and oddly enough its neglected
+gardens and the air of decay that pervaded it, added to rather than
+decreased its charm.
+
+But it is with The Court that we have to do at present, not with
+Yarleys. Mr. Champers-Haswell had a week-end party. There were ten
+guests, all men, and with the exception of Alan, who it will be
+remembered was one of them, all rich and in business. They included
+two French bankers and three Jews, everyone a prop of the original
+Sahara Syndicate and deeply interested in the forthcoming flotation.
+To describe them is unnecessary, for they have no part in our story,
+being only financiers of a certain class, remarkable for the riches
+they had acquired by means that for the most part would not bear
+examination. The riches were evident enough. Ever since the morning
+the owners of this wealth had arrived by ones or twos in their costly
+motorcars, attended by smart chauffeurs and valets. Their fur coats,
+their jewelled studs and rings, something in their very faces
+suggested money, which indeed was the bond that brought and held them
+together.
+
+Alan did not come until it was time to dress for dinner, for he knew
+that Barbara would not appear before that meal, and it was her society
+he sought, not that of his host or fellow guests. Accompanied by his
+negro servant, Jeekie, for in a house like this it was necessary to
+have someone to wait upon him, he drove over from Yarleys, a distance
+of ten miles, arriving about eight o'clock.
+
+"Mr. Haswell as gone up to dress, Major, and so have the other
+gentlemen," said the head butler, Mr. Smith, "but Miss Champers told
+me to give you this note and to say that dinner is at half-past
+eight."
+
+Alan took the note and asked to be shown to his room. Once there,
+although he had only five and twenty minutes, he opened it eagerly,
+while Jeekie unpacked his bag.
+
+ "Dear Alan," it ran: "Don't be late for dinner, or I may not be
+  able to keep a place next to me. Of course Sir Robert takes me in.
+  They are a worse lot than usual this time, odious--odious!--and I
+  can't stand one on the left hand as well as on the right. Yours,
+
+"B.
+
+
+ "P.S. What /have/ you been doing? Our distinguished guests, to say
+  nothing of my uncle, seem to be in a great fuss about you. I
+  overheard them talking when I was pretending to arrange some
+  flowers. One of them called you a sanctimonious prig and an
+  obstinate donkey, and another answered--I think it was Sir Robert
+  --'No doubt, but obstinate donkeys can kick and have been known to
+  upset other people's applecarts ere now.' Is the Sahara Syndicate
+  the applecart? If so, I'll forgive you.
+
+ "P.P.S. Remember that we will walk to church together to-morrow,
+  but come down to breakfast in knickerbockers or something to put
+  them off, and I'll do the same--I mean I'll dress as if I were
+  going to golf. We can turn into Christians later. If we don't--
+  dress like that, I mean--they'll guess and all want to come to
+  church, except the Jews, which would bring the judgment of Heaven
+  on us.
+
+ "P.P.P.S. Don't be careless and leave this note lying about, for
+  the under-footman who waits upon you reads all the letters. He
+  steams them over a kettle. Smith the butler is the only
+  respectable man in this house."
+
+Alan laughed outright as he finished this peculiar and outspoken
+epistle, which somehow revived his spirits, that since the previous
+day had been low enough. It refreshed him. It was like a breath of
+frosty air from an open window blowing clean and cold into a scented,
+overheated room. He would have liked to keep it, but remembering
+Barbara's injunctions and the under-footman, threw it onto the fire
+and watched it burn. Jeekie coughed to intimate that it was time for
+his master to dress, and Alan turned and looked at him in an absent-
+minded fashion.
+
+He was worth looking at, was Jeekie. Let the reader imagine a very
+tall and powerfully-built negro with a skin as black as a well-
+polished boot, woolly hair as white as snow, a little tufted beard
+also white, a hand like a leg of mutton, but with long delicate
+fingers and pink, filbert-shaped nails, an immovable countenance, but
+set in it beneath a massive brow, two extraordinary humorous and
+eloquent black eyes which expressed every emotion passing through the
+brain behind them, that is when their owner chose to allow them to do
+so. Such was Jeekie.
+
+"Shall I unlace your boots, Major?" he said in his full, melodious
+voice and speaking the most perfect English. "I expect that the gong
+will sound in nine and a half minutes."
+
+"Then let it sound and be hanged to it," answered Alan; "no, I forgot
+--I must hurry. Jeekie, put that fire out and open all the windows as
+soon as I go down. This room is like a hot-house."
+
+"Yes, Major, the fire shall be extinguished and the sleeping-chamber
+ventilated. The other boot, if you please, Major."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "who is stopping in this place? Have you heard?"
+
+"I collected some names on my way upstairs, Major. Three of the
+gentlemen you have never met before, but," he added suddenly breaking
+away from his high-flown book-learned English, as was his custom when
+in earnest, "Jeekie think they just black niggers like the rest, thief
+people. There ain't a white man in this house, except you and Miss
+Barbara and me, Major. Jeekie learnt all that in servant's hall
+palaver. No, not now, other time. Everyone tell everything to Jeekie,
+poor old African fool, and he look up an answer, 'O law! you don't say
+so?' but keep his eyes and ears open all the same."
+
+"I'll be bound you do, Jeekie," replied Alan, laughing again. "Well,
+go on keeping them open, and give me those trousers."
+
+"Yes, Major," answered Jeekie, reassuming his grand manner, "I shall
+continue to collect information which may prove to your advantage, but
+personally I wish that you were clear of the whole caboodle, except
+Miss Barbara."
+
+"Hear, hear," ejaculated Alan, "there goes the gong. Mind you come in
+and help to wait," and hurrying into his coat he departed downstairs.
+
+The guests were gathered in the hall drinking sherry and bitters, a
+proceeding that to Alan's mind set a stamp upon the house. His host,
+Mr. Champers-Haswell, came forward and greeted him with much
+affectionate enthusiasm, and Alan noticed that he looked very pale,
+also that his thoughts seemed to be wandering, for he introduced a
+French banker to him as a noted Jew, and the noted Jew as the French
+banker, although the distinction between them was obvious and the
+gentlemen concerned evidently resented the mistake. Sir Robert
+Aylward, catching sight of him, came across the hall in his usual,
+direct fashion, and shook him by the hand.
+
+"Glad to see you, Vernon," he said, fixing his piercing eyes upon Alan
+as though he were trying to read his thoughts. "Pleasant change this
+from the City and all that eternal business, isn't it? Ah! you are
+thinking that one is not quite clear of business after all," and he
+glanced round at the company. "That's one of your cousin Haswell's
+faults; he can never shake himself free of the thing, never get any
+real recreation. I'd bet you a sovereign that he has a stenographer
+waiting by a telephone in the next room, just in case any opportunity
+should arise in the course of conversation. That is magnificent, but
+it is not wise. His heart can't stand it; it will wear him out before
+his time. Listen, they are all talking about the Sahara. I wish I were
+there; it must be quiet at any rate. The sands beneath, the eternal
+stars above. Yes, I wish I were there," he repeated with a sigh, and
+Alan noted that although his face could not be more pallid than its
+natural colour, it looked quite worn and old.
+
+"So do I," he answered with enthusiasm.
+
+Then a French gentleman on his left, having discovered that he was the
+engineer who had formulated the great flooding scheme, began to
+address him as "Cher maitre," speaking so rapidly his own language
+that Alan, whose French was none of the best, struggled after him in
+vain. Whilst he was trying to answer a question which he did not
+understand, the door at the end of the hall opened, and through it
+appeared Barbara Champers.
+
+It was a large hall and she was a long way off, which caused her to
+look small, who indeed was only of middle height. Yet even at that
+distance it was impossible to mistake the dignity of her appearance. A
+slim woman with brown hair, cheerful brown eyes, a well-modelled face,
+a rounded figure and an excellent complexion, such was Barbara. Ten
+thousand young ladies could be found as good, or even better looking,
+yet something about her differentiated her from the majority of her
+sex. There was determination in her step, and overflowing health and
+vigour in her every movement. Her eyes had a trick of looking straight
+into any other eyes they met, not boldly, but with a kind of virginal
+fearlessness and enterprise that people often found embarrassing.
+Indeed she was extremely virginal and devoid of the usual fringe of
+feminine airs and graces, a nymph of the woods and waters, who
+although she was three and twenty, as yet recked little of men save as
+companions whom she liked or disliked according to her instincts. For
+the rest she was sweetly dressed in a white robe with silver on it,
+and wore no ornaments save a row of small pearls about her throat and
+some lilies of the valley at her breast.
+
+Barbara came straight onwards, looking neither to the right or to the
+left, till she reached her uncle, to whom she nodded. Then she walked
+to Alan and, offering him her hand, said:
+
+"How do you do! Why did you not come over at lunch time? I wanted to
+play a round of golf with you this afternoon."
+
+Alan answered something about being busy at Yarleys.
+
+"Yarleys!" she replied. "I thought that you lived in the City now,
+making money out of speculations, like everyone else that I know."
+
+"Why, Miss Champers," broke in Sir Robert reproachfully, "I asked you
+to play a round of golf before tea and you would not."
+
+"No," she answered, "because I was waiting for my cousin. We are
+better matched, Sir Robert."
+
+There was something in her voice, usually so soft and pleasant, as she
+spoke these words, something of steeliness and defiance that caused
+Alan to feel at once happy and uncomfortable. Apparently also it
+caused Aylward to feel angry, for he flashed a glance at Alan over her
+head of which the purport could not be mistaken, though his pale face
+remained as immovable as ever. "We are enemies. I hate you," said that
+glance. Probably Barbara saw it; at any rate before either of them
+could speak again, she said:
+
+"Thank goodness, there is dinner at last. Sir Robert, will you take me
+in, and, Alan, will you sit on the other side of me? My uncle will
+show the rest their places."
+
+The meal was long and magnificent; the price of each dish of it would
+have kept a poor family for a month, and on the cost of the exquisite
+wines they might have lived for a year or two. Also the last were well
+patronized by everyone except Barbara, who drank water, and Alan, who
+since his severe fever took nothing but weak whiskey and soda and a
+little claret. Even Aylward, a temperate person, absorbed a good deal
+of champagne. As a consequence the conversation grew animated, and
+under cover of it, while Sir Robert was arguing with his neighbour on
+the left, Barbara asked in a low voice:
+
+"What is the row, Alan? Tell me, I can't wait any longer."
+
+"I have quarrelled with them," he answered, staring at his mutton as
+though he were criticizing it. "I mean, I have left the firm and have
+nothing more to do with the business."
+
+Barbara's eyes lit up as she whispered back:
+
+"Glad of it. Best news I have heard for many a day. But then, may I
+ask why you are here?"
+
+"I came to see you," he replied humbly--"thought perhaps you wouldn't
+mind," and in his confusion he let his knife fall into the mutton,
+whence it rebounded, staining his shirt front.
+
+Barbara laughed, that happy, delightful little laugh of hers,
+presumably at the accident with the knife. Whether or no she "minded"
+did not appear, only she handed her handkerchief, a costly, last-
+fringed trifle, to Alan to wipe the gravy off his shirt, which he took
+thinking it was a napkin, and as she did so, touched his hand with a
+little caressing movement of her fingers. Whether this was done by
+chance or on purpose did not appear either. At least it made Alan feel
+extremely happy. Also when he discovered what it was, he kept that
+gravy-stained handkerchief, nor did she ever ask for it back again.
+Only once in after days when she happened to come across it stuffed
+away in the corner of a despatch-box, she blushed all over, and said
+that she had no idea that any man could be so foolish out of a book.
+
+"Now that /you/ are really clear of it, I am going for them," she said
+presently when the wiping process was finished. "I have only
+restrained myself for your sake," and leaning back in her chair she
+stared at the ceiling, lost in meditation.
+
+Presently there came one of those silences which will fall upon
+dinner-parties at times, however excellent and plentiful the
+champagne.
+
+"Sir Robert Aylward," said Barbara in that clear, carrying voice of
+hers, "will you, as an expert, instruct a very ignorant person? I want
+a little information."
+
+"Miss Champers," he answered, "am I not always at your service?" and
+all listened to hear upon what point their hostess desired to be
+enlightened.
+
+"Sir Robert," she went on calmly, "everyone here is, I believe, what
+is called a financier, that is except myself and Major Vernon, who
+only tries to be and will, I am sure, fail, since Nature made him
+something else, a soldier and--what else did Nature make you, Alan?"
+
+As he vouchsafed no answer to question, although Sir Robert muttered
+an uncomplimentary one between his lips which Barbara heard, or read,
+she continued:
+
+"And you are all very rich and successful, are you not, and are going
+to be much richer and much more successful--next week. Now what I want
+to ask you is--how is it done?"
+
+"Accepting the premises for the sake of argument, Miss Champers,"
+replied Sir Robert, who felt that he could not refuse the challenge,
+"the answer is that it is done by finance."
+
+"I am still in the dark," she said. "Finance, as I have heard of it,
+means floating companies, and companies are floated to earn money for
+those who invest in them. Now this afternoon as I was dull, I got hold
+of a book called the Directory of Directors, and looked up all your
+names in it, except those of the gentlemen from Paris, and the
+companies that you direct--I found out about those in another book.
+Well, I could not make out that any of these companies have ever
+earned any money, a dividend, don't you call it? Therefore how do you
+all grow so rich, and why do people invest in them?"
+
+Now Sir Robert frowned, Alan coloured, two or three of the company
+laughed outright, and one of the French gentlemen who understood
+English and had already drunk as much as was good for him, remarked
+loudly to his neighbour, "Ah! she is charming. She do touch the spot,
+like that ointment you give me to-day. How do we grow rich and why do
+the people invest? /Mon Dieu!/ why do they invest? That is the great
+mystery. I say that /cette belle demoiselle, votre ni�ce, est
+ravissante. Elle a d'esprit, mon ami Haswell./"
+
+Apparently her uncle did not share these sentiments, for he turned as
+red as any turkey-cock, and said across the great round table:
+
+"My dear Barbara, I wish that you would leave matters which you do not
+understand alone. We are here to dine, not to talk about finance."
+
+"Certainly, Uncle," she answered sweetly. "I stand, or rather sit,
+reproved. I suppose that I have put my foot into it as usual, and the
+worst of it is," she added, turning to Sir Robert, "that I am just as
+ignorant as I was before."
+
+"If you want to master these matters, Miss Champers," said Aylward
+with a rather forced laugh, "you must go into training and worship at
+the shrine of"--he meant to say Mammon, then thinking that the word
+sounded unpleasant, substituted--"the Yellow God as we do."
+
+At these words Alan, who had been studying his plate, looked up
+quickly, and her uncle's face turned from red to white. But the
+irrepressible Barbara seized upon them.
+
+"The Yellow God," she repeated. "Do you mean money or that fetish
+thing of Major Vernon's with the terrible woman's face that I saw at
+the office in the City. Well, to change the subject, tell us, Alan,
+what is that yellow god of yours and where did it come from?"
+
+"My uncle Austin, who was my mother's brother and a missionary,
+brought it from West Africa a great many years ago. He was the first
+to visit the tribe who worship it; in fact I do not think that anyone
+has ever visited them since. But really I do not know all the story.
+Jeekie can tell you about it if you want to know, for he is one of
+that people and escaped with my uncle."
+
+Now Jeekie having left the room, some of the guests wished to send for
+him, but Mr. Champers-Haswell objected. The end of it was that a
+compromise was effected, Alan undertaking to produce his retainer
+afterwards when they went to play billiards or cards.
+
+
+
+Dinner was over at length and the diners, who had dined well, were
+gathered in the billiard room to smoke and amuse themselves as they
+wished. It was a very large room, sixty feet long indeed, with a wide
+space in the centre between the two tables, which was furnished as a
+lounge. When the gentlemen entered it they found Barbara standing by
+the great fireplace in this central space, a little shape of white and
+silver in its emptiness.
+
+"Forgive me for intruding on you," she said, "and please do not stop
+smoking, for I like the smell. I have sat up expressly to hear
+Jeekie's story of the Yellow God. Alan, produce Jeekie, or I shall go
+to bed at once."
+
+Her uncle made a movement as though to interfere, but Sir Robert said
+something to him which appeared to cause him to change his mind, while
+the rest in some way or another signified an enthusiastic assent. All
+of them were anxious to see this Jeekie and hear his tale, if he had
+one to tell. So Jeekie was sent for and presently arrived clad in the
+dress clothes which are common to all classes in England and America.
+There he stood before them white-headed, ebony-faced, gigantic,
+imperturbable. There is no doubt that his appearance produced an
+effect, for it was unusual and indeed striking.
+
+"You sent for me, Major?" he said, addressing his master, to whom he
+gave a military salute, for he had been Alan's servant when he was in
+the Army.
+
+"Yes, Jeekie. Miss Barbara here and these gentlemen, wish you to tell
+them all that you know about the Yellow God."
+
+The negro started and rolled his round eyes upwards till the whites of
+them showed, then began in his school-book English:
+
+"That is a private subject, Major, upon which I should prefer not to
+discourse before this very public company."
+
+A chorus of remonstrance arose and one of the Jewish gentlemen
+approaching Jeekie, slipped a couple of sovereigns into his great
+hand, which he promptly transferred to his pocket without seeming to
+notice them.
+
+"Jeekie," said Barbara, "don't disappoint me."
+
+"Very well, miss, I fall in with your wishes. The Yellow God that all
+these gentlemen worship, quite another god to that of which you desire
+that I should tell you. You know all about him. My god is of female
+sex."
+
+At this statement his audience burst into laughter while Jeekie rolled
+his eyes again and waited till they had finished. "My god," he went on
+presently, "I mean, gentlemen, the god I used to pray to, for I am a
+good Christian now, has so much gold that she does not care for any
+more," and he paused.
+
+"Then what does she care for?" asked someone.
+
+"Blood," answered Jeekie. "She is god of Death. Her name is Little
+Bonsa or Small Swimming Head; she is wife of Big Bonsa or Great
+Swimming Head."
+
+Again there was laughter, though less general--for instance, neither
+Sir Robert nor Mr. Champers-Haswell laughed. This merriment seemed to
+excite Jeekie. At any rate it caused him to cease his stilted talk and
+relapse into the strange vernacular that is common to all negroes,
+tinctured with a racy slang that was all his own.
+
+"You want to hear Yellow God palaver?" he said rapidly. "Very well, I
+tell you, you cocksure white men who think you know everything, but
+know nothing at all. My people, people of the Asiki, that mean people
+of Spirits, what you call ghosts and say you no believe in, but always
+look for behind door, they worship Yellow God, Bonsa Big and Bonsa
+Little, worship both and call them one; only Little Bonsa on trip to
+this country just now and sit and think in City office. Yellow God
+live long way up a great river, then turn to the left and walk six
+days through big forest where dwarf people shoot you with poisoned
+arrow. Then turn to the right, walk up stream where many wild beasts.
+Then turn to the left again and go in canoe through swamp where you
+die of fever, and across lake. Then walk over grassland and mountains.
+Then in kloof of the mountains where big black trees make a roof and
+river fall like thunder, find Asiki and gold house of the Yellow God.
+All that mountain gold, full of gold and beneath gold house Yellow God
+afloat in water. She what you call Queen, priestess, live there also,
+always there, very beautiful woman called Asika with face like Yellow
+God, cruel, cruel. She take a husband every year, and every year he
+die because she always hunt for right man but never find him."
+
+"Does she kill him then?" asked Barbara.
+
+"Oh! no, she no kill him, Miss, he kill himself at end of year, glad
+to get away from Asika and go to spirits. While he live he have a very
+good time, plenty to eat, plenty wives, fine house, much gold as he
+like, only nothing to spend it on, pretty necklace, nice paint for
+face. But Asika, little bit by little bit she eat up his spirit. He
+see too many ghosts. The house where he sleep with dead men who once
+have his billet, full of ghosts and every night there come more and
+sit with him, sit all round him, look at him with great eyes, just
+like you look at me, till at last when Asika finish eating up his
+spirit, he go crazy, he howl like man in hell, he throw away all the
+gold they give him, and then, sometimes after one week, sometimes
+after one month, sometimes after one year if he be strong but never
+more, he run out at night and jump into canal where Yellow God float
+and god get him, while Asika sit on the bank and laugh, 'cause she
+hungry for new man to eat up his spirit too."
+
+Jeekie's big voice died away to a whisper and ceased. There was a
+silence in the room, for even in the shine of the electric light and
+through the fumes of champagne, in more than one imagination there
+rose a vision of that haunted water in which floated the great Yellow
+God, and of some mad being casting himself to his death beneath the
+moon, while his beautiful witch wife who was "hungry for more spirits"
+sat upon its edge and laughed. Although his language was now
+commonplace enough, even ludicrous at times, the negro had undoubtedly
+the art of narration. His auditors felt that he spoke of what he knew,
+or had seen, that the very recollection of it frightened him,
+therefore he frightened them.
+
+Again Barbara broke the silence which she felt to be awkward.
+
+"Why do more ghosts come very night to sit with the queen's husband,
+Jeekie?" she asked. "Where do they come from?"
+
+"Out of the dead, miss, dead husbands of Asika from beginning of the
+world; what they call Munganas. Also always they make sacrifice to
+Yellow God. From far, far away them poor niggers send people to be
+sacrifice that their house or tribe get luck. Sometimes they send
+kings, sometimes great men, sometimes doctors, sometimes women what
+have twin babies. Also the Asiki bring people what is witches, or have
+drunk poison stuff which blacks call /muavi/ and have not been sick,
+or perhaps son they love best to take curse off their roof. All these
+come to Yellow God. Then Asiki doctor, they have Death-palaver. On
+night of full moon they beat drum, and drum go Wow! Wow! Wow! and
+doctors pick out those to die that month. Once they pick out Jeekie,
+oh! good Lord, they pick out /me/," and as he said the words he gasped
+and with his great hand wiped off the sweat that started from his
+brow. "But Yellow God no take Jeekie that time, no want him and I
+escape."
+
+"How?" asked Sir Robert.
+
+"With my master, Major's uncle, Reverend Austin, he who come try to
+make Asiki Christian. He snap his fingers, put on small mask of Yellow
+God which he prig, Little Bonsa herself, that same face which sit in
+your office now," and he pointed to Sir Robert, "like one toad upon a
+stone. Priests think that god make herself into man, want holiday,
+take me out into forest to kill me and eat my life. So they let us go
+by and we go just as though devil kick us--fast, fast, and never see
+the Asiki any more. But Little Bonsa I bring with me for luck, tell
+truth I no dare leave her behind, she not stand that; and now she sit
+in your office and think and think and make magic there. That why you
+grow rich, because she know you worship her."
+
+"That's a nice way for a baptized Christian to talk," said Barbara,
+adding, "But Jeekie, what do you mean when you say that the god did
+not take you?"
+
+"I mean this, miss; when victim offered to Big Yellow God, priest-men
+bring him to edge of canal where the great god float. Then if Yellow
+God want him, it turn and swim across water."
+
+"Swim across water! I thought you said it was only a mask of gold?"
+
+"I don't know, miss, perhaps man inside the mask, perhaps spirit. I
+say it swim across water in the night, always in the night, and lift
+itself up and look in victim's face. Then priest take him and kill
+him, sometimes one way--sometimes another. Or if he escape and they
+not kill him, all same for that Johnnie, he die in about one year,
+always die, no one ever live long if Yellow God swim to him in dark
+and rise up and smile in his face. No matter if it Big Bonsa or Little
+Bonsa, for they man and wife joined in holy matrimony and either do
+trick."
+
+As these words left Jeekie's lips Alan became aware of some unusual
+movement on his left and looking round, saw that Mr. Champers-Haswell,
+who stood by him, had dropped the cigar which he held and, white as a
+sheet, was swaying to and fro. Indeed in another instant he would have
+fallen had not Alan caught him in his arms and supported him till
+others came to his assistance, when between them they carried him to a
+sofa. On their way they passed a table where spirits and soda water
+were set out, and to his astonishment Alan noticed that Sir Robert
+Aylward, looking little if at all better than his partner, had helped
+himself to half a tumbler of cognac, which he was swallowing in great
+gulps. Then there was confusion and someone went to telephone the
+doctor, while the deep voice of Jeekie was heard exclaiming:
+
+"That Yellow God at work--oh yes, Little Bonsa on the job. Jeekie
+Christian man but no doubt she very powerful fetish and can do
+anything she like to them that worship her, and you see, she sit in
+office of these gentlemen. 'Spect she make Reverend Austin and me
+bring her to England because she got eye on firm of Messrs. Aylward &
+Haswell, London, E.C. Oh, shouldn't wonder at all, for Bonsa know
+everything."
+
+"Oh, confound you and your fetish! Be off, you old donkey," almost
+shouted Alan.
+
+"Major," replied the offended Jeekie, assuming his grand manner and
+language, "it was not I who wished to narrate this history of blood-
+stained superstitions of poor African. Mustn't blame old Jeekie if
+they make Christian gents sick as Channel steamer."
+
+"Be off," repeated Alan, stamping his foot.
+
+So Jeekie went, but outside the door, as it chanced, he encountered
+one of the Jew gentlemen who also appeared to be a little "sick." An
+idea striking him, he touched his white hair with his finger and said:
+
+"You like Jeekie's pretty story, sir? Well, Jeekie think that if you
+make little present to him, like your brother in there, it please
+Yellow God very much, and bring you plenty luck."
+
+Then acting upon some unaccustomed impulse, that Jew became
+exceedingly generous. In his pocket was a handful of sovereigns which
+he had been prepared to stake at bridge. He grasped them all and
+thrust them into Jeekie's outstretched palm, where they seemed to
+melt.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Jeekie. "Now I sure you have plenty luck, just
+like your grandpa Jacob in Book when he do his brudder in eye."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ALAN AND BARBARA
+
+There was no bridge or billiards at the Court that night, where
+ordinarily the play ran high enough. After Mr. Haswell had been
+carried to his room, some of the guests, among them Sir Robert
+Aylward, went to bed, remarking that they could do no good by sitting
+up, while others, more concerned, waited to hear the verdict of the
+doctor, who must drive from six miles away. He came, and half an hour
+later Barbara entered the billiard room and told Alan, who was sitting
+there smoking, that her uncle had recovered from his faint, and that
+the doctor, who was to stay all night, said that he was in no danger,
+only suffering from a heart attack brought on apparently by over-work
+or excitement.
+
+When Alan woke next morning the first thing that he heard through his
+open window was the sound of the doctor's departing dogcart. Then
+Jeekie appeared and told him that Mr. Haswell was all right again, but
+that all night he had shaken "like one jelly." Alan asked what had
+been the matter with him, but Jeekie only shrugged his shoulders and
+said that he did not know--"perhaps Yellow God touch him up."
+
+At breakfast, as in her note she had said she would, Barbara appeared
+wearing a short skirt. Sir Robert, who was there, also looked
+extremely pale even for him and with black rims round his eyes, asked
+her if she were going to golf, to which she answered that she would
+think it over. It was a somewhat melancholy meal, and as though by
+common consent no mention was made of Jeekie's tale of the Yellow God,
+and beyond the usual polite inquiries, very little of their host's
+seizure.
+
+As Barbara went out she whispered to Alan, who opened the door for
+her, "Meet me at half-past ten in the kitchen garden."
+
+Accordingly, having changed his clothes surreptitiously, Alan,
+avoiding the others, made his way by a circuitous route to this
+kitchen garden, which after the fashion of modern places was hidden
+behind a belt of trees nearly a quarter of a mile from the house. Here
+he wandered about till presently he heard Barbara's pleasant voice
+behind him saying:
+
+"Don't dawdle so, we shall be late for church."
+
+So they started, somewhat furtively like runaway children. As they
+went Alan asked how her uncle was.
+
+"All right now," she answered, "but he has had a bad shake. It was
+that Yellow God story which did it. I know, for I was there when he
+was coming to, with Sir Robert. He kept talking about it in a confused
+manner, saying that it was swimming to him across the floor, till at
+last Sir Robert bent over him and told him to be quiet quite sternly.
+Do you know, Alan, I believe that your pet fetish has been manifesting
+itself in some unpleasant fashion up there in the office?"
+
+"Indeed. If so, it must be since I left, for I never heard of anything
+of the sort, nor are Aylward and your uncle likely people to see
+ghosts. In fact Sir Robert wished to give me about �17,000 for the
+thing only the day before yesterday, which doesn't look as though it
+had been frightening him."
+
+"Well, he won't repeat the offer, Alan, for I heard him promise my
+uncle only this morning that it should be sent back to Yarleys at
+once. But why did he want to buy it for such a lot of money? Tell me
+quickly, Alan, I am dying to hear the whole story."
+
+So he began and told her, omitting nothing, while she listened eagerly
+to every word, hardly interrupting him at all. As he finished his tale
+they reached the door of the quaint old village church just as the
+clock was striking eleven.
+
+"Come in, Alan," she said gently, "and thank Heaven for all its
+mercies, for you should be a grateful man to-day."
+
+Then without giving him time to answer she entered the church and they
+took their places in the great square pew that for generations had
+been occupied by the owners of the ancient house which Mr. Haswell
+pulled down when he built The Court. There were their monuments upon
+the wall and their gravestones in the chancel floor. But now no one
+except Barbara ever sat in their pew; even the benches set aside for
+the servants were empty, for those who frequented The Court were not
+church-goers and "like master, like man." Indeed the gentle-faced old
+clergyman looked quite pleased and surprised when he saw two
+inhabitants of that palatial residence amongst his congregation,
+although it is true that Barbara was his friend and helper.
+
+The simple service went on; the first lesson was read. It cried woe
+upon them that joined house to house and field to field, that draw
+iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope;
+that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and
+light for darkness, that justify the wicked for reward; that feast
+full but regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the
+operation of His hand, for of such it prophesied that their houses
+great and fair should be without inhabitant and desolate.
+
+It was very well read, and Alan, listening, thought that the
+denunciations of the old seer of thousands of years ago were not
+inappropriate to the dwellers in some houses great and fair of his own
+day, who, whatever they did or left undone, regarded not the work of
+the Lord, neither considered the operation of His hand. Perhaps
+Barbara thought so too; at any rate a rather sad little smile appeared
+once or twice upon her sweet, firm face as the immortal poem echoed
+down the aisle.
+
+The peace that passeth understanding was invoked upon their heads, and
+rising with the rest of the scanty congregation they went away.
+
+"Shall we walk home by the woods, Alan?" asked Barbara. "It is three
+miles round, but we don't lunch till two."
+
+He nodded, and presently they were alone in those woods, the beautiful
+woods through which the breath of spring was breathing, treading upon
+carpets of bluebells, violet and primrose; quite alone, unaccompanied
+save by the wild things that stole across their path, undisturbed save
+by the sound of the singing birds and of the wind among the trees.
+
+"What did you mean, Barbara, when you said that I should be a grateful
+man to-day?" asked Alan presently.
+
+Barbara looked him in the eyes in that open, virginal fashion of hers
+and answered in the words of the lesson, "'Woe unto them that draw
+iniquity with the cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope,
+that lay house to house,'" and through an opening in the woods she
+pointed to the roof of The Court standing on one hill, and to the roof
+of Old Hall standing upon another--"'and field to field,'" and with a
+sweep of her hand she indicated all the country round, "'for many
+houses great and fair that have music in their feasts shall be left
+desolate.'" Then turning she said:
+
+"Do you understand now, Alan?"
+
+"I think so," he answered. "You mean that I have been in bad company."
+
+"Very bad, Alan. One of them is my own uncle, but the truth remains
+the truth. Alan, they are no better than thieves; all this wealth is
+stolen, and I thank God that you have found it out in time before you
+became one of them in heart as well as in name."
+
+"If you refer to the Sahara Syndicate," he said, "the idea is sound
+enough; indeed, I am responsible for it. The thing can be done, great
+benefits would result, too long to go into."
+
+"Yes, yes, Alan, but you know that they never mean to do it, they only
+mean to get the millions from the public. I have lived with my uncle
+for ten years, ever since my poor father died, and I know the
+backstairs of the business. There have been half a dozen schemes like
+this, and although they have had their bad times, very bad times, he
+and Sir Robert have grown richer and richer. But what has happened to
+those who have invested in them? Oh! let us drop the subject, it is
+unpleasant. For myself it doesn't matter, because although it isn't
+under my control, I have money of my own. You know we are a plebeian
+lot on the male side, my grandfather was a draper in a large way of
+business, my father was a coal-merchant who made a great fortune. His
+brother, my uncle, in whom my father always believed implicitly, took
+to what is called Finance, and when my father died he left me, his
+only child, in his guardianship. Until I am five and twenty I cannot
+even marry or touch a halfpenny without his consent; in fact if I
+should marry against his will the most of my money goes to him."
+
+"I expect that he has got it already," said Alan.
+
+"No, I think not. I found out that, although it is not mine, it is not
+his. He can't draw it without my signature, and I steadily refuse to
+sign anything. Again and again they have brought me documents, and I
+have always said that I would consider them at five and twenty, when I
+came of age under my father's will. I went on the sly to a lawyer in
+Kingswell and paid him a guinea for his advice, and he put me up to
+that. 'Sign nothing,' he said, and I have signed nothing, so, except
+by forgery nothing can have gone. Still for all that it may have gone.
+For anything I know I am not worth more than the clothes I stand in,
+although my father was a very rich man."
+
+"If so, we are about in the same boat, Barbara," Alan answered with a
+laugh, "for my present possessions are Yarleys, which brings in about
+�100 a year less than the interest on its mortgages and cost of
+upkeep, and the �1700 that Aylward paid me back on Friday for my
+shares. If I had stuck to them I understand that in a week or two I
+should have been worth �100,000, and now you see, here I am, over
+thirty years of age without a profession, invalided out of the army
+and having failed in finance, a mere bit of driftwood without hope and
+without a trade."
+
+Barbara's brown eyes grew soft with sympathy, or was it tears?
+
+"You are a curious creature, Alan," she said. "Why didn't you take the
+�17,000 for that fetish of yours? It would have been a fair deal and
+have set you on your legs."
+
+"I don't know," he answered dejectedly. "It went against the grain, so
+what is the use of talking about it? I think my old uncle Austin told
+me it wasn't to be parted with--no, perhaps it was Jeekie. Bother the
+Yellow God! it is always cropping up."
+
+"Yes," replied Barbara, "the Yellow God is always cropping up,
+especially in this neighbourhood."
+
+They walked on a while in silence, till suddenly Barbara sat down upon
+a bole of felled oak and began to cry.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" asked Alan.
+
+"I don't know," she answered. "Everything goes wrong. I live in a kind
+of gilded hell. I don't like my uncle and I loath the men he brings
+about the place. I have no friends, I scarcely know a woman
+intimately, I have troubles I can't tell you and--I am wretched. You
+are the only creature I have left to talk to, and I suppose that after
+this row you must go away too to make your living."
+
+Alan looked at her there weeping on the log and his heart swelled
+within him, for he had loved this girl for years.
+
+"Barbara," he gasped, "please don't cry, it upsets me. You know you
+are a great heiress----"
+
+"That remains to be proved," she answered. "But anyway, what has it to
+do with the case?"
+
+"It has everything to do with it, at least so far as I am concerned.
+If it hadn't been for that I should have asked you to marry me a long
+while ago, because I love you, as I would now, but of course it is
+impossible."
+
+Barbara ceased her weeping, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand,
+and looked up at him.
+
+"Alan," she said, "I think that you are the biggest fool I ever knew--
+not but that a fool is rather refreshing when one lives among knaves."
+
+"I know I am a fool," he answered. "If I wasn't I should not have
+mentioned my misfortune to you, but sometimes things are too much for
+one. Forget it and forgive me."
+
+"Oh! yes," she said; "I forgive you; a woman can generally forgive a
+man for being fond of her. Whatever she may be, she is ready to take a
+lenient view of his human weakness. But as to forgetting, that is a
+different matter. I don't exactly see why I should be so anxious to
+forget, who haven't many people to care about me," and she looked at
+him in quite a new fashion, one indeed which gave him something of a
+shock, for he had not thought the nymph-like Barbara capable of such a
+look as that. She and any sort of passion had always seemed so far
+apart.
+
+Now after all Alan was very much a man, if a modest one, with all a
+man's instincts, and therefore there are appearances of the female
+face which even such as he could not entirely misinterpret.
+
+"You--don't--mean," he said doubtfully, "you don't really mean----"
+and he stood hesitating before her.
+
+"If you would put your question a little more clearly, Alan, I might
+be able to give you an answer," she replied, that quaint little smile
+of hers creeping to the corners of her mouth like sunshine through a
+mist of rain.
+
+"You don't really mean," he went on, "that you care anything about me,
+like, like I have cared for you for years?"
+
+"Oh! Alan," she said, laughing outright, "why in the name of goodness
+shouldn't I care about you? I didn't say that I do, mind, but why
+shouldn't I? What is the gulf between us?"
+
+"The old one," he answered, "that between Dives and Lazarus--that
+between the rich and the poor."
+
+"Alan," said Barbara, looking down, "I don't know what has come over
+me, but for some unexplained and inexplicable reason I am inclined to
+give Lazarus a lead--across that gulf, the first one, I mean, not the
+second!"
+
+Like the glance which preceded it, this was a saying that even Alan
+could not misunderstand. He sat himself on the log beside her, while
+she, still looking down, watched him out of the corners of her eyes.
+He went red, he went white, his heart beat very violently. Then he
+stretched out his big brown hand and took her small white one, and as
+this familiarity produced no remonstrance, let it fall, and passing
+his arm about her, drew her to him and embraced her, not once, but
+often, with such vigour that a squirrel which had been watching these
+proceedings from a neighbouring tree, bolted round it scandalized and
+was seen no more.
+
+"I love you, I love you," he said huskily.
+
+"So I gather," she answered in a feeble voice.
+
+"Do you care for me?" he asked.
+
+"It would seem that I must, Alan, otherwise I should scarcely--oh! you
+foolish Alan," and heedless of her Sunday hat, which never recovered
+from this encounter, but was kept as a holy relic, she let her head
+fall upon his shoulder and began to cry again, this time for very
+happiness.
+
+He kissed her tears away, then as he could think of nothing else to
+say, asked her if she would marry him.
+
+"It is the general sequel to this kind of thing, I believe," she
+answered; "or at any rate it ought to be. But if you want a direct
+answer--yes, I will, if my uncle will let me, which he won't, as you
+have quarrelled with him, or at any rate two years hence, when I am
+five and twenty and my own mistress; that is if we have anything to
+marry on, for one must eat. At present our worldly possessions seem to
+consist chiefly of a large store of mutual affection, a good stock of
+clothes and one Yellow God, which after what happened last night, I do
+not think you will get another chance of turning into cash."
+
+"I must make money somehow," he said.
+
+"Yes, Alan, but I am afraid it is not easy to do--honestly. Nobody
+wants people without capital whose only stock in trade is a brief but
+distinguished military career, and a large experience of African
+fever."
+
+Alan groaned at this veracious but discouraging remark, and she went
+on quickly:
+
+"I mean to spend another guinea upon my friend the lawyer at
+Kingswell. Perhaps he can raise the wind, by a post-obit, or
+something," she added vaguely, "I mean a post-uncle-obit."
+
+"If he does, Barbara, I can't live on your money alone, it isn't
+right."
+
+"Oh! don't you trouble about that, Alan. If once I can get hold of
+those dim thousands you will soon be able to make more, for unto him
+that hath shall be given. But at present they are very dim, and for
+all I know may be represented by stock in deceased companies. In
+short, the financial position is extraordinarily depressed, as they
+say in the Market Intelligence in /The Times/. But that's no reason
+why we should be depressed also."
+
+"No, Barbara, for at any rate we have got each other."
+
+"Yes," she answered, springing up, "we have got each other, dear,
+until Death do us part, and somehow I don't think he'll do that yet
+awhile; it comes into my heart that he won't do that, Alan, that you
+and I are going to live out our days. So what does the rest matter? In
+two years I shall be a free woman. In fact, if the worst comes to the
+worst, I'll defy them all," and she set her little mouth like a rock,
+"and marry you straight away, as being over age, I can do, even if it
+costs me every halfpenny that I've got."
+
+"No, no," he said, "it would be wrong, wrong to yourself and wrong to
+your descendants."
+
+"Very well, Alan, then, we will wait, or perhaps luck will come our
+way--why shouldn't it? At any rate for my part I never felt so happy
+in my life; for, dear Alan, we have found what we were born to find,
+found it once and for always, and the rest is mere etceteras. What
+would be the use of all the gold of the Asiki people that Jeekie was
+talking about last night, to either of us, if we had not each other?
+We can get on without the wealth, but we couldn't get on apart, or at
+least I couldn't and I don't mind saying so."
+
+"No, my darling, no," he answered, turning white at the very thought,
+"we couldn't get on apart--now. In fact I don't know how I have done
+so so long already, except that I was always hoping that a time would
+come when we shouldn't be apart. That is why I went into that infernal
+business, to make enough money to be able to ask you to marry me. And
+now I have gone out of the business and asked you just when I
+shouldn't."
+
+"Yes, so you see you might as well have done it a year or two ago when
+perhaps things would have been simpler. Well, it is a fine example of
+the vanity of human plans, and, Alan, we must be going home to lunch.
+If we don't, Sir Robert will be organizing a search party to look for
+us; in fact, I shouldn't wonder if he is doing that already, in the
+wrong direction."
+
+The mention of Sir Robert Aylward's name fell on them both like a
+blast of cold wind in summer, and for a while they walked in silence.
+
+"You are afraid of that man, Barbara," said Alan presently, guessing
+her thoughts.
+
+"A little," she answered, "so far as I can be afraid of anything any
+more. And you?"
+
+"A little also. I think that he will give us trouble. He can be very
+malevolent and resourceful."
+
+"Resourceful, Alan; well, so can I. I'll back my wits against his any
+day. He shan't separate us by anything short of murder, which he won't
+go in for. Men like that don't like to break the law; they have too
+much to lose. But no doubt he will make things uncomfortable for you,
+if he can, for several reasons."
+
+Again they walked on lost in reflections, when Barbara suddenly saw
+her lover's face brighten.
+
+"What is it, Alan?" she asked.
+
+"Something that is rare enough with me, Barbara--an idea. You remember
+speaking about that Asiki gold just now. Well, why shouldn't I go and
+get it?"
+
+She stared at him.
+
+"It sounds a little speculative," she said; "something like one of my
+uncle's companies."
+
+"Not half so speculative as you think. I have no doubt it is there and
+Jeekie knows the way. Also I seem to remember that there is a map and
+an account of the whole thing in Uncle Austin's diaries, though to
+tell you the truth the old fellow wrote such a fearful hand, that I
+have never taken the trouble to read it. You see," he went on with
+enthusiasm, "it is the kind of business that I can do. I am thoroughly
+salted to fever, I know the West Coast, where I spent three years on
+that Boundary Commission, I have studied the natives and can talk
+several of their dialects. Of course there would be a risk, but there
+are risks in everything, and like you I am not afraid about that, for
+I believe that we have got our lives before us."
+
+"Read up those diaries, Alan, and we will talk the thing over again.
+I'll pump Jeekie, who will tell me anything by coaxing, and try to get
+at the truth. Meanwhile what are you going to do about my uncle?"
+
+"Speak to him, of course, and have the row over."
+
+"Yes," she answered, "that is the best and the most honest. Of course
+he can turn you out, but he can't prevent my seeing you. If he does,
+go home to Yarleys and I'll come over and call. Here we are, let us go
+in by the back door," and she pointed to her crushed hat, and laughed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BARBARA MAKES A SPEECH
+
+While Alan and Barbara, on the most momentous occasion of their lives,
+were seated upon the fallen oak in the woods that thrilled with the
+breath of spring, another interview was taking place in Mr. Champers-
+Haswell's private suite at The Court, the decorations of which, as he
+was wont to inform his visitors, had cost nearly �2000. Sir Robert,
+whose taste at any rate was good, thought them so appalling that while
+waiting for his host and partner, whom he had come to see, he took a
+seat in the bow window of the sitting-room and studied the view that
+nobody had been able to spoil. Presently Mr. Haswell emerged from his
+bedroom, wrapped in a dressing gown and looking very pale and shaky.
+
+"Delighted to see you all right again," said Sir Robert as he wheeled
+up a chair into which Mr. Haswell sank.
+
+"I am not all right, Aylward," he answered; "I am not all right at
+all. Never had such an upset in my life; thought I was going to die
+when that accursed savage told his beastly tale. Aylward, you are a
+man of the world, tell me, what is the meaning of the thing? You
+remember what we thought we saw in the office, and then--that story."
+
+"I don't know," he answered; "frankly I don't know. I am a man who has
+never believed in anything I cannot see and test, one who utterly
+lacks faith. In my leisure I have examined into the various religious
+systems and found them to be rubbish. I am convinced that we are but
+highly-developed mammals born by chance, and when our day is done,
+departing into the black nothingness out of which we came. Everything
+else, that is, what is called the higher and spiritual part, I
+attribute to the superstitions incident to the terror of the hideous
+position in which we find ourselves, that of gods of a sort hemmed in
+by a few years of fearful and tormented life. But you know the old
+arguments, so why should I enter on them? And now I am confronted with
+an experience which I cannot explain. I certainly thought that in the
+office on Friday evening I saw that gold mask to which I had taken so
+strange a fancy that I offered to give Vernon �17,000 for it because I
+thought that it brought us luck, swim across the floor of our room and
+look first into your face and then into mine. Well, the next night
+that negro tells his story. What am I to make of it?"
+
+"Can't tell you," answered Mr. Champers-Haswell with a groan. "All I
+know is that it nearly made a corpse of me. I am not like you,
+Aylward, I was brought up as an Evangelical, and although I haven't
+given much thought to these matters of late years--well, we don't
+shake them off in a hurry. I daresay there is something somewhere, and
+when the black man was speaking, that something seemed uncommonly
+near. It got up and gripped me by the throat, shaking the mortal
+breath out of me, and upon my word, Aylward, I have been wishing all
+the morning that I had led a different kind of life, as my old parents
+and my brother John, Barbara's father, who was a very religious kind
+of man, did before me."
+
+"It is rather late to think of all that now, Haswell," said Sir
+Robert, shrugging his shoulders. "One takes one's line and there's an
+end. Personally I believe that we are overstrained with the fearful
+and anxious work of this flotation, and have been the victims of an
+hallucination and a coincidence. Although I confess that I came to
+look upon the thing as a kind of mascot, I put no trust in any fetish.
+How can a bit of gold move, and how can it know the future? Well, I
+have written to them to clear it out of the office to-morrow, so it
+won't trouble us any more. And now I have come to speak to you on
+another matter."
+
+"Not business," said Mr. Haswell with a sigh. "We have that all the
+week and there will be enough of it on Monday."
+
+"No," he answered, "something more important. About your niece
+Barbara."
+
+Mr. Haswell glanced at him with those little eyes of his which were so
+sharp that they seemed to bore like gimlets.
+
+"Barbara?" he said. "What of Barbara?"
+
+"Can't you guess, Haswell? You are pretty good at it, generally. Well,
+it is no use beating about the bush; I want to marry her."
+
+At this sudden announcement his partner became exceedingly interested.
+Leaning back in the chair he stared at the decorated ceiling, and
+uttered his favourite wind-in-the-wires whistle.
+
+"Indeed," he said. "I never knew that matrimony was in your line,
+Aylward, any more than it has been in mine, especially as you are
+always preaching against it. Well, has the young lady given her
+consent?"
+
+"No, I have not spoken to her. I meant to do so this morning, but she
+has slipped off somewhere, with Vernon, I suppose."
+
+Mr. Haswell whistled again, but on a new note.
+
+"Pray do stop that noise," said Sir Robert; "it gets upon my nerves,
+which are shaky this morning. Listen: It is a curious thing, one less
+to be understood even than the coincidence of the Yellow God, but at
+my present age of forty-four, for the first time in my life I have
+committed the folly of what is called falling in love. It is not the
+case of a successful, middle-aged man wishing to /ranger/ himself and
+settle down with a desirable /partie/, but of sheer, stark
+infatuation. I adore Barbara; the worse she treats me the more I adore
+her. I had rather that the Sahara flotation should fail than that she
+should refuse me. I would rather lose three-quarters of my fortune
+than lose her. Do you understand?"
+
+His partner looked at him, pursed up his lips to whistle, then
+remembered and shook his head instead.
+
+"No," he answered. "Barbara is a nice girl, but I should not have
+imagined her capable of inspiring such sentiments in a man almost old
+enough to be her father. I think that you are the victim of a kind of
+mania, which I have heard of but never experienced. Venus--or is it
+Cupid?--has netted you, my dear Aylward."
+
+"Oh! pray leave gods and goddesses out of it, we have had enough of
+them already," he answered, exasperated. "That is my case at any rate,
+and what I want to know now is if I have your support in my suit.
+Remember, I have something to offer, Haswell, for instance, a large
+fortune of which I will settle half--it is a good thing to do in our
+business,--and a baronetcy that will be a peerage before long."
+
+"A peerage! Have you squared that?"
+
+"I think so. There will be a General Election within the next three
+months, and on such occasions a couple of hundred thousand in cool
+cash come in useful to a Party that is short of ready money. I think I
+may say that it is settled. She will be the Lady Aylward, or any other
+name she may fancy, and one of the richest women in England. Now have
+I your support?"
+
+"Yes, my dear friend, why not, though Barbara does not want money, for
+she has plenty of her own, in first-class securities that I could
+never persuade her to vary, for she is shrewd in that way and steadily
+refuses to sign anything. Also she will probably be my heiress--and,
+Aylward," here a sickly look of alarm spread itself over his face, "I
+don't know how long I have to live. That infernal doctor examined my
+heart this morning and told me that it was weak. Weak was his word,
+but from the tone in which he said it, I believe that he meant more.
+Aylward, I gather that I may die any day."
+
+"Nonsense, Haswell, so may we all," he replied, with an affectation of
+cheerfulness which failed to carry conviction.
+
+Presently Mr. Haswell, who had hidden his face in his hand, looked up
+with a sigh and said:
+
+"Oh! yes, of course you have my support, for after all she is my only
+relation and I should be glad to see her safely married. Also, as it
+happens, she can't marry anyone without my consent, at any rate until
+she is five and twenty, for if she does, under her father's will all
+her property goes away, most of it to charities, except a beggarly
+�200 a year. You see my brother John had a great horror of imprudent
+marriages and a still greater belief in me, which as it chances, is a
+good thing for you."
+
+"Had he?" said Sir Robert. "And pray why is it a good thing for me?"
+
+"Because, my dear Aylward, unless my observation is at fault, there is
+another Richard in the field, our late partner, Vernon, of whom, by
+the way, Barbara is extremely fond, though it may only be in a
+friendly fashion. At any rate she pays more attention to his wishes
+and opinions than to mine and yours put together."
+
+At the mention of Alan's name Aylward started violently.
+
+"I feared it," he said, "and he is more than ten years my junior and a
+soldier, not a man of business. Also there is no use disguising the
+truth, although I am a baronet and shall be a peer and he is nothing
+but a beggarly country gentleman with a D.S.O. tacked on to his name,
+he belongs to a different class to us, as she does too on her mother's
+side. Well, I can smash him up, for you remember I took over that
+mortgage on Yarleys, and I'll do it if necessary. Practically our
+friend has not a shilling that he can call his own. Therefore,
+Haswell, unless you play me false, which I don't think you will, for I
+can be a nasty enemy," he added with a threat in his voice, "Alan
+Vernon hasn't much chance in that direction."
+
+"I don't know, Aylward, I don't know," replied Haswell, shaking his
+white head. "Barbara is a strong-willed woman and she might choose to
+take the man and let the money go, and then--who can stop her? Also I
+don't like your idea of smashing Vernon. It isn't right, and it may
+come back on our own heads, especially yours. I am sorry that he has
+left us, as you were on Friday night, for somehow he was a good,
+honest stick to lean on, and we want such a stick. But I am tired now,
+I really can't talk any more. The doctor warned me against excitement.
+Get the girl's consent, Aylward, and we'll see. Ah! here comes my
+soup. Good-bye for the present."
+
+When Sir Robert came down to luncheon he found Barbara looking
+particularly radiant and charming, already presiding at that meal and
+conversing in her best French to the foreign gentlemen, who were
+paying her compliments.
+
+"Forgive me for being late," he said; "first of all I have been
+talking to your uncle, and afterwards skimming through the articles in
+yesterday's papers on our little venture which comes out to-morrow. A
+cheerful occupation on the whole, for with one or two exceptions they
+are all favourable."
+
+"Mon Dieu," said the French gentlemen on the right, "seeing what they
+did cost, that is not strange. Your English papers they are so
+expensive; in Paris we have done it for half the money."
+
+Barbara and some of the guests laughed outright, finding this
+frankness charming.
+
+"But where have you been, Miss Champers? I thought that we were going
+to have a round of golf together. The caddies were there, I was there,
+the greens had been specially rolled this morning, but there was no
+You."
+
+"No," she answered, "because Major Vernon and I walked to church and
+heard a very good sermon upon the observance of the Sabbath."
+
+"You are severe," he said. "Do you think it wrong for men who work
+hard all the week to play a harmless game on Sunday?"
+
+"Not at all, Sir Robert." Then she looked at him and, coming to a
+sudden decision, added, "If you like I will play you nine holes this
+afternoon and give you a stroke a hole, or would you prefer a
+foursome?"
+
+"No, let us fight alone and let the best player win."
+
+"Very well, Sir Robert; but you mustn't forget that I am handicapped."
+
+"Don't look angry," she whispered to Alan as they strolled out into
+the garden after lunch, "I must clear things up and know what we have
+to face. I'll be back by tea-time, and we will have it out with my
+uncle."
+
+
+
+The nine holes had been played, and by a single stroke Barbara had won
+the match, which pleased her very much, for she had done her best, and
+with such heavy odds in his favour Sir Robert, who had also done his
+best, was no mean opponent, even for a player of her skill. Indeed the
+fight had been quite earnest, for each party knew that it was but a
+prelude to another and more serious fight, and looked upon the result
+as in some sense an omen.
+
+"I am conquered," he said in a voice in which vexation struggled with
+a laugh, "and by a woman over whom I had an advantage. It is
+humiliating, for I confess I do not like being beaten."
+
+"Don't you think that women generally win if they mean to?" asked
+Barbara. "I believe that when they fail, which is often enough, it is
+because they don't care, or can't make up their minds. A woman in
+earnest is a dangerous antagonist."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "or the best of allies." Then he gave the clubs
+and half-a-crown to the caddies, and when they were out of hearing,
+added, "Miss Champers, I have been wondering for some time whether it
+is possible that you would become such an ally to me."
+
+"I know nothing of business, Sir Robert; my tastes do not lie that
+way."
+
+"You know well that I was not speaking of business, Miss Champers. I
+was speaking of another kind of partnership, that which Nature has
+ordained between men and women--marriage. Will you accept me as a
+husband?"
+
+She opened her lips to speak, but he lifted his hand and went on.
+"Listen before you give that ready answer which it is so hard to
+recall, or smooth away. I know all my disadvantages, my years, which
+to you may seem many; my modest origin; my trade, which, not
+altogether without reason, you despise and dislike. Well, the first
+two cannot be changed except for the worse; the second can be, and
+already is, buried beneath the gold and ermine of wealth and titles.
+What does it matter if I am the son of a City clerk who never earned
+more than �2 a week and was born in a tenement at Battersea, when I am
+one of the rich men of this rich land and shall die a peer in a
+palace, leaving millions and honours to my children? As for the third,
+my occupation, I am prepared to give it up. It has served my turn, and
+after next week I shall have earned the amount that years ago I
+determined to earn. Thenceforth, set above the accidents of fortune, I
+propose to devote myself to higher aims, those of legitimate ambition.
+So far as my time would allow I have already taken some share in
+politics as a worker; I intend to continue in them as a ruler which I
+still have the health and ability to do. I mean to be one of the first
+men in this Empire, to ride to power over the heads of all the
+nonentities whose only claim upon the confidence of their countrymen
+is that they were born in a certain class, with money in their pockets
+and without the need to spend the best of their manhood in work. With
+you at my side I can do all these things and more, and such is the
+future that I have to offer you."
+
+Again she would have broken in upon his speech and again he stopped
+her, reading the unspoken answer on her lips.
+
+"Listen: I have not told you all. Perhaps I have put first what should
+have come last. I have not told you that I love you earnestly and
+sincerely, with the settled, unalterable love that sometimes comes to
+men in middle-age who have never turned their thought that way before.
+I will not attempt the rhapsodies of passion which at my time of life
+might sound foolish or out of place; yet it is true that I am filled
+with this passion which has descended on me and taken possession of
+me. I who often have laughed at such things in other men, adore you.
+You are a joy to my eyes. If you are not in the room, for me it is
+empty. I admire the uprightness of your character, and even your
+prejudices, and to your standard I desire to approximate my own. I
+think that no man can ever love you quite so well as I do, Barbara
+Champers. Now speak. I am ready to meet the best or the worst."
+
+After her fashion Barbara looked him straight in the face with her
+steady eyes, and answered gently enough, for the man's method of
+presenting his case, elaborate and prepared though it evidently was,
+had touched her.
+
+"I fear it is the worst, Sir Robert. There are hundreds of women
+superior to myself in every way who would be glad to give you the help
+and companionship you ask, with their hearts thrown in. Choose one of
+them, for I cannot do so."
+
+He heard and for the first time his face broke, as it were. All this
+while it had remained masklike and immovable, even when he spoke of
+his love, but now it broke as ice breaks at the pressure of a sudden
+flood beneath, and she saw the depths and eddies of his nature and
+understood their strength. Not that he revealed them in speech, angry
+or pleading, for that remained calm and measured enough. She did not
+hear, she saw, and even then it was marvellous to her that a mere
+change in a man's expression could explain so much.
+
+"Those are very cruel words," he said. "Are they unalterable?"
+
+"Quite. I do not play in such matters, it would be wicked."
+
+"May I ask you one question, for if the answer is in the negative, I
+shall still continue to hope? Do you care for any other man?"
+
+Again she looked at him with her fearless eyes and answered:
+
+"Yes, I am engaged to another man."
+
+"To Alan Vernon?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"When did that happen? Some years ago?"
+
+"No, this morning."
+
+"Great Heavens!" he muttered in a hoarse voice turning his head away,
+"this morning. Then last night it might not have been too late, and
+last night I should have spoken to you, I had arranged it all. Yes, if
+it had not been for the story of that accursed fetish and your uncle's
+illness, I should have spoken to you, and perhaps succeeded."
+
+"I think not," she said.
+
+He turned upon her and notwithstanding the tears in his eyes they
+burned like fire.
+
+"You think--you think," he gasped, "but I know. Of course after this
+morning it was impossible. But, Barbara, I say that I will win you
+yet. I have never failed in any object that I set before myself, and
+do not suppose that I shall fail in this. Although in a way I liked
+and respected him, I have always felt that Vernon was my enemy, one
+destined to bring grief and loss upon me, even if he did not intend to
+do so. Now I understand why, and he shall learn that I am stronger
+than he. God help him! I say."
+
+"I think He will," Barbara answered, calmly. "You are speaking wildly,
+and I understand the reason and hope that you will forget your words,
+but whether you forget or remember, do not suppose that you frighten
+me. You men who have made money," she went on with swelling
+indignation, "who have made money somehow, and have bought honours
+with the moneys somehow, think yourselves great, and in your little
+day, your little, little day that will end with three lines in small
+type in /The Times/, you are great in this vulgar land. You can buy
+what you want and people creep round you and ask you for doles and
+favours, and railway porters call you 'my Lord' at every other step.
+But you forget your limitations in this world, and that which lives
+above you. You say you will do this and that. You should study a book
+which few of you ever read, where it tells you that you do not know
+what you will be on the morrow; that your life is even as a vapour
+appearing for a little time and then vanishing away. You think that
+you can crush the man to whom I have given my heart because he is
+honest and you are dishonest, because you are rich and he is poor, and
+because he chances to have succeeded where you have not. Well, for
+myself and for him I defy you. Do your worst and fail, and when you
+have failed, in the hour of your extremity remember my words to-day.
+If I have given you pain by refusing you it is not my fault and I am
+sorry, but when you threaten the man who has honoured me with his love
+and whom I honour above every creature upon the earth, then I threaten
+back, and may the Power that made us all judge between you and me, as
+judge it will," and bursting into tears she turned and left him.
+
+Sir Robert watched her go.
+
+"What a woman!" he said meditatively, "what a woman--to have lost.
+Well she has set the stakes and we will play out the game. The cards
+all seem to be in my hands, but it would not in the least surprise me
+if she won the rubber, for the element that I call Chance and she
+would call something else, may come in. Still, I never refused a
+challenge yet and we will play the game out without pity to the
+loser."
+
+
+
+That night the first trick was played. When he got back to The Court
+Sir Robert ordered his motorcar and departed on urgent business,
+either to his own place, Old Hall, or to London, saying only that he
+had been summoned away by telegram. As the 70-horse-power Mercedes
+glided out of the gates a pencilled note was put into Mr. Haswell's
+hand.
+
+  It ran: "I have tried and failed--for the present. By ill-luck
+  A.V. had been before me, only this morning. If I had not missed my
+  chance last night owing to your illness, it would have been
+  different. I do not, however, in the least abandon my plan, in
+  which of course I rely on and expect your support. Keep V. in the
+  office or let him go as you like. Perhaps it would be better if
+  you could prevail upon him to stop there until after the
+  flotation. But whatever you say at the moment, I trust to you to
+  absolutely veto any engagement between him and your niece, and to
+  that end to use all your powers and authority as her guardian.
+  Burn this note.
+"R.A."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MR. HASWELL LOSES HIS TEMPER
+
+Alan and Barbara sat in Mr. Champers-Haswell's private sitting-room
+with the awful decorations, and before them by the fire Mr. Champers-
+Haswell reclined upon his couch. Alan in a few, brief, soldier-like
+words had just informed him of his engagement to Barbara. During the
+recital of this interesting fact Barbara said nothing, but Mr. Haswell
+had whistled several times. Now at length he spoke, in that tone of
+forced geniality which he generally adopted towards his cousin.
+
+"You are asking for the hand of a considerable heiress, Alan my boy,"
+he said, "but you have neglected to inform me of your own position."
+
+"Where is the use of telling you what you know already, Mr. Haswell? I
+have left the firm, therefore I have practically nothing."
+
+"You have practically nothing, and yet---- Well, in my young days men
+were more delicate, they did not like being called fortune-hunters,
+but of course times have changed."
+
+Alan bit his lip and Barbara sat up quite straight in her chair,
+observing which indications, Mr. Haswell went on hurriedly:
+
+"Now if you had stopped in the firm and earned the very handsome
+competence in a small way which would have become due to you this
+week, instead of throwing us over at the last moment for some quixotic
+reasons of your own, it might have been a different matter. I do not
+say it would have been, I say it might have been, and you may remember
+a proverb about winks and nods and blind horses. So I ask you whether
+you are inclined to withdraw that resignation of yours and bring up
+this question again let us say, next Sunday?"
+
+Alan thought a while before he answered. As he understood Mr. Haswell
+practically was promising to assent to the engagement upon these
+terms. The temptation was enormously great, the fiercest that he had
+ever been called upon to face. He looked at Barbara. She had closed
+her eyes and made absolutely no sign. For some reason of her own she
+had elected that he should determine this vital point without the
+slightest assistance from her. And it must be determined at once;
+procrastination was impossible. For a moment he hesitated. On the one
+side was Barbara, on the other his conscience. After long doubts he
+had come to a certain conclusion which he quite understood to be
+inconvenient to his partners. Should he throw it over now? Should he
+even try to make a sure and certain bargain as the price of his
+surrender? Probably he would not suffer if he did. The flotation was
+underwritten and bound to go through; the scandal would come
+afterwards, months or years hence, long before which he might get out,
+as most of the others meant to do. No, he could not. His conscience
+was too much for him.
+
+"I do not see any use in reconsidering that question, Mr. Haswell," he
+said quietly; "we settled it on Friday night."
+
+Barbara reopened her brown eyes and stared amiably at the painted
+ceiling, and Mr. Haswell whistled.
+
+"Then I am afraid," he said, "that I do not see any use in discussing
+your kind proposal for my niece's hand. Listen--I will be quite open
+with you. I have other views for Barbara, and as it happens I have the
+power to enforce them, or at any rate to prevent their frustration by
+you. If Barbara marries against my will before she is five and twenty,
+that is within the next two years, her entire fortune, with the
+exception of a pittance, goes elsewhere. This I am sure is a fact that
+will influence you, who have nothing and even if it did not, I presume
+that you are scarcely so selfish as to wish to beggar her."
+
+"No," answered Alan, "you need not fear that, for it would be wrong. I
+understand that you absolutely refuse to sanction my suit on the
+ground of my poverty, which under the circumstances is perhaps not
+wonderful. Well, the only thing to do is to wait for two years, a long
+time, but not endless, and meanwhile I can try to better my position."
+
+"Do what you will, Alan," said Mr. Haswell harshly, for now all his
+/faux bonhomme/ manner had gone, leaving him revealed in his true
+character of an unscrupulous tradesman with dark ends of his own to
+serve. "Do what you will, but understand that I forbid all
+communication between you and my niece, and that the sooner you cease
+to trespass upon a hospitality which you have abused, the better I
+shall be pleased."
+
+"I will go at once," said Alan, rising, "before my temper gets the
+better of me and I tell you some truths that I might regret, for after
+all you are Barbara's uncle. But on your part I ask you to understand
+that I refuse to cut off from my cousin, who is of full age and has
+promised to be my wife," and he turned to go.
+
+"Stop a minute, Alan," said Barbara, who all this while had sat
+silent. "I have something to say which I wish you to hear. You told us
+just now, uncle, that you have other views for me, by which you meant
+that you wish me to marry Sir Robert Aylward, whom, as you are
+probably aware, I refused definitely this afternoon. Now I wish to
+make it clear at once that no earthly power will induce me to take as
+a husband a man whom I dislike, and whose wealth, of which you think
+so much, has in my opinion been dishonestly acquired."
+
+"What are you saying?" broke in her uncle furiously. "He has been my
+partner for years, you are reflecting upon me."
+
+"I am sorry, uncle, but I withdraw nothing. Even if Alan here were
+dead, I would not marry that man, and perhaps you will make him
+understand this," she added with emphasis. "Indeed I had sooner die
+myself. You told us also that if I marry against your will, you can
+take away all the property that my father left to me. Uncle, I shall
+not give you that satisfaction. I shall wait until I am twenty-five
+and do what I please with myself and my fortune. Lastly, you said that
+you forbade us to see each other or to correspond. I answer that I
+shall both write to and see Alan as often as I like. If you attempt to
+prevent me from doing so, I shall go to the Court of Chancery, lay all
+the facts before it, as I have been advised that I can do--not by Alan
+--please remember, /all/ the facts, and ask for its protection and for
+a separate maintenance out of my estate until I am twenty-five. I am
+sure that the Court would grant me this and would declare that
+considering his distinguished family and record Alan is a perfectly
+proper person to be my affianced husband. I think that is all I have
+to say."
+
+"All you have to say!" gasped Mr. Haswell, "all you have to say, you
+impertinent and ungrateful minx!" Then he fell into a furious fit of
+rage and in language that need not be repeated, poured a stream of
+threats and abuse upon Alan and herself. Barbara waited until he
+ceased from exhaustion.
+
+"Uncle," she said, "you should remember that your heart is weak and
+you must not overexcite yourself, also when you are calmer, that if
+you speak to me like that again, I shall go to the Court at once, for
+I will not be sworn at by you or by any other man. I apologize to you,
+Alan; I am afraid I have brought you into strange company. Come, my
+dear, we will go and order your dogcart," and putting her arm
+affectionately through his, she went with him from the room.
+
+"I wonder who put her up to all this?" gasped Haswell, as the door
+closed behind them. "Some infernal lawyer, I'll be bound. Well, she
+has got the whip hand of me, and I can't face an investigation in
+Chancery, especially as the only thing against Vernon is that the
+value of his land has fallen. But I swear that she shall never marry
+him while I live," he ended in a kind of shout and the domed and
+painted ceiling echoed back his words--"/while I live/" after which
+the room was silent, save for the heavy thumping of his heart.
+
+
+
+When Alan reached home that night after his ten-mile drive he sent
+Jeekie to tell the housekeeper to find him some food. In his
+mysterious African fashion the negro had already collected much
+intelligence as to the events of the day, mostly in the servants'
+hall, and more particularly from the two golf-caddies, sons of one of
+the gardeners, who it seemed instead of retiring with the clubs, had
+taken shelter in some tall whins and thence followed the interview
+between Barbara and Sir Robert with the intensest interest. Reflecting
+that this was not the time to satisfy his burning curiosity, Jeekie
+went and in due course returned with some cold mutton and a bottle of
+claret. Then came his chance, for Alan could scarcely touch the mutton
+and demanded toast and butter.
+
+"Very inferior chop"--that was his West African word for food--"for a
+gentleman, Major," he said, shaking his white head sympathetically and
+pointing to the mutton,--"specially when he has unexpectedly departed
+from magnificent eating of The Court. Why did you not wait till after
+dinner, Major, before retiring?"
+
+Alan laughed at the man's inflated English, and answered in a more
+nervous and colloquial style:
+
+"Because I was kicked out, Jeekie."
+
+"Ah! I gathered that kicking was in the wind, Major. Sir Robert
+Aylward, Bart., he also was kicked out, but by smaller toe."
+
+Again Alan laughed and, as it was a relief to talk even to Jeekie,
+asked him:
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"I gathered it out of atmosphere, Major; from Sir Robert's gentleman,
+from two youths who watch Sir Robert and Miss Barbara talking upon
+golf green No. 9, from the machine driver of Sir Robert whose eyes he
+damn in public, and last but not least from his own noble
+countenance."
+
+"I see that you are observant, Jeekie."
+
+"Observation, Major, it is art of life. I see Miss Barbara's eyes red
+like morning sky and I deduct. I see you shot out and gloomy like
+evening cloud, and I deduct. I listen at door of Mr. Haswell's room, I
+hear him curse and swear like holy saint in Book, and you and Miss
+Barbara answer him not like saint, though what you speak I cannot
+hear, and I deduct. Jeekie deduct this--that you make love to Miss
+Barbara in proper gentlemanlike, 'nogamous, Christian fashion such as
+your late Reverend Uncle approve, and Miss Barbara, she make love to
+you with ten per cent. compound interest, but old gent with whistle,
+he /not/ approve; he say, 'Where corresponding cash!' He say 'Noble
+Sir Robert have much cash and interested in identical business. I
+prefer Sir Robert. Get out, you Cashless.' Often I see this same thing
+when boy in West Africa, very common wherever sun shine. I note all
+these matters and I deduct--that Jeekie's way and Jeekie seldom
+wrong."
+
+Alan laughed for the third time, until the tears ran down his face
+indeed.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "you are a great rascal----"
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted Jeekie, "great rascal. Best thing to be in
+this world, Major. Honourable Sir Robert, Bart., M.P., and Mr.
+Champers-Haswell, D.L., J.P., they find that out long ago and sit on
+top of tree of opulent renown. Jeekie great rascal and therefore have
+Savings Bank account--go on, Major."
+
+"Well, Jeekie, because if you are a rascal you are kind-hearted and
+because I believe that you care for me----"
+
+"Oh! Major," broke in Jeekie again, "that most 'utterably true. Honour
+bright I love you, Major, better than anyone on earth, except my late
+old woman, now happily dead, gone and forgotten in best oak coffin, �4
+10 without fittings but polished, and perhaps your holy uncle,
+Reverend Mr. Austin, also coffined and departed, who saved me from
+early extinction in a dark place. Major, I no like graves, I see too
+much of them, and can't tell what lie on other side. Though everyone
+say they know, Jeekie not quite sure. May be all light and crowns of
+glory, may be damp black hole and no way out. But this at least true,
+that I love you better, yes, better than Miss Barbara, for love of
+woman very poor, uncertain thing, quick come, quick go. Jeekie find
+that out--often. Yes, if need be, though death most nasty, if need be
+I say I die for you, which great unpleasant sacrifice," and Jeekie in
+the genuine enthusiasm of his warm heart, throwing himself upon his
+knees after the African fashion, seized his master's hand and kissed
+it.
+
+"Thanks, Jeekie," said Alan, "very kind of you, I am sure. But we
+haven't come to that yet, though no one knows what may happen later
+on. Now sit upon that chair and take a little whisky--not too much--
+for I am going to ask your advice."
+
+"Major," said Jeekie, "I obey," and seizing the whisky bottle in a
+casual manner, he poured out half a tumbler full, for Jeekie was fond
+of whisky. Indeed before now this taste had brought him into conflict
+with the local magistrates.
+
+"Put back three parts of that," said Alan, and Jeekie did so. "Now,"
+he went on, "listen: this is the case, Miss Barbara and I are----" and
+he hesitated.
+
+"Oh! I know; like me and Mrs. Jeekie once," said Jeekie, gulping down
+some of the neat whisky. "Go on, Major."
+
+"And Sir Robert Aylward is----"
+
+"Same thing, Major. Continue."
+
+"And Mr. Haswell has----"
+
+"Those facts all ascertained, Major," said Jeekie, contemplating his
+glass with a mournful eye. "Now come to the point, Major."
+
+"Well, the point is, Jeekie, that I am what you called just now
+cashless, and therefore----"
+
+"Therefore," interrupted Jeekie again, "stick fast in honourable
+intention towards Miss Barbara owing to obstinate opposition of Mr.
+Haswell, legal uncle with control of property fomented by noble Sir
+Robert who desire same girl."
+
+"Quite right, Jeekie, but if you would talk a little less and let me
+talk a little more, we might get on better."
+
+"I henceforth silent, Major," and lifting his empty tumbler Jeekie
+looked through it as if it were a telescope, a hint that Alan ignored.
+
+"Jeekie, you infernal old fool, I want money."
+
+"Yes, Major, I understand, Major. Forgive me for breaking conspiracy
+of silence, but if �500 in Savings Bank any use, very much at your
+service, Major; also �20 more extracted last night from terror of
+wealthy Jew who fear fetish."
+
+"Jeekie, you old donkey, I don't want your �500; I want a great deal
+more, �50,000 or �500,000. Tell me how to get it."
+
+"City best place, Major. But you chuck City, too much honest man,
+great mistake to be honest in this terrestrial sphere. Often notice
+that in West Africa."
+
+"Perhaps, Jeekie, but I have done with the City. As you would say, for
+me it is 'wipe out, finish.'"
+
+"Yes, Major, too much pickpocket, too much dirt. Bottom always drop
+out of bucket shop at last. I understand, end in police court and
+severe magistrate, or perhaps even 'Gentlemen of Jury'; etcetera."
+
+"Well, Jeekie, then what remains? Now last night when you told us that
+amazing yarn of yours, you said something about a mountain full of
+gold, and houses full of gold, among your people. Jeekie, do you
+think----" and he paused, looking at him.
+
+Jeekie rolled his black eyes round the room and in a fit of
+absentmindedness helped himself to some more whisky.
+
+"Do I think, Major, that this useless lucre could be converted into
+coin of gracious King Edward? Not at all, Major, by no one, Major, by
+no one whatsoever, except possibly by Major Alan Vernon, D.S.O., and
+by one, Jeekie, Christian surname Smith."
+
+"Proceed, Jeekie," said Alan, removing the whisky bottle, "proceed and
+explain."
+
+"Major, thus: The Asiki tribe care nothing about all that gold, it no
+good to them. Dead people who live long, long ago, no one know when,
+dig it up and store it there and make the great fetish which they call
+Bonsa to keep away enemy who want to steal. Also old custom when any
+one in country round find big nugget, or pretty stone, like ladies
+wear on bosom, to bring it as offering to Bonsa, so that there now
+great plenty of all this stuff. But no one use it for anything except
+to set on walls of house of Asiki, or to make basin, stool, table and
+pot to cook with. Once Arab come there and I see the priests give him
+weight in gold for iron hoe, though afterwards they murder him, not
+for the gold, but lest he go away and tell their secret."
+
+"One might trade with them then, Jeekie?"
+
+He shook his white head doubtfully.
+
+"Yes, perhaps, if you can find anything they want buy and can carry it
+there. But I think there only one thing they want, and you got that,
+Major."
+
+"I, Jeekie! What have I got?"
+
+The negro leant forward and tapped his master on the knee, saying in a
+portentous whisper:
+
+"You got Little Bonsa, which much more holy than anything, even than
+Big Bonsa her husband, I mean greater, more powerful devil. That
+Little Bonsa sit in front room Asika's house, and when she want see
+things, she put it in big basin of gold, but I no tell you what it
+float in. Also once or twice every year they take out Little Bonsa;
+Asika wear it on head as mask, and whoever they meet they kill as
+offering to Little Bonsa, so that spirit come back to world to be
+priest of Bonsa. I tell you, Major, that Yellow God see many thousand
+of people die."
+
+"Indeed," said Alan. "A pleasing fetish truly. I should think that the
+Asiki must be glad it is gone."
+
+"No, not glad, very sorry. No luck for them when Little Bonsa go away,
+but plenty luck for those who got her. That why firm Aylward & Haswell
+make so much money when you join them and bring her to office. She
+drop green in eye of public so they no smell rat. That why you so
+lucky, not die of blackwater fever when you should; get safe out of
+den of thieves in City with good name; win love of sweet maiden, Miss
+Barbara. Little Bonsa do all those things for you, and by and by do
+plenty more, as Little Bonsa bring my old master, your holy uncle,
+safe out of that country because all the Asiki run away when they see
+him wear her on head, for they think she come sacrifice them after she
+eat up my life."
+
+"I don't wonder that they ran," said Alan, laughing, for the vision of
+a missionary with Little Bonsa on his head caught his fancy. "But come
+to the point, you old heathen. What do you mean that I should do?"
+
+"Jeekie not heathen now, Major, but plenty other things true in this
+world, besides Christian religion. I no want you do anything, but I
+say this--you go back to Asiki wearing Little Bonsa on head and
+dressed like Reverend uncle whom you very like, for he just your age
+then thirty years ago, and they give you all the gold you want, if you
+give them back Little Bonsa whom they love and worship for ever and
+ever, for Little Bonsa very, very old."
+
+Alan sat up in his chair and stared at Jeekie, while Jeekie nodded his
+head at him.
+
+"There is something in it," he said slowly, speaking more to himself
+than to the negro, "and perhaps that is why I would not sell the
+fetish, for as you say, there are plenty of true things in the world
+besides those which we believe. But, Jeekie, how should I find the
+way?"
+
+"No trouble, Major, Little Bonsa find way, want to get back home, very
+hungry by now, much need sacrifice. Think it good thing kill pig to
+Little Bonsa--or even lamb. She know you do your best, since human
+being not to be come at in Christian land, and say 'thank you for life
+of pig.'"
+
+"Stop that rubbish," said Alan. "I want a guide; if I go, will you
+come with me?"
+
+At this suggestion the negro looked exceedingly uncomfortable.
+
+"Not like to, not like to at all," he said, rolling his eyes. "Asiki-
+land very funny place for native-born. But," he added sadly, "if you
+go Jeekie must, for I servant of Little Bonsa and if I stay behind,
+she angry and kill me because I not attend her where she walk. But
+perhaps if I go and take her to Gold House again, she pleased and let
+me off. Also I able help you there. Yes, if you and Little Bonsa go,
+think I go too."
+
+After this announcement Jeekie rose and walked down the room, carrying
+the cold mutton in his hand. Then he returned, replaced it on the
+table and standing in front of Alan, said earnestly:
+
+"Major, I tell you all truth, just this once. Jeekie believe he /got/
+go with you to Asiki-land. Jeekie have plenty bad dream lately, Little
+Bonsa come in middle of the night and sit on his stomach and scratch
+his face with her gold leg, and say, 'Jeekie, Jeekie, you son of
+Bonsa, you get up quick and take me back Bonsa Town, for I darned
+tired of City fog and finished all I come here to do. Now I want jolly
+good sacrifice and got plenty business attend to there at home, things
+you not understand just yet. You take me back sharp, or I make you sit
+up, Jeekie, my boy;'" and he paused.
+
+"Indeed," said Alan; "and did she tell you anything else in her
+midnight visitations?"
+
+"Yes, Major. She say, 'You take that white master of yours along also,
+for I want come back Asiki-land on his head, and someone wish see him
+there, old pal, what he forget but what not forget him. You tell him
+Little Bonsa got score she wants settle with that party and wish use
+him to square account. You tell him too that she pay him well for
+trip; he lose nothing if he play her game 'cause she got no score
+against him. But if he not go, that another matter, then he look out,
+for Little Bonsa very nasty customer if she riled, as his late
+partners find out one day.'"
+
+"Oh! shut up, Jeekie. What's the use of wasting time telling me your
+nightmares?"
+
+"Very well, Major, just as you like, Major. But I got other reasons
+why I willing go. Jeekie want see his ma."
+
+"Your ma? I never heard you had a ma. Besides she must be dead long
+ago."
+
+"No, Major, 'cause she turn up in dream too, very much alive, swear at
+me 'cause I bag her blanket. Also she tough old woman, take lot kill
+her."
+
+"Perhaps you have a pa too," suggested Alan.
+
+"Think not, Major, my ma always say she forget him. What she mean, she
+not like talk about him, he such a swell. Why Jeekie so strong, so
+clever and with such beautiful face? No doubt because he is son of
+very great man. All this true reason why he want to go with you,
+Major. Still, p'raps poor old Jeekie make mistake, p'raps he dream
+'cause he eat too much supper, p'raps his ma dead, after all. If so,
+p'raps better stay at home--not know."
+
+"No," answered Alan, "not know. What between Little Bonsa and one
+thing and another my head is swimming--like Little Bonsa in the
+water."
+
+"Big Bonsa swim in water," interrupted Jeekie. "Little Bonsa swim in
+gold tub."
+
+"Well, Big Bonsa, or Little Bonsa, I don't care which. I'm going to
+bed and you had better clear away these things and do the same. But,
+Jeekie, if you say a word of our talk to anyone, I shall be very
+angry. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, Major, I understand. I understand that if I tell secrets of
+Little Bonsa to anyone except you with whom she live in strange land
+far away from home, Little Bonsa come at me like one lion, and cut my
+throat. No fear Jeekie split on Little Bonsa, oh! no fear at all," and
+still shaking his head solemnly, for the second time he seized the
+cold mutton and vanished from the room.
+
+"A farrago of superstitious nonsense," thought Alan to himself when he
+had gone. "But still there may be something to be made out of it.
+Evidently there is lots of gold in this Asiki country, if only one can
+persuade the people to deal."
+
+Then weary of Jeekie and his tribal gods, Alan lit his pipe and sat a
+while thinking of Barbara and all the events of that tumultuous day.
+Notwithstanding his rebuff at the hands of Mr. Haswell and the
+difficulties and dangers which threatened, he felt even then that it
+had been a happy and a fortunate day. For had he not discovered that
+Barbara loved him with all her heart and soul as he loved Barbara? And
+as this was so, he did not care a--Little Bonsa about anything else.
+The future must look to itself, sufficient to the day was the abiding
+joy thereof.
+
+So he went to bed and for a while to sleep, but he did not sleep very
+long, for presently he fell to dreaming, something about Big Bonsa and
+Little Bonsa which sat, or rather floated on either side of his couch
+and held an interminable conversation over him, while Jeekie and Sir
+Robert Aylward, perched respectively at its head and its foot, like
+the symbols of the good and evil genii on a Mahommedan tomb, acted as
+a kind of insane chorus. He struck his repeater, it was only one
+o'clock, so he tried to go to sleep again, but failed utterly. Never
+had he been more painfully awake.
+
+For an hour or more Alan persevered, then at last in despair he jumped
+out of bed wondering what he could do to occupy his mind. Suddenly he
+remembered the diary of his uncle, the Rev. Mr. Austin, which he had
+inherited with the Yellow God and a few other possessions, but never
+examined. They had been put away in a box in the library about fifteen
+years before, just at the time he entered the army, and there
+doubtless they remained. Well, as he could not sleep, why should he
+not examine them now, and thus get through some of this weary night?
+
+He lit a candle and went down to the library, an ancient and beautiful
+apartment with black oak panelling between the bookcases, set there in
+the time of Elizabeth. In this panelling there were cupboards, and in
+one of the cupboards was the box he sought, made of teak wood. On its
+lid was painted, "The Reverend Henry Austin. Passenger to Acra,"
+showing that it had once been his uncle's cabin box. The key hung from
+the handle, and having lit more candles, Alan drew it out and unlocked
+it, to be greeted by a smell of musty documents done up in great
+bundles. One by one he placed them on the floor. It was a dreary
+occupation alone there in that great, silent room at the dead of
+night, one indeed with which he was soon satisfied, for somehow it
+reminded him of rifling coffins in a vault. Before him so carefully
+put away lay the records of a good if not a distinguished life, and
+until this moment he had never found the energy even to look through
+them.
+
+At length he came to the end of the bundles and saw that beneath lay a
+number of manuscript books packed closely with their backs upwards,
+marked--"Journal"--and with the year and sometimes the place of the
+author's residence. As he glanced at them in dismay, for they were
+many, his eye caught the title of one inscribed--as were several
+others--"West Africa," and written in brackets beneath--"This vol.
+contains all that is left of the notes of my escape with Jeekie from
+the Asiki Devil-worshippers."
+
+Alan drew it out, and having refilled and closed the box, bore it off
+to his room, where he proceeded to read it in bed. As a matter of fact
+he found that there was not very much to read, for the reason that
+most of the closely-written volume had been so damaged by water, that
+the pencilled writing had run and become utterly illegible. The centre
+pages, however, not having been soaked, could still be deciphered, at
+any rate in part, also there was a large manuscript map, executed in
+ink, apparently at a later date, on the back of which was written: "I
+purpose, D.V., to re-write at some convenient time all the history of
+my visit to the unknown Asiki people, as my original notes were
+practically destroyed when the canoe overset in the rapids and most of
+our few possessions were lost, except this book and the gold fetish
+mask which is called Little Bonsa or Small Swimming Head. This I think
+I can do with the aid of Jeekie from memory, but as the matter has
+only a personal and no religious interest, seeing that I was not able
+even to preach the Word among those benighted and blood-thirsty
+savages in whose country, as I verily believe, the Devil has one of
+his principal habitations, it must stand over till a convenient
+season, such as the time of old age or sickness. H.A."
+
+"P.S. I ought to add with gratitude that even out of this hell fire I
+was enabled to snatch one brand from the burning, namely, the negro
+lad, Jeekie, to whose extraordinary resource and faithfulness I owe my
+escape. After a long hesitation I have been able to baptize him,
+although I fear that the taint of heathenism still clings to him. Thus
+not six months ago I caught him sacrificing a white cock to the image,
+Little Bonsa, in gratitude, as to my horror he explained, for my
+having been appointed an Honorary Canon of the Cathedral. I have told
+him to take that ugly mask which has been so often soaked in human
+blood, and melt it down over the kitchen stove, after picking out the
+gems in the eyes, that the proceeds may be given to the poor. /Note./
+I had better see to this myself, as where Little Bonsa is concerned,
+Jeekie is not to be trusted. He says (with some excuse) that it has
+magic, and that if he melts it down, he will melt down too, and so
+shall I. How dark and ridiculous are the superstitions of the heathen!
+Perhaps, however, instead of destroying the thing, which is certainly
+unique, I might sell it to a museum, and thus spare the feelings of
+that weak vessel, Jeekie, who otherwise would very likely take it into
+his head to waste away and die, as these Africans do when their nerves
+are affected by terror of their fetish."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE DIARY
+
+Reflecting that time evidently had made little change in Jeekie, Alan
+studied this route map with care, and found that it started from Old
+Calabar, in the Bight of Biafra, on the west coast of Africa, whence
+it ran up to the Great Qua River, which it followed for a long way.
+Then it struck across country marked "dense forest," northwards, and
+came to a river called Katsena, along the banks of which the route
+went eastwards. Thence it turned northward again through swamps, and
+ended in mountains called Shaku. In the middle of these mountains was
+written "Asiki People live here on Raaba River."
+
+The map was roughly drawn to scale, and Alan, who was an engineer
+accustomed to such things, easily calculated that the distance of this
+Raaba River from Old Calabar was about 350 miles as the crow flies,
+though probably the actual route to be travelled was nearer five
+hundred miles.
+
+Having mastered the map, he opened the water-soaked diary. Turning
+page after page, only here and there could he make out a sentence,
+such as "so I defied that beautiful but terrific woman. I, a Christian
+minister, the husband of a heathen priestess! Perish the thought.
+Sooner would I be sacrificed to Bonsa."
+
+Then came more illegible pages and again a paragraph that could be
+read--"They gave me 'The Bean' in a gold cup, and knowing its deadly
+nature I prepared myself for death. But happily for me my stomach,
+always delicate, rejected it at once, though I felt queer for days
+afterwards. Whereon they clapped their hands and said I was evidently
+innocent and a great medicine man."
+
+And again, further on--"never did I see so much gold whether in dust,
+nuggets, or worked articles. I imagine it must be worth millions, but
+at that time gold was the last thing with which I wished to trouble
+myself."
+
+After this entry many pages were utterly effaced.
+
+The last legible passage ran as follows--"So guided by the lad Jeekie,
+and wearing the gold mask, Little Bonsa, on my head, I ran through
+them all, holding him by the hand as though I were dragging him away.
+A strange spectacle I must have been with my old black clergyman's
+coat buttoned about me, my naked legs and the gold mask, as pretending
+to be a devil such as they worship, I rushed through them in the
+moonlight, blowing the whistle in the mask and bellowing like a bull.
+. . . Such was the beginning of my dreadful six months' journey to the
+coast. Setting aside the mercy of Providence that preserved me for its
+own purposes, I could never have lived to reach it had it not been for
+Little Bonsa, since curiously enough I found this fetish known and
+dreaded for hundreds of miles, and that by people who had never seen
+it, yes, even by the wild cannibals. Whenever it was produced food,
+bearers, canoes, or whatever else I might want were forthcoming as
+though by magic. Great is the fame of Big and Little Bonsa in all that
+part of West Africa, although, strange as it may seem, the outlying
+tribes seldom mention them by name. If they must speak of either of
+these images which are supposed to be man and wife, they call it the
+'Yellow-God-who-lives-yonder.'"
+
+Not another word of all this strange history could Alan decipher, so
+with aching eyes he shut up the stained and tattered volume, and at
+last, just as the day was breaking, fell asleep.
+
+At eleven o'clock on that same morning, for he had slept late, Alan
+rose from his breakfast and went to smoke his pipe at the open door of
+the beautiful old hall in Yarleys that was clad with brown Elizabethan
+oak for which any dealer would have given hundreds of pounds. It was a
+charming morning, one of those that comes to us sometimes in an
+English April when the air is soft like that of Italy and the smell of
+the earth rises like that of incense, and little clouds float idly
+across a sky of tender blue. Standing thus he looked out upon the park
+where the elms already showed a tinge of green and the ash-buds were
+coal black. Only the walnuts and the great oaks, some of them pollards
+of a thousand years of age, remained stark and stern in their winter
+dress.
+
+Alan was in a reflective mood and involuntarily began to wonder how
+many of his forefathers had stood in that same spot upon such April
+mornings and looked out upon those identical trees wakening in the
+breath of spring. Only the trees and the landscape knew, those trees
+which had seen every one of them borne to baptism, to bridal and to
+burial. The men and women themselves were forgotten. Their portraits,
+each in the garb of his or her generation, hung here and there upon
+the walls of the ancient house which once they had owned or inhabited,
+but who remembered anything of them to-day? In many cases their names
+even were lost, for believing that they, so important in their time,
+could never sink into oblivion, they had not thought it necessary to
+record them upon their pictures.
+
+And now the thing was coming to an end. Unless in this way or in that
+he could save it, what remained of the old place, for the outlying
+lands had long since been sold, must go to the hammer and become the
+property of some pushing and successful person who desired to found a
+family, and perhaps in days to be would claim these very pictures that
+hung upon the walls as those of his own ancestors, declaring that he
+had brought in the estate because he was a relative of the ancient and
+ruined race.
+
+Well, it was the way of the world, and perhaps it must be so, but the
+thought of it made Alan Vernon sad. If he could have continued that
+business, it might have been otherwise. By this hour his late
+partners, Sir Robert Aylward and Mr. Champers-Haswell, were doubtless
+sitting in their granite office in the City, probably in consultation
+with Lord Specton, who had taken his place upon the Board of the great
+Company which was being subscribed that day. No doubt applications for
+shares were pouring in by the early posts and by telegram, and from
+time to time Mr. Jeffreys respectfully reported their number and
+amount, while Sir Robert looked unconcerned and Mr. Haswell rubbed his
+hands and whistled cheerfully. Almost he could envy them, these men
+who were realizing great fortunes amidst the bustle and excitement of
+that fierce financial life, whilst he stood penniless and stared at
+the trees and the ewes which wandered among them with their lambs, he
+who, after all his work, was but a failure. With a sigh he turned away
+to fetch his cap and go out walking--there was a tenant whom he must
+see, a shifty, new-fangled kind of man who was always clamouring for
+fresh buildings and reductions in his rent. How was he to pay for more
+buildings? He must put him off, or let him go.
+
+Just then a sharp sound caught his ear, that of an electric bell. It
+came from the telephone which, since he had been a member of a City
+firm, he had caused to be put into Yarleys at considerable expense in
+order that he might be able to communicate with the office in London.
+"Were they calling him up from force of habit?" he wondered. He went
+to the instrument which was fixed in a little room he used as a study,
+and took down the receiver.
+
+"Who is it?" he asked. "I am Yarleys. Alan Vernon."
+
+"And I am Barbara," came the answer. "How are you, dear? Did you sleep
+well?"
+
+"No, very badly."
+
+"Nerves--Alan, you have got nerves. Now although I had a worse day
+than you did, I went to bed at nine, and protected by a perfect
+conscience, slumbered till nine this morning, exactly twelve hours.
+Isn't it clever of me to think of this telephone, which is more than
+you would ever have done? My uncle has departed to London vowing that
+no letter from you shall enter this house, but he forgot that there is
+a telephone in every room, and in fact at this moment I am speaking
+round by his office within a yard or two of his head. However, he
+can't hear, so that doesn't matter. My blessing be on the man who
+invented telephones, which hitherto I have always thought an awful
+nuisance. Are you feeling cheerful, Alan?"
+
+"Very much the reverse," he answered; "never was more gloomy in my
+life, not even when I thought I had to die within six hours of
+blackwater fever. Also I have lots that I want to talk to you about
+and I can't do it at the end of this confounded wire that your uncle
+may be tapping."
+
+"I thought it might be so," answered Barbara, "so I just rang you up
+to wish you good-morning and to say that I am coming over in the motor
+to lunch with my maid Snell as chaperone. All right, don't
+remonstrate, I /am coming/ over to lunch--I can't hear you--never mind
+what people will say. I am coming over to lunch at one o'clock, mind
+you are in. Good-bye, I don't want much to eat, but have something for
+Snell and the chauffeur. Good-bye."
+
+Then the wire went dead, nor could all Alan's "Hello's" and "Are you
+there's?" extract another syllable.
+
+Having ordered the best luncheon that his old housekeeper could
+provide Alan went off for his walk in much better spirits, which were
+further improved by his success in persuading the tenant to do without
+the new buildings for another year. In a year, he reflected, anything
+might happen. Then he returned by the wood where a number of new-
+felled oaks lay ready for barking. This was not a cheerful sight; it
+seemed so cruel to kill the great trees just as they were pushing
+their buds for another summer of life. But he consoled himself by
+recalling that they had been too crowded and that the timber was
+really needed on the estate. As he reached the house again carrying a
+bunch of white violets which he had plucked in a sheltered place for
+Barbara, he perceived a motor travelling at much more than the legal
+speed up the walnut avenue which was the pride of the place. In it sat
+that young lady herself, and her maid, Snell, a middle-aged woman with
+whom, as it chanced, he was on very good terms, as once, at some
+trouble to himself, he had been able to do her a kindness.
+
+The motor pulled up at the front door and out of it sprang Barbara,
+laughing pleasantly and looking fresh and charming as the spring
+itself.
+
+"There will be a row over this, dear," said Alan, shaking his head
+doubtfully when at last they were alone together in the hall.
+
+"Of course, there'll be a row," she answered. "I mean that there
+should be a row. I mean to have a row every day if necessary, until
+they leave me alone to follow my own road, and if they won't, as I
+said, to go to the Court of Chancery for protection. Oh! by the way, I
+have brought you a copy of /The Judge/. There's a most awful article
+in it about that Sahara flotation, and among other things it announces
+that you have left the firm and congratulates you upon having done
+so."
+
+"They'll think I have put it in," groaned Alan as he glanced at the
+head lines, which were almost libellous in their vigour, and the
+summaries of the financial careers of Sir Robert Aylward and Mr.
+Champers-Haswell. "It will make them hate me more than ever, and I
+say, Barbara, we can't live in an atmosphere of perpetual warfare for
+the next two years."
+
+"I can, if need be," answered that determined young woman. "But I
+admit that it would be trying for you, if you stay here."
+
+"That's just the point, Barbara. I must not stay here, I must go away,
+the further the better, until you are your own mistress."
+
+"Where to, Alan?"
+
+"To West Africa, I think."
+
+"To West Africa?" repeated Barbara, her voice trembling a little.
+"After that treasure, Alan?"
+
+"Yes, Barbara. But first come and have your lunch, then we will talk.
+I have got lots to tell and show you."
+
+So they lunched, speaking of indifferent things, for the servant was
+there waiting on them. Just as they were finishing their meal Jeekie
+entered the room carrying a box and a large envelope addressed to his
+master, which he said had been sent by special messenger from the
+office in London.
+
+"What's in the box?" asked Alan, looking somewhat nervously at the
+envelope, which was addressed in a writing that he knew.
+
+"Don't know for certain, Major," answered Jeekie, "but think Little
+Bonsa; think I smell her through wood."
+
+"Well, look and see," replied Alan, while he broke the seal of the
+envelope and drew out its contents. They proved to be sundry documents
+sent by the firm's lawyers, among which were a notice of the formal
+dissolution of partnership to be approved by him before it appeared in
+the /Gazette/, a second notice calling in a mortgage for fifteen
+thousand and odd pounds on Yarleys, which as a matter of business had
+been taken over by the firm while he was a partner; a cash account
+showing a small balance against him, and finally a receipt for him to
+sign acknowledging the return of the gold image that was his property.
+
+"You see," said Alan with a sigh, pushing over the papers to Barbara,
+who read them carefully one by one.
+
+"I see," she answered presently. "It is war to the knife. Alan, I hate
+the idea of it, but perhaps you had better go away. While you are here
+they will harass the life out of you."
+
+Meanwhile with the aid of a big jack-knife and the dining-room poker,
+Jeekie had prized off the lid of the box. Chancing to look round
+Barbara saw him on his knees muttering something in a strange tongue,
+and bowing his white head until it touched an object that lay within
+the box.
+
+"What are you doing, Jeekie?" she asked.
+
+"Make bow to Little Bonsa, Miss Barbara, tell her how glad I am see
+her come back from town. She like feel welcome. Now you come bow too,
+Little Bonsa take that as compliment."
+
+"I won't bow, but I will look, Jeekie, for although I have heard so
+much about it I have never really examined this Yellow God."
+
+"Very good, you come look, miss," and Jeekie propped up the case upon
+the end of the dining-room table. As from its height and position she
+could not see its contents very well whilst standing above it, Barbara
+knelt down to get a better view of it.
+
+"My goodness!" she exclaimed, "what a terrible face, beautiful too in
+its way."
+
+Hardly had the words left her lips when for some reason unexplained
+that probably had to do with the shifting of the centre of gravity,
+Little Bonsa appeared to glide or fall out of her box with a startling
+suddenness, and project herself straight at Barbara, who, with a faint
+scream, fearing lest the precious thing should be injured, caught it
+in her arms and for a moment hugged it to her breast.
+
+"Saved!" she exclaimed, recovering herself and placing it on the
+table, whereon Jeekie, to their astonishment, began to execute a kind
+of war dance.
+
+"Oh! yes," he said, "saved, very much saved. All saved, most
+magnificent omen. Lady kneel to Little Bonsa and Little Bonsa nip out
+of box, make bow and jump in lady's arms. That splendid, first-class
+luck, for miss and everybody. When Little Bonsa do that need fear
+nothing no more. All come right as rain."
+
+"Nonsense," said Barbara, laughing. Then from a cautious distance she
+continued her examination of the fetish.
+
+"See," said Jeekie, pointing to the misshapen little gold legs which
+were yet so designed that it could be stood up upon them, "when anyone
+wear Little Bonsa, tie her on head behind by these legs; look, here
+same old leather string. Now I put her on, for she like to be worn
+again," and with a quick movement he clapped the mask on to his face,
+manipulated the greasy black leather thongs and made them fast. Thus
+adorned the great negro looked no less than terrific.
+
+"I see you, miss," he said, turning the fixed eyes of opal-like stone,
+bloodshot with little rubites, upon Barbara, "I see you, though you no
+see me, for these eyes made very cunning. But listen, you hear me,"
+and suddenly from the mask, produced by some contrivance set within
+it, there proceeded an awful, howling sound that made her shiver.
+
+"Take that thing off, Jeekie," said Alan, "we don't want any banshees
+here."
+
+"Banshees? Not know him, he poor English fetish p'raps," said Jeekie,
+as he removed the mask. "This real African god, howl banshee and all
+that sort into middle of next week. This Little Bonsa and no mistake,
+ten thousand years old and more, eat up lives, so many that no one can
+count them, and go on eating for ever, yes unto the third and fourth
+generation, as Ten Commandments lay it down for benefit of Christian
+man, like me. Look at her again, Miss Barbara."
+
+Miss Barbara took the hateful, ancient thing in her hands and studied
+it. No one could doubt its antiquity, for the gold plate of which it
+was made was literally worn away wherever it had touched the foreheads
+of the high priests or priestesses who donned it upon festive
+occasions or days of sacrifice, showing that hundreds and hundreds of
+them must have used it thus in succession. So was the vocal apparatus
+within the mouth, and so were the little toad-like feet upon which it
+was stood up. Also the substance of the gold itself as here and there
+pitted as though with acid or salts, though what those salts were she
+did not inquire. And yet, so consummate was the art with which it had
+originally been fashioned, that the battered beautiful face of Little
+Bonsa still peered at them with the same devilish smile that it had
+worn when it left the hands of its maker, perhaps before Mohammed
+preached his holy war, or even earlier.
+
+"What is all that writing on the back of it?" asked Barbara, pointing
+to the long lines of rune-like characters which were inscribed within
+it.
+
+"Not know, miss, think they dead tongue cut in the beginning when
+black men could write. But Asiki priests swear they remember every one
+of them, and that why no one can copy Little Bonsa, for they look
+inside and see if marks all right. They say they names of those who
+died for Little Bonsa, and when they all done, Little Bonsa begin
+again, for Little Bonsa never die. But p'raps priests lie."
+
+"I daresay," said Barbara, "but take Little Bonsa away, for however
+lucky she may be, she makes me feel sick."
+
+"Where I put her, Major?" asked Jeekie of Alan. "In box in library
+where she used to live, or in plate-safe with spoons? Or under your
+bed where she always keep eye on you?"
+
+"Oh! put her with the spoons," said Alan angrily, and Jeekie departed
+with his treasure.
+
+"I think, dear," remarked Barbara as the door closed behind him, "that
+if I come to lunch here any more, I shall bring my own christening
+present with me, for I can't eat off silver that has been shut up with
+that thing. Now let us get to business--show me the diary and the
+map."
+
+ "Dearest Alan," wrote Barbara from The Court two days later, "I
+  have been thinking everything over, and since you are so set upon
+  it, I suppose that you had better go. To me the whole adventure
+  seems perfectly mad, but at the same time I believe in our luck,
+  or rather in the Providence which watches over us, and I don't
+  believe that you, or I either, will come to any harm. If you stop
+  here, you will only eat your heart out and communication between
+  us must become increasingly difficult. My uncle is furious with
+  you, and since he discovered that we were talking over the
+  telephone, to his own great inconvenience he has had the wires cut
+  outside the house. That horrid letter of his to you saying that
+  you had 'compromised' me in pursuance of a 'mercenary scheme' is
+  all part and parcel of the same thing. How are you to stop here
+  and submit to such insults? I went to see my friend the lawyer,
+  and he tells me that of course we can marry if we like, but in
+  that case my father's will, which he has consulted at Somerset
+  House, is absolutely definite, and if I do so in opposition to my
+  uncle's wishes, I must lose everything except �200 a year. Now I
+  am no money-grubber, but I will not give my uncle the satisfaction
+  of robbing me of my fortune, which may be useful to both of us by
+  and by. The lawyer says also that he does not think that the Court
+  of Chancery would interfere, having no power to do so as far as
+  the will is concerned, and not being able to make a ward of a
+  person like myself who is over age and has the protection of the
+  common law of the country. So it seems to me that the only thing
+  to do is to be patient, and wait until time unties the knot.
+
+ "Meanwhile, if you can make some money in Africa, so much the
+  better. So go, Alan, go as soon as you like, for I do not wish to
+  prolong this agony, or to see you exposed daily to all you have to
+  bear. Whenever you return you will find me waiting for you, and if
+  you do not return, still I shall wait, as you in like
+  circumstances will wait for me. But I think you will return."
+
+Then followed much that need not be written, and at the end a
+postscript which ran:
+
+ "I am glad to hear that you have succeeded in shifting the mortgage
+  on Yarleys, although the interest is so high. Write to me whenever
+  you get a chance, to the care of the lawyer, for then the letters
+  will reach me, but never to this house, or they may be stopped. I
+  will do the same to you to the address you give. Good-bye, dearest
+  Alan, my true and only lover. I wonder where and when we shall
+  meet again. God be with us both and enable us to bear our trial.
+
+ "P.P.S. I hear that the Sahara flotation was /really/ a success,
+  notwithstanding the /Judge/ attacks. Sir Robert and my uncle have
+  made millions. I wonder how long they will keep them."
+
+A week after he received this letter Alan was on the seas heading for
+the shores of Western Africa.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE DWARF FOLK
+
+It was dawn at last. All night it had rained as it can rain in West
+Africa, falling on the wide river with a hissing splash, sullen and
+continuous. Now, towards morning, the rain had ceased and everywhere
+rose a soft and pearly mist that clung to the face of the waters and
+seemed to entangle itself like strands of wool among the branches of
+the bordering trees. On the bank of the river at a spot that had been
+cleared of bush, stood a tent, and out of this tent emerged a white
+man wearing a sun helmet and grey flannel shirt and trousers. It was
+Alan Vernon, who in these surroundings looked larger and more
+commanding than he had done at the London office, or even in his own
+house of Yarleys. Perhaps the moustache and short brown beard which he
+had grown, or his skin, already altered and tanned by the tropics, had
+changed his appearance for the better. At any rate it was changed. So
+were his manner and bearing, whereof all the diffidence had gone. Now
+they were those of a man accustomed to command who found himself in
+his right place.
+
+"Jeekie," he called, "wake up those fellows and come and light the
+oil-stove. I want my coffee."
+
+Thereon a deep voice was heard speaking in some native tongue and
+saying:
+
+"Cease your snoring, you black dogs, and arouse yourselves, for your
+lord calls you," an invocation that was followed by the sound of
+kicks, thumps, and muttered curses.
+
+A minute or two later Jeekie himself appeared, and he also was much
+changed in appearance, for now instead of his smart, European clothes,
+he wore a white robe and sandals that gave him an air at once
+dignified and patriarchal.
+
+"Good-morning, Major," he said cheerfully. "I hope you sleep well,
+Major, in this low-lying and accursed situation, which is more than we
+do in boat that half full of water, to say nothing of smell of black
+man and prevalent mosquito. But the rain it over and gone, and
+presently the sun shine out, so might be much worse, no cause at all
+complain."
+
+"I don't know," answered Alan, with a shiver. "I believe that I am
+fever proof, but otherwise I should have caught it last night, and--
+just give me the quinine, I will take five grains for luck."
+
+"Yes, yes, for luck," answered Jeekie as he opened the medicine chest
+and found the quinine, at the same time glancing anxiously out of the
+corner of his eye at his master's face, for he knew that the spot
+where they had slept was deadly to white men at this season of the
+year. "You not catch fever, Little Bonsa," here he dropped his voice
+and looked down at the box which had served Alan for a pillow, "see to
+that. But quinine give you appetite for breakfast. Very good chop this
+morning. Which you like best? Cold ven'son, or fish, or one of them
+ducks you shoot yesterday?"
+
+"Oh! some of the cold meat, I think. Give the ducks to the boatmen, I
+don't fancy them in this hot place. By the way, Jeekie, we leave the
+Qua River here, don't we?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Major, just here. I 'member spot well, for your uncle he
+pray on it one whole hour; I pretend pray too, but in heart give
+thanks to Little Bonsa, for heathen in those days, quite different
+now. This morning we begin walk through forest where it rather dark
+and cool and comfortable, that is if we no see dwarf people from whom
+good Lord deliver us," and he bowed towards the box containing Little
+Bonsa.
+
+"Will those four porters come with us through the forest, Jeekie, as
+they promised?"
+
+"Yes, yes, they come. Last night they say they not come, too much
+afraid of dwarf. But I settle their hash. I tell them I save up bits
+of their hair and toe nails when they no thinking, and I mix it with
+medicine, and if they not come, they die every one before they get
+home. They think me great doctor and they believe. Perhaps they die if
+they go on. If so, I tell them that because they want show white
+feather, and they think me greater doctor still. Oh! they come, they
+come, no fear, or else Jeekie know reason why. Now, here coffee,
+Major. Drink him hot before you go take tub, but keep in shallow
+water, because crocodile he very early riser."
+
+Alan laughed, and departed to "take tub." Notwithstanding the
+mosquitoes that buzzed round him in clouds, the water was cool and
+pleasant by comparison with the hot, sticky air, and the feel of it
+seemed to rid him of the languor resulting from his disturbed night.
+
+A month had passed since he had left Old Calabar, and owing to the
+incessant rains the journeying had been hard. Indeed the white men
+there thought that he was mad to attempt to go up the river at this
+season. Of course he had said nothing to them of the objects of his
+expedition, hinting only that he wished to explore and shoot, and
+perhaps prospect for mines. But knowing as they did, that he was an
+Engineer officer with a good record and much African experience, they
+soon made up their minds that he had been sent by Government upon some
+secret mission that for reasons of his own he preferred to keep to
+himself. This conclusion, which Jeekie zealously fostered behind his
+back, in fact did Alan a good turn, since owing to it he obtained
+boatmen and servants at a season when, had he been supposed to be but
+a private person, these would scarcely have been forthcoming at any
+price. Hitherto his journey had been one long record of mud,
+mosquitoes, and misery, but otherwise devoid of incident, except the
+eating of one of his boatmen by a crocodile which was a particularly
+"early riser," for it had pulled the poor fellow out of the canoe in
+which he lay asleep at night. Now, however, the real dangers were
+about to begin, since at this spot he left the great river and started
+forward through the forest on foot with Jeekie and the four bearers
+whom he had paid highly to accompany him.
+
+He could not conceal from himself that the undertaking seemed somewhat
+desperate. But of this he said nothing in the long letter he had
+written to Barbara on the previous night, sighing as he sealed it, at
+the thought that it might well be the last which would ever reach her
+from him, even if the boatmen got safely back to Calabar and
+remembered to put it in the post. The enterprise had been begun and
+must be carried through, until it ended in success--or death.
+
+An hour later they started. First walked Alan as leader of the
+expedition, carrying a double-barrelled gun that could be used either
+for ball or shot, about fifty cartridges with brass cases to protect
+them from the damp, a revolver, a hunting-knife, a cloth mackintosh,
+and lastly, strapped upon his back like a knapsack, a tin box
+containing the fetish, Little Bonsa, which was too precious to be
+trusted to anyone else. It was quite a sufficient load for any white
+man in that climate, but being very wiry, Alan did not feel its
+weight, at any rate at first.
+
+After him in single file came the four porters, laden with a small
+tent, some tinned provisions and brandy, ammunition, a box containing
+beads, watches, etc. for presents, blankets, spare clothing and so
+forth. These were stalwart fellows enough, who knew the forest, but
+their dejected air showed that now they had come face to face with its
+dangers, they heartily wished themselves anywhere else. Indeed,
+notwithstanding their terror of Jeekie's medicine, at the last moment
+they threw down their loads intending to make a wild rush for the
+departing boat, only to be met by Jeekie himself who, anticipating
+some such move, was waiting for them on the bank with a shotgun. Here
+he remained until the canoe was too far out in the stream for them to
+reach it by swimming. Then he asked them if they wished to sit and
+starve there with the devils he would leave them for company, of if
+they would carry out their bargain like honest men?
+
+The end of it was they took up their loads again and marched, while
+behind them walked the terrible and gigantic Jeekie, the barrels of
+the shotgun which he carried at full cock and occasionally used to
+prod them, pointing directly at their backs. A strange object he
+looked truly, for in addition to the weapons with which he bristled,
+several cooking-pots were slung about him, to say nothing of a cork
+mattress and a mackintosh sheet tied in a flat bundle to his
+shoulders, a box containing medicines and food which he carried on his
+head, and fastened to the top of it with string like a helmet on a
+coffin, an enormous solar-tope stuffed full of mosquito netting, of
+which the ends fell about him like a green veil. When Alan
+remonstrated with him as to the cork mattress, suggesting that it
+should be thrown away as too hot to wear, Jeekie replied that he had
+been cold for thirty years, and wished to get warm again. Guessing
+that his real reason for declining to part with the article, was that
+his master should have something to lie on, other than the damp
+ground, Alan said no more at the time, which, as will be seen, was
+fortunate enough for Jeekie.
+
+For a mile or more their road ran through fantastic-looking mangrove
+trees rooted in the mud, that in the mist resembled, Alan thought,
+many-legged arboreal octopi feeling for their food, and tall reeds on
+the tops of which sat crowds of chattering finches. Then just as the
+sun broke out, strongly, cheering them with its warmth and sucking up
+the vapours, they entered sparse bush with palms and great cotton
+trees growing here and there, and so at length came to the borders of
+the mighty forest.
+
+Oh! dark, dark was that forest; he who entered it from the cheerful
+sunshine felt as though suddenly and without preparation he had
+wandered out of the light we know into some dim Hades such as the old
+Greek fancy painted, where strengthless ghosts flit aimlessly,
+mourning the lost light. Everywhere the giant boles of trees shooting
+the height of a church tower into the air without a branch; great rib-
+rooted trees, and beneath them a fierce and hungry growth of creepers.
+Where a tree had fallen within the last century or so, these creepers
+ramped upwards in luxuriance, their stems thick as the body of a man,
+drinking the shaft of light that pierced downwards, drinking it with
+eagerness ere the boughs above met again and starved them. Where no
+tree had fallen the creepers were thin and weak; from year to year
+they lived on feebly, biding their time, but still they lived, knowing
+that some day it would come. And always it was coming to those
+expectant parasites, since from minute to minute, somewhere in the
+vast depths, miles and miles away perhaps, a great crash echoed in the
+stillness, the crash of a tree that, sown when the Saxons ruled in
+England, or perhaps before Cleopatra bewitched Anthony, came to its
+end at last.
+
+On the second day of their march in the forest Alan chanced to see
+such a tree fall, and the sight was one that he never could forget. As
+it happened, owing to the vast spread of its branches which had killed
+out all rivals beneath, for in its day it had been a very successful
+tree embued with an excellent constitution by its parent, it stood
+somewhat alone, so that from several hundred yards away as these six
+human beings crept towards it like ants towards a sapling in a
+cornfield, its mighty girth and bulk set upon a little mound and the
+luxuriant greenness of its far-reaching boughs made a kind of
+landmark. Then in the hot noon when no breath of wind stirred,
+suddenly the end came. Suddenly that mighty bole seemed to crumble;
+suddenly those far-reaching arms were thrown together as their support
+failed, gripping at each other like living things, flogging the air,
+screaming in their last agony, and with an awful wailing groan
+sinking, a tumbled ruin, to the earth.
+
+Silence again, and in the midst of the silence Jeekie's cheerful
+voice.
+
+"Old tree go flop! Glad he no flop on us, thanks be to Little Bonsa.
+Get on, you lazy nigger dog. Who pay you stand there and snivel? Get
+on or I blow out your stupid skull," and he brought the muzzle of the
+full-cocked, double-barrelled gun into sharp contact with that part of
+the terrified porter's anatomy.
+
+Such was the forest. Of their march through it for the first four
+days, there is nothing to tell. Its depths seemed to be devoid of
+life, although occasionally they heard the screaming of parrots in the
+treetops a couple of hundred feet above, or caught sight of the dim
+shapes of monkeys swinging themselves from bough to bough. That was in
+the daytime, when, although they could not see it, they knew that the
+sun was shining somewhere. But at night they heard nothing, since
+beasts of prey do not come where there is no food. What puzzled Alan
+was that all through these impenetrable recesses there ran a distinct
+road which they followed. To the right and left rose a wall of
+creepers, but between them ran this road, an ancient road, for nothing
+grew on it, and it only turned aside to avoid the biggest of the trees
+which must have stood there from time immemorial, such a tree as that
+which he had seen fall; indeed it was one of those round which the
+road ran.
+
+He asked Jeekie who made the road.
+
+"People who come out Noah's Ark," answered Jeekie, "I think they run
+up here to get out of way of water, and sent them two elephants ahead
+to make path. Or perhaps dwarf people make it. Or perhaps those who go
+up to Asiki-land to do sacrifice like old Jews."
+
+"You mean you don't know," said Alan.
+
+"No, of course don't know. Who know about forest path made before
+beginning of world. You ask question, Major, I answer. More lively
+answer than to shake head and roll eyes like them silly fool porters."
+
+It was on the fourth night that the trouble began. As usual they had
+lit a huge fire made of the fallen boughs and rotting tree trunks that
+lay about in plenty. There was no reason why the fire should be so
+large, since they had little to cook and the air was hot, but they
+made it so for the same reason that Jeekie answered questions, for the
+sake of cheerfulness. At least it gave light in the darkness, leaping
+up in red tongues of flame twenty or thirty feet high, and its roar
+and crackle were welcome in the primeval silence.
+
+Alan lay upon the cork mattress in the open, for here there was no
+need to pitch the tent; if any rain fell above, the canopy of leaves
+absorbed it. He was amusing himself while he smoked his pipe with
+watching the reflection of the fire-light against a patch of darkness
+caused probably by some bush about twenty yards away, and by picturing
+in his own mind the face of Barbara, that strong, pleasant English
+face, as it might appear on such a background. Suddenly there, on the
+identical spot he did see a face, though one of a very different
+character. It was round and small and hideous, resembling in its
+general outline that of a bloated child. At this distance he could not
+distinguish the features, except the lips, which were large and
+pendulous, and between them the flash of white teeth.
+
+"Look here," he whispered to Jeekie in English, and Jeekie looked,
+then without saying a word, lifted the shotgun that lay at his side
+and fired straight at the bush. Instantly there arose a squeaking
+noise, such as might be made by a wounded animal, and the four porters
+sprang up in alarm.
+
+"Sit down," said Jeekie to them in their own tongue, "a leopard was
+stalking us and I fired to frighten it away. Don't go near the place,
+as it may be wounded and angry, but drag up some boughs and make a
+fence round the fire, for fear of others."
+
+The men who dreaded leopards, looking on these animals, indeed, with
+superstitious reverence, obeyed readily enough, and as there was
+plenty of wood lying within a few yards, soon constructed a /boma/
+fence that, rough as it was, would serve for protection.
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan presently as they laboured at the fence, "that was
+not a leopard, it was a man."
+
+"No, no, Major, not man, little dwarf devil, him that have poisoned
+arrow. I shoot at once to make him sit up. Think he no come back
+to-night, too much afraid of shot fetish. But to-morrow, can't say.
+Not tell those fellows anything," and he nodded towards the porters,
+"or perhaps they bolt."
+
+"I think you would have done better to leave the dwarf alone," said
+Alan, "and they might have left us alone. Now they will have a blood
+feud against us."
+
+"Not agree, Major, only chance for us put him in blue funk. If I not
+shoot, presently he shoot," and he made a sound that resembled the
+whistling of an arrow, then added, "Now you go sleep. I not tired, I
+watch, my eyes see in dark better than yours. Only two more days of
+this damn forest, then open land with tree here and there, where dwarf
+no come because he afraid of lion and cannibal man, who like eat him."
+
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan took Jeekie's advice and in
+time fell fast asleep, nor did he wake again till the faint light
+which for the want of a better name they called dawn, was filtering
+down to them through the canopy of boughs.
+
+"Been to look," said Jeekie as he handed him his coffee. "Hit that
+dwarf man, see his blood, but think others carry him away. Jeekie very
+good shot, stone, spear, arrow, or gun, all same to him. Now get off
+as quick as we can before porters smell a rat. You eat chop, Major, I
+pack."
+
+Presently they started on their trudge through those endless trees,
+with Fear for a companion. Even the porters, who had been told
+nothing, seemed more afraid than usual, though whether this was
+because they "smell rat," as Jeekie called it, or owing to the
+progressive breakdown of their nervous systems, Alan did not know.
+About midday they stopped to eat because the men were too tired to
+walk further without rest. For an hour or more they had been looking
+for a comparatively open place, but as it chanced could find none, so
+were obliged to halt in dense forest. Just as they had finished their
+meal and were preparing to proceed, that which they had feared,
+happened, since from somewhere behind the tree boles came a volley of
+reed arrows. One struck a porter in the neck, one fixed itself in
+Alan's helmet without touching him, and no less than three hit Jeekie
+on the back and stuck there, providentially enough in the substance of
+the cork mattress that he still carried on his shoulders, which the
+feeble shafts had not the strength to pierce.
+
+Everybody sprang up and with a curious fascination instead of
+attempting to do anything, watched the porter who had been hit in the
+neck somewhere in the region of the jugular vein. The poor man rose to
+his feet with great deliberation, reminding Alan in some grotesque way
+of a speaker who has suddenly been called on to address a meeting and
+seeks to gain time for the gathering of his thoughts. Then he turned
+towards that vast audience of the trees, stretched out his hand with a
+declamatory gesture, said something in a composed voice, and fell upon
+his face stone dead! The swift poison had reached his heart and done
+its work.
+
+His three companions looked at him for a moment and the next with a
+yell of terror, rushed off into the forest, hurling down their loads
+as they ran. What became of them Alan never learned, for he saw them
+no more, and the dwarf people keep their secrets. At the time indeed
+he scarcely noticed their departure, for he was otherwise engaged.
+
+One of their hideous little assailants, made bold by success, ventured
+to run across an open space between two trees, showing himself for a
+moment. Alan had a gun in his hand, and mad with rage at what had
+happened, he raised it and swung on him as he would upon a rabbit. He
+was a quick and practised shot and his skill did not fail him now, for
+just as the dwarf was vanishing behind a tree, the bullet caught him
+and next instant he was seen rolling over and over upon its further
+side.
+
+"That very nice," said Jeekie reflectively, "very nice indeed, but I
+think we best move out of this."
+
+"Aren't you hurt?" gasped Alan. "Your back is full of arrows."
+
+"Don't feel nothing, Major," he answered, "best cork mattress, 25/3 at
+Stores, very good for poisoned arrow, but leave him behind now,
+because perhaps points work through as I run, one scratch do trick,"
+and as he spoke Jeekie untied a string or several strings, letting the
+little mattress fall to the ground.
+
+"Great pity leave all those goods," said Jeekie, surveying the loads
+that the porters had cast away, "but what says Book? Life more than
+raiment. Also take no thought for morrow. Dwarf people do that for us.
+Come, Major, make tracks," and dashing at a bag of cartridges which he
+cast about his neck, a trifling addition to his other impedimenta, and
+a small case of potted meats that he hitched under his arm, he poked
+his master in the back with the muzzle of his full-cocked gun as a
+signal that it was time to start.
+
+"Keep that cursed thing off me," said Alan furiously. "How often have
+I told you never to carry firearms at full cock?"
+
+"About one thousand times, Major," answered Jeekie imperturbably, "but
+on such occasion forget discreetness. My ma just same, it run in
+family, but story too long tell you now. Cut, Major, cut like hell.
+Them dwarfs be back soon, but," he puffed, "I think, I think Little
+Bonsa come square with them one day."
+
+So Alan "cut" and the huge Jeekie blundered along after him, the
+paraphernalia with which he was hung about rattling like the hoofs of
+a galloping giraffe. Nor for all his load did he ever turn a hair.
+Whether it were fear within or a desire to save his master, or a
+belief in the virtues of Little Bonsa, or that his foot was, as it
+were, once more upon his native heath, the fact remained that
+notwithstanding the fifty years, almost, that had whitened his wool,
+Jeekie was absolutely inexhaustible. At least at the end of that
+fearful chase, which lasted all the day, and through the night also,
+for they dared not camp, he appeared to be nearly as fresh as when he
+started from Old Calabar, nor did his spirits fail him for one moment.
+
+When the light came on the following morning, however, they perceived
+by many signs and tokens that the dwarf people were all about them.
+Some arrows were shot even, but these fell short.
+
+"Pooh!" said Jeekie, "all right now, they much afraid. Still, no time
+for coffee, we best get on."
+
+So they got on as they could, till towards midday the forest began to
+thin out. Now as the light grew stronger they could see the dwarfs, of
+whom there appeared to be several hundred, keeping a parallel course
+to their own on either side of them at what they thought to be a safe
+distance.
+
+"Try one shot, I think," said Jeekie, kneeling down and letting fly at
+a clump of the little men, which scattered like a covey of partridges,
+leaving one of its number kicking on the ground. "Ah! my boy," shouted
+Jeekie in derision, "how you like bullet in tummy? You not know
+Paradox guaranteed flat trajectory 250 yard. You remember that next
+time, sonny." Then off they went again up a long rise.
+
+"River other side of that rise," said Jeekie. "Think those tree-
+monkeys no follow us there."
+
+But the "monkeys" appeared to be angry and determined. They would not
+come any more within the range of the Paradox, but they still marched
+on either side of the two fugitives, knowing well that at last their
+strength must fail and they would be able to creep up and murder them.
+So the chase went on till Alan began to wonder whether it would not be
+better to face the end at once.
+
+"No, no, if say die, can't change mind to-morrow morning," gasped
+Jeekie in a hoarse voice. "Here top rise, much nearer than I thought.
+Oh, my aunt! who those?" and he pointed to a large number of big men
+armed with spears who were marching up the further side of the hill
+from the river that ran below.
+
+At the same moment these savages, who were not more than two hundred
+yards away, caught sight of them and of their pursuers, who just then
+appeared on the ridge to the right and left. The dwarfs, on perceiving
+these strangers, uttered a shrill yell of terror, and wheeled about to
+fly to their fastnesses in the forest, which evidently they regretted
+ever having left. It was too late. With an answering shout the
+spearsmen, who were extended in a long line, apparently hunting for
+game, charged after them at full speed. They were fresh and their legs
+were long. Therefore very soon they overtook the dwarfs and even got
+in front of them, heading them off from the forest. The end may be
+guessed,--save a few whom they reserved alive, they killed them
+mercilessly, and almost without loss to themselves, since the little
+forest folk were too terrified and exhausted to shoot at them with
+their poisoned arrows, and they had no other weapons.
+
+In fact, as Alan discovered afterwards, for generations there had been
+war between them, since all the other tribes hate the dwarfs, whom
+they look upon as dangerous human monkeys, and never before had the
+big men found such a chance of squaring their account.
+
+When Jeekie saw this fearful-looking company, for the first time his
+spirits seemed to fail him.
+
+"Ogula!" he exclaimed with a groan and sat himself upon a flat rock,
+pulling Alan down beside him. "Ogula! Know them by hair and spears,"
+he repeated. "Up gum tree now, say good-night."
+
+"Why? Who are they?" gasped Alan.
+
+"Great cannibal, Major, eat man, eat us to-night, or perhaps to-morrow
+morning when we nice and cool. Say prayers, Major, quick no time
+waste."
+
+"I think I will shoot an Ogula or two first," said Alan grimly, as he
+stood up and lifted his gun.
+
+"No, not shoot, no good. Pretend not be afraid, best chance. Let
+Jeekie think, let Jeekie think," and he slapped his forehead with his
+large hand.
+
+Apparently the action brought inspiration, for next instant he grabbed
+his master by the arm and dragged him back behind the shelter of a big
+boulder which they had just passed. Then with really marvellous
+swiftness he cut the straps of the tin box that Alan wore upon his
+back, and since there was no time to find the key and unlock it,
+seized the little padlock with which it was fastened between his
+finger and thumb, and putting out his great strength, with a single
+wrench twisted it off.
+
+"What are you----" began Alan.
+
+"Hold tongue," he answered savagely, "make you god, I priest. Ogula
+know Little Bonsa. Quick, quick!"
+
+In a minute it was done, the golden mask was clapped on to Alan's
+head, and the leather thongs were fastened. Moreover, Jeekie himself
+was arrayed in the solar-tope to which all this while he had clung,
+allowing streams of green mosquito netting to hang down over his white
+robe.
+
+"Come out now, Major," he said, "and play god. You whistle, I do
+palaver."
+
+Then hand in hand they walked from behind the rock. By this time the
+particular company of the cannibals that was opposite to them, which
+happened to include their chief, had climbed the steep slope of the
+hill and arrived within a distance of twenty yards. Having seen the
+two men and guessed that they had taken refuge behind the rock, their
+spears were lifted to kill them, since when he beholds anything
+strange, the first impulse of a savage is to bring it to its death.
+They looked; they saw. Of a sudden down went the raised spears.
+
+Some of those who held them fell upon their faces, while others turned
+to fly, appalled by the vision of this strangely clad man with the
+head of gold. Only their chief, a great yellow-toothed fellow who wore
+a necklace of baboon claws, remained erect, staring at them with open
+mouth.
+
+Alan blew the whistle that was set between the lips of the mask, and
+they shivered. Then Jeekie spoke to them in some tongue which they
+understood, saying:
+
+"Do you, O Ogula, dare to offer violence to Little Bonsa and her
+priests? Say now, why should we not strike you dead with the magic of
+the god which she has borrowed from the white man?" and he tapped the
+gun he held.
+
+"This is witchcraft," answered the chief. "We saw two men running,
+hunted by the dwarfs, not three minutes ago, and now we see--what we
+see," and he put his hand before his eyes, then after a pause went on
+--"As for Little Bonsa, she left this country in my father's day. He
+gave her passage upon the head of a white man and the Asiki wizards
+have mourned her ever since, or so I hear."
+
+"Fool," answered Jeekie, "as she went, so she returns, on the head of
+a white man. Yonder I see an elder with grey hair who doubtless knew
+of Little Bonsa in his youth. Let him come up and look and say whether
+or no this is the god."
+
+"Yes, yes," exclaimed the chief, "go up, old man, go up," and he
+jabbed at him with his spear until, unwillingly enough, he went.
+
+The elder arrived, making obeisance, and when he was near, Alan blew
+the whistle in his face, whereon he fell to his knees.
+
+"It is Little Bonsa," he said in a trembling voice, "Little Bonsa
+without a doubt. I should know, as my father and my elder brother were
+sacrificed to her, and I only escaped because she rejected me. Down on
+your face, Chief, and do honour to the Yellow God before she slay
+you."
+
+Instantly every man within hearing prostrated himself and lay still.
+Then Jeekie strode up and down among them shouting out:
+
+"Little Bonsa has come back and brought to you, Man-eaters, a fat
+offering, an offering of the dwarf-people whom you hate, of the
+treacherous dwarf-people who when you walk the ancient forest path,
+murder you with their poisoned arrows. Praise Little Bonsa who
+delivers you from your foes, and hearken to her bidding. Send on
+messengers to the Asiki saying that Little Bonsa comes home again from
+across the Black Water bringing the White Preacher, whom she led away
+in the day of their fathers. Say to them that the Asiki must send out
+a company that Little Bonsa and the Magician with whom she ran away,
+may be escorted back to her house with the state which has been hers
+from the beginning of time. Say to them also that they must prepare a
+great offering of pure gold out of their store, as much gold as fifty
+strong men can carry, not one handful less, to be given to the White
+Magician who brings back Small Swimming Head, for if they withhold
+such an offering, he and Little Bonsa will vanish never to be seen
+again, and curses and desolation will fall upon their land. Rise and
+obey, Chief of the Ogula."
+
+Then the man scrambled to his feet and answered:
+
+"It shall be done, O Priest of the Yellow God. To-morrow at the dawn
+swift messengers will start for the Gold House of the Asiki. To-night
+they cannot leave, as we are all very hungry and must eat."
+
+"What must you eat?" asked Jeekie suspiciously.
+
+"O Priest," answered the chief with a deprecatory gesture, "when first
+we saw you we hoped that it would be the white man and yourself, for
+we have never tasted white man. But now we fear that you will not
+consent to this, and as you are holy and the guardian of the god, we
+cannot eat you without your own consent. Therefore fat dwarf must be
+our food, of which, however, there will be plenty for you as well as
+us."
+
+"You dog!" exclaimed Jeekie in a voice of furious indignation. "Do you
+think that white men and their high-born companions, such as myself,
+were made to fill your vile stomachs? I tell you that a meal of the
+deadly Bean would agree better with you, for if you dare so much as to
+look on us, or on any of the white race with hunger, agony shall seize
+your vitals and you and all your tribe shall die as though by poison.
+Moreover, we do not touch the flesh of men, nor will we see it eaten.
+It is our '/orunda/,' it is consecrate to us, it must not pass our
+lips, nor may our eyes behold it. Therefore we will camp apart from
+you further up the stream and find our own food. But to-morrow at the
+dawn the messengers must leave as we have commanded. Also you shall
+provide strong men and a large canoe to bear Little Bonsa forward
+towards her own home until she finds her people coming out to greet
+her.
+
+"It shall be done," answered the chief humbly, "Everything shall be
+done according to the will of Little Bonsa spoken by her priest, that
+she may leave a blessing and not a curse upon the heads of the tribe
+of the Ogula. Say where you wish to camp and men shall run to build a
+house of reeds for the god to dwell in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE DAWN
+
+Jeekie looked up and down the river and saw that in the centre of it
+about half a mile away, there was an island on which grew some trees.
+
+"Little Bonsa will camp yonder," he said. "Go, make her house ready,
+light fire and bring canoe to paddle us across. Now leave us, all of
+you, for if you look too long upon the face of the Yellow God she will
+ask a sacrifice, and it is not lawful that you should see where she
+hides herself away."
+
+At this saying the cannibals departed as one man, and at top speed,
+some of the canoes and others to warn their fellows who were engaged
+in the congenial work of hunting and killing the dwarfs, not to dare
+to approach the white man and his companion. A third party ran to the
+bank of the river that was opposite to the island to make ready as
+they had been bidden, so that presently Alan and Jeekie were left
+quite alone.
+
+"Ah!" said Jeekie, with a gasp of satisfaction, "/that/ all right,
+everything arranged quite comfortable. Thought Little Bonsa come out
+top somehow and score off dirty dwarf monkeys. /They/ never get home
+to tea anyway--stay and dine with Ogula."
+
+"Stop chattering, Jeekie, and untie this infernal mask, I am almost
+choked," broke in Alan in a hollow voice.
+
+"Not say 'infernal mask,' Major, say 'face of angel.' Little Bonsa
+woman and like it better, also true, if on this occasion only, for she
+save our skins," said Jeekie as he unknotted the thongs and reverently
+replaced the fetish in its tin box. "My!" he added, contemplating his
+master's perspiring countenance, "you blush like garden carrot; well,
+gold hot wear in afternoon sun beneath Tropic of Cancer. Now we walk
+on quietly and I tell you all I arrange for night's lodging and future
+progress of joint expedition."
+
+So gathering together what remained of their few possessions, they
+started leisurely down the slope towards the island, and as they went
+Jeekie explained all that had happened, since Ogula was not one of the
+African languages with which Alan was acquainted and he had only been
+able to understand a word here and there.
+
+"Look," said Jeekie when he had finished, and turning, he pointed to
+the cannibals who were driving the few survivors of the dwarfs before
+them to the spot where their canoes were beached. "Those dwarfs done
+for; capital business, forest road quite safe to travel home by; Ogula
+best friends in world; very remarkable escape from delicate
+situation."
+
+"Very remarkable indeed," said Alan; "I shall soon begin to believe in
+the luck of Little Bonsa."
+
+"Yes, Major, you see she anxious to get home and make path clear.
+But," he added gloomily, "how she behave when she reach there, can't
+say."
+
+"Nor can I, Jeekie, but meanwhile I hope she will provide us with some
+dinner, for I am faint for want of food and all the tinned meat is
+lost."
+
+"Food," repeated Jeekie. "Yes, necessity for human stomach, which
+unhappily built that way, so Ogula find out, and so dwarfs find out
+presently." Then he looked about him and in a kind of aimless manner
+lifted his gun and fired. "There we are," he said, "Little Bonsa
+understand bodily needs," and he pointed to a fat buck of the sort
+that in South Africa is called Duiker, which his keen eyes had
+discovered in its form against a stone where it now lay shot through
+the head and dying. "No further trouble on score of grub for next
+three day," he added. "Come on to camp, Major. I send one savage skin
+and bring that buck."
+
+So on they went to the river bank, Alan so tired now that the
+excitement was over, that he was not sorry to lean upon Jeekie's arm.
+Reaching the stream they drank deep of its water, and finding that it
+was shallow at this spot, waded through it to the island without
+waiting for a canoe to ferry them over. Here they found a party of the
+cannibals already at work clearing reeds with their large, curved
+knives, in order to make a site for the hut. Another party under the
+command of their chief himself had gone to the top end of the island,
+to cut the stems of a willow-like shrub to serve as uprights. These
+people stared at Alan, which was not strange, as they had never before
+seen the face of a white man and were wondering, doubtless, what had
+become of the ancient and terrible fetish that he had worn. Without
+entering into explanations Jeekie in a great voice ordered two of them
+to fetch the buck, which the white man, whom he described as "husband
+of the goddess," had "slain by thunder." When these had departed upon
+their errand, leaving Jeekie to superintend the building operations,
+Alan sat down upon a fallen tree, watching one of the savages making
+fire with a pointed stick and some tinder.
+
+Just then from the head of the island where the willows were being
+cut, rose the sound of loud roarings and of men crying out in
+affright. Seizing his gun Alan ran towards the spot whence the noise
+came. Forcing his way through a brake of reeds, he saw a curious
+sight. The Ogula in cutting the willows which grew about some tumbled
+rocks, had disturbed a lioness that had her lair there, and being
+fearless savages, had tried to kill her with their spears. The brute,
+rendered desperate by wounds, and the impossibility of escape, for
+here the surrounding water was deep, had charged them boldly, and as
+it chanced, felled to the ground their chief, that yellow-toothed man
+to whom Jeekie gave his orders. Now she was standing over him looking
+round her royally, her great paw upon his breast, which it seemed
+almost to cover, while the Ogula ran round and round shouting, for
+they feared that if they tried to attack her, she would kill the
+chief. This indeed she seemed about to do, for just as Alan arrived
+she dropped her head as though to tear out the man's throat. Instantly
+he fired. It was a snap shot, but as it chanced a good one, for the
+bullet struck the lioness in the back of the neck just forward of and
+between the shoulders, severing the spine so that without a sound or
+any further movement she sank stone dead upon the prostrate cannibal.
+For a while his followers stood astonished. They might have heard of
+guns from the coast people, but living as they did in the interior
+where white folk did not dare to travel, they had never seen their
+terrible effects.
+
+"Magic!" they cried. "Magic!"
+
+"Of course," exclaimed Jeekie, who by now had arrived upon the scene.
+"What else did you expect from the husband of Little Bonsa? Magic, the
+greatest of magic. Go, roll that beast away before your chief is
+crushed to death."
+
+They obeyed, and the man sat up, a fearful spectacle, for he was
+smothered with the blood of the lion and somewhat cut by her claws,
+though otherwise unhurt. Then feeling that the life was still whole in
+him, he crept on his hands and knees to where Alan stood, and kissed
+his feet.
+
+"Aha!" said Jeekie, "Little Bonsa score again. Cannibal tribe our
+slave henceforth for evermore. Yes, till kingdom come. Come on, Major,
+and cook supper in perfect peace."
+
+The supper was cooked and eaten with gratitude, for seldom had two men
+needed a square meal more, and never did venison taste better. By the
+time that it was finished darkness had fallen, and before they turned
+in to sleep in the neat reed hut that the Ogula had built, Alan and
+Jeekie walked up the island to see if the lioness had been skinned, as
+they directed. This they found was done; even the carcase itself had
+been removed to serve as meat for these foul-feeding people. They
+climbed on to the pile of rocks in which the beast had made her lair,
+and looked down the river to where, two hundred yards away, the Ogula
+were encamped. From this camp there rose a sound of revelry, and by
+the light of the great fires that burned there, they perceived that
+the hungry savages were busy feasting, for some of them sat in
+circles, whilst others, their naked forms looking at that distance
+like those of imps in the infernal regions, flitted to and fro against
+the glowing background of the fires, bearing strange-looking joints on
+prongs of wood.
+
+"I suppose they are eating the lioness," said Alan doubtfully.
+
+"No, no, Major, not lioness; eat dwarf by dozen--just like oysters at
+seaside. But for Little Bonsa /we/ sit on those forks now and look
+uncommon small."
+
+"Beasts!" said Alan in disgust; "they make me feel uncommon sick. Let
+us go to bed. I suppose they won't murder us in our sleep, will they?"
+
+"Not they, Major, too much afraid. Also we their blood-brothers now,
+because we bring them first-class dinner and save chief from lion's
+fury. No blame them too much, Major, good fellows really with gentle
+heart, but grub like that from generation to generation. Every
+mother's son of them have many men inside, that why they so big and
+strong. Ogula people cover great multitude like Charity in Book. No
+doubt sent by Providence to keep down extra pop'lation. Not right to
+think too hard of poor fellows who, as I say, very kind and gentle at
+heart and most loving in family relation, except to old women whom
+they eat also, so that they no get bored with too long life."
+
+Weary and disgusted by this abominable sight though he was, Alan burst
+out laughing at his retainer's apology for the sweet-natured Ogula,
+who struck him as the most repulsive blackguards that he had ever met
+or heard of in all his experience of African savages. Then wishing to
+see and hear no more of them that night, he retreated rapidly to the
+hut and was soon fast asleep with his head pillowed on the box that
+hid the charms of Little Bonsa. When he awoke it was broad daylight.
+Rising he went down to the river to wash, and never had a bath been
+more welcome, for during all their journey through the forest no such
+thing was obtainable. On his return he found his garments well brushed
+with dry reeds and set upon a rock in the hot sun to air, while Jeekie
+in a cheerful mood, was engaged cooking breakfast in the frying-pan,
+to which he had clung through all the vicissitudes of their flight.
+
+"No coffee, Major," he said regretfully, "that stop in forest. But
+never mind, hot water better for nerve. Ogula messengers gone in
+little canoe to Asiki at break of day. Travel slow till they work off
+dwarf, but afterwards go quick. I send lion skin with them as present
+from you to great high-priestess Asika, also claws for necklace. No
+lions there and she think much of that. Also it make her love mighty
+man who can kill fierce lion like Samson in Book. Love of head woman
+very valuable ally among beastly savage peoples."
+
+"I am sure I hope it won't," said Alan with earnestness, "but no doubt
+it is as well to keep on the soft side of the good lady if we can.
+What time do we start?"
+
+"In one hour, Major. I been to camp already, chosen best canoe and
+finest men for rowers. Chief--he called Fanny--so grateful that he
+come with them himself."
+
+"Indeed. That is very kind of him, but I say, Jeekie, what are these
+fellows going to live on? I can't stand what you call their 'favourite
+chop.'"
+
+"No, no, Major, that all right. I tell them that when they travel with
+Little Bonsa, they must keep Lent like pious Roman Catholic family
+that live near Yarleys. They catch plenty fish in river, and perhaps
+we shoot game, or rich 'potamus, which they like 'cause he fat."
+
+Evidently the Ogula chief, Fahni by name, not Fanny, as Jeekie called
+him, was a man of his word, for before the hour was up he appeared at
+the island in command of a large canoe manned by twelve splendid-
+looking savages. Springing to land, he prostrated himself before Alan,
+kissing his feet as he had done on the previous night, and making a
+long speech.
+
+"That very good spirit," exclaimed Jeekie. "Like to see heathen in his
+darkness lick white gentleman's boot. He say you his lord and great
+magician who save his life, and know all Little Bonsa's secrets, which
+many and unrepeatable. He say he die for you twice a day if need be,
+and go on dying to-morrow and all next year. He say he take you safe
+till you meet Asiki and for your sake, though he hungry, eat no man
+for one whole month, or perhaps longer. Now we start at once."
+
+So they started up the river that was called Katsena, Alan and Jeekie
+seated in a lordly fashion near the stern of the canoe beneath an
+awning made out of some sticks and a grass mat. In truth after their
+severe toil and adventures in the forest, this method of journeying
+proved quite luxurious. Except for a rapid here and there over or
+round which the canoe must be dragged, the river was broad and the
+scenery on its banks park-like and beautiful. Moreover the country,
+perhaps owing to the appetites of the Ogula, appeared to be
+practically uninhabited except by vast herds of every sort of game.
+
+All day they sat in the canoe which the stalwart rowers propelled, in
+silence for the most part, since they were terribly afraid of the
+white man, and still more so of the renowned fetish which they knew he
+carried with him. Then when evening came they moored their craft to
+the bank and camped till the following morning. Nor did they lack for
+food, since game being so plentiful, it was only necessary for Alan to
+walk a few hundred yards and shoot a fat eland, or hartebeest, or
+other buck which in its ignorance of guns would allow him to approach
+quite close. Elephants, rhinoceros, and buffalo were also common,
+while great herds of giraffe might be seen wandering between the
+scattered trees, but as they were not upon a hunting trip and their
+ammunition was very limited, with these they did not interfere.
+
+Having their daily fill of meat which their souls loved, the Ogula
+oarsmen remained in an excellent mood, indeed the chief, Fahni,
+informed Alan that if only they had such magic tubes wherewith to
+slaughter game, he and his tribe would gladly give up cannibalism--
+except on feast days. He added sadly that soon they would be obliged
+to do so, or die, since in those parts there were now few people left
+to eat, and they hated vegetables. Moreover, they kept no cattle, it
+was not the custom of that tribe, except a very few for milk. Alan
+advised them to increase their herds, since, as he pointed out to
+them, "dog should not eat dog" or the human being his own kind.
+
+The chief answered that there was a great deal in what he said, which
+on his return he would lay before his head men. Indeed Alan, to his
+astonishment, discovered that Jeekie had been quite right when he
+alleged that these people, so terrible in their mode of life, were yet
+"kind and gentle at heart." They preyed upon mankind because for
+centuries it had been their custom so to do, but if anyone had been
+there to show them a better way, he grew sure that they would follow
+it gladly. At least they were brave and loyal and even after their
+first fear of the white man had worn off, fulfilled their promises
+without a murmur. Once, indeed, when he chanced to have gone for a
+walk unarmed and to be charged by a bull elephant, these Ogula ran at
+the brute with their spears and drove it away, a rescue in which one
+of them lost his life, for the "rogue" caught and killed him.
+
+So the days went on while they paddled leisurely up the river, Alan
+employing the time by taking lessons in the Asiki tongue from Jeekie,
+a language which he had been studying ever since he left England. The
+task was not easy, as he had no books and Jeekie himself after some
+thirty years of absence, was doubtful as to many of its details. Still
+being a linguist by nature and education and finding in the tongue
+similarities to other African dialects which he knew, he was now able
+to speak it a little, in a halting fashion.
+
+On the fifth day of their ascent of the river, they came to a
+tributary that flowed into it from the north, up which the Ogula said
+they must proceed to reach Asiki-land. The stream was narrow and
+sluggish, widening out here and there into great swamps through which
+it was not easy to find a channel. Also the district was so unhealthy
+that even several of the Ogula contracted fever, of which Alan cured
+them by heavy doses of quinine, for fortunately his travelling
+medicine chest remained to him. These cures were effected after their
+chief suggested that they should be thrown overboard, or left to die
+in the swamp as useless, with the result that the white man's magical
+powers were thenceforth established beyond doubt or cavil. Indeed the
+poor Ogula now looked on him as a god superior even to Little Bonsa,
+whose familiar he was supposed to be.
+
+The journey through that swamp was very trying, since in this wet
+season often they could find no place on which to sleep at night, but
+must stay in the canoe tormented by mosquitoes, and in constant danger
+of being upset by the hippopotami that lived there. Moreover, as no
+game was now available, they were obliged to live on these beasts,
+fish when they could catch them, and wildfowl, which sometimes they
+were unable to cook for lack of fuel. This did not trouble the Ogula,
+who ate them raw, as did Jeekie when he was hungry. But Alan was
+obliged to starve until they could make a fire. This it was only
+possible to do when they found drift or other wood, since at that
+season the rank vegetation was in full growth. Also the fearful
+thunderstorms which broke continually and in a few minutes half filled
+their canoe with water, made the reeds and the soil on which they
+grew, sodden with wet. As Jeekie said:
+
+"This time of year only fit for duck and crocodile. Human should
+remember uncontrollable forces of nature and wait till winter come in
+due course, when quagmire bear sole of his foot."
+
+This elaborate remark he made to Alan during the progress of a
+particularly fearful tempest. The lightning blazed in the black sky
+and seemed to strike all about them like stabbing swords of fire, the
+thunder crashed and bellowed as it may be supposed that it will do on
+that day when the great earth, worn out at last, shall reel and
+stagger to its doom. The rain fell in a straight and solid sheet; the
+tall reeds waved confusedly like millions of dim arms and while they
+waved, uttered a vast and groaning noise; the scared wildfowl in their
+terror, with screams and the sough of wings, rushed past them in
+flocks a thousand strong, now seen and now lost in the vapours. To
+keep their canoe afloat the poor, naked Ogula oarsmen, shivering with
+cold and fear, baled furiously with their hands, or bowls of hollowed
+wood, and called back to Alan to save them as though he were the
+master of the elements. Even Jeekie was depressed and appeared to be
+offering up petitions, though whether these were directed to Little
+Bonsa or elsewhere it was impossible to know.
+
+As for Alan, the heart was out of him. It is true that so far he had
+escaped fever or other sickness, which in itself was wonderful, but he
+was chilled through and through and practically had eaten nothing for
+two days, and very little for a week, since his stomach turned from
+half-cooked hippopotamus fat and wildfowl. Moreover, they had lost the
+channel and seemed to be wandering aimlessly through a wilderness of
+reeds broken here and there by lines of deeper water.
+
+According the Ogula they should have reached the confines of the great
+lake several days before and landed on healthful rising ground that
+was part of the Asiki territory. But this had not happened, and now he
+doubted whether it ever would happen. It was more likely that they
+would come to their deaths, there in the marsh, especially as the few
+ball and shot cartridges which they had saved in their flight were now
+exhausted. Not one was left; nothing was left except their revolvers
+with some charges, which of course were quite useless for the killing
+of game. Therefore they were in a fair way to die of hunger, for here
+if fish existed, they refused to be caught and nought remained for
+them to fill themselves with except water slugs, and snails which the
+boatmen were already gathering and crunching up in their great teeth.
+Or, perhaps the Ogula, forgetting friendship under the pressure of
+necessity, would murder them as they slept and--revert to their usual
+diet.
+
+Jeekie was right, he should have remembered the "uncontrollable forces
+of Nature." Only a madman would have undertaken such an expedition in
+the rains. No wonder that the Asiki remained a secret and hidden
+people when their frontier was protected by such a marsh as this upon
+the one side and, as he understood, by impassable mountains upon the
+other.
+
+There came a lull in the tempest and the boatmen began to get the
+better of the water, which now was up to their knees. Alan asked
+Jeekie if he thought it was over, but that worthy shook his white head
+mournfully, causing the spray to fly as from a twirling mop, and
+replied:
+
+"Can't say, cats and dogs not tumble so many for present, only pups
+and kitties left, so to speak, but think there plenty more up there,"
+and he nodded at the portentous fire-laced cloud which seemed to be
+spreading over them, its black edges visible even through the gloom.
+
+"Bad business, I am afraid, Jeekie. Shouldn't have brought you here,
+or those poor beggars either," and he looked at the scared, frozen
+Ogula. "I begin to wonder----"
+
+"Never wonder, Major," broke in Jeekie in alarm. "If wonder, not live,
+if wonder, not be born, too much wonder about everywhere. Can't
+understand nothing, so give it up. Say, 'Right-O and devil
+hindermost!' Very good motto for biped in tight place. Better drown
+here than in City bucket shop. But no drown. Should be dead long ago,
+but Little Bonsa play the game, she not want to sink in stinking swamp
+when so near her happy home. Come out all right somehow, as from
+dwarf. Every cloud have silver lining, Major, even that black chap up
+there. Oh! my golly!"
+
+This last exclamation was wrung from Jeekie's lips by a sudden
+development of "forces of Nature" which astonished even him. Instead
+of a silver lining the "black chap" exhibited one of gold. In an
+instant it seemed to turn to acres of flame; it was as though the
+heavens had taken fire. A flash or a thunderbolt struck the water
+within ten yards of their canoe, causing the boatmen to throw
+themselves upon their faces through shock or terror. Then came the
+hurricane, which fortunately was so strong that it permitted no more
+rain to fall. The tall reeds were beaten flat beneath its breath; the
+canoe was seized in its grip and whirled round and round, then driven
+forward like an arrow. Only the weight of the men and the water in it
+prevented it from oversetting. Dense darkness fell upon them and
+although they could see no star, they knew that it must be night. On
+they rushed, driven by that shrieking gale, and all about and around
+them this wall of darkness. No one spoke, for hope was abandoned, and
+if they had, their voices could not have been heard. The last thing
+that Alan remembered was feeling Jeekie dragging a grass mat over him
+to protect him a little if he could. Then his senses wavered, as does
+a dying lamp. He thought that he was back in what Jeekie had rudely
+called "City bucket shop," bargaining across the telephone wire, upon
+which came all the sounds of the infernal regions, with a financial
+paper for an article on a Little Bonsa Syndicate that he proposed to
+float. He thought he was in The Court woods with Barbara, only the
+birds in the trees sang so unnaturally loud that he could not hear her
+voice, and she wore Little Bonsa on her head as a bonnet. Then she
+departed in flame, leaving him and Death alone.
+
+
+
+Alan awoke. Above the sun shone hotly, warming him back to life, but
+in front was a thick wall of mist and rising beyond it in the distance
+he saw the rugged swelling forms of mountains. Doubtless these had
+been visible before, but the tall reeds through which they travelled
+had hid the sight of them. He looked behind him and there in a heap
+lay the Ogula around their chief, insensible or sleeping. He counted
+them and found that two were gone, lost in the tempest, how or where
+no man ever learned. He looked forward and saw a peculiar sight, for
+in the prow of the drifting canoe stood Jeekie clad in the remains of
+his white robe and wearing on his head the battered helmet and about
+his shoulders the torn fragments of green mosquito net. While Alan was
+wondering strangely why he had adopted this ceremonial garb, from out
+of the mist there came a sound of singing, of wild and solemn singing.
+Jeekie seemed to listen to it; then he lifted up his great musical
+voice and sang as though in answer. What he sang Alan could not
+understand, but he recognized that the language which he used was that
+of the Asiki people.
+
+A pause and a confused murmuring, and now again the wild song rose and
+again Jeekie answered.
+
+"What the deuce are you doing? Where are we?" asked Alan faintly.
+
+Jeekie turned and beamed upon him; although his teeth were chattering
+and his face was hollow, still he beamed.
+
+"You awake, Major?" he said. "Thought good old sun do trick. Feel your
+heart now and find it beat. Pulse, too, strong, though temp'rature not
+normal. Well, good news this morning. Little Bonsa come out top as
+usual. Asiki priests on bank there. Can't see them, but know their
+song and answer. Same old game as thirty years ago. Asiki never
+change, which good business when you been away long while."
+
+"Hang the Asiki," said Alan feebly, "I think all these poor beggars
+are dead, and he pointed to the rowers.
+
+"Look like it, Major, but what that matter now since you and I alive?
+Plenty more where they come from. Not dead though, think only sleep,
+no like cold, like dormouse. But never mind cannibal pig. They serve
+our turn, if they live, live; if they die, die and God have mercy on
+souls, if cannibal have soul. Ah! here we are," and from beneath six
+inches of water he dragged up the tin box containing Little Bonsa,
+from which he extracted the fetish, wet but uninjured.
+
+"Put her on now, Major. Put her on at once and come sit in prow of
+canoe. Must reach Asiki-land in proper style. Priests think it your
+reverend uncle come back again, just as he leave. Make very good
+impression."
+
+"I can't," said Alan feebly. "I am played out, Jeekie."
+
+"Oh! buck up, Major, buck up!" he replied imploringly. "One kick more
+and you win race, mustn't spoil ship for ha'porth of tar. You just
+wear fetish, whistle once on land, and then go to sleep for whole week
+if you like. I do rest, say it all magic, and so forth--that you been
+dead and just come out of grave, or anything you like. No matter if
+you turn up as announced on bill and God bless hurricane that blow us
+here when we expect die. Come, Major, quick, quick! mist melt and soon
+they see you." Then without waiting for an answer Jeekie clapped the
+wet mask on his master's head, tied the thongs and led Alan to the
+prow of the canoe, where he set him down on a little cross bench,
+stood behind supporting him and again began to sing in a great
+triumphant voice.
+
+The mist cleared away, rolling up like a curtain and revealing on the
+shore a number of men and women clad in white robes, who were
+martialled in ranks there, chanting and staring out at the dim waters
+of the lagoon. Yonder upon the waters, driven forward by the gentle
+breeze, floated a canoe and lo! in the prow of that canoe sat a white
+man and on his head the god which they had lost a whole generation
+gone. On the head of a white man it had departed; on the head of a
+white man it returned. They saw and fell upon their knees.
+
+"Blow, Major, blow!" whispered Jeekie, and Alan blew a feeble note
+through the whistle in the mouth of the mask. It was enough, they knew
+it. They sprang into the water and dragged the canoe to land. They set
+Alan on the shore and worshipped him. They haled up a lad as though
+for sacrifice, for a priest flourished a great knife above his head,
+but Jeekie said something that caused them to let him go. Alan thought
+it was to the effect that Little Bonsa had changed her habits across
+the Black Water, and wanted no blood, only food. Then he remembered no
+more; again the darkness fell upon him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BONSA TOWN
+
+When consciousness returned to Alan, the first thing of which he
+became dimly aware was the slow, swaying motion of a litter. He raised
+himself, for he was lying at full length, and in so doing felt that
+there was something over his face.
+
+"That confounded Little Bonsa," he thought. "Am I expected to spend
+the rest of my life with it on my head like the man in the iron mask?"
+
+Then he put up his hand and felt the thing, to find that it was not
+Little Bonsa, but something made apparently of thin, fine linen,
+fitted to the shape of his face, for there was a nose on it, and
+eyeholes through which he could see, yes, and a mouth whereof the lips
+by some ingenious contrivance could be moved up and down.
+
+"Little Bonsa's undress uniform, I expect," he muttered, and tried to
+drag it off. This, however, proved to be impossible, for it was fitted
+tightly to his head and laced or fastened at the back of his neck so
+securely that he could not undo it. Being still weak, soon he gave up
+the attempt and began to look about him.
+
+He was in a litter, a very fine litter hung round with beautifully
+woven and coloured grass mats, inside of which were a kind of couch
+and cushions of soft wool or hair, so arranged that he could either
+sit up or lie down. He peeped between two of these mats and saw that
+they were travelling in a mountainous country over a well-beaten road
+or trail, and that his litter was borne upon the shoulders of a double
+line of white-robed men, while all around him marched numbers of other
+men. They seemed to be soldiers, for they were arranged in companies
+and carried large spears and shields. Also some of them wore torques
+and bracelets of yellow metal that might be either brass or gold.
+Turning himself about he found an eyehole in the back of the litter so
+contrived that its occupant could see without being seen, and
+perceived that his escort amounted to a veritable army of splendid-
+looking, but sombre-faced savages of a somewhat Semitic cast of
+countenance. Indeed many of them had aquiline features and hair that,
+although crisped, was long and carefully arranged in something like
+the old Egyptian fashion. Also he saw that about thirty yards behind
+and separated from him by a bodyguard, was borne a second litter. By
+means of a similar aperture in front he discovered yet more soldiers,
+and beyond them, at the head of the procession, was what appeared to
+be a body of white-robed men and women bearing strange emblems and
+banners. These he took to be priests and priestesses.
+
+Having examined everything that was within reach of his eye, Alan sank
+back upon his cushions and began to realize that he was very faint and
+hungry. It was just then that the sound of a familiar voice reached
+his ears. It was the voice of Jeekie, and he did not speak, he chanted
+in English to a melody which Alan at once recognized as a Gregorian
+tone, apparently from the second litter.
+
+"Oh, Major," he sang, "have you yet awoke from refre-e-eshing sleep?
+If so, please answer me in same tone of voice, for remember that you
+de-e-evil of a swell, Lord of the Little Bonsa, and must not speak
+like co-o-ommon cad."
+
+Feeble as he was Alan nearly burst out laughing, then remembering that
+probably he was expected not to laugh, chanted his answer as directed,
+which having a good tenor voice, he did with some effect, to the
+evident awe and delight of all the escort within hearing.
+
+"I am awake, most excellent Jee-e-ekie, and feel the need of food, if
+you have such a thing abou-ou-out you and it is lawful for the Lord of
+Little Bonsa to take nu-tri-ment."
+
+Instantly Jeekie's deep voice rose in reply.
+
+"That good tidings upon the mountain tops, Ma-ajor. Can't come out to
+bring you chop because too i-i-infra dig, for now I also biggish bug,
+the little bird what sit upon the rose, as poet sa-a-ays. I tell these
+Johnnies bring you grub, which you eat without qualm, for Asiki Al
+coo-o-ook."
+
+Then followed loud orders issued by Jeekie to his immediate
+/entourage/, and some confusion.
+
+As a result presently Alan's litter was halted, the curtains were
+opened and kneeling women thrust through them platters of wood upon
+which, wrapped up in leaves, were the dismembered limbs of a bird
+which he took to be chicken or guinea-fowl, and a gold cup containing
+water pleasantly flavoured with some essence. This cup interested him
+very much both on account of its shape and workmanship, which if rude,
+was striking in design, resembling those drinking vessels that have
+been found in Mycenian graves. Also it proved to him that Jeekie's
+stories of the abundance of the precious metal among the Asiki had not
+been exaggerated. If it were not very plentiful, they would scarcely,
+he thought, make their travelling cups of gold. Evidently there was
+wealth in the land.
+
+After the food had been handed to him the litter went on again, and
+seated upon his cushions, he ate and drank heartily enough, for now
+that the worst of his fatigue had passed away, his hunger was great.
+In some absurd fashion this meal reminded him of that which a
+traveller makes out of a luncheon basket upon a railway line in Europe
+or America. Only there the cups are not of gold and among the Asiki
+were no paper napkins, no salt and mustard, and no three and sixpence
+or dollar to pay. Further, until he got used to it, luncheon in a
+linen mask with a moveable mouth was not easy. This difficulty he
+overcame at last by propping the imitation lips apart with a piece of
+bone, after which things were easier.
+
+When he had finished he threw the platter and the remains out of the
+litter, retaining the cup for further examination, and recommenced his
+intoned and poetical converse with Jeekie.
+
+To set it out at length would be wearisome, but in the course of an
+hour or so he collected a good deal of information. Thus he learned
+that they were due to arrive at the Asiki city, which was called Bonsa
+Town, by nightfall, or a little after. Also he was informed that the
+mask he wore was, as he had guessed, a kind of undress uniform without
+which he must never appear, since for anyone except the Asika herself
+to look upon the naked countenance of an individual so mysteriously
+mixed up with Little Bonsa, was sacrilege of the worst sort. Indeed
+Jeekie assured him that the priests who had put on the headdress when
+he was insensible were first blindfolded.
+
+This news depressed Alan very much, since the prospect of living in a
+linen mask for an indefinite period was not cheerful. Recovering, he
+chanted a query as to the fate of the Ogula crew and their chief
+Fahni.
+
+"Not de-ad," intoned Jeekie in reply, "and not gone back. A-all alive-
+O, somewhere behind there. Fanny very sick about it, for he think
+Asiki bring them along for sacrifice, poo-or beg-gars."
+
+Finally he inquired where Little Bonsa was and was answered that he
+himself as its lawful guardian, was sitting on the fetish in its tin
+box, tidings that he was able to verify by groping beneath the
+cushions.
+
+After this his voice gave out, though Jeekie continued to sing items
+of interesting news from time to time. Indeed there were other things
+that absorbed Alan's attention. Looking through the peepholes and
+cracks in the curtains, he saw that at last they had reached the crest
+of a ridge up which they had been climbing for hours. Before them lay
+a vast and fertile valley, much of which seemed to be under
+cultivation, and down it flowed a broad and placid river. Opposite to
+him and facing west a great tongue of land ran up to a wall of
+mountains with stark precipices of black rock that seemed to be
+hundreds, or even thousands, of feet high, and at the tip of this
+tongue a mighty waterfall rushed over the precipice, looking at that
+distance like a cascade of smoke. This torrent, which he remembered
+was called Raaba, fell into a great pool and there divided itself into
+two rushing branches that enclosed an ellipse of ground, surrounded on
+all sides by water, for on its westernmost extremity the branches met
+again and after flowing a while as one river, divided once more and
+wound away quietly to north and south further than the eye could
+reach. On the island thus formed, which may have been three miles long
+by two in breadth, stood thousands of straw-roofed, square-built huts
+with verandas, neatly arranged in blocks and lines and having between
+them streets that were edged with palms.
+
+On the hither side of the pool was what looked like a park, for here
+grew great, black trees, which from their flat shape Alan took to be
+some variety of cedar, and standing alone in the midst of this park
+where no other habitations could be discovered, was a large, low
+building with dark-coloured walls and gabled roofs that flashed like
+fire.
+
+"The Gold House!" said Alan to himself with a gasp. "So it is not a
+dream or a lie."
+
+The details at that distance he could not discover, nor did he try to
+do so, for the general glory of the scene held him in its grip. At
+this evening hour, for a little while, the level rays of the setting
+sun poured straight up the huge, water-hollowed kloof. They struck
+upon the face of the fall, staining it and the clouds of mist that
+hung above, to a hundred glorious hues; indeed the substance of the
+foaming water seemed to be interlaced with rainbows whereof the arch
+reached their crest and the feet were lost in the sullen blackness of
+the pool beneath. Beautiful too was the valley, glowing in the quiet
+light of evening, and even the native town thus gilded and glorified,
+looked like some happy home of peace.
+
+The sun was sinking rapidly, and before the litter reached the foot of
+the hill and began to cross the rich valley, all the glory had
+departed and only the cataract showed white and ghost-like through the
+gloom. But still the light, which seemed to gather to itself, gleamed
+upon that golden roof amid the cedar trees; then the moon rose and the
+gold was turned to silver. Alan lay back upon his cushions full of
+wonder, almost of awe. It was a marvellous thing that he should have
+lived to reach this secret place hidden in the heart of Africa and
+defended by swamps, mountains and savages to which, so far as he knew,
+only one white man had ever penetrated. And to think of it! That white
+man, his own uncle, had never even held it worth while to make public
+any account of its wonders, which apparently had seemed to him of no
+importance. Or perhaps he thought that if he did he would not be
+believed. Well, there they were before and about him, and now the
+question was, what would be his fate in this Gold House where the
+great fetish dwelt with its priestess?
+
+Ah! that priestess! Somehow he shivered a little when he thought of
+her; it was as though her influence were over him already. Next moment
+he forgot her for a while, for they had come to the river brink and
+the litter was being carried on to a barge or ferry, about which were
+gathered many armed men. Evidently the Gold House was well defended
+both by Nature and otherwise. The ferry was pulled or rowed across the
+river, he could not see which, and they passed through a gateway into
+the town and up a broad street where hundreds of people watched his
+advent. They did not seem to speak, or if they spoke their voices were
+lost in the sound of the thunder of the great cataract which dominated
+the place with its sullen, continuous roar. It took Alan days to
+become accustomed to that roar, but by the inhabitants of Asiki-land
+apparently it was not noticed; their ears and voices were attuned to
+overcome its volume which their fathers had known from the beginning.
+
+Presently they were through the town and a wooden gate in an inner
+wall which surrounded the park where the cedars grew. At this spot
+Alan noted that everybody left them except the bearers and a few men
+whom he took to be priests. On they stole like ghosts beneath the
+mighty trees, from whose limbs hung long festoons of moss. It was very
+dark there, only in places where a bough was broken the moonlight lay
+in white gules upon the ground. Another wall and another gate, and
+suddenly the litter was set down. Its curtains opened, torches
+flashed, women appeared clad in white robes, veiled and mysterious,
+who bowed before him, then half led and half lifted him from his
+litter. He could feel their eyes on him through their veils, but he
+could not see their faces. He could see nothing except their naked,
+copper-coloured arms and long thin hands stretched out to assist him.
+
+Alan descended from the litter as slowly as he could, for somehow he
+shrank from the quaint, carved portal which he saw before him. He did
+not wish to pass it; its aspect filled him with reluctance. The women
+drew him on, their hands pulled at his arms, their shoulders pressed
+him from behind. Still he hung back, looking about him, till to his
+delight he saw the other litter arrive and out of it emerge Jeekie,
+still wearing his sun-helmet with its fringe of tattered mosquito
+curtain.
+
+"Here we are, Major," he said in his cheerful voice, "turned up all
+right like a bad ha'penny, but in odd situation."
+
+"Very odd," echoed Alan. "Could you persuade these ladies to let go of
+me?"
+
+"Don't know," answered Jeekie. "'Spect they doubtfully your wives;
+'spect you have lots of wives here; don't get white man every day, so
+make most of him. Best thing you do, kick out and teach them place.
+Rub nose in dirt at once and make them good, that first-class plan
+with female. I no like interfere in such delicate matter."
+
+Terrified by this information, Alan put out his strength and shook the
+women off him, whereon without seeming to take any offence they drew
+back to a little distance and began to bow, like automata. Then Jeekie
+addressed them in their own language, asking them what they meant by
+defiling this mighty lord, born of the Heavens, with the touch of
+their hands, whereat they went on bowing more humbly than before. Next
+he threw aside the cushions of the litter and finding the tin box
+containing Little Bonsa, held it before him in both hands and bade the
+women lead on.
+
+The march began, a bewildering march. It was like a nightmare. Veiled
+women with torches before and behind, Jeekie stalking ahead carrying
+the battered tin box, long passages lined with gold, a vision of black
+water edged with a wide promenade, and finally a large lamp-lit room
+whereof the roof was supported by gilded columns, and in the room
+couches of cushions, wooden stools inlaid with ivory, vessels of
+water, great basins made of some black, hard wood, and in the centre a
+block of stone that looked like an altar.
+
+Jeekie set down the tin box upon the altar-like stone, then he turned
+to the crowd of women and said, "Bring food." Instantly they departed,
+closing the door of the room behind them.
+
+"Now for a wash," said Alan, "unlace this confounded mask, Jeekie."
+
+"Mustn't, Major, mustn't. Priests tell me that. If those girls see you
+without mask, perhaps they kill them. Wait till they gone after
+supper, then take it off. No one allowed see you without mask except
+Asika herself."
+
+Alan stepped to one of the wooden bowls full of water which stood
+under a lamp, and gazed at his own reflection. The mask was gilded;
+the sham lips were painted red and round the eye-holes were black
+lines.
+
+"Why, it is horrible," he exclaimed, starting back. "I look like a
+devil crossed with Guy Fawkes. Do you mean to tell me that I have got
+to live in this thing?"
+
+"Afraid so, Major, upon all public occasion. At least they say that.
+You holy, not lawful see your sacred face."
+
+"Who do the Asiki think I am, then, Jeekie?"
+
+"They think you your reverend uncle come back after many, many year.
+You see, Major, they not believe uncle run away with Little Bonsa;
+they believe Little Bonsa run away with uncle just for change of air
+and so on, and that now, when she tired of strange land, she bring him
+back again. That why you so holy, favourite of Little Bonsa who live
+with you all this time and keep you just same age, bloom of youth."
+
+"In Heaven's name," asked Alan, exasperated, "what is Little Bonsa,
+beyond an ancient and ugly gold fetish?"
+
+"Hush," said Jeekie, "mustn't call her names here in her own house.
+Little Bonsa much more than fetish, Little Bonsa alive, or so," he
+added doubtfully, "these silly niggers say. She wife of Big Bonsa, you
+see, to-morrow p'raps. But their story this, that she get dead sick of
+Big Bonsa and bolt with white Medicine man, who dare preach she
+nothing but heathen idol. She want show him whether or no she only
+idol. That the yarn, priests tell it me to-day. They always watch for
+her there by the edge of the lake. They always sure Little Bonsa come
+back. Not at all surprised, but as she love you once, you stop holy;
+and I holy also, thank goodness, because she take me too as servant.
+Therefore we sleep in peace, for they not cut out throats, at any rate
+at present, though I think," he added mournfully, "they not let us go
+either."
+
+Alan sat down on a stool and groaned at the appalling prospect
+suggested by this information.
+
+"Cheer up, Major," said Jeekie sympathetically. "Perhaps manage hook
+it somehow, and meanwhile make best of bad business and have high old
+time. You see you want to come Asiki-land, though I tell you it rum
+place, and," he added with certitude and a circular sweep of his hand,
+"by Jingo! you here now and I daresay they give you all the gold you
+want."
+
+"What's the good of gold unless one can get away with it? What's the
+good of anything if we are prisoners among these devils?"
+
+"Perhaps time show, Major. Hush! here come dinner. You sit still on
+stool and look holy."
+
+The door opened and through it appeared four of the women bearing
+dishes and cups full of drink, fashioned of gold like that which had
+been given to Alan in the litter. He noticed at once that they had
+removed their veils and outer garments, if indeed they were the same
+women, and now, like many other Africans, were but lightly clad in
+linen capes open in front that hung over their shoulders, short
+petticoats or skirts about their middles, and sandals. Such was their
+attire which, scanty as it might be, was yet becoming enough and
+extremely rich. Thus the cape was fastened with a brooch of worked
+gold, so were the sandal straps, while the petticoat was adorned with
+beads of gold that jingled as they walked, and amongst them strings of
+other beads of various and beautiful colours, that might be glass or
+might be precious stones. Moreover, these women were young and
+handsome, having splendid figures and well-cut features, soft, dark
+eyes and rather long hair worn in the formal and attractive fashion
+that has been described.
+
+Advancing to Alan two of them knelt before him, holding out the trays
+upon which was the food. So they remained while he ate, like bronze
+statues, nor would they consent to change their posture even when he
+told them in their language to be pleased to go away. On hearing
+themselves addressed in the Asiki language, they seemed surprised, for
+their faces changed a little, but go they would not. The result was
+that Alan grew extremely nervous and ate and drank so rapidly that he
+scarcely noted what he was putting into his mouth. Then before Jeekie,
+to whom the women did not kneel, had half finished his dinner, Alan
+rose and walked away, whereon two of the women gathered up everything,
+including the dishes that had been given to Jeekie, and in spite of
+his remonstrances carried them out of the room.
+
+"I say, Major," said Jeekie, "if you gobble chop so fast you go ill
+inside. Poor nigger like me can't keep up with you and sleep hungry
+to-night."
+
+"I am sorry, Jeekie," said Alan with a little laugh, "but I can't eat
+off living tables, especially when they stare at one like that. You
+tell them that to-morrow we will breakfast alone."
+
+"Oh, yes, I tell them, Major, but I don't know if they listen. They
+mean it great compliment and only think you not like those girls and
+send others."
+
+"Look here, Jeekie," exclaimed Alan, turning his masked face towards
+the two who remained, "let us come to an understanding at once. Clear
+them out. Tell them I am so holy that Little Bonsa is enough for me.
+Say I can't bear the sight of females, and that if they stop here I
+will sacrifice them. Say anything you like, only get rid of them and
+lock the door."
+
+Thus adjured, Jeekie began to reason with the women, and as they
+treated his remarks with lofty disdain, at last seized first one and
+then the other by the elbows and literally ran them out of the room.
+
+"There," he said, "baggage gone since you make such fuss about it,
+though I 'spect they try to give me Bean for this job" (here he spoke
+not in figurative English slang, but of the Calabar bean, which is a
+favourite native poison). "Well, dinner gone and girls gone, and we
+tired, so best go to bed. Think we all private here now, though in
+Gold House never can be sure," and he looked round him suspiciously,
+adding, "rummy place, Gold House, full of all sort of holes made by
+old fellows thousand year ago, which no one know but Bonsa priests.
+Still, best risk it and take off your face so that you have decent
+wash," and he began to unlace the mask on his master's head.
+
+Never has a City clerk dressed up for a fancy ball in the armour of a
+Norman knight, been more glad to get rid of his costume than was Alan
+of that hateful head-dress. At length it was gone with his other
+garments and the much-needed wash accomplished, after which he clothed
+himself in a kind of linen gown which apparently had been provided for
+him, and lay down on one of the couches, placing his revolver by his
+side.
+
+"Will those lamps burn all night, Jeekie?" he asked.
+
+"Hope so, Major, as we haven't got no match. Not fond of dark in Gold
+House," answered Jeekie sleepily. Then he began to snore.
+
+Alan fell asleep, but was too excited and tired to rest very soundly.
+All sorts of dreams came to him, one of which he remembered on
+awakening, perhaps because it was the last. He dreamed that he heard
+some noise and opened his eyes, to see that they were no longer alone
+in the room. The oil lamps had burned quite low, indeed some of them
+were out, but by the light of those that remained he saw a tall figure
+which seemed to appear at the edge of the surrounding blackness, a
+woman's figure. It walked forward to the altar-like stone upon which
+lay the tin box containing Little Bonsa, and after several rather
+awkward attempts, succeeded in opening it, thereby making a noise
+which, in his dream, finally awoke Alan. For a while the figure gazed
+at the fetish. Then it shut the box, glided to his bed and bent down
+as though to study him. Out of the corners of his eyes he peered up at
+it, pretending all the while to be fast asleep.
+
+It was that of a woman wonderfully clad in gold-spangled, veil-like
+garments with round bosses shaped to the breast, covered with thin
+plates of gold fashioned like the scales of a fish which showed off
+the extraordinary elegance of her lithe form. The low lamp-light shone
+upon her face and the coronet of gold set upon her dark hair. What a
+face it was! Never in all his days had he seen its like for evil
+loveliness. The great, languid, oblong eyes, the rich red lips bent
+like a bow, the cruel smile of the mouth, the broad forehead on which
+the hair grew low, the delicately arched eyebrows and the long curving
+lashes of the heavy lids beneath them, the rounded cheeks, smooth as a
+ripe fruit, the firm, shapely chin, the snake-like poise of the head,
+the long bending neck, and the feline smile; all of these combined
+made such a dream-vision as he had never seen before, and to tell the
+truth, notwithstanding its beauty, for that could not be doubted,
+never wished to see again. Somehow he felt that if Satan should happen
+to have a copper-coloured wife, the exact picture of that lady had
+projected itself upon his sleeping senses.
+
+She seemed to study him very earnestly, with a kind of passionate
+eagerness, indeed, moving a little now and again to let the light fall
+upon some part that was in shadow. Once even she stretched out her
+rounded arm and just lifted the edge of the blanket so as to expose
+his hand, the left. As it chanced on the little finger of this hand
+Alan wore a plain gold ring which Barbara had given him; once it had
+been her grandfather's signet. This ring, which had a coat of arms cut
+upon its bezel seemed to interest her very much as she examined it for
+a long while. Then she drew off from her own finger another ring of
+gold fashioned of two snakes curiously intertwined, and gently, so
+gently that in his sleep he scarcely felt it, slipped it on to his
+finger above Barbara's ring.
+
+After this she seemed to vanish away, and Alan slept soundly until the
+morning, when he awoke to find the light of the sun pouring into the
+room through the high-set latticed window places.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE HALL OF THE DEAD
+
+Alan rose and stretched himself, and hearing him, Jeekie, who had a
+dog's faculty of instantly awaking from what seemed to be the deepest
+sleep, sat up also.
+
+"You rest well, Major? No dream, eh?" he asked curiously.
+
+"Not very," answered Alan, "and I had a dream, of a woman who stood
+over me and vanished away, as dreams do."
+
+"Ah!" said Jeekie. "But where you find that new ring on finger,
+Major?"
+
+Alan stared at his hand and started, for there set on it above that of
+Barbara, was the little circlet formed of twisted snakes which he had
+seen in his sleep.
+
+"Then it must have been true," he said in a low and rather frightened
+voice. "But how did she come and go?"
+
+"Funny place, Gold House. I tell you that yesterday, Major. People
+come up through hole, like rat. Never quite sure you alone in Gold
+House. But what this lady like?"
+
+Alan described his visitor to the best of his ability.
+
+"Ah!" said Jeekie, "pretty girl. Big eyes, gold crown, gold stays
+which fit tight in front, very nice and decent; sort of night-shirt
+with little gold stars all over--by Jingo! I think that Asika herself.
+If so--great compliment."
+
+"Confound the compliment, I think it great cheek," answered Alan
+angrily. "What does she mean by poking about here at night and putting
+rings on my finger?"
+
+"Don't know, Major, but p'raps she wish make you understand that she
+like cut of your jib. Find out by and by. Meanwhile you wear ring, for
+while that on finger no one do you any harm."
+
+"You told me that this Asika is a married woman, did you not?"
+remarked Alan gloomily.
+
+"Oh, yes, Major, always married; one down, other come on, you see. But
+she not always like her husband, and then she make him sit up, poor
+devil, and he die double quick. Great honour to be Asika's husband,
+but soon all finished. P'raps----"
+
+Then he checked himself and suggested that Alan should have a bath
+while he cleaned his clothes, an attention that they needed.
+
+Scarcely had Alan finished his toilet, donned the Arab-looking linen
+robe over his own fragmentary flannels, and above it the hateful mask
+which Jeekie insisted he must wear, when there came a knocking on the
+door. Motioning to Alan to take his seat upon a stool, Jeekie undid
+the bars, and as before women appeared with food and waited while they
+ate, which this time, having overcome his nervousness, Alan did more
+leisurely. Their meal done, one of the women asked Jeekie, for to his
+master they did not seem to dare to speak, whether the white lord did
+not wish to walk in the garden. Without waiting for an answer she led
+him to the end of the large room and, unbarring another door that they
+had not noticed, revealed a passage, beyond which appeared trees and
+flowers. Then she and her companions went away with the fragments of
+the meal.
+
+"Come on," said Alan, taking up the box containing Little Bonsa, which
+he did not dare to leave behind, "and let us get into the air."
+
+So they went down the passage and at the end of it through gates of
+copper or gold, they knew not which, that had evidently been left open
+for them, into the garden. It was a large place, a good many acres in
+extent indeed, and kept with some care, for there were paths in it and
+flowers that seemed to have been planted. Also here grew certain of
+the mighty cedar trees that they had seen from far off, beneath those
+spreading boughs twilight reigned, while beyond, not more than half a
+mile away, the splendid river-fall thundered down the precipice. For
+the rest they could find no exit to that garden which on one side was
+enclosed by a sheer cliff of living rock, and on the others with steep
+stone walls beyond which ran a torrent, and by the buildings of the
+Gold House itself.
+
+For a while they walked up and down the rough paths, till at last
+Jeekie, wearying of this occupation, remarked:
+
+"Melancholy hole this, Major. Remind me of Westminster Abbey in London
+fog, where your uncle of blessed mem'ry often take me pray and look at
+fusty tomb of king. S'pose we go back Gold House and see what happen.
+Anything better than stand about under cursed old cedar tree."
+
+"All right," said Alan, who through the eyeholes of his mask had been
+studying the walls to seek a spot in them that could be climbed if
+necessary, and found none.
+
+So they returned to the room, which had been swept and garnished in
+their absence. No sooner had they entered it than the door opened and
+through it came long lines of Asiki priests, each of whom staggered
+beneath the weight of a hide bag that he bore upon his shoulder, which
+bags they piled up about the stone altar. Then, as though at some
+signal, each priest opened the mouth of his bag and Alan saw that they
+wee filled with gold, gold in dust, gold in nuggets, gold in vessels
+perfect or broken; more gold than Alan had ever seen before.
+
+"Why do they bring all this stuff here?" he asked, and Jeekie
+translated his question.
+
+"It is an offering to the lord of Little Bonsa," answered the head
+priest, bowing, "a gift from the Asika. The heaven-born white man sent
+word by his Ogula messengers that he desired gold. Here is the gold
+that he desired."
+
+Alan stared at the treasure, which after all was what he had come to
+seek. If only he had it safe in England, he would be a rich man and
+his troubles ended. But how could he get it to England? Here it was
+worthless as mud.
+
+"I thank the Asika," he said. "I ask for porters to bear her gift back
+to my own country, since it is too heavy for me and my servant to
+carry alone."
+
+At these words the priest smiled a little, then said that the Asika
+desired to see the white lord and to receive from him Little Bonsa in
+return for the gold, and that he could proffer his request to her.
+
+"Good," replied Alan, "lead me to the Asika."
+
+Then they started, Alan bearing the box containing Little Bonsa, and
+Jeekie following after him. They went down passages and through sundry
+doors till at length they came to a long and narrow hall that seemed
+to be lined with plates of gold. At the end of this hall was a large
+chair of black wood and ivory placed upon a dais, and sitting in this
+chair with the light pouring on her from some opening above, was the
+woman of Alan's dream, beautiful to look on in her crown and
+glittering garments. Upon a stool at the foot of the dais sat a man, a
+handsome and melancholy man. His hair was tied behind his head in a
+pigtail and gilded, his face was painted red, white and yellow; he
+wore ropes of bright-coloured stones about his neck, middle, arms and
+ankles, and held a kind of sceptre in his hand.
+
+"Who is that creature?" asked Alan over his shoulder to Jeekie. "The
+Court fool?"
+
+"That husband of Asika, Major. He not fool, very big gun, but look a
+little low now because his time soon up. Come on, Major, Asika beckon
+us. Get on stomach and crawl; that custom here," he added, going down
+on to his hands and knees, as did all the priests who followed them.
+
+"I'll see her hanged first," answered Alan in English.
+
+Then accompanied by the creeping Jeekie and the train of prostrate
+priests, he marched up the long hall to the edge of the dais and there
+stood still and bowed to the woman in the chair.
+
+"Greeting, white man," she said in a low voice when she had studied
+him for a while. "Do you understand my tongue?"
+
+"A little," he answered in Asiki, "moreover, my servant here knows it
+well and can translate."
+
+"I am glad," she said. "Tell me then, in your country do not people go
+on to their knees before their queen, and if not, how do they greet
+her?"
+
+"No," answered Alan with the help of Jeekie. "They greet her by
+raising their head-dress or kissing her hand."
+
+"Ah!" she said. "Well, you have no head-dress, so kiss /my/ hand," and
+she stretched it out towards him, at the same time prodding the man
+whom Jackie had said was her husband, in the back with her foot,
+apparently to make him get out of the way.
+
+Not knowing what to do, Alan stepped on to the dais, the painted man
+scowling at him as he passed. Then he halted and said:
+
+"How can I kiss your hand through this mask, Asika?"
+
+"True," she answered, then considered a little and added, "White man,
+you have brought back Little Bonsa, have you not, Little Bonsa who ran
+away with you a great many years ago?"
+
+"I have," he said, ignoring the rest of the question.
+
+"Your messengers said that you required a present of gold in return
+for Little Bonsa. I have sent you one, is it sufficient? If not, you
+can have more."
+
+"I cannot say, O Asika, I have not examined it. But I thank you for
+the present and desire porters to enable me to carry it away."
+
+"You desire porters," she repeated meditatively. "We will talk of that
+when you have rested here a moon or two. Meanwhile, give me Little
+Bonsa that she may be restored to her own place."
+
+Alan opened the tin box and lifting out the fetish, gave it to the
+priestess, who took it and with a serpentine movement of extraordinary
+grace glided from her chair on to her knees, holding the mask above
+her head in both hands, then thrice covered her face with it. This
+done, she called to the priests, bidding them take Little Bonsa to her
+own place and give notice throughout the land that she was back again.
+She added that the ancient Feast of Little Bonsa would be held on the
+night of the full moon within three days, and that all preparations
+must be made for it as she had commanded.
+
+Then the head medicine-man, raising himself upon his knees, crept on
+to the dais, took the fetish from her hands, and breaking into a wild
+song of triumph, he and his companions crawled down the hall and
+vanished through the door, leaving them alone save for the Asika's
+husband.
+
+When they had gone the Asika looked at this man in a reflective way,
+and Alan looked at him also through the eyeholes of his mask, finding
+him well worth studying. As has been said, notwithstanding his paint
+and grotesque decorations, he was very good-looking for a native, with
+well-cut features of an Arab type. Also he was tall and muscular and
+not more than thirty years of age. What struck Alan most, however, was
+none of these things, nor his jewelled chains, nor even his gilded
+pigtail, but his eyes, which were full of terrors. Seeing them, Alan
+remembered Jeekie's story, which he had told to Mr. Haswell's guests
+at The Court, of how the husband of the Asika was driven mad by
+ghosts.
+
+Just then she spoke to the man, addressing him by name and saying:
+
+"Leave us alone, Mungana, I wish to speak with this white lord."
+
+He did not seem to hear her words, but continued to stare at Alan.
+
+"Hearken!" she exclaimed in a voice of ice. "Do my bidding and begone,
+or you shall sleep alone to-night in a certain chamber that you know
+of."
+
+Then Mungana rose, looked at her as a dog sometimes does at a cruel
+master who is about to beat it, yes, with just that same expression,
+put his hands before his eyes for a little while, and turning, left
+the hall by a side door which closed behind him. The Asika watched him
+go, laughed musically and said:
+
+"It is a very dull thing to be married,--but how are you named, white
+man?"
+
+"Vernon," he answered.
+
+"Vernoon, Vernoon," she repeated, for she could not pronounce the O
+was we do. "Are you married, Vernoon?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Have you been married?"
+
+"No," he answered, "never, but I am going to be."
+
+"Yes," she repeated, "you are going to be. You remember that you were
+near to it many years ago, when Little Bonsa got jealous and ran away
+with you. Well, she won't do that again, for doubtless she is tired of
+you now, and besides," she added with a flash of ferocity, "I'd melt
+her with fire first and set her spirit free."
+
+While Jeekie was trying to explain this mysterious speech to Alan, the
+Asika broke in, asking:
+
+"Do you always want to wear that mask?"
+
+He answered, "Certainly not," whereon she bade Jeekie take it off,
+which he did.
+
+"Understand me," she said, fixing her great languid eyes upon his in a
+fashion that made him exceedingly uncomfortable, "understand, Vernoon,
+that if you go out anywhere, it must be in your mask, which you can
+only put off when you are alone with me?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, Vernoon, I do not choose that any other woman should see
+your face. If a woman looks upon your uncovered face, remember that
+she dies--not nicely."
+
+Alan stared at her blankly, being unable to find appropriate Asiki
+words in which to reply to this threat. But the Asika only leaned back
+in her chair and laughed at his evident confusion and dismay, till a
+new thought struck her.
+
+"Your lips are free now," she said; "kiss my hand after the fashion of
+your own country," and she stretched it out to Alan, leaving him no
+choice but to obey her.
+
+"Why," she went on mischievously, taking his hand and in turn touching
+it with her red lips, "why, are you a thief, Vernoon? That ring was
+mine and you have stolen it. How did you steal that ring?"
+
+"I don't know," he answered, through Jeekie, "I found it on my finger.
+I cannot understand how it came there. I understand nothing of all
+this talk."
+
+"Well, well, keep it, Vernoon, only give me that other ring of yours
+in exchange."
+
+"I cannot," he replied, colouring. "I promised to wear it always."
+
+"Whom did you promise?" she asked with a flash of rage. "Was it a
+woman? Nay, I see, it is a man's ring, and that is well, for otherwise
+I would bring a curse on her, however far off she may be dwelling. Say
+no more and forgive my anger. A vow is a vow--keep your ring. But
+where is that one you used to wear in bygone days? I recall that it
+had a cross upon it, not this star and figure of an eagle."
+
+Now Alan remembered that his uncle owned such a ring with a cross upon
+it, and was frightened, for how did this woman know these things?
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "ask the Asika if I am mad, or if she is. How can
+she know what I used to wear, seeing that I was never in this place
+till yesterday, and certainly I have not met her anywhere else."
+
+"She mean when you your reverend uncle," said Jeekie, wagging his
+great head, "she think you identical man."
+
+"What troubles you, Vernoon," the Asika asked softly, then added
+anything but softly to Jeekie, "Translate, you dog, and be swift."
+
+So Jeekie translated in a great hurry, telling her what Alan had said,
+and adding on his own account that he, silly white man that he was,
+could not understand how, as she was quite a young woman, she could
+have seen him before she was born. If that were so, she would be old
+and ugly now, not beautiful as she was.
+
+"I never saw you before, and you never saw me, Lady, yet you talk as
+though we had been friends," broke in Alan in his halting Asiki.
+
+"So we were in the spirit, Vernoon. It was she who went before me who
+loved that white man whose face was as your face is, but her ghost
+lives on in me and tells me the tale. There have been many Asikas, for
+thousands of years they have ruled in this land, yet but one spirit
+belongs to them all; it is the string upon which the beads of their
+lives are threaded. White man, I, whom you think young, know
+everything back to the beginning of the world, back to the time when I
+was a monkey woman sitting in those cedar trees, and if you wish, I
+can tell it you."
+
+"I should like to hear it very much indeed," answered Alan, when he
+had mastered her meaning, "though it is strange that none of the rest
+of us remember such things. Meanwhile, O Asika, I will tell you that I
+desire to return to my own land, taking with me that gift of gold that
+you have given me. When will it please you to allow me to return?"
+
+"Not yet a while, I think," she said, smiling at him weirdly, for no
+other word will describe that smile. "My spirit remembers that it was
+always thus. Those wanderers who came hither always wished to return
+again to their own country, like the birds in spring. Once there was a
+white man among them, that was more than twenty hundred years ago; he
+was a native of a country called Roma, and wore a helmet. He wished to
+return, but my mother of that day, she kept him and by and by I will
+show him to you if you like. Before that there was a brown man who
+came from a land where a great river overflows its banks every year.
+He was a prince of his own country, who had fled from his king and the
+desert folk made a slave of him, and so he drifted hither. He wished
+to return also, for my mother of that day, or my spirit that dwelt in
+her, showed to him that if he could but be there they would make him
+king in his own land. But my mother of that day, she would not let him
+go, and by and by I will show him to you, if you wish."
+
+Bewildered, amazed, Alan listened to her. Evidently the woman was mad,
+or else she played some mystical part for reasons of her own.
+
+"When will you let me go, O Asika?" he repeated.
+
+"Not yet a while, I think," she said again. "You are too comely and I
+like you," and she smiled at him. There was nothing coarse in the
+smile, indeed it had a certain spiritual quality which thrilled him.
+"I like you," she went on in her dreamy voice, "I would keep you with
+me until your spirit is drawn up into my spirit, making it strong and
+rich as all the spirits that went before have done, those spirits that
+my mothers loved from the beginning, which dwell in me to-day."
+
+Now Alan grew alarmed, desperate even.
+
+"Queen," he said, "but just now your husband sat here, is it right
+then that you should talk to me thus?"
+
+"My husband," she answered, laughing. "Why, that man is but a slave
+who plays the part of husband to satisfy an ancient law. Never has he
+so much as kissed my finger tips; my women--those who waited on you
+last night--are his wives, not I,--or may be, if he will. Soon he will
+die of love for me, and then when he is dead, though not before, I may
+take another husband, any husband that I choose, and I think that no
+black man shall be my lord, who have other, purer blood in me.
+Vernoon, five centuries have gone by since an Asika was really wed to
+a foreign man who wore a green turban and called himself a son of the
+Prophet, a man with a hooked nose and flashing eyes, who reviled our
+gods until they slew him, even though he was the beloved of their
+priestess. She who went before me also would have married that white
+man whose face was like your face, but he fled with Little Bonsa, or
+rather Little Bonsa fled with him. So she passed away unwed, and in
+her place I came."
+
+"How did you come, if she whom you call your mother was not your
+mother?" asked Alan.
+
+"What is that to you, white man?" she replied haughtily. "I am here,
+as my spirit has been here from the first. Oh! I see you think I lie
+to you, come then, come, and I will show you those who from the
+beginning have been the husbands of the Asika," and rising from her
+chair she took him by the hand.
+
+They went through doors and by long, half-lit passages till they came
+to great gates guarded by old priests armed with spears. As they drew
+near to these priests the Asika loosed a scarf that she wore over her
+breast-plate of gold fish scales, and threw the star-spangled thing
+over Alan's head, that even these priests should not see his face.
+Then she spoke a word to them and they opened the gates. Here Jeekie
+evinced a disposition to remain, remarking to his master that he
+thought that place, into which he had never entered, "much too holy
+for poor nigger like him."
+
+The Asika asked him what he had said and he explained his sense of
+unworthiness in her own tongue.
+
+"Come, fellow," she exclaimed, "to translate my words and to bear
+witness that no trick is played upon your lord."
+
+Still Jeekie lingered bashfully, whereon at a sign from her one of the
+priests pricked him behind with his great spear, and uttering a low
+howl he sprang forward.
+
+The Asika led the way down a passage, which they saw ended in a big
+hall lit with lamps. Now they were in it and Alan became aware that
+they had entered the treasure house of the Asiki, since here were
+piled up great heaps of gold, gold in ingots, gold in nuggets, in
+stone jars filled with dust, in vessels plain or embossed with
+monstrous shapes in fetishes and in little squares and discs that
+looked as though they had served as coins. Never had he seen so much
+gold before.
+
+"You are rich here, Lady," he said, gazing at the piles astonished.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. "Yes, as I have heard that some people
+count wealth. These are the offerings brought to our gods from the
+beginning; also all the gold found in the mountains belongs to the
+gods, and there is much of it there. The gift I sent to you was taken
+from this heap, but in truth it is but a poor gift, seeing that
+although this stuff is bright and serves for cups and other things, it
+has no use at all and is only offered to the gods because it is harder
+to come by than other metals. Look, these are prettier than the gold,"
+and from a stone table she picked up at hazard a long necklace of
+large, uncut stones, red and white in colour and set alternatively,
+that Alan judged to be crystals and spinels.
+
+"Take it," she said, "and examine it at your leisure. It is very old.
+For hundreds of years no more of these necklaces have been made," and
+with a careless movement she threw the chain over his head so that it
+hung upon his shoulders.
+
+Alan thanked her, then remembered that the man called Mungana, who was
+the husband, real or official, of this priestess, had been somewhat
+similarly adorned, and shivered a little as though at a presage of
+advancing fate. Still he did not return the thing, fearing lest he
+should give offence.
+
+At this moment his attention was taken from the treasure by the sound
+of a groan behind him. Turning round he perceived Jeekie, his great
+eyes rolling as though in an extremity of fear.
+
+"Oh my golly! Major," he ejaculated, pointing to the wall, "look
+there."
+
+Alan looked, but at first in that dim light could only discover long
+rows of gleaming objects which reached from the floor to the roof.
+
+"Come and see," said the Asika, and taking a lamp from that table on
+which lay the gems, she led him past the piles of gold to one side of
+the vault or hall. Then he saw, and although he did not show it, like
+Jeekie he was afraid.
+
+For there, each in his own niche and standing one above the other,
+were what looked like hundreds of golden men with gleaming eyes. At
+first until the utter stillness undeceived him, he thought that they
+/must/ be men. Then he understood that this was what they had been;
+now they were corpses wrapped in sheets of thin gold and wearing
+golden masks with eyes of crystal, each mask being beaten out to a
+hideous representation of the man in life.
+
+"All these are the husbands of my spirit," said the priestess, waving
+the lamp in front of the lowest row of them, "Munganas who were
+married to the Asikas in the past. Look, here is he who said that he
+ought to be king of that rich land where year after year the river
+overflows its banks," and going to one of the first of the figures in
+the bottom row, she drew out a fastening and suffered the gold mask to
+fall forward on a hinge, exposing the face within.
+
+Although it had evidently been treated with some preservative, this
+head now was little more than a skull still covered with dark hair,
+but set upon its brow appeared an object that Alan recognized at once,
+a simple band of plain gold, and rising from it the head of an asp.
+Without doubt it was the /uraeus/, that symbol which only the
+royalties of Old Egypt dared to wear. Without doubt also either this
+man had brought it with him from the Nile, or in memory of his rank
+and home he had fashioned it of the gold that was so plentiful in the
+place of his captivity. So this woman's story was true, an ancient
+Egyptian had once been husband to the Asika of his day.
+
+Meanwhile his guide had passed a long way down the line and halting in
+front of another gold-wrapped figure, opened its mask.
+
+"This is that man," she said, "who told us he came from a land called
+Roma. Look, the helmet still rests upon his head, though time has
+eaten into it, and that ring upon your hand was taken from his finger.
+I have a head-dress made upon the model of that helmet which I wear
+sometimes in memory of this man who, my soul remembers, was brave and
+pleasant and a gallant lover."
+
+"Indeed," answered Alan, looking at the sunken face above which a rim
+of curls appeared beneath the rusting helmet. "Well, he doesn't look
+very gallant now, does he?" Then he peered down between the body and
+its gold casing and saw that in his body hand the man still held a
+short Roman sword, lifted as though in salute. So she had not lied in
+this matter either.
+
+Meanwhile the Asika had glided on to the end of the hall behind the
+heaps of treasure.
+
+"There is one more white man," she said, "though we know little of
+him, for he was fierce and barbarous and died without learning our
+tongue, after killing a great number of the priests of that day
+because they would not let him go; yes, died cutting them down with a
+battle-axe and singing some wild song of his own country. Come hither,
+slave, and bend yourself so, resting your hands upon the ground."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, and actively as a cat the priestess leaped on to his
+back, and reaching up opened the mask of a corpse in the second row
+and held her lamp before its face.
+
+It was better preserved than the others, so that its features remained
+comparatively perfect, and about them hung a tangle of golden hair.
+Moreover, a broad battle-axe appeared resting on the shoulder.
+
+"A viking," thought Alan. "I wonder how /he/ came here."
+
+When he had looked the Asika leaped from Jeekie's back to the ground
+and waving her arm around her, began to talk so rapidly that Alan
+could understand nothing of her words, and asked Jeekie to translate
+them.
+
+"She say," explained Jeekie between his chattering teeth, "that all
+rest these Johnnies very poor crew, natives and that lot except one
+who worship false Prophet and cut throat of Asika of that time,
+because she infidel and he teach her better; also eat his dinner out
+of Little Bonsa and chuck her into water. Very wild man, that Arab,
+but priests catch him at last and fill him with hot gold before Little
+Bonsa because he no care a damn for ghosts. So he die saying Hip, hip,
+hurrah! for houri and green field of Prophet and to hell with Asika
+and Bonsa, Big and Little! Now he sit up there and at night time worst
+ghost of all the crowd, always come to finish off Mungana. That all
+she say, and quite enough too. Come on quick, she want you and no like
+wait."
+
+By now the Asika had passed almost round the hall, and was standing
+opposite to an empty niche beyond and above which there were perhaps a
+score of bodies gold-plated in the usual fashion.
+
+"That is your place, Vernoon," she said gently, contemplating him with
+her soft and heavy eyes, "for it was prepared for the white man with
+whom Little Bonsa fled away, and since then, as you see, there have
+been many Munganas, some of whom belong to me; indeed, that one," and
+she touched a corpse on which the gold looked very fresh, "only left
+me last year. But we always knew that Little Bonsa would bring you
+back again, and so you see, we have kept your place empty."
+
+"Indeed," remarked Alan, "that is very kind of you," and feeling that
+he would faint if he stayed longer in this horrible and haunted vault,
+he pushed past her with little ceremony and walked out through the
+gates into the passage beyond.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GOLD HOUSE
+
+"How you like Asiki-land, Major?" asked Jeekie, who had followed him
+and was now leaning against a wall fanning himself feebly with his
+great hand. "Funny place, isn't it, Major? I tell you so before you
+come, but you no believe me."
+
+"Very funny," answered Alan, "so funny that I want to get out."
+
+"Ah! Major, that what eel say in trap where he go after lob-worm, but
+he only get out into frying pan after cook skin him alive-o. Ah! here
+come cook--I mean Asika. She only stop shut up those stiff 'uns, who
+all love lob-worm one day. Very pretty woman, Asika, but thank God she
+not set cap at me, who like to be buried in open like Christian man."
+
+"If you don't stop it, Jeekie," replied Alan in a concentrated rage,
+"I'll see that you are buried just where you are."
+
+"No offence, Major, no offence, my heart full and bubble up. I wonder
+what Miss Barbara say if she see you mooing and cooing with dark-eyed
+girl in gold snake skin?"
+
+Just then the Asika arrived and by way of excuse for his flight, Alan
+remarked to her that the treasure-hall was hot.
+
+"I did not notice it," she answered, "but he who is called my husband,
+Mungana, says the same. The Mungana is guardian of the dead," she
+explained, "and when he is required so to do, he sleeps in the Place
+of the Treasure and gathers wisdom from the spirits of those Munganas
+who were before him."
+
+"Indeed. And does he like that bed-chamber?"
+
+"The Mungana likes what I like, not what he likes," she replied
+haughtily. "Where I send him to sleep, there he sleeps. But come,
+Vernoon, and I will show you the Holy Water where Big Bonsa dwells;
+also the house in which I have my home, where you shall visit me when
+you please."
+
+"Who built this place?" asked Alan as she led him through more dark
+and tortuous passages. "It is very great."
+
+"My spirit does not remember when it was built, Vernoon, so old is it,
+but I think that the Asiki were once a big and famous people who
+traded to the water upon the west, and even to the water on the east,
+and that was how those white men became their slaves and the Munganas
+of their queens. Now they are small and live only by the might and
+fame of Big and Little Bonsa, not half filling the rich land which is
+theirs. But," she added reflectively and looking at him, "I think also
+that this is because in the past fools have been thrust upon my spirit
+as Munganas. What it needs is the wisdom of the white man, such wisdom
+as yours, Vernoon. If that were added to my magic, then the Asiki
+would grow great again, seeing that they have in such plenty the gold
+which you have shown me the white man loves. Yes, they would grow
+great and from coast to coast the people should bow at the name of
+Bonsa and send him their sons for sacrifice. Perhaps you will live to
+see that day, Vernoon. Slave," she added, addressing Jeekie, "set the
+mask upon your lord's head, for we come where women are."
+
+Alan objected, but she stamped her foot and said it must be so, having
+once worn Little Bonsa, as her people told her he had done, his naked
+face might not be seen. So Alan submitted to the hideous head-dress
+and they entered the Asika's house by some back entrance.
+
+It was a place with many rooms in it, but they were all remarkable for
+extreme simplicity. With a single exception no gilding or gold was to
+be seen, although the food vessels were made of this material here as
+everywhere. The chambers, including those in which the Asika lived and
+slept, were panelled, or rather boarded with cedar wood that was
+almost black with age, and their scanty furniture was mostly made of
+ebony. They were very insufficiently lighted, like his own room, by
+means of barred openings set high in the wall. Indeed gloom and
+mystery were the keynotes of this place, amongst the shadows of which
+handsome, half-naked servants or priestesses flitted to and fro at
+their tasks, or peered at them out of dark corners. The atmosphere
+seemed heavy with secret sin; Alan felt that in those rooms unnameable
+crimes and cruelties had been committed for hundreds or perhaps
+thousands of years, and that the place was yet haunted by the ghosts
+of them. At any rate it struck a chill to his healthy blood, more even
+than had that Hall of the Dead and of heaped-up golden treasure.
+
+"Does my house please you?" the Asika asked of him.
+
+"Not altogether," he answered, "I think it is dark."
+
+"From the beginning my spirit has ever loved the dark, Vernoon. I
+think that it was shaped in some black midnight."
+
+They passed through the chief entrance of the house which had pillars
+of woodwork grotesquely carved, down some steps into a walled and
+roofed-in yard where the shadows were even more dense than in the
+house they had left. Only at one spot was there light flowing down
+through a hole in the roof, as it did apparently in that hall where
+Alan had found the Asika sitting in state. The light fell on to a
+pedestal or column made of gold which was placed behind an object like
+a large Saxon font, also made of gold. The shape of this column
+reminded Alan of something, namely of a very similar column, although
+fashioned of a different material which stood in the granite-built
+office of Messrs. Aylward & Haswell in the City of London. Nor did
+this seem wonderful to him, since on top of it, squatting on its dwarf
+legs, stood a horrid but familiar thing, namely Little Bonsa herself
+come home at last. There she sat smiling cruelly, as she had smiled
+from the beginning, forgetful doubtless of her wanderings in strange
+lands, while round her stood a band of priests armed with spears.
+
+Followed by the Asika and Jeekie, Alan walked up and looked her in the
+face and to his excited imagination she appeared to grin at him in
+answer. Then while the priests prostrated themselves, he examined the
+golden basin or laver, and saw that at the further side of it was a
+little platform approached by steps. On the top of these golden steps
+were two depressions such as might have been worn out in the course of
+ages by persons kneeling there. Also the flat edge of the basin which
+stood about thirty inches above the level of the topmost step, was
+scored as though by hundreds of sword cuts which had made deep lines
+in the pure metal. The basin itself was empty.
+
+Seeing that these things interested him, the Asika volunteered the
+information through Jeekie, that this was a divining-bowl, and that if
+those who went before her had wished to learn the future, they caused
+Little Bonsa to float in it and found out all they wanted to know by
+her movements. She, however, she added, had other and better methods
+of learning things that were predestined.
+
+"Where does the water come from?" asked Alan thoughtlessly searching
+the bowl for some tap or inlet.
+
+"Out of the hearts of men," she answered with a low and dreadful
+laugh. "These marks are those of swords and every one of them means a
+life." Then seeing that he looked incredulous she added, "Stay, I will
+show you. Little Bonsa must be thirsty who has fasted so long, also
+there are matters that I desire to know. Come hither--you, and you,"
+and she pointed at hazard to the two priests who knelt nearest to her,
+"and do you bid the executioner bring his axe," she went on to a
+third.
+
+The dark faces of the men turned ashen, but they made no effort to
+escape their doom. One of them crept up the steps and laid his neck
+upon the edge of gold, while the other, uttering no word, threw
+himself on his face at the foot of them, waiting his turn. Then a door
+opened and there appeared a great and brutal-looking fellow, naked
+except for a loin cloth, who bore in his hand a huge weapon, half
+knife and half axe.
+
+First he looked at the Asika, who nodded almost imperceptibly, then
+sprang on to a prolongation of the golden steps, bowed to Little Bonsa
+on her column behind and heaved up his knife.
+
+Now for the first time Alan really understood what was about to
+happen, and that what he had imagined a stage rehearsal, was to become
+a hideous murder.
+
+"Stop!" he shouted in English, being unable to remember the native
+word.
+
+The executioner paused with his axe poised in mid-air; the victim
+turned his head and looked, as though surprised; the second victim and
+the priests their companions looked also. Jeekie fell on to his knees
+and burst into fervent prayer addressed apparently to Little Bonsa.
+The Asika smiled and did nothing.
+
+Again the weapon was lifted and as he felt that words were no longer
+of any use, even if he could find them, Alan took refuge in action.
+Springing on to the other side of the little platform, he hit out with
+all his strength across the kneeling man. Catching the executioner on
+the point of the chin, he knocked him straight backwards in such
+fashion that his head struck upon the floor before any other portion
+of his body, so that he lay there either dead or stunned. Alan never
+learned which, since the matter was not thought of sufficient
+importance to be mentioned.
+
+At this sight the Asika burst into a low laugh, then asked Alan why he
+had felled the executioner. He answered because he would not stand by
+and see two innocent men butchered.
+
+"Why not," she said in an astonished voice; "if Little Bonsa, whose
+priests they are, needs them, and I, who am the Mouth of the gods
+declare that they should die? Still, she has been in your keeping for
+a long while and you may know her will, so if you wish it, let them
+live. Or perhaps you require other victims," and she fixed her eyes
+upon Jeekie with a glance of suggestive hope.
+
+"Oh my golly!" gasped Jeekie in English, "tell her not for Joe, Major,
+tell her most improper. Say Yellow God my dearest friend and go mad as
+hatter if my throat cut----"
+
+Alan stopped his protestations with a secret kick.
+
+"I choose no victims," he broke in, "nor will I see man's blood shed--
+to me it is /orunda/--unholy; I may not look on human blood, and if
+you cause me to do so, Asika, I shall hate you because you make me
+break my oath."
+
+The Asika reflected for a moment, while Jeekie behind muttered between
+his chattering teeth:
+
+"Good missionary talk that, Major. Keep up word in season, Major. If
+she make Christian martyr of Jeekie, who get you out of this
+confounded hole?"
+
+Then the Asika spoke.
+
+"Be it as you will, for I desire neither that you should hate me, nor
+that you should look on that which is unlawful for your eyes to see.
+The feasts and ceremonies you must attend, but if I can help it, no
+victim shall be slain in your presence, not even that whimpering
+hound, your servant," she added with a contemptuous glance at Jeekie,
+"who it seems, fears to give his life for the glory of the god, but
+who because he is yours, is safe now and always."
+
+"That /very/ satisfactory," said Jeekie, rising from his knees, his
+face wreathed in smiles, for he knew well that a decree of the Asika
+could not be broken. Then he began to explain to the priestess that it
+was not fear of losing his own life that had moved him, but the
+certainty that this occurrence would disagree morally with Little
+Bonsa, whose entire confidence he possessed.
+
+Taking no notice of his words, with a slight reverence to the fetish,
+she passed on, beckoning to Alan. As he went by the two prostrate
+priests whose lives he had saved, lifted their heads a little and
+looked at him with heartfelt gratitude in their eyes; indeed one of
+them kissed the place where his foot had trodden. Jeekie, following,
+gave him a kick to intimate that he was taking a liberty, but at the
+same time stooped down and asked the man his name. It occurred to him
+that these rescued priests might some day be useful.
+
+Alan followed her through a kind of swing door which opened into
+another of the endless halls, but when he looked for her there she was
+nowhere to be seen. A priest who was waiting beyond the door bowed and
+informed him that the Asika had gone to her own place, and would see
+him that evening. Then bowing again he led them back by various
+passages to the room where they had slept.
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan after their food had been brought to them, this
+time, he observed, by men, for it was now past midday, "you were born
+in Asiki-land; tell me the truth of this business. What does that
+woman mean when she talks about her spirit having been here from the
+beginning."
+
+"She mean, Major, that every time she die her soul go into someone
+else, whom priests find out by marks. Also Asika always die young,
+they never let her become old woman, but how she die and where they
+bury her, no one know 'cept priests. Sometimes she have girl child who
+become Asika after her, but if they have boy child, they kill him. I
+think this Asika daughter of her who make love to your reverend uncle.
+All that story 'bout her mother not being married, lies, and all her
+story lies too, she often marry."
+
+"But how about the spirit coming back, Jeekie?"
+
+"'Spect that lie too, Major, though she think it solemn fact. Priests
+teach her all those old things. Still," he added doubtfully, "Asika
+great medicine-woman and know a lot we don't know, can't say how. Very
+awkward customer, Major."
+
+"Quite so, Jeekie, I agree with you. But to come to the point, what is
+her game with me?"
+
+"Oh! Major," he answered with a grin, "/that/ simple enough. She tired
+of black man, want change, mean to marry you according to law, that is
+when Mungana dies, and he die jolly quick now. She mustn't kill him,
+but polish him off all the same, stick him to sleep with those dead
+uns, till he go like drunk man and see things and drown himself. Then
+she marry you. But till he dead, you all right, she only talk and make
+eyes, 'cause of Asiki law, not 'cause she want to stop there."
+
+"Indeed, Jeekie, and how long do you think that Mungana will last?"
+
+"Perhaps three months, Major, and perhaps two. Think not more than
+two. Strong man, but he look devilish dicky this morning. Think he
+begin see snakes."
+
+"Very well, Jeekie. Now listen to me--you've got to get us out of
+Asiki-land by this day two months. If you don't, that lady will do
+anything to oblige me and no doubt there are more executioners left."
+
+"Oh! Major, don't talk like silly fool. Jeekie always hate fools and
+suffer them badly--like holy first missionary bishop. You know very
+well this no place for ultra-Christian man like Jeekie, who only come
+here to please you. Both in same bag, Major, if I die, you die and
+leave Miss Barbara up gum tree. I get you out if I can. But this stuff
+the trouble," and he pointed to the bags of gold. "Not want to leave
+all that behind after such arduous walk. No, no, I try get you out,
+meanwhile you play game."
+
+"The game! What game, Jeekie?"
+
+"What game? Why, Asika-game of course. If she sigh, you sigh; if she
+look at you, you look at her; if she squeeze hand, you squeeze hand;
+if she kiss, you kiss."
+
+"I am hanged if I do, Jeekie."
+
+"Must, Major; must or never get out of Asiki-land. What all that
+matter?" he added confidentially. "Miss Barbara never know. Jeekie
+doesn't split, also quite necessary in situation, and you can't be
+married till that Mungana dead. All matter business, Major; make time
+pass pleasant as well. Asika jolly enough if you stroke her fur right
+way, but if you put her back up--oh Lor! No trouble, sit and smile and
+say, 'Oh, ducky, how beautiful you are!' that not hurt anybody."
+
+In spite of himself Alan burst out laughing.
+
+"But how about the Mungana?" he asked.
+
+"Mungana, he got take that with rest. Also I try make friends with
+that poor devil. Tell him it all my eye. Perhaps he believe me--not
+sure. If he me, I no believe /him/. Mungana," he added oracularly,
+"Mungana take his chance. What matter? In two months' time he nothing
+but gold figure, No. 2403; just like one mummy in museum. Now I try
+catch my ma. I hear she alive somewhere. They tell me she used keep
+lodging house for Bonsa pilgrim, but steal grub, say it cat, all that
+sort of thing, and get run in as thief. Afraid my ma come down very
+much in world, not society lady now, shut up long way off in suburb.
+Still p'raps she useful so best send her message by p'liceman, say how
+much I love her; say her dear little Jeekie turn up again just to see
+her sweet face. Only don't know if she swallow that or if they let her
+out prison unless I pay for all she prig."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE FEAST OF LITTLE BONSA
+
+It was the night of full moon and of the great feast of the return of
+Little Bonsa. Alan sat in his chamber waiting to be summoned to take
+part in this ceremony and listening the while to that /Wow! Wow! Wow!/
+of the death drums, whereof Jeekie had once spoken in England, which
+could be clearly heard even above the perpetual boom of the cataract
+tumbling down its cliff behind the town. By now he had recovered from
+the fatigue of his journey and his health was good, but the same could
+not be said of his spirits, for never in his life had he felt more
+downhearted, not even when he was sickening for blackwater fever, or
+lay in bondage in the City, expecting every morning to wake up and
+find his reputation blasted. He was a prisoner in this dreadful,
+gloomy place where he must live like a second Man in the Iron Mask,
+without recreation or exercise other than he could find in the walled
+garden where grew the black cedar trees, and, so far as he could see,
+a prisoner without hope of escape.
+
+Moreover, he could no longer disguise from himself the truth; Jeekie
+was right. The Asika had fallen in love with him, or at any rate made
+up her mind that he should be her next husband. He hated the sight of
+the woman and her sinuous, evil beauty, but to be free of her was
+impossible, and to offend her, death. All day long she kept him about
+her, and from his sleep he would wake up and as on the night of his
+arrival, distinguish her leaning over him studying his face by the
+light of the faintly-burning lamps, as a snake studies the bird it is
+about to strike. He dared not stir or give the slightest sign that he
+saw her. Nor indeed did he always see her, for he kept his eyes
+closely shut. But even in his heaviest slumber some warning sense told
+him of her presence, and then above Jeekie's snores (for on these
+occasions Jeekie always snored his loudest) he would hear a soft
+footfall, as cat-like, she crept towards him, or the sweep of her
+spangled robe, or the tinkling of the scales of her golden
+breastplate. For a long while she would stand there, examining him
+greedily and even the few little belongings that remained to him, and
+then with a hungry sigh glide away and vanish in the shadows. How she
+came or how she vanished Alan could not discover. Clearly she did not
+use the door, and he could find no other entrance to the room. indeed
+at times he thought he must be suffering from delusion, but Jeekie
+shook his great head and did not agree with him.
+
+"She there right enough," he said. "She walk over me as though I log
+and I smell stuff she put on hair, but I think she come and go by
+magic. Asika do that if she please."
+
+"Then I wish she would teach me the secret, Jeekie. I should soon be
+out of Asiki-land, I can tell you."
+
+All that day Alan had been in her company, answering her endless
+questions about his past, the lands that he had visited, and
+especially the women that he had known. He had the tact to tell her
+that none of these were half so beautiful as she was, which was true
+in a sense and pleased her very much, for in whatever respects she
+differed from them, in common with the rest of her sex she loved a
+compliment. Emboldened by her good humour, he had ventured to suggest
+that being rested and having restored Little Bonsa, he would be glad
+to return with her gifts to his own country. Next instant he was
+sorry, for as soon as she understood his meaning she grew almost white
+with rage.
+
+"What!" she said; "you desire to leave me? Know, Vernoon, that I will
+see you dead first and myself also, for then we shall be born again
+together and can never more be separated."
+
+Nor was this all, for she burst into weeping, threw her arms about
+him, drew him to her, kissed him on the forehead, and then thrust him
+away, saying:
+
+"Curses on the priests' law that makes us wait so long, and curses on
+that Mungana who will not die and may not be killed. Well, he shall
+pay for it and within two months, Vernoon, oh! within two months----"
+and she stretched out her arms with a gesture of infinite passion,
+then turned and left him.
+
+"My!" said Jeekie afterwards, for he had watched all this scene open-
+mouthed, "my! but she mean business. Mrs. Jeekie never kiss me like
+that, nor any other female either. She dead nuts on you, Major. Very
+great compliment! 'Spect when you Mungana, she keep you alive a long
+time, four or five years perhaps, if no other white man come this way.
+Pity you can't take it on a bit, Major," he added insidiously,
+"because then she grow careless and make you chief and we get chance
+scoop out that gold house and bolt with bally lot. Miss Barbara
+sensible woman, when she see all that cash she not mind, she say
+'Bravo, old boy, quite right spoil Lady Potiphar in land of bondage,
+but Jeekie must have ten per cent. because he show you how do it.'"
+
+Alan was so depressed, and indeed terrified by this demonstration on
+the part of his fearful hostess, that he could neither laugh at
+Jeekie, nor swear at him. He only sat still and groaned, feeling that
+bad as things were they were bound to become worse.
+
+
+
+Above the perpetual booming of the death drums rose a sound of wild
+music. The door burst open, and through it came a number of priests,
+their nearly naked bodies hideously painted and on their heads the
+most devilish-looking masks. Some of them clashed cymbals, some blew
+horns and some beat little drums all to time which was given to them
+by a bandmaster with a golden rod. In front of them with painted face
+and decked in his gorgeous apparel, walked the Mungana himself.
+
+"They come to take us to Bonsa worship," explained Jeekie. "Cheer up,
+Major, very exciting business, no go to sleep there, as in English
+church. See the god all time and no sermon."
+
+Alan, who wore a linen robe over the remains of his European garments,
+and whose mask was already on his head, rose listlessly and bowed to
+the gorgeous Mungana who, poor man, answered him with a stare of hate,
+knowing that this wanderer was destined to fill his place. Then they
+started, Jeekie accompanying them, and walked a long way through
+various halls and passages, bearing first to the left and then to the
+right again, till suddenly through some side door they emerged upon a
+marvellous scene. The first impressions that reached Alan's mind were
+those of a long stretch of water, very black and still and not more
+than eighty feet in width. On the hither edge of this canal, seated
+upon a raised dais in the midst of a great open space of polished
+rock, was the Asika, or so he gathered from her gold breastplate and
+sparkling garments, for her fierce and beautiful features were hid
+beneath an object familiar enough to him, the yellow, crystal-eyed
+mask of Little Bonsa. Arranged in companies about and behind her were
+hundreds of people, male and female, clad in hideous costumes to
+resemble demons, with masks to match. Some of these masks were semi-
+human and some of them bore a likeness to the heads of animals and had
+horns on them, while their wearers were adorned with skins and tails.
+To describe them in their infinite variety would be impossible; indeed
+the recollection that Alan carried away was one of a medi�val hell as
+it is occasionally to be found portrayed upon "Doom pictures" in old
+churches.
+
+On the further side of the water the entire Asiki people seemed to be
+gathered, at least there were thousands of them seated upon a rising
+rocky slope as in an amphitheatre, clad only in the ordinary costume
+of the Western African native, and in some instances in linen cloaks.
+This great amphitheatre was surrounded by a high wall with gates, but
+in the moonlight he found it difficult to discern its exact limits.
+
+Jeekie nudged Alan and pointed to the centre of the canal or pool. He
+looked and saw floating there a huge and hideous golden head, twenty
+times as large as life perhaps, with great prominent eyes that glared
+up to the sky. Its appearance was quite unlike anything else in the
+world, more loathsome, more horrible, man, fish and animal, all seemed
+to have their part in it, human mouth and teeth, fish-like eyes and
+snout, bestial expression.
+
+"Big Bonsa," whispered Jeekie. "Just the same as when I sweet little
+boy.--He live here for thousand of years."
+
+Preceded by the Mungana and followed by Jeekie and the priests, the
+band bringing up the rear, Alan was marched down a lane left open for
+him till he came to some steps leading to the dais, upon which in
+addition to that occupied by the Asika, stood two empty chairs. These
+steps the Mungana motioned him to mount, but when Jeekie tried to
+follow him he turned and struck him contemptuously in the face. At
+once the Asika, who was watching Vernon's approach through the eye-
+holes in the Little Bonsa mask, said fiercely:
+
+"Who bade you strike the servant of my guest, O Mungana? Let him come
+also that he may stand behind us and interpret."
+
+Her wretched husband, who knew that this public slight was put upon
+him purposely, but did not dare to protest against it, bowed his head.
+Then all three of them climbed to the dais, the priests and the
+musicians remaining below.
+
+"Welcome, Vernoon," said the Asika through the lips of the mask, which
+to Alan, notwithstanding the dreadful cruelty of its expression,
+looked less hateful than the lovely, tigerish face it hid. "Welcome
+and be seated here on my left hand, since on my right you may not sit
+--as yet."
+
+He bowed and took the chair to which she pointed, while her husband
+placed himself in the other chair upon her right, and Jeekie stood
+behind, his great shape towering above them all.
+
+"This is a festival of my people, Vernoon," she went on, "such a
+festival as has not been seen for years, celebrated because Little
+Bonsa has come back to them."
+
+"What is to happen?" he asked uneasily. "I have told you, Lady, that
+blood is /orunda/ to me. I must not witness it."
+
+"I know, be not afraid," she answered. "Sacrifice there must be, since
+it is the custom and we may not defraud the gods, but you shall not
+see the deed. Judge from this, Vernoon, how greatly I desire to please
+you."
+
+Now Alan, looking about him, saw that immediately beneath the dais and
+between them and the edge of the water, were gathered his cannibal
+friends, the Ogula, and Fahni their chief who had rowed him to Asiki-
+land, and with them the messengers whom they had sent on ahead. Also
+he saw that their arms were tied behind them and that they were
+guarded by men dressed like devils and armed with spears.
+
+"Ask Fahni why he and his people are bound, Jeekie," said Alan, "and
+why have they not returned to their own country."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, putting the question in the Ogula language, whereon the
+poor men turned and began to implore Alan to save their lives, Fahni
+adding that he had been told they were to be killed that night.
+
+"Why are these men to be slain?" asked Alan of the Asika.
+
+"Because I have learned that they attacked you in their own country,
+Vernoon," she answered, "and would have killed you had it not been for
+Little Bonsa. It is therefore right that they should die as an
+offering to you."
+
+"I refuse the offering since afterwards they dealt well with me. Set
+them free and let them return to their own land, Asika."
+
+"That cannot be," she replied coldly. "Here they are and here they
+remain. Still, their lives are yours to take or to spare, so keep them
+as your servants if you will," and bending down she issued a command
+which was instantly obeyed, for the men dressed like devils cut the
+bonds of the Ogula and brought them round to the back of the dais,
+where they stood blessing Alan loudly in their own tongue.
+
+Then the ceremonies began with a kind of infernal ballet. On the
+smooth space between them and the water's edge appeared male and
+female bands of dancers who emerged from the shadows. For the most
+part they were dressed up like animals and imitated the cries of the
+beasts that they represented, although some of them wore little or no
+clothing. To the sound of wild music of horns and drums these
+creatures danced a kind of insane quadrille which seemed to suggest
+everything that is cruel and vile upon the earth. They danced and
+danced in the moonlight till the madness spread from them to the
+thousands who were gathered upon the farther side of the water, for
+presently all of these began to dance also. Nor did it stop there,
+since at length the Asika rose from her chair upon the dais and joined
+in the performance with the Mungana her husband. Even Jeekie began to
+prance and shout behind, so that at last Alan and the Ogula alone
+remained still and silent in the midst of a scene and a noise which
+might have been that of hell let loose.
+
+Leaving go of her husband, the Asika bounded up to Alan and tried to
+drag him from his chair, thrusting her gold mask against his mask. He
+refused to move and after a while she left him and returned to
+Mungana. Louder and louder brayed the music and beat the drums, wilder
+and wilder grew the shrieks. Individuals fell exhausted and were
+thrown into the water where they sank or floated away on the slow
+moving stream, as part of some inexplicable play that was being
+enacted.
+
+Then suddenly the Asika stood still and threw up her arms and they
+fell upon their faces and lay as though they were dead. A third time
+she threw up her arms and they rose and remained so silent that the
+only sound to be heard was that of their thick breathing. Then she
+spoke, or rather screamed, saying:
+
+"Little Bonsa has come back again, bringing with her the white man
+whom she led away," and all the audience answered, "Little Bonsa has
+come back again. Once more we see her on the head of the Asika as our
+fathers did. Give her a sacrifice. Give her the white man."
+
+"Nay," she screamed back, "the white man is mine. I name him as the
+next Mungana."
+
+"Oho!" roared the audience, "Oho! she names him as the next Mungana.
+Good-bye, old Mungana! Greeting, new Mungana! When will be the
+marriage feast?"
+
+"Tell us, Mungana, tell us," cried the Asika, patting her wretched
+husband on the cheek. "Tell us when you mean to die, as you are bound
+to do."
+
+"On the night of the second full moon from now," he answered with a
+terrible groan that seemed to be wrung out of his heavy heart; "on
+that night my soul will be eaten up and my day done. But till then I
+am lord of the Asika, and if she forgets it, death shall be her
+portion, according to the ancient law."
+
+"Yes, yes," shouted the multitude, "death shall be her portion, and
+her lover we will sacrifice. Die in honour, Mungana, as all those died
+that went before you."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" muttered Alan to himself, "I am safe from that witch
+for the next two months," and through the eye-holes of his mask he
+contemplated her with loathing and alarm.
+
+At the moment, indeed, she was not a pleasing spectacle, for in the
+heat and excitement of her mad dance she had cast off her gold breast-
+plate or stomacher, leaving herself naked except for her kirtle and
+the thin, gold-spangled robe upon her shoulders over which streamed
+her black, disordered hair. Contrasting strangely in the silver
+moonlight with her glistening, copper-coloured body, the mask of
+Little Bonsa on her head glared round with its fixed crystal eyes and
+fiendish smile as she turned her long neck from side to side. Seen
+thus she scarcely looked human, and Alan's heart was filled with pity
+for the poor bedizened wretch she named her husband, who had just been
+forced to announce the date of his own suicide.
+
+Soon, however, he forgot it, for a new act in the drama had begun. Two
+priests clad in horns and tails leapt on to the dais and at a signal
+unlaced the mask of Little Bonsa. Now the Asika lifted it from her
+streaming face and held it on high, then she lowered it to the level
+of her breast, and holding it in both hands, walked to the edge of the
+dais, whereon priests, disguised as fiends, began to leap at it,
+striving to reach it with their fingers and snatch it from her grasp.
+One by one they leapt with the most desperate energy, each man being
+allowed to make three attempts, and Alan noted that this novel jumping
+competition was watched with the deepest interest by all the audience,
+at the time he knew not why.
+
+The first two were evidently elderly men who failed to come anywhere
+near the mark. Their failure was received with shouts of derision.
+They sank exhausted to the ground and from the motion of his body Alan
+could see that one of them was weeping, while the other remained
+sullenly silent. Then a younger man advanced and at the third try
+almost grasped the fetish. Indeed he would have grasped it had he not
+met with foul play, for the Asika, seeing that he was about to
+succeed, lifted it an inch or two, so that he also missed and with a
+groan joined the band of the defeated. Next appeared a fourth priest,
+even more horribly arrayed than those before him, but Alan noticed
+that his mask was of the lightest, and that his garments consisted
+chiefly of paint, the main idea of his make-up being that of a
+skeleton. He was a thin active fellow, and all the watching thousands
+greeted him with a shout. For a few seconds he stood back gazing at
+the mask as a wolf might at an unapproachable bone. Then suddenly he
+ran forward and sprang into the air. Such an amazing jump Alan had
+never seen before. So high was it indeed that his head came level with
+that of the fetish, which he snatched with both hands tearing it from
+Asika's grasp. Coming to the ground again with a thud, he began to
+caper to and fro, kissing the mask, while the audience shouted:
+
+"Little Bonsa has chosen. What fate for the fallen? Ask her, priest?"
+
+The man stopped his capering and held the mouth of Little Bonsa to his
+ear, nodding from time to time as though she were speaking to him and
+he heard what she said. Then he passed round the dais where Alan could
+not see him, and presently reappeared holding Little Bonsa in his
+right hand and in his left a great gold cup. A silence fell upon the
+place. He advanced to the first man who had jumped and offered him the
+cup. He turned his head away, but a thousand voices thundered "Drink!"
+Then he took it and drank, passing it to a companion in misfortune,
+who in turn drank also and gave it to the third priest, he who would
+have snatched the mask had not the Asika lifted it out of his reach.
+
+This man drained it to the dregs, and with an exclamation of rage
+dashed the empty vessel into the face of the chosen priest with such
+fury that the man rolled upon the ground and for a while lay there
+stunned. Now he who had drunk first began to spring about in a
+ludicrous fashion, and presently was joined in his dance by the other
+two. So absurd were their motions and tumblings and clownlike
+grimaces, for they had dragged off their masks, that roars of brutal
+laughter rose from the audience, in which the Asika joined.
+
+At first Alan thought that the thing was a joke, and that the men had
+merely been made mad drunk, till catching sight of their eyes in the
+moonlight, he perceived that they were in great pain and turned
+indignantly to remonstrate with the Asika.
+
+"Be silent, Vernoon," she said savagely, "blood is your /orunda/ and I
+respect it. Therefore by decree of the god these die of poison," and
+again she fell to laughing at the contortions of the victims.
+
+Alan shut his eyes, and when at length, drawn by some fearful
+fascination, he opened them once more, it was to see that the three
+poor creatures had thrown themselves into the water, where they rolled
+over and over like wounded porpoises, till presently they sank and
+vanished there.
+
+This farce, for so they considered it, being ended and the stage, so
+to speak, cleared, the audience having laughed itself hoarse, set
+itself to watch the proceedings of the newly chosen high-priest of
+Little Bonsa, who by now had recovered from the blow dealt to him by
+one of the murdered men. With the help of some other priests he was
+engaged in binding the fetish on to a little raft of reeds. This done
+he laid himself flat upon a broad plank which had been made ready for
+him at the edge of the water, placing the mask in front of him and
+with a few strokes of his feet that hung over the sides of the plank,
+paddled himself out to the centre of the canal where the god called
+Big Bonsa floated, or was anchored. Having reached it he pushed the
+little raft off the plank into the water, and in some way that Alan
+could not see, made it fast to Big Bonsa, so that now the two of them
+floated one behind the other. Then while the people cheered, shouting
+out that husband and wife had come together again at last, he paddled
+his plank back to the water's edge, sat down and waited.
+
+Meanwhile, at a sign from the Asika, all the scores of priests and
+priestesses who were dressed as devils had filed off to right and
+left, and vanished, presumably to cross the water by bridges or boats
+that were out of sight. At any rate now they began to appear upon its
+further side and to wind their way singly among the thousands of the
+Asiki people who were gathered upon the rocky slope beyond in order to
+witness this fearsome entertainment. Alan observed that the spectators
+did not appear to appreciate the arrival amongst them of these
+priests, from whom they seemed to edge away. Indeed many of them rose
+and tried to depart altogether, only to be driven back to their places
+by a double line of soldiers armed with spears, who now for the first
+time became visible, ringing in the audience. Also other soldiers and
+with them bodies of men who looked like executioners, showed
+themselves upon the further brink of the water and then marched off,
+disappearing to left and right.
+
+"What's the matter now?" Alan asked of Jeekie over his shoulder.
+
+"All in blue funk," whispered Jeekie back, "joke done. Get to business
+now. Silly fools forget that when they laugh so much. Both Bonsas very
+hungry and Asika want wipe out old scores. Presently you see."
+
+Presently Alan did see, for at some preconcerted signal the devil
+priests, each of them, jumped with a yell at a person near to them,
+gripping him or her by the hair, whereon assistants rushed in and
+dragged them down to the bank of the canal. Here to the number of a
+hundred or more, a wailing, struggling mass, they were confined in a
+pen like sheep. Then a bar was lifted and one of them allowed to
+escape, only to find himself in a kind of gangway which ran down into
+shallow water. Being forced along this he came to an open space of
+water exactly opposite to the floating fetishes, and there was kept a
+while by men armed with spears. As nothing happened they lifted their
+spears and the man bolted up an incline and was lost among the
+thousands of spectators.
+
+The next one, evidently a person of rank, was not so fortunate.
+Jumping into the pool off the gangway, he stood there like a sheep
+about to be washed, the water reaching up to his middle. Then Alan saw
+a terrifying thing, for suddenly the horrid, golden head of Big Bonsa,
+towing Little Bonsa behind it, began to swim with a deliberate motion
+across the stream until, reaching the man, it seemed to rear itself up
+and poke him with its snout in the chest as a turtle might do. Then it
+sank again into the water and slowly floated back to its station,
+directed by some agency or power that Alan could not discover.
+
+At the touch of the fetish the man screamed like a horse in pain or
+terror, and soldiers leaping on him with a savage shout, dragged him
+up another gangway opposite to that by which he had descended,
+whereon, to all appearances more dead than alive, he departed into the
+shadows. The horns and drums set up a bray of triumph, the Asika
+clapped her hands approvingly, the spectators cheered, and another
+victim was bundled down the gangway and submitted to the judgment of
+the Bonsas, which came at him like a hungry pike at a frog. Then
+followed more and more, some being chosen and some let go, till at
+last, growing weary, the priests directed the soldiers to drive the
+prisoners down in batches until the pen in the water was full as
+though with huddled sheep. If the horrible golden masks swam at them
+and touched one of their number, they were all dragged away; if these
+remained quiescent they were let go.
+
+So the thing went on until at length Alan could bear no more of it.
+
+"Lady," he said to the Asika when she paused for a moment from her
+hand-clapping, "I am weary, I would sleep."
+
+"What!" she exclaimed, "do you wish to sleep on such a glorious night
+when so many evil doers are coming to their just doom? Well, well, go
+if you will, for then my promise is off me and I can hasten this
+business and deal with the wicked before the people according to our
+custom. Good-night to you, Vernoon, to-morrow we will meet," and she
+called to some priests to lead him away, and with him the Ogula
+cannibals whom she had given to him as servants.
+
+Alan went thankfully enough. As he plunged into one of the passages
+the sound of frightful yelling reached his ears, followed by loud,
+triumphant shouts.
+
+"Now you gone they kill those who Bonsa smell out," said Jeekie. "Why
+you no wait and see? Very interesting sight."
+
+"Hold your tongue," answered Alan savagely. "Did you think so years
+ago when you were put into that pen to be butchered?"
+
+"No, Major," replied the unabashed Jeekie, "not think at all then, too
+far gone. But see other people in there and know it not /you/, quite
+different matter."
+
+They reached their room. At the door of it Fahni and his followers
+were led off to some quarters near by, blessing Alan as they went
+because he had saved their lives.
+
+"Jeekie," he said when they were alone, "tell me, what makes that
+hellish idol swim about in the water picking out some people and
+leaving others alone?"
+
+"Major, I not know, no one know except top priest and Asika. Perhaps
+there man underneath, perhaps they pull string, or perhaps fetish
+alive and he do what he like. Please don't call him names, Major, or
+he remember and come after us one time, and that bad job," and Jeekie
+shivered visibly.
+
+"Bosh!" answered Alan, but all the same he shivered also. "Jeekie," he
+asked again, "what happens to those people whom the Bonsas smell out?"
+
+"Case of good-bye, Major. Sometimes they chop off nut, sometimes they
+spiflicate in gold tub, sometimes priest-man make hole in what white
+doctor call /diagram/--and shake hands with heart.--All matter of
+taste, Major, just as Asika please. If she like victim or they old
+friends, chop off head; if she not like him--do worse things."
+
+More than satisfied with his information Alan went to bed. For hour
+after hour that night he lay tossing and turning, haunted by the
+recollections of the dreadful sights that he had seen and of the
+horrible Asika, horrible and half-naked, glaring at him amorously
+through the crystal eyes of Little Bonsa. When at last he fell asleep
+it was to dream that he was alone in the water with the god which
+pursued him as a shark pursues a shipwrecked sailor. Never did he
+experience a nightmare that was half so awful. Only one thing could be
+more awful, the reality itself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE MOTHER OF JEEKIE
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan next morning, "I tell you again that I have had
+enough of this place, I want to get out."
+
+"Yes, Major, that just what mouse say when he finish cheese in trap,
+but missus come along, call him 'Pretty, pretty,' and drown him all
+the same," and he nodded in the direction of the Asika's house.
+
+"Jeekie, it has got to be done--do you hear me? I had rather die
+trying to get away than stop here till the next two months are up. If
+I am here on the night of the next full moon but one, I shall shoot
+that Asika and then shoot myself, and you must take your chance. Do
+you understand?"
+
+"Understand that foolish game and poor lookout for Jeekie, Major, but
+can't think of any plan." Then he rubbed his big nose reflectively and
+added, "Fahni and his people your slaves now, 'spose we have talk with
+him. I tell priests to bring him along when they come with breakfast.
+Leave it to me, Major."
+
+Alan did leave it to him, with the result that after long argument the
+priests consented or obtained permission to produce Fahni and his
+followers, and a little while after the great men arrived looking very
+dejected, and saluted Alan humbly. Bidding the rest of them be seated,
+he called Fahni to the end of the room and asked him through Jeekie if
+he and his men did not wish to return home.
+
+"Indeed we do, white lord," answered the old chief, "but how can we?
+The Asika has a grudge against our tribe and but for you would have
+killed every one of us last night. We are snared and must stop here
+till we die."
+
+"Would not your people help you if they knew, Fahni?"
+
+"Yes, lord, I think so. But how can I tell them who doubtless believe
+us dead? Nor can I send a messenger, for this place is guarded and he
+would be killed at once. We came here for your sake because you had
+Little Bonsa, a god that is known in the east and the west, in the
+north and the south, and because you saved me from the lion, and here,
+alas! we must perish."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "can you not find a messenger? Have you, who were
+born of this people, no friend among them at all?"
+
+Jeekie shook his white head and rolled his eyes. Then suddenly an idea
+struck him.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I think one, p'raps. I mean my ma."
+
+"Your ma!" said Alan. "Oh! I remember. Have you heard anything more
+about her?"
+
+"Yes, Major. Very old girl now, but strong on leg, so they say.
+Believe she glad go anywhere, because she public nuisance; they tired
+of her in prison and there no workhouse here, so they want turn her
+out starve, which of course break my heart. Perhaps she take message.
+Some use that way. Only think she afraid go Ogula-land because they
+nasty cannibal and eat old woman."
+
+When all this was translated to Fahni he assured Jeekie with
+earnestness that nothing would induce the Ogula people to eat his
+mother; moreover, that for her sake they would never look
+carnivorously on another old woman, fat or thin.
+
+"Well," said Jeekie, "I try again to get hold of old lady and we see.
+I pray priests, whom you save other day, let her out of chokey as I
+sick to fall upon bosom, which quite true, only so much to think of
+that no time to attend to domestic relation till now."
+
+That very afternoon, on returning to his room from walking in the
+dismal cedar garden, Alan's ears were greeted by a sound of shrill
+quarrelling. Looking up he saw an extraordinary sight. A tall, gaunt,
+withered female who might have been of any age between sixty and a
+hundred, had got Jeekie's ear in one hand, and with the other was
+slapping him in the face while she exclaimed:
+
+"O thief, whom by the curse of Bonsa I brought into the world, what
+have you done with my blanket? Was it not enough that you, my only
+son, should leave me to earn my own living? Must you also take my best
+blanket with you, for which reason I have been cold ever since. Where
+is it, thief, where is it?"
+
+"Worn out, my mother, worn out," he answered, trying to free himself.
+"You forget, honourable mother, that I grow old and you should have
+been dead years ago. How can you expect a blanket to last so long?
+Leave go of my ear, beloved mother, and I will give you another. I
+have travelled across the world to find you and I want to hear news of
+your husband."
+
+"My husband, thief, which husband? Do you mean your father, the one
+with the broken nose, who was sacrificed because you ran away with the
+white man whom Bonsa loved? Well, you look out for him when you get
+into the world of ghosts, for he said that he was going to wait for
+you there with the biggest stick that he could find. Why I haven't
+thought of him for years, but then I have had three other husbands
+since his time, bad enough, but better than he was, so who would? And
+now Bonsa has got the lot, and I have no children alive, and they say
+I am to be driven out of the prison to starve next week as they won't
+feed me any longer, I who can still work against any one of them, and
+--you've got my blanket, you ugly old rascal," and collapsing beneath
+the weight of her recited woes, the hag burst into a melancholy howl.
+
+"Peace, my mother," said Jeekie, patting her on the head. "Do what I
+tell you and you shall have more blankets than you can wear and, as
+you are still so handsome, another husband too if you like, and a
+garden and slaves to work for you and plenty to eat."
+
+"How shall I get all these things, my son?" asked the old woman,
+looking up. "Will you take me to your home and support me, or will
+that white lord marry me? They told me that the Asika had named him as
+the Mungana, and she is very jealous, the most jealous Asika that I
+have ever known."
+
+"No, mother, he would like to, but he dare not, and I cannot support
+you as I should wish, as here I have no house or property. You will
+get all this by taking a walk and holding your tongue. You see this
+man here, he is Fahni, king of a great tribe, the Ogula. He wants you
+to carry a message for him, and by and by he will marry you, won't
+you, Fahni?"
+
+"Oh! yes, yes," said Fahni; "I will do anything she likes. No one
+shall be so rich and honoured in my country, and for her sake we will
+never eat another old woman, whereas if she stays here she will be
+driven to the mountains to starve in a week."
+
+"Set out the matter," said the mother of Jeekie, who was by no means
+so foolish as she seemed.
+
+So they told her what she must do, namely, travel down to the Ogula
+and tell them of the plight of their chief, bidding them muster all
+their fighting men and when the swamps were dry enough, advance as
+near as they dared to the Asiki country and, if they could not attack
+it, wait till they had further news.
+
+The end of it was that the mother of Jeekie, who knew her case to be
+desperate at home, where she was in no good repute, promised to
+attempt the journey in consideration of advantages to be received.
+Since she was to be turned adrift to meet her fate with as much food
+as she could carry, this she could do without exciting any suspicion,
+for who would trouble about the movements of a useless old thief?
+Meanwhile Jeekie gave her one of the robes which the Asika had
+provided for Alan, also various articles which she desired and, having
+learned Fahni's message by heart and announced that she considered
+herself his affianced bride, the gaunt old creature departed happy
+enough after exchanging embraces with her long lost son.
+
+"She will tell somebody all about it and we shall only get our throats
+cut," said Alan wearily, for the whole thing seemed to him a foolish
+farce.
+
+"No, no, Major. I make her swear not split on ghosts of all her
+husbands and by Big Bonsa hisself. She sit tight as wax, because she
+think they haunt her if she don't and I too by and by when I dead.
+P'raps she get to Ogula country and p'raps not. If she don't, can't
+help it and no harm done. Break my heart, but only one old woman less.
+Anyhow she hold tongue, that main point, and I really very glad find
+my ma, who never hoped to see again. Heaven very kind to Jeekie, give
+him back to family bosom," he added, unctuously.
+
+That day there were no excitements, and to Alan's intense relief he
+saw nothing of the Asika. After its orgy of witchcraft and bloodshed
+on the previous night, weariness and silence seemed to have fallen
+upon the town. At any rate no sound came from it that could be heard
+above the low, constant thunder of the great waterfall rushing down
+its precipice, and in the cedar-shadowed garden where Alan walked till
+he was weary, attended by Jeekie and the Ogula savages, not a soul was
+to be seen.
+
+On the following morning, when he was sitting moodily in his room, two
+priests came to conduct him to the Asika. Having no choice, followed
+by Jeekie, he accompanied them to her house, masked as usual, for
+without this hateful disguise he was not allowed to stir. He found her
+lying upon a pile of cushions in a small room that he had never seen
+before, which was better lighted than most in that melancholy abode,
+and seemed to serve as her private chamber. In front of her lay the
+skin of the lion that he had sent as a present, and about her throat
+hung a necklace made of its claws, heavily set in gold, with which she
+was playing idly.
+
+At the opening of the door she looked up with a swift smile that
+turned to a frown when she saw that he was followed by Jeekie.
+
+"Say, Vernoon," she asked in her languorous voice, "can you not stir a
+yard without that ugly black dog at your heels? Do you bring him to
+protect your back? If so, what is the need? Have I not sworn that you
+are safe in my land?"
+
+Alan made Jeekie interpret this speech, then answered that the reason
+was that he knew but little of her tongue.
+
+"Can I not teach it to you alone, then, without this low fellow
+hearing all my words? Well, it will not be for long," and she looked
+at Jeekie in a way that made him feel very uncomfortable. "Get behind
+us, dog, and you, Vernoon, come sit on these cushions at my side. Nay,
+not there, I said upon the cushions--so. Now I will take off that ugly
+mask of yours, for I would look into your eyes. I find them pleasant,
+Vernoon," and without waiting for his permission, she sat up and did
+so. "Ah!" she went on, "we shall be happy when we are married, shall
+we not? Do not be afraid, Vernoon, I will not eat out your heart as I
+have those of the men that went before you. We will live together
+until we are old, and die together at last, and together be born
+again, and so on and on till the end which even I cannot foresee. Why
+do you not smile, Vernoon, and say that you are pleased, and that you
+will be happy with me who loved you from the moment that my eyes fell
+upon you in sleep? Speak, Vernoon, lest I should grow angry with you."
+
+"I don't know what to say," answered Alan despairingly through Jeekie,
+"the honour is too great for me, who am but a wandering trader who
+came here to barter Little Bonsa against the gold I need"--to support
+my wife and family, he was about to add, then remembering that this
+statement might not be well received, substituted, "to support my old
+parents and eight brothers and sisters who are dependent upon me, and
+remain hungry until I return to them."
+
+"Then I think they will remain hungry a long time, Vernoon, for while
+I live you shall never return. Much as I love you I would kill you
+first," and her eyes glittered as she said the words. "Still," she
+added, noting the fall in his face, "if it is gold that they need, you
+shall send it them. Yes, my people shall take all that I gave you down
+to the coast, and there it can be put in a big canoe and carried
+across the water. See to the packing of the stuff, you black dog," she
+said to Jeekie over her shoulder, "and when it is ready I will send it
+hence."
+
+Alan began to thank her, though he thought it more than probable that
+even if she kept her word, this bullion would never get to Old
+Calabar, and much less to England. But she waived the matter aside as
+one in which she was not interested.
+
+"Tell me," she asked; "would you have me other than I am? First, do
+you think me beautiful?"
+
+"Yes," answered Alan honestly, "very beautiful when you are quiet as
+now, not when you are dancing as you did the other night without your
+robes."
+
+When she understood what he meant the Asika actually blushed a little.
+
+"I am sorry," she answered in a voice that for her was quite humble.
+"I forget that it might seem strange in your eyes. It has always been
+the custom for the Asika to do as I did at feasts and sacrifices, but
+perhaps that is not the fashion among your women; perhaps they always
+remain veiled, as I have heard the worshippers of the Prophet do, and
+therefore you thought me immodest. I am very, very sorry, Vernoon. I
+pray you to forgive me who am ignorant and only do what I have been
+taught."
+
+"Yes, they always remain veiled," stammered Alan, though he was not
+referring to their faces, and as the words passed his lips he wondered
+what the Asika would think if she could see a ballet at a London
+music-hall.
+
+"Is there anything else wrong?" she went on gently. "If so, tell me
+that I may set it right."
+
+"I do not like cruelty or sacrifices, O Asika. I have told you that
+bloodshed is /orunda/ to me, and at the feast those men were poisoned
+and you mocked them in their pain; also many others were taken away to
+be killed for no crime."
+
+She opened her beautiful eyes and stared at him, answering:
+
+"But, Vernoon, all this is not my fault; they were sacrifices to the
+gods, and if I did not sacrifice, I should be sacrificed by the
+priests and wizards who live to sacrifice. Yes, myself I should be
+made to drink the poison and be mocked at while I died like a snake
+with a broken back. Or even if I escaped the vengeance of the people,
+the gods themselves would kill me and raise up another in my place. Do
+they not sacrifice in your country, Vernoon?"
+
+"No, Asika, they fight if necessary and kill those who commit murder.
+But they have no fetish that asks for blood, and the law they have
+from heaven is a law of mercy."
+
+She stared at him again.
+
+"All this is strange to me," she said. "I was taught otherwise. Gods
+are devils and must be appeased, lest they bring misfortune on us; men
+must be ruled by terror, or they would rebel and pull down the great
+House; doctors must learn magic, or how could they avert spells?
+wizards must be killed, or the people would perish in their net. May
+not we who live in a hell, strive to beat back its flame with the
+wisdom our forefathers have handed on to us? Tell me, Vernoon, for I
+would know."
+
+"You make your own hell," answered Alan when with the help of Jeekie
+he understood her talk.
+
+She pondered over his words for a while, then said:
+
+"I must think. The thing is big. I wander in blackness; I will speak
+with you again. Say now, what else is wrong with me?"
+
+Now Alan thought that he saw opportunity for a word in season and made
+a great mistake.
+
+"I think that you treat your husband, that man whom you call Mungana,
+very badly. Why should you drive him to his death?"
+
+At these words the Asika leapt up in a rage, and seeking something to
+vent her temper on, violently boxed Jeekie's ears and kicked him with
+her sandalled foot.
+
+"The Mungana!" she exclaimed, "that beast! What have I to do with him?
+I hate him, as I hated the others. The priests thrust him on me. He
+has had his day, let him go. In your country do they make women live
+with men whom they loathe? I love /you/, Bonsa himself knows why?
+Perhaps because you have a white skin and white thoughts. But I hate
+that man. What is the use of being Asika if I cannot take what I love
+and reject what I hate? Go away, Vernoon, go away, you have angered
+me, and if it were not for what you have said about that new law of
+mercy, I think that I would cut your throat," and again she boxed
+Jeekie's ears and kicked him in the shins.
+
+Alan rose and bowed himself towards the door while she stood with her
+back towards him, sobbing. As he was about to pass it she wheeled
+round, wiping the tears from her eyes with her hand, and said:
+
+"I forgot, I sent for you to thank you for your presents; that," and
+she pointed to the lion skin, "which they tell me you killed with some
+kind of thunder to save the life of that old cannibal, and this," and
+she pulled off the necklace of claws, then added, "as I am too bad to
+wear it, you had better take it back again," and she threw it with all
+her strength straight into Jeekie's face.
+
+Fearing worse things, the much maltreated Jeekie uttered a howl and
+bolted through the door, while Alan, picking up the necklace, returned
+it to her with a bow. She took it.
+
+"Stop," she said. "You are leaving the room without your mask and my
+women are outside. Come here," and she tied the thing upon his head,
+setting it all awry, then pushed him from the place.
+
+"Very poor joke, Major, very poor indeed," said Jeekie when they had
+reached their own apartment. "Lady make love to /you/; /you/ play prig
+and lecture lady about holy customs of her country and she box /my/
+ear till head sing, also kick me all over and throw sharp claws in
+face. Please you do it no more. The next time, who knows? she stick
+knife in /my/ gizzard, then kiss /you/ afterward and say she so sorry
+and hope she no hurt /you/. But how that help poor departed Jeekie who
+get all kicks, while you have ha'pence?"
+
+"Oh! be quiet," said Alan; "you are welcome to the halfpence if you
+would only leave me the kicks. The question is, how am I to get out of
+this mess? While she was a beautiful savage devil, one could deal with
+the thing, but if she is going to become human it is another matter."
+
+Jeekie looked at him with pity in his eyes.
+
+"Always thought white man mad at bottom," he said, shaking his big
+head. "To benighted black nigger thing so very simple. All you got to
+do, make love and cut when you get chance. Then she pleased as Punch,
+everything go smooth and Jeekie get no more kicks. Christian religion
+business very good, but won't wash in Asiki-land. Your reverend uncle
+find out that."
+
+Not wishing to pursue the argument, Alan changed the subject by asking
+his indignant retainer if he thought that the Asika had meant what she
+said when she offered to send the gold down to the coast.
+
+"Why not, Major? That good lady always mean what she say, and what she
+do too," and he dabbed wrathfully at the scratches made by the lion's
+claws on his face, then added, "She know her own mind, not like
+shilly-shally, see-saw white woman, who get up one thing and go to bed
+another. If she love she love, if she hate she hate. If she say she
+send gold, she send it, though pity to part with all that cash,
+because 'spect someone bag it."
+
+Alan reflected a while.
+
+"Don't you see, Jeekie, that here is a chance, if a very small one, of
+getting a message to the coast. Also it is quite clear that if we are
+ever able to escape, it will be impossible for us to carry this heavy
+stuff, whereas if we send it on ahead, perhaps some of it might get
+through. We will pack it up, Jeekie, at any rate it will be something
+to do. Go now and send a message to the Asika, and ask her to let us
+have some carpenters, and a lot of well-seasoned wood."
+
+The message was sent and an hour later a dozen of the native craftsmen
+arrived with their rude tools and a supply of planks cut from a kind
+of iron-wood or ebony tree. They prostrated themselves to Alan, then
+the master of them rising, instantly began to measure Jeekie with a
+marked reed. That worthy sprang back and asked what in the name of
+Bonsa, Big and Little, they were doing, whereon the man explained with
+humility that the Asika had said that she thought the white lord
+wanted the wood to make a box to bury his servant in, as he, the said
+servant, had offended her that morning, and doubtless the white lord
+wished to kill him on that account, or perhaps to put him away under
+ground alive.
+
+"Oh, my golly!" said Jeekie, shaking till his great knees knocked
+together, "oh! my golly! here pretty go. She think you want bury me
+all alive. That mean she want to be rid of Jeekie, because he got sit
+there and play gooseberry when she wish talk alone with you. Oh, yes!
+I see her little game."
+
+"Well, Jeekie," said Alan, bursting into such a roar of laughter that
+he nearly shook off his mask, "you had better be careful, for you just
+told me that the Asika is not like a see-saw white woman and never
+changes her mind. Say to this man that he must tell the Asika there is
+a mistake, and that however much I should like to oblige her, I can't
+bury you because it has been prophesied to me that on the day you are
+buried, I shall be buried also, and that therefore you must be kept
+alive."
+
+"Capital notion that, Major," said Jeekie, much relieved. "She not
+want bury you just at present; next year perhaps, but not now. I tell
+him." And he did with much vigour.
+
+This slight misconception having been disposed of, they explained to
+the carpenters what was wanted. First, all the gold was emptied out of
+the sacks in which it remained as the priests had brought it, and
+divided into heaps, each of which weighed about forty pounds, a weight
+that with its box Alan considered would be a good load for a porter.
+Of these heaps there proved to be fifty-three, their total value, Alan
+reckoned, amounting to about �100,000 sterling. Then the carpenters
+were set to work to make a model box, which they did quickly enough
+and with great ingenuity, cutting the wood with their native saws,
+dovetailing it as a civilized craftsman would do, and finally securing
+it everywhere with ebony pegs, driven into holes which they bored with
+a hot iron. The result was a box that would stand any amount of rough
+usage and when finally pegged down, one that could only be opened with
+a hammer and a cold chisel.
+
+This box-making went on for two whole days. As each of them was filled
+and pegged down, the gold within being packed in sawdust to keep it
+from rattling, Alan amused himself in adding an address with a feather
+brush and a supply of red paint such as the Asiki priests used to
+decorate their bodies. At first he was puzzled to know what address to
+put, but finally decided upon the following:
+
+/Major A. Vernon, care of Miss Champers, The Court, near Kingswell,
+England./ Adding in the corner, /From A. V., Asiki Land, Africa./
+
+It was all childish enough, he knew, yet when it was done he regarded
+his handiwork with a sort of satisfaction. For, reflected Alan, if but
+one of those boxes should chance to get through to England, it would
+tell Barbara a great deal, and if it were addressed to himself, her
+uncle could scarcely dare to take possession of it.
+
+Then he bethought him of sending a letter, but was obliged to abandon
+the idea, as he had neither pen, pencil, ink, nor paper left to him.
+Whatever arts remained to them, that of any form of writing was now
+totally unknown to the Asiki, although marks that might be writing, it
+will be remembered, did appear on the inner side of the Little Bonsa
+mask, an evidence of its great antiquity. Even in the days when they
+had wrapped up the Egyptian, the Roman, and other early Munganas in
+sheets of gold and set them in their treasure-house, apparently they
+had no knowledge of it, for not even an hieroglyph or a rune appeared
+upon the imperishable metal shrouds. Since that time they had
+evidently decreased, not advanced, in learning till at the present
+day, except for these relics and some dim and meaningless survival of
+rites that once had been religious and were still offered to the same
+ancient idols, there was little to distinguish them from other tribes
+of Central African savages. Still Alan did something, for obtaining a
+piece of white wood, which he smoothed as well as he was able with a
+knife, he painted on it this message:
+
+"Messrs. Aston, Old Calabar. Please forward accompanying fifty-three
+packages, or as many as arrive, and cable as follows (all costs will
+be remitted): Miss Champers, Kingswell, England. Prisoner among Asiki.
+No present prospect of escape, but hope for best. Jeekie and I well.
+Allowed send this, but perhaps no future message possible. Good-bye.
+Alan."
+
+As it happened just as Alan was finishing this scrawl with a sad
+heart, he heard a movement and glancing up, perceived standing at his
+side the Asika, of whom he had seen nothing since the interview when
+she had beaten Jeekie:
+
+"What are those marks that you make upon the board, Vernoon?" she
+asked suspiciously.
+
+With the assistance of Jeekie, who kept at a respectful distance, he
+informed her that they were a message in writing to tell the white men
+at the coast to forward the gold to his starving family.
+
+"Oh!" she said, "I never heard of writing. You shall teach it me. It
+will serve to pass the time till we are married, though it will not be
+of much use afterwards, as we shall never be separated any more and
+words are better than marks upon a board. But," she added cheerfully,
+"I can send away this black dog of yours," and she looked at Jeekie,
+"and he can write to us. No, I cannot, for an accident might happen to
+him, and they tell me you say that if he dies, you die also, so he
+must stop here always. What have you in those little boxes?"
+
+"The gold you gave me, Asika, packed in loads."
+
+"A small gift enough," she answered contemptuously; "would you not
+like more, since you value that stuff? Well, another time you shall
+send all you want. Meanwhile the porters are waiting, fifty men and
+three, as you sent me word, and ten spare ones to take the place of
+any who die. But how they will find their way, I know not, since none
+of them have ever been to the coast."
+
+An idea occurred to Alan, who had small faith in Jeekie's "ma" as a
+messenger.
+
+"The Ogula prisoners could show them," he said; "at any rate as far as
+the forest, and after that they could find out. May they not go,
+Asika?"
+
+"If you will," she answered carelessly. "Let them be ready to start
+to-morrow at the dawn, all except their chief, Fahni, who must stop
+here as a hostage. I do not trust those Ogula, who more than once have
+threatened to make war upon us," she added, then turned and bade the
+priests bring in the bearers to receive their instructions.
+
+Presently they came, picked men all of them, under the command of an
+Asiki captain, and with them the Ogula, whom she summoned also.
+
+"Go where the white lord sends you," she said in an indifferent voice,
+"carrying with you these packages. I do not know where it is, but
+these man-eaters will show you some of the way, and if you fail in the
+business but live to come back again, you shall be sacrificed to Bonsa
+at the next feast; if you run away then your wives and children will
+be sacrificed. Food shall be given you for your journey, and gold to
+buy more when it is gone. Now, Vernoon, tell them what they have to
+do."
+
+So Alan, or rather Jeekie, told them, and these directions were so
+long and minute, that before they were finished the Asika grew tired
+of listening and went away, saying as she passed the captain of the
+company:
+
+"Remember my words, man, succeed or die, but of your land and its
+secrets say nothing."
+
+"I hear," answered the captain, prostrating himself.
+
+That night Alan summoned the Ogula and spoke to them through Jeekie in
+their own language. At first they declared that they would not leave
+their chief, preferring to stay and die with him.
+
+"Not so," said Fahni; "go, my children, that I may live. Go and gather
+the tribe, all the thousands of them who are men and can fight, and
+bring them up to attack Asiki-land, to rescue me if I still live, or
+to avenge me if I am dead. As for these bearers, do them no harm, but
+send them on to the coast with the white man's goods."
+
+So in the end the Ogula said that they would go, and when Alan woke up
+on the following morning, he was informed that they and the Asiki
+porters had already departed upon their journey. Then he dismissed the
+matter from his mind, for to tell the truth he never expected to hear
+of them any more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ALAN FALLS ILL
+
+After the departure of the messengers a deep melancholy fell upon
+Alan, who was sure that he had now no further hope of communicating
+with the outside world. Bitterly did he reproach himself for his folly
+in having ever journeyed to this hateful place in order to secure--
+what? About �100,000 worth of gold which of course he never could
+secure, as it would certainly vanish or be stolen on its way to the
+coast. For this gold he had become involved in a dreadful complication
+which must cost him much misery, and sooner or later life itself,
+since he could not marry that beautiful savage Asika, and if he
+refused her she would certainly kill him in her outraged pride and
+fury.
+
+Day by day she sent for him, and when he came, assumed a new
+character, that of a woman humbled by a sense of her own ignorance,
+which she was anxious to amend. So he must play the role of tutor to
+her, telling her of civilized peoples, their laws, customs and
+religions, and instructing her how to write and read. She listened and
+learned submissively enough, but all the while Alan felt as one might
+who is called upon to teach tricks to a drugged panther. The drug in
+this case was her passion for him, which appeared to be very genuine.
+But when it passed off, or when he was obliged to refuse her, what, he
+wondered, would happen then?
+
+Anxiety and confinement told on him far more than all the hardships of
+his journey. His health ran down, he began to fall ill. Then as bad
+luck would have it, walking in that damp, unwholesome cedar garden,
+out of which he might not stray, he contracted the germ of some kind
+of fever which in autumn was very common in this poisonous climate.
+Three days later he became delirious, and for a week after that hung
+between life and death. Well was it for him that his medicine-chest
+still remained intact, and that recognizing his own symptoms before
+his head gave way, he was able to instruct Jeekie what drugs to give
+him at the different stages of the disease.
+
+For the rest his memories of that dreadful illness always remained
+very vague. He had visions of Jeekie and of a robed woman whom he knew
+to be the Asika, bending over him continually. Also it seemed to him
+that from time to time he was talking with Barbara, which even then he
+knew must be absurd, for how could they talk across thousands of miles
+of land and sea.
+
+At length his mind cleared suddenly, and he awoke as from a nightmare
+to find himself lying in the hall or room where he had always been,
+feeling quite cool and without pain, but so weak that it was an effort
+to him to lift his hand. He stared about him and was astonished to see
+the white head of Jeekie rolling uneasily to and fro upon the cushions
+of another bed near by.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "are you ill too, Jeekie?"
+
+At the sound of that voice his retainer started up violently.
+
+"What, Major, you awake?" he said. "Thanks be to all gods, white and
+black, yes, and yellow too, for I thought your goose cooked. No, no,
+Major, I not ill, only Asika say so. You go to bed, so she make me go
+to bed. You get worse, she treat me cruel; you seem better, she stuff
+me with food till I burst. All because you tell her that you and I die
+same day. Oh, Lord! poor Jeekie think his end very near just now, for
+he know quite well that she not let him breathe ten minutes after you
+peg out. Jeekie never pray so hard for anyone before as he pray this
+week for you, and by Jingo! I think he do the trick, he and that
+medicine stuff which make him feel very bad in stomach," and he
+groaned under the weight of his many miseries.
+
+Weak as he was Alan began to laugh, and that laugh seemed to do him
+more good than anything that he could remember, for after it he was
+sure that he would recover.
+
+Just then an agonized whisper reached him from Jeekie.
+
+"Look out!" it said, "here come Asika. Go sleep and seem better,
+Major, please, or I catch it hot."
+
+So Alan almost shut his eyes and lay still. In another moment she was
+standing over him and he noticed that her hair was dishevelled and her
+eyes were red as though with weeping. She scanned him intently for a
+little while, then passed round to where Jeekie lay and appeared to
+pinch his ear so hard that he wriggled and uttered a stifled groan.
+
+"How is your lord, dog?" she whispered.
+
+"Better, O Asika, I think that last medicine do us good, though it
+make me very sick inside. Just now he spoke to me and said that he
+hoped that your heart was not sad because of him and that all this
+time in his dreams he had seen and thought of nobody but you, O
+Asika."
+
+"Did he?" asked that lady, becoming intensely interested. "Then tell
+me, dog, why is he ever calling upon one Bar-bar-a? Surely that is a
+woman's name?"
+
+"Yes, O Asika, that is the name of his mother, also of one of his
+sisters, whom, after you, he loves best of anyone in the whole world.
+When you are here he talks of them, but when you are not here he talks
+of no one but you. Although he is so sick he remembers white man's
+custom, which tells him that it is very wrong to say sweet things to
+lady's face till he is quite married to her. After that they say them
+always."
+
+She looked at him suspiciously and muttering, "Here it is otherwise.
+For your own sake, man, I trust that you do not lie," left him, and
+drawing a stool up beside Alan's bed, sat herself down and examined
+him carefully, touching his face and hands with her long thin fingers.
+Then noting how white and wasted he was, of a sudden she began to
+weep, saying between her sobs:
+
+"Oh! if you should die, Vernoon, I will die also and be born again not
+as Asika, as I have been for so many generations, but as a white woman
+that I may be with you. Only first," she added, setting her teeth, "I
+will sacrifice every wizard in this land, for they have brought the
+sickness on you by their magic, and I will burn Bonsa-town and cast
+its gods to melt in the flames, and the Mungana with them. And then
+amid their ashes I will let out my life," and again she began to weep
+very piteously and to call him by endearing names and pray him that he
+would not die.
+
+Now Alan thought it time to wake up. He opened his eyes, stared at her
+vacantly, and asked if it were raining, which indeed it might have
+been, for her big tears were falling on his face. She uttered a gasp
+of joy.
+
+"No, no," she answered, "the weather is very fine. It is I--I who have
+rained because I thought you die." She wiped his forehead with the
+soft linen of her robe, then went on, "But you will not die; say that
+you will live, say that you will live for me, Vernoon."
+
+He looked at her, and feeble though he was, the awfulness of the
+situation sank into his soul.
+
+"I hope that I shall live," he answered. "I am hungry, please give me
+some food."
+
+Next instant there was a tumult near by, and when Alan looked up again
+it was to see Jeekie, very lightly clad, flying through the door.
+
+"It will be here presently," she said. "Oh! if you knew what I have
+suffered, if you only knew. Now you will recover whom I thought dead,
+for this fever passes quickly and there shall be such a sacrifice--no,
+I forgot, you hate sacrifices--there shall be no sacrifice, there
+shall be a thanksgiving, and every woman in the land shall break her
+bonds to husband or to lover and take him whom she desires without
+reproach or loss. I will do as I would be done by, that is the law you
+taught me, is it not?"
+
+This novel interpretation of a sacred doctrine, worthy of Jeekie
+himself, so paralyzed Alan's enfeebled brain that he could make no
+answer, nor do anything except wonder what would happen in Asiki-land
+when the decree of its priestess took effect. Then Jeekie arrived with
+something to drink which he swallowed with the eagerness of the
+convalescent and almost immediately went to sleep in good earnest.
+
+Alan's recovery was rapid, since as the Asika had told him, if a
+patient lives through it, the kind of fever that he had taken did not
+last long enough to exhaust his vital forces. When she asked him if he
+needed anything to make him well, he answered:
+
+"Yes, air and exercise."
+
+She replied that he should have both, and next morning his hated mask
+was put upon his face and he was supported by priests to a door where
+a litter, or rather litters were waiting, one for himself and another
+for Jeekie who, although in robust health, was still supposed to be
+officially ill and not allowed to walk upon his own legs. They entered
+these litters and were borne off till presently they met a third
+litter of particularly gorgeous design carried by masked bearers,
+wherein was the Asika herself, wearing her coronet and a splendid
+robe.
+
+Into this litter, which was fitted with a second seat, Alan was
+transferred, the Mungana, for whom it was designed, being placed in
+that vacated by Alan, which either by accident or otherwise, was no
+more seen that day. They went up the mountain side and to the edge of
+the great fall and watched the waters thunder down, though the crest
+of them they could not reach. Next they wandered off into the huge
+forests that clothed the slopes of the hills and there halted and ate.
+Then as the sun sank they returned to the gloomy Bonsa-Town beneath
+them.
+
+For Alan, notwithstanding his weakness and anxieties, it was a
+heavenly day. The Asika was passive, some new mood being on her, and
+scarcely troubled him at all except to call his attention to a tree, a
+flower, or a prospect of the scenery. Here on the mountain side, too,
+the air was sweet, and for the rest--well, he who had been so near to
+death, was escaped for an hour from that gloomy home of bloodshed and
+superstition, and saw God's sky again.
+
+This journey was the first of many. Every day the litters were waiting
+and they visited some new place, although into the town itself they
+never went. Moreover, if they passed through outlying villages, though
+Alan was forced to wear his mask, their inhabitants had been warned to
+absent themselves, so that they saw no one. The crops were left
+untended and the cattle and sheep lowed hungrily in their kraals. On
+certain days, at Alan's request, they were taken to the spots where
+the gold was found in the gravel bed of an almost dry stream that
+during the rains was a torrent.
+
+He descended from the litter and with the help of the Asika and
+Jeekie, dug a little in this gravel, not without reward, for in it
+they found several nuggets. Above, too, where they went afterwards,
+was a huge quartz reef denuded by water, which evidently had been
+worked in past ages and was still so rich that in it they saw plenty
+of visible gold. Looking at it Alan bethought him of his City days and
+of the hundreds of thousands of pounds capital with which this unique
+proposition might have been floated. Afterwards they were carried to
+the places where the gems were found, stuck about in the clay, like
+plums in a pudding, though none ever sought them now. But all these
+things interested the Asika not at all.
+
+"What is the good of gold," she asked of Alan, "except to make things
+of, or the bright stones except to play with? What is the good of
+anything except food to eat and power and wisdom that can open the
+secret doors of knowledge, of things seen and things unseen, and love
+that brings the lover joy and forgetfulness of self and takes away the
+awful loneliness of the soul, if only for a little while?"
+
+Not wishing to drift into discussion on the matter of love, Alan asked
+the priestess to define her "soul," whence it came and whither she
+believed it to be going.
+
+"My soul is I, Vernoon," she answered, "and already very, very old.
+Thus it has ruled amongst this people for thousands of years."
+
+"How is that?" he asked, "seeing that the Asika dies?"
+
+"Oh! no, Vernoon, she does not die; she only changes. The old body
+dies, the spirit enters into another body which is waiting. Thus until
+I was fourteen I was but a common girl, the daughter of a headman of
+that village yonder, at least so they tell me, for of this time I have
+no memory. Then the Asika died and as I had the secret marks and the
+beauty that is hers the priests burnt her body before Big Bonsa and
+suffocated me, the child, in the smoke of the burning. But I awoke
+again and when I awoke the past was gone and the soul of the Asika
+filled me, bringing with it its awful memories, its gathered wisdom,
+its passion of love and hate, and its power to look backward and
+before."
+
+"Do you ever do these things?" asked Alan.
+
+"Backward, yes, before very little; since you came, not at all,
+because my heart is a coward and I fear what I might see. Oh! Vernoon,
+Vernoon, I know you and your thoughts. You think me a beautiful beast
+who loves like a beast, who loves you because you are white and
+different from our men. Well, what there is of the beast in me the
+gods of my people gave, for they are devils and I am their servant.
+But there is more than that, there is good also which I have won for
+myself. I knew you would come even before I had seen your face, I knew
+you would come," she went on passionately, "and that is why I was
+yours already. But what would befall after you came, that I neither
+knew, nor know, because I will not seek, who could learn it all."
+
+He looked at her and she saw the doubt in his eyes.
+
+"You do not believe me, Vernoon. Very well, this night you shall see,
+you and that black dog of yours, that you may know I do not trick you,
+and he shall tell me what you see, for he being but a low-born pig
+will speak the truth, not minding if it hurts me, whereas you are
+gentle and might spare, and myself I have sworn not to search the
+future by an oath that I may not break."
+
+"What of the past?" asked Alan.
+
+"We will not waste time on it, for I know it all. Vernoon, have you no
+memories of Asiki-land? Do you think you never visited it before?"
+
+"Never," said Alan; "it was my uncle who came and ran away with Little
+Bonsa on his head."
+
+"That is news indeed," she replied mockingly. "Did you then think that
+I believed it to be you, though it is true that she who went before,
+or my spirit that was in her, fell into error for an hour, and thought
+that fool-uncle of yours was /the Man/. When she found her mistake she
+let him go, and bade the god go with him that it might bring back the
+appointed Man, as it has done; yes, that Little Bonsa, who knew him of
+old, might search him out from among all the millions of men, born or
+unborn, and bring him back to me. Therefore also she chose a young
+black dog who would live for many years, and bade the god to take him
+with her, and told him of the wealth of our people that it might be a
+bait upon the hook. Do you see, Vernoon, that yellow dirt was the
+bait, that I--I am the hook? Well, you have felt it before, so it
+should not gall you overmuch."
+
+Now Alan was more frightened than he had been since he set foot in
+Asiki-land, for of a sudden this woman became terrible to him. He felt
+that she knew things which were hidden from him. For the first time he
+believed in her, believed, that she was more than a mere passionate
+savage set by chance to rule over a bloodthirsty tribe; that she was
+one who had a part in his destiny.
+
+"Felt the hook?" he muttered. "I do not understand."
+
+"You are very forgetful," she answered. "Vernoon, we have lived and
+loved before, who were twin souls from the first. That man now, whom I
+told you lived once on the great river called the Nile, have you no
+memory of him? Well, well, let it be, I will tell you afterwards. Here
+we are at the Gold House again, to-night when I am ready I will send
+for you, and this I promise, you shall leave me wiser than you were."
+
+When they were alone in their room Alan told Jeekie of the expected
+entertainment of crystal gazing, or whatever it might be, and the part
+that he was to play in it.
+
+"You say that again, Major," said Jeekie.
+
+Alan repeated the information, giving every detail that he could
+remember.
+
+"Oh!" said Jeekie, "I see Asika show us things, 'cause she afraid to
+look at them herself, or take oath, or can't, or something. She no ask
+you tell her what she see, because you too kind hurt her feeling, if
+happen to be something beastly. But Jeekie just tell her because he so
+truthful and not care curse about her feeling. Well, that all right,
+Jeekie tell her sure enough. Only, Major, don't you interrupt. Quite
+possible these magic things, I see one show, you see another. So don't
+you go say, 'Jeekie, that a lie,' and give me away to Asika just
+because you think you see different, 'cause if so you put me into
+dirty hole, and of course I catch it afterwards. You promise, Major?"
+
+"Oh! yes, I promise. But, Jeekie, do you really think we are going to
+see anything?"
+
+"Can't say, Major," and he shook his head gloomily. "P'raps all put up
+job. But lots of rum things in world, Major, specially among beastly
+African savage who very curious and always ready pay blood to bad
+Spirit. Hope Asika not get this into her head, because no one know
+what happen. P'raps we see too much and scared all our lives; but
+p'raps all tommy rot."
+
+"That's it--tommy rot," answered Alan, who was not superstitious.
+"Well, I suppose that we must go through with it. But oh! Jeekie, I
+wish you would tell me how to get out of this."
+
+"Don't know, Major, p'raps never get out; p'raps learn how to-night.
+Have to do something soon if want to go. Mungana's time nearly up, and
+then--oh my eye!"
+
+
+
+It was night, about ten o'clock indeed, the hour at which Alan
+generally went to bed. No message had come and he began to hope that
+the Asika had forgotten, or changed her mind, and was just going to
+say so to Jeekie when a light coming from behind him attracted his
+attention and he turned to see her standing in a corner of the great
+room, holding a lamp in her hand and looking towards him. Her gold
+breastplate and crown were gone, with every other ornament, and she
+was clad, or rather muffled in robes of pure white fitted with a kind
+of nun's hood which lay back upon her shoulders. Also on her arm she
+carried a shawl or veil. Standing thus, all undecked, with her long
+hair fastened in a simple knot, she still looked very beautiful, more
+so than she had ever been, thought Alan, for the cruelty of her face
+had faded and was replaced by a mystery very strange to see. She did
+not seem quite like a natural woman, and that was the reason, perhaps,
+that Alan for the first time felt attracted by her. Hitherto she had
+always repelled him, but this night it was otherwise.
+
+"How did you come here?" he asked in a more gentle voice than he
+generally used towards her.
+
+Noting the change in his tone, she smiled shyly and even coloured a
+little, then answered:
+
+"This house has many secrets, Vernoon. When you are lord of it you
+shall learn them all, till then I may not tell them to you. But, come,
+there are other secrets which I hope you shall see to-night, and,
+Jeekie, come you also, for you shall be the mouth of your lord, so
+that you may tell me what perhaps he would hide."
+
+"I will tell you everything, everything, O Asika," answered Jeekie,
+stretching out his hands and bowing almost to the ground.
+
+Then they started and following many long passages as before, although
+whether they were the same or others Alan could not tell, came at last
+to a door which he recognized, that of the Treasure House. As they
+approached this door it opened and through it, like a hunted thing,
+ran the bedizened Mungana, husband of the Asika, terror, or madness,
+shining in his eyes. Catching sight of his wife, who bore the lamp, he
+threw himself upon his knees and snatching at her robe, addressed some
+petition to her, speaking so rapidly that Alan could not follow his
+words.
+
+For a moment she listened, then dragged her dress from his hand and
+spurned him with her foot. There was something so cruel in the gesture
+and the action, so full of deadly hate and loathing, that Alan, who
+witnessed it, experienced a new revulsion of feeling towards the
+Asika. What kind of a woman must she be, he wondered, who could treat
+a discarded lover thus in the presence of his successor?
+
+With a groan or a sob, it was difficult to say which, the poor man
+rose and perceived Alan, whose face he now beheld for the first time,
+since the Asika had told him not to mask himself as they would meet no
+one. The sight of it seemed to fill him with jealous fury; at any rate
+he leapt at his rival, intending, apparently, to catch him by the
+throat. Alan, who was watching him, stepped aside, so that he came
+into violet contact with the wall of the passage and, half-stunned by
+the shock, reeled onwards into the darkness.
+
+"The hog!" said the Asika, or rather she hissed it, "the hog, who
+dared to touch me and to strike at you. Well, his time is short--would
+that I could make it shorter! Did you hear what he sought of me?"
+
+Alan, who wished for no confidences, replied by asking what the
+Mungana was doing in the Treasure House, to which she answered that
+the spirits who dwelt there were eating up his soul, and when they had
+devoured it all he would go quite mad and kill himself.
+
+"Does this happen to all Munganas?" inquired Alan.
+
+"Yes, Vernoon, if the Asika hates them, but if she loves them it is
+otherwise. Come, let us forget the wretch, who would kill you if he
+could," and she led the way into the hall and up it, passing between
+the heaps of gold.
+
+On the table where lay the necklaces of gems she set down her lamp,
+whereof the light, all there was in that great place, flickered feebly
+upon the mask of Little Bonsa, which had been moved here apparently
+for some ceremonial purpose, and still more feebly upon the hideous,
+golden countenances and winding sheets of the ancient, yellow dead who
+stood around in scores placed one above the other, each in his
+appointed niche. It was an awesome scene and one that oppressed Jeekie
+very much, for he murmured to Alan:
+
+"Oh my! Major, family vault child's play to this hole, just like----"
+here his comparison came to an end, for the Asika cut it short with a
+single glance.
+
+"Sit here in front of me," she said to Alan, "and you, Jeekie, sit at
+your lord's side, and be silent till I bid you speak."
+
+Then she crouched down in a heap behind them, threw the cloth or veil
+she carried over her head, and in some way that they did not see,
+suddenly extinguished the lamp.
+
+Now they were in deep darkness, the darkness of death, and in utter
+silence, the silence of the dead. No glimmer of light, and yet to Alan
+it seemed as though he could feel the flash of the crystal eyes of
+Little Bonsa, and of all the other eyes set in the masks of those
+departed men who once had been the husbands of the bloodstained
+priestess of the Asiki, till one by one, as she wearied of them, they
+were bewitched to madness and to doom. In that utter quiet he thought
+even that he could hear them stir within their winding sheets, or it
+may have been that the Asika had risen and moved among them on some
+errand of her own. Far away something fell to the floor, a very light
+object, such as flake of rock or a scale of gold. Yet the noise of it
+struck his nerves loud as a clap of thunder, and those of Jeekie also,
+for he felt him start at his side and heard the sudden hammerlike beat
+of his heart.
+
+What was the woman doing in this dreadful place, he wondered. Well, it
+was easy to guess. Doubtless she had brought them here to scare and
+impress them. Presently a voice, that of some hidden priest, would
+speak to them, and they would be asked to believe it a message from
+the spirit world, or a spirit itself might be arranged--what could be
+easier in their mood and these surroundings?
+
+Now the Asika was speaking behind them in a muffled voice. From the
+tone of it she appeared to be engaged in argument or supplication in
+some strange tongue. At any rate Alan could not understand a word of
+what she said. The argument, or prayer, went on for a long while, with
+pauses as though for answers. Then suddenly it ceased and once more
+they were plunged into that unfathomable silence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN
+
+It seemed to Alan that he went to sleep and dreamed.
+
+He dreamed that it was late autumn in England. Leaves drifted down
+from the trees beneath the breath of a strong, damp wind, and ran or
+floated along the road till they vanished into a ditch, or caught
+against a pile of stones that had been laid ready for its repair. He
+knew the road well enough; he even knew the elm tree beneath which he
+seemed to stand on the crest of a hill. It was that which ran from Mr.
+Champers-Haswell's splendid house, The Court, to the church; he could
+see them both, the house to the right, the church to the left, and his
+eyesight seemed to have improved, since he was able to observe that at
+either place there was bustle and preparation as though for some big
+ceremony.
+
+Now the big gates of The Court opened and through them came a funeral.
+It advanced toward him with unnatural swiftness, as though it floated
+upon air, the whole melancholy procession of it. In a few seconds it
+had come and gone and yet during those seconds he suffered agony, for
+there arose in his mind a horrible terror that this was Barbara's
+burying. He could not have endured it for another moment; he would
+have cried out or died, only now the mourners passed him following the
+coffin, and in the first carriage he saw Barbara seated, looking sad
+and somewhat troubled, but well. A little further down the line came
+another carriage, and in it was Sir Robert Aylward, staring before him
+with cold, impassive face.
+
+In his dream Alan thought to himself that he must have borrowed this
+carriage, which would not be strange, as he generally used motors, for
+there was a peer's coronet upon the panels and the silver-mounted
+harness.
+
+The funeral passed and suddenly vanished into the churchyard gates,
+leaving Alan wondering why his cousin Haswell was not seated at
+Barbara's side. Then it occurred to him that it might be because he
+was in the coffin, and at that moment in his dream he heard the Asika
+asking Jeekie what he saw; heard Jeekie answering also, "A burying in
+the country called England."
+
+"Of whom, Jeekie?" Then after some hesitation, the answer:
+
+"Of a lady whom my lord loves very much. They bury her."
+
+"What was her name, Jeekie?"
+
+"Her name was Barbara."
+
+"Bar-bara, why that you told me was the name of his mother and his
+sister. Which of them is buried?"
+
+"Neither, O Asika. It was another lady who loved him very much and
+wanted to marry him, and that was why he ran away to Africa. But now
+she is dead and buried."
+
+"Are all women in England called Barbara, Jeekie?"
+
+"Yes, O Asika, Barbara means woman."
+
+"If your lord loved this Barbara, why then did he run away from her?
+Well, it matters not since she is dead and buried, for whatever their
+spirits may feel, no man cares for a woman that is dead until she
+clothes herself in flesh again. That was a good vision and I will
+reward you for it."
+
+"I have earned nothing, O Asika," answered Jeekie modestly, "who only
+tell you what I see as I must. Yet, O Asika," he added with a note of
+anxiety in his voice, "why do you not read these magic writings for
+yourself?"
+
+"Because I dare not, or rather because I can not," she answered
+fiercely. "Be silent, slave, for now the power of the good broods upon
+my soul."
+
+The dream went on. A great forest appeared, such a forest as they had
+passed before they met the cannibals, and set beneath one of the
+trees, a tent and in that tent Barbara, Barbara weeping. Someone began
+to lift the flap of the tent. She sprang up, snatching at a pistol
+that lay beside her, turning its muzzle towards her breast. A man
+entered the tent. Alan saw his face, it was his own. Barbara let fall
+the pistol and fell backwards as though a bullet from it had pierced
+her heart. He leapt towards her, but before he came to where she lay
+everything had vanished and he heard Jeekie droning out his lies to
+the Asika, telling her that the vision he had seen was one of her and
+his master seated with their arms about each other in a chamber of the
+Golden House.
+
+A third time the dream descended on Alan like a cloud. It seemed to
+him that he was borne beyond the flaming borders of the world.
+Everything around was new and unfamiliar, vast, changing, lovely,
+terrible. He stood alone upon a pearly plain and the sky above him was
+lit with red moons, many and many of them that hung there like lamps.
+Spirits began to pass him. He could catch something of their splendour
+as they sped by with incredible swiftness; he could hear the music of
+their laughter. One rose up at his side. It was the Asika, only a
+thousand times more splendid; clothed in all the glory of hell.
+Majestically she bent towards him, her glowing eyes held his, the
+deadly perfume of her breath beat upon his brow and made him drunken.
+
+She spoke to him and her voice sounded like distant bells.
+
+"Through many a life, through many a life," she said, "bought with
+much blood, paid for with a million tears, but mine at last, the soul
+that I have won to comfort my soul in the eternal day. Come to the
+place I have made ready for you, the hell that shall turn to heaven at
+your step, come, you by whom I am redeemed, and drive away those gods
+that torture me because I was their servant that I might win you."
+
+So she spoke, and though all his soul revolted, yet the fearful
+strength that was in her seemed to draw him onward whither she would
+go. Then a light shone and that light was the face of Barbara and with
+a suddenness that was almost awful, the wild dream came to an end.
+
+
+
+Alan was in his own room again, though how he got there he did not
+recollect.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "what has happened? I seem to have had a very
+curious dream, there in the Treasure-place, and to have heard you
+telling the Asika a string of incredible falsehoods."
+
+"Oh! no, Major, Jeekie can't lie, too good Christian; he tell her what
+/he/ see, or what he think she see if she look, 'cause though p'raps
+he see nothing, she never believe that. And," he added with a burst of
+confidence, "what the dickens it matter what he tell her, so long as
+she swallow same and keep quiet? Nasty things always make women like
+Asika quite outrageous. Give them sweet to suck, say Jeekie, and if
+they ill afterwards, that no fault of his. They had sweet."
+
+"Quite so, Jeekie, quite so, only I should advise you not to play too
+many tricks upon the Asika, lest she should happen to find you out.
+How did I get back here?"
+
+"Like man that walk in his sleep, Major. She go first, you follow,
+just as little lamb after Mary in hymn."
+
+"Jeekie, did you really see anything at all?"
+
+"No, Major, nothing partic'lar, except ghost of Mrs. Jeekie and of
+your reverend uncle, both of them very angry. That magic all stuff,
+Major. Asika put something in your grub make you drunk, so that you
+think her very wise. Don't think of it no more, Major, or you go off
+your chump. If Jeekie see nothing, depend on it there nothing to see."
+
+"Perhaps so, Jeekie, but I wish I could be sure you had seen nothing.
+Listen to me; we must get out of this place somehow, or as you say, I
+shall go off my chump. It's haunted, Jeekie, its haunted, and I think
+that Asika is a devil, not a woman."
+
+"That what priests say, Major, very old devil--part of Bonsa," he
+answered, looking at his master anxiously. "Well, don't you fret,
+Jeekie not afraid of devils, Jeekie get you out in good time. Go to
+bed and leave it all to Jeekie."
+
+
+
+Fifteen more days had gone by, and it was the eve of the night of the
+second full moon when Alan was destined to become the husband of the
+Asika. She had sent for him that morning and he found her radiant with
+happiness. Whether or no she believed Jeekie's interpretation of the
+visions she had called up, it seemed quite certain that her mind was
+void of fears and doubts. She was sure that Alan was about to become
+her husband, and had summoned all the people of the Asiki to be
+present at the ceremony of their marriage, and incidentally of the
+death of the Mungana who, poor wretch, was to be forced to kill
+himself upon that occasion.
+
+Before they parted she had spoken to Alan sweetly enough.
+
+"Vernoon," she said, "I know that you do not love me as I love you,
+but the love will come, since for your sake I will change myself. I
+will grow gentle; I will shed no more blood; that of the Mungana shall
+be the last, and even him I would spare if I could, only while he
+lives I may not marry you; it is the one law that is stronger than I
+am, and if I broke it I and you would die at once. You shall even
+teach me your faith, if you will, for what is good to you is
+henceforth good to me. Ask what you wish of me, and as an earnest I
+will do it if I can."
+
+Now Alan looked at her. There was one thing that he wished above all
+others--that she would let him go. But this he did not dare to ask;
+moreover, it would have been utterly useless. After all, if the
+Asika's love was terrible, what would be the appearance of her
+outraged hate? What could he ask? More gold? He hated the very name of
+the stuff, for it had brought him here. He remembered the old cannibal
+chief, Fahni, who, like himself, languished a prisoner, daily
+expecting death. Only that morning he had implored him to obtain his
+liberty.
+
+"I thank you, Asika," he said. "Now, if your words are true, set Fahni
+free and let him return to his own country, for if he stays here he
+will die."
+
+"Surely, Vernoon, that is a small thing," she answered, smiling,
+"though it is true that when he gets there he will probably make war
+upon us. Well, let him, let him." Then she clapped her hands and
+summoned priests, whom she bade go at once and conduct Fahni out of
+Bonsa-Town. Also she bade them loose certain slaves who were of the
+Ogula tribe, that they might accompany him laden with provisions, and
+send on orders to the outposts that Fahni and his party should pass
+unmolested from the land.
+
+This done, she began to talk to Alan about many matters, however
+little he might answer her. Indeed it seemed almost as though she
+feared to let him leave her side; as though some presentiment of loss
+oppressed her.
+
+At length, to Alan's great relief, the time came when they must part,
+since it was necessary for her to attend a secret ceremony of
+preparation or purification that was called "Putting-off-the-Past."
+Although she had been thrice summoned, still she would not let him go.
+
+"They call you, Asika," said Alan.
+
+"Yes, yes, they call me," she replied, springing up. "Leave me,
+Vernoon, till we meet to-morrow to part no more. Oh! why is my heart
+so heavy in me? That black dog of yours read the visions that I
+summoned but might not look on, and they were good visions. They
+showed that the woman who loved you is dead; they showed us wedded,
+and other deeper things. Surely he would not dare to lie to me,
+knowing that if he did I would flay him living and throw him to the
+vultures. Why, then, is my heart so heavy in me? Would you escape me,
+Vernoon? Nay, you are not so cruel, nor could you do it except by
+death. Moreover, man, know that even in death you cannot escape me,
+for there be sure I shall follow you and claim you, to whose side my
+spirit has toiled for ages, and what is there so strong that it can
+snatch you from my hand?"
+
+She looked at him a moment, and seizing his hand burst into a flood of
+tears, and seizing his hand threw herself upon her knees and kissed it
+again and again.
+
+"Go now," she said, "go, and let my love go with you, through lives
+and deaths, and all the dreams beyond, oh! let my love go with you, as
+it shall, Vernoon."
+
+So he went, leaving her weeping on her knees.
+
+
+
+During the dark hours that followed Alan and madness were not far
+apart. What could he do? Escape was utterly impossible. For weeks he
+and Jeekie had considered it in vain. Even if they could win out of
+the Gold House fortress, what hope had they of making their way
+through the crowded, tortuous town where, after the African fashion,
+peopled walked about all night, every one of whom would recognize the
+white man, whether he were masked or no? Besides, beyond the town were
+the river and the guarded walls and gates and beyond them open country
+where they would be cut off or run down. No, to attempt escape was
+suicide. Suicide! That gave him an idea, why should he not kill
+himself? It would be easy enough, for he still had his revolver and a
+few cartridges, and surely it was better than to enter on such a life
+as awaited him as the plaything of a priestess of a tribe of fetish-
+worshipping savages.
+
+But if he killed himself, how about Barbara and how about poor old
+Jeekie, who would certainly be killed also? Besides, it was not the
+right thing to do, and while there is life there is always hope.
+
+Alan paused in his walk up and down the room and looked at Jeekie, who
+sat upon the floor with his back resting against the stone altar,
+reflectively pulling down his thick under-lip and letting it fly back,
+negro-fashion.
+
+"Jeekie," he said, "time's up. What am I to do?"
+
+"Do, Major?" he replied with affected cheerfulness. "Oh! that quite
+simple. Jeekie arrange everything. You marry Asika and by and by, when
+you master here and tired of her, you give her slip. Very interesting
+experience; no white man ever have such luck before. Asika not half
+bad, /if/ she fond of you; she like little girl in song, when she
+good, she very, very good. At any rate, nothing else to do. Marry
+Asika or spiflicate, which mean, Major, that Jeekie spiflicate too,
+and," he added, shaking his white head sadly, "he no like /that/. One
+or two little things on his mind that no get time to square up yet.
+Daren't pray like Christian here, 'cause afraid of Bonsas, and Bonsas
+come even with him by and by, 'cause he been Christian, so poor Jeekie
+fall down bump between two stools. 'Postles kick him out of heaven and
+Bonsas kick him out of hell, and where Jeekie go to then?"
+
+"Don't know, I am sure," answered Alan, smiling a little in spite of
+his sorrow, "but I think the Bonsas might find a corner for you
+somewhere. Look here, Jeekie, you old scamp, I am sorry for you, for
+you have been a good friend to me and we are fond of each other. But
+just understand this, I am not going to marry that woman if I can help
+it. It's against my principles. So I shall wait till to-morrow and
+then I shall walk out of this place. If the guards try to stop me I
+shall shoot them while I have any cartridges. Then I shall go on until
+they kill me."
+
+"Oh! But Major, they not kill you--never; they chuck blanket over your
+head and take you back to Asika. It Jeekie they kill, skin him
+alive-o, and all the rest of it."
+
+"Hope not, Jeekie, because they think we shall die the same day. But
+if so, I can't help it. To-morrow morning I shall walk out, and now
+that's settled. I am tired and going to sleep," and he threw himself
+down upon the bed and, being worn out with weariness and anxiety, soon
+fell fast asleep.
+
+But Jeekie did not sleep, although he too lay down upon his bed. On
+the contrary, he remained wide awake and reflected, more deeply
+perhaps than he had ever done before, being sure the superstition as
+to the dependence of Alan's life upon his own was now worn very thin,
+and that his hour was at hand. He thought of making Alan's wild
+attempt to depart impossible by the simple method of warning the
+Asika, but, notwithstanding his native selfishness, was too loyal to
+let that idea take root in his mind. No, there was nothing to be done;
+if the Major wished to start, the Major must start, and he, Jeekie,
+must pay the price. Well, he deserved it, who had been fool enough to
+listen to the secret promptings of Little Bonsa and conduct him to
+Asiki-land.
+
+Thus he passed several hours, for the most part in melancholy
+speculations as to the exact fashion of his end, until at length
+weariness overcame him also and, shutting his eyes, Jeekie began to
+doze. Suddenly he grew aware of the presence of some other person in
+the room, but thinking that it was only the Asika prowling about in
+her uncanny fashion, or perhaps her spirit, for how her body entered
+the place he could not guess, he did not stir, but lay breathing
+heavily and watching out of the corner of his eye.
+
+Presently a figure emerged from the shadows into the faint light
+thrown by the single lamp that burned above, and though it was wrapped
+in a dark cloak, Jeekie knew at once that it was not the Asika. Very
+stealthily the figure crept towards him, as a leopard might creep, and
+bent down to examine him. The movement caused the cloak to slip a
+little, and for an instant Jeekie caught sight of the wasted, half-
+crazed face of the Mungana, and of a long, curved knife that glittered
+in his hand. Paralyzed with fear, he lay quite still, knowing that
+should he show the slightest sign of consciousness that knife would
+pierce his heart.
+
+The Mungana watched him a while, then satisfied that he slept, turned
+round and, bending himself almost double, glided with infinite
+precautions towards Alan's bed, which stood some twelve or fourteen
+feet away. Silently as a snake that uncoils itself, Jeekie slipped
+from between his blankets and crept after him, his naked feet making
+no noise upon the mat-strewn floor. So intent was the Mungana upon the
+deed which he had come to do that he never looked back, and thus it
+happened that the two of them reached the bed one immediately behind
+the other.
+
+Alan was lying on his back with his throat exposed, a very easy
+victim. For a moment the Mungana stared. Then he erected himself like
+a snake about to strike, and lifted the great curved knife, taking aim
+at Alan's naked breast. Jeekie erected himself also, and even as the
+knife began to fall, with one hand he caught the arm that drove it and
+with the other the murderer's throat. The Mungana fought like a wild-
+cat, but Jeekie was too strong for him. His fingers held the man's
+windpipe like a vise. He choked and weakened; the knife fell from his
+hand. He sank to the ground and lay there helpless, whereon Jeekie
+knelt upon his chest and, possessing himself of the knife, held it
+within an inch of his heart.
+
+It was at this juncture that Alan woke up and asked sleepily what was
+the matter.
+
+"Nothing, Major," answered Jeekie in low and cheerful tones. "Snake
+just going to bite you and I catch him, that all," and he gave an
+extra squeeze to the Mungana's throat, who turned black in the face
+and rolled his eyes.
+
+"Be careful, Jeekie, or you will kill the man," exclaimed Alan,
+recognizing the Mungana and taking in the situation.
+
+"Why not, Major? He want kill you, and me too afterwards. Good
+riddance of bad rubbish, as Book say."
+
+"I am not so sure, Jeekie. Give him air and let me think. Tell him
+that if he makes any noise, he dies."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, and the Mungana's darkening eyes grew bright again as
+he drew his breath in great sobs.
+
+"Now, friend," said Alan in Asiki, "why did you wish to stab me?"
+
+"Because I hate you," answered the man, "who to-morrow will take my
+place and the wife I love."
+
+"As a year or two ago you took someone else's place, eh? Well, suppose
+now that I don't want either your place or your wife."
+
+"What would that matter even it if were true, white man, since she
+wants you?"
+
+"I am thinking, friend, that there is someone else she will want when
+she hears of this. How do you suppose that you will die to-morrow? Not
+so easily as you hope, perhaps."
+
+The Mungana's eyes seemed to sink into his head, and his face to
+sicken with terror. That shaft had gone home.
+
+"Suppose I make a bargain with you," went on Alan slowly. "Supposing I
+say: 'Mungana, show me the way out of this place, as you can, now at
+once. Or if you prefer it, refuse and be given up to the Asika?' Come,
+you are not too mad to understand. Answer--and quickly."
+
+"Would you kill me afterwards?" he asked.
+
+"Not I. Why should I wish to kill you? You can come with us and go
+where you will. Or you can stay here and die as the Asika directs."
+
+"I cannot believe you, white man. It is not possible that you should
+wish to run away from so much love and glory, or to spare one who
+would have slain you. Also it would be difficult to get you out of
+Bonsa-town."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "this fellow is mad after all, I think you had
+better go to the door and shout for the priests."
+
+"No, no, lord," begged the wretched creature, "I will trust you; I
+will try, though it is you who must be mad."
+
+"Very good. Stand over him, Jeekie, while I put on my things and, yes,
+give me that mask. If he stirs, kill him at once."
+
+So Alan made himself ready. Then he mounted guard over the Mungana, as
+did Jeekie, although he shook his head over their prospect of escape.
+
+"No go," he muttered, "no go! If we get past priests, Asika catch us
+with her magic. When I bolt with your reverend uncle last time, Little
+Bonsa arrange business because she go abroad fetch you. Now likely as
+not she bowl you out, and then good-bye Jeekie."
+
+Alan sternly bade him be quiet and stop behind if he did not wish to
+come.
+
+"No, no, Major," he answered, "I come all right. Asika very prejudiced
+beggar, and if she find me here alone--oh my! Better die double after
+all, Two's company, Major. Now, all ready, /March!/" and he gave the
+unfortunate Mungana a fearful kick as a hint to proceed.
+
+So utterly crushed was the poor wretch that even this insult did not
+stir him to resentment.
+
+"Follow me, white man," he said, "and if you desire to live, be
+silent. Throw your cloaks about your heads."
+
+They did so, and holding their revolvers in their right hands, glided
+after the Mungana. In the corner of the big room they came to a little
+stair. How it opened in that place where no stair had been, they could
+not see or even guess, for it was too dark, only now they knew the
+means by which the Asika had been able to visit them at night.
+
+The Mungana went first down the stair. Jeekie followed, grasping him
+by the arm with one hand, while in the other he kept his own knife
+ready to stab him at the first sign of treachery. Alan brought up the
+rear, keeping hold of Jeekie's cloak. They passed down twelve steps of
+stair, then turned to the right along a tunnel, then to the left, then
+to the right again. In the pitch darkness it was an awful journey,
+since they knew not whither they were being led, and expected that
+every moment would be their last. At length, quite of a sudden, they
+emerged into moonlight.
+
+Alan looked about him and knew the place. It was where the feast had
+been held two months before, when the priests were poisoned and the
+Bonsas chose the victims for sacrifice. Already it was prepared for
+the great festival of to-morrow, when the Mungana should drown himself
+and Alan be married to the Asika. There on the dais were the gold
+chairs in which they were to sit, and green branches of trees mixed
+with curious flags decked the vast amphitheatre beyond. Moreover,
+there was the broad canal, and floating in the midst of it the hideous
+gold fetish, Big Bonsa. The moon shone on its glaring, deathly eyes,
+its fish-like snout and its huge, pale teeth. Alan looked at it and
+shivered, for the thing was horrid and uncanny, and the utter
+loneliness in which it lay staring up at the moon, seemed to
+accentuate the horror.
+
+The Mungana noticed his fear and whispered:
+
+"We must swim the water. If you have a god, white man, pray him to
+protect you from Bonsa."
+
+"Lead on," answered Alan, "I do not dread a foul fetish, only the look
+of it. But is there no way round?"
+
+The Mungana shook his head and began to enter the canal. Jeekie, whose
+teeth were chattering, hung back, but Alan pushed him from behind, so
+sharply that he stumbled and made a splash. Then Alan followed, and as
+the cold, black water rose to his chest, looked again at Big Bonsa.
+
+It seemed to him that the thing had turned round and was staring at
+them. Surely a few seconds ago its snout pointed the other way. No,
+that must be fancy. He was swimming now, they were all swimming, Alan
+and Jeekie holding their pistols and little stock of cartridges above
+their heads to keep them dry. The gold head of Big Bonsa appeared to
+be lifting itself up in the water, as a reptile might, in order to get
+a better view of these proceedings, but doubtless it was the ripples
+that they caused which gave it this appearance. Only why did the
+ripples make it come towards them, quite gently, like an investigating
+fish?
+
+It was about ten yards off and they were in the middle of the canal.
+The Mungana had passed it. It was in a line with Alan's head. Oh
+Heavens! a sudden smother of foam, a rush like that of a torpedo, and
+set low down between two curving waves, a flash of gold. Then a
+gurgling, inhuman laugh and a weight upon his back. Down went Alan,
+down and down!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE END OF THE MUNGANA
+
+The moonlight above vanished. Alan was alone in the depths with this
+devil, or whatever it might be. He could feel hands and feet gripping
+and treading on him, but they did not seem to be human, for there were
+too many of them. Also they were very cold. He gave himself up for
+dead and thought of Barbara.
+
+Then something flashed into his mind. In his hand he still held the
+revolver. He pressed it upwards against the thing that was smothering
+him, and pulled the trigger. Again he pulled it, and again, for it was
+a self-cocking weapon, and even there deep down in the water he heard
+the thud of the explosion of the damp-proof copper cartridges. His
+lungs were bursting, his senses reeled, only enough of them remained
+to tell him that he was free of that strangling grip and floating
+upwards. His head rose above the surface, and through the mouth of his
+mask he drew in the sweet air with quick gasps. Down below him in the
+clear water he saw the yellow head of Big Bonsa rocking and quivering
+like a great reflected mon, saw too that it was beginning to rise. Yet
+he could not swim away from it, the fetish seemed to have hypnotized
+him. He heard Jeekie calling to him from the shallow water near the
+further bank, but still he floated there like a log and stared down at
+Big Bonsa wallowing beneath.
+
+Jeekie plunged back into the canal and with a few strong strokes
+reached him, gripped him by the arm and began to tow him to the shore.
+Before they came there Big Bonsa rose like a huge fish and tried to
+follow them, but could not, or so it seemed. At any rate it only
+whirled round and round upon the surface, while from it poured a white
+fluid that turned the black water to the hue of milk. Then it began to
+scream, making a thin and dreadful sound more like that of an infant
+in pain than anything they had ever heard, a very sickening sound that
+Alan never could forget. He staggered to the bank and stood staring at
+it where it bled, rolled and shrieked, but because of the milky foam
+could make nothing out in that light.
+
+"What is it, Jeekie?" he said with an idiotic laugh. "What is it?"
+
+"Oh! don't know. Devil and all, perhaps. Come on, Major, before it
+catch us."
+
+"I don't think it will catch anyone just at present. Devil or not
+hollow-nosed bullets don't agree with it. Shall I give it another,
+Jeekie?" and he lifted the pistol.
+
+"No, no, Major, don't play tomfool," and Jeekie grabbed him by the arm
+and dragged him away.
+
+A few paces further on stood the Mungana like a man transfixed, and
+even then Alan noticed that he regarded him with something akin to
+awe.
+
+"Stronger than the god," he muttered, "stronger than the god," and
+bounded forward.
+
+Following the path that ran beside the canal, they plunged into a
+tunnel, holding each other as before. In a few minutes they were
+through it and in a place full of cedar trees outside the wall of the
+Gold House, under which evidently the tunnel passed, for there it rose
+behind them. Beneath these cedar trees they flitted like ghosts, now
+in the moonlight and now in the shadow.
+
+The great fall to the back of the town was on their left, and in front
+of them lay one of the arms of the river, at this spot a raging
+torrent not much more than a hundred feet in width, spanned by a
+narrow suspension bridge which seemed to be supported by two fibre
+ropes. On the hither side of this bridge stood a guard hut, and to
+their dismay out of this hut ran three men armed with spears,
+evidently to cut them off. One of these men sped across the bridge and
+took his stand at the further end, while the other two posted
+themselves in their path at the entrance to it.
+
+The Mungana slacked his speed and said one word--"Finished!" and
+Jeekie also hesitated, then turned and pointed behind them.
+
+Alan looked back and flitting in and out between the cedar trees, saw
+the white robes of the priests of Bonsa. Then despair seized them all,
+and they rushed at the bridge. Jeekie reached it first and dodging
+beneath the spears of the two guards, plunged his knife into the
+breast of one of them, and butted the other with his great head, so
+that he fell over the side of the bridge on to the rocks below.
+
+"Cut, Major, cut!" he said to Alan, who pushed past him. "All right
+now."
+
+They were on the narrow swaying bridge--it was but a single plank--
+Alan first, then the Mungana, then Jeekie. When they were half way
+across Alan looked before him and saw a sight he could never forget.
+
+The third guard at the further side was sawing through one of the
+fibre ropes with his spear. There they were on the middle of the
+bridge with the torrent raving fifty feet beneath them, and the man
+had nearly severed the rope! To get over before it parted was
+impossible; behind were the priests; beneath the roaring river. All
+three of them stopped as though paralyzed, for all three had seen.
+Something struck against Alan's leg, it was his pistol that still
+remained fastened to his wrist by its leather thong. He cocked and
+lifted it, took aim and fired. The shot missed, which was not
+wonderful considering the light and the platform on which the shooter
+stood. It missed, but the man, astonished, for he had never seen or
+heard such a thing before, stopped his sawing for a moment, and stared
+at them. Then as he began again Alan fired once more, and this time by
+good fortune the bullet struck the man somewhere in the body. He fell,
+and as he fell grasped the nearly separated rope and hung to it.
+
+"Get hold of the other rope and come on," yelled Alan, and once more
+they bounded forward.
+
+"My God! it's going," he yelled again. "Hold fast, Jeekie, hold fast!"
+
+Next instant the rope parted and the man vanished. The bridge tipped
+over, and supported by the remaining rope, hung edgeways up. To this
+rope the three of them clung desperately, resting their feet upon the
+edge of the swaying plank. For a few seconds they remained thus,
+afraid to stir, then Jeekie called out:
+
+"Climb on, Major, climb on like one monkey. Look bad, but quite safe
+really."
+
+As there was nothing else to be done Alan began to climb, shifting his
+feet along the plank edge and his hands along the rope, which creaked
+and stretched beneath their threefold weight.
+
+It was a horrible journey, and in his imagination took at least an
+hour. Yet they accomplished it, for at last they found themselves
+huddled together but safe upon the further bank. The sweat pouring
+down from his head almost blinded Alan; a deadly nausea worked within
+him, sickly tremors shot up and down his spine; his brain swam. Yet he
+could hear Jeekie, in whom excitement always took the form of speech,
+saying loudly:
+
+"Think that man no liar what say our great papas was monkeys. Never
+look down on monkey no more. Wake up, Major, those priests monkey-men
+too, for we all brothers, you know. Wait a bit, I stop their little
+game," and springing up with three or four cuts of the big curved
+knife, he severed the remaining rope just as their pursuers reached
+the further side of the chasm.
+
+They shouted with rage as the long bridge swung back against the rock,
+the cut end of it falling into the torrent, and waved their spears
+threateningly. To this demonstration Jeekie replied with gestures of
+contempt such as are known to street Arabs. Then he looked at the
+Mungana, who lay upon the ground a melancholy and dilapidated
+spectacle, for the perspiration had washed lines of paint off his face
+and patches of dye from his hair, also his gorgeous robes were water-
+stained and his gem necklaces broken. Having studied him a while
+Jeekie kicked him meditatively till he got up, then asked him to set
+out the exact situation. The Mungana answered that they were safe for
+a while, since that torrent could only be crossed by the broken bridge
+and was too rapid to swim. The Asiki, he added, must go a long journey
+round through the city in order to come at them, though doubtless they
+would hunt them down in time.
+
+Here Jeekie cut him short, since he knew all that country well and
+only wished to learn whether any more bridges had been built across
+the torrent since he was a boy.
+
+"Now, Major," he said, "you get up and follow me, for I know every
+inch of ground, also by and by good short cut over mountains. You see
+Jeekie very clever boy, and when he herd sheep and goat he made note
+of everything and never forget nothing. He pull you out of this hole,
+never fear."
+
+"Glad to hear it, I am sure," answered Alan as he rose. "But what's to
+become of the Mungana?"
+
+"Don't know and don't care," said Jeekie; "no more good to us. Can go
+and see how Big Bonsa feel, if he like," and stretching out his big
+hand as though in a moment of abstraction, he removed the costly
+necklaces from their guide's neck and thrust them into the pouch he
+wore. Also he picked up the gilded linen mask which Alan had removed
+from his head and placed it in the same receptacle, remarking, that he
+"always taught that it wicked to waste anything when so many poor in
+the world."
+
+Then they started, the Mungana following them. Jeekie paused and waved
+him off, but the poor wretch still came on, whereon Jeekie produced
+the big, crooked knife, Mungana's own knife.
+
+"What are you going to do," said Alan, awaking to the situation.
+
+"Cut off head of that cocktail man, Major, and so save him lot of
+trouble. Also we got no grub, and if we find any he want eat a lot.
+Chop what do for two p'raps, make very short commons for three. Also
+he might play dirty trick, so much best dead."
+
+"Nonsense," said Alan sternly; "let the poor devil come along if he
+likes. One good turn deserves another."
+
+"Just so, Major; that hello-swello want cut our throats, so I want cut
+his--one good turn deserve another, as wise king say in Book, when he
+give half baby to woman what wouldn't have it. Well, so be, Major,
+specially as it no matter, for he not stop with us long."
+
+"You mean that he will run away, Jeekie?"
+
+"Oh! no, he not run away, he in too blue funk for that. But something
+run away with him, because he ought die to-morrow night. Oh! yes, you
+see, you see, and Jeekie hope that something not run away with you
+too, Major, because you ought be married at same time."
+
+"Hope not, I am sure," answered Alan, and bethinking him of Big Bonsa
+wallowing and screaming on the water and bleeding out white blood, he
+shivered a little.
+
+By this time, advancing at a trot, the Mungana running after them like
+a dog, they had entered the bush pierced with a few wandering paths.
+Along these paths they sped for hour after hour, Jeekie leading them
+without a moment's hesitation. They met no man and heard nothing,
+except occasional weird sounds which Alan put down to wild beasts, but
+Jeekie and the Mungana said were produced by ghosts. Indeed it
+appeared that all this jungle was supposed to be haunted, and no Asiki
+would enter it at night, or unless he were very bold and protected by
+many charms, by day either. Therefore it was an excellent place for
+fugitives who sorely needed a good start.
+
+At length the day began to dawn just as they reached the main road
+where it crossed the hills, whence on his journey thither Alan had his
+first view of Bonsa Town. Peering from the edge of the bush, they
+perceived a fire burning near the road and round it five or six men,
+who seemed to be asleep. Their first thought was to avoid them, but
+the Mungana, creeping up to Alan, for Jeekie he would not approach,
+whispered:
+
+"Not Asiki, Ogula chief and slaves who left Bonsa Town yesterday."
+
+They crept nearer the fire and saw that this was so. Then rejoicing
+exceedingly, they awoke the old chief, Fahni, who at first thought
+they must be spirits. But when he recognized Alan, he flung himself on
+his knees and kissed his hand, because to him he owed his liberty.
+
+"No time for all that, Fahni," said Alan. "Give us food."
+
+Now of this as it chanced there was plenty, since by the Asika's
+orders the slaves had been laden with as much as they could carry.
+They ate of it ravenously, and while they ate, told Fahni something of
+the story of their escape. The old chief listened amazed, but like
+Jeekie asked Alan why he had not killed the Mungana, who would have
+killed him.
+
+Alan, who was in no mood for long explanations, answered that he had
+kept him with them because he might be useful.
+
+"Yes, yes, friend, I see," exclaimed the old cannibal, "although he is
+so thin he will always make a meal or two at a pinch. Truly white men
+are wise and provident. Like the ants, you take thought for the
+morrow."
+
+As soon as they had swallowed their food they started all together,
+for although Alan pointed out to Fahni that he might be safer apart,
+the old chief who had a real affection for him, would not be persuaded
+to leave him.
+
+"Let us live or die together," he said.
+
+Now Jeekie, abandoning the main road, led them up a stream, walking in
+the water so that their footsteps might leave no trace, and thus away
+into the barren mountains which rose between them and the great swamp.
+On the crest of these mountains Alan turned and looked back towards
+Bonsa Town. There far across the fertile valley was the hateful,
+river-encircled place. There fell the great cataract in the roar of
+which he had lived for so many weeks. There were the black cedars and
+there gleamed the roofs of the Gold House, his prison where dwelt the
+Asika and the dreadful fetishes of which she was the priestess. To him
+it was like the vision of a nightmare, he could scarcely think it
+real. And yet by this time doubtless they sought him far and wide.
+What mood, he wondered, would the Asika be in when she learned of his
+escape and the fashion of it, and how would she greet him if he were
+recaptured and taken back to her? Well, he would not be recaptured. He
+had still some cartridges and he would fight till they killed him, or
+failing that, save the last of them for himself. Never, never could he
+endure to be dragged back to Bonsa Town there to live and die.
+
+They went on across the mountains, till in the afternoon once more
+they saw the road running beneath them like a ribbon, and at the end
+of it the lagoon. Now they rested a while and held a consultation
+while they ate. Across that lagoon they could not escape without a
+canoe.
+
+"Lord," said the Mungana presently, "yesterday when these cannibals
+were let go a swift runner was sent forward commanding that a good
+boat should be provisioned and made ready for them, and by now
+doubtless this has been done. Let them descend to the road, walk on to
+the bay and ask for the boat. Look, yonder, far away a tongue of land
+covered with trees juts out into the lake. We will make our way
+thither and after nightfall this chief can row back to it and take us
+into the canoe."
+
+Alan said that the plan was good, but Jeekie shook his head, asking
+what would happen if Fahni, finding himself safe upon the water,
+thought it wisest not to come to fetch them.
+
+Alan translated his words to the old chief, whereon Fahni wanted to
+fight Jeekie because of the slur that he had cast upon his honour.
+This challenge Jeekie resolutely declined, saying that already there
+were plenty of ways to die in Asiki-land without adding another to
+them. Then Fahni swore by his tribal god and by the spirit of every
+man he had ever eaten, that he would come to that promontory after
+dark, if he were still alive.
+
+So they separated, Fahni and his men slipping down to the road, which
+they did without being seen by anyone, while Alan, Jeekie and the
+Mungana bore away to the right towards the promontory. The road was
+long and rough and, though by good fortune they met no one, since the
+few who dwelt in these wild parts had gone up to Bonsa Town to be
+present at the great feast, the sun was sinking before ever they
+reached the place. Moreover, this promontory proved to be covered with
+dense thorn scrub, through which they must force a way in the
+gathering darkness, not without hurt and difficulty. Still they
+accomplished it and at length, quite exhausted, crept to the very
+point, where they hid themselves between some stones at the water's
+edge.
+
+Here they waited for three long hours, but no boat came.
+
+"All up a gum-tree now, Major," said Jeekie. "Old blackguard, Fanny,
+bolt and leave us here, and to-morrow morning Asika nobble us. Better
+have gone down to bay, steal his boat and leave him behind, because
+Asika no want /him/."
+
+Alan made no answer. He was too tired, and although he trusted Fahni,
+it seemed likely enough that Jeekie was right, or perhaps the
+cannibals had not been able to get the boat. Well, he had done his
+best, and if Fate overtook them it was no fault of his. He began to
+doze, for even their imminent peril could not keep his eyes open, then
+presently awoke with a start, for in his sleep he thought he heard the
+sounds of paddles beating the quiet water. Yes, there dimly seen
+through the mist, was a canoe, and seated in the stern of it Fahni. So
+that danger had gone by also.
+
+He woke his companions, who slept at his side, and very silently they
+rose, stepping from rock to rock till they reached the canoe and
+entered it. It was not a large craft, barely big enough to hold them
+all indeed, but they found room, and then at a sign from Fahni the
+oarsmen gave way so heartily that within half an hour they had lost
+sight of the accursed shores of Asiki-land, although presently its
+mountains showed up clearly beneath the moon.
+
+Meanwhile Fahni had told his tale. It appeared that when he reached
+the bay he found the Asiki headman who dwelt there, and those under
+him, in a state of considerable excitement.
+
+Rumours had reached them that someone had escaped from Bonsa Town;
+they thought it was the Mungana. Fahni asked who had brought the
+rumour, whereon the headman answered that it came "in a dream," and
+would say no more. Then he demanded the canoe which had been promised
+to him and his people, and the headman admitted that it was ready in
+accordance with orders received from the Asika, but demurred to
+letting him have it. A long argument followed, in the midst of which
+Fahni and his men got into the canoe, the headman apparently not
+daring to use force to prevent him. Just as they were pushing off a
+messenger arrived from Bonsa Town, reeling with exhaustion and his
+tongue hanging from his jaws, who called out that it was the white man
+who had escaped with his servant and the Mungana, and that although
+they were believed to be still hidden in the holy woods near Bonsa
+Town, none were to be allowed to leave the bay. So the headman shouted
+to Fahni to return, but he pretended not to hear and rowed away, nor
+did anyone attempt to follow him. Still it was only after nightfall
+that he dared to put the boat about and return to the headland to pick
+up Alan and the others as he had promised. That was all he had to say.
+
+Alan thanked him heartily for his faithfulness and they paddled on
+steadily, putting mile after mile of water between them and Asiki-
+land. He wondered whether he had seen the last of that country and its
+inhabitants. Something within him answered No. He was sure that the
+Asika would not allow him to depart in peace without making some
+desperate effort to recapture him. Far as he was away, it seemed to
+him that he could feel her fury hanging over him like a cloud, a cloud
+that would burst in a rain of blood. Doubtless it would have burst
+already had it not been for the accident that he and his companions
+were still supposed to be hiding in the woods. But that error must be
+discovered, and then would come the pursuit.
+
+He looked at the full moon shining upon him and reflected that at this
+very hour he should have been seated upon the chair of state, wedding,
+or rather being wedded by the Asika in the presence of Big and Little
+Bonsa and all the people. His eye fell upon the Mungana, who had also
+been destined to play a prominent part in that ceremony. At once he
+saw that there was something wrong with the man. A curious change had
+come over his emaciated face. It was working like that of a maniac.
+Foam appeared upon his dyed lips, his haunted eyes rolled, his thin
+hands gripped the side of the canoe and he began to sing, or rather
+howl like a dog baying at the stars. Jeekie hit him on the head and
+bade him be silent, but he took no notice, even when he hit him again
+more heavily. Presently came the climax. The man sprang up in the
+canoe, causing it to rock from side to side. He pointed to the full
+moon above and howled more loudly than before; he pointed to something
+that he seemed to see in the air near by and gibbered as though in
+terror. Then his eyes fixed themselves upon the water at which he
+stared.
+
+Harder and harder he stared, his head sinking lower every moment, till
+at length without another sound, very quietly and unexpectedly he went
+over the side of the boat. For a few seconds they saw his bright-
+coloured garments sinking to the depths, then he vanished.
+
+They waited a while, expecting that he would rise again. But he never
+rose. A shot-weighted corpse could not have disappeared more finally
+and completely. The thing was very awful, and for a while there was
+silence, which as usual was broken by Jeekie.
+
+"That gay dog gone," he said in a reflective voice. "All those old
+ghosts come to fetch him at proper time. No good run away from ghosts;
+they travel too quick; one jump, and pop up where you no expect. Well,
+more place for Jeekie now," and he spread himself out comfortably in
+the empty seat, adding, "like hello-swello's room much better than
+company, he go in scent-bath every day and stink too much, all that
+water never wash /him/ clean."
+
+Thus died the Mungana, and such was the poor wretch's requiem. With a
+shiver Alan reflected that had it not been for him and his insane
+jealousy, he too might have been expected to go into that same scent-
+bath and have his face painted like a chorus girl. Only would he
+escape the spell that had destroyed his predecessor in the affections
+of the priestess of the Bonsas? Or would some dim power such as had
+drawn Mungana to the death drag him back to the arms of the Asika or
+to the torture pit of "Great Swimming Head." He remembered his dream
+in the Treasure Hall and shuddered at the very thought of it, for all
+he had undergone and seen made him superstitious; then bade the men
+paddle faster, ever faster.
+
+All that night they rowed on, taking turns to rest, except Alan and
+Jeekie, who slept a good deal and as a consequence awoke at dawn much
+refreshed. When the sun rose they found themselves across the lagoon,
+over thirty miles from the borders of Asiki-land, almost at the spot
+where the river up which they had travelled some months before, flowed
+out of the lake. Whether by chance or skill Fahni had steered a
+wonderfully straight course. Now, however, they were face to face with
+a new trouble, for scarcely had they begun to descend the river when
+they discovered that at this dry season of the year it was in many
+places too shallow to allow the canoe to pass over the sand and mud
+banks. Evidently there was but one thing to be done--abandon it and
+walk.
+
+So they landed, ate from their store of food and began a terrible and
+toilsome journey. On either side of the river lay dessicated swamp
+covered with dead reeds ten or twelve feet high. Doubtless beyond the
+swamp there was high land, but in order to reach this, if it existed,
+they would be obliged to force a path through miles of reeds.
+Therefore they thought it safer to follow the river bank. Their
+progress was very slow, since continually they must make detours to
+avoid a quicksand or a creek, also the stones and scrubby growth
+delayed them so that fifteen or at most twenty miles was a good day's
+march.
+
+Still they went on steadily, seeing no man, and when their food was
+exhausted, living on the fish which they caught in plenty in the
+shallows, and on young flapper ducks that haunted the reeds. So at
+length they came to the main river into which this tributary flowed,
+and camped there thankfully, believing that if any pursuit of them had
+been undertaken, it was abandoned. At least Alan and the rest believed
+this, but Jeekie did not.
+
+On the following morning, shortly after dawn, Jeekie awoke his master.
+
+"Come here, Major," he said in a solemn voice, "I got something pretty
+show you," and he led him to the foot of an old willow tree, adding,
+"now up you go, Major, and look."
+
+So Alan went up and from the topmost fork of that tree saw a sight at
+which his blood turned cold. For there, not five miles behind them, on
+either side of the river bank, the light gleaming on their spears,
+marched two endless columns of men, who from their head-dresses he
+took to be Asiki. For a minute he looked, then descended the tree and
+approaching the others, asked what was to be done.
+
+"Hook, scoot, bolt, leg it!" exclaimed Jeekie emphatically; then he
+licked his finger, held it up to the wind and added, "but first fire
+reeds and make it hot for Bonsa crowd."
+
+This was a good suggestion and one on which they acted without delay.
+Taking red embers, they blew them into a flame and lit torches, which
+they applied to the reeds over a width of several hundred yards. The
+strong northward wind soon did the rest; indeed with a quarter of an
+hour a vast sheet of flame twenty or thirty feet in height was rushing
+towards the Asiki columns. Then they began their advance along the
+river bank, running at a steady trot, for here the ground was open.
+
+All that day they ran, pausing at intervals to get their breath, and
+at night rested because they must. When the light came upon the
+following morning they looked back from a little hill and saw the
+outposts of the Asiki advancing not a mile behind. Doubtless some of
+the army had been burned, but the rest, guessing their route, had
+forced a way through the reeds and cut across country. So they began
+to run again harder than before, and kept their lead during the
+morning. But when afternoon came the Asika gained on them. Now they
+were breasting a long rise, the river running in the cleft beneath,
+and Jeekie, who seemed to be absolutely untiring, held Alan by the
+hand, Fahni following close behind. Two of their men had fallen down
+and been abandoned, and the rest straggled.
+
+"No go, Jeekie," gasped Alan, "they will catch us at the top of the
+hill."
+
+"Never say die, Major, never say die," puffed Jeekie, "they get blown
+too and who know what other side of hill?"
+
+Somehow they struggled to the crest and behold! there beneath them was
+a great army of men.
+
+"Ogula!" yelled Jeekie, "Ogula! Just what I tell you, Major, who know
+what other side of /any/ hill."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A MEETING IN THE FOREST
+
+In five minutes more Alan and Jeekie were among the Ogula, who, having
+recognized their chief while he was yet some way off, greeted him with
+rapturous cheers and the clapping of hands. Then as there was no time
+for explanation, they retreated across a little stream which ran down
+the valley, four thousand or more of them, and prepared for battle.
+That evening, however, there was no fighting, for when the first of
+the Asiki reached the top of the rise and saw that the fugitives had
+escaped to the enemy, who were in strength, they halted and finally
+retired.
+
+Now Alan, and Fahni also, hoped that the pursuit was abandoned, but
+again Jeekie shook his big head, saying:
+
+"Not at all, Major, I know Asiki and their little ways. While one of
+them alive, not dare go back to Asika without /you/, Major."
+
+"Perhaps she is with them herself," suggested Alan, "and we might
+treat with her."
+
+"No, Major, Asika never leave Bonsa Town, that against law, and if she
+do so, priests make another Asika and kill her when they catch her."
+
+After this a council of war was held, and it was decided to camp there
+that night, since the position was good to meet an attack if one
+should be made, and the Ogula were afraid of being caught on the march
+with their backs towards the enemy. Alan was glad enough to hear this
+decision, for he was quite worn out and ready to take any risk for a
+few hours' rest. At this council he learned also that the Asiki
+bearers carrying his gold with their Ogula guides had arrived safely
+among the Ogula, who had mustered in answer to their chief's call and
+were advancing towards Asiki-land, though the business was one that
+did not please them. As for these Asiki bearers, it seemed that they
+had gone on into the forest with the gold, and nothing more had been
+heard of them.
+
+As they were leaving the council Alan asked Jeekie if he had any
+tidings of his mother, who had been their first messenger.
+
+"No, Major," he answered gloomily, "can't learn nothing of my ma,
+don't know where she is. Ogula camp no place for old girl if they
+short of chop and hungry. But p'raps she never get there; I nose round
+and find out."
+
+Apparently Jeekie did "nose round" to some purpose, for just as Alan
+was dropping off to sleep in his bough shelter a most fearful din
+arose without, through which he recognized the vociferations of
+Jeekie. Running out of the shelter he discovered his retainer and a
+great Ogula whom he knew again as the headman who had been imprisoned
+with him and freed by the Asika to guide the bearers, rolling over and
+over on the ground, watched by a curious crowd. Just as he arrived
+Jeekie, who notwithstanding his years was a man of enormous strength,
+got the better of the Ogula and kneeling on his stomach, was
+proceeding to throttle him. Rushing at him, Alan dragged him off and
+asked what was the matter.
+
+"Matter, Major!" yelled the indignant Jeekie. "My ma inside this black
+villain, /that/ the matter. Dirty cannibal got digestion of one
+ostrich and eat her up with all his mates, all except one who not like
+her taste and tell me. They catch poor old lady asleep by road so stop
+and lunch at once when Asiki bearers not looking. Let me get at him,
+Major, let me get at him. If I can't bury my ma, as all good son ought
+to do, I bury him, which next best thing."
+
+"Jeekie, Jeekie," said Alan, "exercise a Christian spirit and let
+bygones be bygones. If you don't, you will make a quarrel between us
+and the Ogula, and they will give us up to the Asiki. Perhaps the man
+did not eat your mother; I understand that he denies it, and when you
+remember what she was like, it seems incredible. At any rate he has a
+right to a trial, and I will speak to Fahni about it to-morrow."
+
+So they were separated, but as it chanced that case never came on, for
+next morning this Ogula was killed in the fighting together with two
+of his companions, while the others involved in the charge kept
+themselves out of sight. Whether Jeekie's "ma" was or was not eaten by
+the Ogula no one ever learned for certain. At least she was never
+heard of any more.
+
+Alan was sleeping heavily when a sound of rushing feet and of strange,
+thrilling battle-cries awoke him. He sprang up, snatching at a spear
+and shield which Jeekie had provided for him, and ran out to find from
+the position of the moon that dawn was near.
+
+"Come on, Major," said Jeekie, "Asiki make night attack; they always
+like do everything at night who love darkness, because their eye evil.
+Come on quick, Major," and he began to drag him off toward the rear.
+
+"But that's the wrong way," said Alan presently. "They are attacking
+over there."
+
+"Do you think Jeekie fool, Major, that he don't know that? He take you
+where they /not/ attacking. Plenty Ogula to be killed, but not /many/
+white men like you, and in all world only /one/ Jeekie!"
+
+"You cold-blooded old scoundrel!" ejaculated Alan as he turned and
+bolted back towards the noise of fighting, followed by his reluctant
+servant.
+
+By the time that he reached the first ranks, which were some way off,
+the worst of the attack was over. It had been short and sharp, for the
+Asiki had hoped to find the Ogula unprepared and to take their camp
+with a rush. But the Ogula, who knew their habits, were waiting for
+them, so that presently they withdrew, carrying off their wounded and
+leaving about fifty dead upon the ground. As soon as he was quite sure
+that the enemy were all gone, Jeekie, armed with a large battle-axe,
+went off to inspect these fallen soldiers. Alan, who was helping the
+Ogula wounded, wondered why he took so much interest in them. Half an
+hour later his curiosity was satisfied, for Jeekie returned with over
+twenty heavy gold rings, torques, and bracelets slung over his
+shoulder.
+
+"Where did you get those, Jeekie?" he asked.
+
+"Off poor chaps that peg out just now, Major. Remember Asiki soldiers
+nearly always wear these things and that they no more use to them. But
+if ever he get out of this Jeekie want spend his old age in
+respectable peace. So he fetch them. Hard work, though, for rings all
+in one bit and Asiki very tough to chop. Don't look cross, Major; you
+remember what 'postle say, that he who no provide for his own self
+worse than cannibal."
+
+Just then Fahni came up and announced that the Asiki general had sent
+a messenger into the camp proposing terms of peace.
+
+"What terms?" asked Alan.
+
+"These, white man: that we should surrender you and your servant and
+go our way unharmed."
+
+"Indeed, Fahni, and what did you answer?"
+
+"White man, I refused; but I tell you," he added warningly, "that my
+captains wished to accept. They said that I had come back to them safe
+and that they fear the Asiki, who are devils, not men, and who will
+bring the curse of Bonsa on us if we go on fighting with them. Still I
+refused, saying that if they gave you up I would go with you, who
+saved my life from the lion and afterwards from the priests of Bonsa.
+So the messenger went back and, white man, we march at once, and I
+pray you always to keep close to me that I may watch over you."
+
+Then began that long tramp down the river, which Alan always thought
+afterwards tried him more than any of the terrible events of his
+escape. For although there was but little fighting, only rearguard
+actions indeed, every day the Asiki sent messengers renewing their
+offers of peace on the sole condition of the surrender of himself and
+Jeekie. At last one evening they came to that place where Alan first
+met the Ogula, and once more he camped upon the island on which he had
+shot the lion. At nightfall, after he had eaten, Fahni visited him
+here and Alan boded evil from his face.
+
+"White man," he said, "I can protect you no longer. The Asiki
+messengers have been with us again and they say that unless we give
+you up to-morrow at the dawn, their army will push on ahead of us and
+destroy my town, which is two days' march down the river, and all the
+women and children in it, and that afterwards they will fight a great
+battle with us. Therefore my people say that I must give you up, or
+that if I do not they will elect another chief and do so themselves."
+
+"Then you will give up a dead man, Fahni."
+
+"Friend," said the old chief in a low voice, "the night is dark and
+the forest not so far away. Moreover, I have set no guards on that
+side of the river, and Jeekie here does not forget a road that he has
+travelled. Lastly, I have heard it said that there are some other
+white people with soldiers camped in the edge of the forest. Now, if
+you were not here in the morning, how could I give you up?"
+
+"I understand, Fahni. You have done your best for me, and now, good-
+night. Jeekie and I are going to take a walk. Sometimes you will think
+of the months we spent together in Bonsa-Town, will you not?"
+
+"Yes, and of you also, white man, for so long as I shall live. Walk
+fast and far, for the Asiki are clever at following a spoor. Good-
+night, Friend, and to you, Jeekie the cunning, good-night also. I go
+to tell my captains that I will surrender you at dawn," and without
+more words he vanished out of their sight and out of their lives.
+
+Meanwhile Jeekie, foreseeing the issue of this talk, was already
+engaged in doing up their few belongings, including the gold rings,
+some food, and a native cooking pot, in a bundle surrounded by a
+couple of bark blankets.
+
+"Come on, Major," he said, handing Alan one spear and taking another
+himself. "Old cannibal quite right, very nice night for a walk. Come
+on, Major, river shallow just here. I think this happen and try it
+before dark. You just follow Jeekie, that all you got to do."
+
+So leaving the fire burning in front of their bough shelter, they
+waded the stream and started up the opposing slope, meeting no man.
+Dark as it was, Jeekie seemed to have no difficulty in finding the
+way, for as Fahni said, a native does not forget the path he has once
+travelled. All night long they walked rapidly, and when dawn broke
+found themselves at the edge of the forest.
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, "what did Fahni mean by that tale about white
+people?"
+
+"Don't know, Major, think perhaps he lie to let you down easy. My
+golly! what that?"
+
+As he spoke a distant echo reached their ears, the echo of a rifle
+shot. "Think Fanny not lie after all," went on Jeekie; "that white
+man's gun, sharp crack, smokeless powder, but wonder how he come in
+this place. Well, we soon find out. Come on, Major."
+
+Tired as they were they broke into a run; the prospect of seeing a
+white face again was too much for them. Half a mile or so further on
+they caught sight of a figure evidently engaged in stalking game among
+the trees, or so they judged from his cautious movements.
+
+"White man!" said Jeekie, and Alan nodded.
+
+They crept forward silently and with care, for who knew what this
+white man might be after, keeping a great tree between them and the
+man, till at length, passing round its bole, they found themselves
+face to face with him and not five yards away. Notwithstanding his
+unaccustomed tropical dress and his face burnt copper colour by the
+sun, Alan knew the man at once.
+
+"Aylward!" he gasped; "Aylward! You here?"
+
+He started. He stared at Alan. Then his countenance changed. Its
+habitual calm broke up as it was wont to do in moments of deep
+emotion. It became very evil, as though some demon of hate and
+jealousy were at work behind it. The thin lips quivered, the eyes
+glared, and without spoken word or warning, he lifted the rifle and
+fired straight at Alan. The bullet missed him, for the aim was high.
+Passing over Alan's head, it cut a neat groove through the hair of the
+taller Jeekie who was immediately behind him.
+
+Next instant, with a spring like that of a tiger Jeekie was on
+Aylward. The weight of his charge knocked him backwards to the ground,
+and there he lay, pinned fast.
+
+"What for you do that?" exclaimed the indignant Jeekie. "What for you
+shoot through wool of respectable nigger, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart.?
+Now I throttle you, you dirty hog-swine. No Magistrates' Court here in
+Dwarf Forest," and he began to suit the action to the word.
+
+"Let him go, Jeekie. Take his rifle and let him go," exclaimed Alan,
+who all this while had stood amazed. "There must be some mistake, he
+cannot have meant to murder me."
+
+"Don't know what he mean, but know his bullet go through my hair,
+Major, and give me new parting," grumbled Jeekie as he obeyed.
+
+"Of course it was a mistake, Vernon, for I suppose it is Vernon," said
+Aylward, as he rose. "I do not wonder that your servant is angry, but
+the truth is that your sudden appearance frightened me out of my wits
+and I fired automatically. We have been living in some danger here and
+my nerves are not as strong as they used to be."
+
+"Indeed," answered Alan. "No, Jeekie will carry the rifle for you;
+yes, and I think that pistol also, every ounce makes a difference
+walking in a hot climate, and I remember that you always were
+dangerous with firearms. There, you will be more comfortable so. And
+now, who do you mean by 'we'?"
+
+"I mean Barbara and myself," he answered slowly.
+
+Alan's jaw dropped, he shook upon his feet.
+
+"Barbara and yourself!" he said. "Do I understand----"
+
+"Don't you understand nothing, Major," broke in Jeekie. "Don't you
+believe one word what this pig dog say. If Miss Barbara marry him he
+no want shoot you; he ask you to tea to see the Missus and how much
+she love him, ducky! We just go on and call on Miss Barbara and hear
+the news. Walk up, Sir Robert Aylward, Bart., and show us which way."
+
+"I do not choose to receive you and your impertinent servant at my
+camp," said Aylward, grinding his teeth.
+
+"We quite understand that, Sir Robert Aylward----"
+
+"Lord Aylward, if you please, Major Vernon."
+
+"I beg your pardon--Lord Aylward. I was aware of the contemplated
+purchase of that title, I did not know that it had been completed. I
+was about to add that all the same we mean to go to that camp, and
+that if any violence towards us is attempted as we approach it, you
+will remember that you are in our hands."
+
+"Yes, my Lord," added Jeekie, bowing, "and that monkeys don't tell no
+tales, my Lord, and that here there ain't no twelve Good-Trues to sit
+on noble corpse unhappily deceased, my Lord, and to bring in Crowner's
+verdict of done to death lawful or unlawful, according as evidence may
+show when got, my Lord. So march on, for we no breakfast yet. No, not
+that way, round here to left, where I think I hear kettle sing."
+
+So having no choice, Aylward came, marching between the other two and
+saying nothing. When they had gone a couple of hundred yards Alan also
+heard something, and to him it sounded like a man crying out in pain.
+Then suddenly they passed round some great trees and reached a glade
+in the forest where there was a spring of water which Alan remembered.
+In this glade the camp had been built, surrounded by a "boma" or
+palisade of rough wood, within which stood two tents and some native
+shelters made of tall grass and boughs. Outside of this camp a curious
+and unpleasant scene was in progress.
+
+To a small tree that grew there was tied a man, whom from the fashion
+of his hair Alan knew to belong to the Coast negroes, while two great
+fellows, evidently of another tribe, flogged him unmercifully with
+hide whips.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Jeekie, "that the kettle I hear sing. Think you better
+taken him off the fire, my Lord, or he boil over. Also his brothers no
+seem to like that music," and he pointed to a number of other men who
+were standing round watching the scene with sullen dissatisfaction.
+
+"A matter of camp discipline," muttered Aylward. "This man has
+disobeyed orders."
+
+By now Jeekie was shouting something to the natives in an unknown
+tongue, which they seemed to understand well enough. At any rate the
+flogging ceased, the two fellows who were inflicting it slunk away,
+and the other men ran towards them, shouting back as they came.
+
+"All right, Major. You please stop here one minute with my Lord, late
+Bart. of Bloody Hand. Some of these chaps friends of mine, I meet them
+Old Calabar while we get ready to march last rains. Now I have little
+talk with them and find out thing or two."
+
+Aylward began to bluster about interference with his servants and so
+forth. Jeekie turned on him with a very ugly grin, and showing his
+white teeth, as was his fashion when he grew fierce.
+
+"Beg pardon, Right Honourable Lord," he said, or rather snarled, "you
+do what I tell you just to please Jeekie. Jeekie no one in England,
+but Jeekie damn big Lord too out here, great medicine man, pal of
+Little Bonsa. You remember Little Bonsa, eh! These chaps think it
+great honour to meet Jeekie, so, Major, if he stir, please shoot him
+through head; Jeekie 'sponsible, not you. Or if you not like do it, I
+come back and see to job myself and don't think those fellows cry very
+much."
+
+There was something about Jeekie's manner that frightened Aylward, who
+understood for the first time that beneath all the negro's grotesque
+talk lay some dreadful, iron purpose, as courage lay under his
+affected cowardice and under his veneer of selfishness, fidelity. At
+any rate he halted with Alan, who stood beside him, the revolver of
+which Aylward had been relieved by Jeekie, in his hand. Meanwhile
+Jeekie, who held the rifle which he had reloaded, went on and met the
+natives about twenty yards away.
+
+"We always disliked each other, Vernon, but I must say that I never
+thought a day would come when you proposed to murder me in my own
+camp," said Aylward.
+
+"Odd thing," answered Alan, "but a very similar idea was in my mind. I
+never thought, Lord Aylward, that however unscrupulous you might be--
+financially--a day would come when you would attempt to shoot down an
+unarmed man in an African forest. Oh! don't waste breath in lying; I
+saw you recognize me, aim, and fire, after which Jeekie would have had
+the other barrel, and who then would have remained to tell the story,
+Lord Aylward?"
+
+Aylward made no answer, but Alan felt that if wishes could kill him he
+would not live long. His eye fell upon a long, unmistakable mound of
+fresh earth, beneath a tree. He calculated its length, and with a
+thrill of terror noticed that it was too small for a negro.
+
+"Who is buried there?" he asked.
+
+"Find out for yourself," was the sneering answer.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Lord Aylward; I shall find out everything in time."
+
+The conversation between Jeekie and the natives proceeded, their heads
+were close together; it grew animated. They seemed to be coming to
+some decision. Presently one of them ran and cut the lashings of the
+man who had been bound to the tree, and he staggered towards them and
+joined in the talk, pointing to his wounds. Then the two fellows who
+had been engaged in flogging him, accompanied by eight companions of
+the same type--they appeared to be soldiers, for they carried guns--
+swaggered towards the group who were being addressed by Jeekie, of
+whom Alan counted twenty-three. As they approached Jeekie made some
+suggestion which, after one hesitating moment, the others seemed to
+accept, for they nodded their heads and separated out a little.
+
+Jeekie stepped forward and asked a question of the guards, to which
+they replied with a derisive shout. Then without a word of warning he
+lifted Aylward's express rifle which he carried, and fired first one
+barrel and then the other, shooting the two leading soldiers dead.
+Their companions halted amazed, but before they could lift their guns,
+Jeekie and those with him rushed at them and began stabbing them with
+spears and striking them with sticks. In three minutes it was over
+without another shot being fired. Most of them were despatched, and
+the others, throwing down their guns, had fled wounded into the
+forest.
+
+Now, shouting in jubilation, some of the men began to drag away the
+dead bodies, while others collected the rifles and the remainder,
+headed by Jeekie, advanced towards Alan and Aylward, waving their red
+spears. Alan stood staring, for he did not in the least understand the
+meaning of what had happened, but Aylward, who had turned very pale,
+addressed Jeekie, saying:
+
+"I suppose that you have come to murder me also, you black villain."
+
+"No, no, my Lord," answered Jeekie politely, "not at present. Also
+that wrong word, execute, not murder, just what you do to some of
+these poor devils," and he pointed to the mob of porters. "Besides,
+mustn't kill holy white man, poor black chap don't matter, plenty more
+where he come from. Think we all go see Miss Barbara now. You come
+too, my Lord Bart., but p'raps best tie your hands behind you first;
+if you want scratch head, I do it for you. That only fair, you scratch
+mine this morning."
+
+Then at a word from Jeekie some of the natives sprang on Aylward and
+tied his hands behind his back.
+
+"Is Miss Barbara alive?" said Alan to Jeekie in an agonized whisper,
+at the same time nodding towards the grave that was so ominously
+short.
+
+"Hope so, think so, these cards say so, but God He know alone,"
+answered Jeekie. "Go and look, that best way to find out."
+
+So they advanced into the camp through a narrow gateway made of a
+V-shaped piece of wood, to where the two tents were placed in its
+inner division. Of these tents, the first, was open, whereas the
+second was closed. As the open tent was obviously empty, they went to
+the second, whereof Jeekie began to loosen the lashings of the flap.
+It was a long business, for they seemed to have been carefully knotted
+inside; indeed at last, growing impatient, Jeekie cut the cord, using
+the curved knife with which the Mungana had tried to kill Alan.
+
+Meanwhile Alan was suffering torments, being convinced that Barbara
+was dead and buried in that new-made grave beneath the trees. He could
+not speak, he could scarcely stand, and yet a picture began to form in
+his numb mind. He saw himself seated in the dark in the Treasure-house
+at Bonsa-Town; he saw a vision in the air before him.
+
+Lo! the tent door opened and that vision reappeared.
+
+There was the pale Barbara seated, weeping. There again, as he entered
+she sprang up and snatching the pistol that lay beside her, turned it
+to her breast. Then she perceived him and the pistol sank downwards
+till from her relaxed hand it dropped to the ground. She threw up her
+arms and without a sound fell backwards, or would have fallen, had he
+not caught her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE LAST OF THE ASIKI
+
+Barbara had recovered. She sat upon her bed in the tent and by her sat
+Alan, holding her hand, while before them stood Aylward like a
+prisoner in the dock, and behind him the armed Jeekie.
+
+"Tell me the story, Barbara," said Alan, "and tell it briefly, for I
+cannot bear much more of this."
+
+She looked at him and began in a slow, even voice:
+
+"After you had gone, dear, things went on as usual for a month or two.
+Then came the great Sahara Company trouble. First there were rumours
+and the shares began to go down. My uncle bought them in by tens and
+hundreds of thousands, to hold up the market, because he was being
+threatened, but of course he did not know then that Lord Aylward--for
+I forgot to tell you, he had become a lord somehow--was secretly one
+of the principal sellers, let him deny it if he can. At last the
+Ottoman Government, through the English ambassador, published its
+repudiation of the concession, which it seems was a forgery, actually
+executed or obtained in Constantinople by my uncle. Well, there was a
+fearful smash. Writs were taken out against my uncle, but before they
+could be served, he died suddenly of heart disease. I was with him at
+the time and he kept saying he saw that gold mask which Jeekie calls
+Bonsa, the thing you took back to Africa. He had a fine funeral, for
+what he had done was not publicly known, and when his will was opened
+I found that he had left me his fortune, but made Lord Aylward there
+my trustee until I came to the full age of twenty-five under my
+father's will. Alan, don't force me to tell you what sort of a
+guardian he was to me; also there was no fortune, it had all gone;
+also I had very, very little left, for almost all my own money had
+gone too. In his despair he had forged papers to get it in order to
+support those Sahara Syndicate shares. Still I managed to borrow about
+�2000 from that little lawyer out of the �5000 that remain to me, an
+independent sum which he was unable to touch, and, Alan, with it I
+came to find you.
+
+"Alan, Lord Aylward followed me; although everybody else was ruined,
+he remained rich, very very rich, they say, and his fancy was to marry
+me, also I think it was not comfortable for him in England. It is a
+long tale, but I got up here with about five-and-twenty servants, and
+Snell, my maid, whom you remember. Then we were both taken ill with
+some dreadful fever and had it not been for those good black people, I
+should have died, for I have been very sick, Alan. But they nursed me
+and I recovered; it was poor Snell who died, they buried her a few
+days ago. I thought that she would live, but she had a relapse. Next
+Lord Aylward appeared with twelve soldiers and some porters who, I
+believe, have run away now,--oh! you can guess, you can guess. He
+wanted my people to carry me away somewhere, to the coast, I suppose,
+but they were faithful to me and would not. Then he set his soldiers
+on to maltreat them. They shot several of them and flogged them on
+every opportunity; they were flogging one of them just now, I heard
+them. Well, the poor men made me understand that they could bear it no
+longer and must do what he told them.
+
+"And so, Alan, as I was quite hopeless and helpless, I made up my mind
+to kill myself, hoping that God would forgive me and that I should
+find you somewhere, perhaps after sleeping a while, for it was better
+to die than to be given into the power--of that man. I thought that he
+was coming for me just now and I was about to do it, but it was you
+instead, Alan, /you/, and only just in time. That is all the story,
+and I hope you will not think that I have acted very foolishly, but I
+did it for the best. If you only knew what I have suffered, Alan, what
+I have gone through in one way and another, I am sure that you would
+not judge me harshly; also I kept dreaming that you were in trouble
+and wanted me to come to you, and of course I knew where you were gone
+and had that map. Send him away, Alan, for I am still so weak and I
+cannot bear the sight of his face. If you knew everything, you would
+understand."
+
+Alan turned on Aylward and in a cold, quiet voice asked him what he
+had to say to this story.
+
+"I have to say, Major Vernon, that it is a clever mixture of truth and
+falsehood. It is true that your cousin, Champers-Haswell, has been
+proved guilty of some very shameful conduct. For instance it appears
+that he did forge, or rather cause to be forged that Firman from the
+Sultan, although I knew nothing of this until it was publicly
+repudiated. It is also true that fearing exposure he entirely lost his
+head and spent not only his own great fortune but that of Miss
+Champers also, in trying to support Sahara shares. I admit also that I
+sold many hundreds of thousands of those shares in the ordinary way,
+having made up my mind to retire from business when I was raised to
+the peerage. I admit further, what you knew before, that I was
+attached to Miss Champers and wished to marry her. Why should I not,
+especially as I had a good deal to offer to a lady who has been proved
+to be almost without fortune?
+
+"For the rest she set out secretly on this mad journey to Africa,
+whither both my duty as her trustee and my affection prompted me to
+follow her. I found her here recovering from an illness, and since she
+has dwelt upon the point, in self-defence I must tell you that
+whatever has taken place between us, has been with her full consent
+and encouragement. Of course I allude only to those affectionate
+amenities which are common between people who purpose to marry as soon
+as opportunity may offer."
+
+At this declaration poor Barbara gasped and leaned back against her
+pillow. Alan stood silent, though his lips turned white, while Jeekie
+thrust his big head through the tent opening and stared upwards.
+
+"What are you looking at, Jeekie?" asked Alan irritably.
+
+"Seem to want air, Major, also look to see if clouds tumble. Believe
+partickler big lie do that sometimes. Please go on, O good Lord, for
+Jeekie want his breakfast."
+
+"As regards the execution of two of Miss Champers' bearers and the
+flogging of some others, these punishments were inflicted for mutiny,"
+went on Aylward. "It was obviously necessary that she should be moved
+back to the coast, but I found out that they were trying to desert her
+in a body and to tamper with my own servants, and so was obliged to
+take strong measures."
+
+"Sure those clouds come down now," soliloquized Jeekie, "or least
+something rummy happen."
+
+"I have only to add, Major Vernon, that unless you make away with me
+first, as I daresay you will, as soon as we reach civilization again I
+shall proceed against you and this fellow for the cold-blooded murder
+of my men, in punishment of which I hope yet to live to see you
+hanged. Meanwhile, I have much pleasure in releasing Miss Champers
+from her engagement to me which, whatever she may have said to you in
+England, she was glad enough to enter on here in Africa, a country of
+which I have been told the climate frequently deteriorates the moral
+character."
+
+"Hear, hear!" ejaculated Jeekie, "he say something true at last; by
+accident, I think, like pig what find pearl in muck-heap."
+
+"Hold your tongue, Jeekie," said Alan. "I do not intend to kill you,
+Lord Aylward, or to do you any harm----"
+
+"Nor I neither," broke in Jeekie, "all I do to my Lord just for my
+Lord's good; who Jeekie that he wish to hurt noble British
+'ristocrat?"
+
+"But I do intend that it shall be impossible that Miss Champers should
+be forced to listen to more of your insults," went on Alan, "and to
+make sure that your gun does not go off again as it did this morning.
+So, Lord Aylward, until we have settled what we are going to do, I
+must keep you under arrest. Take him to his tent, Jeekie, and put a
+guard over him."
+
+"Yes, Major, certainly, Major. Right turn, march! my Lord, and quick,
+please, since poor, common Jeekie not want dirty his black finger
+touching you."
+
+Aylward obeyed, but at the door of the tent swung round and favoured
+Alan with a very evil look.
+
+"Luck is with you for the moment, Major Vernon," he said, "but if you
+are wise you will remember that you never have been and never will be
+my match. It will turn again, I have no doubt, and then you may look
+to yourself, for I warn you I am a bad enemy."
+
+Alan did not answer, but for the first time Barbara sprang to her feet
+and spoke.
+
+"You mean that you are a bad man, Lord Aylward, and a coward too, or
+otherwise you would not have tortured me as you have done. Well, when
+it seemed impossible that I should escape from you except in one way,
+I was saved by another way of which I never dreamed. Now I tell you
+that I do not fear you any more. But I think," she added slowly, "that
+you would do well to fear for yourself. I don't know why, but it comes
+into my mind that though neither Alan nor I shall lift a finger
+against you, you have a great deal of which to be afraid. Remember
+what I said to you months ago when you were angry because I would not
+marry you. I believe it is all coming true, Lord Aylward."
+
+Then Barbara turned her back upon him, and that was the last time that
+either she or Alan ever saw his face.
+
+He was gone, and Barbara, her head upon her lover's shoulder and her
+sweet eyes filled with tears of joy and gratitude, was beginning to
+tell him everything that had befallen her when suddenly they heard a
+loud cough outside the tent.
+
+"It's that confounded Jeekie," said Alan, and he called to him to come
+in.
+
+"What's the matter now?" he asked crossly.
+
+"Breakfast, Major. His lordship got plenty good stores, borrow some
+from him and give him chit. Coming in one minute--hot coffee, kipper
+herring, rasher bacon, also butter (best Danish), and Bath Oliver
+biscuit."
+
+"Very well," said Alan, but Jeekie did not move.
+
+"Very well," repeated Alan.
+
+"No, Major, not very well, very ill. Thought those lies bring down
+clouds."
+
+"What do you mean, Jeekie?"
+
+"Mean, Major, that Asiki smelling about this camp. Porter-man what go
+to fetch water see them. Also believe they catch rest of those soldier
+chaps and polish them, for porter-man hear the row."
+
+Alan sprang up with an exclamation; in his new-found joy he had
+forgotten all about the Asiki.
+
+"Keep hair on, Major," said Jeekie cheerfully; "don't think they
+attack yet, plenty of time for breakfast first. When they come we make
+it very hot for them, lots of rifle and cartridge now."
+
+"Can't we run away?" asked Barbara.
+
+"No, Missy, can't run; must stop here and do best. Camp well built,
+open all round, don't think they take it. You leave everything to
+Jeekie, he see you through, but p'raps you like come breakfast
+outside, where you know all that go on."
+
+Barbara did like, but as it happened they were allowed to consume
+their meal in peace, since no Asiki appeared. As soon as it was
+swallowed she returned to her tent, while Alan and Jeekie set to work
+to strengthen the defences of the little camp as well as they were
+able, and to make ready and serve out the arms and ammunition.
+
+About midday a man whom they had posted in a tree that grew inside the
+camp announced that he saw the enemy, and next moment a company of
+them rushed towards them across the open and were greeted by a volley
+which killed and wounded several men. At this exhibition of miraculous
+power, for none of these soldiers had ever heard the report of
+firearms or seen their effect, they retreated rapidly, uttering shouts
+of dismay and carrying their dead and wounded with them.
+
+"Do you suppose they have gone, Jeekie?" asked Alan anxiously.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Think not, Major, think they frightened, by big bullet magic, and go
+consult priest. Also only a few of them here, rest of army come later
+and try rush us to-morrow morning before dawn. That Asiki custom."
+
+"Then what shall we do, Jeekie? Run for it or stop here?"
+
+"Think must stop here, Major. If we bolt, carrying Miss Barbara, who
+can't walk much, they follow on spoor and catch us. Best stick inside
+this fence and see what happen. Also once outside p'raps porters
+desert and leave us."
+
+So as there was nothing else to do they stayed, labouring all day at
+the strengthening of their fortifications till at length the boma or
+fence of boughs, supported by earth, was so high and thick that while
+any were left to fire through the loopholes, it would be very
+difficult to storm by men armed with spears.
+
+It was a dreadful and arduous day for Alan, who now had Barbara's
+safety to think of, Barbara with whom as yet he had scarcely found
+time to exchange a word. By sunset indeed he was so worn out with toil
+and anxiety that he could scarcely stand upon his feet. Jeekie, who
+all that afternoon had been strangely quiet and reflective, surveyed
+him critically, then said:
+
+"You have good drink and go sleep a bit, Major. Very good little
+shelter there by Miss Barbara's tent, and you hold her hand if you
+like underneath the canvas, which comforting and all correct. Jeekie
+never get tired, he keep good lookout and let you know if anything
+happen, and then you jump up quite fresh and fight like tom-cat in
+corner."
+
+At first Alan refused to listen, but when Barbara added her entreaties
+to those of Jeekie he gave way, and ten minutes later was as soundly
+asleep as he had ever been in his life.
+
+"Keep eye on him, Miss Barbara, and call me if he wake. Now I go give
+noble lord his supper and see that he quite comfortable. Jeekie seem
+very busy to-night, just like when Major have dinner-party at Yarleys
+and old cook get drunk in kitchen."
+
+If Barbara could have followed Jeekie's movements for the next few
+hours, she would probably have agreed that he was busy. First he went
+to Aylward's tent, and as he had said he would, gave him his supper,
+and with it half a bottle of whisky from the stores which he had been
+carrying about with him for some time, as he said, to prevent the
+porters from getting at it. Aylward would little, though as his arms
+were tied to the tent-pole, Jeekie sat beside him and fed him like a
+baby, conversing pleasantly with him all the while, informing him
+amongst other things that he had better say "big prayer," because the
+Asiki would probably cut his throat before morning.
+
+Aylward, who was in a state of sullen fury, scarcely replied to this
+talk, except to say that if so, there was one comfort, they would cut
+his and his master's also.
+
+"Yes, my Lord," answered Jeekie, "that quite true, so drink to next
+meeting, though I think you go different place to me, and when you got
+tail and I wing, you horn and I crown of glory, of course we not talk
+much together," and he held a mug of whisky and water--a great deal of
+whisky and a very little water--to his prisoner's mouth.
+
+Aylward drained it, feeling a need for stimulant.
+
+"There," said Jeekie, holding it upside down, "you drink every drop
+and not offer one to poor old Jeekie. Well, he turned teetotaller, so
+no matter. Good-night, my Lord, I call you if Asiki come."
+
+"Who are the Asiki?" asked Aylward drowsily.
+
+"Oh! you want to know? I tell you," and he began a long, rambling
+story.
+
+Before he ever came to the end of it Aylward had fallen on his side
+and was fast asleep.
+
+"Dear me!" said Jeekie, contemplating him, "that whisky very strong,
+though bottle say same as they drink in House of Common. That whisky
+so strong I think I pour away rest of it," and he did to the last
+drop, even taking the trouble to wash out the bottle with water. "Now
+you no tempt anyone," he said, addressing the said bottle with a very
+peculiar smile, "or if you tempt, at least do no harm--like kiss down
+telephone!" Then he laid down the bottle on its side and left the
+tent.
+
+Outside of it three of the head porters, who appeared to be friends of
+his, were waiting for him, and with these men he engaged in low and
+earnest conversation. Next, after they had arrived at some agreement,
+which they seemed to ratify by a curious oath that involved their
+crossing and clasping hands in an odd fashion, and other symbols known
+to West African secret societies, Jeekie went the round of the camp to
+see that everyone was at his post. Then he did what most people would
+have thought a very curious and strange thing, namely climbed the
+fence and vanished into the forest, where presently a sound was heard
+as of an owl hooting.
+
+A little while later and another owl began to hoot in the distance,
+whereat the three head porters nudged each other. Perhaps they had
+heard such owls hoot before at night, and perhaps they knew that
+Jeekie, who had "passed Bonsa," could only be harmed by the direct
+command of Bonsa speaking through the mouth of the Asika herself.
+Still they might have been interested in the nocturnal conversation of
+those two owls, which, as is common with such magical fowl in West
+Africa, had transformed themselves into human shapes, the shape of
+Jeekie and the shape of an Asiki priest, who was, as it happened, a
+blood relation of Jeekie.
+
+"Very good, Brother," said Owl No. 1; "all you want is this white man
+whom the Asika desires for a husband. Well, I have done my best for
+him, but I must think of myself and others, and he goes to great
+happiness. I have given him something to make him sleep; do you come
+presently with eight men, no more, or we shall kill you, to the fence
+of the camp, and we will hand over the white man, Vernoon, to you to
+take back to the Asika, who will give you a wonderful reward, such a
+reward as you have never imagined. Now let me hear your word."
+
+Then Owl No. 2 answered:
+
+"Brother, I make the bargain on behalf of the army, and swear to it by
+the double Swimming Head of Bonsa. We will come and take the white
+man, Vernoon, who is to be Mungana, and carry him away. In return we
+promise not to follow or molest you, or any others in your camp.
+Indeed, why should we, who do not desire to be killed by the dreadful
+magic that you have, a magic that makes a noise and pierces through
+our bodies from afar? What were the words of the Asika? 'Bring back
+Vernoon, or perish. I care for nothing else, bring back Vernoon to be
+my husband.'"
+
+"Good," said Owl No. 1, "within the half of an hour Vernoon shall be
+ready for you."
+
+"Good," answered Owl No. 2, "within half an hour eight of us will be
+without the east face of your camp to receive him."
+
+"Silently?"
+
+"Silently, my brother in Bonsa. If he cries out we will gag him. Fear
+not, none shall know your part in this matter."
+
+"Good, my brother in Bonsa. By the way, how is Big Bonsa? I fear that
+the white man, Vernoon, hurt him very much, and that is why I give him
+up--because of his sacrilege."
+
+"When I left the god was very sick and all the people mourned, but
+doubtless he is immortal."
+
+"Doubtless he is immortal, my brother, a little hard magic in his
+stomach--if he has one--cannot hurt /him/. Farewell, dear brother in
+Bonsa, I wish that I were you to get the great reward that the Asika
+will give to you. Farewell, farewell."
+
+Then the two owls flitted apart again, hooting as they went, till they
+came to their respective camps.
+
+
+
+Jeekie was in the tent performing a strange toilet upon the sleeping
+Aylward by the light of a single candle. From his pouch he produced
+the mask of linen painted with gold that Alan used to be forced to
+wear, and tied it securely over Aylward's face, murmuring:
+
+"You always love gold, my Lord Aylward, and Jeekie promise you see
+plenty of it now."
+
+Then he proceeded to remove his coat, his waistcoat, his socks, and
+his boots and to replace these articles of European attire by his own
+worn Asiki sandals and his own dirty Asiki robe.
+
+"There," he said, "think that do," and he studied him by the light of
+the candle. "Same height, same colour hair, same dirty clothes, and as
+Asiki never see Major's face because he always wear mask in public,
+like as two peas on shovel. Oh my! Jeekie clever chap, Jeekie devilish
+clever chap. But when Asika pull off that mask to give him true lover
+kiss, OH MY! wonder that happen then? Think whole of Bonsa-Town bust
+up; think big waterfall run backwards; think she not quite pleased;
+think my good Lord find himself in false position; think Jeekie glad
+to be on coast; think he not go back to Bonsa-Town no more. Oh my
+aunt! no, he stop in England and go church twice on Sunday," and
+pressing his big hands on the pit of his stomach he rocked and rolled
+in fierce, silent laughter.
+
+Then an owl hooted again immediately beneath the fence and Jeekie,
+blowing out the candle, opened the flap of the tent and tapped the
+head porter, who stood outside, on the shoulder. He crept in and
+between them they lifted the senseless Aylward and bore him to the
+V-shaped entrance of the boma which was immediately opposite to the
+tent and, oddly enough, half open. Here the two other porters with
+whom Jeekie had performed some ceremony, chanced to be on guard, the
+rest of their company being stationed at a distance. Jeekie and the
+head porter went through the gap like men carrying a corpse to
+midnight burial, and presently in the darkness without two owls began
+to hoot.
+
+Now Aylward was laid upon a litter that had been prepared, and eight
+white-robed Asiki bearers stared at his gold mask in the faint
+starlight.
+
+"I suppose he is not dead, brother," said Owl No. 2 doubtfully.
+
+"Nay, brother," said Owl No. 1, "feel his heart and his pulse. Not
+dead, only drunk. He will wake up by daylight, by which time you
+should be far upon your way. Be good and gentle to the white man
+Vernoon, who has been my master. Be careful, too, that he does not
+escape you, brother, for as you know he is very strong and cunning.
+Say to the Asika that Jeekie her servant makes his reverence to her,
+and hopes that she will have many, many happy years with the husband
+that he sends her; also that she will remember him whom she called
+'Black Dog,' in her prayers to the gods and spirits of our people."
+
+"It shall be done, brother, but why do you not return with us?"
+
+"Because, brother, I have ties across the Black Water--dear children,
+almost white--whom I love so much that I cannot leave them. Farewell,
+brethren, the blessings of the Bonsas be on you, and may you grow fat
+and prosper in the love and favour of our lady the Asika."
+
+"Farewell," they murmured in answer. "Good fortune be your bedfellow."
+
+Another minute and they had lifted up the litter and vanished at a
+swinging trot into the shadow of the trees. Jeekie returned to the
+camp and ordered the three men to re-stop the gateway with thorns,
+muttering in their ears:
+
+"Remember, brethren, one word of this and you die, all of you, as
+those die who break the oath."
+
+"Have we not sworn?" they whispered, as they went back to their posts.
+
+Jeekie stood a while in front of the empty tent and if any had been
+there to note him, they might have seen a shadow as of compunction
+creep over his powerful black face.
+
+"When he wake up he won't know where he are," he reflected, "and when
+he get to Bonsa-Town he'll wonder where he is, and when he meet Asika!
+Well, he very big blackguard; try to murder Major, whom Jeekie nurse
+as baby, the only thing that Jeekie care for--except--Jeekie; try to
+make love to Miss Barbara against will when he catch her alone in
+forest, which not playing game. Jeekie self not such big blackguard as
+that dirt-born noble Lord; Jeekie never murder no one--not quite;
+Jeekie never make love to girl what not want him--no need, so many
+what do that he have to shove them off, like good Christian man. Mrs.
+Jeekie see to that while she live. Also better that mean white man go
+call on Bonsas than Major and Missy Barbara and all porters, and
+Jeekie--specially Jeekie--get throat cut. No, no, Jeekie nothing to be
+ashamed of, Jeekie do good day's work, though Jeekie keep it tight as
+wax since white folk such silly people, and when Major in a rage, he
+very nasty customer and see everything upside down. Now, Jeekie quite
+tired, so say his prayers and have nap. No, think not in tent, though
+very comfortable. Major might wake up, poke his nose in there, and if
+he see black face instead of white one, ask ugly question, which if
+Jeekie half asleep he no able to answer nice and neat. Still he just
+arrange things a little so they look all right."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE ASIKA'S MESSAGE
+
+Dawn began to break in the forest and Alan woke in his shelter and
+stretched himself. He had slept soundly all the night, so soundly that
+the innocent Jeekie wondered much whether by any chance he also had
+taken a tot out of that particular whisky bottle, as indeed he had
+recommended him to do. People who drink whisky after long abstinence
+from spirits are apt to sleep long, he reflected.
+
+Alan crept out of the shelter and gazed affectionately at the tent in
+which Barbara slumbered. Thank Heaven she was safe so far, as for some
+unknown reason, evidently the Asiki had postponed their attack. Just
+then a clamour arose in the air, and he perceived Jeekie striding
+towards him waving one arm in an excited fashion, while with the other
+he dragged along the captain of the porters, who appeared to be
+praying for mercy.
+
+"Here pretty go, Major," he shouted, "devil and all to pay! That my
+Lord, he gone and bolted. This silly fool say that three hours ago he
+hear something break through fence and think it only hy�na what come
+to steal, so take no notice. Well, that hy�na, you guess who he is.
+You come look, Major, you come look, and then we tie this fellow up
+and flog him."
+
+Alan ran to Aylward's tent to find it empty.
+
+"Look," said Jeekie, who had followed, "see how he do business, that
+jolly clever hy�na," and he pointed to a broken whisky bottle and some
+severed cords. "You see he manage break bottle and rub rope against
+cut glass till it come in two. Then he do hy�na dodge and hook it."
+
+Alan inspected the articles, nor did any shadow of doubt enter his
+mind.
+
+"Certainly he managed very well," he said, "especially for a London-
+bred man, but, Jeekie, what can have been his object?"
+
+"Oh! who know, Major? Mind of man very strange and various thing;
+p'raps he no bear to see you and Miss Barbara together; p'raps he bolt
+coast, get ear of local magistrate before you; p'raps he sit up tree
+to shoot you; p'raps nasty temper make him mad. But he gone any way,
+and I hope he no meet Asiki, poor fellow, 'cause if so, who know?
+P'raps they knock him on head, or if they think him you, they make him
+prisoner and keep him quite long while before they let him go again."
+
+"Well," said Alan, "he has gone of his own free will, so we have no
+responsibility in the matter, and I can't pretend that I am sorry to
+see the last of him, at any rate for the present. Let that poor beggar
+loose, there seems to have been enough flogging in this place, and
+after all he isn't much to blame."
+
+Jeekie obeyed, apparently with much reluctance, and just then they saw
+one of their own people running towards the camp.
+
+"'Fraid he going to tell us Asiki come attack," said Jeekie, shaking
+his head. "Hope they give us time breakfast first."
+
+"No doubt," answered Alan nervously, for he feared the result of that
+attack.
+
+Then the man arrived breathless and began to gasp out his news, which
+filled Alan with delight and caused a look of utter amazement to
+appear upon the broad face of Jeekie. It was to the effect that he had
+climbed a high tree as he had been bidden to do, and from the top of
+that tree by the light of the first rays of the rising sun, miles away
+on the plain beyond the forest, he had seen the Asiki army in full
+retreat.
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Alan.
+
+"Yes, Major, but that very rum story. Jeekie can't swallow it all at
+once. Must send out see none of them left behind. P'raps they play
+trick, but if they really gone, 'spose it 'cause guns frightens them
+so much. Always think powder very great 'vention, especially when
+enemy hain't got none, and quite sure of it now. Jeekie very, very
+seldom wrong. Soon believe," he added with a burst of confidence,
+"that Jeekie never wrong at all. He look for truth so long that at
+last he find it /always/."
+
+
+
+Something more than a month had gone by and Major and Mrs. Vernon, the
+latter fully restored to health and the most sweet and beautiful of
+brides, stood upon the steamship /Benin/, and as the sun sank, looked
+their last upon the coast of Western Africa.
+
+"Yes, dear," Alan was saying to his wife, "from first to last it has
+been a very queer story, but I really think that our getting that
+Asiki gold after all was one of the queerest parts of it; also
+uncommonly convenient, as things have turned out."
+
+"Namely that you have got a little pauper for a wife instead of a
+great heiress, Alan. But tell me again about the gold. I have had so
+much to think of during the last few days," and she blushed, "that I
+never quite took it all in."
+
+"Well, love, there isn't much to tell. When that forwarding agent, Mr.
+Aston, knew that we were in the town, he came to me and said that he
+had about fifty cases full of something heavy, as he supposed samples
+of ore, addressed to me to your care in England which he was proposing
+to ship on by the /Benin/. I answered 'Yes, that was all right,' and
+did not undeceive him about their contents. Then I asked how they had
+arrived, and if he had not received a letter with them. He replied
+that one morning before the warehouse was open, some natives had
+brought them down in a canoe, and dumped them at the door, telling the
+watchman that they had been paid to deliver them there by some other
+natives whom they met a long way up the river. Then they went away
+without leaving any letter or message. Well, I thanked Aston and paid
+his charges and there's an end of the matter. Those fifty-three cases
+are now in the hold invoiced as ore samples and, as I inspected them
+myself and am sure that they have not been tampered with, besides the
+value of the necklace the Asika gave me we've got �100,000 to begin
+our married life upon with something over for old Jeekie, and I
+daresay we shall do very well on that."
+
+"Yes, Alan, very well indeed." Then she reflected a while, for the
+mention of Jeekie's name seemed to have made her thoughtful, and
+added, "Alan, what /do/ you think became of Lord Aylward?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know. Jeekie and I and some of the porters went to
+see the Old Calabar officials and made affidavits as to the
+circumstances of his disappearance. We couldn't do any more, could
+we?"
+
+"No, Alan. But do you think that Jeekie quite understands the meaning
+of an oath? I mean it seems so strange that we should never have found
+the slightest trace of him, and, Alan, I don't know if you noticed it,
+but why did Jeekie appear that morning wearing Lord Aylward's socks
+and boots?"
+
+"He ought to know all about oaths, he has heard enough of them in
+Magistrates' Courts, but as regards the boots, I am sure I can't say,
+dear," answered Alan uneasily. "Here he comes, we will ask him," and
+he did.
+
+"Sock and boot," replied Jeekie, with a surprised air, "why, Mrs.
+Major, if that good lord go mad and cut off into forest leaving them
+behind, of course I put them on, as they no more use to him, and I
+just burn my dirty old Asiki dress and sandal and got nothing to keep
+jigger out of toe. Don't you sit up here in this damp, cold, Mrs.
+Major, else you get more fever. You go down and dress dinner, which at
+half-past six to-night. I just come tell you that."
+
+So Barbara went, leaving the other two talking about various matters,
+for they were alone together on the deck, all the passengers, of whom
+there were but few, having gone below.
+
+The short African twilight had come, a kind of soft blue haze that
+made the ship look mysterious and unnatural. By degrees their
+conversation died away. They lapsed into a silence, which Alan was the
+first to break.
+
+"What are you thinking of, Jeekie?" he asked nervously.
+
+"Thinking of Asika, Major," he answered in a scared whisper. "Seem to
+me that she about somewhere, just as she use pop up in room in Gold
+House; seem to me I feel her all down my back, likewise in head wool,
+which stand up."
+
+"It's very odd, Jeekie," replied Alan, "but so do I."
+
+"Well, Major, 'spect she thinking of us, specially of you, and just
+throw what she think at us, like boy throw stones at bird what fly
+away out of cage. Asika do all that, you know, she not quite human,
+full of plenty Bonsa devil, from gen'ration to gen'rations, amen!
+P'raps she just find out something what make her mad."
+
+"What could she find out after all this time, Jeekie?"
+
+"Oh, don't know. How I know? Jeekie can't guess. Find out you marry
+Miss Barbara, p'raps. Very sick that she lose you for this time,
+p'raps. Kill herself that she keep near you, p'raps, while she wait
+till you come round again, p'raps. Asika can do all these things if
+she like, Major."
+
+"Stuff and rubbish," answered Alan uneasily, for Jeekie's suggestions
+were most uncomfortable, "I believe in none of your West Coast
+superstitions."
+
+"Quite right, Major, nor don't I. Only you 'member, Major, what she
+show us there in Treasure-place--Mr. Haswell being buried, eh? Miss
+Barbara in tent, eh? t'other job what hasn't come off yet, eh? Oh! my
+golly! Major, just you look behind you and say you see nothing,
+please," and the eyes of Jeekie grew large as Maltese oranges, while
+with chattering teeth he pointed over the bulwark of the vessel.
+
+Alan turned and saw.
+
+This was what he saw or seemed to see: The figure of the Asika in her
+robes and breastplate of gold, standing upon the air, just beyond the
+ship, as though on it she might set no foot. Her waving black hair
+hung about her shoulders, but the sharp wind did not seem to stir it
+nor did her white dress flutter, and on her beautiful face was stamped
+a look of awful rage and agony, the rage of betrayal, the agony of
+loss. In her right hand she held a knife, and from a wound in her
+breast the red blood ran down her golden corselet. She pointed to
+Jeekie with the knife, she opened her arms to Alan as though in
+unutterable longing, then slowly raised them upwards towards the
+fading glory of the sky above--and was gone.
+
+
+
+Jeekie sat down upon the deck, mopping his brow with a red
+handkerchief, while Alan, who felt faint, clung to the bulwarks.
+
+"Tell you, Major, that Asika can do all that kind of thing. Never know
+where you find her next. 'Spect she come to live with us in England
+and just call in now and again when it dark. Tell you, she very
+awkward customer, think p'raps you done better stop there and marry
+her. Well, she gone now, thank Heaven! seem to drop in sea and hope
+she stay there."
+
+"Jeekie," said Alan, recovering himself, "listen to me; this is all
+infernal nonsense; we have gone through a great deal and the nerves of
+both of us are overstrained. We think we saw what we did not see, and
+if you dare to say a single word of it to your mistress, I'll break
+your neck. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, Major, think so. All 'fernal nonsense, nerves strained, didn't
+see what we see, and say nothing of what did see to Mrs. Major, if
+either do say anything, t'other one break his neck. That all right,
+quite understand. Anything else, Major?"
+
+"Yes, Jeekie. We have had some wonderful adventures, but they are past
+and done with and the less we talk or even think about them the
+better, for there is a lot that would be rather difficult to explain,
+and that if explained would scarcely be believed."
+
+"Yes, Major, for instance, very difficult explain Mrs. Barbara how
+Asika so fond of you if you only tell her, 'Go away, go away!' all the
+time, like old saint-gentleman to pretty girl in picture. P'raps she
+smell rat."
+
+"Stop your ribald talk," said Alan in a stern voice. "It would be
+better if instead of making jokes you gave thanks to Providence for
+bringing both of us alive and well out of very dreadful dangers. Now I
+am going to dress for dinner," and with an anxious glance seaward into
+the gathering darkness, he turned and went.
+
+
+
+Jeekie stood alone upon the empty deck, wagging his great white head
+to and fro and soliloquizing thus:
+
+"Wonder if Major see what under lady Asika's feet when she stand out
+there over nasty deep. Think not or he say something. That noble lord
+not look nice. No, private view for Jeekie only, free ticket and
+nothing to pay and me hope it no come back when I go to bed. Major
+know nothing about it, so he not see, but Jeekie know a lot. Hope that
+Aylward not write any letters home, or if he write, hope no one post
+them. Ghost bad enough, but murder, oh my!"
+
+He paused a while, then went on:
+
+"Jeekie do big sacrifice to Bonsa when he reach Yarleys, get lamb in
+back kitchen at night, or if ghost come any more, calf in wood
+outside. Not steal it, pay for it himself. Then think Jeekie turn
+Cath'lic; confess his sins, they say them priest chaps not split, and
+after they got his sins, they tackle Asika and Bonsas too," and he
+uttered a series of penitent groans, turning slowly round and round to
+be sure that nothing was behind him.
+
+Just then the full moon appeared out of a bank of clouds, and as it
+rose higher, flooding the world with light, Jeekie's spirits rose
+also.
+
+"Asika never come in moonshine," he said, "that not the game, against
+rule, and after all, what Jeekie done bad? He very good fellow really.
+Aylward great villain, serve him jolly well right if Asika spiflicate
+him, that not Jeekie's fault. What Jeekie do, he do to save master and
+missus who he love. Care nothing for his self, ready to die any day.
+Keep it dark to save them too, 'cause they no like the story. If once
+they know, it always leave taste in mouth, same as bad oyster. Also
+Jeekie manage very well, take Major safe Asiki-land ('cause Little
+Bonsa make him), give him very interesting time there, get him plenty
+gold, nurse him when he sick, nobble Mungana, bring him out again,
+find Miss Barbara, catch hated rival and bamboozle all Asiki army,
+bring happy pair to coast and marry them, arrange first-class
+honeymoon on ship--Jeekie do all these things, and lots more he could
+tell, if he vain and not poor humble nigger."
+
+Once more he paused a while, lost in the contemplation of his own
+modesty and virtues, then continued:
+
+"This very ungrateful world. Major there, he not say, 'Thank you,
+Jeekie, Jeekie, you great, wonderful man. Brave Jeekie, artful Jeekie.
+Jeekie smart as paint who make all world believe just what he like,
+and one too many for Asika herself.' No, no, he say nothing like that.
+He say 'thank Prov'dence,' not 'Jeekie,' as though Prov'dence do all
+them things. White folk think they clever, but great fools, really,
+don't know nothing. Prov'dence all very well in his way--p'raps, but
+Prov'dence not a patch on Jeekie.
+
+"Hullo! moon get behind cloud and there second bell; think Jeekie go
+down and wait dinner; lonely up here and sure Asika never stand
+'lectric light."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Yellow God, by H. Rider Haggard
+
diff --git a/old/ylwgd10.zip b/old/ylwgd10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..556b250
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/ylwgd10.zip