The Ivory Trail Part 58

The Greek gritted his teeth savagely. "She said--that h.e.l.l-d.a.m.ned Lady Saffren Waldon said, as we sat there in the dhow, 'How about the kicking Fred Oakes gave you on the island, Mr. Coutla.s.s? Where is your Greek honor?'--Do you see? She worked on my bodily bruises and my spiritual courage at the same time--the cunning hussy! 'That Fred Oakes will win this Rebecca away from you very soon!' she went on. 'I have watched him."'

Fred smiled about as comfortably as a martyr on the grid. The presence of the dusky damsel, confirmed by her smell behind him, made him touchy on the subject of s.e.x.

"Presently she said to me, 'I have my own affairs that will adjust themselves all the better for their absence when I get to British East.

As for you, they will simply report you to the authorities for raiding those cattle of Brown's. Can you imagine that creature Brown forgiving you? He will have you thrown in jail! Why wait? But we must not leave the Goanese or the other porters, and we must hurry! You go,'

she said, 'and send the Goanese and the rest of the porters on board!'

"So I did go. I kicked de Sousa awake, and he cursed me, because my toe landed once or twice on his thigh where the bullet wounded him. I drove him on board, and she put him to work with Kamarajes getting up the sail. Then I went off to get those cursed porters. I could not find them! The dogs had gone to the village, to find women I don't doubt! I tell you what I would do to them if they were mine!"

"Never mind that!" Fred cut in. We could all guess what form the punishment would take. "Get on with the tale! You couldn't find the porters. What next?"

"I decided to leave the dogs behind, and serve them right! I went back to the dhow in a great hurry. She was gone! Vanished! Disappeared as if the lake had opened up and swallowed her! I could just see the sail in the distance. I shouted! No answer! I shouted again. I heard Rebecca call to me! Then I heard laughter--Lady Isobel Saffren Waldon's laughter! Ga.s.sharamminy! I will run red-hot skewers into that woman when I catch her! Do you see how she has vengeance on Rebecca? Do you see now why she took sides between me and Kamarajes and de Sousa? Do you see how she has plotted? What will she do now?

What Will she do?"

He began to pace up and down again furiously, shaking both fists at the unresponsive stars.

"She will do Rebecca an injury! She will give that girl to de Sousa or to that old Kamarajes! We shall never catch them! Ga.s.sharamminy! Oh, Absalom! You should have fired when I told you! That she-dog has a trick of some kind up her sleeve yet! How shall we catch her? Why do we wait? Give me that rifle! I will take a canoe and go after them alone! You do not know what Greek spirit is! I am American sometimes--English when it suits me--always Greek when I am wronged!"

"You certainly have been put upon" Fred answered. "Tell us how your Greek spirit justified deserting us."

"Why not?" snarled Coutla.s.s. "Do you love me? What would you do to me if you could get me to British East in your power? You would hand me over as a cattle thief!"

"You bet I will!" admitted Brown of Lumbwa. "You dog, you've ruined me!"

"What did I tell you?" demanded Coutla.s.s. "Why, then, should I not look out for myself?"

"I think we'd better leave you on this island," Fred told him quietly.

"We can't trust you out of sight. The only way to prevent you from stealing this rifle and murdering us all would be to lie awake in turns."

"Bah!" grinned the Greek, striding back toward the fire. "How many cartridges have you left? Five, eh? After I had murdered all of you, how many would remain?"

"You'll have to think of a better argument than that," smiled Fred, and for the first time I suspected he was speaking in deadly earnest.

Coutla.s.s suspected it, too, and grew still. The sweat burst out on his face, and his eyes bulged from their sockets.

"You will leave me here?" he stammered.

Fred nodded, smiling up at him.

"You see, you're such on all-in scoundrel!" Brown a.s.sured him.

"You! You poor drunkard!" Coutla.s.s turned his back on Brown, and faced Fred squarely. "You are a man, Mr. Oakes! I can speak to you as to my brother."

Fred smiled blandly.

"I will speak to you G.o.d's truth!"

Fred grinned.

"I will tell you where the ivory is!"

Fred threw his head back and laughed outright.

"I speak to you on my honor! That mother of misery, Lady Saffren Waldon, stole a map from Shillingschen. Before I would agree to set the town on fire I made her give me that for a hostage, lest she should prove treacherous and leave me behind after all! I have it now! It is marked with a circle to show where Schillingschen believes the stuff must be, because he has searched everywhere else!"

"If that map is worth anything," Fred countered, "how did Lady Saffren Waldon care to leave you behind with it?"

"The harridan forgot it!" answered Coutla.s.s. "She was so delighted to get vengeance on Rebecca by taking her away from me that she did not care for anything else! She hates you! She hates me! She hates Rebecca! Those who hate--as I can hate!--would rather have revenge than all the riches of Africa! Do you think I would hesitate between money and revenge on her?"

"All right," Fred answered. "The map, then--what about it?"

"Take me with you and the map is yours!"

"Show it to me, then!"

"I must have a share of the ivory!"

"Show me the map first!"

Coutla.s.s searched inside his flannel shirt--swiftly--more swiftly--angrily. His jaw dropped. Even between the fire-light and the moonlight one could judge that his color changed--and changed again.

"Show me the map before we bargain!" Fred insisted. "Hurry, man!

There's Mr. Yerkes with the canoe. We can't wait here all night!"

"It is gone!" admitted Coutla.s.s. "Some one stole it!"

"I could have told you that in the first place," Fred informed him, rising to his feet. "I have the map in my pocket."

"You stole it?" Coutla.s.s gasped.

"Certainly not. Rebecca stole it while she was supposed to be sleeping in your arms!"

"Ga.s.sharamminy! I might have known it! Those Syrians--she meant to give us all the slip and find the ivory herself!"

"Nothing of the Sort!" said Fred. "She stole it from you, to give it to Lady Saffren Waldon! Kazimoto saw her do it--saw where Lady Waldon hid it--and stole it from her while she slept to give to me, believing it to be something of mine. Here it is!"

Fred let the end of a folded map protrude from his inner pocket just far enough for Coutla.s.s to recognize it by the fire-light. The Greek turned on his heel.

"All right!" he said ruefully, swinging suddenly round again. "If you were alone I would fight you, my knife against your rifle! I can not fight all four of you! Go away then, and be d.a.m.ned! I have nothing to offer. There is nothing I can do. Leave me, and I will look after myself!"

"Now you're talking like a man." said Fred.

"Leave me that woman of yours, and go to h.e.l.l, all of you!" laughed the Greek.

Fred seemed suddenly possessed of a bright idea. He turned to the woman and beckoned her to rise. Then in unmistakable pantomime he went through the motions of presenting her to Coutla.s.s. The woman gasped--stammered something that was positively not consent--stared with frightened eyes at Coutla.s.s--shook her shaven head violently--and ran away into the darkness, pursued by roars of laughter that speeded her on her way.

"A clear case of desertion!" announced Fred judicially. "You men are witnesses!" Then he turned once more to Coutla.s.s. "I don't think we'll leave you to raise Cain on this island. It depends on you whether we find you a lonelier island--turn you loose or hand you over to the authorities in British East!"

"Good!" Coutla.s.s shouted. "By Jingo, you are a gentleman! You are the best man in the world! I will treat you as my brother!"