The League of the Leopard Part 12

Maxwell generally frowned upon anything that approached the theatrical, but, as he touched his comrade's gla.s.s with his own, his face was grave.

"Heaven send us both back safe out of it and--because the one implies the other--confound the cross-marked man!"

Dane asked no questions. Maxwell was always slightly oracular, and might not have answered them; and a few minutes later they were being rowed off to the steamer in company with Dom Pedro Castro.

The _Manyamba_ was not a fast boat; she anch.o.r.ed off many surf-hammered beaches before she reached the one where the adventurers had arranged to disembark, and where, as it happened, Dom Pedro had built his princ.i.p.al factory. He proved a pleasant companion, though Dane fancied that he was weak alike in character and in principle. One day as they rolled slowly along the spray-veiled coast with a maze of half-seen mangroves over the port hand, Dom Pedro sauntered across the deck toward Dane.

"You go up into the Leopard's country to look for gold?" he said, glancing at Dane in a manner which puzzled him.

"We are certainly going inland, but I am afraid that is all I can tell you," Dane replied guardedly.

Dom Pedro smiled.

"Then you seek the gold. Even your countrymen do not go into that forest for pleasure. But only one man, I think, has seen that gold since the men of my nation who came after Gama ruled this country. That man he die, as you call it, crazy. How much your expedition cost you, Don Ilton?"

Dane mentioned an approximate sum, expressing his surprise that the questioner should even have guessed their object, but refraining from stating whether the guess was a correct one; and the elder man spread out his yellow palms deprecatingly.

"Where the gold lie is not concern me. I am gentleman of peace and commercio. There is one man, not all the n.i.g.g.e.r, who think he know, and another not all a white man who will pay him to hinder you. More I only guess at and cannot tell you, but I know you and the Senor Maxwell never pa.s.s the Leopard country. Don Ilton, I presume you bold man who come here to make the money. With the sum you mention I show you how. It is not all for the good will, but for the a.s.sistance also of me."

Now Dane might have suspected treachery, but he did not do so. Indeed, he was inclined to fancy the offer and warning were genuine. He declined the offer, however; and consulted Maxwell on the first opportunity.

"I believe what he told you was spoken in good faith," Maxwell said; "and he was perfectly correct. The first man he mentioned is probably the rascal who betrayed poor Niven; and Rideau must be the other. He has, if I am correct in my surmises, had dealings not wholly creditable to either, with Dom Pedro; and it is possible the latter might have found us useful. This, combination may, however, increase our difficulties."

CHAPTER VIII

TREACHERY

The region which lies behind the West African coast is not a pleasant one to traverse, and bad fortune seemed to attend Maxwell's expedition from the time it marched out of the seaboard settlement, where he had had trouble with certain French officials, as well as with the black head man from whom he hired his carriers. All of this Dane remembered when he halted, one burning afternoon, shoulder-deep in the tall gra.s.s of a swamp, worn out in body and perplexed in mind. Few Europeans are capable of much exertion in that country, especially during the hottest part of the afternoon; but the hammock boys were too weary to drag their burdens farther, and there was urgent need for haste. Dane accordingly had taxed his strength to the utmost during the last few hours. The tall gra.s.s stems were almost too hot to touch, and foul mire bubbled about their roots. At least a league of it, through which, slashed by saw-edged blades and stabbed by broken stalks, the expedition must force its way, stretched toward an inland ridge of higher ground that rose from the mora.s.s. Beyond this, in turn, flat-topped hills dimmed by a yellow heat haze cut the horizon.

As Dane halted, a naked carrier stumbled, and, dropping the deal case from his woolly crown, splashed him all over. Another straightway fell over his prostrate comrade, and began a spirited attack upon him when they scrambled to their feet again. Dane was too weary to rebuke either in the fashion they would best understand; but a man of dusky color undertook the duty for him, with the barrel of a gaspipe gun, and the combatants, desisting, found new places in the straggling line. A few picked men in flowing white draperies with flintlock guns on their shoulders were already floundering through the swamp ahead. Behind them, almost and wholly naked negroes, many wearing on their forehead the blue band which marks the amphibious Kroo, went splashing by, each bearing a deal case or tarred cloth package upon his crown. Then the rearguard, tall and soldierly men with the blood of the Arab in them, who carried old-fashioned rifles in spite of certain regulations, came up with Maxwell. They wore a ragged white uniform, swore by the Prophet, and were, as Dane subsequently discovered, reliable fighting men. The Krooboys carried a cutla.s.s-shaped matchet, a by no means despicable weapon when rubbed keen with a file.

Maxwell differed in outward appearance from the somewhat fastidious gentleman Dane had known in Scotland. His cotton jacket was badly rent, sun-baked mire clung thickly about his leggings, and one side of his big sun-helmet had been flattened in. The raw condition of his face and neck betokened the power of the last few days' sun, and he blinked a little because his eyes had suffered by the change from the forest shadow to the dazzling brightness and the fibrous dust of the gra.s.s.

"Don't let your particular scarecrows get too far ahead of you, Hilton,"

he cautioned. "I should hardly have suspected you of any inclination to stop and admire the scenery after the opinion you recently expressed concerning this country."

"I'd willingly burn or flood the whole of it if I could," Dane replied irritably. "Miss Castro was not mistaken when she mentioned the shadow that crept up from behind. Ill luck has certainly followed us from the beginning, and it is time we turned round and endeavored to settle up accounts with whoever is the cause of it."

"You may have an opportunity to-night, or earlier," said Maxwell. "When, in spite of warnings, two white men insist on visiting a region which was specially made for black men, they can't expect to be comfortable.

What is it that excites your particular indignation?"

The malarial fever contracted in other parts of the tropics had, as not infrequently happens, returned upon Dane in Africa. His head ached intolerably, every joint seemed stiff, and he swept his hand round the horizon as he answered vaguely.

"Everything! Why was it that, after drinking at a village well, two of our carriers died? Why should venomous insects crawl into my boots and from underneath my pillow? Or a guide, who declared he knew the country, bog us waist-deep in a quagmire, where we lost half our ammunition?

Doesn't it strike you that the sequence of accidents is not all due to coincidence?"

"And, in addition to all this, you will be wondering why you are prostrate with fever to-morrow, if you excite yourself at the present temperature. Forget your grievances until your turn comes, and then strike the harder. Meanwhile, we have been stalked since we pa.s.sed the last village, and the sooner we reach yonder dry ground, and build a breastwork, the better."

Knowing that this was good counsel, Dane did his best, finding a savage comfort in the thought that at last he would probably have the satisfaction of seeing his persecutors; but the gra.s.s was tall and matted, the temperature suffocating, and when they lost sight of the islet the mora.s.s appeared interminable. Such civilization as may be found in West Africa is only skin-deep. That is to say, it pertains to the coast, and is occasionally hard to discover there. In many places it still extends less than a day's march from the black troops' barracks, and the white man who travels beyond that distance takes his own risks, which are sometimes considerable. Dane already had cause to realize this, and he was accordingly thankful when at last the expedition, floundering out of the swamp, reached the strip of firmer earth. Here a breastwork of deal cases and branches was built, and camp pitched among the giant b.u.t.tresses staying the cottonwood trunks.

"I think," said Maxwell cheerfully, when they lingered over a frugal meal, "if any misguided bushmen try to rush this camp to-night they will regret it. I will see to the sentries and keep first watch while you rest. You look as though you needed sleep."

Dane certainly did, having enjoyed little sleep worth mentioning since he left the coast. Indeed, he could scarcely keep his eyes open, and he wondered vacantly that Maxwell, who seemed proof against the climate, should show no sign of fatigue. When he unrolled his strip of matting and water-proof inside the little tent, the African sunset was flaming in the west, and the cottonwoods crowning the ridge stood out black as ebony against its almost unearthly brilliancy. Among them fantastic figures, some naked as when they first entered the world, some draped in white and blue, crouched about the cooking fires; while, seen between two mighty b.u.t.tresses of living wood which stayed ponderous trunks, men with matchets and long guns were curled up beneath the breastwork. The wood smoke drifted in filmy wisps athwart the lonely camp, the swamp steamed like a cauldron, and the chirruping of countless frogs rose out of the vapor. Then the brief brilliancy faded, and thick impenetrable darkness suddenly rolled down. The faint coolness that came with it brought sleep to Dane, and it was midnight when Maxwell's voice roused him.

"Get up and stand by with your rifle! There are bushmen in the gra.s.s!"

he said.

Half-awake, Dane groped for the breastwork, falling over several negroes on the way, and when he reached it the blackness was Egyptian. There was nothing visible beyond the loom of shadowy trunks, but Dane could hear unseen men breathing heavily, the click-clack of flintlocks, and the rasp of a file along a matchet blade. Then a faint crackle which drew nearer came out of the gra.s.s, and instantly a blaze of weird blue radiance leaped up, showing Maxwell's spare figure perched recklessly aloft upon the breastwork with a port-fire held high above him. Its glare beat along the matchet blades, the gun-barrels, and the oily skin of the men beneath, and showed black patches which might have been arms or heads among the gra.s.s. Then it died out; and Dane pitched the rifle to his shoulder at Maxwell's shout. There was neither challenge nor parley. They were now beyond civilized jurisdiction, and the right of any man to existence in that country depends upon the strength of his hand.

The heel-plate jarred on his shoulder, the barrel jumped in his left hand, red sparks flickered along the breastwork, and the sputtering roar of the flintlocks was repeated among the trunks. Dane fancied a scream rose in answer from the gra.s.s, and once or twice a long gun flashed; then the firing slackened, and it was heartsome to hear Maxwell laugh.

He came stumbling toward Dane, and held up a second port-fire whose light showed no trace of any a.s.sailant. The silence that followed grew oppressive. It was, however, suddenly broken. A rifle flashed in the rear of the camp, a bullet whirred close by Dane's head; and Maxwell, dropping the flare, set his foot upon it.

"The second time! That was a good rifle, and fired by one of our own men," he said. "Take this n.i.g.g.e.r, Hilton, crawl in on him, and, disregarding anything which may happen, get that man--alive if you can.

He is worth all the rest of the expedition."

Crouching low, crawling on hands and knees, and slipping from trunk to trunk, the pair worked backward in a semicircle, though, instead of following, it was the negro who led the white man. It seemed to Dane that he was making noise enough to waken the dead, but his dusky companion had probably owed his life to his powers of silent motion, and his progress was as noiseless as that of a serpent. Still, a clamor which broke out at the rear of the camp drowned the sound of Dane's pa.s.sage, and presently a fire commenced to crackle behind the serried trunks. Rising partly upright, he could see naked figures outlined against it flitting with burdens on their heads into the swamp.

Nevertheless, Maxwell's instructions were explicit, and, when the negro beckoned, he sank down again.

The fire tossed higher, and Dane surmised that somebody had lighted the dried gra.s.s to divert attention from the deserters or a fresh attack.

Its purport, however, was in the meantime a side issue, for, as the radiance came flickering athwart the trunks, it revealed something dim and shadowy crouching among the roots of a neighboring cottonwood. The blurred shape might have escaped notice had not the line of steel before it glimmered once or twice. With infinite caution Dane covered a few more yards, and stooped behind a screen of trailers, with every nerve quivering, and a heavy pistol clenched in his right hand. What had become of the negro he did not know. Once the a.s.sa.s.sin raised his weapon, and Dane laid the short pistol barrel upon his raised forearm, hoping that the stiffness of the trigger might not spoil his aim; but he lowered it again, for, evidently attracted by the increasing glare, the man he stalked rose partly upright, glancing over his shoulder. His caution betrayed him, for, hurling himself crashing through the creepers, Dane fell upon him, driving the heavy pistol into the center of the dusky face with his full weight behind it. The two went down, the colored man undermost, clawing with greasy hands at his adversary's throat. Their grip was feeble, for the first blow had got home; but time was precious, and Dane, heaving his right shoulder clear, brought the steel-bound b.u.t.t down again.

There was a hollow groan; several men who came running up fell heavily over the pair, and while one dragged the half-dazed white man clear, the others lashed the prisoner fast with creeper ropes. Rising shakily, Dane sent up a breathless shout.

"Stand fast and see that n.o.body gets in your way if you have him safe!"

cried Maxwell. "Don't trouble about the gra.s.s! It is damp among the cottonwoods, and will soon burn out."

Dane waited ten long minutes, feeling thankful, meanwhile, that the one spot where the ridge could be reached on that side through the quaggy swamp was lighted by the fire. Then Maxwell joined him, and, trusting to their subordinates' vigilance, they made the round of the knoll together. A dozen carriers were missing; and their a.s.sailants had vanished as mysteriously as they came.

"We shall miss the boys, but it might be fatal to try to follow them; and at least we know whom we can trust," said Maxwell. "A treacherous servant is worse to deal with than an open enemy. Our a.s.sailants were evidently mere bush thieves, and not regular fighting men, or they would probably have got in. Whether they expected help from the deserters, or what share the man you seized had in the plot, I can't decide now; and, in the meantime, it is of no great importance. We shall discover it to-morrow."

n.o.body in camp slept during the rest of the night, which was one of the longest in Dane's recollection. Most of it he spent huddled among the roots of a cottonwood while the heavy dew of the tropics splashed upon him, straining ears and eyes alike for any sign of the enemy. There was, however, no sound but the wailing of some night bird from all the tangled gra.s.s; and except when now and then a murmur of negro voices rose up, a deep impressive silence brooded over the camp. Dane could hear his watch ticking, and there were times when he found it difficult to master an impulse to cry aloud, or to commit any extravagance which would break the tormenting stillness.

At last, however, the temperature fell a little. A faint chill air shook the dew from the tangled creepers flung from mighty branch to branch, and the darkness became less dense. The steam of the swamps grew thicker, a streak of radiance broadened in the east, and suddenly as night had fallen, the red sun leaped up. It was once more burning day, and neither the dew-drenched white men, who stiffly straightened their aching limbs, nor the stolid Africans, who rolled over in their lairs among the undergrowth, were sorry to greet the light again. They were a pitiful handful of travel-worn and somewhat dejected men, alone on a contracted islet of dry soil in a limitless sea of mist whose white waves were doubtless filled with unseen perils.

"Another day to be endured," said Maxwell, yawning as he spoke.

"Another, and another, until the long weeks swell into months, and then, if n.o.body poisons or shoots us prematurely, we shall go back to England and fancy we have been dreaming. Has it occurred to you yet, Hilton, that the men who gain fortunes in Africa don't _win_ but _earn_ them hardly? One might wonder why a beneficent Creator made this country."

"It was His Satanic Majesty who made West Africa, using for a model his own dominions. A good many details prove it beside the temperature!"

It was eight o'clock in the morning and already fiercely hot, while the brightness outside the shade of the cottonwoods grew dazzling, when Maxwell, const.i.tuting himself at once prosecutor and judge, summoned the prisoner before an informal court. He was a big man, draped in loose cotton, and rather the hue of ocher than ebony; but his countenance was ghastly as well as malevolent, for the pistol b.u.t.t had left its mark on it. A slackly rolled turban covered half his forehead, and he leaned with his back against a cottonwood scowling upon his judge. Maxwell sat on a camp-stool, not far away, with a rifle laid across his knee; Dane lay in the gra.s.s beside him; and the carriers and the armed men were drawn up in a half-circle behind them. Hitherto the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin, who acted as headman or chief of a section, had done nothing to excite Dane's suspicions.

"There is no law in this country but one, the _lex talionis_, while you and I are responsible for the lives of all these about us," said Maxwell. "It is a heavy responsibility, and I dare not allow any attempt to betray them to pa.s.s unpunished. You need not translate this, interpreter. Ask that fellow why he twice shot at the men whose bread and salt he has eaten."

What the interpreter, who spoke a little of the fantastic English in use along the coast, said, Dane did not know, but he spent some time over it, and when he had finished the prisoner spat upon the ground contemptuously.