The Secret of Sarek Part 58

"He won't die!" he cried. "Vorski's sort doesn't die of a stroke! No, no, he'll talk, he'll talk within an hour. Just time enough to deliver my lecture."

Patrice Belval began to laugh in spite of himself:

"Have you a lecture to deliver?"

"Rather! And such a lecture!" exclaimed Don Luis. "The whole adventure of the G.o.d-Stone! An historical treatise, a comprehensive view extending from prehistoric times to the thirty murders committed by the Superhun!

By Jove, it's not every day that one has the opportunity of reading a paper like that; and I wouldn't miss it for a kingdom! Mount the platform, Don Luis, and fire away with your speech!"

He took his stand opposite Vorski:

"You lucky dog, you! You're in the front seats and you won't lose a word. I expect you're glad, eh, to have a little light thrown upon your darkness? We've been floundering about so long that it's time we had a definite lead. I a.s.sure you I'm beginning not to know where I am. Just think, a riddle which has lasted for centuries and centuries and which you've merely muddled still further."

"Thief! Robber!" snarled Vorski.

"Insults? Why? If you're not comfortable, let's talk about Francois."

"Never! He shall die."

"Not at all, you'll talk. I give you leave to interrupt me. When you want me to stop, all you've got to do is to whistle a tune: '_En r'venant de la r'vue_,' or _Tipperary_. I'll at once send to see; and, if you've told the truth, we'll leave you here quietly, Otto will untie you and you can be off in Francois' boat. Is it agreed?"

He turned to Stephane and Patrice Belval:

"Sit down, my friends," he said, "for it will take rather long. But, if I am to be eloquent, I need an audience . . . and an audience who will also act as judges."

"We're only two," said Patrice.

"You're three."

"With whom?"

"Here's your third."

It was All's Well. He came trotting along, without hurrying more than usual. He frisked round Stephane, wagged his tail to Don Luis, as though to say, "I know you: you and I are pals," and squatted on his hind-quarters, with the air of one who does not wish to disturb people.

"That's right, All's Well!" cried Don Luis. "You also want to hear all about the adventure. Your curiosity does you honour; and I won't disappoint you."

Don Luis appeared to be delighted. He had an audience, a full bench of judges. Vorski was writhing on his tree. It was an exquisite moment.

He cut a sort of caper which must have reminded Vorski of the ancient Druid's pirouettes and, drawing himself up, bowed, imitated a lecturer taking a sip of water from a tumbler, rested his hands on an imaginary table and at last began, in a deliberate voice:

"Ladies and Gentlemen:

"On the twenty-fifth of July, in the year seven hundred and thirty-two B. C. . . ."

CHAPTER XVI

THE HALL OF THE KINGS OF BOHEMIA

Don Luis interrupted himself after delivering his opening sentence and stood enjoying the effect produced. Captain Belval, who knew his friend, was laughing heartily. Stephane continued to look anxious. All's Well had not budged.

Don Luis continued:

"Let me begin by confessing, ladies and gentlemen, that my object in fixing my date so precisely was to some extent to stagger you. In reality I could not tell you within a few centuries the exact date of the scene which I shall have the honour of describing to you. But what I can guarantee is that it is laid in that country of Europe which to-day we call Bohemia and at the spot where the little industrial town of Joachimsthal now stands. That, I hope, is fairly circ.u.mstantial. Well, on the morning of the day when my story begins, there was great excitement among one of those Celtic tribes which had settled a century or two earlier between the banks of the Danube and the sources of the Elbe, amidst the Hyrcanian forests. The warriors, a.s.sisted by their wives, were striking their tents, collecting the sacred axes, the bows and arrows, gathering up the pottery, the bronze and tin implements, loading the horses and the oxen.

"The chiefs were here, there and everywhere, attending to the smallest details. There was neither tumult nor disorder. They started early in the direction of a tributary of the Elbe, the Eger, which they reached towards the end of the day. Here boats were waiting, guarded by a hundred of the picked warriors who had been sent ahead. One of these boats was conspicuous for its size and the richness of its decoration. A long yellow cloth was stretched from side to side. The chief of chiefs, the King, if you prefer, climbed on the stern thwart and made a speech which I will spare you, because I do not wish to shorten my own, but which may be summed up as follows: the tribe was emigrating to escape the cupidity of the neighbouring populations. It is always sad to leave the places where one has dwelt. But it made no difference to the men of the tribe, because they were carrying with them their most valuable possession, the sacred inheritance of their ancestors, the divinity that protected them and made them formidable and great among the greatest, in short, the stone that covered the tomb of their kings.

"And the chief of chiefs, with a solemn gesture, drew the yellow cloth and revealed a block of granite in the shape of a slab about two yards by one, granular in appearance and dark in colour, with a few glittering scales gleaming in its substance.

"There was a single shout raised by the crowd of men and women; and all, with outstretched arms, fell flat on their faces in the dust.

"Then the chief of chiefs took up a metal sceptre with a jewelled handle, which lay on the block of granite, brandished it on high and spoke:

"'The all-powerful staff shall not leave my hand until the miraculous stone is in a place of safety. The all-powerful staff is born of the miraculous stone. It also contains the fire of heaven, which gives life or death. While the miraculous stone was the tomb of my forefathers, the all-powerful staff never left their hands on days of disaster or of victory. May the fire of heaven lead us! May the Sun-G.o.d light our way!'

"He spoke: and the whole tribe set out upon its journey."

Don Luis struck an att.i.tude and repeated, in a self-satisfied tone:

"He spoke: and the whole tribe set out upon its journey."

Patrice Belval was greatly amused; and Stephane, infected by his hilarity, began to feel more cheerful. But Don Luis now addressed his remarks to them:

"There's nothing to laugh at! All this is very serious. It's not a story for children who believe in conjuring tricks and sleight of hand, but a real history, all the details of which will, as you shall see, give rise to precise, natural and, in a sense, scientific explanations. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, scientific: I am not afraid of the word. We are here on scientific ground; and Vorski himself will regret his cynical merriment."

Don Luis took a second sip of water and continued:

"For weeks and months the tribe followed the course of the Elbe; and one evening, on the stroke of half-past nine, reached the sea-board, in the country which afterwards became the country of the Frisians. It remained there for weeks and months, without finding the requisite security. It therefore determined upon a fresh exodus.

"This time it was a naval exodus. Thirty boats put out to sea--observe this number thirty, which was that of the families composing the tribe--and for weeks and months they wandered from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e, settling first in Scandinavia, next among the Saxons, driven off, putting to sea again and continuing their voyage. And I a.s.sure you it was really a strange, moving, impressive sight to see this vagrant tribe dragging in its wake the tombstone of its kings and seeking a safe, inaccessible and final refuge in which to conceal its idol, protect it from the attack of its enemies, celebrate its worship and employ it to consolidate the tribal power.

"The last stage was Ireland; and it was here that, one day, after they had dwelt in the green isle for half a century or perhaps a century, after their manners had acquired a certain softening by contact with nations which were already less barbarous, the grandson or great-grandson of the great chief, himself a great chief, received one of the emissaries whom he maintained in the neighbouring countries. This one came from the continent. He had discovered the miraculous refuge. It was an almost unapproachable island, protected by thirty rocks and having thirty granite monuments to guard it.

"Thirty! The fateful number! It was an obvious summons and command from the mysterious deities. The thirty galleys were launched once more and the expedition set forth.

"It succeeded. They took the island by a.s.sault. The natives they simply exterminated. The tribe settled down; and the tombstone of the Kings of Bohemia was installed . . . in the very place which it occupies to-day and which I showed to our friend Vorski. Here I must interpolate a few historical data of the greatest significance. I will be brief."

Adopting a professorial tone, Don Luis explained:

"The island of Sarek, like all France and all the western part of Europe, had been inhabited for thousands of years by a race known as the Liguri, the direct descendants of the cave-dwellers part of whose manners and customs they had retained. They were mighty builders, those Liguri, who, in the neolithic period, perhaps under the influence of the great civilizations of the east, had erected their huge blocks of granite and built their colossal funeral chambers.

"It was here that our tribe found and made great use of a system of caves and natural crypts adapted by the patient hand of man and of a cl.u.s.ter of enormous monuments which struck the mystic and superst.i.tious imagination of the Celts.

"We find therefore that, after the first or wandering phase, there begins for the G.o.d-Stone a period of rest and worship which we will call the Druidical period. It lasted for a thousand or fifteen hundred years.

The tribe became mingled with the neighbouring tribes and probably lived under the protection of some Breton king. But, little by little, the ascendancy had pa.s.sed from the chiefs to the priests; and these priests, that is to say, the Druids, a.s.sumed an authority which increased in the course of the generations that followed.