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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf 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..e007d86 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #55962 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55962) diff --git a/old/55962-8.txt b/old/55962-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a1f7573..0000000 --- a/old/55962-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,10985 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Kate Meredith, Financier, by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne - -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'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Kate Meredith, Financier - -Author: C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne - -Illustrator: Frank Parker - -Release Date: November 14, 2017 [EBook #55962] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE MEREDITH, FINANCIER *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines - - - - - - - - -[Frontispiece: They explained in bold, clear tones that they were the -chief ju-ju men of all Africa. Page 224.] - - - - - Kate Meredith - _FINANCIER_ - - By - - C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE - - Author of - "Captain Kettle, K.C.S.," "McTodd," - "The Filibuster," "Adventures of Captain Kettle," - "The Trials of Commander McTurk." - - - - Illustrated in Water-Colors by FRANK PARKER - - - Copyright, 1906, by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne - - - - A. HAMBURGER & SONS, INC., - SPECIAL EDITION, - LOS ANGELES, CAL. - - - NEW YORK AND LONDON - THE AUTHORS AND NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION - 1906 - - - - -_Copyright 1906 by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne_ - -_Entered at Stationers' Hall_ - -_All rights reserved_ - - - - Composition and Electrotyping by - J. J. Little & Co. - Printed and bound by the - Plimpton Press, Norwood, Mass - - - - - CONTENTS - - CHAPTER - - I. A West Coast Welcome - II. Introduces Miss Laura Slade - III. The King who Stopped the Roads - IV. The Beach by Moonlight - V. Events at Malla-Nulla - VI. The Coming of the Okky-Men - VII. The Invisible Fire - VIII. Presents the Head of the Firm - IX. Navigation of Dog's-Leg Creek - X. Envoys in Council - XI. Again Presents the Head of the Firm - XII. Exhibits Antiseptics - XIII. At the Liverpool End - XIV. Tin Hill: The Journey - XV. Tin Hill: The Mine - XVI. The King's Bounty - XVII. Kate Sends a Cablegram - XVIII. Carter Makes A Purchase - XIX. Senhor Cascaes - XX. Major Meredith - XXI. The Feeling on the Coast - XXII. A Fisherman and his Catch - XXIII. The Song of Speed - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - -These explained, in bold, clear tones that they were the chief ju-ju -men of all Africa . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ - -He fired on and on with deadly speed and accuracy, till the heated -barrels of the repeaters burned Laura Slade's hands - -Then, as the crocodile jumped once more, he threw up the rifle and shot -it under the left foreleg, where the protective plates are absent - -She gazed her fill on this very crude presentment of George Carter - - - - -[Illustration: (Facsimile Page of Manuscript from KATE MEREDITH -FINANCIER)] - - - - -KATE MEREDITH, FINANCIER - - - -CHAPTER I - -A WEST COAST WELCOME - -"Mighty beach to-day!" grumbled Captain Image, and handed binoculars -across to the purser. - -Mr. Balgarnie tossed his cigarette over the lee rail and tucked a sheaf -of papers into his mouth so as to have two spare hands. Day had ten -minutes before glared up over an oily swell-writhing sea of -bottle-green; dew lay in fat greasy gouts on the deck planks and the -skylight frames, foretelling in clear prophecy another spell of -scalding West African sunshine; and a mile out from the crashing, -bellowing surf that smoked along the beach, the S.S. _M'poso_ buttocked -sullenly over the swells, with engines rung off, and sweating firemen -on the top of the fiddley, slewing ventilators to catch a flavor of the -breeze. - -"They've seen us, sir, at the factory," said Mr. Balgarnie. "All the -boys are out working cargo, and there's old Swizzle-Stick Smith sucking -his eternal pipe and hustling them with a chiquot. I can catch the -glint of his eyeglass. Wonder how long that man's been out on the -Coast? Must be a matter of twenty years now by all accounts since he -had his last run home. He's found the right kind of ju-ju to dodge -fever-palaver, anyhow. They say he's a lazy old beach-comber as a -general thing, but he's up bright and early this morning." - -"Wouldn't you rouse out in a hurry if you only saw a Christian -steamboat once in three months at the oftenest? I told the second mate -to make fast the whistle string to the bridge rail when he judged he -was five miles off the old sinner's beach, and I guess Swizzle-Stick -Smith jumped slap through his mosquito bar at the first toot. See -those pyjamas he's wearing? He bought them at the forecastle shop -aboard here just six months ago." - -"Blue, with a pink stripe, so they are. This is a rare good glass of -yours, sir. Yes, I remember Chips telling me. Three pairs he got at -nine bob a pair. Wouldn't pay a sixpence more. And tried to get a -bottle of Eno thrown in as a make-weight. Phew! but this day's going -to be a ringtailed scorcher. Look at the mist clearing away from those -hills at the back already." - -Captain Image stuffed a pipe and lit it. "It's a murdering bad beach -to-day," he repeated. "Always is when there's a few tons of cargo -waiting for me to get commission on." - -The purser touched no cargo commission, and so had but small sympathy -for cargo gathering. "I see old Swizzle-Stick's making his boys run -down the oil casks into the surf. They'll never swim them through. -Rather a pity, isn't it, sir, to stay on here and let them try? -They're bound to get half of them stove at the very least." - -"That's his palaver. I missed calling here last round. There was a -swell like a cliff that day; but then there always is a bad beach along -this run of the Coast; and so he should have double lot of cargo ready -for me. There'll be oil and there'll be rubber, and I shouldn't wonder -but what he's a few bags of kernels as well. I bet that factory on the -beach there is just bulging with cargo. It ought to tally up to quite -fifty tons, and I'm not going to have some other captain snapping up -old Swizzle-Stick Smith's trade if I know it. Balgarnie, my lad, I'd -the straight tip given me from O'Neill and Craven's in Liverpool when I -was home. If we don't make it handy to call at their factories along -this Coast, the Hamburg boats will. They've shipped a new director or -something at O'Neill and Craven's--K. O'Neill he signs himself--and -that man intends to make things hum." - -"My Whiskers!" said the Purser. "I clean forgot. We've a new clerk -for O'Neill and Craven's here at Malla-Nulla. It's that red-haired -young chap, Carter, in the second class." - -"Last three red-haired passengers I knew all pegged out within three -months of being put ashore. Color of the hair seems to counteract the -effects of drugs. Purser, I'll bet you just two cocktails Carter's -planted before we're here again next trip." - -"It's on," said Mr. Balgarnie, "and I shall remember it. The young -chap's made me a picture frame for my room as good as you could buy in -a shop, and he's built the Doc some barbed arrows just like those Kasai -ones the old chief brought along from the Congo when he was on the -Antwerp run. He's a handy young fellow." - -"That doesn't get over the red hair, Purser. You'll lose that -cocktail. Bet you another cocktail, if you like, he gets spilt in the -surf getting ashore." - -Mr. Balgarnie winked pleasantly. "Then we'll consider that last one -lost already." He put his head inside the chart-house and called out -the captain's Krooboy steward--"Brass-Pan?" - -"Yessar." - -"We fit for two cocktail." - -"Savvy." - -"You lib for my room, you fetch dem gin-bottle, an' give him to bar -steward." - -"Savvy." - -"Well, what are you waiting for? Get along, you bush-man, one-time ... -That's a poor boy I'm afraid you've got, Captain." - -"Pipe-clays shoes very neatly," said Captain Image. "Oh, you've -brought those papers for me to sign. Well, come into the chart-house, -Purser, and we'll get them through. Hope that fool of a boy will bring -the cocktails quick. These early morning chills are dangerous unless -you take the proper preventives." - -Meanwhile the brazen day had grown, and work proceeded at a forced -speed both on the steamer and on the beach. Ashore, the lonely factory -bustled with evil-scented negroes, who strained at huge white-ended -palm oil puncheons. On the _M'poso_ a crew of chattering Krooboys -busied themselves aft, and presently under the guidance of a profane -third mate a brace of surf-boats jerked down towards the water, the -tackles squealing like a parcel of angry cats as they rendered through -the blocks. The boats spurned away into the clear sea before the -steamer's rusty iron side crashed down onto them: the Krooboys perched -themselves ape-like on the gunwales, paddle in hand: and in the stern -of each straddled a noisy headman, in billycock and trousers, straining -and swaying at the steering oar. - -The headman was in charge, and the well-spiced official English of -ship-board ceased. The speech in the boats was one of the barbaric -tongues of savage Africa. But the work they got through and the skill -they showed exceeded by far that which could have been put forth by any -crew of white men. Indeed, in his more pious moments, Captain Image, -in common with other mariners of his kind, firmly believed that God had -invented certain of the West African Coast tribes for the sole purpose -of handling the boats of the Liverpool oil tanks on surf-smitten -beaches. - -Now, Captain Image was not in the least degree a snob, and he did not -take even first-class passengers on their face value. As he would -explain to intimates, he was not out on the Coast for his health; he -very much wished to be able some day to retire on a competency, and -grow cabbages outside of Cardiff; and so he dispensed his affability on -a nicely regulated scale. If a man could influence cargo in the -direction of the _M'poso_, Captain Image was ready at all times to -extend to him the rough red hand of friendship, and to supply gin -cocktails and German champagne till conversation flowed into the -desired commercial channel. He called this casting bread upon the -waters, and could always rely on getting the prime cost back in -commission. But he was no man to waste either his good liquor or his -pearls of speech on a mere fifty-pound-a-year clerk, with a red head, -who would very possibly be dead before the _M'poso's_ next call, and -who certainly could influence no cargo for the next two years to come. -So from the day they left Liverpool to the day when the steamer's -forefoot scraped at her cable off Malla-Nulla beach, Captain Image had -not condescended to offer that particular second-class passenger so -much as a morning nod. - -But Captain Image was kindly enough in the West African way, and when -he had drunk his morning cocktail and gone through the Purser's papers, -he came out of the chart-house again and produced from his pyjama -pocket a half-filled box of pills. - -"There, my lad," he said to Carter, as he made the presentation, "you -take one of those according to the directions on the lid, when -required, and you'll have your health kept in a repair that will -surprise you. Now, mark me well; you'll be tempted with other brands -of pills; old Swiz--I mean Mr. Smith, your boss, is a regular crank on -drugs; but as sure as you tip other medicines down into your inside, my -pills will get hindered at their proper work, and you'll be knocked -over." - -"Thanks," said Carter. "But I always understood----" - -"I'm sure you did. Now there's one other thing I want to impress on -you, my lad. Your duty is to get on, and the way to do that is to -scratch up cargo and send it home by the _M'poso_. You see, my lad, -I've got more influence with O'Neill and Craven than any other captain -on the Coast (though you needn't go and stir up mischief by spreading -that about), and if you keep yourself in my memory by the way -Malla-Nulla ships cargo by me, I'll let them fully understand at the -home office that services like yours want a big raise in salary. -There, don't you bother to thank me, my lad, and just you stow that box -of pills where they won't get lost if you're spilt going ashore through -that surf. It's a mighty bad beach to-day." - -"Ah, morning, Carter," said Mr. Balgarnie as he bustled up. "Got all -your things up on deck? It's no concern of mine, of course, but if -there are any little odds and ends you want, such as socks, or Florida -water, or a mosquito bar, I believe Chips and the bos'n keep a sort of -surreptitious shop somewhere in the forecastle where you could fill up -your stores." - -"Much obliged," said the passenger, "but I think I've got all I want, -or rather all I can afford." - -"Remembered to bring donkey-clippers for hair-cutting? No? Well, just -as you please. What I really wished to mention to you was this: when -your pay comes in, you'll naturally want little comforts sent out from -home, and you won't care to worry any of your friends to get them for -you. Now don't you have any qualms about making use of me. Just say -what you want, and I'll get it and bring it out." Mr. Balgarnie winked -most pleasantly. "I'm purser here, of course, and have to back up the -Company's charges, but I can always make the rates reasonable to oblige -a friend. There, good-by, old fellow. The boat's ready to take you -off." - -A surf boat swung dizzily up and down at the guess-warp alongside and -the two yellow gladstone bags on its floor seemed ludicrously out of -place beside the savage paddlers. Carter was conscious that his heart -worked up to an unpleasant activity; but he carried a serene face, -dropped to his knees in the gangway, and began with unaccustomed feet -to clamber down the Jacob's ladder. He noted without disturbance that -he was daubing coal dust and orange-colored palm oil onto his hands and -white drill clothes in the process; but he had a mind now which -entirely disregarded the trivial; all his interest was fixed upon the -boat. - -"Don't jump too soon." - -"Take care you don't drop that new pith hat." - -"Mind, don't let the boat come up and squash you." - -"Don't flurry the man so. Put your feet in your pocket if you see a -shark." - -A stream of advice, much of it satirical, pelted him from above. -Looking over his shoulder, he saw beneath him the leaping boat and a -ring of negro grins. It was these last that stiffened him into action. -The surf-boat swooped up sideways, and when it seemed to him that she -had reached the zenith of her leap, he let go the Jacob's ladder and -sprang for her. - -It is a matter of nice judgment, this determination of the -psychological moment for a jump; and the amateur has it not. As a -consequence Carter's foot slid on the wet gunwale; he buttocked -painfully onto a thwart; and was saved from spinning overboard by rough -and ready black fingers. The new pith helmet received its first crack, -the white drill clothes were further soiled, and he was left to gather -himself out of the slop of water on the bottom of the boat as best he -pleased. Already the Krooboy crew were perched ape-like on the -gunwales, and stabbing strenuously at the water with trident-headed -paddles. The headman straddled in the stern with the muscles standing -out in him like nuts, as he sculled with the steering oar. - -It had all passed so quickly that the steamer had only accomplished -one-half of a roll. The white faces that he had seen last beside him -were now small and far away at the top of an enormously high iron wall, -and to their shouts of farewell and fluttering of handkerchiefs he -could not bring himself to return more than a curt hand-wave. It -seemed to him that he was cut off entirely from white men and white -man's territory, and was launched beyond release into West Africa with -all its smells and accoutrements. - -He settled himself in the mid thwart of the surf-boat with the water on -the floor flowing merrily in and out of his pipe-clayed shoes. -Whatever a white man may feel, he always assumes coolness and -indifference before the black, and Carter picked up the instinct of his -race. - -His progress shoreward had two distinct phases. At one time he and the -boat lay in a watery ravine with high sides towering above him, and no -view save of sleek bottle-green water and cobalt sky overhead. The -next moment he was expressed upwards on to an eminence and there before -him lay landscape and seascape of most pleasant qualities. At these -last moments of exaltation, he saw a glaring beach set along the sea's -edge, carrying white factory buildings, and backed in by an orderly -wall of green. - -He saw also palm-oil puncheons being brought off, and an interest in -the work bit him immediately. Here was the commodity which (bar death) -would for years to come be his chiefest intimate. Between eclipses of -the rollers, he watched every stage of the work--the great white-ended -barrels rolled down the glaring beach, naked savages swimming them -through the surf with unimaginable skill, a green painted surf-boat at -anchor outside the breakers making them fast to a buoyed hawser. He -saw another hawser-load being heaved out to the steamer's winch, with -the great casks popping about like a string of gigantic cherries. -Already on the _M'poso_ he had seen other puncheons howked on board by -a steam-crane which was driven by a one-eared Krooboy. - -He had grasped this much of his new trade when sight seemed to grow -misty to him, and his body was chilled with an unpleasant perspiration. -It is one thing to take one's regular meals on a fine-sized steamboat, -whatever weather may befall; it is quite another to do one's voyaging -in a leaping, lancing, dancing, wallowing surf-boat. Few men take -their first surf-boat ride over a bad roll without being violently -seasick, and Carter was no exception to the normal law. - -In a hazy sort of way he noted that the paddlers had stopped their song -and their monotonous effort, and he was seized with a tremendous desire -to hurry them forward and get himself and his gladstone bags planted on -the stable beach. Ahead of them were roaring, spouting breakers, which -it seemed impossible for any boat to live through; but waiting outside -their fringe was even more intolerable. - -"Oh, get on! For Heaven's sake, get on!" he wanted to shout, but -almost to his astonishment pride of race kept him grimly silent. He -had never felt before the whole debt that is owing to a white skin. - -The headman in the stern-sheets sculled now and again with his oar to -keep the boat head on to the roll, and between whiles chattered -nervously. The Krooboy paddlers on the gunwales rested on their -paddles and scratched themselves. Roller after roller went by, -flinging the boat up towards heaven, sucking her back again to the sea -grass below, with a rocking motion that was horrible beyond belief. -Carter felt the color ebb from his cheeks; he wondered with a grisly -humor if his head was paling also. - -But at last the headman delivered himself of a shriek, and a galvanic -activity seized the paddlers. They stabbed the water with their -trident-shaped blades, and stabbed and stabbed again. The surf-boat -was poised on the crest of a great mound of water, and they were -straining every sinew to keep her there. But the water motion -travelled more swiftly than the clumsy boat. She slid down the slope, -still paddling frantically, and the following wave lifted her rudely by -the tail. She reared dizzily almost to the vertical, the headman at -the apex of the whole structure keeping his perch with an ape's -dexterity. - -She just missed being upset that time, and part of the water which she -had shipped was flung over the gunwales as she righted. But she -floated there half swamped: labor with what frenzy they choose, the -iron-muscled Krooboys could not keep her under command; and the next -roller sent the whole company of them flying. - -There is one piece of advice constantly dinned into a white man's ear -on the West Coast. "If in a surf-boat you see the boat boys jump -overboard, jump yourself also if you do not wish to have the boat on -top of you." Profoundly sound advice it is. But it has the -disadvantage of presupposing capability for obedience, and if (as -frequently happens) the passenger is dizzy and weak from sudden -seasickness, then the leap may be neither prompt nor well-aimed. - -As to where Carter's fault occurred, I have no certain information. -The headman shrieked an order in his own barbarous tongue; the boat -boys took to water on either side like so many black frogs; the boat -spilt, flinging far two yellow gladstone bags and one limp passenger in -soiled white ducks; and, look how one would into that boiling hell of -broken water, no red head appeared. - -On the glaring beach Swizzle-Stick Smith broke off from his overseeing -for a moment, and limped down into the smoke of the surf. He had a -chiquot in his hand, which is a whip made of the most stinging part of -the hippopotamus, and with it he slashed venomously at every black form -that scrambled out of the brine. - -He screamed at them in their own tongue. "Get back, you black swine! -Get back, and fetch out my clerk. If you drown my clerk, I will drown -you, too. My last clerk died a year ago, and they have got me no other -out here since. I won't lose this one. Back, you bushmen!" - -The chiquot had many terrors to the Krooboys, the water few. It was as -much out of forgetfulness as anything else that they had not brought -their passenger to shore with them. Besides, how were they to know -that he could not swim as well as themselves (that is, about as well as -a seal can swim)? But they were not above striking a bargain for their -services. A black head, served upon a white pother of creamy surf, -gave tongue. - -"Oh, Smith. You give cash, suppose we fit for catch 'im?" - -"You lib for beach with my clerk, and I dash you one whole box of gin. -Hurry up now, you thieves, or a shark will chop him, or else he'll -drown." - -Heads disappeared, and many pairs of black heels kicked upwards. The -old man hitched together his shabby pyjamas, and stared industriously -at the broken water through his eyeglass. "It's all very well for this -K. O'Neill to send out letters that the firm is going to double its -business," he grumbled, "but if they don't send me men that can get -ashore in one piece, how this factory at Malla-Nulla is going to buck -up, I can't see. By Jove, they've got him, the beggars. Red-headed -chap, too. Well, I might have saved that dash, I'm thinking. Men with -red heads never seem to stand the climate here for long. It will be a -nuisance if the beggar pegs out within the month, after I've spent a -case of gin on him." - -It was a very limp and bedraggled Carter that was brought ashore -presently by the Krooboys. He was held up by the heels, _more -Africano_, to let the Atlantic drain from his inside back into its -proper place, but he did not show any sign of consciousness till he had -been lifted up and carried to the shelter of the retail store. - -Swizzle-Stick Smith limped beside him, puffing at his briar. "Beggar's -got an arm broken," he commented. "Just my luck. And K. O'Neill will -expect the work to be done just the same. Oh"--he said when the -dripping Krooboys had put down his guest on the counter--"so you've -concluded to come to your senses again?" - -Carter shuddered and slowly opened his eyes. A brown cockroach, -horrible with dust, dropped from the rafter above onto his face. - -"I'm afraid you've had rather a rough bout of it, landing, my lad. -It's a very bad beach to-day. There, don't move. You're all right. -You'll feel a bit queer yet." - -"The boat upset----" - -"It did, most thoroughly. But you're now at Malla-Nulla factory in -West Africa, and I bid you welcome. I'm Mr. Smith, your commanding -officer. You'd like to lie still for a bit, perhaps?" - -"Yes." - -"Well, buck up, and you'll soon be all right. You needn't fancy you'll -be a candidate for a top-hat and a gun-case yet." - -"For a which?" - -The trader pointed with his pipe stem across the store to a wooden box -full of flintlock trade guns. "That's a gun case. Man's usually too -long to fit it comfortably, especially if he's as well-grown as you -are. So we knock out one end, and nail on an old top-hat. Then you -can plant him in style." - -The patient's mouth twitched with the corner of a smile. "A most tidy -custom," he said faintly. "But I say, could you do anything for my -arm? Sorry to trouble you, but it's most abominably painful." - -"Your arm's broken, worse luck. I'll set it for you when I've got off -this cargo." - -"I'd rather have a doctor. Will you send off to the _M'poso_ for the -doctor there, please?" - -The old man laughed and polished his eyeglass on a sleeve of his -pyjamas. "My lad, you don't understand. You've left the steamer now, -and her doctor's not the kind of fool to risk his own bones trying to -get here with the beach as bad as it is to-day. I don't suppose he -mistakes you for a millionaire. You came out in the second class, I -suppose?" - -"Yes." - -"Then there you are. His responsibility ended when you left the -steamer, and ship's doctors don't come ashore on this Coast unless -they're sure of touching a big fat fee. Now you must just lie quiet -where you are, and bite on your teeth till I've some time for surgery. -Trade comes first in West Africa." - -With which naked truth, Swizzle-Stick Smith relit his pipe, and went -out again into the brazen sunshine, and presently was hustling on the -factory boys at their cargo work with his accustomed eloquence and -dexterity. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -INTRODUCES MISS LAURA SLADE - -If a white man in a West African factory volunteers details of his -previous history, all hearers are quite at liberty to believe or -disbelieve, as suits their whim; but if, on the other hand, no word -about previous record is offered, Coast etiquette strictly rules that -none shall be asked for. - -George Carter found even upon the surface of his superior officer at -Malla-Nulla factory much that was mysterious. There were moments when -Mr. Smith exhibited an unmistakable gentility; but these were rare; and -they usually occurred when the pair of them lunched _en tête-à-tête_ at -11 o'clock, and Smith had worked off his morning qualm, and had not -commenced his afternoon refreshment. With a larger audience he was one -part cynic and six parts ruffian; he was admitted to be the most -skilful compounder of cocktails on all that section of the West African -seaboard; and he sampled his own brews in such quantities, and with -such impunity, as gave the lie to all text-books on topical medicine. - -His head was bald, and the gray hair on his face and above his ears was -either as short as clippers could make it, or else bristled with a two -weeks' growth. Day and night he wore more or less shrunken pyjamas, -from the neck buttonhole of which a single eyeglass dangled at the end -of a piece of new black silk ribbon. Carter guessed his age as -somewhere between fifty and fifty-five, and wondered why on earth -Messrs. O'Neill and Craven kept such a disreputable old person as the -head of what might have been a very prosperous factory. - -Indeed, theories on this very point were already lodged in the older -man's brain. "It's this new partner, K. O'Neill, that I don't like the -sound of," he explained to Carter one day. "By the way, who is he?" - -"Don't know. As I told you I was staying with my father at the -vicarage, and I was engaged by wire the day before the _M'poso_ sailed, -and only caught her by the skin of my teeth. There was nobody there to -see me off, and on the boat all they could tell me was that 'K.' came -into the business when the late head died." - -"Old Godfrey, that was"--Swizzle-Stick Smith sighed--"poor old Godfrey -O'Neill! He was one of the best fellows going in the old days, not a -bit like the usual cut of palm-oil ruffian as we used to call the -traders then. And, my God! to think of my coming down to the grade of -one of them myself." - -Again the subject cropped up when one of their rare mails came in. -"Here's expense!" grumbled Swizzle-Stick Smith. "Letters landed at our -Monk River factory, and sent on to Mulla-Nulla by special runner. K. -O'Neill's orders, the Monk River agent says. In the old days you could -always bet on the beach being too bad for the steamer to call twice out -of three times, and you weren't pestered with a mail more than once in -six months. That's mainly why I've stuck by O'Neill and Craven all -these years. Now this new man wants our output of kernels to be -doubled by this time next year, and hopes I'll take steps to work up -the rubber connection. If I can't see my way to do all this, will I -kindly give my reasons in writing, and if necessary forward same by -runner to a steamer's calling point, so that reply may be in Liverpool -within six weeks at latest. What do you think of that?" - -"Oh, I should say it was reasonable enough from the Liverpool point of -view." - -"Bah! There's not much of the Coast about you." He tore the letters -into shreds, and folded these carefully into pipe-lights. "Dear old -Godfrey trusted me up to the hilt, and this new fellow's got to learn -to do the same, or I shall resign my commission. If he understood -anything about running the office, he might know I should do all the -work that was good for me." - -"I'm sure you do," said Carter civilly. "I'm afraid I'm the slacker. -You let me have such an easy time of it whilst my arm was getting well, -that I've slid off into lazy ways. I must buck up, and if you'll load -the work onto me, Mr. Smith, you'll find I can do a lot more." - -Swizzle-Stick Smith dried the perspiration from his eye socket, fixed -his glass into a firmer hold, and stared. "Well," he said at last, -"you _are_ a d--d fool." And there the talk ended. - -It was that same day that Carter had his first introduction to Royalty. -He was in the retail store--"feteesh," they call it on the -Coast--weighing out baskets of palm kernels, measuring calabashes of -orange-colored palm oil, judging as best he could the amount of -adulterants the simple negro had added to increase the bulk, and -apportioning the value in cotton cloth, powder, flintlock guns at -twelve and six-pence apiece, and green cubical boxes of Holland gin. -Trade proceeded slowly. The interior of the feteesh was a stew of heat -and odors, and the white man's elaborate calculations were none of the -most glib. To knock some idea of the fairness of these into the black -man's skull was a work that required not only eloquence, but also -athletic power. The simple savage who did only one day's shopping per -annum was willing always to let the delights of it linger out as long -as possible, and all the white man's hustling could not drive the -business along at more than a snail's pace. - -By Coast custom, work for Europeans starts in those cool hours that -know the daybreak, and switches off between eleven and twelve for -breakfast; and thereafter siesta is the rule till the sun once more -begins to throw a shadow. But on this particular day, when -Swizzle-Stick Smith had knocked out his pipe and turned in under his -mosquito bar, Carter sluiced a parrafin-can full of water over his red -head by way of a final refreshment, and went down once more from the -living rooms of the factory to the heat and the odors of the feteesh -below. - -The sweating customers saw him come and roused up out of the purple -shadows, and presently the game of haggle was once more in full swing. - -Carter had a natural gift for tongues, and was picking up the difficult -Coast languages to the best of his ability, but his vocabulary was of -necessity small, and a Krooboy stood by to translate intricate passages -into idiom more likely to penetrate the harder skulls. The Krooboy -wore trousers and singlet in token of his advanced civilization, and -bore with pride the name of White-Man's-Trouble. - -There was a glut of customers that baking afternoon. High-scented -trade stuffs poured into the factory in pleasing abundance, and bundles -of European produce were balanced upon woolly craniums for -transportation through bush paths to that wild unknown Africa beyond -the hinterland. The new law of K. O'Neill allowed no lingering in the -feteesh. Once a customer had been delivered of his goods, and had -accepted payment, White-Man's-Trouble decanted him into the scalding -sunshine outside, and bade him hasten upon his ways. K. O'Neill had -stated very plainly, in a typewritten letter, that the leakage by theft -was unpleasing to the directorate in Liverpool, and must be stopped. -K. O'Neill understood that the thefts took place after a customer had -spent all his cash on legitimate purchase, as then all his savage -intelligence was turned to pilfering. Carter, as the man on the spot, -recognized the truth of all this, and carried out the instructions to -the foot of the letter. - -Mr. Smith warned him he would have trouble over it. "Ever since the -first factory came down to blight this Coast," Smith explained, "the -boys have been allowed to hang around the feteesh and steal what wasn't -nailed down. They look upon it in the light of a legitimate discount, -and it's grown up into a custom. Now in West Africa you may burn a -forest, or blot out a nation, or start a new volcano, and nobody will -say very much to you, but if you interfere with a recognized custom, -you come in contact with the biggest kind of trouble." - -"Still," Carter pointed out, "these orders are definite." - -"And you are the kind of fool that goes on the principle of 'obeying -orders if you break owners.' Well, go ahead and carry out -instructions. I won't interfere with you. I'd rather like to see this -cocksure K. O'Neill get a smack in the eye to cure his meddling. And -for yourself, keep your weather eye lifting, or some indignant nigger -will ram a foot of iron into you. It's the Okky-men I'd take especial -care of if I were you. They've got their tails up a good deal more -than's healthy just now. I'm told, too, that their head witch doctor -wants his war drum redecorated." Mr. Smith grinned--"I don't want to -be personal, of course." - -"Oh, don't mind me. So far I rather fail to understand what I've got -to do with the Okky City war drum." - -"You see you carry round with you something that would make the very -best kind of heap-too-good ju-ju." - -"Still I don't understand." - -Swizzle-Stick Smith got up and stretched, and limped across to the -door. "It's that red head of yours, my lad," he said over his shoulder -as he went out. "Every witch doctor in West Africa that sees it will -just itch to have it amongst his ornaments. I'd dye it sky-blue if I -were you, just for safety sake." - -This of course might be Mr. Smith's delicate irony, or again it might -be literally true. Carter had already been long enough in West Africa -to know that very unusual and unpleasant things can happen there; but -that made no change in his determination. K. O'Neill was perfectly -right about the matter; this pilfering ought to be stopped; and he felt -convinced that White-Man's-Trouble would help to see that justice was -done. That particular Krooboy was thievish himself, certainly, but he -had a short way with any fellow African who dared to be light-fingered. - -So during all that hot morning, and all that sweltering afternoon, -merchant after merchant was shown out into the sunshine, and those who -chattered and would not go willingly were assisted by the strong right -arm of White-Man's-Trouble. - -Just upon the time when siestas generally ended, that is, about four -o'clock, there came a burly Okky trader who swaggered up to the factory -with five carriers in his train laden down with bags of rubber. - -Carter examined the evil smelling stuff, and cut open two or three of -the larger round lumps. The gentle savage had put in quite thirty per -cent. of sticks, and sand, and alien gum by way of makeweight, and was -as petulant as a child at having this simple fraud discovered. He -still further disliked the price that was offered; and when it came to -making his purchases, and he found that the particular -spot-white-on-blue cotton cloth on which he had built up his fancy was -out of stock, the remaining rags of his temper were frayed completely. -For an unbroken ten minutes he cursed Carter, and Malla-Nulla factory, -and an unknown Manchester skipper in fluent Okky, here and there -embroidered with a few words of that slave-trader's Arabic, which is -specially designed as a comfort for the impatient, and when he had -accepted a roll of blue cloth spotted in another pattern, and was -invited to leave the feteesh, he held himself to be one of the worst -used Africans on the Dark Continent. - -Carter, who was tired and hot, signed to his henchman. "Here, fire -that ruffian out," he said. - -But White-Man's-Trouble affected to hear a summons from outside. "Dat -you, Smith? Yessar, I come one-time," said he, and bolted out through -the doorway. - -"Here you," said Carter to the big Okky-man, "you follow that Krooboy -out of here. If I have to tell you a second time, there'll be trouble. -Come, now, git." - -Carter's command of the native might be faulty, but the grammar of his -gestures was correct enough. What, go out of the feteesh before he -chose? The Okky-man had no idea of doing such a thing. He lifted his -walking spear threateningly, and snarled. - -Simultaneously Carter put his right hand on the greasy counter and -vaulted. He caught the upraised spear with his other hand before his -feet had touched ground, and broke the blade close off by the socket; -and a short instant later, when he had found a footing, he carried his -weight forward in the same leap, and drove his right against the -negro's left carotid, just beneath the ear. The man went down as if he -had been pole-axed. - -Carter went outside and beckoned to the Okky-man's carriers. "Here, -you, come and carry your master outdoors"--the men hesitated--"or I'll -start in to handle you next." They did as they were bidden. And -thereupon Carter, with his blood now well warmed up, was left free to -attend to another matter elsewhere. - -A noise of voices in disagreement, and the intermittent sounds of -scuffling had made themselves heard from the south side of the factory -buildings, and now there were added to these a woman's voice calling in -English for some one to help her, and then a sharp, shrill scream of -unmistakable distress. - -Now, Carter was no knight-errant. He had set up the unknown K. O'Neill -as his model, and had told himself daily that he intended to meddle -with nothing in West Africa, philanthropic or otherwise, which would -not directly tend to the advancement of George Carter; but at the first -moment when they were put to the test, all these academic resolutions -broke to pieces. He picked up his feet and ran at speed through the -sunshine, and as he went a mist seemed to rise up before his eyes which -tinged everything red. - -He felt somehow as he had never felt before; strangely exhilarated and -strangely savage; and when he arrived on the scene of the disturbance, -he was little inclined to weigh the consequences of interference. -There was a woman, white-faced and terror-stricken--he could not for -the life of him tell whether she was handsome or hideous. Negroes were -handling her. On the ground lay a pole hammock, in which presumably -she had arrived. In front of her was a fat negro, over whose head a -slave held a gaudy gold and red umbrella, and grouped around this fat -one were eight or ten negro soldiers, with swords slung over their -shoulders, and long flintlock trade guns in their hands. - -The whole scene was, as I say, dished up to Carter's eyes in a red -mist, and this thinned and thickened spasmodically so that sometimes he -could see clearly what he was doing, and at other times he acted like a -man bewitched. But presently the red cleared away altogether, and he -found himself clutching the fat negro by a twist of the shoulder cloth, -and threatening to split his skull with a sword recently carried by one -of the man's own escort. The girl sat limp and white on a green case -before them, clearly on the edge of a faint, and round them all stood -negro carriers and Haûsa soldiery, frozen to inaction by the fat man's -danger. - -All human noises had ceased. Only the hot insect hum and the cool -diapason of the Atlantic surf droned through the silence. From the -dull upraised sword blade outrageous sunrays winked and flickered. - -Upon this impasse came Swizzle-Stick Smith from the bush side of the -white factory buildings, polishing his eyeglass, and limping along at -his usual pace, and no faster. He removed his pipe, and wagged it at -them. - -"Upon my soul a most interesting picture! Just like a kid's fairy tale -book. Gallant young knight rescuing distressed damosel from the -clutches of wicked ogre, who incidentally happens to be the King of -Okky as anyone but a born fool could have guessed from his state -umbrella, and one of the firm's best customers. Kindly observe that -I'm the good fairy who always comes in on the last page to put things -safe. Carter, I prithee sheath thy virgin sword, and then for God's -sake run away and drown yourself." - -He had reached the group by this time, and took up in his own the damp -black hand of offended majesty, and shook it heartily. He broke out in -a stream of fluent Okky, and gradually the potentate's wrath melted. -The King still gesticulated violently, and apparently demanded Carter's -red head upon a charger as a prelude to truce, but Swizzle-Stick Smith -was an old Coaster and knew his man. - -"Champagne," Mr. Smith kept on suggesting, "bubbly champagne with -plenty of Angostura bitters in it to make it bite. I call attention to -your Majesty's historic thirst. Come up into the factory, old -Tintacks, and we'll break up a case in honor of the day." - -Finally the King, who being a West African king was necessarily a -shrewd man, decided that though vengeance would keep till another day, -Mr. Smith's champagne might not; and he let himself be led back to the -factory, and up the stair. He graciously accepted the most -solid-looking of the long chairs in the veranda, sat in it carefully, -kicked off his slippers, and tucked his feet beneath him. He waved -away Mr. Smith's further speech. "Oh, Smith," he said, "I fit for -champagne-palaver, one-time," and loosened the tuck of his ample -waist-cloth to give space for the expected cargo. "No damn use more -talk-palaver now." - -Outside in the sunlight the Haûsa soldiers had taken the cue from their -master, and dissolved away unobtrusively; the carriers were dismissed -to the Krooboys' quarters under the charge of White-Man's-Trouble, who, -now that the disturbance was over, bustled up with many protestations -of sorrow for his unavoidable absence, and Carter was left for further -attendance on his distressed damsel. - -For the first time he found himself able to regard her critically; and -he was somehow rather disturbed to find before him a girl who was -undeniably beautiful. When he had rushed blindly in to the rescue, he -had taken it for granted that the person he saw so vaguely through that -red mist was an English or an American missionary woman in distress, -and (to himself) excused his mad lust for battle by picturing himself -as the champion of the Christian martyr beset by pagans. - -The white missionary women of that strip of the Coast occasionally -quartered themselves at Malla-Nulla factory on their journeyings, in -spite of the very niggardly civility of Mr. Smith, and Carter had been -much impressed in the way beneficent Nature had safeguarded them by -homely features and unattractive mien from attack by the other sex. He -could have taken off his hat to one of these, and said: - -"Most happy to have been of service to you, madam. Won't you come into -the factory and have a cup of tea?" - -But this slim beauty in the frilled white muslins sent speech further -and further away from him the more that he looked at her. For the -first time since landing in Africa six months before he was ashamed of -mildew-stained pyjamas for afternoon wear, and disgusted with the -yellow smears of palm oil which bedaubed them. He was hatefully aware -too that he had let his razors rust in the moist Coast climate, and -White-Man's-Trouble's fortnightly efforts with the clippers had merely -left his chin and head covered with an obscene red bristle. - -"... It would be ridiculous," the girl was murmuring, "merely to say -'thank you' for what you did, Mr. Carter. You see I know your name. -News about new-comers soon spreads amongst the other factories on the -Coast here. If you only knew how I dread that fearful King, you would -understand my gratitude. You see this isn't the first time he's tried -to carry me off." - -"I wish you'd mentioned it earlier," Carter blurted out, "and I'd have -split his dirty skull, trade or no trade." - -She shook her head. "No, that wouldn't have done. There's the law to -be thought of even here. Besides, he's a King, and could let loose, so -they say, twenty thousand fighting men against the Coast factories, and -wipe them out. If only I could get away to some place he couldn't -reach!" She shivered. "If I stay on here at my father's factory, I'm -bound to be caught and taken to Okky City." - -Carter's brown eyes opened in sheer surprise. "You speak of your -father's factory. Do you mean to say that you live here on the Coast?" - -"At the Smooth River factory." - -"What, Slade's place?" - -"Yes, I'm Laura Slade. Couldn't you guess?" - -"How could I?" Carter blurted out. "Mr. Smith told me that Slade's -girl--" And there he stopped, and could have bitten off his tongue for -having said so much. - -She finished his sentence quietly, and, as it appeared, without -resentment. "Mr. Smith, I suppose, described me as a nigger." - -Carter made no reply. His brown eyes hung upon her pretty face -intently. - -"Mr. Smith, of course, knew my father, and my mother, too, for that -matter, before I was born. My mother was a quadroon, and that makes -me, you see, one-eighth African." - -"You did not arrange your pedigree any more than I did mine. If you -hadn't told me, I should never have guessed you weren't a full-blooded -European. And after all, what does it matter?" - -"There speaks the man who has only been out on the Coast six months." - -"Six months or six years," said Carter stoutly, "makes no difference so -far as I am concerned. We're neighbors, it appears, and I hope you -will let me be one of your friends. Miss Slade, will you take -compassion on a very lonely man and let him come over to Smooth River -occasionally and see you? I can't tell you how ghastly the loneliness -has been with only the Krooboys and Mr.--er--Swizzle-Stick Smith to -talk to, though perhaps you can guess at it by the way I've let my -outward man run to seed." - -She gave him her slim brown hand. "I take frankly what you offer," she -said. "If you let me become your friend, I shall count myself -fortunate; you see, after what you have done for me to-day we can -hardly start from the ordinary basis." - -From there onwards their talk flowed easily. She had come over on a -business errand for her father, and Carter settled that quickly and -promptly. She went presently into the factory to rest after her long -hammock ride, and Carter seized upon the chance to dive into his own -room. Therefrom he emerged an hour later with a chin half-raw from -recent shaving with a rusty razor, and wearing creased white drill -clothes and a linen collar that sawed his neck abominably. - -"I've arranged," he said, when next he saw her, "that you and I dine -_tête-à-tête_, if you don't mind, down under those palm trees yonder. -The mosquitos don't trouble down there just at sunset, and my boy, -White-Man's-Trouble, only tastes things when they're going back to the -cook house. It's mere prejudice to say he's had his filthy paw in -every dish before it comes to me. Oh, by the way, Mr. Smith and his -Majesty of Okky ask you to excuse them, as they have still more -business to discuss before they can break up their meeting." - -She laughed and understood him to a nicety. They slipped off into -light easy talk as though they had known one another all their lives, -and there was neither that narrow escape from tragedy behind them, nor -Africa and possible tragedy ahead. The girl was good comrade. The man -was hardly that. He too frankly devoured her with his eyes. And -certainly, in her cool, frilled muslin dress, and her big green sun hat -she was pretty enough to paint. Her hair was black assuredly, but her -pale olive face was moulded in curves of the most delicious. In -England, and as an Englishwoman, she would have been dark perhaps, -though not noticeably so. Nine hundred and ninety-nine English people -out of the thousand would have commented on her beauty only. In -America--well, in America, she would at once have been placed in that -class apart. - -But Carter, the recently imported Englishman, saw nothing save only her -beauty and her charm, and he behaved towards her as the English -gentleman behaves towards his equal. A man who had been longer in -Africa would have had the wisdom of one who had lived in the Southern -States, and have picked out the African blood at a glance, and, as is -the way of men who have eaten of the tree of that wisdom, would have -ordered his civilities accordingly. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE KING WHO STOPPED THE ROADS - -Mr. Smith was unsteady neither of speech nor foot, but an expert could -have diagnosed that he had been dining. The expert, however, unless he -had acquired his expertness near Malla-Nulla factory, would hardly have -guessed that Mr. Smith was the better (or worse) for at least half a -case of German champagne, generously laced with Angostura bitters. - -He limped into Carter's bedroom, put his lamp down on the table, sat on -the chair beside the mosquito bar, and very carefully eased up the -knees of his shrunk pyjamas. - -"I say, Mr. Assistant, wake up." - -Carter woke, and blinked at the glare of Mr. Smith's eyeglass. - -"Don't get up, please. I apologize for waking you, my dear follow, but -since you turned in, you've been made a pawn in the great game of -diplomacy. The fate of empires trembles on your nod." - -Carter roused up onto his elbow. "Don't you think the empires would -tremble no more if we left them over till to-morrow morning?" - -"It would be most undiplomatic to leave them trembling too long. I can -tell you I have had a devilish hard time of it putting his Majesty to -sleep. He can carry his liquor like a man, and he'd a most royal way -of seeing I drank level with him. But he may wake up any minute. Put -not your trust in the sleep of kings, Mr. Carter." - -"All right, sir. I'll make a note of that. I'll brew the gasolene, -and when the King wakes I'll stand by with soda-water and fusel oil, -which I should think will heal the breach between us." - -"Don't you believe it for one instant. The King of Okky's a seasoned -vessel with a copper tummy, and you could no more thaw the wickedness -out of him with soda-water than you could bring the devil to a reformed -temperature in an ice machine. You must recognize, Mr. Carter, that -both the King of Okky and the devil have their little ways, and it's -above your art to change either of them very much. Question is, how -much allegiance do you think you owe to O'Neill and Craven?" - -This was a change of front with a vengeance. But Carter took it coolly -enough. "That's an interesting point, sir. I hadn't reckoned it up -before. But I shouldn't like to give you an answer to so important a -question about the firm on the spur of the moment. So by your leave, -I'll sleep over it, and tell you in the morning." - -"Sorry, but can't allow you the time, and as you don't seem to grasp -the fact, I must point out that the fate of this factory of O'Neill and -Craven's at Malla-Nulla depends on the august will of the King of Okky. -His Portliness also threatens to stop the roads which feed our other -factories at Monktown and Smooth River, though I don't think when it -comes to the point he'll do that. However, Burgoyne and Slade must see -to those themselves. After the way this new K. O'Neill's been treating -me on paper, I'm not going to concern myself with the general welfare -of all the firm's factories on this coast. But I am in charge of -Malla-Nulla, and I'm going to preserve the trade here from extinction -if it can be managed." - -Carter lifted the mosquito bar and got out of bed. "I'm afraid, sir, I -must ask you to come down to my level, and speak rather more plainly." - -Swizzle-Stick Smith sat back resignedly in his chair, and dropped his -eyeglass to the end of its black watered silk ribbon. "_Dulce et -decorum est pro factoria mori_, though I don't suppose it will come to -dying if you play your cards right." Mr. Smith closed his eyes and -evidently imagined that he was uttering his next thought silently. -"Keep the young beggar out of the way of Slade's girl, too. By Gad, -I'd no idea Laura would grow up such a pretty child. If he'd been an -ordinary clerk I wouldn't have minded, but the lad's a gentleman by -birth, and now he's done the gallant rescue business as a start, he's -just the sort of quixotic young ass to think he ought to go and marry -the girl as a proper capping for the romance. And that of course would -be the end of him socially." - -"I say," Carter called out loudly, "Mr. Smith, do you know it's four -o'clock in the morning, and there are some dangerous chills about just -now? Don't you think you had better have a cigarette paper full of -quinine by way of a night cap, and then go to bed? It will be -turning-out time in another hour or so." - -"Matches, please. My pipe's out. Ah, thank you, Mr. Carter. Well, as -I was saying, the King's awfully taken with that punkah you rigged for -the mess-room, and the water wheel you set up in the river to run it, -and when I showed him the native arrowheads, and the spears, and the -execution axes you'd made to sell to the curiosity shops at home, he -began to change his tune. By the time we'd got to the fifth bottle -he'd given up asking for your head in a calabash to take home with him, -and before we'd finished the case he'd offered you the post of Chief -Commissioner of Works in Okky City, with a salary in produce and quills -of gold that'll work out to £1,000 a year." - -"That's very flattering." - -"Yes, isn't it, when you remember how he started. The only question -is, will he keep his royal word when he's sober?" - -"It's a nice point. Among other things I believe they're cannibals up -in Okky City." - -"Oh, come now, Mr. Assistant, you mustn't malign my friend, the King, -too much. You need have no fears on that score. The Okky men have -never been known to eat anybody with a red head. The only thing you'd -have to funk would be sacrifice--with, of course, a most full and -impressive ceremony. So I think you'll go, eh? All for the sake of K. -O'Neill, whom you admire so much? And then the King won't stop the -roads." - -"No," said Carter shortly. "I have no intention of committing suicide -at present. But if I'm an embarrassment at Malla-Nulla, you may fire -me, or I'll resign if you wish it." - -Swizzle-Stick Smith screwed his eyeglass into place and examined his -assistant with thoughtful care. "Shouldn't dream of letting you go, my -dear fellow. Always make a point of sticking by my officers. Just -thought I'd let you know of the King's offer in case his Majesty refers -to it to-morrow. There now, go to bed again, and don't dream the -fighting's begun. You'll see plenty of service over this affair -without dreaming over it on ahead." - - -When Carter set out for the West Coast of Africa from the Upper -Wharfedale Vicarage, the one article in his kit which he thought -suitable for the Coast was a small-bore nickel-plated revolver, which -he had picked up second hand in Skipton for ten and six. It had been -smuggled in without his mother's knowledge, as there was no reason to -add to her already great anxiety. His father had provided half a -sovereign towards the cost, had advised him not to use the wretched -thing except in case of necessity, but if need arose, to take heed that -he held it straight. - -Of course on arrival he found, firstly, that the weapon was too small -to be of effective use; secondly, that he could not hit a mark six feet -square at more than a twelve-yard rise; and, thirdly, that revolvers -are not really articles of fashionable wear for clerks in West Coast -factories, whatever they may be in story-books. So the weapon lay in -his mouldy portmanteau, and the moist Coast climate changed its nickel -dress for a good coat of bright red rust. - -But the morning after the King of Okky's arrival, while that bulky -potentate was still asleep in the factory, Carter went in, cleaned the -revolver as well as he could, and jammed cartridges into its reluctant -chambers. He carried it pirate-fashion for the remainder of that day -inside the band of his trousers, to his great personal discomfort, and -to the vast enjoyment of Mr. Smith. However, the truculent Okky -soldiers who had deliberately shaken weapons at him in the morning were -reduced by the sight of it to a certain surly civility, and work in the -feteesh went on without any open rupture. - -Mr. Smith was distinctly irritable when dawn came in with the morning -tea, but presently, when the swizzle-stick began its merry swishing in -the cocktail pitcher, he thawed into a pleasing geniality, which, by -frequent application of the same remedy, endured throughout the day. -Laura Slade had returned in her hammock by the beach road in the cool -of the preceding night, and Carter's thoughts followed her to Smooth -River factory, to the detriment of his work down in the feteesh. He -gave no mental attention whatever to the King of Okky who sat -cross-legged in a long chair in the factory veranda above him, but that -bulky potentate kept returning with a dogged persistency to the subject -of George Carter. - -"Oh, Smith," he kept on saying, "I savvy champagne palaver, n' I savvy -cocktail palaver, n' I fit for chop when chop-time lib. But I ask you -for tell me, one-time, if you fit for dash me dem Red-head that savvies -machine-palaver. If you no fit, I stop dem road, an' no more trade lib -for Malla-Nulla." - -To which Mr. Smith, who knew his West Africa from a twenty-five years' -study of its men and customs, would reply with an unruffled geniality -that he was sure the King was far too good a heathen to try any such -dirty game as putting ju-ju on the factory of an old friend. "You're -pulling my leg, old Cockiwax," Mr. Smith would say. "I pray you cease, -and you shall have the best cocktail this pagan Coast has seen or -sniffed." - -"Oh, Smith," the King would say, "I fit," and thereafter there would be -truce till the houseboy brought the ingredients, and Mr. Smith with his -far-famed skill compounded them, and the pink cocktails went their -appointed journey to perform their accustomed work. After which the -African would once more repeat his unwearied demand. - -From the rising of the King from his mat, to the hour of the midday -meal, this demand and reply went on, and Swizzle-Stick Smith parried it -with unruffled serenity. But an open rupture very nearly came at the -meal time. As a king, the visitor was invited to sit at meat with the -white men in their mess-room. He said little during the meal, but he -appraised Carter's head so persistently with his eyes that that -irritated young man, with the pride of race bubbling within him, would -have openly resented the performance if he had not given a promise to -Mr. Smith on this very point only a short half-hour before. - -Such a state of things could not last long without bringing about an -open breach, and Swizzle-Stick Smith, with his vast experience, saw -this earlier than anybody, and made his arrangements accordingly. - -He tried hard to write a letter, but his pen was not in the mood for -intelligent calligraphy. So he had to fall back on verbal instructions -and a verbal message. - -"Mr. Assistant," he said, when at last he put down his knife and fork, -and the houseboy handed him his pipe and a match, "Mr. Assistant, I -intended to make you a bearer of dispatches, but the gout's got into my -confounded fingers this morning, and I doubt if even Slade could read -my writing. So we'll just have to do the thing informally. We must -have some more of that spot-white-on-blue cloth, and you must post off -to the Smooth River factory and bring it back with you. It seems to be -in heavy demand just now, though why, I can't imagine. I've been on -the Coast twenty-five years now, and I can no more foretell the run of -native fashions than I could the day I landed. But there it is, and -though I'm sure Slade won't want to part, you must just make him. Say -we'll pay him back in salt. He's sure to be short of salt. I never -yet knew Slade to indent for half as many bags of salt as his trade -required. You needn't hurry. If you're back here in three days' time -that will be quite soon enough. You can take a hammock, of course." - -"Thanks, very much, but I'd rather walk." - -"Well, just as you please. You must commandeer what carriers you want -from Slade." - -So it came to pass that when the sun had dropped to a point whence it -could throw a decent shadow, and the sea breeze mingled a bracing chill -even into a temperature of eighty, Carter set off along the beach, with -White-Man's-Trouble balancing a mildew-mottled Gladstone bag on his -smartly-shaved cranium, in attendance. On one side of him Africa was -fenced off by a wall of impenetrable greenery; on the other the -Atlantic bumped and roared and creamed along the glaring sand. On the -horizon the smoke of a Liverpool palm oil tank called from him the -usual Coaster's sigh. - -"Oh, Carter," said his valet when they had left the factory buildings -well out of earshot, "you plenty-much fine, and you no lib for steamah." - -"It was about time I tidied up. When we get back to the factory I'll -teach you how to pipe-clay shoes." - -The Krooboy thought over this proposition for some minutes. Then said -he: "I fit for tell you, Carter, dem last white man I pipe-clay shoes -for, he lib for cemetery in two week. Savvy, Carter? Two week." - -"All right, don't get so emphatic. I wasn't doubting you. But I'm -going to risk the cemetery all the same. You may start by providing me -with one pair of clean shoes a day, and when I get the taste of -cleanliness again, maybe I'll run to two. Savvy?" - -"Savvy plenty," grumbled White-Man's-Trouble, and then presently. "You -no fit for steamah palaver? You no lib for home?" - -"No, I'm not going home yet awhile." - -"But you plenty-much fine." - -"Yes," admitted Carter, "I caught sight of myself in mildewed pyjamas -and a fortnight's beard, and was struck with the general filthiness of -my personal appearance. Savvy?" - -"Savvy plenty. Oh, Carter, you lib for wife-palaver? Dem plenty-much -fine clothes always one of the customs before wife-palaver." - -The Krooboy pondered over this discovery during the next two miles of -the march, and then said he, "Oh, Carter?" - -"Well?" - -"Dem Slade. You savvy seegar?" - -"I suppose so. Why?" - -"I see Smith dash dem Slade one box seegar an' he got what Slade said -'no fit' for before. Oh, Carter, you dash dem Slade one box seegar," -said White-Man's-Trouble, and he treated his employer to a knowing wink. - -"Whatever for?" - -"Because then, after he got dem seegar, he sell you Laura for half dem -price he ask before." - -"You're an impertinent savage," said Carter half tickled, half annoyed. - -But White-Man's-Trouble stopped, put down the yellow Gladstone bag on -the baking sand, and pointed to the blue parallel tribal tattoo marks -between his brows. "I Krooboy, sar. I no bushboy, sar! I lib for -educate as deckboy an' stan'-by-at-crane boy on steamah, sar. I no fit -for stay with you, sar, if you call me impertinent savage." - -Carter stared. "Good heavens, man! I didn't intend to hurt your -feelings." - -White-Man's-Trouble waved the bleached inside of his paw towards his -master. "Oh, Carter, you apologize. Palaver set." He bowed a head -which was quaintly shaved into garden patches, replaced the Gladstone -bag on its central bed of wool, and once more strode cheerfully ahead. - -Carter followed moodily. How had they all guessed at his admiration -for Laura? He had thought it the most intimate of secrets, a delicate -confidence that he had no more than dared breathe even to his own inner -consciousness. But first old Smith had blurted it out, and now even -his servant talked about it openly. He had no doubt whatever that the -whole thing had been fully discussed over the cooking fires of the -native compound at Malla-Nulla the night before. - -Then somehow his eyes swung round to the dancing horizon, and the -Liverpool steamer's smoke, boring up towards the North, easily ferried -his thoughts across the gap which lay between that baking African -beach, and the cool village tucked snugly in beneath the Upper -Wharfedale moors. He tried to concentrate his mind on the roses in the -vicarage garden. His mother liked abundance of blooms, and cared -little about the size. The Vicar admired big blooms and snipped off -superfluous buds when his wife was out of the way, and during summer a -gentle wrangle over the roses was quite one of the features of their -quiet life. - -But the roses refused to stay in the centre of the picture. Laura -insisted on taking their place. Suppose he took Laura back to -Wharfedale--as Mrs. George Carter. His mother, blessed woman, might be -sorry, but she would accept her. He was sure of that. But his father? -Almost the last piece of advice the Vicar had given on parting was: - -"Now, lad, remember always you're a white man, and don't get mixed up -with any woman who owns a single drop of blood darker than your own. -If you do, you can never come back here, and you'll hate yourself all -the rest of your life. Remember I held an Indian chaplaincy before I -got this living, and I know what I'm talking about." - -Carter shook a sudden fist at the steamer's smoke for supplying him -with such a distasteful train of thought, and turned for light -conversation to White-Man's-Trouble. That garrulous person was quite -ready to humor him in the matter. - -The sea breeze died away a little after six, and they marched in -breathless heat till the cool land breeze took its place, and brought -them spicy odors of the inland trees. And always on one side of them -the surf roared, and crashed, and creamed along the beaches. - -The sun drooped to the horizon and hurried beneath it in visible inches -of fall. Daylight went out. The colors were blotted from the sky, and -the stars lit up, one racing another to be first. The noises from the -forest changed in correspondence. From close at hand a leopard roared -a greeting to the darkness. - -Night was fully dressed ten minutes after the sun had vanished. It was -after nine o'clock, and in the chill of a wet gray mist, that they -reached O'Neill and Craven's factory on the banks of Smooth River. - -Now nine o'clock in the lonely factories of the Coast is usually bed -time, and Carter was a good deal surprised to hear the hum of a great -activity pulsing out into the night; and presently, when they came -within eye-range, to see the buildings aglow with lights. But there -was a further surprise packed and ready for him. As they came close, a -black man leaned over the end of an upraised wall of palm oil -puncheons, and deliberately pointed a gun squarely at Carter's chest. - -A good deal of discussion took place afterward as to what would have -been the proper procedure under the circumstances, but that may -conveniently be omitted from this record, which deals only with -immediate history; and the fact is that Carter rushed the sentry, -clipped him under the ear, skinned his own knuckles, and captured the -gun. White-Man's-Trouble in the meanwhile had with much presence of -mind thrown himself on his face to avoid any discharge of pot-leg from -the concealed marksmen, and was bawling lustily for "Slade, oh Slade," -to "Stop dem dam gun-palaver." Which noisy request presently had its -wished for result. - -Slade himself came out to meet them, and even then his reception was -sufficiently startling. "Good God!" he rapped out, "then you've -escaped, too, Carter, as well as the Krooboy. What liars these niggers -are! I imagined that your--that parts of you were up at Okky City by -now. I supposed they've scuppered poor old Swizzle-Stick Smith all -right, though? Did he have a bad time of it? Why?" he said as he came -nearer, and saw his caller's spruce getup, "you don't look as if you'd -been scrapping much. Or bolting very hard, either," he added as an -afterthought. - -"Unless," said Carter, "you're referring to an invasion by the Turks, -or the French, or the Men in the Moon, I haven't a notion what you're -talking about." - -"Haven't you come from Malla-Nulla?" - -"Left there about a quarter to four." - -"And hasn't it been sacked?" - -"It was sitting down by the beach, looking just as white hot as usual, -and no more, when I left." - -"What about the King of Okky, then?" - -"He was there at Malla-Nulla, filling a very big chair on the veranda." - -"And there has been no raid? I don't understand." - -"The King of Okky," said Carter patiently, "has raided our factory to -the extent of one case of fizz, of which Mr. Smith says he drank half, -but barring that, and about six gallons of other mixed drinks, I didn't -see him get much out of us. He certainly was threatening to stop the -roads when I left, but I think that was all gas. He only wanted to -stick Mr. Smith for more drinks." - -"He's stopped the roads right enough." - -"Not he," said Carter cheerfully. - -The older man thought a minute and then, "Come along with me," he said. -"I guess ocular demonstration is about the only thing that will -convince you that there is mischief in the air, and that that crafty -old devil of a king is at the bottom of it." He led to a factory -outbuilding, threw open a door, and scraped a match. "Look in there." - -Carter did so, and promptly felt sick, and came out. But he got -another light and returned resolutely to the inspection. "Two, four, -seven. And all killed the same way. I say that's pretty ghastly." - -"Isn't it? They were all fine healthy Krooboys when they marched out -of here this morning, carrying up some salt bags to our sub-factory on -the Okky road. There were some bits of feathers and a rag or two -strung up alongside the path, and they didn't notice them, or didn't -tumble to it that they were ju-ju. Consequently they are now what you -see. This is the King of Okky's way of hinting that the road is -stopped. That pot-leg must have been fired at not more than a two-yard -range. Some of the poor devils are regularly blown inside out. Here, -come into the open again." - -"Thanks, you needn't give me the details over again. I saw all that -for myself." - -"That infernal King must have sent off his messengers the very moment -after you had that turn-up with him about Laura--which, by the way, is -a thing that I personally shall never forget, so you can draw on me -over that down to the last breeches button. You see Okky City is -closer in at the back here, but it's quite five hours' march further -from Malla-Nulla. So the treacherous old brute stayed where he was, -tippling with Smith, in the pious hope of keeping you all quiet till -his men could come down and blot you all out. How you got through is a -marvel to me. They must have reckoned on getting you as you walked -here along the beach or they'd never have let you slip away. You and -your boy have certainly escaped by the skin of your teeth. It's a -moral certainty that they've got old Smith." - -"I don't think so. But I shall go back and see." - -"Rubbish! We may be able to hold out here, and perhaps will not be -attacked at all when they find out we're ready for them. But it's -perfectly impossible for you to get back along the beach to -Malla-Nulla. Come up into the house, and we'll find you a bite of -something to eat, and Laura shall mix you a whiskey and soda. We've a -bit of the last steamer's ice still left, and you shall have it." - -"Thanks. I'll come up and see Miss Slade, but I shall start back for -Malla-Nulla in half an hour from now. And if, as you prophesy, I don't -land, well, at any rate, I shall have done my best to get there." - -"It's very nice of you, and all that, but do you think old Smith is -worth it?" - -Carter laughed. "Mr. Smith's a rough handful, but he's a good sort, -and I like him. Besides he happens to be a gentleman." - -"Or was one once. A lot of us on the Coast were gentlemen originally. -I come of good people myself, and was at Eaton and Jesus, although I -don't suppose you'd have guessed it if I hadn't told you. But you see -Nature built me with a cutaway chin, and I couldn't hold down a job at -home. However, come in, and we'll scratch you up some chop. Here, -Laura, I've brought a caller." - -"I feel this dreadful trouble is all my fault," said the girl as they -came into the lamplit room. "If you had been killed, Mr. Carter, I -should have looked upon myself as a murderess." - -"My dear Miss Slade, you really mustn't worry about a matter you've no -concern in whatever. The whole thing's a 'regrettable incident'--I -believe that's the proper term--that Mr. Smith told me has been brewing -for years. It's all due to the drop in the price of palm oil on the -Liverpool market, which means that we white traders pay less for it on -the Coast here, and the black traders get less, and so there's less for -the King of Okky to squeeze out of them as they march through his -territory from the hinterland. That's what's put his fat back up. The -only great mistake that's been made is that I didn't split the old -brute's iniquitous skull when I had the chance. I say, do you mind my -commenting on those flowers you've got on the table? I haven't seen a -cut flower since I left England." - -He turned to his host. "You do the thing rather palatially here, Mr. -Slade. Board walls and real glass in the windows! We've bamboo walls -at Malla-Nulla that let in the dust and the mosquitoes and the -Krooboys' stares just as they occur. It felt rather like living in a -bird-cage till one got used to it." - -"The walls are Laura's doing. You know she was at school in a convent -in Las Palmas, and came home with all sorts of extravagant notions. -Why, she actually insisted on a tablecloth for meals, and napkins. -I'll trouble you, napkins! And yet they still call us palm oil -ruffians in Liverpool, and firmly believe that we live on -orange-colored palm oil chop, which we pick out of calabashes with our -fingers. I sent K. O'Neill a photograph of this room by the last mail, -with the table laid for chop, and flowers as you see in a china bowl, -in the hope he'd be impressed by it, and raise my screw." - -"He's quite likely to do it, too," said Carter, "if I understand Mr. K. -right. He's always insisting in his letters to Malla-Nulla that if we -make ourselves comfortable, and adapt ourselves to the climate, we -shall be able to do more and better work. By the way, do you know Mr. -K. O'Neill at all? At Malla-Nulla we only know him on paper." - -"I'm in the same box," Slade confessed. "Godfrey, his predecessor, of -course I knew well enough. But this new chap I only know from his -letters, and they're a deal too rousing for my easy-going tastes. Ah, -here's the boy with a tray of chop for you. Observe the parsley; -that's Laura's latest triumph in Coast gardening. Boy, Mr. Carter will -sleep in the spare bed in my room. See that there are no live things -inside the mosquito bar." - -"I thank you," said Carter firmly, "but I am going to do as I said." - -"He wants to go back to Malla-Nulla," Slade explained to his daughter, -"and I tell him it is suicide to think of such a thing. Here, you have -a go at him, Laura." Slade always put off onto someone else anything -which he found hard to do himself. - -But Laura Slade read a certain doggedness in Carter's face that told -her what to say. She did not join in imploring him to stay at Smooth -River when he had so obviously determined to go. But instead, her mind -flew to some scheme that might make his passage less desperately risky. -"I am sure father could spare you some men. With an escort you might -get through. I wish you were not so plucky." - -Carter laughed. "Oh, I am frightened hard enough, but I should be -still more frightened at what I should think of myself if anything -happened to Mr. Smith which I could have prevented if I'd been there. -It's very kind of you to offer an escort, and I'd thought of that -before; but I'm sure I shall be able to move quicker and more quietly -without one. But if Mr. Slade could lend me a gun, I'd feel a lot more -comfortable with that." - -"Certainly, my boy, certainly. You shall have my Winchester, and I -believe I can scare up a revolver somewhere." - -"You are very good. I have a revolver already, but it's only useful to -me as a sort of knuckleduster. I couldn't hit a haystack with it ten -yards off. Same with the rifle; I've never used one. But where I was -brought up in Wharfedale, you see, the Governor had some glebe, and his -income was small. We mostly lived on rabbits and a few grouse in the -season, and so you see I learned to be pretty useful with a shot gun." - -Slade handed a weapon. "There you are. That's a double 12-bore hammer -gun, and both barrels are cylinders. It's an early Holland and was a -swell tool in its day, which was some time ago." - -"Thank you very much. I hope I shan't have to use it, but it'll feel -comfortable under my arm. When you've lived most of your life in the -country, you miss going out with a gun. Well, now, I'll say good-by." - -"Wait a minute till we've called up your boy. I'll shout from the -veranda." - -"Don't, please," said Carter, remembering that on all previous -occasions when trouble foreboded White-Man's-Trouble disappeared. He -did not wish to call Laura's attention more than necessary to the risks -of the journey. "I'd far rather go alone." - -"Oh, Carter," said the voice of the Krooboy from the darkness outside, -"then you plenty-much dam fool. I say I lib for come with you to -Malla-Nulla. You no fit to go by your lone." - -They looked out through the lit doorway and saw the yellows of -White-Man's-Trouble's eyes, and the gleam of his teeth, which latter -were eclipsed when he finished his speech, leaving the eyes alone to -tell of his whereabouts. - -"Now, that's a real stout boy of yours, Carter," the trader said. "Hi -you, come in. You fit for a peg?" - -"I fit for a bottle," said White-Man's-Trouble, who looked nipped and -gray when he stood up in the lamplight. Poor fellow, he thought he was -going to certain death with perhaps torture as an addition, but when it -came to a pinch, and the white man led, he screwed up his pluck to -follow. - -So at last the pair of them set off quietly into the shadows. Two -handshakes were all the farewell, but there was a soft something in -Laura's eyes that sent queer thrills down George Carter's spine. Slade -himself saw them through the outer line of the sentries, and warned -those enthusiasts not to fire on them should they presently return; and -a dozen yards away from those sentries, they melted into the warm -blackness of the African night. - -Up on the veranda of the factory Laura Slade leaned over the rail and -listened to the beating of her own heart. She strained her eyes and -she strained her ears along the line of mysterious phosphorescence -which marked the beach, but no trace or hint did she get of how it -fared with the man she loved. Once only during that watch did she hear -a sound which she took to be a distant gunshot, and then, _din, din,_ -as though two other shots followed it. Then the roar of the surf and -the night noises of Africa closed in again, and for safety or hurt -Carter had passed beyond her reach. - -"Kate will like that man," she said to herself, and then she shivered a -little. "I wonder if Kate will take him away from me?" - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE BEACH BY MOONLIGHT - -White-Man's-Trouble was abominably frightened during that night march -along the beach to Malla-Nulla, and did not mind showing it. Indeed, -the fact that he screwed up his determination sufficiently to make the -trip at all, says a great deal for his admiration of Carter. - -Carter, on the other hand, though he was fully alive to the desperate -risks that lay ahead, felt himself to be the white man in command, and -adjusted his demeanor accordingly. To look at him one might have -thought that he was merely taking exercise and the evening air for the -general good of his health. - -Had there been cover he would have taken it, but there was none. The -beach was the only path; the bush which walled it on one side was -impassable, and though the sea might have been considered an -alternative route, they had only cotton-wood dug-outs at the Smooth -River factory, and it would have taken at least a surf-boat to get out -over the Smooth River bar, to say nothing of landing, when the time -came, through the rollers which crashed always on Malla-Nulla beach. -So he marched along where the sand was wet and hard, just above the -cream of surf, and he carried the twelve-bore, hammers downwards, over -his shoulder, with his forefinger on the trigger guard above. He was -very grateful for those past days of rabbit shooting in Upper -Wharfedale which had taught him to be so quick and deadly on a sudden -mark. - -The surf on one side, and the night noises of Africa on the other, -roared in their ears as they marched, and every now and again they came -into a cloud of fireflies, which switched their tiny lamps in and out -with inconceivable rapidity, and left them quite blinded during the -intervals of darkness. - -So that on the whole, as Carter realized very fully, if the King of -Okky had set men to waylay them, these could scarcely be incompetent -enough to miss their mark. But he did not admit this knowledge to -White-Man's-Trouble. When that Krooboy stated things exactly as they -were, Carter pooh-poohed his deductions lightly enough, and stormed at -the man because he was ignorant of the most approved method of -pipe-claying shoes. - -An African moon floated cleanly overhead, and great African stars -punctured the purple roof of heaven, and to Carter's chilled fancy he -and the Krooboy were as conspicuous as two actors strutting under lime -light. But there were two things he overlooked, and these I believe -must have been the salvation of the pair of them. The thick night -mists were steaming out of the forest, and from the surf the thick -white sea smoke drove in on the land breeze to meet them. This -translucent fog, though it might not be very apparent to the eyes of -the walkers themselves, would be quite enough to screen them from the -gaze of hostile pickets who, after the manner of Africans, were already -half scared out of their dusky skins by the fear of ghosts. - -They had made the journey out to Smooth River in five and a quarter -hours; they completed the journey back to Malla-Nulla in four, which -meant good travelling; and because a heavy march like this may not be -undertaken without physical payment in the stewy climate of the Coast, -Carter felt certain premonitory symptoms which told him that a good -thumping dose of fever would be his when once he slackened his efforts -and gave it a chance to take charge. But he was not much alarmed at -the circumstance. As he told himself coolly enough, either by the time -the fever came on he would have rejoined Mr. Smith at Malla-Nulla, who -in that case was perfectly capable of looking after him, or he would -have rejoined Mr. Smith in the Shades Beyond, and a fever owing to his -body left behind on earth would not matter. As it happened neither of -these alternatives had to be bargained with. - -Malla-Nulla factory was eaves deep in white wet mist when they got to -it, and found it earthy-smelling and empty. It was unmarked by fire, -unsmirched by signs of battle, and, strangest of all, unlooted. - -The pair of them charged up the veranda steps, Carter in the lead, with -the twelve-bore held ready for an instant discharge. The Krooboy with -matchet uplifted and teeth at the snarl looked the very picture of -savage desperation and ferocity. They stepped into the empty mess-room -and lit matches and a lamp. The land breeze sang through the bamboo -walls, and Carter's home-made punkah swished overhead to the unseen -impulse of the water wheel; but of quick human life, there was not a -trace. - -He had fitted up bells about the place, or rather strings that actuated -wooden clappers which could beat on wooden drums. He set these all -a-clang and listened. The place reeked of its usual mildew, and the -smell nauseated him. They had got rid of the mildew scent at the -Smooth River factory. But there was not a murmur of reply to his -clamor. - -White-Man's-Trouble delivered himself of wisdom. "Oh, Carter, I think -dem Smith, an' all dem boys at factory lib for die. Dis place lib for -full of ghosts. I fit for run back for Smooth River." - -"Run away, then," said Carter, who was beginning to examine the -mess-room systematically. - -The Krooboy cowered in a chair and covered his eyes. "Oh, Carter, I no -fit for march back alone. Dem ghosts plenty-too-much fond o' Kroo -chop. Oh, Carter, you no be dam fool an' stay here. You lib back for -Smooth River all-e-same me." - -"My pagan friend, don't get too familiar. The next time I hear you -calling me names, I shall break my knuckles up against one of the -places where the worsted's been shaved off your skull. Observe"--said -Carter, and poured some whiskey onto the table top and set light to -it--"Observe those blue flames that crawl and flicker about, but do not -burn the wood. In those the ghosts that have been threatening you are -now being most painfully consumed. Do you believe it?" - -"I fit for see 'em die," said White-Man's-Trouble devoutly. "Oh, -Carter, you plenty-much-fine witch doctor. I fit for pipe-clay dem -shoes, three pair a day. Oh, Carter, if Okky men lib for come, you -burn them, too?" - -"Certainly," said Carter, "anything to soothe your nerves. Though, as -a matter of fact, I should demonstrate to them with a shotgun, not by -burning methylated. Now, just nose around, boy, and help me to find -out where Mr. Smith's evaporated to. They can't have eaten him, or -some of them must have stayed behind to digest the meal; and they can't -have kidnapped him, or he'd have broken up the happy home before he -condescended to go, and as we see it now, it's no more squalid than -usual. So now, Trouble, produce Mr. Smith." - -"Smith? Oh, Carter, dem Smith lib for surf boat." - -"How on earth do you know that?" - -"Dem surf boat no lib for beach. Dem paddles no lib for veranda, Okky -man no fit for boat boy. So Malla-Nulla Krooboy, dey boat boy for dem -Smith in Malla-Nulla surf boat. Savvy?" - -"I do clearly. But why the deuce didn't you tell me all this before?" - -"Because," said the Krooboy simply, "I too plenty-much frightened o' -dem ghosts before you burn 'em." - -"I wonder," said Carter thoughtfully, "if I shall ever understand all -the workings of the African mind." He went onto the veranda and peered -out into the mists. A fleecy blanket covered the sea and blotted out -the water, and all things of low elevation that floated thereon. In -the distance, between him and the moon, the two black mastheads of an -invisible steamer ploughed through the whiteness, but between him and -it a whole fleet of canoes and surf boats might have been snugly tucked -away from his sight. - -Then a sudden pang of coldness came upon him, which made him button up -his white drill coat, and step back into the mess-room and huddle into -a chair. - -"Fever lib," said White-Man's-Trouble looking at him critically. - -"I'm in for my usual two days' touch," said Carter, with the -listlessness of the malaria already creeping over him. - -"You fit for quinine-palaver?" - -"I suppose so." - -The Krooboy fetched the quinine bottle from Mr. Smith's well-filled -medicine shelf. - -"I'd some pills of my own somewhere." - -"Steamah pills. Dem Cappy Image pills no dam good. I eat dem box -myself." - -"You thieving scoundrel!" - -"Oh, Carter, I tell you dem pills no good." He laid a hand on his -midriff. "No fit for give you even small-small twist there. Oh, -Carter, I save you lose your temper over dem pills when I eat 'em mine -self." - -"I wish they'd been calomel. You'll get poisoned one of these days, -Trouble, if you don't stop stealing. I've some corrosive sublimate -tabloids for skin preserving stowed away somewhere, and if you bolt one -of those, you lib for die one-time. Here, give me a dose of quinine." - -The Krooboy found a cigarette paper, tapped it full of the feathery -white powder, and rolled it up. Carter put it on his tongue and -swilled it down with whiskey and water. "Quick, now, get me some -blankets," he chattered. "I shall burst if I don't sweat directly." - -White-Man's-Trouble packed him with rugs and coats, till in the baking -atmosphere of the mess-room one wondered that any skin could resist the -invitation. - -But presently the wraps were flung aside, and Carter sat aching and -burning in his clammy drill clothes, with his skin bone-dry, and a feel -in his head as though it were moving in and out like a concertina. - -"That last's the quinine," he told himself; and then, "I say, Trouble, -you'd better think for your own neck now. I shall be otherwise -occupied for the next thirty hours. You'll be well advised if you went -away back to Smooth River. If the Okky men come here and knock me on -the head, I really don't care. And if they'll only chop my unwholesome -carcass, and get indigestion from it afterwards, I feel I shall get a -grim enjoyment from watching their writhings from my own comfortable -(or maybe uncomfortable) seat on the Other Side." - -"You lib for bad fever," said White-Man's-Trouble thoughtfully. - -Carter clutched at the Krooboy's brawny hand and wrung it -enthusiastically. "Hullo, Pater! Fancy seeing you out here in this -filthy hole! Well, sir, it is real good of you to leave Wharfedale and -come all this way to look me up. How's the Mater? All right, eh? And -did she do you in the eye this year over the roses, or did you manage -to snip off the buds ahead of her? You didn't happen to bring any beer -with you, did you, sir? Nice cool draught of Pateley ale, in your big -silver tankard that you won for stewing Hindoo babies alive at the -burning ghats? We've got muggers here, too.... Lord, what rot I'm -talking, and you aren't the Pater at all, but only a dashed good sort -of an ugly nigger with a blue frying pan tattooed across the bridge of -your nose. White-Man's-Trouble, tell me solemnly and truly. Why do -noses have bridges? Why, for instance, not ferries? Wake up, you -image, and give me a civil answer." - -"You lib for dam bad fever," said White-Man's-Trouble still more -thoughtfully, "an' if you lib for die, Okky men catch me one-time. So -I fit for make you well one-time. Oh, Carter, you hear, I plenty-much -fine doctor." - -"You a doctor! With peacock's feathers growing out behind your ears -instead of whiskers!" - -"I savvy nothing white-man's drug-palaver. But I savvy plenty cure -fever Krooboy fashion." - -"Do you? Which of you? What rot I'm talking! But upon my Sam, the -Pater's gone, and there are three distinct White-Man's-Troubles -standing there all in a row. I'll just talk to the middle one, and you -others shut up. Now, then, sir, you say you savvy Krooboy -doctor-palaver?" - -"Savvy plenty." - -"Then, doc, I offer myself as a patient. Never mind sending in to -Grasington for your amputating tools. Remember you are a Dales doctor, -and as you've pointed out with offensive cheerfulness many times, you -saw me into this hot and wicked world, and I know you jolly well hope -to see me out. You catch the patient and we do the rest, as the -undertakers say when they send round their cards about top hats and gun -cases. Special quotations for fever patients F.O.B., for then a couple -of firebars out of the engine room does the trick, and saves the cost -of an elaborate coffin." - -"Oh, Carter, listen to me." - -"Well?" - -"I lib for Krooboy quarters for fetich ju-ju. You sit here. No run -away. Savvy?" - -"Be long gone?" - -"I come back one-time." - -"All right. Give my compliments to Miss Slade, and say we had a jolly -walk in the moonlight and found everything all right when we got here, -except that Mr. Swizzle-Stick--whose other name I forget--had eloped -with the assistant typewriter. Say, it was rather a nuisance about the -typewriter woman, because she was the one who made the jellies, jolly -cool yellow jellies with just a drop of sherry in them that were -perfectly ripping when you had been sick. My mother used to make -jellies like that herself for us kids when we were sick----" - -He was still rambling on when the Krooboy returned, and by that time -the fever was burning dangerously high. It was not running its normal -course. He had undergone abnormal exertion, and the resulting fever -was correspondingly fierce. - -White-Man's-Trouble came in out of the warm moist night outside, with -some liquid in a cracked teacup. The patient refused to know him, and -so the Krooboy picked him up in his enormous arms and got the liquid -down his throat by drenching him as a nurse might drench a fractious -child. - -Carter coughed and spat, but the dose was down, and in three minutes it -had started its work. In five minutes it had laid him out, and then -White-Man's-Trouble carried him into the next room and laid him on a -bed. Then from a bag he produced materials and did with them what will -not be set down here.... And after that he groped around inside the -mosquito bar, killed what insects were lodged there, pulled down the -netting, and tucked it accurately round the mattress. - -Then he took up his matchet again, spat in his great right hand to get -a good grip on the hilt, lay down on the mat before the door and went -to sleep. - -The room pinged with mosquitoes; a leopard roared persistently from the -bush at the back of the factory, and a rat somewhere up in the rafters -gnawed at a sounding piece of board with irritating persistence. -Moreover, of course there was the probability of the Okky men coming to -the factory at any moment for that much talked-of massacre. But none -of these things disturbed White-Man's-Trouble. He suddenly wished for -sleep, and therefore to sleep he promptly resigned himself. All -thoughts of anything beyond that immediate desire were blotted out from -his simple brain. The patient might awake, and rave, or want -assistance; but that did not matter. Nothing mattered beyond his wish -there and then for sleep. - -The beautiful unreliability of his tribe was strongly present in -White-Man's-Trouble. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -EVENTS AT MALLA-NULLA - -Mr. Smith had been away from his creature comforts for a spell of -twenty hours, and most of that time had been spent on the thwart of a -dancing surf boat in the embraces of a dank sea fog. He had been -divorced from food, stimulant and tobacco smoke for all that time--the -surf boat had been twice upset in getting off, and drowned all the -matches--and as a consequence his temper was vile, and his language was -sulphurous. He was barely thankful when he came back to the beach -again and found Malla-Nulla factory neither burned nor looted; he was -openly ungrateful when he found that the last of the stock of limes had -gone mouldy, and realized for the moment a Coast cocktail was beyond -the limitations of art. As a consequence Mr. Smith romped up and down -the untidy mess-room in a state bordering on frenzy, and in his own -especial polyglot reviled the unknown K. O'Neill as the _fons et origo -mali_. - -In addition to the legitimate boat boys, the whole of the other factory -boys had been crammed into the surf boat, and as a consequence they -also were chilled, cramped, and bad-tempered. His own body servant was -openly insolent when commanded to produce dry tobacco and a pipe. And -when on the top of all this Mr. Smith opened Carter's bedroom door, -stumbled over the sleepy White-Man's-Trouble, and was promptly floored -by that nervous savage and threatened with a well-filed matchet, the -remaining rags of his temper at last gave way. He sat there on the -floor, a very unkempt figure, and for five minutes without stopping (or -repeating himself) said exactly what he thought. - -During four of these minutes his Assistant had been awake, and -listening to him through the thin filter of the mosquito bar. - -"Perhaps I should explain, sir," said Carter, stiffly, when the flow of -words at last ended, "that I came back here because I thought you were -in a hole and I might be of use. I have not been indulging in whiskey -as you suggest, but I believe I have been through a stiffish bout of -fever." - -"Get up, man, and look at yourself in the glass." - -Carter did that, inspected a moment, and then whistled. "Good Lord," -he said, "I don't wonder you think I had been on the razzle. What on -earth's this white stuff painted round my eyesockets? I look like a -clown in a circus." - -"Oh, Carter," said White-Man's-Trouble, "dem ju-ju. Last night you lib -for fever plenty-too-much bad. I fit for cure you. Now you well. If -you touch dem ju-ju, you lib for fever again, one-time." - -Carter's meddling hand dropped to his side as though the white stuff -round his eye had stung him. He turned half-apologetically to Mr. -Smith. "Do you think that's likely, sir? You know West African ways -better than I do." - -"Beyond me. But you never can tell, and there's always the probability -of Africa springing something new upon one. If I were you I should let -your personal appearance slide and risk wearing that decoration for the -day, if your boy says so. Ju-ju's a dangerous thing to meddle with -anyway, and he calls it that. Besides your fever's gone, you say?" - -"Absolutely. And I don't even feel a wreck." - -"You're sure you were pretty bad last night?" - -"I fancy I was close upon pegging out. I never had such a stiff bout -before." - -"Well, Mr. Carter," said the old man screwing in an eyeglass and -staring at him, "if I were you I should dash Trouble five bob for -saving your life, and follow out the rest of his instructions. Ju-ju -often gets there when drugs won't touch the spot at all, and, mark you, -you're getting that admission from the man who knows more about drugs -suitable for Coast ailments than anybody in West Africa. The only -trouble about putting this into general practice, is, where are you -going to find the proper ju-ju to meet the case? But you seem to have -got hold of the right boy for this sort of thing in Trouble. Turning -to business for a moment, I hope you're satisfied with your exertions -on behalf of Craven and O'Neill with his Majesty of Okky?" - -"Well, I don't know what he's done yet, sir. Mr. Slade said he had -wiped out Malla-Nulla factory and killed you and all the boys, but that -seems, well, exaggerated." - -"Slade always takes the gloomy view. The King talked; and I'll admit -things looked ugly for a bit. You see you'd walked off with the Firm's -artillery." - -"Good heavens, do you mean that my tin-pot ten-and-sixpenny revolver -was the only gun about the place?" - -"Certainly I do. You see--er--Mr. Carter, one occasionally--er--dines -rather heavily here, and once after dining too well I saw a man shoot -another whose loss he regretted afterwards. So as I wished to spare -myself those regrets, I saw to it that there was nothing more deadly -about the place than trade guns, and you wouldn't catch me loosing off -one of those, however drunk I might be. I regret to say the King -didn't continue to carry his liquor like a gentleman after you'd left; -he grew quarrelsome; and finally I had to pull him up with some -sharpness. Then came the ultimatum. He said I should find the roads -stopped already--the old scoundrel had been playing me like a trout, it -seems, till everything had been got ready, and he told me that as a -fine for your lèse-majesté he should help himself to the contents of -the factory as they stood." - -"But you headed him off there, sir, at any rate." - -Swizzle-Stick Smith chuckled. "Well, I haven't been on this Coast for -twenty-five years without knowing a thing or two. I told the King I -was rather glad to hear him say that because it showed that a prophecy -made a year ago was now going to be fulfilled. He asked what it was. -I spouted to him - - 'Maecenas Atavis edite regibus - O et præsidium et dulce decus meum, - Sunt, quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum - Conlegisse juvat, ... - -as the first thing that came into my head, and fine pompous lines they -are, as you'd remember if you'd ever been to a public school, which you -haven't." - -"I've written out all Horace twenty times over in impositions and know -the bulk by heart, but I can't say I ever got a taste for construing -it." - -"Well, we won't argue out the value of a classical education just now. -Anyway the King of Okky was impressed. Of course he twigged the stuff -was not English, or Okky, or Kroo, or Arabic, or any of the tongues -hereabouts. He asked what it was. I said it was a priest's tongue. -He asked what the words meant. I romanced then and told him they -prophesied that the factory would be looted by a King who had made -himself a King--the old scoundrel was born a slave, you'll remember, -and made the throne vacant by killing his predecessor--and that two -days afterwards a new and very curious sort of ju-ju would be put on -that King, who would thereupon die a new and very painful sort of -death." - -"Ripping!" said Carter. - -"The meeting broke up in confusion just about then, because his -soldiers down below began to run amuck among our boys, and the King -heard the row and went for me. However, I'd my big lead tobacco box -handy, and I wiped him over the head with that, and as the boys below -were frightened, and had got our surf boat ready for launching, I saw -that they intended to quit, whatever I might say, and I didn't see the -force of holding the fort here alone. So I went to sea with them, and -spent the evening preaching them a long sermon on the vice of -cowardice. I hadn't much faith that the King would be fool enough to -swallow my prophecy, but as I say, you can never be sure which way the -African brain will twist. And here you see's the factory untouched." - -"When Mr. K. gets a report on this, sir, I fancy you'll have a letter -you will like." - -"Maybe. But I shan't wear myself out expecting it. Look here"--Mr. -Smith produced a letter from the breast pocket of his stained -pyjamas--"came in just after you'd left. Sent by canoe and special -runner from our factory on the Monk River. Agent there says he wants -to charge me seven pound ten for forwarding my mail. If that's K. -O'Neill's idea of running a business economically, I wish he'd come out -to the Coast here and find a way of making profits to correspond." - -Carter had a shrewd suspicion that if Mr. K. had ordered an expenditure -of seven pounds ten shilling sterling over the forwarding of a letter, -it contained an idea which that very astute business man was sure would -produce at least seventy pounds in the near future. But he did not -irritate his superior by mentioning this aloud. Instead he asked, "Any -instructions for me, sir?" - -"Well, yes. First of all there is a direct one. K. says, 'As Mr. -Carter seems a good hand at collecting native curios, I should be glad -if he would get me some ivory war horns. I want a row of them on my -drawing-room wall.' So, young man, you had better get hold of some -escribellos and your carving tools and set to work." - -"I don't propose," said Carter shortly, "to start faking curios for Mr. -K. A man like that would spot them at once. But I'll send my model -horn, and see to it he has some other good specimens of the real thing." - -"As you like. Well, the letter goes on to advise us that the next -thing America and France and Great Britain are going to gamble over is -rubber. Not collected wild rubber, you understand, but rubber estates -where the vines can be planted and cultivated. K.'s evidently going in -for Company Promoting, and as a preliminary he instructs me to get -options of suitable territory. He's got an idea that an uncleared -estate on the Coast here, which could grow rubber if it had the chance, -can be bought at the rate of a case of gin per thousand acres; and if -you've a fancy for untouched bush, and a doubtful title, I daresay that -is so." - -"But one can get a clear title, I suppose, if one takes the trouble?" - -Mr. Smith's pipe finally refused even to bubble, so he started to clean -out its more obvious horrors into Carter's wash basin. He went on -between the throes of this nice operation--"Depends who you mean by -'one.' If you're hinting at yourself, I have no doubt you could manage -it, because--you're a very painstaking young man, and I'm sure--you see -yourself as a partner of K. O'Neill already. Isn't that so?" - -"That might do when I'm ready, sir," said Carter laughing, "unless I -see something better in the meantime. But as a point of fact I wasn't -setting up myself as a man to see through the tangle of African land -transfer." - -"If you were referring to me, I shouldn't recommend you to bet on the -result, unless the odds are big on your side. And mark you I've been -dabbling in West African real estate at intervals for five-and-twenty -years"--he pointed to the crown of his bald head--"that's what's worn -my hair so thin in places. You get your eye on a piece of land here, -you get all the local evidence you can rake up as to who is owner, and -you pay that man and put up your buildings. If within the next six -months more than three other owners don't turn up with absolutely -flawless-looking titles, you'll be lucky. It's a case of pay each of -them in turn, or clear out." - -"But surely there's the alternative of doing neither?" - -"Certainly, if you can get the Government to back you up, and that's -the rarest thing imaginable. You see any land trouble of that kind, -whatever the rights or wrongs of it may be, always means a war when the -white man refuses either to pay or quit. The local kings and ju-ju men -always snap at the chance. Well, we needn't argue this out any -further. I know all the districts in at the back here where rubber can -be grown, and I shall go off on a trip up country and see what I can do -in the way of negotiations. I leave you in charge here at Malla-Nulla. -Your particular object in life will have to be keeping down expenses." - -"You think there will be no trade then?" - -"Not now the King of Okky has closed the roads," said Smith decisively. - -Now Swizzle-Stick Smith had a long list of failings, but letting his -assistants eat the bread of idleness was not among them. "Nothing like -work--and a moderate amount of drugs--for keeping fever and mischief -out of a man," was his motto, and he saw to it that Carter remained -steadily on the run. But now the roads were stopped, and it was only -the rare merchant who straggled in scared, and often wounded, from that -mysterious Africa behind, George Carter discovered that life was a very -different thing. Beforetime, he had found work in the feteesh, and -round the factory generally, a trial to the flesh; but the idleness -that took its place was infinitely more objectionable. - -He employed the Krooboy staff in whitewashing, in building, in making a -caricature of a garden; he made the native clerks polish up their books -into a shape that would have satisfied even a Glasgow Chartered -Accountant; and for himself he made Okky arrows, axes, spears, drums -and warhorns, in such quantities that even the curiosity shops of -Europe would have been glutted if they had all gone home. - -In despair he even thawed to a certain intimacy with the Portuguese -linguister, but presently cast him off in disgust, and realized why on -the West Coast one divides up the population into white men, black men, -and Portuguese. Of course White-Man's-Trouble was always at his elbow, -but he hardly fulfilled the requirements of a companion. - -To be precise, after the roads were stopped, and Mr. Smith had departed -elsewhere, the Trader-in-charge of Malla-Nulla factory discovered for -himself what many millions of men have found out before, that it is not -good for man to live alone, and though he made many ingenious plans for -remedying the evil, all of these, save one, invariably broke down on -being tested. The one plan that was sound related to Laura Slade. - -Every time that Laura's name inserted itself into the argument his mind -would presently leap back to Upper Wharfedale, and he would hear afresh -that warning of his father's about taking a wife of one's own color. -And his father, he reminded himself, had once held an Indian -chaplaincy, and knew what he was talking about. - -But by degrees, as this proposition was argued out again and again, and -the loneliness of West Africa in general, and Malla-Nulla in particular -bit deeper and deeper home, so did England and all that dwelt therein -drift further and further away. He had found occasion the day after he -had been left in sole charge of the factory to send a business note to -Slade at Smooth River. In it he enclosed another to Laura, and to this -latter he received a reply that he found charming. The affairs of the -factories required many messages after that; and presently the pair of -them did away with the cloak and pretence of commerce altogether, and -White-Man's-Trouble was kept trotting backwards and forwards across the -glaring beaches, frankly as Cupid's messenger. Only once did Slade -interfere, and that was when the Krooboy, presuming on his peculiar -position, stole from the Smooth River factory some article of more than -customary value. Slade said nothing publicly, but took the law into -his own hands, and after the custom of the Coast banged -White-Man's-Trouble lustily with a section of a packing case; and even -then Carter would have known nothing about the matter had not there -been a nail in the weapon of offence, which left its marks, and about -which he made inquiries. - -Slade it seemed had also received from K. O'Neill similar instructions -to those recorded above, on the matter of rubber estates, and with his -usual indecision would determine one day to set off personally into the -bush, and the next day to do the necessary bargaining by -correspondence. Finally he wrote to Carter a querulous letter saying -that as he got no help from anybody in deciding on such an important -subject, he was just going to stay on at Smooth River and twiddle his -thumbs, and so Carter was not in the least surprised to hear from Laura -within the next twenty hours that her father with hammock-train and -escort had that day set off for a prolonged expedition into the bush. - -"His last instructions," wrote Laura, "were that I was not to be in the -least nervous; he was going to avoid the Okky country; and anyway he -was an old Coaster, and knew most thoroughly how to take care of -himself. And so, nervous I refuse to feel. But, oh! I am so lonely -here with no one whiter than Mr. and Mrs. da Silva to talk to. I -somehow quite share your instinctive dislike to West Coast Portuguese." - -Within ten minutes after reading that letter, Carter was out under a -brazen glare of heat, marching along the sand where it was wet and -hard, and nearing the straggle of palms which marked the banks of -Smooth River, at the rate of four good miles to the hour. When a white -man walks at that speed through West Africa mid-day heat, it is only -because some question of life or death hangs upon the speed; though in -this case Carter told himself that love was the same as life. He -pinned his eyes on the Smooth River palms, which the refraction made to -dance up and down most coquettishly, and repeated this over and over -again, because another voice within him persisted in sneering something -about two very lonely people with nothing to do, who were not in love -at all, but merely bored with idleness and their own society; and -finally he got quite angry over the matter. He stuck out his great -dogged chin, and presently cursed aloud. He shook his fist at the -splendor of the tropical sun. "I do love the girl," he declared, "and -I will marry her in spite of my father, and K., and everyone, if she -will have me. Curse it! Why should I hesitate when I love her? This -infernal climate is making me as slack and undecided as even poor old -Slade." - -So with the surf booming ceaselessly in his ears, and the sea-smoke -driving over him and making his white drill collar damp and sticky, he -marched resolutely on to meet Fate. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE COMING OF THE OKKY-MEN - -The attack on Smooth River factory did not take place without due -warning. It seemed that a large caravan of native merchants from the -hinterland had come through the Okky country with a fine cargo of -produce since the King had stopped the roads. Whether they had cut new -roads through the bush for themselves, or fought their way past the -obstructing ju-ju, they did not explain; they arrived at the factory -with kernels, a few tusks of discolored ivory, a few quills of -water-worn gold, and a fine parcel of high-grade rubber, which were -duly valued; they took cloth, six flint-lock guns, a case or two of -gin, and the balance in pink Kola-nuts by way of payment; and with -these on the skulls of their carriers, they marched away along the -Beach and out of this history. - -Then presently there came down envoys from the King of Okky demanding -with a fine inconsistency that O'Neill and Craven's factory should pay -his Majesty the transit blackmail which he had been unable to collect -himself. Carter was sent for, post-haste, from Malla-Nulla, and was at -first minded to tell those envoys to go to a kingdom which repute says -is even hotter than West Africa. But thoughts of Laura living there by -herself, and a dread of the horrors of native war made him offer a -compromise. "Open the roads," said he, "and we'll pay up these -fellows' dues, though your King knows perfectly well he hasn't an atom -of claim on this factory. It's the custom for traders to pay for going -through a country if they can't avoid paying; they never pay once they -are through; and never, never, never, throughout all the wicked history -of Africa has there been a case of an English factory being fool enough -to pay toll which its casual customers have slipped through without -paying. But, as I say, I am ready to meet you in the matter. Open the -roads and I'll dash you this amount you ask for." - -Kwaka, the head envoy, a big, fine, bold-eyed Haûsa, requested that the -money might be handed them there and then. - -"Not one sixpence," said Carter, "till the roads are opened." - -The Haûsa was a professional soldier, and here he could see was going -to be a chance of working at his trade. He gleefully delivered the -King of Okky's ultimatum. If the tribute was not paid, the King would -withdraw his permission for O'Neill and Craven's factories to exist on -the Coast. - -"Tell your old King," said the Englishman contemptuously, "that he may -have authority over his own filthy mud-villages inland, but his law -does not carry along the Coast, as he knows full well. The Coast is -the white man's." - -Things were going exactly as Kwaka could have wished. The man with the -red head was warming up nicely. "If you fight when we come down to the -factory," said Kwaka, "I will see to it that you are crucified -separately. I should like to take the woman who lives here into my own -harem, but the King has bespoken her already." - -"You," said Carter savagely, "a Moslem, ought to know shame for living -in the employ of pagans like Okky-men. If you come back here, my first -shot shall be for you, and after you are dead I will have that done to -your face with the white man's doctor's tools as shall forever spoil -its beauty. So that when the Prophet takes you up into Paradise, even -the least of the houris will shrink from you and hide her eyes from all -sight of you in the folds of her green robe. Just you stick that in -your memory, Mr. Kwaka, and don't come boasting 'round here. Observe, -I am a man of my hands: I can make white iron burn." - -He pulled a length of magnesium wire from his pocket and lit it with a -match. The big Haûsa stared owlishly at the fierce white flame. - -"That is the glare of Gehenna," said Carter, "into which if you come to -Smooth River again you will presently descend, after being cast out -from Paradise because of the reason I mentioned. You have now my -permission to depart. And I wonder," he added to himself, "if my -Mohammedan theology is fairly correct. Kwaka's swallowed it right -enough, but if he hands it along to a mullah, he may find a flaw, and -we shall have the whole brood of them down about our ears in half -no-time." - -However the portent was sufficiently startling for the moment. Kwaka -argued that a man who could make iron burn could doubtless (as he -claimed) spoil the good looks of a True Believer by some other of his -infernal arts, and therefore was a person whom it would be healthy to -let alone. So he and his escort took themselves off into the forest as -unobtrusively as might be. - -But with Laura, Carter took another tone. "Look here, my dear," he -said, "you simply must run across to the Canaries till things have -simmered down again here. I don't want to alarm you, but it's quite on -the cards that infernal old Mormon of a King may take it into his -woolly head to be dangerous. You've had one taste of his quality -already." - -"Two," said the girl, and shuddered, "and he's sent my father presents -and messages since. But I can't go away from Smooth River, at any rate -till my father comes back. He left me in charge, you see." - -"Which I think very improper of him. I don't believe in girls being -mixed up in business matters, at any rate in West Africa, and I am sure -K. O'Neill would be frightfully down on it--what are you laughing at? -Laura, tell me one-time what you are sniggering about in that -ridiculous way. Oh, I see. You think I have never seen Mr. K. and am -talking through my hat. Well, my dear, if you had read fifty times -over every letter that K. has written to Malla-Nulla factory during the -last eighteen months, you would know that man and his likes and his -dislikes, and his ambitions, and his cranks just about as accurately as -I do. Anyway, I repeat, he'd hate to have you here in charge." - -"Just remember that I don't agree with you one bit, Mr. Carter." - -"Very well, Miss Slade, you can jolly well do the other thing. But -take charge here I shall, and go to the Islands you must. There's a B. -and A. boat due to call at Monk River the day but one after to-morrow. -I'll send for our surf boat, and we'll take you there in style. Won't -you have a ripping time of it at Las Palmas and up in the Monte! I -wonder what the new hotel's like up there. And I say, Laura, go down -to that farm at the bottom of the Caldera, and I bet you a new hat it -takes you half an hour longer than my record time to get up again as -far as Atalaya--Hullo, what's the matter now?" - -"You are making things rather hard for me. I'd go away from this -hateful Coast if I could, but we simply can't afford it, and there you -have the bare fact." - -"But I thought----" - -"Oh, yes, of course you did, that father was a sort of local -millionaire. Well, he isn't. He did once have private means, but that -I think was before I was born, and only the reputation of them remains -now. He's made big commissions on the factory's trading, I know, but -he's invested badly, and I think he's been robbed. Probably, too, I've -been extravagant." - -"Rubbish." - -"Well, anyway, the money's gone, and the brutal truth is I haven't a -sovereign in the world." - -"Good Lord! You ought not to have been left here like that. It was -beastly careless of Slade." - -"He never thought of it. And if he had, he couldn't have done -anything. His equipment of course came from about the factory, but as -regards money, he went away without a pound in his pocket. There -aren't shops that one can spend money in to be found up in the bush." - -"It's disgustingly awkward," said Carter frowning. "Of course every -penny that I have in the world would be as much yours as it ever had -been mine, but the fact is, my dear, I've paid it all away as it came. -You see, in a way I was a sort of bad egg before I got a billet out -here on the Coast, where, I suppose, if you come to look at it, there -are small opportunities of roystering. Besides, with Mr. Smith always -before one as an example of what not to be, it doesn't take very much -resolution to keep straight. Anyway, in ancient days I ran up all the -debts I could get tick for, and I landed in the poor old Pater for a -lot more than a younger son's share. Well, what with selling curios -through that old blackguard Balgarnie on the _M'poso_ (who I know robs -me of half the proceeds), and commission on our turnover at -Malla-Nulla, which has increased a lot since I've been there (till of -course this row cropped up), and my small bit of regular screw, -altogether I've made a very decent income, and I've taken a bit of -pride in paying off the old debts with ten per cent. of interest added. -I knew that extra ten per cent. would tickle some of them frightfully. -It was just that chunk of interest that cleaned me out down to the -bone, and I chucked it in because I thought one could not possibly want -hard cash down on the Coast here. What idiots men are to let -themselves run short of money! However, I shall have another quarter's -screw due in a couple of months' time and in the meanwhile you must go -to the Islands on tick." - -"You're a dear good boy, but it can't be done. I shall stay on here -and make the best of things." - -"You will do nothing of the kind, young woman. You will travel on a -Madeira chair in a palatial surf boat as far as Monk River as we just -now arranged, and then I shall walk on board the B. and A. boat with -you, and explain to the purser who you are, and everything will be as -right as ninepence." - -She looked at him with full eyes. "You make things difficult for me." - -"Not a bit of it. I'm the man that's going to shoulder the -difficulties." - -"Oh, you didn't know it. But if you asked a favor for my father's -daughter from the purser of the _Secondee_--she's the boat that's -due--you would get an unkind answer. We're in debt all round, and I'm -afraid he didn't behave very well to either the purser or the captain -of the _Secondee_. Now, please do not press me any more. I stay here -at Smooth River factory." - -George Carter hit the table with his fist. "Then I stay, too. The da -Silvas will put me up, and if they object, I'll turn them out into the -bush and live in their house alone. Malla-Nulla must look after -itself." - -"What will Mr. K. say to that?" - -"He will approve. K.'s a tough nut in business matters, but he's a man -all through." - -"Is he?" said the girl with a queer smile. "I don't agree with you."' - -"One may not at the moment like the way he hustles one along in his -letters," said Carter stoutly, "but he's a man all through, and if he -was to get to know how things are fixed here, and to hear I'd stuck to -my own job at Malla-Nulla and left you in the lurch at Smooth River, -he'd fire me one-time, even if he had to get a steamer specially -stopped to land his mail. No, K. O'Neill would have no use for brutes -of that description in his employ. Now, if you'll be so very nice, my -dear, as to pick up that swizzle-stick and make me a good grippy -cocktail, when I've had that I'll go out and do what I can to -discourage the Okky men if they see fit to pay a call." - - -Now, his Majesty the King of Okky once boasted to a West African -official that he could put 20,000 spearmen into the field, but there is -no doubt that this was an over-estimate. Moreover many of the Okky -troops carried flintlock guns and matchets in place of the spear, and -others again were bowmen, and still others wielded the Dahomey axe. -But his Majesty was a parvenu king who had fought his way to the -throne, and he saw to it that there was no inefficiency in his War -Office. He made the conditions of service sufficiently pleasant to -tempt in the fighting Moslemin from the Haûsa country, and these fine -soldiers of fortune gave the needful stiffening to his own pagan levies. - -Then, also, the King of Okky made full use of the great cult of Ju-ju. -The average West African king is completely under the thumb of the -ju-ju men, and if he is not actually their nominee and puppet, he knows -that if he runs at all counter to their wishes and policy, he will die -some frantic death devised by the cleverest poisoners on earth. But -King Kallee the First was not only King of Okky but he was also Head -Ju-ju man of that mysterious state, or as it is sometimes written, Head -Witch-doctor. He could, when he chose, hale a subject from his -dwelling and pin him to the Okky City crucifixion tree for no further -reason than his kingly will. He could also cause a piece of fluttering -rag, or a bunch of hen's feathers to be tied above a subject's lintel, -and that subject and all his household would not dare to pass the -charm; nor would anyone else dare to have communion with them; so that -in the end they would die of hunger and thirst and become a pestilence -to the community among whom they had lived; and no one thought of -raising the breath of objection. The King had put ju-ju on one of his -own subjects, and that was all. - -Moreover the King, having set eyes on Laura Slade, wished to instal her -in a wing of the great mud palace of Okky as his wife. So far, -throughout life, when he had created a wish, fulfilment followed as a -matter of course, be the means what they might. In his demands for -Laura, Kallee was at times amazed at his own moderation. He had -approached Slade (who to him was the girl's proprietor) just as one -native gentleman might approach another, and inquired her price. -Slade, who could not give a decisive answer even to such a preposterous -matter as this, temporized after his usual custom. The King naturally -saw in this a scheme to enhance the girl's price and displayed royal -munificence. He would pay Slade a thousand puncheons of palm oil and a -thousand bags of rubber, and two thousand bags of kernels; and when -Slade waved this aside and spoke of his daughter's reluctance for -matrimony, Kallee spoke of the splendor in which his chief queen would -live. Slaves in all abundance, cloth as fine as silk, ornaments of -gold, and an American alarm clock should be hers; her food should be -coos-cousoo of the finest, her drink should be Heidsieck of a vintage -year exclusively. All the affairs of State should be exhibited for her -approval, and even his two brass cannon should be housed in her -apartments. The King showed himself to be the royal lover in lavish -perfection, and Slade could not bring himself to cut short the offer -and tell him that the whole thing was impossible. He temporized, and -congratulated himself each time the matter came up on having got rid of -the King without rupture of their friendly relations. - -However, the royal patience, which had never been strung out to such a -length before, reached its breaking strain that day at Malla-Nulla -under circumstances already recorded, and what the King could not -obtain by this new diplomacy he very naturally made up his mind to get -hold of by methods which were more native to his experience. - -Being moreover a strategist with a good deal of sound elementary skill, -he did not give the enemy time to bring in reinforcements after the -first news of danger. Kwaka's embassy was a reconnoitring expedition -as much as anything, and the detail that the brazen Kwaka should be -scared out of his seven senses by the man whose red head the King had -already ordered for a palace ornament, was a small thing which stood -beyond his calculation. A force of 500 picked men lay in bivouac a -bare five miles inland from the factory; the ju-ju signs on the bush -roads protected these from all espionage; and when night fell, a ju-ju -man who was the King's special envoy performed a ceremony which he -said, and which they understood, granted the soldiers a special -dispensation against those ghosts which all West African natives know -haunt the darkness. So they advanced to the attack through the gloom -of the steaming forest shades, those of them who were pagans with high -spirit and fine hopes of loot, and those of them who were Moslemin -filled with a vague fear which they gleaned from Kwaka's hints. - -Now Carter did not fall into the usual Englishman's trick of despising -his enemy. Indeed he had that figure of 20,000 fighting men firmly -lodged in his head, and short of the opportune arrival of a British -gunboat, expected sooner or later a furious fight. But he reckoned -that Kwaka would have to go back to Okky City with his report, and -afterwards return from thence with an attacking force; and he counted -also on the African's fear of ghosts, and looked with confidence to no -disturbance during the hours of darkness. - -So although he worked the sweating factory hands at high pressure in -piling up puncheons and cases, and bales of cloth, and sacks of salt -into a substantial breastwork, he went to bed himself that night and -felt, as he tucked in the edge of the mosquito bar, that few white men -on the Coast had ever earned better a spell of sleep. - -It was at 2 A.M. when the Okky yell and the crash of a volley of -pot-leg woke him, and he leaped up and through the gauze in one jump. -He ran out onto the veranda, and met there Laura Slade. She was -dressed, and had in her hand the cheap Skipton revolver which he had -given her, and towards the purchase of which his father had once -contributed a hard-to-spare ten shillings out of the whole half guinea -that it cost. Moonlight poured down upon them pure and silvery from a -clear night overhead, but all the land below up to the level of the -veranda was filled with a mist that was white and thick as cotton wool. -In this fog invisible black men screamed and yelled and cursed, and -occasionally there came to them the red glare, and the roar, and the -raw black-powder-smoke smell of the flintlocks. - -"The beggars will rush those barricades," said Carter, "if I don't look -out. You stay here, Laura, and put that pistol down. It's a beastly -dangerous toy." - -"I may want it for myself." - -"Don't be melodramatic. Now run into the mess-room, there's a good -girl, and get down those two Winchesters, and load up the magazines. -I'm going down to help the boys." - -But even as he spoke there came a sudden hard puff of the land breeze -that made the mist swirl and twist up into ghostly life, and left -canals and pools of clearness. He darted inside, snatched up one of -the rifles, and crammed it full of cartridges. "I wish I'd a -scatter-gun," he said. "I used to be a nailer at rabbits and the -occasional grouse at home. However, it won't do to miss here, although -the tool is new." He threw up the weapon to his shoulder, and shot as -a game shot shoots, with head erect and both eyes staring wide at a -leather charm-case on the broad black chest which he picked as his -object. He did not know how to squint along the barrel. Then he -pressed home the trigger, and had the thrill of knowing that he had -shot his first man.... He warmed to the work after that, and fired on -and on with deadly speed and accuracy, till the heated barrels of the -repeaters burned Laura Slade's hands as she charged the magazines -beneath them. From somewhere in the lower part of the factory came -White-Man's-Trouble, and when in answer to the fusillade, showers of -pot-leg began to rustle over the veranda and scream through the roof, -that valiant person presently dragged out bedding to form a breastwork. -But although Carter kicked him till his foot ached the Krooboy would -not show his own head over it sufficiently to use a gun for the mutual -defence. He stuck to it stolidly that he was a "plenty-too-much bad -shot," and Carter was too much occupied in keeping up his own fire to -spare time for further coercion. But as he changed rifles with Laura, -he said every poisonous thing to White-Man's-Trouble that his mind -could invent, and that African listened, but made neither answer nor -reply. - -[Illustration: He fired on and on with deadly speed and accuracy, till -the heated barrels of the repeaters burned Laura Slade's hands.] - -The fight was going badly against the factory force. The Okky men's -original surprise had been very complete, and they had rushed the outer -line of the defences all round. The inner line consisted merely of the -buildings; and the factory boys had bolted for these, and had joined -the mulatto clerks and the Portuguese who were there already. The -whole defence, of course, was badly managed; but then it must be -remembered that it was devised by traders, not by soldiers. If it had -not been for Carter's education on the moors and warrens of Upper -Wharfedale, and his consequent deadliness with a rifle against rushes -at close quarters, the factory would have been put to the storm within -five minutes of the first attack. - -Besides, with a few exceptions, the factory boys were Kroos; and these, -though they are magnificent workers and about as amphibious as seals, -are emphatically not fighting men. They battled manfully enough after -the shock of the first surprise, and because no path of escape offered -itself; and whilst there were trade guns to fire, they derived a fine -encouragement from the noise of the black trade-powder explosions, and -the acrid smell of smoke. But few of them made any attempt to reload -their flintlocks a second time, and for cold matchet work at close -quarters they had little appetite. So by ones, and twos, and tens, -they began slipping off into the bush (to be hunted down piecemeal by -the savage enemy later on) and soon only the clerks and the two -fever-shaken Portuguese were left alive in the lower buildings. - -It was at this point a new engine was added to the attack. Dawn had -just leaped up yellow and sickly over the sea, when a crash rang out -that jarred the air and every building about the place. - -"Hear that?" croaked Carter. "That's a cannon, and a brass one as you -can tell by the ring. It's probably one of those old brass guns that -the Portuguese used to cast for the natives two hundred years ago. One -of my curiosity dealers promised me fifty golden sovereigns for a -genuine specimen. If I don't spot that gun and pick off the men who -are serving it, they'll jug us for a certainty. But they've got the -blessed thing so jolly well hidden among the bush! Well, I'm going to -ease up on my own shooting and watch for the next flash. Get me a -drink, you plucky darling, will you, or else my throat will crack in -two. Bring a chattie of water; that's what I want. The heat of this -night has been about the worst I have known on the Coast." - -"It is too hot to last," said the girl. "I'm afraid even the water in -the chattie will be as warm as tea." - -She went into the mess-room, and presently came back on hands and knees -to keep below the showers of pot-leg which were persistently whistling -overhead, and gave him the wet porous bottle, and crouched beside him -under the breastwork as he drank. - -"Well, my sweetheart," said Carter, "if it isn't unlucky to drink one's -best girl's health in water, here's your toast! You're the finest -plucked lassie in all the wide and wondrous earth, and now I come to -think of it, I don't believe I ever proposed to you." - -"No, you never did. I don't see why you should." - -"Stick your head lower down. That thing that said 'whisp-whisp!' was a -rifle-bullet. They've got a blooming marksman down there, and I can't -have you picked off. And don't talk rubbish. You know you're jolly -going to marry me as soon as ever we can afford it, if ever we get out -of this, which isn't likely." He clapped an arm snugly round her, and -_w-o-s-h_ came a load of pot-leg into the other side of the bedding -which protected them. "Got any silly objections to make to that?" - -"Have you thought over what it means, George? You know I'm not white." - -"Bosh! Anyway you're white enough for me. Let go the chattie. And as -I said before, Here's luck. Ugh! African river water, half mud, half -essence of nigger from higher up. Moreover, as you remarked, hot as -tea. Bang! there goes that infernal cannon again, and I've been -gossiping with you--proposing, I mean--and haven't seen the flash. -Plunked a shot into one of the palm oil puncheons in the store below, -by the sound of it. Hullo, here comes the wind. Now, somebody will -have his hair combed." - -As though the discharge of the ancient brass gun had been a signal, a -tornado opened upon them without warning, and almost in its full -strength in the first blast. - -One minute there was a stagnant calm, with air so hot and stale that it -hardly seemed to refresh one to breathe it. The next wind travelling -often at a hundred miles an hour bellowed and roared at them in tearing -spasms of fury. The factory building reeled and groaned at its impact. -Sticks, boards, corrugated roofing and empty barrels solved the problem -of aerial flight. The close-grown trees of the forest that hemmed the -factory in on the landward side were flattened earthwards as though by -the pressure of some unseen giant hand; yes, flattened down, and down, -till one thought that any human beings that were beneath them must -inevitably be crushed out of all living shape into the foul, soft -swampy ground beneath. And in cold truth some of the Okky men who -cowered there during the enforced lull of the attack did so die. - -The firing had ceased automatically on both sides, and a bombardment of -sticks, leaves, sand and stones pelted them all unmercifully. It was -impossible to face the wind; indeed, so violent was the torrent of air, -that the mere act of taking breath became a matter of the nicest art. - -The girl lay crouched under the huddle of bedding, buffetted into -semi-unconsciousness, with Carter's arm holding her tight down to the -floor boards of the veranda. He put his lips to her ear and bawled a -message. She shook her head. Through the insane yell of the wind she -could not hear a word. He laughed and kissed her, and then, taking -away his protecting arm, worked his perilous way like some clinging, -creeping thing into the inside of the dwelling. - -Even this was filled with the wind. A door, smashed from its hinges, -clattered noisily about in one corner, as though it had been some -uncouth mechanical toy propelled by clumsy clockwork. Everything -movable hopped on the floor, or danced from the walls. And of course -to this disorder was added all the dishevelment which had been caused -by the volleys of jagged cast iron fired through the flimsy walls by -the Okky men's flintlocks. But Carter knew what he wanted, and sought -for it with a single mind. - -Presently from amongst the _débris_ he emerged with a four-gallon drum; -and then he worked his way to a cupboard where Slade kept his store of -cigarettes. Luckily it was full. Slade had boarded a steamer lately -where his credit in the forecastle shop was still untarnished, and his -plausible tongue had procured him a whole two-dozen case of -half-hundred tins on some ingenious deferred-payment scheme of his own. -There were twenty-two of the green tins left, and Carter got them all -out, opened them, and recklessly emptied their contents onto the floor. -With infinite pains, and sheltering the liquid from the blast under his -coat, he decanted the contents of the big drum into the tins till all -were full. Then he re-lidded them, and jabbed a hole with his penknife -in each lid. - -He rebuilt them into their own wooden case as he primed them, and when -this was full, dragged it out through the doorway into the casemate of -mattresses. Laura and White-Man's-Trouble still crouched there -helplessly, and the tornado still yelled and roared and boomed. It was -carrying water with it now, bitter salt from the sea, and whipping the -face like hail where it impinged. - -Carter was breathless and panting by the time he had managed once more -to drag himself under the shelter of the bedding; but he was keenly -alive to the needs of the immediate future. Already he noted a -diminution in the tornado's fury; the hustling cloud of sticks, and -leaves, and branches, which it carried along was growing less thick, -and although this was by far the hardest hurricane he had ever seen, he -knew from previous acquaintance with the breed that it might well drop -to perfect calm as suddenly as it had arisen. - -As a point of fact it deceived him. The wind lulled, and the forest -trees swung upwards in unison as though they had been performing a -trick. The air cleared, and Carter raised his head to try and spot the -part of the bush where the brass gun was masked. A black man sprang -from the undergrowth, lifted a gun, fired, and missed. Carter threw up -the Winchester for a snapshot. - -"Got him--Laura, for the Lord's sake keep down in shelter, or they'll -pick you off to a certainty. Trouble, you hound, roll up those pillows -and blankets underneath you into a hard wad, and stuff them into that -gap at the corner there----" - -"Isn't there a splendid chill after that awful heat?" the girl said. -"Wrap up, George, or you'll have fever. Here's your coat." - -"Look out," Carter shouted. "Hold on all with those blankets. Here -comes more tornado." - -Once more the wind slammed down upon them with insane fury, and once -more all loose inanimate things rose into vigorous flight. The forest -trees cowered down into the swamps from which they grew. Solid rods of -rain split against the factory buildings, and sent deluges of water -squirting through the bamboo walls as though the matchwood backing had -not been there. The roar was like the continuous passing of a hundred -heavy trains over a hundred iron bridges all side by side. - -Gone altogether now was the stagnant heat. The air was scoured clean, -and it was forced into the lungs at such high pressure that it -exhilarated one like some deliciously choice vintage of champagne. - -"I'm hanged if I let those beggars kill us," Carter bawled out during -one of the lulls. "In this splendid air life's too gorgeous." And -then bump came the wind upon them again. - -But the tornado had blown out the heart of its strength. In five more -minutes the wind had dropped, the rain ceased, the air cleared, the sun -glared out overhead and began to heat the tropical day, and white steam -oozed up from all the face of creation. - -This time Carter's rifle represented the whole orchestra of death for -the defence. The factory Krooboys' flintlocks spoke no more; the -ill-aimed Winchesters of the snuff-and-butter colored da Silva and his -wife were silent. The Portuguese and the factory clerks, and the -factory porters had cannily crawled away into the bush. They knew -nothing of what was ahead of them in those steamy shades. One -certainty alone fluttered big in their minds, and that was that they -were leaving massacre behind. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE INVISIBLE FIRE - -In the factories which dot the West African seaboard and rivers, death -is such a constant visitor that much of his grimness had faded. At -home, in England, or America, or Hamburg, we shiver with apprehension -whenever our relative who is "out on the West Coast" comes up into the -mind; but the relative himself takes his doses of fever when they fall -due with a certain callous philosophy, and on his emergence shattered -and shrunken from the attack, congratulates himself on not being a -candidate for a gun-case and a top hat that time. Those who go up in -the bush and are there engulfed, those who get drowned in the -ever-grinding surf, those who go out by the thousand and one -opportunities which the climate and the surroundings offer, slip off -their human garb with an easy nonchalance; and those who are left -pronounce some pithy epitaph over the deceased, and go on with their -quicker interests. - -With the native African, death is an event of even smaller moment -still; and in the event of a quarrel, one competitor will often sit -down, cuddle his knees, shut his eyes, and there and then deliberately -suspend his vital processes, merely to cause temporary annoyance to his -rival. - -Now, the above paragraphs are somewhat of the nature of a footnote -elevated to the text. But they are necessary at this point in these -memoirs to explain the coolness with which Laura and Carter viewed the -near prospect of extinction. Neither of them of course in the least -wished to die, but it never occurred to them to face death with -anything beyond the usual Coast philosophy. - -"I shall stick Mr. K. for a rise in screw if we get through this," said -Carter. - -"If I hadn't made a promise," said the girl, "I could tell you -something about your Mr. K. that would startle you." - -"You're a tantalizing baggage, and I've a good mind to pick you up and -shake it out of you. Gad! Here they come. Now, I'll shoot, and you -get a box of matches and light those bombs for White-Man's-Trouble to -throw." - -"Bombs! Do you mean the cigarette-tins?" - -"Yes. You'd a big brazing-lamp in the factory. Remember it? Well, -you had. And that meant benzoline, I guessed. I found a drum full of -it, anyway, and I've loaded up those tins with benzoline. It'll burn -like winking in this sun, and the niggers'll never see the flame. Only -thing to take care of, is not to set light to the factory. Now, do you -understand?" - -"Yes, dear." - -"And d'you savvy, Trouble?" - -"Savvy plenty. Oh, Carter, I burn my leg plenty-too-much with dem -damhot lamp once on steamah. No can see flame when sun lib for shine. -I fit for serve as stand-by-at-crane boy once, sar, on steamah." - -"Well, Mr. Engineer, throw straight and don't get hoist by your own -petard. By the living Jink we're in for it now. Throw, Trouble, for -all you're worth, right into the blue of them." - -The four-fifty repeater yap-yapped its messages, and the man who had -learned to shoot quick and straight amongst the rabbits and grouse of -Upper Wharfedale, made deadly practice at this bigger game. But two -eight-shot Winchesters are of very little more value than catapults in -stopping the rush of two hundred fighting black pagans officered by -Moslemin Haûsas. Beforehand the fire of the Portuguese and the factory -Krooboys had held them off, much more by its noise than its deadliness. -The one solitary shooter who remained, they held in scorn; he was -firing white powder in the Winchester, and the smallness of the noise -and the absence of smoke encouraged them. They scorned to shoot at him -with their flintlocks. They would rush in and put this man to the -matchet, and save the girl alive. And thereafter, when they rolled the -red head at King Kallee's feet, and made the girl stand up before him, -many and fine presents would be given to gladden them and their women. - -So they gave the Okky yell, and sprang out of the bush into the open, -and rushed across the clearing. - -But lo, presently the white man called out, "Behold, I put ju-ju on you -blighters," and a black man who carried between his brows the Kroo -tribal mark began throwing green tins which contained some liquid -distilled by witchcraft. And thereupon the clinging fires of hell -broke out amongst them, and burned the skin on their bodies till they -screamed and danced in their frenzy of pain, and the air was rich with -the smell of their cooking. Even Kwaka, who led them, though he was -the boldest fighting man in all King Kallee's armies, showed by the -grayness that grew upon his face that he that day learned the lesson of -fear. And when presently they broke and fled for the bush (the flames, -be it understood, still sticking to them), it was Kwaka who led that -disordered retreat, and held a sleeve of his jelab before his eyes lest -the white man might bring further witchcraft to bear, which would make -his face a derision for the houris in Paradise. - -"My Christian Aunt!" said Carter up on the factory veranda, "but -benzoline is filthy stuff to fight with. The place stinks like a -cookshop, and I feel like a beastly Russian anarchist. Don't throw any -more tins, Trouble. We've saved our bacon, Laura, I do believe, but I -hate being unsportsmanlike. It's worse than netting your neighbor's -grouse moor, this. But they came up to the gun too quick for me to -stop them alone. White-Man's-Trouble, if you throw another of those -infernal bombs, I'll slip a shot into you." - -Laura was crouched in behind the mattress casemate, her face tucked -away into the crook of an elbow, and her shoulders heaving with sobs. - -"Hullo, old lady, what's the row with you? You're not hit? Good God, -don't tell me you're hit. What a careless hound I am to let you get -out of cover. I could have sworn there wasn't a shot being fired. -What a miserably incompetent brute I am to get rattled and not see -after you better." - -"Oh, George, I'm not hit. I almost wish I were. That would be fairer." - -Carter stared. "What's the matter, then?" - -She pulled herself together with an effort. "I suppose I must feel -very much as you do about the matter, only more so. You see I lit the -matches for each bomb Trouble held out to me. It was I who am really -responsible----" - -Carter tackled the situation with ready wit. "Now, look here. I'm not -going to have you presuming on being my sweetheart. I know you'd like -to have the credit of routing the enemy, but you're not going to have -it. I want all the kudos I can get in that line for business purposes -myself. I'm going to point out in my report to Mr. K. that it was my -brilliant genius alone that rootled out that drum of benzoline, and put -it to a new and unpleasant use, and that any idea of refusing me the -ten-pound a year rise in screw that I ask as a reward would be bang -against all O'Neill and Craven's most cherished traditions of fairness. -So just you remember that, Miss Slade, and don't go off and brag about -doing one single thing that wasn't ordered by your superior officer in -this Service (as old Swizzle-Stick Smith would say), and that's me." - -"You're a dear, good boy." - -"I am," said Carter cheerfully. "I'm rather surprised people don't see -it oftener. You're the first person in Africa who's made the discovery -so far. Now I can't have you eating the bread of idleness out here any -longer. Indoors you go, and tidy up." He took her by the arm and led -her gently to the living room. "Hasn't that breeze made hay of the -place? Sorry the houseboys have left this desirable situation without -warning, and I can't lend you White-Man's-Trouble just now. So I want -you to wade in, if you please, my dear, and show me what an extremely -domesticated person the future Mrs. G. Carter can be when she tries. -'We wish to make a point,' said Mr. K. in one of his typewritten -letters, 'of having all our factories neat and comfortable.'" - -Laura shivered. "If I were to marry you, I wonder what K. would say." - -"Say nothing. We should absolutely draw the line at interference -there, eh? But in the meanwhile there is no harm in following out the -gentleman's advice, which is invariably sound, on the other points." - -"When you see Mr. K. I'm very much afraid you'll change your mind about -me." - -Carter drew the girl to him and kissed her on the lips. "Don't you be -jealous of K., sweetheart. Mine's only a business admiration in that -direction." - -"At present," she persisted. "Wait till you meet." - -"When we meet, I shall say, 'Sir, this very lovely and desirable young -person here is my wife,' and then we shall go on to commercial topics. -There's nothing romantic about the boss. If you'd studied the Epistles -of K. to the Coasters as closely as I have, you'd know that off by -heart." - -Laura still shook her head. "I love you," she said, "more than -anything else in life, and I can think of no greater happiness than to -be your wife. But I would never marry you if I thought you could -repent of it afterwards. You can't deny that you are wrapped up in K. -You must see K. before you marry me, George." - -"If K. comes along before the parson, well and good, you shall have -your own way of it. But if a missionary of the right complexion (if -there is such a thing down here) casts up at this factory, there'll be -a wedding cake put on the festive board, Miss Slade, and you'll be the -bride that'll cut it. Don't you try and wriggle out of your solemn -promises with me. Hullo, what's that?" - -"Thunder. Is the tornado coming again?" - -"No, listen. It isn't thunder. It's people thumping monkey-skin -drums. I've made dozens of those tuneful instruments for the curiosity -dealers at home, so I know the note. Well, you get on with your -dusting, there's a nice girl, and I'll go out and have a cigarette." - -"You are going--to----" - -"What, clean up the mess outside? No, we'll leave that for the -present. Now, don't be scared, there's a sweetheart. But, to tell the -truth, those drums interest me. The natives signal through the bush -with them, you know, in a sort of dot-dash-dot style; and so far their -local Morse alphabet has been a bit beyond me. Perhaps -White-Man's-Trouble may be able to decipher it. Now, don't you try and -shirk that dusting one moment longer." - -He went out then onto the veranda, shutting the door behind him, and -questioned the Krooboy sharply about the drummings. Did he understand -them? - -"Savvy plenty," said White-Man's-Trouble gloomily. "Dem Okky-man's -drums." - -"Well, I didn't suppose it was a Chinaman's, you patent idiot. You fit -for understand dem tune?" - -"Savvy plenty. Dem tune say Okky-men fit for make custom." - -"That means 'ceremony,' I suppose. Now, what sort of a ceremony will -suit the occasion? Dirge of defeat by the ju-ju men, presumably, and -then they'll crucify some wretched slave so that his spirit can go into -the Beyond and arrange to have the luck changed. I wish Mr. Smith were -here, or Slade. No, I'm hanged if I do, though. I've worked this -thing off my own bat so far, and I'll see it onto the finish. Dem -Okky-men make crucify palaver?" he asked, and translated the hard word -by standing up himself spread-eagled against the factory wall. - -White-Man's-Trouble nodded a dismal assent. "Then, by an' by they grow -plenty-too-much more brave, an' they come back one-time an' fight some -more." - -"Then you bet your woolly whiskers it won't do for us to sit quietly -taking the air here. Ju-ju's the correct card to play in this country -anyway." - -The Krooboy shivered. "Oh, Carter, I no fit for touch ju-ju." - -"Well, I am. With thought and care, I believe I should develop into a -very good ju-ju practitioner. Besides, the subject fascinates me. No -white men seem to know anything very definite about it, above the fact -that it is beyond their comprehension, and it would be rather fine, if -the unlikely happened, and one chanced to survive, to be known as the -one authority on West African magic." - -"Oh, Carter, if you meddle with dem ju-ju palaver you lib for die -plenty soon. If you walk in bush, tree fall on you; if you ride in -canoe, arrow jump on you; if you chop,[*] dem chop he fill with -powdered glass, and presently you lib for die of tear-tear-belly. Oh, -Carter, you lib for Coast now one year; I lib for Coast all my life; I -savvy plenty; you alle-same damfool." - - -[*] In West Coast English to chop is to take food. Chop is food. - - -"My dear Trouble, I've admitted already that I know meddling with ju-ju -isn't altogether an insurance proposition. Much obliged to you for the -fresh warning all the same. But I'm afraid your constitutional -nervousness rather clouds that massive brain of yours at times, or -you'd see that Smooth River factory and its three occupants are in the -devil of a fix just now. You say the Okky-men when they've rubbed up -their courage will presently return; and I don't dispute your reading -of the omens. If they do come, we can't shoot them off, and that's a -certain thing. As I'm sure Mr. Smith would say, it's a case of _Aut -ju-ju aut nullus_, and to follow his rather objectionable knack of -translating for a man who happened to have been at a different school -to his own, that means we've either got to play the ju-ju card or be -scuppered. White-Man's-Trouble, you are hereby made conjurer's -confederate." - -"I no fit." - -"Am I to hurt your feelings with this piece of packing-case lid?" - -"Oh, Carter, you look see. There's a nail in him there." - -"I know there's a nail in it. The occasion demands a nail, and I -picked the weapon for that reason. Now, then, are you going to obey -orders, or will you take a first-class licking?" - -"Oh, Carter, I fit for do what you say." - -"Good. You're an excellent boy when you're handled the right way. Now -go to the feteesh and bring the biggest coil of that inch lead piping -you can stagger under." - -Carter himself went to Slade's room and brought from there one of those -crude carved wooden figures which the natives make and the traders pick -up as curiosities. At home they are sold for stiff prices as the gods -of the heathen; but the negroes that make them are not idolaters, and -what they exactly are for the present writer knoweth not, save only -that they are not articles of worship. Locally they come under that -all-embracing term ju-ju, which includes so much and explains so little. - -Carter found a brace and bit--an inch twist bit, which for a wonder was -in a calabash of yellow palm oil, and so not rusty--and he worked on -these carved men till the sweat ran from him. Laura came out and told -him that he was inviting an attack of fever, which was obvious, since -by then it was high noon, and violent exertion for a white man with the -thermometer above par always has to be paid for on the Coast. But he -drove her back again into the house and out of the heat with a volley -of chaff, and went gaspingly on with his tremendous work. - -The mouths of the figures were wide, but with knife and drill he -splayed them wider, but was careful always not to distort them beyond -the canons of local art; and in a couple of hours' time he was ready -for White-Man's-Trouble and the heavy coils of lead piping. - -"Regard," he said, "O thou assistant to the great white ju-ju man. We -will place one of these graven images opposite the entrance of each -road which comes from the bush into this factory clearing. We'll hoist -it up onto a green gin box, so, and give it a bit more height and -dignity. And we'll add a necklace of these green cigarette tins, which -have already advertised themselves into an ugly notoriety. Then, into -this hole you see in the back of each image, we will fit an end of lead -piping, and as the holes are tapered, the unions will make themselves -good. Then, O helper of dark schemes, we'll pay out the coil, as far -as possible in swamp where it will sink out of sight, and bring all the -ends into the house here. Any piping that shows, you must throw earth -over. Savvy? And the inside ends we'll splay out with this hardwood -cone that I've made, till a man can get his mouth well into them and -shout down the tube comfortably. I'm sure you catch the idea?" - -"Oh, Carter, I plenty-too-much afraid. Presently I lib for die." - -"Not you. If I see any signs of your starting to fade away, I'll whack -you into life again with a piece of board with two nails in it. -Wherefore, O feared of the uninitiated, buck up, and get a shovel, and -cover that lead out of sight where it shows. Afterwards I'll show you -the working of that early British contrivance, an office speaking-tube. -That is, if we have time for a rehearsal, but by the extra big -dot-dashing of those monkey-skin drums just now, it rather looks as if -we shall have the next act of this play crowding down on us without -much more interval." - - -The burned warriors had not, it appeared, retreated very far. Their -spiritual advisers, the ju-ju men, had by King Kallee's orders been -waiting not very far away down the several bush roads; and when -presently fugitives began to come trotting in through the steamy forest -shades, these ecclesiastics rallied them, and when enough were -collected, they commenced a "custom" for the renewal of the soldier's -bravery. - -Savage superstitions, savage terrors, savage thrill at the raw smell of -blood were all worked upon with a high dexterity. King Kallee had made -a fine art of these incitements; he had gained a throne by their -practice, and had handed them on to chosen ministers, who practised the -cult of ju-ju with a single eye to advancing the interests of their -king. - -The black soldiers were wearily tired, and many of them carried wounds. -They listened at first with a sullen torpor. They heard without -interest that the white man's bullets were non-consecrate, and -therefore the wounds they made would soon heal. They learned, with a -little thrill of wonder, that the green tins which poured burning flame -were not true ju-ju, since the King of Kallee's ju-ju men declared them -unorthodox. And by degrees their dull nerves were worked up till at -the proper moment sacrifice was made, and the screams and smells of the -victim maddened them. Even the Haûsa officers, who were Moslem, and -therefore contemptuous disbelievers in all pagan ceremony, were stirred -up almost equally with their men, and when as a final exhortation they -were bidden to return once more to the factory, and bring the red head -and the white girl as presents for the King, they forgot their qualms -and their burns, and led on with a new, fierce courage. - -But whether the African be savage bushman or cultivated Moslem -gentleman, superstition is part of the very marrow in his backbone. -These men had felt the bullets, they had felt the infernal burnings of -the benzoline, but they were wound up now to a pitch above dreading -either. Orders were given to concentrate in the edge of the bush, as -near to the clearing as they could get without being sighted from the -factory, and then when all was ready the monkey-skin drums would beat -the charge. - -The first comers peered through the outer fringe of the cover, and saw -the clearing desolate, and the factory buildings to all appearance -tenantless. The dead that they had left in their hurried retreat still -lay where they had dropped, and glared up glassy stares at the -outrageous sun. But with eyes keen to pick up any hint at ju-ju charm, -the gaze of all this vanguard fell on five little wooden mannikins set -opposite the points where the several bush roads cut into the open. - -There was nothing new about the mannikins themselves. They were merely -the things that their own uncles and their grandfathers carved for a -purpose which they themselves knew better than did that tricky white -man with the red head who had doubtless put them there. But then each -of these mannikins was perched on a pedestal made of one or more green -gin cases, and that in itself looked suspicious--or, in other words, -smacked of ju-ju. And, moreover, each was garlanded with those -infernal green cylinders which they had just been informed officially -were in truth not orthodox ju-ju, but which they knew from their own -painful experience could, upon occasion, vomit forth the most horrible -flames. - -They crouched in the edge of the cover once more thoroughly shaken, and -it only required the final portent to fray their courage utterly. - - -In the factory, tucked snugly out of sight in the mess-room, Laura -Slade, Carter and White-Man's Trouble lay stretched out wearily upon -the floor. A length of match boarding had been stripped away from the -wall, and only a paling of vertical bamboos stood between them and the -external world. - -It was the code message of the monkey-skin drums, as read by -White-Man's-Trouble, that first gave them the news that the Okky-men -had rewound up their courage and were returning once more to the -attack; and so they promptly retired out of sight. Guns and defenders -would have been a reassuring touch to the enemy, who had seen such -things before. But for them to find no guns, and no human beings in -view, would accentuate the effect of the graven images which gazed -woodenly upon them from the green gin-box pedestals. - -For long enough they lay there in the sickly heat, staring out over the -litter of the morning's battlefield, which danced up and down in the -shimmering sunlight. The factory lizards came out in full numbers for -their daily sun-baths, and most of the flies of Africa seemed to be -congregated in the clearing. - -Laura caught the first note of invasion. "Do you see," she asked, -"those two swallow-tailed butterflies flittering about by that big silk -cotton-wood that lost his top in the tornado? They were feeding -contentedly enough on that stuff like meadow-sweet, but someone or -something disturbed them, and they flew up. If you notice, they dare -not go back, so that rather hints that the someone is still hidden in -the meadow-sweet." - -"Which said clump," observed Carter, "is just two yards off the graven -image which commands bush road number three. Oh, assistant conjurer, -canst thou swear?" - -"Oh, Carter," said the Krooboy with simple dignity, "I no bush-boy. I -speak English. I learn him on steamah. I work up to position of -stand-by-at-crane boy before I lib for come ashore to work at factory. -Ah, Carter, I savvy swear-palaver plenty-much-too-good. You fit for -hear me?" - -"Not for one instant. I want you to make all your remarks in Kroo, or -preferably Okky, if you aren't too rattled to remember any of that -fashionable tongue. Here, put your sweet lips to the tube, and just -say in the thickest language you can think of 'Get away back to Okky -City, you bushmen. If you hesitate, your noses shall drop off, and -your great fat lips shall follow, and red ants shall spring up out of -the earth to eat them whilst you wait.' Savvy the idea?" - -"Savvy plenty," said White-Man's-Trouble, and rattled venom into the -tube with a savage gusto. - -The result was sufficiently surprising. Spear-heads and gun-barrels -bristled suddenly upwards from the clump of meadow-sweet, as ambushed -Okky-men scrambled to their feet. For a full two minutes they stood -there listening to the abuse which they heard pouring from the lips of -the wooden mannikin close beside them, with eyes goggling, and mouths -gaping, and knees chattering, the worst scared blacks in all the Oil -Rivers. - -For the moment they were mesmerized by fright. But then the two -mannikins which were nearest on either side began cackling with uncanny -laughter, and a ju-ju man who was with them recognized an art higher -than his own, and allowed the superstition that was native to him to -rub away the thin veneer of his education. "Let us begone from here," -he moaned, "even if it be to meet the curved execution axe of King -Kallee in Okky City. Better the sharp edge of that, yes, better even -lingering days on the crucifixion tree than the neighborhood of these -devils. Wood they are now, I do believe. But they can talk as no -thing of wood ever could talk; and presently they will come to life, -and hurl at us those green tins of liquid fire with which they are -garlanded. If there are any that wish to see more, let them stay. For -myself I return to Okky City, even if it means impalement." - -The other wooden mannikins broke out into words, and immediately the -bush around each of them rippled with men. Carter, whose knowledge of -the native was growing, used every syllable of his vocabulary down two -tubes alternately. - -Laura, who had grown up bilingual, commenced at first timidly. But the -desperate peril of their surroundings, the excitement of battle, the -thrill of seeing men run, the drop of negro blood that colored her -veins, were all circumstances that presently whirled her into a -resistless torrent of words. Never had she spoken with such a fluency; -never had she framed such sentences. It was all in the Okky tongue, -accurate, biting, glib, telling. Carter broke off from his own halting -speech to listen. He could not speak the language yet with any great -ease, but he could understand almost every word. He chilled as he -listened to her. He coughed a warning. He called sharply that she -should stop. But that drop of negro blood held her to her speech. The -Krooboy, thoroughly warmed up to his work, was yelling infamies down a -tube at the other end of the mess-room. Laura, with eyes glinting and -hands clinched, was growing almost beside herself with speech.... -Carter gripped her arm and plucked her almost savagely away. - -"You had better shut up. The Okky men have gone, minutes ago, and I do -not think you know what you are saying. Laura, do you hear me?" - -She stared at him, and then spoke with a dry throat. "I said only what -you told me. It was to save our lives. And you--you could not -understand what I said. It was Okky talk; you surely could not follow -it. Why do you look at me like that? George, what is it?" She -laughed rather wildly, and plucked herself away from him. "Oh, I see. -Well, I warned you before that I was black, and now I suppose you -believe me." - -He returned her look steadily enough. "My dear girl, you've gone -through more than you can stand, and you've just worn yourself to rags. -I never quite knew what hysterics meant before, but I fancy that in -about two minutes more you would show me. Now the trouble's over; -we've fixed 'em tight this time, and you needn't worry yourself any -more. Just you go to your room and lie down and sleep." - -"Sleep! You think I could sleep?" - -"Very well," he said coolly, "then Trouble and I must wait till you -can. But please understand, my sweetheart, that until you have put in -a four-hours' spell of sleep, and can get up rested to stand a watch, -neither the boy nor I must close an eye. So you see it's up to you to -arrange whether we shall all have a dose of overwork or not." - -She came to him and put her slim brown hands on his shoulders and -looked him in the face. There were black rings under her eyes, and her -cheeks were white and drawn, but somehow with her delicious curves she -appealed to him more than ever, and he let her see it in his glance. -"You still call me by that name," she said, "you still call me -sweetheart even after what you have seen and heard?" - -"Of course. Don't be stupid. A man doesn't change towards a girl just -because she happened to get a bit excited when she was doing her best -to save his life. I'm half sorry now I stopped you, only the myrmidons -of my rival, his Majesty of Okky, had run away, and you really were -rather working yourself up." He drew her to him and kissed her on the -forehead. "And now you will go and turn in, won't you, like a good -girl?" - -"I'll do anything my lord wishes. But you will look after yourself, -promise me?" - -"Rather." - -"Let your boy get you a meal. You've not had a crumb all day, and you -must be starving. It was horribly careless of me not to have thought -of it before." - -"That is rather a bright idea. Had anything yourself? No, I see you -haven't. Well, we'll sup, Laura, before you're packed off to bed. -It's five o'clock in the afternoon, but we'll call it supper. Trouble?" - -"Oh, Carter?" - -"We fit for chop. You kill two tin, one-time." - -"Oh, Carter, three tin. Me one, Missy two----" - -_Bang_ went a gun, as it seemed to their jangled nerves, close at their -elbows. They all started violently, and the girl clutched convulsively -at Carter's sleeve. - -"Dem Okky cannon," wailed the Krooboy, and burrowed forthwith into the -casemate of bedding. - -"Not it," said Carter. "It's all right, Laura. It's a steamer's mail -gun. I never heard the roar of a loaded cannon till this morning, but -once heard, you can't mistake it for blank cartridge." - -"Are you sure?" - -"Absolutely. I jumped when the thing went off, but then I suppose -we're all a bit fagged. Here, Trouble, you shirker, get dem chop -one-time, and then find some limes. We shall have the steamer people -ashore in ten minutes, and when they hear the yarn they'll want about -five cocktails apiece to congratulate us in. Lord! Laura, but I'd -give a tooth and two finger nails to have Mr. K. dropping in on us -during the next hour or so to see the fine way we've saved O'Neill and -Craven's factory from a total loss. I believe he'd raise my screw with -such a jump that you and I might get married out of hand. Let's see, -what boat's due? I've hardly got your time-table in my head; one gets -rusty at Malla-Nulla." - -"It's the _M'poso_, George. She's straight out from home. Just think, -you may really have K. descending on you in half an hour's time." - -"No such luck. It will be Cappie Image-me-lad, with his green umbrella -and his best thirst, and that hearty ruffian Balgarnie, who'll rob -every corpse in the clearing if he thinks he can collect one Aggry bead -and a good slave dagger. By Gad, I wonder if I can screw some money -out of Balgarnie. I sent at least eighty sovereigns' worth of most -carefully made curios home with him last time the _M'poso_ tried to -roll herself over off our beach at Malla-Nulla." - -"I think," said the girl, "I'll just go to my room for a minute." - -Carter pointed the finger of derision at her. "O vanity," said he. -"You're going to tidy your hair, and smarten your frock just for the -sake of old Cappie Image and the plump Balgarnie. By the way, now that -you are an engaged young woman, are you going to let those genial old -ruffians take you on their knees and kiss you, just in the old sweet -way? Of course, don't mind me if you'd like it so." - -"Pouf!" said Laura, "they've both known me ever since I was a baby, but -I'll be as distant with them as you like if you feel jealous, sir." - -"I think I'll wash off some of the battle scars myself," said Carter. -"One looks a bit melodramatic in this filthy, smeary mess. Not to -mention uncomfortable. I suppose, by the way, somebody will turn up to -pay a polite call. They'll judge that something's wrong when they see -that all the factory boats and canoes have been cleared out of the -creek." - - -Even White-Man's-Trouble stole palm oil and attended to his toilette in -honor of the expected visit, and it was a very gleaming and oily -Krooboy in some clean (stolen) pyjama trousers of Slade's that showed -Captain Image, and his passenger, and purser up the stair. - -Laura and Carter were there, spruce and smart, to receive them, and -Laura said, "Kate! I knew you'd come," and ran forward and shook the -passenger by the hand. "There, you see, George," she said over her -shoulder, "how accurately I can keep a secret." - -"Hullo, Carter, me lad!" said Captain Image. "Glad to see you looking -so fit. You're a fine advertisement for those pills of mine, and I'm -sure you're glad now you kept away from old Swizzle-Stick Smith's -nostrums. You seem to have been having a bit of a scrap round the -factory here. However, we will hear about that, and have your tally of -the cargo you want to ship from here and Malla-Nulla afterwards. But -for the present I want to introduce my passenger and your boss, Miss -O'Neill." - -Carter swallowed with a dry throat. "Mr. K. O'Neill's sister?" - -"Miss Kate O'Neill, who is head of O'Neill and Craven." - -Carter blinked tired eyes, and saw a girl of three-and-twenty, half a -head shorter than Laura Slade, dressed as simply, but with that -something that somehow speaks of Europe, and money, and taste. Her eye -was brown and her hair was the color of his own--nearly. No, it was -darker. She was holding out a hand to him--a neat, plump hand that -looked white, and firm, and cool, and capable, and which somehow or -other he found in his own. - -"Laura calls you George, I notice," he heard her saying. - -"Yes, of course she would. We are engaged, you know." - -He felt his hand dropped with suddenness, and up till then he had never -known how thoroughly objectionable a laugh could be when it came from -the lips of Mr. Balgarnie. Everything swam before him, and he lurched -against the messroom wall. But with an effort he pulled himself -together. "Miss Slade and I are engaged. We are to be married as soon -as we can afford it. When you look round, and see how we've saved the -factory from the Okky-men, we hope you'll raise my salary." - -"Yes, I think I can promise to do that," said Kate O'Neill. "I had my -eyes open when I came across the clearing. But do you think you are -wise to marry?" - -"Ha, ha, Carter, old fellow," laughed little Captain Image, "got you -there! Get dollars first. Find connubial bliss later." - -"But," continued Miss O'Neill, "you and I and Laura will talk over that -later when we are alone." - -Captain Image felt that he cleared away an awkward situation with all -the savoir faire of a shipmaster. "Well, Carter, me lad," said he, "we -know you've had a lot of lessons from old Swizzle-Stick Smith, but what -about a cocktail? My Christian Aunt, look out, Balgarnie, there's -Laura fainting." - -Carter stared at them dully but did not try to help. "My God," he -muttered, "to think I never guessed that K. could stand for Kate." - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -PRESENTS THE HEAD OF THE FIRM - -"I don't care what you say, Purser, me lad," Captain Image repeated, -"but I call Miss O'Neill pretty." - -"Well," admitted Mr. Balgarnie, who prided himself on being a bit of a -judge, "she may be that as well, but I still stick to it that her face -is what I call strong." - -"I hate the word 'strong.' When a she-missionary is too homely looking -to be anything else, she prides herself on wearing a strong face." - -"No, sir. 'Intense' for lady missionary," Mr. Balgarnie corrected. - -"Strong," snapped his superior officer. Captain Image was of Welsh -extraction and disliked contradiction. - -The purser shifted his ground. "Well, at any rate, sir, you'll own -she's mighty standoffish. I used to call good old Godfrey O'Neill, -Godfrey, and therefore naturally I called his daughter Kate, and told -her why. She didn't seem to hear me." - -"She wasn't Godfrey's daughter, anyway. Godfrey never married, but I -believe he'd nieces. Probably Miss Kate is one of them. The old man -must have left her the business. Thing that amazes me is the way she's -taken her grip of the concern, and made it hum." - -"And kept it dark even in Liverpool that she was a woman. That old -head clerk of hers, that people thought was the manager, must be a rare -close-lipped one." - -"He is, blight him!" said Captain Image with emphasis. "I called in -there two or three times after I'd got some of those please-buck-up -letters from O'Neill and Craven, that I didn't care about, and the -cauliflower-headed old humbug clean took me in. He was Mr. Crewdson, -to be sure; no, he was not Mr. K. O'Neill; no, I couldn't see Mr. K. -just then; no, he couldn't make an appointment for me with the -gentleman; anything I wanted he would attend to personally. If I -re-read the letters he was sure I should find that they were not -unreasonable, but, on the other hand, would put me in the way of -earning extra commission on cargo for myself. So it ended in my being -civil to him, and he was really nothing more than a clerk. You can -just picture to yourself, Purser, what I felt when I found out that I'd -been civil to a clerk by mistake." - -"It was pretty hard lines, sir." - -"Of course a West African merchant's business is a rum contract for a -young girl to catch hold of, and I don't say Miss Kate was wrong in -keeping in the background to start with. In fact I'll own up straight -that she was right, and the proof's plain in the way that firm's come -back to life. Why, Purser, I'll bet you a bottle of Eno that O'Neill -and Craven are doing just double the turn-over now they did twelve -months ago." - -"You'll know best about that, sir," said Mr. Balgarnie with a sigh, as -he remembered that only Captain Image touched commission on the cargo -which the _M'poso_ collected on the Coast. "But I will own up that she -has got the knack of making all the smarter men in the firm both on the -Coast and at Liverpool keen on her when they thought she was a man. Of -course it was a bit unlikely that the old-timer palm-oil ruffians like -Swizzle-Stick Smith and Owe-it-Slade would take to new ways that meant -more work, all at once, though for that matter I'll bet Slade put off -making up his mind for so long as to whether he liked hustling or he -didn't, that finally he dropped into the new ways without knowing it." - -"Slade's gone off up-country to find the firm a rubber property, -Purser, me lad. Laura told me about it last night. She hasn't heard -of him once since he pulled out of Smooth River, and she's very anxious -about him. I hope none of those up-country bushmen have chopped Slade. -I should be sorry to lose that man. He owes me a matter of three -sovereigns, and that old Holland gun of mine that he borrowed for half -an hour eighteen months ago has gone up-country with him. I believe -he's in the ribs of the fo'c'sle shop, too, for the thick end of a -fiver." - -"Four-seventeen-nine. I've given both Chips and the bo's'n a rare -dressing down about it. They've no business to let anyone with Slade's -reputation have as much tick as that. The bo's'n's new to the -Coast--our bo's'ns always do seem to die, sir--but old Chips ought to -know that's no way to run a fo'c'sle shop. They can chuck away their -own money as they choose, but I told them both plainly that I can't -afford to drop my share in a sum like that." - -"Nor can I," said the other sleeping partner. "You can let both Chips -and the bo's'n understand that unless I see a good round sum in hard -cash as my share of profits when we get back to Liverpool, they don't -ride in the old _M'poso_ next trip. They can put their book debts -where the monkey put the nuts. They don't pay me out with those. No, -by Crumbs!" - -"Miss Kate, by the way, was mighty anxious to know what profits there -were in fo'c'sle shops. Of course I said I'd heard of them on other -boats, but we'd never allow such a thing on the _M'poso_." - -"Um," said Captain Image thoughtfully, "that tale's all right for most -passengers, but I don't think I'd have risked it with Miss Kate. She -strikes me as being a young woman who likes to hear one's opinion on -things, but generally has her own information on the matter already cut -and packed beforehand. I told her last night how sorry I was to see -all that cargo waiting at the factory with no Krooboys to work it out -of their creek to the steamboat. By Crumbs! Balgarnie, me lad, she'd -nipped off back to the _M'poso_ here, and had hired our own blessed -deck passenger boys for the job before you could say 'gin.' You know -what an independent lot they are, going home with money in their -pockets. I bet you a box of oranges you couldn't name me two white men -on the Coast who could have persuaded them. But she did it, one-time, -and only paid regular wages, too. Dressed for dinner in the evening -when she'd finished, just as if she was merely a tripper going home -from the Islands, and hadn't an object in life outside trying to tickle -the boys with her looks. I tell you, Miss Kate's a very remarkable -young woman, Balgarnie, me lad, and if she doesn't peg out here on the -Coast, or go broke over floating a rubber swindle, or get married and -chuck it, I shall feather my nest very nicely over the cargo she gets -shipped." - -"I say, Captain, what's between her and Laura? They seem to know one -another pretty intimately." - -"Met in Las Palmas when they were kiddies. Pass me the compasses off -the chart table. My pipe's jammed. Thank you, me lad. Owe-it-Slade -got two years' tick at that convent school out on the Telde road for -Laura, and Miss Kate was running about the islands a good deal then -with old Godfrey. Godfrey had a tomato farm out past Santa Brigida, -and they used to have Laura up there for all her holidays. By Crumbs, -Purser, me lad, how that little girl's shot up. It's a dashed pity -she's a nigger." - -"D'you suppose Carter knows it?" - -"If he doesn't I shan't tell him, and don't you; for two reasons. -First, there's Miss Kate to be thought of. I watched the way that girl -eyed him, and by Crumbs, I tell you, me lad, I was glad he was booked. -She's going to stay out here on the Coast for a good spell, and he'll -be close and handy, and somehow I've got the opinion that red-headed -chap is just the sort of man she'll marry. He's not a beauty, but he's -a good, tough, wholesome face on him; he's a lot struck on her; and -he's a gentleman. I can do with her bossing; she's a nice way of -wrapping up her pill and ramming it home with a smile. But I'd not -like to see a red-haired youngster I brought out here as a clerk -eighteen months ago, head of the O'Neill and Craven concern and -expecting me to knuckle under. I'd do it, of course; I'd be civil to -old Harry himself, me lad, if he could bring cargo to the _M'poso_; but -I'll not deny to you it would stick if I had to start ladling out -champagne in this chart house to Carter, and sit and listen whilst he -strutted out his views on the decay of British influence in West -Africa." - -"It would be pretty tough," Mr. Balgarnie admitted. "But you said -there was another reason you wanted him to marry Laura." - -"Well, I do. I like that girl. I knew her when I first came down the -Coast as mate. I remember the first time I saw her as if it was -yesterday. I was standing up against the tally desk beside number -three hatch, ticking off the cargo list as they hove stuff up and -dropped it in the surf boats. It was on the old _Fernando Po_, that -beat her bottom out afterwards when Williams tried to drive her over -Monk bar at half ebb. There was a case marked with double-diamond that -was O'Neill and Craven's consigning all right, but with no name of -factory. I knew old Swizzle-Stick Smith and Malla-Nulla well enough -already, and I didn't know Slade, and so naturally I thought Smith -should have it, and ordered the case back again into the hold. But -just then up came a little nipper of about eight or ten years old, as -self-possessed as you like, and says, 'Are you Mr. Image?' 'That's -me,' says I. 'What's the message?' 'Oh, no message,' says she, 'only -Daddy says that if I can find you and stand by your heels and not -bother I may stay aboard, but if not I'm to go ashore by the next boat -and get on with my lessons.' Well, it didn't take much seeing through -what was meant there." - -"No, sir," said Mr. Balgarnie heartily. "By all accounts old Cappie -Williams was the hardest case they ever knew even on the West Coast, -and that's saying a lot. I only knew him for a year, and I wasn't -particular in those days, but he was more than even I could stand." - -"He was the limit. Well, me lad, that was the first time I saw Laura, -and she stood beside me half the day at the tally desk there, and -thanked me for the entertainment when Slade sent off a boy to take her -ashore. She gave me a kiss when she turned to go down the side--well, -you see, I've--I've never quite forgotten that kiss, Balgarnie, me lad." - -"I know, skipper," said Mr. Balgarnie rather thickly. "A kid once -kissed me, of her own blessed accord, too, like that. It sort of burnt -in. I beg your pardon, sir, for interrupting." - -"Not at all, me lad. Here you, steward. Hi, Brass-Pan." - -A Krooboy ran up. - -"We fit for two cocktail, plenty-long ones. Well, as I was saying, -Balgarnie, me lad, I've always had a bit of soft place for Laura, -though I suppose she rightly is snuff and butter, by Crumbs you'd never -guess it from her looks unless you went over her with a lens, and I'd -just feel all broken up if she was to go the way that lot usually do -go. So if this young Carter, who seems a nice clean-run sort of lad, -will marry her with a ring, I'm going to weigh in with at least a best -silver-plate teapot for a wedding present." - -"You can put me down for the ditto sugar and cream," said the purser -with emotion. "It was a kiddie just like Laura I was fond of myself. -Only--only-- Well, Skipper, I suppose a good many of us are -blackguards down here on the Coast. Why the sulphur doesn't your boy -bring those cocktails?" - -But at this point Captain Image broke off the conversation. "By -Crumbs!" said he, "here's Miss Kate." And then he did a thing that -made Mr. Balgarnie whistle with sheer surprise. He went down the -ladder to help his passenger on board. - -"Now, if I had done that," the Purser mused to himself, "it would have -meant a lot. But my Whiskers! I never thought I should live to see -old Cappie Image trotting down onto the front doorsteps to receive a -mere female passenger. The Old Man must see enough solid dollars in -that girl to buy himself that hen farm outside Cardiff he hopes to -retire upon." - -Captain Image stood on the grating at the foot of the ladder and waved -his panama in respectful salutation. The beer-colored river swirled -along the steamer's rusty flank a foot beneath him, and the pungent -smell of crushed marigolds which it carried made him cough. The sun -shimmered exactly overhead in a sky of the most extravagant blue, and -the greenery which fenced in the slimy mud banks hung in the breathless -heat without so much as a twitter. - -Miss Kate O'Neill was seated in a Madeira chair which stood on the -floor of a big green surf boat, and the gleaming Krooboys perched on -the gunwales paddled with more than their usual industry. The headman, -who straddled at the steering oar in the stern, wore a tail-coat of an -extremely sporting cut and pattern and a woven grass skullcap in honor -of the occasion. And all this pomp and circumstance was uninvited. -But somehow people had the knack of offering special service and -deference to Miss O'Neill. - -The only other woman on the _M'poso_, the austere wife of a Benin -trader, looked over the steamer's rail in gloomy disapproval. These -were no modes for Coast wear. A billowy grass-green muslin dress that -no Krooboy laundry-man could wash twice without spoiling; neat, narrow -pipe-clayed shoes with no thickness of sole, and ridiculous heels; a -pale green felt hat, actually insulted by a feather in its band; and -final absurdity of all, a parasol, a flimsy thing of silk, and ribbon, -and effervescent chiffon, which would be absolutely ruined by a splash -of rain, instead of the big sensible white cotton affair, with the dark -green lining, which all ordinary people know is the standard wear on -that torrid Coast. - -"Faugh," said the trader's wife, "and Captain Image says she's one of -the smartest business women in the world to-day, and that fat, greedy -purser would propose to her in the next five minutes if he thought he'd -a cat's chance of being accepted. They think her good-looking, too, -I'll be bound, just because she wears those unsuitable clothes, and has -pink color in her cheeks. Well, the clothes will be whisps of rag by -this day week and"--the poor woman sighed here--"the Coast will get the -color and the plumpness out of her face, and make her as lean and -yellow as the rest of us in a month." - -"You're a good, kind man," Miss O'Neill was saying to a very smiling -Captain Image, "and I know I did tell the bedroom steward to have my -big trunks got up on deck; but, you see, I'm a woman, and therefore -it's my prerogative to be able to change my mind without being openly -abused for it. So I want you, please, to be very nice and let me stay -on the _M'poso_ a little longer." - -"Miss Kate, I was sure you'd find that what I said was true, and that -Smooth River factory was no place for a lady like you. You see those -dead niggers are fresh now, but when the sun gets on 'em--er--I mean -there's no trade coming into this section of the Coast just now till -that blessed old King of Okky opens the roads again, and he won't do -that yet awhile on his own dirty account, and neither you nor I have -got the ju-ju that will make him. My dear Miss, I'm just as pleased as -a monkey with green--er--with a green tail to hear you're going to take -the round trip home with me, and if my clean collars do run out, you -must remember that we all wear panjammers when we're south of the -Islands and the trippers. If only I'd thought of shipping a jack-wash -when I got my Krooboys at Sarry Leone. Well, one can't be prepared for -everything." - -The girl laughed. "I wouldn't strain the supply of collars for worlds. -I only want you to take me two days on from here and drop me at this -factory again on the way back." - -The tint of Captain Image's vermilion face deepened to plum color. He -scented irony, and his touchy Welsh temper bubbled up into view. -"Miss," he said, "when I pull my anchors out of Smooth River mud in ten -hours from now, I go out on the flood across the bar, and as you must -know I walk in and do the civil in Water Street, Liverpool, before I -smell the stink of these particular mud banks again." - -She slipped a plump firm hand on his white drill sleeve. "Won't you -ask me into the chart house, Captain, and send Brass-Pan for some tea? -I'm absolutely dying for tea. And you can have a cocktail. I've got a -long story I want to tell you. There's cargo waiting for you, Captain, -up a creek that opens off Smooth River which you've never been up, and -which I think will pretty well fill the _M'poso_ without your troubling -to call anywhere else." - -Captain Image's face cooled to vermilion again, and puckered into a -smile in spite of himself. He even went so far as to pat the fingers -that rested on his arm. "By Crumbs, Miss, I'd ordered them to boil up -that tea when I saw you shoot out of the factory creek in your surf -boat, and till you reminded me, I'd clean forgotten it. And here -you've been standing and yarning to me on the front door step all the -time. They'll call the _M'poso_ a dry boat with a vengeance if this -tale gets about. I shall be chaffed to death over it. Come up on top." - -Mr. Balgarnie saw them ascending the ladder, and rushed into the chart -house and pulled down three photographs that had been fastened on the -wall with drawing pins since Miss Kate O'Neill's departure. He was -thumped on the back by his grateful skipper who caught him in the act -of pocketing them. - -"Balgarnie, me lad," said Captain Image, "you'll have to keep that hard -collar of yours bent for two days longer. You'll be pleased to hear -that Miss Kate's not going to throw us over yet. Just you go and see -the chief steward and the cook and ask them what they've got left in -the refrigerator. And I want you to break the rule of the ship, and -make all the other passengers jealous, and dine at my table in honor of -the occasion. Come in, Miss, and please take the settee. You'll find -this cushion soft and free from mildew." - -Kate smiled gratefully on them both. "What dear, good people you are. -And I made sure you would detest me, Captain, when I tell you I want -you to change from your usual routine." - -Captain Image's face stiffened. - -"Even though it is to get all your holds full of cargo which you would -never have touched if it had not been for a hint that just came to me -an hour ago." - -"We carry mails, you know," said Image doubtfully, "and there's a -scheduled time for call at the various points, and a bad time for being -late. Bad----" - -"But cargo. Let me suggest to you again, cargo?" - -"Well, Miss Kate, there's no other lady on earth I'd say the same to, -but I'll not deny the fact--to you, mind, and quite between -ourselves--that cargo interests me. And letting you further into -what's considered one of the deadest of secrets, there are times when -cargo commission can just out-balance fines for being late with mails. -You see I guess what you have in your mind, Miss. You want me to run -back and take off the cargo that's waiting at Malla-Nulla before those -Okky-men come down and raid it." - -Miss O'Neill lay back against the cushion and sipped composedly at her -hard-boiled tea. "There," she said, "I knew you'd consent. There's -only one little detail you've made a mistake about. How soon can you -be off? Judging from the music of the winches, you're working in the -cargo here at a famous speed." - -"The mate reported to me just before you came on board that he'd have -the lot shipped by five o'clock. Those passenger boys of ours that -you've made factory boys for the time being were working splendidly, so -Mr. Mate said. But what's this little mistake, Miss Kate? I can't go -right away back to O'Neill and Craven's factory at Monk River, if -that's what you mean." - -"Oh, my dear Captain Image, don't think me unreasonable. I shouldn't -dream of asking you to do such a thing as that. I don't even want you -to go out over Smooth River bar for the present. But I'd better tell -you just what's happened. You see all afternoon the Krooboys who had -run away have been coming back, and some of the clerks have turned up, -and then came Mr. and Mrs. da Silva. We had quite a gathering of it, -and as Mr. Carter set them all on to digging holes and tidying things -away as they arrived, by this time all the--well, you wouldn't know -there'd been fighting. - -"But the first to turn up at the factory after you'd left me there was -not one of our own people, but a caller. He was the agent in charge of -the German factory at Mokki. He turned up in a dug-out, and he gave us -to understand that he was the most frightened man in Africa. He said -his voyage down the creeks was one series of miraculous escapes. He -said he'd come to take shelter under the British flag; but when he -found that by an oversight we hadn't got such a piece of furniture -about the place, and when he saw the holes in the walls and the roof -and the--the--what there was lying about under that blazing sun in the -clearing, he was quite of opinion that he hadn't run far enough." - -"The blighted Dutchman," said Captain Image contemptuously. - -"Well, you see," said the head of O'Neill and Craven confidentially, "a -chance like that suited me uncommonly well. To let you into a secret -of our Liverpool office, I had reckoned on increasing the output of all -our factories, and found I was doing it even more than I had calculated -upon. Consequently when there was a big price bid for palm oil and -kernels for autumn delivery, I sold heavily." - -"And now the King of Okky has put ju-ju on you, stopped the roads, and -there you are caught short, me lad--I beg pardon, Miss Kate, I should -have said." - -"Of course it only worried me for the moment. These tight places are -never really tight if you take the trouble to think out a way through -to the other side. In this case it's shown itself to be delightfully -simple. I've bought out the German." - -Captain Image grunted. "Then I wish you'd asked me for advice first. -But perhaps you haven't clinched the deal, and can back out of it -still. If you'll take the tip from an old Coaster like me, you have -nothing to do with it. His old Dutch factory's only worth scrap price." - -"That's all I've given for it." - -"And when you do get the oil out of it that's stored there, if it -hasn't been looted whilst he's been away pleasuring down the creeks in -his canoe, where are you? No better than here. Your trade will be -dead. The King of Okky's stopped all the roads." - -"Now, I'm just going to give you a little geographical surprise. Have -you got a map?" - -Captain Image indicated the drawers beneath the chart table. "Coast -charts, of course, which include the river mouths, but I should pile up -the old packet in a week if I relied on them. I'm my own pilot for the -most part, Miss Kate, and that's why with God's Providence and a sound -use of drugs I've managed to work successfully on the coast all these -years." - -"Well, if you haven't got a map of the back country here in your stock, -I carry a very accurate one in my head, and if you'll give me a paper -and a pencil, I'll draw out something that will surprise you." - -The girl leaned over the chart table and began to draw, and Captain -Image sat back on his camp stool and nursed a knee and frankly admired -her. He did not in the least believe in this Mokki venture, and had -not the smallest intention of breaking in upon his usual routine by -going there. But he had (so he told himself) a distinct eye for the -beautiful and the romantic, and he found his ideals in these matters -very considerably filled by Miss Kate O'Neill, her dress, and her -occupations. - -"There," she said at last, and handed him the sketch. - -Captain Image looked at it, laughed, and shook his head. He had all of -a sailor's intolerance for the amateur map-drawer. Moreover, he had -traded in part of the Oil Rivers for twenty years, and if he did not -know the back country personally, he heard it spoken of in the -factories and in steamer smoke-rooms as matter of intimate knowledge -almost daily. - -"Well, Captain, don't just shake your head and laugh. Let me have your -criticisms." - -"I'm not saying, of course, that it's not a very clever map. It is -that, and the way you've put the rivers in would beat the knowledge of -many who have been on the Coast for years. You've quite the knack of -drawing a map, Miss Kate, though there's another creek here that you've -missed, and this continuation of what we call the Dog's-leg channel you -must have guessed at, because I never heard of its being navigated, and -nobody knows where it goes to." - -"It leads to my new factory at Mokki." - -"Well, it may do, though you can take it from me there's no water for a -steamboat that draws even eleven foot six. But the thing you're mainly -wrong in is this part you've marked as the Okky country. You haven't -carried it anywhere near far enough back." - -Miss O'Neill tapped at her firm white teeth with the end of the pencil. -"You're quoting from the Royal Geographical Map," she suggested. - -"Well, Miss, I am," Captain Image admitted, "and I know it's just about -as inaccurate as magazine fiction in a whole lot of places. But I -shouldn't set myself up to buck against a Royal Geographical map unless -I knew." - -"Neither should I. But you see maps have always been a fad with me, -and since Mr. Godfrey died, and I had the whole weight of O'Neill and -Craven landed upon my one pair of shoulders whether I liked it or not, -I looked upon maps from a very different point of view. As everybody -on the Coast knows everybody else's business, I need hardly point out -to you that during Mr. Godfrey's latter days O'Neill and Craven had -been allowed to run down pretty badly, and when I took hold, the firm -was--well, what shall I say?" - -"Dicky," suggested Captain Image kindly. "But I can quite understand -all the hard words you'd like to let out if I wasn't here." - -The girl laughed. "Well, we'll put it, Captain, that the firm was -decidedly dicky, and I've had a most interesting time in pulling it -onto its feet. Incidentally I've given up drawing maps from an -amateur's point of view, and have been drawing them with an entire eye -to business in the future. You've no idea how interesting it is to a -business woman, Captain, when some special information comes to her and -she is able to go to her map and fill in a mile or so of river that -she'd had to leave a gap for, or sketch in a newly-discovered trade -route through what was thought to be hopeless swamp, or fill in part of -the boundary line of territory that up to then had merely merged off -into blank space." - -"My Crumbs," said Captain Image admiringly, "but you are a daisy, Miss -Kate." - -"It was only the day before I left Liverpool that I got news of where -the Okky territory ended. The French have been having some mysterious -expedition in at the back there for purposes of their own, and the -officer in command very unwisely caned the only other white man with -him, who was a Zouave, and wasn't really white at all. He wanted -revenge, so he came to me and told, and got fifty pounds, and said he'd -never enjoyed letting off spite so much in his life before." - -Captain Image smacked his knee. "Daisy isn't the word for you, Miss," -he affirmed, "and you can tell people I said so, if you like. A young -lady that can pull the leg of these beastly foreigners in that way is -worth going a long way to meet. You oughtn't to come out here to the -Coast. You ought to stay at home, Miss Kate, and marry a Member of -Parliament." - -"Poof! I wouldn't for worlds. They're all too pompous and too dull. -They only talk, and pose for the newspapers; they never really do -anything constructive in the House. Now, I like to do things; and if -ever I marry, it will be a man who can do things that I've tried at -rather better than I can do them myself. But we're getting away from -the factory at Mokki. Now, the German agent doesn't know it, and I -didn't feel called upon to tell him, but it's quite possible to open up -trade routes to that point that don't pass through the Okky country at -all. So that upsets the old King's notion of stopping the roads at -present, and in the future, when he gets tired of cutting off his nose -to spite his face, and tries to set trade going again, he'll find the -stuff is being carried round very comfortably outside his boundary, and -that there is no more blackmail to collect. How does that strike you, -Captain? Now, am I a crazy woman who is bound to bust up O'Neill and -Craven's if I am left long enough to it?" - -"I never said that," Captain Image protested violently, "and I'll wring -that pious old Crewdson's neck next time I see him. That man can't -carry corn. He evidently gets a heap too loose tongue if you offer him -just a little civility." - -"Well, I really am awfully glad you're going to be nice," said Miss -O'Neill as she handed back her teacup with a sigh of relief, "and steam -off up to the creeks to Mokki when you've finished working the cargo -here." - -Captain Image stood with the empty teacup in his hand, revolving in his -mind many things, and some of his muttered comments were profane. He -carried throughout all the seaboard of West Africa a reputation for a -hard obstinacy of which in his way he was not a little proud, as men -can be of assets whose value is more than doubtful; and he arrived at -the idea that this pretty young woman in the crisp grass green muslin -was twisting him round to carry out her own peculiar wishes with -ridiculous ease. "It's enough to make any man swear," declared Captain -Image, as a final summing up of his sentiments. - -"I agree with you cordially," said Miss O'Neill, "and as I am sure that -you must have done tremendous violence to your feelings in letting me -have so much of my own way, I'll just let you swear as a reward." - -"No, I'm damned if I do, Miss Kate," said Image politely. "I shouldn't -dream of forgetting what is due to a lady. But don't you be too sure -of having your whim gratified even now. I don't see any way of getting -the _M'poso_ to Mokki up those bits of creeks unless we put wheels -under her and pull her there through the bush." - -"Have you ever seen a steamer called the _Frau Pobst_?" - -"I have. She's a funny old brig-rigged relic, with sawn-off smoke -stacks and no boats." - -"No boats?" - -"Oh, she started with some in the year one when she was built, but as -they always got washed overboard when she found herself in a sea-way, I -guess they grew tired of replacing them. I believe she does carry some -patent folding concertinas tied up somewhere near her davits, but -they're to pass the Dutch Board of Trade. They aren't for use. Yes, I -know the old _Frau Pobst_. She generally wants two crews each voyage." - -"How's that?" asked Kate, with a twinkle. - -"Goes so slow, the first lot die of old age." Captain Image smacked -his lips over the pleasantry. - -"What a labor it must have been to get an old tub like that up to -Mokki." - -"It would take her as many days as it would take me hours in the -_M'poso_," said Image, and could have bitten out his tongue when the -words escaped. But Kate O'Neill had got up from the settee and was -shaking his hand. "I believe in reality, Captain, you're just as keen -a business man as I am a business woman. Only you're shockingly shy -about showing it. No, don't get up. I'm just going to run back ashore -again to finish things up here. I'll be back by the time you've got -steam. Please don't get up." - -"By Crumbs, Miss Kate, but don't you try to dictate to me about that. -I'm going to see you off from the front doorsteps myself. By Crumbs, -there isn't another lady in Africa I admire half as much." - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -NAVIGATION OF DOG'S-LEG CREEK - -Captain Image yapped out his commands to the third mate and a -quartermaster in the wheelhouse in tones that supplied many missing -adjectives: - -"... Starboard your helm. Starboard. Hard-a-starboard, you bung-eyed -son of perdition--stop her. Crumbs! but we sliced off a thumping big -chunk of Africa there, and broke half the tumblers in the steward's -pantry by the sound of it. I bet something big it's another case of -going home on what's left of the double bottom, and Old Horny to pay in -Water Street, Liverpool. Give her full ahead now, and steady your -helm, quartermaster. My holy whiskers, who wouldn't sell a farm and go -to sea? Starboard your helm, six points. There, steady on that. Half -speed the engines." And so on over and over again for every hour since -the sun rose to blister the swamps, and call forth the full volume of -their earth and crushed-marigold smell. - -There is a proverb bandied about amongst the sons of men which states -that the unknown has always its charm, and harassed shipmasters often -wonder why it is not publicly contradicted in Norie's Epitome of -Navigation. Carter either forgot or never realized this, and -furthermore made the fatal blunder of going up onto the sacred upper -bridge without direct invitation. - -For half an hour he had stood there silent, and unspoken to, listening -to Captain Image's tirade against the creeks that led to Mokki, and -then catching for a moment the mariner's eye, ventured on an -observation. He suggested that at any rate Captain Image would have -the amusement of feeling that he was an explorer; and there was the -opportunity the peppery Welshman really needed. - -He had not been able to say what he wished to Miss Kate O'Neill, for -many reasons; but here was her whipping-boy; and on him Captain Image -turned loose one of the most powerful vocabularies that has ever been -carried up and down the West African seaboard. He neglected both -quartermaster and third mate--and these two experts, being only too -glad of the breathing space, kept the _M'poso_ accurately out of the -mangroves, whilst their commander gave an undivided attention to the -very highly qualified passenger who had dared to sully the unblemished -deck plants of the upper bridge. - -Now, under ordinary conditions, Carter would have recognized the -circumstances, and have remembered his service, and swallowed the dose -with a smile and a shrug. But things had gone woefully awry with him -during the last score of hours. The strain of the fight, the discovery -that the man K. O'Neill of the letters was Miss Kate in the flesh, the -uncertain future of two Coast factories, the way in which everybody -received his engagement to Laura Slade; all these things piled up on -one another had set his usually steady nerves jangling in a way to -which he was unaccustomed, and he felt himself forced by a rather -insane impulse to do something startling. He had successive -inclinations to throw up his berth altogether and go home; to marry -Laura Slade out of hand by the kind assistance of Captain Image and the -_M'poso's_ log-book, which occurred to him as the local equivalent of -Gretna Green; to violently abuse Miss Kate O'Neill for being herself. -Finally, when the premonitory symptoms of a well-earned dose of fever -gripped him with a stab and a shudder, he had the usual malarial -depression, which put the usual question as to whether life were really -worth living. - -Over and above all these things, since the first moment of seeing Kate, -it had been borne in upon him that he had made a mistake over his -engagement. He did not for a moment think of getting free; he was -doggedly determined to see it through, or in other words to marry -Laura, whatever the cost and result might be. But from that date -onward he began to ask himself inconvenient questions. He demanded of -his inner conscience a definition of that impalpable thing, love. He -wished to be informed (from the same source and at the shortest notice) -if he was exactly in love with Miss Slade at that particular moment, -and when the phenomenon commenced, and how long it was likely to -endure. And when Laura, who saw into a good deal more of all this than -he expected, offered to release him from his promise, he abused her for -the suggestion, and protested his affection for her with such warmth -that he feared very much after the interview that he had hopelessly -overdone it. - -As a consequence, when Captain Image explained in a two-minute speech -that Mr. Flame-tipped Carter was violating the etiquette of nations in -daring to pollute that upper bridge with his undesirable feet, without -direct invitation, he rather welcomed the opportunity and retorted in -kind. - -Now, Captain Image, as has been hinted, had made the most of the years -he had spent sea-going in the matter of picking up a vocabulary; he has -to this day brothers in Wales who are local preachers and revivalist -leaders, and there is no doubt that he was the inheritor of some -ancestral strain of burning eloquence. Carter, on the other hand, -though not as a rule a man of much speech, had not lived with -Swizzle-Stick Smith all those long months without taking lessons in the -art of vituperation, and though he was not conscious of it at the time, -the education soaked in, and when the moment of stress arrived his -memory served him faithfully. - -Miss Kate O'Neill heard the discussion and retired to her room below. -Stewards popped their heads round doorways and listened appreciatively; -deck hands took cover round the angle of the houses and strained their -ears, and the second engineer, who was bred on Tyneside and openly -claimed to be a connoisseur, came out brazenly onto the top of the -fiddley three yards from the speakers and did nothing to an unoffending -ventilator cowl with a three-quarter inch spanner. - -From the present writer's point of view the remarks on both sides had -the fatal drawback that their point lay far more in artistic delivery -than in their subject matter, and so to report them here verbatim would -give a totally unjust idea of their weight and influence. But it must -be understood that Captain Image, who never till now had met a foeman -so worthy of his tongue, surpassed himself; and Carter, who now for the -first time used these winged words in hard vicious earnest, felt all a -sportsman's pride in seeing his verbal missiles land and rankle. - -It is hard to award the victory; and, in plain truth, each orator was -so warmed with the effort of his own tongue that in another second the -British blood would have reached fisticuff temperature, and they would -have clinched. But luckily an interruption arrived to break the -tension. The third mate, that terribly abused young man who was -gaining a breathing space whilst Carter stood up against Captain -Image's tongue, at first conned the _M'poso_ up the winding channel -with a sigh of relief, and was ably seconded by the quartermaster at -the wheel, who had also been suffering. But by degrees their sporting -instincts drew them from the matter immediately in hand, and made them -interested spectators of the duel. In fact their interest absorbed -them, and, well, the steamer got the smallest bit out of hand. - -When it was too late the third mate turned attention to his duties -again, and had just time to give four frenzied orders; there was a fine -jangling of the engine-room telegraph; the quartermaster did frantic -windmill work on the steering wheel, to the accompaniment of a rattling -chorus from the wheel engines below; but the _M'poso_ took a sheer and -rammed her nose firmly into the mangroves. And in she slid. Weight -and speed made sufficient momentum to put her into the mud and -shrubbery well up to the forerigging, and the jar sent the stiff-set -Captain Image flying onto the top of the fiddley gratings. - -Carter shot up against the white painted rail of the upper bridge and -held his balance there, and then with that blind instinct for -interfering for the welfare of others which distinguishes the -Anglo-Saxon, he vaulted the rail, picked up Captain Image and set him -on his feet. - -It is perhaps typical also of the peppery Welshman that he forgot the -enjoyable quarrel so promptly that he said, "Thank you, me lad," with -ready cordiality before he turned to do full justice to the third mate, -his ancestry, and his probable future in this world and the next. - -"By Jove," broke in Carter, "I wish I'd a gun. There's a monkey on the -foredeck. I'd like that little beggar's skin. I wonder if I could -catch him." - -"Don't you try, me lad," said Image. "The odds are that the front end -of this packet's a menagerie of red mangrove ants that could gnaw -chunks off a tin-covered crusader." He jammed the engine-room -telegraph with a vicious whirr to Full Speed Astern, and turned to the -unfortunate third mate. "Here, you, if you think you know enough to -tell the difference between land and water, lower a boat and take out a -kedge astern. Wait a minute. Now, you're not to drop that kedge in -the mud. It'll draw through that like pulling a hairpin out of a pot -of marmalade. You're to get ashore and hook it among those mangrove -roots. Just try and get it into your intelligent head that I don't -want that kedge to come home directly we put a strain on the wire. -When you've done that you can come back and go to your room and read -Shakespeare. I guess that's about all you blooming brass-bound Conway -sailors are fit for, except sparking the girls and drawing your pay. -By Crumbs! if we hadn't Miss Kate on board, and for anything I know -within earshot, I could just give you an opinion of your looks that -would make you want to cry." - -But with the tide in the muddy river ebbing under her, the _M'poso_ -stuck in the dock she had made, in spite of reversed propeller, and -winches straining on the kedge wire till they threatened to heave -themselves bodily from the decks. The insect torments of Africa -boarded her from the mangroves and bit all live things they came -against; obscene land crabs dressed in raw and startling colors waddled -up onto the slime of the banks as the water left them and blew impotent -froth bubbles at the tough steamboat which even they could not eat. -Parrots crowed at them from the shining green foliage of the mangroves -alongside; slimy things gazed at them from the mud beneath the arches -of the wire-like roots. - -The sun crawled up into the aching blue overhead till it forgot how to -cast a shadow, and the wet steam heat grew so oppressive that even -Laura Slade, country-born though she was, felt sick with its violence. -But Miss Kate O'Neill on the awning deck did elaborate calculations on -sheets of paper, which she tore up and threw into the beer-colored -river when she had entered the results in her pocket-book; and down in -the purser's room, Carter carved images on Okky calabashes for the -English curiosity market. - -To him came Mr. Balgarnie, dripping and fuming. "Great whiskers! man, -why did you shut the port-hole? You're lean; but if I stay in this -atmosphere I shall peg out of heat apoplexy in half an hour. Here, let -me open the port and stick out the wind scoop." - -"Wind scoop's no good; there isn't a breath. And if you open the port -you'll be devoured. I tried it. I'm a Dalesman and I like a draught -of air, but it's no go here. Red ants, I think they are. Look at the -way they've been eating the insides out of your domestic cockroaches. -Now gaze on this chop bowl? Isn't it a gem? Any stay-at-home -Englishman would spot it as genuine native workmanship in a moment. -All done with a blunt knife; that's the great tip in this sort of -carving." - -"Have a drop of whiskey? You fit for dash me dem bowl?" - -"No, Purser, I'm not going to give away anything just now. I want five -shillings spot cash for this specimen, and it's dirt cheap at that. -When you've weathered it a bit, and given it a dressing of good yellow -palm oil, it will fetch a golden sovereign from a Las Palmas tripper, -easy." - -"They're a hard-up lot, the people who come to the Islands these days, -and they're inclined to get too familiar if you offer as a favor to -sell them anything they may see in your room. I've chucked showing -them things. But I might get three half-crowns for that bowl in -Liverpool. Of course, I don't want any commission from you, old -fellow. I'll hand over every penny I'm paid for it." - -Carter stuck out a dogged chin. "Look here, Purser, it's too hot for -frills, and we know one another a bit too well for them to go down. -Potter out five bob and the thing's yours to make what you can of. If -you don't, I've another customer who'll give more. I'm hard up." - -"Oh, of course, yes. You want to set up housekeeping, don't you? -Well, old fellow, here are the two half-crowns towards the mangle or -the grand piano or whatever you've set your mind on getting first. -Sorry I ragged you about being engaged to Laura last night at Smooth -River. But, you see, I know Owe-it Slade, and I've known Laura all her -life, and of course I was a bit surprised to be told, you know--well, -to be told that you, of all people, had made it up with her. But, as I -say, I'm sorry I ragged you." - -"Please don't apologize on a hot day like this," Carter snapped. "As I -don't value your opinion on a matter like that one jot, I naturally -didn't let anything you said disturb my sleep. Good-afternoon. If -you're going to occupy your room, I'll go out on deck and enjoy the -infernal crushed-marigold stink of this drain from a different point." - -"That young man knows he's made a fool of himself," commented the -Purser sagely, "and he's as sore and uneasy as a skinned eel in a tub -of sand. Well, if he wants to furnish a lil' log hut for his dusky -Laura, so much the better for trade. He's the neatest trick of making -native curios in all West Africa, and I've got all his home business in -my hand. It's all rot about his trading with another purser; there -isn't one on the Coast that works this line, or I should have heard -about it. If the output's increased, I shall try and work up a -connection with America. My Whiskers! why not? What's wrong with -enriching the United States with some good broad-bladed Okky spears, -and a war horn or two just as a-- Hullo, yes, who's that? Ah, come -in." - -There was a knock at the Purser's door, and White-Man's-Trouble entered -in reply to the invitation. "Oh, Purser," he said, "dem bug," and -opened a black fist and showed three electric-blue butterflies in his -white palm. - -The Purser took them one by one in his plump fingers and dropped them -gingerly into an empty cardboard cigarette box. "I don't think they'll -be much use, boy. You've rubbed too much fluff off with those delicate -paws of yours. Savvy?" - -"I savvy I fit for dash," said the Krooboy pointedly. - -"Pooh, these are worth nothing. What do you take me for? A tripper, -or the Bank of England? Ah, would you, you infernal thieving monkey?" -Mr. Balgarnie had turned his back and had glanced in a shaving mirror -which hung by the port and saw White-Man's-Trouble helping himself to a -Tauchnitz novel, which he promptly tucked underneath his coat. - -The Krooboy put the book down. He did not waste time in apologizing -for the theft of something that was entirely useless to him. He went -straight to a matter of far graver interest. - -"Oh, Purser, how you seen me take dem thing? You no see with you eyes. -You eyes lib for look out of window." - -"Attend," said Mr. Balgarnie, and struck an attitude. "I am the man -known to science as the Freak-who-has-eyes-at-the-back-of-his-head. -Observe, I have my back to you and yet I can see that you are picking -your nose with your strong left hand, and scratching the floor with -your starboard toe." - -"I no fit for see you back eyes." - -"That is because they are ju-ju eyes. Oh, White-Man's-Trouble, I bid -you fear the Powers of Darkness and steal no more anything that is -mine. You savvy?" - -"Savvy plenty!" - -"And as a further punishment, I bid you catch me ten more butterflies, -and take care you don't rub the feathers off, or they'll be no use to -Miss Kate." - -"Missy Kate! What for she want dem bug? Dem no fit for chop." - -"To make ju-ju of." - -White-Man's-Trouble grinned. "Missy Kate no savvy ju-ju palaver. Dem -Carter, he show her dem god with talk-pipe, an' she say, 'Well, dere no -ju-ju about him.' Oh, Purser, I say dem god with talk-pipe -plenty-too-much-fine ju-ju. Okky-men savvy plenty him ju-ju." - -"Your theology's a bit above my head, but I don't mind telling you in -confidence that butterfly collecting's the lady's habit, just the same -as--let me see--just the same as stealing things that are no use to you -is yours, and spear making's Mr. Carter's. Savvy?" - -"Savvy some," said the Krooboy doubtfully. "Does Missy sell dem bugs -to steamah pursers, an' come ashore an' say dem dam' greedy hounds?" - -"If you've got that idea in your aboriginal mind," said Mr. Balgarnie -with a yawn, "don't let me crowd it with anything nearer the truth. -You bring Miss Kate plenty of butterflies without the pretty rubbed -off, and presently she dash you a new top hat with a gold band to it." - -"I no fit for take dash from Missy," said White-Man's-Trouble with -dignity. "I bring her plenty-too-many bugs for nix. I fit for know my -job." - -The purser stared with tired eyes. "So you honor her with your -respectful admiration, too, do you? I wish I could get her knack. -There, clear out with you, and put the door on the hook. Take your -dirty hands away from that tooth-brush, confound you, and get out. -It's my time for siesta." - -In the meanwhile Laura Slade had gone out on the bridge deck, had found -a chair without a card on it, and had dragged it up alongside her -friend. She waited patiently till one of the long calculations had -been worked out and the result entered up in the pocket-book, and then, -when the figures were torn small, she jumped up and took the scraps of -paper from the other girl's hand. - -"Please let me do something, Kate. At least I can throw them overboard -for you." - -Miss O'Neill laughed, and plied her palm leaf fan. "My dear girl, I'm -most pleased to be tempted away from work. In school days, as you will -remember, I was worse than you were at sums. I've had to grind at them -since, but it's not made me love them any the more. Why can't I be a -rich woman without working for it?" - -"Do you want so very much to be rich?" - -Kate turned to her friend and opened her eyes wide. They were brown -eyes, and someone once described them as talkative. But people who -knew her better were very conscious of the fact that Miss Kate -O'Neill's eyes only expressed things when she willed that they should -do so. - -"Do I want to be rich? Well, of course. One can't have things or do -things unless one has money. And if I don't get money, no one will for -me; or, at least, I'd rather they wouldn't. Of course, you have got -Mr. Carter to work for you, Laura; but I am sure, when you put it into -cold words, you'd like him to make money, too. You don't want to live -all your days on the Coast here, the pair of you. You look forward to -going home, and having a house and a garden, and a motor car, and a man -to drive it. And you'd like to have good servants and nice frocks. -Yes, especially nice frocks." - -"Like yours. Yes, I should like a nice frock like that one, Kate, if -you won't mind my copying it." - -"What, this rag? My dear, sweet child, with your eyes, and your -figure, and the complexion you'd grow in England, you'd pay to dress -far more than ever I should. Mr. Carter will work hard and earn a big -income, just for the satisfaction of seeing you decently clad." - -There was a minute's silence, and then, "Why do you dislike my -engagement so much, Kate?" - -"Me dislike it? What rubbish. I think it's a most excellent thing for -you, if only Mr. Carter goes on as he has begun." - -"Then I'll word it differently. Why do you dislike George so much?" - -"Whatever gave you that idea? Mr. Carter, considering the short time -he has been on the Coast, has done most excellently for the firm, -and--well--_l'état c'est moi_. I know you condemn me for being -abominably commercial, but what nearer way do you think there can be to -my heart than through my pocket?" - -"Your heart!" Laura repeated, and stared large-eyed at the yellow river -that swirled past the steamer's rusty flanks. An alligator, that -looked very much like a half submerged log, drifted down with the tide, -and a bird that rode upon him dug vigorously between the rows of his -plates with his beak. She watched them till they passed away down the -stream and were lost in the glare of the sunshine. "I wonder," she -said in a half-whisper, "if your heart wants something which it will -break my heart for you to get?" - -Miss Kate O'Neill got up and gave a very healthy laugh. "Don't -mutter," she said, "and don't be ridiculous. To begin with, I'm not of -the marrying sort; to go on with, your taste (as typified in Mr. -Carter) and mine don't agree one little bit; and to wind up with, Laura -dear, don't let's pose like a pair of school-girls. I don't know -whether there's a slight natural antipathy between two red-haired -people----" - -"Your hair's not red in the least, Kate. It's a very dark auburn." - -"I should call it warmish. Anyhow, Mr. Carter's is red enough. And as -you will drag the subject up, I must really point out to you that he's -been hardly civil in the way he's avoided me. I haven't got smallpox." - -"You're his employer. When you call him I'm sure he's glad enough to -talk to you about what you want. But you must see his position; he -wouldn't like to risk a snub by coming up when you might not happen to -want him." - -"I see. The idea that all communications should be conducted in a cold -business footing. Am I to understand that Mr. Carter wished you to -convey that view to me, Laura?" - -"You know quite well he didn't. Kate, we used to be friends. I wish -you'd answer me honestly what I asked you just now." - -"Don't be tragic and ridiculous. You're half sick with the heat, and I -really believe you want to quarrel with me by way of safety valve. -Well, my dear, I shan't quarrel with you, that's all. I hate -quarrelling. I've been dodging the excellent Captain Image all the -day, as I know he wants to ease off his temper on me just because his -silly old steamer has stuck her nose on the bank and got left by the -tide. By the way, I candidly believe the accident happened just -because he was amusing himself just at that precise moment with having -a turn-up with--oh, well, we're getting onto touchy ground again. -And--here is Mr. Carter. You seem in a hurry." - -Carter came up the ladder to the bridge deck in two strides, and it was -noteworthy that he addressed his first remark to his employer, and not -to his fiancée. "Do you mind going below? There are half a dozen big -Okky war canoes round that point ahead there. I've been forrad there, -and could see them quite plainly through the mangrove roots." - -"Have you told the Captain?" - -"No. I'll tell him next. But will you go below, or into one of these -deck houses? They are probably covering us this minute, and it's -pot-leg they fire, not bullets. Pot-leg spreads and can make ghastly -wounds." - -"I don't like running away." - -"If you could do any good staying out in the open I wouldn't ask you to -move. Laura, will you persuade Miss O'Neill to go into cover, as she -won't take any notice of me?" - -"Thank you," said Kate sharply, "but Laura need not interfere. I am -accustomed to making up my own mind, Mr. Carter, without help from -anyone. I am much obliged to you for your care, and as I can't be of -any use at present, and as I have no insane wish to be shot, I shall -certainly go into shelter." - -"Very good," said Carter; "then I'll go and carry the news to old -Image. It's a lucky thing I brought along that Winchester of Slade's. -We shall keep them off all right." - -It turned out that Captain Image already had tidings of the war canoes, -and was red with wrath at the idea of any qualified black savages -having the unmentionable impudence to make a something naval -demonstration against a sacred Liverpool oil tank. His language was -quite unprintable, but his disposition of the steamer's forces was -remarkably sound. Tackles squeaked as a Krooboy gang hoisted the -ladder which hung alongside. The boatswain loaded the two brass signal -guns on the bridge deck with their usual noisy charge of blank, and -rammed a three-pound parcel of four-inch cut nails down the muzzle of -each on the top of the powder bags. The carpenter replaced the -gangways which are always unshipped when steamers are in the rivers -working cargo. And the winches chattered as they each hove up a -ponderous palm oil puncheon to the top of a derrick, which was then -swung outboard so that the puncheon could be let go by the run, and -smash any canoe made of hands that happened to be underneath. - -When these pious duties had been fulfilled, the crew lined out along -each of the lower deck rails armed with spanners, firebars, handspikes, -and in fact any other weapon which a modern steamer could provide, -which in lusty hands might be called upon to break a human head. - -On the upper bridge Captain Image oversaw the only two mates who were -not down with fever as they directed and assisted these operations, and -when all was ready he laid his own hands on the siren string and let -loose a hoarse throaty blast of defiance across the creeks and the -steamy forest. - -"There, Carter, me lad," said he, "that's to show the blighters we're -here and waiting. I'm glad you've brought that Winchester. It's the -only gun in the ship since Owe-it Slade borrowed my Holland and forgot -to bring it back. They tell me you're a nailing fine shot, too." - -"Couldn't hit a haystack with anything except a scatter gun." - -"Well," said Image dryly, "as I saw some of your patients spread about -in the clearing outside Smooth River Factory, I shall believe just as -much of that as I choose. It's not my affair to mention it, of course, -but I do know that Miss Kate was very considerably struck by the way -you kept those niggers off, and if you hadn't been engaged to Slade's -girl----" - -"Which I am, Captain. So, therefore, it's no use going into useless -possibilities. By the way, isn't that stern wire slackening?" - -"By Crumbs, me lad, you've got a quick eye. The tide's coming up -underneath her, and she's slipping off. Here you, Mr. Third Mate, ring -those engines to full astern, and try and keep it in your head that -you'd be in your room now if I weren't short of officers." - -With the lift of the yellow tide beneath her, the _M'poso_ drew out -from her muddy dock as a sword is pulled from its sheath, hung for a -dozen minutes in mid-stream whilst the stern-warp and its anchor were -got aboard, and then, gathering her boat and its crew up to davits, -turned stubbornly up the river. - -"I'll show these Okky blighters what trouble is," declared Captain -Image, "if they try and stop me. I've had their old king in my chart -house here with Swizzle-Stick Smith and the other traders a score of -times, and if he didn't drink the ship dry, it was only because I -wouldn't let him. And now in return for that hospitality he brings out -his infernal war canoes. I only hope he's in one of them and comes -alongside. I'll brain him with an oil puncheon if I get him in range." - -But when they opened up the reach behind the point where the canoes had -been seen, there was no offer of attack. There were three craft in -view, fifty paddle-power dugouts all of them, crammed with men and -weapons, fantastic with horrible ju-ju charms; but they hung on to the -wire-like stems of the mangroves and remained so moored till the -steamer drew past and began to dance them up and down upon its wash. A -monkey-skin drum in each was beaten impressively by two drummers, but -no weapons were levelled, and there was no threat of boarding. - -"Faugh!" said Image, and spat. "Did you catch the smell of those -beauties when we had them abeam? Talk of a 'bus stable struck by -lightning!" - -"They aren't there just to take in the scenery," said Carter -thoughtfully. - -"An Okky-man is born to mischief even as the sparks fly upward. Look, -they're casting off their shorefasts and getting under weigh down -stream. No, by Crumbs, they're turning up stream after me. Well, of -all the blighted cheek! Do you know what that means, Carter, me lad? -They're going to follow us. They think they've got some ju-ju by which -they can cut us off from the Coast. Ah, here's Miss Kate. Well, Miss, -as I've you to think of as well as my ship, I shall turn presently and -run back again for the bar. You see for yourself, I should think now, -that it isn't healthy up this river, and all the cargo in Africa is no -use to a man if he can't get it shipped when he comes to the beach -where it's stored. If any one of the war canoes get in my way, I'll -show you what those bushmen look like when they're swimming in yellow -water, for as sure as the Lord made crocodiles, I'll ram their noisy -dugouts if I can. I'll teach them to thump their nasty smelling war -drums at me." - -"Poof, Captain, don't you try to take me in. I should like to hear -anyone else suggesting that you couldn't take the _M'poso_ to a spot -where the _Frau Pobst_ had made regular voyages." - -Captain Image thrust forward his head and glared. "I can take this -packet anywhere that blessed Dutchman's been, Miss." - -"Of course you can. And when the _Frau Pobst's_ captain has shipped -cargo from a spot----" - -"And given up going there, Miss, because it's too dangerous." - -"Precisely. Well, as I couldn't insult you by calling you less than -twice as brave as the German, that means that no little trouble that's -going on between here and Mokki will frighten you in the very least. -Is that good argument?" - -"Oh, go on, Miss. Twist me round your finger. I like it. Besides it -isn't the first time I've played a neck-or-nothing game. But I'm -hanged if I see that it's an amusement for a pretty young lady like -you." - -Captain Image was speaking in plain earnest, and he was a man who knew. -Kate O'Neill was seized with a sudden qualm. Was she right to force on -this risk? Would the Okky-men attack, or could they bring off the -cargo successfully? Nobody but herself seemed to see a shadow of -chance for success. And these others were all old Coasters against -whom she was setting up her will. - -But when she thought of giving way and turning back the cost of retreat -promptly leaped up and faced her in plain figures. O'Neill and Craven -were heavily involved, how heavily no one knew but old white-haired -Crewdson and herself. The Mokki oil that she had bought so cheap would -save them. Without it there would be bankruptcy, and, what she dreaded -even more, the contemptuous finger of Liverpool pointed at the woman -who had taken upon herself a man's responsibilities and broken down -beneath them. - -These thoughts dinned through her again and again, but outwardly her -face smiled and her lips spoke lightly. - -"Now, it is nice of you to give me a promise like that, Captain." - -"Lake what?" - -"To say that you'll go on till my nerves give way. Well, let it be so. -I promise to give you news of it the moment I'm frightened. Look, -there's an omen for you to read to me. The Okky-men in that first war -canoe are all standing up and waving their spears. What does that -mean, I wonder?" - - - - -CHAPTER X - -ENVOYS IN COUNCIL - -"Hallo, Meredith, I heard rumors that there was a white man up in this -part of the bush, but I never guessed it was you. I did think of -sending on a runner to see, but somehow I didn't." - -"No, you wouldn't," said the older man. "I never knew you make up your -mind to anything unless it was decided for you. Now, look here, Slade, -we're in lonely country here, and if I shoot you, you'll never be -missed; and, by gad, shoot you I will unless you mend your memory." - -"Poof! what does it matter? We're the only white men within two -hundred miles, and the boys are out of earshot." - -"A black boy can hear a lot farther than you think, and for that matter -I've known trees in West Africa to have ears that understand -English--at least that has been the only explanation one could find of -the way things have leaked out. But we'll leave all that alone. I've -given you to understand by what name I wish to be addressed." - -"Well, you needn't be so short about it. I've always called you Smith -down in the Coast factories. Of course I can't forget that I once knew -you when you were----" - -"Will you hold your slobbering tongue? If you can't, say so, and I'll -stop it once and for always. I've told you my wish; to you or anyone -else I'm Smith, or Swizzle-Stick Smith, which you like. I've no -connection with anything that went before, and 'pon my soul, as you're -the only man now alive that knows it, I believe I'd be a lot safer if -you were out of the way." - -Slade turned his back petulantly. "Oh, do stop this wrangle. I'll -call you Swizzle-Stick Smith to the end of the chapter, and forget that -you were ever anything other than a drunken old palm-oil ruffian, if it -pleases you. Come to my hut and chop. I shot some parrots this -morning. They'll taste a bit like high rook, but they are better than -tinned stuff anyway. They came over finely; real raketers. It was -quite like the old days at home. This gun, by the way, is about my -last link with ancestral splendor. Look there, a Holland. They wanted -me to have ejectors, I remember, but I wouldn't." - -Mr. Smith screwed his eyeglass into his other eye and straightened the -new black silk ribbon by which it hung. "No," he said grimly, "that -was very wise of you, especially as ejectors weren't invented when that -gun was built. I wonder what sort of a tale you told Image before he -trusted you with it?" - -"What are you driving at? What's Cappie Image to do with it?" - -"That's my gun. I had it--well, as you've started the forbidden -subject already--I had it before the fall. Image saw it at Malla-Nulla -one day when I was full up and walked off with it, and I never managed -to get it back from him. He always said the beach was too bad to risk -letting a surf boat bring it ashore. Well, you may keep the thing for -the present, and I'll take a bowlful of your parrot stew by way of -rent. This the house? You've managed to find yourself pretty -comfortable quarters, I see." - -The house was a series of rooms packed round an internal courtyard. -The outer walls were of wattle, luted with mud thrown onto them in -vigorous handfuls, and left to bake hard in the sun. The roof was a -pile of untidy thatch, the floor of hardened mud, and in the middle of -the courtyard was an ineffective shade-tree scorched by the smoke of -the cooking fires. Beyond this house sprawled the other houses of a -small West African village, with the usual squalor heaped between them. - -To most Europeans there would have been much to notice--the cooking -vessels, the calabashes, the food, the ju-ju charms that one met at -unexpected corners, the scavenging dogs, and the all-pervading smells. -But Swizzle-Stick Smith's curiosity was worn by twenty years attrition, -and these savage circumstances had grown native to him. He did not -even comment on the fact that Slade was living entirely in local -fashion, the thing was so obvious a course for his friend to follow -that he took it for granted. He himself was a man of like tastes. -Down at Malla-Nulla the menu had mostly smacked of Africa; but once he -had left the Coast, Mr. Smith had travelled as an Okky headman travels, -living mainly on kanki and couscousoo, and for beverage partaking of -sour palm wine, muddy bush-water, and an allowance of trade gin sternly -cut down to one square-faced bottle per diem. - -His only comment on the place was that Slade's mosquito bar was made of -a material that they had long ago decided was faulty, and that a -certain mark of cheesecloth gave better passage to the air, and was -more impervious to insects. To which Slade made reply that he knew it, -but couldn't be bothered to change, after which the cookboy brought in -a calabash of odorous, highly-peppered stew, colored bright orange with -palm oil and condiments, and set it on the floor of one of the rooms. -Mr. Smith pocketed his pipe, dropped his eyeglass to the end of its -black ribbon, and wiped his hands on his shabby pyjamas, after which -simple preparations the pair of them sat down on the earth beside the -calabash and proceeded to eat skilfully from their fingers. - -Around them were the cases and bales of Slade's outfit, each done up -into a "load" ready for a carrier's head. In the other room of the -house and in the courtyard were the carriers, some of them eating, some -of them cleaning their teeth with the rubbing stick, which all Coast -natives use incessantly in moments of leisure, some of them chatting. -Most of them sat bareheaded in the staring sunlight; a few nestled in -the purple shadows. One was picking a jigger out of his toe with a -splinter of bamboo. In a spare corner another played tom-tom on the -bottom of an empty kerosene-tin bucket, and three stalwarts stood up -before him monotonously dancing. - -Mr. Smith finished his meal and took out his pipe. "Does it run to a -peg?" he asked. - -"It does. Don't spoil my fine vintage port with tobacco. You can -smoke afterwards. Here, boy, we fit for gin." - -"Gin lib," said the Accra in attendance, and handed a square-faced -bottle and a bowl. - -"Good. Now, when you see dem Smith fit for smoke, you bring fire, -one-time. Savvy?" - -"I fit." - -Swizzle-Stick Smith moved back until his shoulders rested against a -bale, and hitched up the knees of his shrunk pyjamas and stretched his -arms pleasurably. "You travel in comfort, Slade." - -"The secret is, I don't move along too fast. I've been in this village -a fortnight. I don't know when I shall make up my mind to pull out and -go on." - -"Not till you've eaten it bare or are forced off some other way, I -suppose. You're a curious envoy for a confiding employer in Liverpool -to send out into the bush." - -Slade grinned. "Old Godfrey wouldn't have done it. But this new K. -O'Neill hasn't seen my cutaway chin. K.'s a hustler, but he's young, -remarkably young." - -"Have you done anything in the way of getting him a rubber property?" - -"Well, curiously enough I have. At least, I've bought him up a few -square miles of country that rubber vines would grow on well enough if -it was cleared, and planted, and tended, and no one put ju-ju on them." - -"Is it get-at-able?" - -"It's on some river or other. The ditch isn't marked on the map, but I -daresay a steamer could get up if it was worth while. The title's as -good as one could expect." - -"That means it won't be jumped so long as you pay fifty pounds a year -to the next claimant." - -"I should say five-and-twenty will fix him," said Slade lazily. "You -see he's headman of the next village and he thinks he's got some -unproductive bush to sell himself. I've rammed into his skull the -great truth that his deal can't go through if he starts trying to jump -his neighbor's land and unsteadies the market. I think those -considerations will outweigh even his nigger's love for litigation--" -He went on to give listlessly enough a few more details of the -transaction. - -Mr. Smith was well-versed in the ways of West African diplomacy, and -could appreciate to a nicety all the haggling and the patience and the -tedious arguments that had gone to build up these complicated bargains. -He screwed in his eyeglass and looked at Slade attentively. "I -wonder," he said, "why you always make yourself out to be such an -infernal waster? You know you must have been doing some thundering -good work. I couldn't have put that deal through, and I know my West -Africa as well as you do or better. There's not one man in five -thousand could have managed it. What's your trick?" - -"Oh, I found myself in comfortable quarters, and I couldn't make up my -mind to move on and try more likely country elsewhere. So I stayed and -talked rubber-palaver with the headman. One had to do something for -amusement. Besides they'd a tree of alligator pears in the village -that were exactly ripe, and it would have been a crime to leave them to -benighted Africans. By the way, very rude of me not to ask before, but -what have you done since you left the Coast?" - -"Got into a very ugly hole," said Swizzle-Stick Smith shortly, "and -wriggled out of it by the skin of my teeth." - -"Rubber-palaver?" - -"No." - -"Oh, sorry for inquiring. I thought that was what you came up for?" - -"So it was, and I started off from the Coast with a full intention of -carrying out O'Neill and Craven's business. But I got led off on an -old trail." - -"Ah," said Slade thoughtfully. "I believe I could guess." - -"Guessing's dangerous. But I may as well own up to you frankly that -I've been seeing the King of Okky." - -"Well, you've a nerve. I shouldn't have cared for that job myself." - -"It wasn't pleasant. Okky City jars one's sense of decency rather -badly just now. Old Kallee's been going it extra strong on human -sacrifices, you know. His private crucifixion tree is a thing you -don't like to think about." - -"Filthy old beast he is." - -"But he's the strongest man hereabouts." - -"I see. And you got onto your old game of the pre-Smith days and tried -to get him to put the Okky country and his royal self under the formal -protectorate of the British Empire? I thought you dropped all that -tommyrot when you got kicked--I mean when you turned trader and became -known to fame as Mr. Smith. Sink the past, of course, sink the past, -but you started it." - -"I couldn't help going. I got news of a French expedition in Okky -City. Of course I've been damnably treated by the British Foreign -Office in days gone by, but the old fires will relight sometimes. -Frenchmen in Okky City, I'll trouble you, Slade, and of course with the -usual accompaniment. _Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes_. So I couldn't -resist trying my own hand with the Kallee, even though I hadn't -anything at all up to his weight as an introductory dash." - -"Half a dozen cases of Heidsieck is the nearest way to his royal ear, -though I hear that lately he's developed a taste for the better years -of Krug." - -"That's quite true. It was a fancy touch of Burgoyne, our Monk River -man. I call that hardly legitimate business, you know. German -champagne and angostura are good enough for me, and they ought to be -good enough for a black savage like Kallee. Dash it, what right's he -to a palate?" - -"Would he see you?" - -"Well, of course I've known him since before he killed his predecessor -and got the King's stool, and so he's a bit freer with me than he is -with most people." - -Slade nodded. "And you drank together till you were both blind -speechless?" - -"I wasn't, anyway," said the older man shortly. "I kept my head and -stuck to my tale. The Frenchman wasn't in it. He went to sleep before -we whacked the first ten bottles, and he was laid up with a fine dose -of fever next day; but there was no shifting Kallee. He doesn't care -an escribello for all the might, majesty, dominion and power of the -British Empire. He's got ten small cannon up there, that, according to -him, can quite account for Great Britain if it comes to worry him, and -in the meanwhile the French are very kind friends. They've given him a -gramophone, and a general's uniform, and an ice-making machine, and -when they bring him the canoe load of Winchester repeaters he's asked -for, he'll sign a treaty of allegiance to France." - -"Arms of precision! The Frenchman had better take care. If any of our -Government fellows catch him at that game, they'll shoot him first and -inquire into him afterwards." - -"Well, what he's going to do in the matter, I don't exactly know. You -see, the beggar had Kallee's ear, and to tell you the plain truth he -had me deported. Kallee said that if he laid hands on me again, he -would have my skin off, and stuff it with straw, and stick it in the -road that leads to Malla-Nulla as a warning to the next Englishman that -came along that it would be more healthy to keep inside his own -marches." - -Slade laughed. "I bet you footed it away." - -"What the devil else could I do? And here am I, no forwarder with -O'Neill and Craven's job than I was the day I tramped out of -Malla-Nulla. I did say 'Rubber' to the King, and he did hear out my -tale. He said it was good palaver, and set on a couple of hundred -slaves there and then with matchets to clear bush and plant rubber -vines to grow revenue for himself. But he sells no land to Englishmen, -and I guess if another of the breed comes up yet awhile, Kallee'll -plant him. By the way, Slade, have you been in touch with the bush -telegraph?" - -"Oh, I heard that the usual vague rows and horribles were going on in -Okky City, but I didn't pay much attention to that. I did hear, too, -that Cappie Image and the _M'poso_ helped a red-headed man, who I -suppose was that young Carter of yours, in some sort of a row at -presumably Malla-Nulla. I took the trouble to go into the dates; the -news must have travelled here in thirty hours, and we're a good two -hundred miles from the Coast. It is a bit marvellous. I wonder how -the deuce the niggers do it. Some sort of ju-ju, I suppose, but I -never met a white man yet who understood the trick." - -"Did you hear anything about a white woman stirring things up?" - -"Certainly, I did, and concluded it was Laura. I left her in charge at -Smooth River, you know, and she's grown into a jolly capable girl, let -me tell you, old man, when she cares to spread herself. What are you -twiddling about your eyeglass for? Why don't you say out what you -mean? Oh, I see. White. By gad, I'd never thought of that. Even a -bush telegraph, which is always liable to mistake in detail, would -never blunder into calling my little girl white. By gad, Smith, what a -damnable thing that 'sins of the fathers' law is. If I were a man that -ever looked so much as half a day ahead, I believe I should go mad at -the thought of what will become of Laura in the future. You're a tough -old ruffian with no cares and you could never understand what that -kiddie is to me." - -"No use crying over a marriage that's over. Everybody that knows her -will do his best for Laura, and if any man tried hanky-panky tricks -with her he'd probably die one of the local deaths of Africa in very -quick time. But about this white woman. I heard about her, too. -There was a big tom-toming far away in the bush one night, ten minutes -after the sun went out, and my boys listened hard and then set up a -fine chatter. It was long enough before I could make anything out of -them, but at last I heard something about 'a white mammy' that set me -thinking. I got the idea at first that someone, probably the Okky-men, -had been knocking a she-missionary on the head, and that made me cock -up my ears. You know when a trader or a man in one of the services -gets scuppered out here, the pious people at home say it's his own -brutal fault and the poor African is quite right in what he does. But -when it's a missionary, the Exeter Hall crew insist on war." - -Slade put up the usual Coaster's wish for the future of Exeter Hall. - -"Quite so," said Swizzle-Stick Smith. He got up and limped across to -the doorway and stood there for a minute puffing pale blue smoke into -the dazzle of sunshine. Then he came back again and once more sat on -the earthen floor with his back against a bale. "The boys out there, -both yours and mine, are still harping on the same subject." - -"I didn't make out that the white woman was killed." - -"Nor did I, when I went into the matter further. I was only explaining -what gave me the first interest in the subject, because if there had -been a she-missionary killed, all the bush would know that meant war, -and they would slaughter every white man they came across out of sheer -light-heartedness. No, if that had happened, you would not have seen -me here. I should have lit out for the Coast, one-time. But I -presently found that the white woman had not been killed, but that she -was a someone who seemed to puzzle my boys exceedingly. There seemed -to be heap-too-much ju-ju about her. She did things no one else could -tackle." - -"Sort of champion lady weight-lifter? Boy, fill Mr. Smith's pipe and -bring him fire." - -"You know that Kroo word, Oomsha, that means Sultana or -woman-above-a-headman, or something like that?" - -"I heard a tale of an Oomsha once somewhere up Sokoto way. She's been -head wife of an Emir, and when he died she killed all the heirs and ran -the town herself. I thought it meant more witch or conjurer. It's a -ju-ju word." - -"Well, I won't quarrel with you over etymology, and we seem to agree -enough on the definition for practical purposes. Now, my boys said -that this white woman was an Oomsha. Did you hear that?" - -"Not I. I tell you I thought it was Laura they were gassing about, and -I didn't trouble myself to inquire more deeply." - -"Dash it," said the old man fiercely, "do rouse up and interest -yourself in something. What the deuce has a white sultana got to do -messing around the Coast factories, especially O'Neill and Craven's? -And let me tell that's what's happening." - -"Is the mythical lady setting everybody by the ears and preparing for a -holy something?" - -"That's the maddening part of it. They all seem to like her. She's -stirring up everybody, she's upsetting your factory and mine, she's -dragged the man with the red head in adoration to her feet and then -spurned him from her, and she's even captured the warm and profane -Cappie Image as one of her servitors." - -"Poof! blarney old Image! Now, that proves you've got onto a fairy -tale." - -Mr. Smith thumped an emphatic fist on the hard stamped floor beside -him. "I tell you I have not. The bush telegraph never lies. You may -misunderstand it, but if you take time and trouble, and dig deep -enough, you'll always come to the truth of things. As sure as we are -sweating in this bush village here, there's a white woman on the Coast -turning all the business there upside down." - -"I've got it," said Slade. "K. O'Neill's tired of having all his -bright ideas comfortably shelved by you and me, and so his new happy -thought is to send his fascinating typewriter out to hand instructions -over in person, and wait till they're put through. Your Carter and my -Laura would be just the sort of enthusiastic young people to fall in -with a scheme like that. But I must say the conquest of Image beats -me. It would take a heap more than a hen typewriter to tame Cappie -Image-me-lad." - -"Yes, I thought of all that, but there's one blessed thing that upsets -it completely. The Oomsha is making headquarters at the Dutch factory -at Mokki, and building a fort there. Now, play on that." - -"Weather too hot," said Slade. "Whe-ew! I wish the breeze would come." - -"Dash it, man, think! A white woman building a fort up at Mokki." - -"Sounds buccaneerish, or I'll tell you what, German." Slade sat up -with a sudden spurt of unaccustomed energy and ran the perspiration off -his face with a forefinger. "By gad! I didn't think of that, but -picture the joys of having a beastly German in at the back of us, with -a Government subsidy, and a price-cutting apparatus all complete." - -"Yes," said Swizzle-Stick Smith grimly, "and also picture to yourself -the eminently British Captain Image yielding to the soft blandishments -of a German Frau. He'd as soon think of making himself amiable to a -gorilla. No, that theory's wrong. The thing stumps me, and I'm sure -if it's too big for me, it's outside your size." - -"Quite so," said Slade, who had dropped back into his normal slackness -after the spurt of energy. Then he screwed up his eyes tightly as the -hot air was split with a succession of piercing yells and screeches. - -"Good Lord, what's that?" the old man called out. - -"Some poor brute of a farmer, who's been working on his cassava ground, -being pulled down by a leopard. There, don't get up; you can't do -anything. Don't you hear he's quiet now, which means 'palaver set' as -far as the farmer is concerned. That will make the rest of his -agricultural neighbors careful for the next twenty-four hours, and go -to their work in pairs, and take their spears. At the end of -twenty-four hours their massive memories will fail them and they'll -stroll out alone just as the spirit moves them, and someone else will -be chopped. Those squeals used to make one feel rather sick at first, -and one was apt to get excited and rush out with a gun. But it never -did any good. Spotted Dick always prefers to dine in privacy and drags -his mutton back into the bush. I can imagine," Slade added with a -faint laugh, "that an energetic man who was a bit of a sportsman would -find this place pretty exasperating. Thanks to these careless animals -of villagers ground-baiting the creatures to the extent they have done, -there's the best stocked leopard-cover in Africa round here, but you -simply can't get them up to the gun. I've tried sitting up for them -over a kill, I've tried stalking, and always got nothing. I risked a -drive one day and the leopard chopped a couple of beaters. It would be -exasperating to an energetic man, but thank goodness I'm not that, and -so I've simply taken things as they came." - -"H'm," said Smith thoughtfully. "When we walked in here I noticed I -limped on one side and you limped on the other. We sort of jabbed at -one another, in and out. Now, limping is a new accomplishment for you. -Have you been interviewing a leopard personally?'"' - -Slade's sallow face flushed a little. "Well, you see, a son of the -headman here took it into his silly head to get in a leopard's way one -day, and I knew the old chap was awfully fond of the lad. So I just -retrieved him, and we both got a bit clawed in the process. But it was -purely a matter of business for K. O'Neill. The old goat of a headman -wouldn't listen to any suggestion for buying rubber lands before. Dash -it all, Smith, I am slack, I know, but I do try and put in a bit of -work for the firm in return for my pay sometimes." - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -AGAIN PRESENTS THE HEAD OF THE FIRM - -"Fire's the only thing we have to be frightened of for the present," -said Carter, "and this soft, soggy wet timber of which the fort is -built wouldn't burn without a lot of persuasion. Still, all the same I -wish I could think of something that would make it absolutely -fireproof." - -"The ancients," said Miss O'Neill, "used to cover their works with raw -bull's hide to ward off fire arrows. That wise remark comes from some -school-book, but I've forgotten where. Laura can quote?" - -"No," said Laura shortly. - -"Not having bulls," said Carter, "we can't have their hide, but I'll -just let word ooze out that if the Okky-men attack, we'll skin those we -bag and nail up their pelts----" - -"Mr. Carter!" - -"Well, I beg your pardon for being horrible, but I tell you frankly -that if I thought for a moment that a message like that would be -believed, I'd send it in a moment. You know, Miss Head, we're in an -uncommon tight place, and as acting commander-in-chief, I tell you -flatly it will be a case of 'all-in' if it comes to a scrap." - -"Oh, Missy, dem Carter mean he fit for use ju-ju besides guns," -White-Man's-Trouble explained. - -"It couldn't have been put more neatly. We must call in even the -powers of darkness, as far as they'll answer to a whistle, if it comes -to open fighting. But in the meanwhile, as some solemn idiot said in a -text-book, 'preparedness for war is the best insurance for peace,' and -I ask you to observe this tramway which the boys have laid down during -the night. Trouble here was ganger, and I've only had to bang him for -letting the gauge spread in two places." - -"Is it to show sightseers quickly round the works?" Kate asked. - -"No, madam. I shall mount on trucks those two tinpot brass -muzzle-loading signal guns that you bamboozled out of old Image, have -embrasures (if that's the word for holes to shoot through) at all the -corners, and I can rush those guns round to fire at all points of the -compass at a pace that will surprise friend Kwaka, if he is in command -of the enemy. I am pleased to say Kwaka looks for the supernatural -when he is dealing with me, and I make a point of conscience in seeing -that he gets it. I found some sheets of yellow tissue-paper in the -feteesh here, all mottled with black mildew, and they gave me an idea. -I cut out a leopard and pasted him together, and left a hole in him -underneath, and fitted that with a wire carrier and a cotton wool -burner that will hold spirit." - -"What, a fire balloon?" - -"Just that. With a dose of trade gin on the cotton wool, and a match -and a little careful manipulation, we'll have a portent sailing up into -the sky that will astonish the Okky-men's weak nerves in most -disastrous style." - -"You are really a most ingenious person," said Miss O'Neill. "Isn't -he, Laura?" - -"I suppose so," said Laura. - -"It's that blessed Cascaes that's the weak spot in the defence. I -suppose I've the usual West Coast prejudice against Portuguese; you -know even the natives divide creation up into white men, black men, and -Portuguese, and the particular specimen we've taken over here with the -factory just bristles with bad points." - -"I think he's rather nice," said Laura. "You were fighting with him -this morning and I hated to see it." - -"Well," said Carter, judicially, "I shouldn't define it as fighting -exactly, but I'll admit, if you like, that I was kicking him. You see, -Miss Head here has given most strict orders that not more than six -strangers were ever to be admitted into the fort together at one time. -He'd fourteen actually in the feteesh. Now, supposing those gallant -fourteen suddenly produced weapons and held the gate whilst friends -they'd ambushed outside ran across the clearing and rushed us, where'd -we be?" - -"Oh," said Laura, "I'm sorry I interfered if it was Kate's orders you -were carrying out." - -"So, Miss Head, with your permission I'll run up a chimbeque for the -fellow outside the walls." - -"Where did you get that word chimbeque from?" Kate asked. "It's Fiote, -not Oil Rivers talk." - -Carter's brown eyes twinkled. "I say, what a marvel you are to know -things! I bet Laura didn't spot that. Why did I use the word? Well, -we had a Portuguee linguister down at Malla-Nulla who had worked in the -Congo, and he imported that and a lot more Congolese words as part of -his baggage, and we absorbed them. Observe now. Trouble! I say, -Trouble, come in here, and keep away from that sugar bowl in case you -are tempted. Just stand there by the door. Now, tell me. You fit for -savvy what a chimbeque is?" - -The Krooboy's flat nose perceptibly lifted with contempt. "Dem -bushman's word for hut. I fit for learn English on steamah. You can -tell Missy I once was stand-by-at-crane boy on black funnel boat. I no -say chimbeque; I say 'house.'" - -"You fairly overflow with education at times. There, run away outside, -and play again. So you see, Miss Head, if Cascaes runs a sort of extra -feteesh away out in the clearing, he can't land us into much danger -however careless and indiscreet he may be. Of course it will entail a -little extra labor below in handling both produce and trade goods, but -now we've got the fort practically built, I've a lot more boys I can -set free for the ordinary work. Which reminds me that I forgot to ask -if this new boy you've got for butterfly hunter is any better than the -last?" - -"I'm afraid he isn't much. He doesn't tear the net all to bits, but -he's rubbed every specimen fatally before he pinned it into the -collecting box." - -"I was afraid there was friction. I saw White-Man's-Trouble call up -that boy and look into the collecting box when he thought I was safely -siestaing. They had a little excited conversation, and then Trouble -grabbed him by a handful of wool and lammed into him with a chiquot." - -"Ugh," said Kate, "it is very flattering to have Trouble's kind -approval, but I do wish there was not such a local popularity for the -methods of--what shall I say?" - -"Primitive man. They rather grow on one. Perhaps I'm prejudiced in -their favor, though. Even when I was at school I always preferred a -licking to an imposition. By the way, you never showed me the -butterflies you've collected here since you took them out of splints -and pinned them in their case." - -"Then come at once and admire," said Kate, and the pair of them left -the veranda and went into the factory's living room. - -Laura Slade looked after them wistfully. There was something between -these two that she could not fathom, and vaguely feared. At Smooth -River, and on the _M'poso_, their talk had been on the chilliest -details of business, and only the most bare civilities passed beyond. -It had seemed to her then that at any moment a word might bring a -permanent rupture, and she had pleaded with each to accept the other in -a more reasonable spirit. She was engaged to Carter; he kept reminding -her of the tie in twenty different ways each day. She had lived under -the ægis of the O'Neill and Craven firm all her life, and exaggerated -its importance, and she begged Carter not to throw away what was his -livelihood now and what would be hers when she married him. - -Kate, too, was her friend, and together they had been the closest of -confidants. She had known the secret of the firm's "Mr. K. O'Neill" -almost as long as old Crewdson had known it, and she had kept that -secret loyally in spite of the keenest temptation. - -"Kate, I even kept it from George," she had said, and Kate had replied, -"George being Mr. Carter, I suppose?" - -Up to the time that they left the _M'poso_, it seemed hopeless to bring -them even into the most stiff agreement. And then the first morning -she woke up at Mokki, there was Kate in a Madeira chair on the veranda, -with George Carter sitting on the rail beside her, and the pair of them -were laughing and chatting as easily as though they had known one -another a year. - -She had never got what she thought any satisfactory explanation of how -this relief of the tension had been brought about. She asked Carter, -and he said he had arrived at the conclusion he had "merely been a rude -ass," and it was time to be ashamed of himself and try ordinary human -civility. She had attempted to sound Kate, and was merely -congratulated on being engaged to a really nice man. And thereafter -she had watched an intimacy grow between them, in which somehow or -other, in spite of their obviously labored efforts to include her, she -had no part. - -She turned away from the door now, and sat down in one of the veranda -chairs which the thrifty German had made for himself out of a palm-oil -puncheon. Behind her the white man and the white woman talked -butterflies. Before her was Africa, and night. No moon had risen, a -few of the stars were lit. Fireflies blinked in and out at unexpected -places in the velvety blackness, uncannily vanishing when their spasm -of light was over. The night breeze sang gently through the trees and -gave sharpness to the air, and the drone of insects kept to one low -insistent note like the distant murmur of the river. The factory boys, -tired with their merciless work, slept. But from the bush beyond the -clearing there came ever and again a groan, or a roar, or a shriek, as -often as not dimmed to a mere murmur by distance, to keep her aware of -the axiom that Africa never sleeps and always carries pain. - -The land breeze blew strong and her dress was thin. She shivered a -little and called for Carter, as he had taught her, to bring a wrap. -He came running out with it at once and covered her shoulders, as she -was pleased to think, tenderly. He even stopped and talked to her for -a minute or so. Then he said he must go and see Miss Head's last case, -and once more went into the living room. She strained her ears to -listen, and she heard the butterfly talk begin again where it had -broken off. - -They had an alarm that night that the Okky-men were coming. Into the -blank silence of sleep there came the roar of a heavy charge of black -trade powder as a sentry discharged his dew-filled flintlock. The -whites, the Portuguese, and the tired factory boys roused into instant -wakefulness. Their nerves were too nicely set to need a second shaking. - -Laura met Carter in pyjamas as he was in the act of thumping upon her -bedroom door. "Oh, you have got up," he said. "That's good. Well, -don't show a light whilst you dress, and keep under shelter. I must -just wake Miss O'Neill before I go down." - -She put her arms round his neck and pulled him to her and kissed him -violently. "You came for me first then, after all?" - -"You little goose, of course I did. Wives first, employers next. -Here, I must go, or the battle will be over before I'm down. The odds -are those heroes are blazing away at nothing." - -They were. Each black man as he came up to the palisade poked the -muzzle of his gun through a loophole, pulled trigger, and drew comfort -from the din. Presently Carter came up to the breastwork, climbed to -the banquette, and leaned over, and then peered long and hard through -the night. He could see nothing. He got down, and with trouble found -the sentry who had fired first. When he had thumped the man into -calmness, it turned out that he had seen nothing also. He had "thought -ju-ju" and then his gun "lib for shoot by himself." Or in plainer -English, the man had dozed with his hand round his gun lock to keep the -damp from the priming; he had been struck by a nightmare and had pulled -the trigger. He had aimed at nothing. His gun muzzle had been -upright, and he "lib for shoot dem moon." - -Cascaes, the Portuguese, came up with a Winchester under his arm in -time to hear the end of this explanation. "The negro like-a some -noise, eh, senhor?" - -"What about yourself?" asked Carter uncivilly. "Haven't you been -joining in? I suppose you're first cousin to these fellows, anyway." - -Cascaes put a little finger down the muzzle of his rifle, wiped it -round, lit a match, and showed that the finger was clean. - -"Oh, I beg pardon," said Carter. "I thought you were likely to share -in the local revels." - -"Well," said the Portuguese thoughtfully, "I suppose I must count that -an apology. Otherwise I should have shot you. Good-night, senhor." - -Carter waited till the man turned, ran in quickly, and plucked away his -rifle. "And now," said he, "just let us understand one another exactly -before we go any further. I'm standing quite all the risks from -outside that I've any use for just at present. If there's any shooting -to be done amongst ourselves, I prefer to do it myself. So first of -all let's hear your trouble." - -"In the first-a place I am not negro. I am European of blood-a as pure -as your own, an' far-a-more ancient." - -"If the apology I gave you just now doesn't cover that, I'll apologize -some more for calling you a nigger. Furthermore, I didn't know that -you claimed to be a gentleman, not that gentility is any excuse for not -carrying out one's job here on the Coast." - -"Senhor, you are handsome. And I agree with you that here in Africa we -are all-a workmen, and must suffer if the work-a is not well done." - -"Well," said Carter impatiently, "is that the lot? To my simple -British mind your reasons for wanting to shoot me seem pretty thin so -far. I suppose you are mad at my basting you this morning, but if you -think the circumstances out coolly, I'm sure you'll see that we've -women's lives to think of here as well as our own, and by letting the -niggers you were overseeing scamp their work whilst you were dreaming -over a cigarette, you were risking the safety of the fort." - -"Senhor, do you know of what-a I was dreaming?" - -"Private affairs probably, but anyway of something immaterial." - -"Pardon, but I must tell-a you my dreaming. It was of a woman's life I -dreamed." - -Carter laughed shortly. "I think you had better leave it at that. It -sticks in my mind that the three Portuguese ladies in this factory at -Mokki are all officially protected by their lawful husbands, and I -don't want to hear any embarrassing confidences." - -"And may not a Portuguese gentleman, poor-a I grant you, but still of -good blood, give-a his affection to a lady of another race?" - -A moon had lit up in the sky above, and under it Cartels jaw looked of -a sudden more square and grim than usual--at least the other thought -so. His tone, too, changed from banter to something hard. "I decline -to hear another word on the matter. We will confine our dealings with -one another entirely to details of business, if you please, Cascaes, -and leave matters of sentiment alone. Here is your gun. You say you -are a gentleman, and I believe you. That means you won't shoot me from -behind, or when I'm not armed equally with yourself. If the necessity -arrives for a turn-up on level terms, I'm your man. Good-night." - -And so for that night they parted, each very much misunderstanding the -other. Once more the tired sentries yawned at their posts, and the -Europeans of the factory retired to their beds, and the blacks to their -sleeping mats; but sleep for the rest of that hot, damp night was -broken, and no half-hour passed without a cry from some dreamer which -woke restless echoes from his neighbors. - -But with daylight the steady stream of merchandise, which the factory -was beginning to attract, recommenced. The native traders of the -hinterland had their hands full of the stock that had been pouring in -upon them ever since the King of Okky had closed the roads to the old -Coast factories with which they were accustomed to deal, and when the -news spread, as it does spread in that mysterious West Africa, that the -white woman of Mokki bought and sold in spite of the King's teeth, they -were only too ready to back her with their custom. The merchants of -that unknown back country are some of the keenest traders on earth. - -Some came in single canoes through the gloom and odors of uncharted -muddy creeks, trusting to secrecy for safe passage; others joined -forces, and brought armed flotillas of great sixty-man-power dugouts -down the main stream; others clubbed together into caravans, so strong -and so well-defended that even Kallee's truculent raiders dared not -cross the Okky marches to hold them up. So marvellously accurate were -the rumors that had spread up country, that few of these keen merchants -came into Mokki without a grass basket full of spoiled specimens of -butterfly as a "dash" to propitiate the new trading power. - -Every day the influx of merchants increased, till at last more came -than the staff of the factory could deal with, and they camped outside -the fort awaiting their turn to trade. Actually, a small native food -market grew there to supply them. Kate had lowered the price the -factory paid for every commodity, but still the bush merchants sold, -and were only too glad of the chance. Times they felt were troublous; -the shadow of the King of Okky hung over the steaming forests, and they -wished to get what they could in European produce and be gone. At the -Malla-Nulla, the Monk, or the Smooth River factories they would not -have taken such prices; but the King of Okky had closed the roads to -these, and for business purposes they were extinct. Nor would they -have sold at such rates to the Germans when they held Mokki. Keen -business man though he may be, the West African merchant is a creature -of whim; the German he defines as a "bush-Englishman," which is a term -of reproach; he distrusts both him and his goods; and he will not trade -with a German factory on anything like the same terms he will accept -from the Briton, even though the Briton sell him German-made goods. - -"We are doing such a tremendous business," said Carter one day at the -evening meal, "that presently we shall strangle ourselves. We have -used up all our own trade stuff, and we have stripped the Smooth River -factory and Malla-Nulla, and pretty well emptied Burgoyne at Monk -River. I don't know how finances are?" - -"Tight," said Kate. - -"And yet we've got at the very least £8,500 in kernels, palm oil, and -high-grade rubber lying idle here. Moreover, we've tapped an -unexpected vein of ivory. I thought at first that it was some small -king's state reserve, some hoard he'd got buried, under the bed of a -stream perhaps, which he wanted to realize on, and which would soon -come to an end. But it's not that, it's new stuff that's been hunted -within the last three years, and it's been diverted, I really believe, -from the Congo market. It's a splendid line for us, but it will pinch -out very promptly if we once stop buying. I verily believe these -natives can telegraph a piece of commercial news half-way across Africa -in the inside of a week." - -"We are doing splendid business. - -"Of course, we've got the firm's Miss K. O'Neill here on the spot, and -hence the prosperity; but I wish we'd got our Miss K. for just half a -day at the Liverpool end to diagnose that we're starving for a steamer. -The fact is, that greedy old scoundrel Cappie Image-me-lad looks upon -Mokki as his special private preserve, and he doesn't intend to see any -of the other skippers picking up his cargo commission if he can avoid -it." - -"Do you blame him?" said Kate. "I don't. But at the same time I'm -afraid Mokki factory can't wait each time till Captain Image brings the -_M'poso_ on her round trips from Liverpool. However, I sent a canoe -off this morning with a long cable which may ease matters." - -"You sent off a canoe? I don't know how I shall get on without her -crew." - -"Oh, I remembered how shorthanded you are, Mr. Manager, but I've not -piled more work onto you this time. You recollect that tall Haûsa -merchant with the one eye who has been here for the last two days?" - -"Yes, Rotata." - -"I gave him the cable, and an order on Mr. Burgoyne for £15, to be paid -on delivery. Will you O.K. the account?" - -"I guess," said Carter shortly, "that you are boss. But if you'd told -me you wanted to send a cable, I could have arranged it for you." - -Kate looked at him steadily. "Why do you object to my working for -myself, Mr. Carter?" - -"Because I prefer to work for you. I'd work myself to the bone for -you, if you'd let me." - -"Why should you?" - -"Because I--well, it's natural enough, isn't it? If you come to think -of it, I am your paid employee." - -Kate still looked at him with a steady eye. "Of course it is Laura -that you are really working for." - -Carter cleared his throat. "Of course," he said. "Well, if you and -Laura will excuse me, I'll go into the other room now and post up my -books." He got up and walked towards the mess-room door. - -Cascaes, who had been sitting at the other end of the table with the -Portuguese and their wives, got up, and went towards the vacant place. -But Carter turned at the door and called him sharply. "I'm sorry to -interrupt further," he said, "but I want your valuable assistance, Mr. -Cascaes. So come along with me now." - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -EXHIBITS ANTISEPTICS - -The night was hot, and steamy, and still. Even the insect hum was -pitched on a drowsy note. The darkness seemed almost fat in its greasy -heaviness. Two of the sweating factory boys were playing tom-tom on -upturned kerosene cans, and a third was throwing in an erratic obligato -with two pieces of scrap iron for an instrument. And from the river -behind a pair of crocodiles made unpleasant noises with irritating -persistency. Carter thought, too, that above the decay smell of the -factory rubber store, the stable smell of the Krooboys, the -crushed-marigold smell of the river, he could also catch the musky odor -of the crocodiles, and felt vaguely sickened thereby. - -"... Those last-a bags of kernels I have not got-a weighed, senhor. I -was weary, and so I go-a to change and shave for dinner." - -"Why don't you shave in the morning, instead of carrying a chin like a -besom all through the day? I suppose, as usual, you were going to -weigh up those kernels to-morrow?" - -"You are most indulgent, senhor." - -"I am nothing of the kind. Sufficient for the day is the work thereof, -and the man that puts it off till to-morrow gets out of here. Like to -hand in your resignation?" - -"No, senhor, no." - -"Then go and weigh those kernels, one-time. Then come back here and -make up your books. D'ye think I'm going to have my whole machinery of -commerce held up because you want to go and shave, and oil your head, -and put on clean whites and a crimson belly-band and otherwise make -yourself fetching for the benefit of Miss O'Neill?" - -"Miss-a O'Neill?" said the Portuguese in surprise. "I do not care a -banana-skin----" - -"Here, don't try and fill me up," said Carter bluntly. "And don't put -on time. Take a lamp and go out and weigh those kernels, and see you -don't set the shed on fire, and when you're through, and have posted -your books, come out and fetch me. I'm going to smoke a cigar out in -the open." - -"The dew-a is heavy. There is fever about." - -"Take your advice to the devil." - -"Which fever," said Cascaes, "I should have added, if you had-a not -interrupted me--which fever I hope you will get." - -"That's all right. I like you dagos better when you spit venom openly. -Now, you hurry up and go through those kernels, and see you get the -weights right." - -The dew was thick on the grass in the clearing and stood in sleek -greasy drops on all the patches of bare stamped earth. Moon and stars -were all eclipsed. Even the fireflies, although the dark would have -given full value to their manoeuvres, were absent. The unhealthy -phosphorence of rotting dead wood here and there was the only -illumination, except here and there a glow from a window in the factory. - -Carter went out through a gate of the fort and walked up and down with -restless energy. He was wet to the knees with dew; the damp Canary -cigar between his teeth had long since gone out; but he cared for no -small things like these. He kept repeating to himself that "a man must -play the game." "A man must play the game." - -And presently, when the tom-toms and the jangling iron suggested some -tune to his ear, he changed this to a jangle which stated "I could--not -love--thee dear--so much--loved I--not hon--or more." And as the tune -beat out into the hot steamy night, so did the words keep time to them -with irritating repetition. - -Once he stopped and shook a fist at the invisible sky above. "I am -going to marry Laura," he declared, "if she was ten times as black. I -am going to marry her though I know my father will never speak to me -again, and I can't take her home. I am going to marry her though the -heaven's fall. I am going to marry her for one reason that can't be -got over, and that is because I said I would. A man must play the -game. But my God! why did I never guess that Kate was on earth -somewhere?" - -There was an old cotton-wood stump in the clearing, and he stood -against it so thoughtful and still that he became the object of -attention of bats. He hit at them angrily and recommenced his prowl. - -Hour after hour he tramped through the dripping grass, biting against -fate. Cascaes, who did not work unless he was driven, had long since -checked his tally of kernels, and gone to bed. The factory lamps had -one by one gone out. The night noises of the forest that hemmed them -in were in full swing. His thin clothes were sodden with the damp, and -by every law of Africa he was gathering unto himself the seeds of -disease. But still he tramped on, in and out amongst the huts and -litter, wrestling with his misery. - -The thing which in the end lifted him out of this unhealthy pit of -self-pity was commonplace enough in its way. As he was passing a small -rude shelter of boughs and thatch, there came to his ears a very -unmistakable human groan. - -It was a temporary hut run up by some trader who was waiting his turn -to do business at the factory, and the groan was of that timbre which -told that it was wrenched from a strong man by deadly pain. At another -time Carter would probably have passed on. One grows callous to -suffering in West Africa, and to interfere with a sick native seldom -brings thanks and very frequently produces complications. But -something just then moved him to play the Samaritan. - -He put his head through the entrance and peered into the darkness. -"Well," he said, "who's here, and what's the matter?" - -A voice replied in stately Haûsa, "O, Effendi, I am close upon death, -and it is hard to die far from one's own lands and people." - -"Let's have a look at you," said Carter, in what he knew of the same -tongue, eked out with Kroo and Okky. He scraped a damp and reluctant -match. "Holy Christopher! What have you been doing to your thigh?" - -"As I marched along the road to here, a leopard sprang and seized me, -but the men that were with me speared him, and so I escaped with my -life. They made a litter, and on it carried me to this place. And -here they left me in the hands of Allah, whilst they followed up their -own private affairs." - -"But, man, the wound's alive. Why didn't you have it dressed?" - -"It was written that the wound should be as it is." - -"Rot. You stay here another ten minutes or so till I get the tackle, -and then I will clean it out for you." - -"Effendi, it is written that Allah sent the things that are in the -wound, and with due submission I will not have them touched." - -"Hum," said Carter, "now this requires argument. You savvy -Constantinople? I mean I'Stamboul?" - -"There lives the Kaleef, the chief of the Faithful of Islam." - -"You've got it in once. Now, are you keeping yourself posted in the -Sultan's--that is the Kaleef's latest readings of the Koran? You are -not. I can see you have let yourself get thoroughly behind the times. -What's your name?" - -"Ali ben Hossein." - -"Well, Ali, I know what's the matter with you spiritually. You've been -thinking too much of the things of this life--fighting, trading and so -on. You've spread your mat and faced Mecca, and said your daily prayer -in a formal sort of way, but you've been neglecting the moolah. You -have been lax in your attendance at mosque, and for a fiver you aren't -half the man at the Koran you used to be." - -"The Effendi is very wise." - -"I am. I can't help it." - -"He has hit upon this Believer's sin." - -"Dead on the spot. So now let's get to the point. In your ignorance, -you believe that Allah sent all those crawling horrors that are in your -wound?" - -"For His own wise purposes He sent them. Allah can do no wrong." - -"You are mixing up theological facts. Allah can do no wrong. But what -about Sheitan?" - -"I spit upon his name, O Effendi," said Ali ben Hossein, and did it. - -"Hear now then the pronouncement of the Kaleef Abdul Hamed of -I'Stamboul. The unclean things that haunt the wounds of the Faithful -are no longer sent by Allah as a test of Faith. They are sent now by -Sheitan as a torment to True Believers, and as an antidote, the -Prophet, through the Kaleef, has sent a liquid of his own devising, of -which by a happy chance I have a portion in the factory." - -"Is it green in color?" - -"Green as the skirts of the houris of Paradise," said Carter, and -thanked heaven for a small parcel of aniline dyes (green amongst them) -which had been sent by an enterprising Bradford dyeware merchant, to -the order of a dyer in far off Kano. - -"Then," said Ali ben Hossein simply, "if you, O Effendi, can relieve me -from the torments of Sheitan, from which I am suffering, I and my sons -will remember your name in the fullest gratitude. Have you the holy -liquid here?" - -"Not in my pocket, O Ali ben Hossein, for I am not a djinn. But there -is a medicine chest up at the factory, and within it is a bottle of -crystal, blue in color, in which are tabloids which bear the giaour -name of perchloride of mercury. They and the aniline green may take a -bit of finding, but presently when I've got a solution made, and tinted -to a True Believer's taste, I will return here and work upon you that -cure of which I am sure that the Kaleef Abdul would approve if he'd a -thigh as bad as yours, and had ever heard of an antiseptic dressing. -So see to it that you don't slip through the gates of Paradise whilst I -am gone. D'you understand? The houris won't look twice at a Haûsa -with a leg as worm-eaten as yours." - -Now, Carter gathered from a casual inspection by two damp matches that -ben Hossein's thigh was pretty bad, but he had not made allowance for -the toughness of a water-drinking, spare-eating Moslem. When he came -back with a parrafin lamp, followed by White-Man's-Trouble, who carried -a bowl of warm water and other things, and commenced his amateur -surgery, he was amazed, and he was sickened. Like most traders in the -West Coast factories, he had acquired through almost daily practice a -certain deftness in cleansing and repairing wounds; but here in the -thigh of this great muscular Haûsa was a grid of gashes whose untended -horrors went far beyond all his previous experience. - -The fact that the man had not bled to death, or died of shock at the -first impact, and the further fact that he had withstood the attacks of -all the abominable live things that preyed thereafter upon his open -flesh, were a wonderful testimonial to his constitutional toughness; -and the detail that in spite of his fortitude he went clammy and limp -when Carter commenced dressing the wounds, was only what could be -expected. But it seemed that five days had elapsed since the man had -been brought in and left, and during that time the other merchants -outside the fort, with the ordinary callousness of Africans for one -another, had neither brought him food nor reported his calamity. On -the other hand, they had stolen his goods and gone their ways, -otherwise non-interferent. And as a consequence the man was three -parts starved when Carter found him and had his vitality perilously -lowered. - -Carter had, perhaps, as has been stated, much of the West Coast -trader's callousness for the native, but he certainly had all of the -surgeon's interest in a patient. After he had dressed the wounds he -tried his best to bring his patient back to consciousness, and then for -the first time only did he realize how near to the Borderland the man -had crept. He sent White-Man's-Trouble flying this way and that on his -errands, and with all the limited knowledge in his power fought Death -for the Haûsa's life till the fatal hour of dawn was well past. - -And so he was found by Miss O'Neill at 5 A.M., white, shaken and -black-eyed, attired in stained and sodden clothes, squatting in a -miserable hutch that reeked of iodoform, and welcoming with joy Ali ben -Hossein's ungracious return to a world he had so nearly left. - -Miss O'Neill regarded him for awhile with a pinched lip, and then "I -think you are perfectly disgraceful," said she. "At least you might -have let me know what you were doing, so that I could have come to help -part of the time." - -Carter blinked at her for a moment with tired brown eyes and then -pulled himself together. "I beg your pardon for not doing as you -wished. But I didn't know that you were interested in niggers, if -there was no chance of making a dividend out of them. I rather looked -upon this as an out-of-office-hours job; as a piece of private -amusement of my own, in fact, and so I did not dare to repeat it." - -"Well," said Kate, seating herself beside the sick man, "perhaps I was -hateful to you after supper, indeed I'll admit that I was. But you are -being far more hateful to me now, and as that should tickle your vanity -as a man, perhaps you'll be generous enough to call it quits. Trouble, -will you kindly take Mr. Carter back to the factory and give him a -large dose of quinine and all the hot, scalding tea he will drink, and -then put him to bed, and see to it that there are no insects inside his -mosquito bar." - -"I fit," said the Krooboy. "An' I got bottle of White man's medicine -dat I pinch from dem Cappie Image. I give dem Carter a drink of him." - -"You will do nothing of the sort. Dem Cappie Image patent medicine -plenty bad ju-ju for Mr. Carter. So you will do exactly as I ordered -you. Ah, and here's Laura. Now, my dear, if you don't want the man to -whom you're engaged to die before you marry him, you'd better look -after him and his health very narrowly. There, get away out of this, -the pair of you, and make up your silly quarrel, whatever it may be." - -"But, Kate, George and I have no quarrel. Why, it was you----" - -"If you haven't a quarrel, my dear, invent one, if it's only for the -amusement of making it up. I'm told it's one of the chief luxuries of -an engagement. Now, please go, or you'll disturb Hossein. Hossein's -the man who wants attention here, and I can't have you bothering about -the place till he's better." - -Hossein was in fact the lucky man. Miss O'Neill, for reasons best -known to herself, nursed him in person; Carter retained his interest as -original discoverer; White-Man's-Trouble fussed round him because it -was the popular thing to do, and Laura was also diligent in her -attendance on the sick room for reasons well-known to herself. - -But Ali ben Hossein had all a Moslem gentleman's diffidence with women, -and he said little enough to either Laura or Kate; the Krooboy was his -caste inferior, and he spoke to him only to give curt orders; and it -was to Carter alone that he was communicative. - -His native tongue was Haûsa, of course, but he had been a trader all -his life, and that in West Africa entails a knowledge of languages. -Carter knew little enough of Haûsa, but he was handy with Okky and -sound on Kroo, and so when one vocabulary failed him, he passed on to -another, and was generally understood. Thus, by very rapid degrees an -intimacy grew between them, to as far an extent as the color barrier -would permit. - -They talked on weapons and they talked on war; they talked of sport as -each of them understood it; they talked on horse-breeding as it was -practised in Kano and Sokoto, and also of horse-breeding as it was -carried on in the Craven district and the Yorkshire dales. - -Carter tried without any success whatever to make Hossein understand -the humor of the battle of the roses as it was waged between his father -and mother in the Yorkshire vicarage; the Haûsa in his turn gave the -light side of a slave-hunting raid, and made Carter's flesh creep. - -They had abundant interests in common, too, in the romance of commerce, -and discussed regretfully the decay of ivory and the sensational rise -of rubber. Carter as the paid servant of O'Neill and Craven tried to -hear of rubber lands which could be bought and resold to an English -company, but Ali ben Hossein was emphatic in his refusal to help a -white immigration onto the acres of his fatherland. - -"Let us talk as traders, oh Effendi. Do not ask me to be the traitor -who will make smooth the path for the invader. And for the present I -bid you to consider this shortage in the supply of pink kola nuts. -Now, the white kola nuts, which have not that dryness which is demanded -by the palates of the Western Soudan, we can get from Lagos and the -Coast factories in larger quantities than ever. But the growers -declare the crop of pink nuts to be practically a failure this year, -and therein I say they lie." - -And so on, with matter which had too technical a flavor to carry -general interest. - -Now, the leopard had clawed Ali ben Hossein's thigh grievously, and the -subsequent neglect of the wound had been abominable, but the man had -been a clean liver and his toughness was great. In ten days he could -hobble, and in a fortnight announced his departure. - -"I am a merchant without merchandise, Effendi, and must needs be back -about my affairs. If I do not gather them into my hands again another -will." - -"I'd stand you tick to the extent of a dozen loads of goods if I had -'em," said Carter cordially, "but as you've seen for yourself, the -factory's cleaned out. And Allah knows when the next steamer will -drive in." - -"May your tribe increase, Effendi. I have had too much at your hands -already. But though no money may pass over what you have done, yet I -ask you to accept a gift, that is a mere token." - -It was a piece of gray stone which sprouted with rich brown crystals. -It was shaped like a squat duck, some inch and a half long, and Ali ben -Hossein wore it alongside the little leather parcel which held a verse -of the Koran and hung by a thong from his neck. - -"O Effendi, you are young, and that will bring you pleasure more than -could be bought with ten quills of gold. Wear that, and your grief -will fade." - -"Poof!" said Carter, "I've no griefs." - -Ali ben Hossein waved aside the statement with a long slim hand, the -hand of the Haûsa swordsman for whose narrow grip Central African -armorers make sword hilts that no grown Englishman can use. "O -Effendi, my sickness was of the leg. Neither my eyes nor my ears were -touched by the leopard, and since I lay here I have both seen and -heard. There is a woman that I have watched, a woman with brown hair -that has in it the glint of copper. She flaunts you now, as is the way -of women with those they love; but she is the one you desire, and -presently (having this charm) you will take her to wife. Indeed, she -will come to your house without purchase and of free will." - -"You mistake," said Carter with a sigh. "It is the black-haired one -that I am contracted to marry." - -Ben Hossein smiled. He was not to be turned from his idea by a small -argument like that. "You may take her as the lesser wife, but I know -who will rule your harem, Effendi." - -"You polygamous old scoundrel! I beg your pardon, ben Hossein, but -you're on the wrong tack, and so please let us change the subject. -This charm, this duck, is made of what we call tin-stone. Does it come -from Haûsaland?" - -"No, Effendi. It is found nearer to here than the Haûsa country. -There is a great island of red twisted stone that rears itself up out -of the bush, and this stone that the duck is made of lies amongst it. -There is no value in the charm as a stone, but only value in its shape, -which is that of a duck as you see, Effendi. Half the twisted mountain -is made of that stone, and the river that runs along its base at times -eats into it." - -"How far is it from here?" - -"Twelve--no, thirteen marches. Look, I will spread this sand upon the -floor and draw you the roads.... But the country is evil, Effendi, and -though you go there and spend a lifetime in search, yet will you not -find another stone formed like a duck. To get this, my grandfather -sent a hundred slaves who raked amongst the screes for a year." - -"This is tin-ore," said Carter, "and I tell you frankly, ben Hossein, -that there is a fortune in what you have told me." - -"I wish," said ben Hossein gravely, "that there were ten fortunes, and -so I could perhaps repay one-tithe of what I owe to you, Effendi. May -Allah be with you. I go now back towards my people, and if Allah will, -we shall meet again." - -"Now, this stone and this tale must go to Kate," said Carter to -himself, and went in towards the factory and up the stairs to the -veranda. Kate came out of the mess room to meet him, and waved a -cablegram. - -"I have just de-coded it," she cried exultingly. "They have accepted -my terms." - -"I wish you would de-code the 'they.'" - -"The German firm that owned Mokki before we came." - -"What, the people you bought it from?" - -She nodded. - -"But why on earth sell it back to them?" - -"Because, my dear Mr. Carter, they are going to give me £9,000 for the -produce we have collected, and another £8,000 for the fort and the -good-will of the business. How's that? £17,000 cash against a £1,500 -outlay in three months. That's better than staying out here in West -Africa." - -Carter had been carrying the duck in his hand. He put it into his -pocket. "I don't wonder you're exultant. I suppose no other girl on -earth ever made a coup like that. And as for us here at the factory, -that means our occupation's gone?" - -"Oh, I hope you'll go back to Malla-Nulla, where you were, and work for -us there." - -"I think not. As you're going home, and I cannot be of any immediate -use to O'Neill and Craven, I prefer to leave the firm's employ if -you'll let me?" - -"We shall be really sorry to lose you. But perhaps you have something -better in view?" - -"To tell the truth, I have. And it strikes me if I'm to make a -fortune, I must look out for it myself." - -"I quite agree with you," said Kate. "What was that you were going to -show me? The thing you put in your pocket, I mean?" - -"A keepsake that was given me. It's a charm, a ju-ju that will bring -fortune to somebody, and I was going to give it to you. But on your -own recommendation I shall keep it for myself." - -"You are quite right. It will be safer for us to go our own several -ways from here." - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -AT THE LIVERPOOL END - -Now, Godfrey O'Neill, deceased, was a man who at various times in his -life had extracted from West Africa very considerable sums of money. -He was shrewd, he was popular, he had the knack of resisting sickly -climates, and he knew the possibilities of the Oil Rivers seaboard down -to the last bag of kernels. - -According to his own account he had started life as a ship's purser. -People who were more fond of accuracy mentioned that as a matter of -history he had first gone as cabin-boy in a palm oil brig. But be that -as it may, he had been associated with the Coast from his earliest -days, and at the age of five-and-twenty was trading there on his own -account. - -At first he stuck to an old trading hulk with moorings in the muddy -Monk River and battled with its swarms of cockroaches and got together -a business; but by degrees he gained the confidence of the native -riparian magnates, and by the time he was thirty he had built on piles -a fine set of factory buildings on the bank, had bought a treaty with -the then King of Okky, and had built another factory at Malla-Nulla in -spite of the fact that the beach there was one of the most surf-smitten -on the Coast. After that he felt that his Liverpool correspondents -were getting more than their due share of his hard-wrung profits, and -so he put the Coast factories under managers and came back to the -Mersey. And thereafter, with occasional visits to the Coast and the -Islands, he made Liverpool his headquarters. - -He had an office in Water Street, a warehouse near Huskisson Dock, and -a house furnished with mid-Victorian solidity and ugliness out at -Princes' Park. A sister, Mrs. Craven, whose unsatisfactory husband had -conveniently died on the Coast, kept house for him, and as she voted -marriage a failure, Godfrey professed himself as quite ready to take -her verdict and was not anxious to dabble in dangerous experiments. - -Finally, as Godfrey O'Neill discovered, after a two years' trial of the -style of living that suited him at Princes' Park, that it cost him just -£900 a year, he saw very little use in bestirring himself to earn more. -He quite admitted that there were other luxuries in the world that he -did not indulge in. He might have kept horses, for instance; but he -happened to dislike them. He might have had a French chef; only plain -roast beef and plain roast mutton appealed more to his appetite, and a -plain British cook at £20 a year produced these exactly to his taste. -He might have had a larger house, but frankly he did not want one. - -So he went down to the office in Water Street every other day, and -ceased to stir the business there when it showed any signs of averaging -a more than £1,500 profit for any one year, not because he objected to -additional wealth, but because he far preferred to play whist to -pursuing money. One may here own freely that Godfrey O'Neill was an -active member of no less than five whist quartettes which met at clubs -and houses, and there was the amusement which after long search he had -discovered pleased him best. - -In the comfortable ugly house in Princes' Park, besides Godfrey and -Mrs. Craven, and the two servants, there was a child who afterwards -developed into the Kate O'Neill of these memoirs. Godfrey O'Neill -brought her home on the last visit he made to West Africa. She was -then aged, at a theoretical reckoning, three years, and she was more -fluent in the Okky tongue than in English. She had never worn shoes -till Godfrey bought her a pair in Las Palmas on the voyage home. - -"Is she white?" Mrs. Craven had asked. - -"White, clean through," Godfrey had assured her. - -"Then who are her people?" - -"That I shall not tell even you. Her mother is dead. Her father has -gone under. He was a very clever man once, though I must say he used -to be more high and mighty than I cared about on the rare occasions -that I met him. But, as I say, he's gone under, hopelessly." - -"And presently," said Mrs. Craven, "when we get this little wild thing -tamed, and clothed, and teach her to speak English and go to church, up -will come some drunken reprobate to take her away again." - -"No, he won't. I've fixed that. He'll never claim her again. To -start with he doesn't know if she's in England, or Canada, or Grand -Canary. I even changed the name he called her by. I called her Kate -from the day I left him, and had her christened by that name in Sierra -Leone on the off chance she hadn't been christened before. And to go -on with, he gave me his word of honor that if I took her away, he'd -never embarrass me by inquiring for her again. You see, he was living -as a native, and the child was running about with the other -pickaninnies in the village, and I guess I made him pretty well ashamed -of himself by what I said. The mother's dead, you know." - -"Poof," said Mrs. Craven, "he promised you, did he? And what do you -suppose the word of a man like that is worth?" (The late Craven had, -it will be remembered, his strong failings.) - -"Ninety-nine beach combers out of a hundred will lie as soon as look at -you," Godfrey owned. "This one is the exception. He will keep his -word, at any rate on this matter. He's just as proud as a king." - -"Between drinks," suggested the widow. - -"He's more objectionably proud drunk than sober. He always quotes -Latin at one when he's full, and then says, 'Ah, but you've not been to -school anywhere, so you'll not understand that.' You needn't be -frightened he'll call here, Jane. Just remember I'm a man with a taste -for ease myself. If I'd thought there was the smallest chance of being -bothered with him, I shouldn't have saddled myself with the kid." - -"Well," said Mrs. Craven, "as you have brought her, I suppose we must -do the best we can for her. The average orphanage doesn't take them -till they are six, but I suppose if we hunt round we can find some sort -of institution which will accept three-year-olds." - -"Orphanage, h'm. You see, Jane, I was thinking we might keep her -ourselves. I am sure we could look after her." - -"I object to the word 'we,'" said Mrs. Craven dryly. - -"Oh, I suppose most of the work would fall on your shoulders." - -"I am sure of it." - -"Come along, old lady, don't you think you can manage it? Kitty isn't -a bad sort of kid. Y'know, I saw a goodish deal of her on the steamer -coming home." - -"I thought you gave her in charge of a steward?" - -"I never told you that." - -Mrs. Craven laughed. "You see, I know your little ways--'Steward, -here's a girl for you. If you nursery-maid the kid nicely till we get -to Liverpool, and don't let me see more of her than I want, and don't -let her come in and prattle when I'm playing whist with Captain Image, -there'll be another quid for you when we land. After that my sister -will take her over, and she won't want a tip at all.'" - -"H'm," said Godfrey, "now, diamonds aren't in your line." - -"I wouldn't be seen with one. I'll take a brown cloth gown, please." - -"Shall I order it?" - -"No, you can pay the bill." - -"Right-o. Then you will take Kitty and bring her up here?" - -"You stupid goose," said Mrs. Craven, "I intended that from the moment -I saw her. Cook's out buying her a cot this minute." - - * * * * * - -Here then was the way that Kate first came into the house at Princes' -Park. She arrived without a surname, and Godfrey, in spite of hints -and plain questions, kept back any further pedigree. The child -arranged a name for herself. When she had been a year in England she -went out to a small folks' party: - -"Let me see, what's your name?" asked the hostess, who had got tangled -up among her many small guests. - -The child had answered "Kate O'Neill," as a matter of course. She had -called Mrs. Craven, Aunt Jane, and her brother Uncle Godfrey from the -first, and after that juvenile party she was introduced as "my niece, -Kate O'Neill." - -As she grew, anything to do with West Africa and with business -fascinated her, and curiously enough her principal instructor in these -matters was Mrs. Craven. Godfrey, honest man, was not going to be -bothered. His repartee when Kate asked him anything about the Coast -was, "Go and invite some one to come in and let's make up a rubber of -whist." When one day he died, and left Kate the O'Neill and Craven -business, both she and her aunt supposed he had done it as an effort of -humor. - -Mrs. Craven had the house and furniture at Princes' Park, and a -comfortable annuity to keep it up on. Kate came into a business that -had been thoroughly neglected, and allowed to run down till it was in a -very shaky position, indeed, financially. - -"Sell it," said Mrs. Craven, "for what it will fetch." - -"I'd rather run it myself," said Kate. - -"Rubbish," said her aunt; "you're twenty, and the world's before you to -enjoy. Besides, my dear, you're sure to marry. Sell the business." - -"If you want plain facts, aunt, I don't see why anyone should give -sixpence for it, and if we tried to wind it up, it would mean -bankruptcy. Some of the money's a very long way out." - -"Your poor Uncle Godfrey intended to leave you comfortably off, I know." - -"And I'm pleased to think he died believing he had done so. They had -the quaintest way of keeping books down at Water Street. Cutting -notches on a tally-stick was nothing to some of their dodges. They -hadn't struck a proper balance sheet for years, and both Uncle Godfrey -and Mr. Crewdson really and honestly imagined that the firm was -flourishing." - -"You sell," said Mrs. Craven. - -"Not I, aunt. Uncle Godfrey left me the concern believing it to be a -small fortune for me, and a fortune I'm going to make out of it, and -not a small one, either." - -"I don't believe in business women," said Mrs. Craven severely. "I'd -rather see a womanly woman." - -"My dear," said Kate, "you shall see the two combined in me presently. -I'm going to make a ve-ry large and extensive fortune; but the moment -you see anything unfeminine about me, I want you to tell me, and I'll -sell out forthwith." - -Thereafter from eight o'clock A.M. to six-thirty P.M. for five days a -week Kate sat in an inner room of the Water Street office, with the -ancient Crewdson as a buffer between her and the world. She came into -the place with a talent for figures, and a good general idea of the -business, and she set herself first to the conversion of Mr. Crewdson. - -That worthy old person was entirely of opinion that what was good -enough for poor Mr. Godfrey was quite good enough for anybody else, and -(when pressed) said so with unfriendly plainness. A man, in Kate's -shoes, would have dismissed him, and brought in younger blood. Kate -preferred conversion. She knew that there was a great quarry of -information on matters West African stowed beneath Mr. Crewdson's dull -exterior, and she intended to dig at it. So she reduced his wages, -which he quite agreed with her the firm could not afford, and then, -unasked, offered him a fine commission on the next year's profits. It -was curious to see how soon she galvanized him into an opinion that -these profits must certainly be forthcoming. - -She laid in a typewriter, burned the office quills, wrote the firm's -letters, signed them _For O'Neill and Craven, K. O'Neill_, and before -she knew it had created a personality. Ten callers a day--captains, -pursers, traders, merchants--wanted to shake hands with "your new head, -Mr. K.," and went away with the idea that old Crewdson had suddenly -developed capacity, and on the strength of it had stood himself a new -signature. - -On Saturdays, during the summer, Miss O'Neill caught butterflies, and -in the winter played golf. On Sunday morning she went to church. On -Sunday afternoons and evenings she had something very nearly -approaching a salon. On these latter occasions Mrs. Craven flattered -herself that she brought success by her artistic attention to the -commissariat. - -Now, the girl was attractive to men, and although she was emphatically -a girl's girl, still she had as many friends of one sex as the other. -She was good-looking, she was amusing, she was always well turned out, -and she carried about with her that indescribable charm (above and -beyond these other matters) which always makes people desirous of -warming up a first acquaintance into intimacy. - -To one man only had she shown any special degree of preference, and he -was enough encouraged thereby to propose marriage to her. - -She accepted him--provisionally. - -"I am not absolutely certain that I wish to be married just yet," she -told him, "but I am going abroad now, and I will let you know -definitely when I return. Those are not nice terms, but they are the -best I can offer. I have always been able to give a 'yes' or 'no' -decision on every other matter in life so far. But here I can't. It -is weak of me. Perhaps it is merely womanly." - -"You are exquisite in your womanliness, as you are exquisite in -everything else," he had replied. "I am grateful for any bone of -comfort you throw me, Kitty dear." - -She was going away then to West Africa, as has been related above, and -the man saw her off from the landing stage. She returned the waving of -his handkerchief. "Now, if you had abused me for my indecision, and -said you would either be engaged or not engaged, I believe I'd have -married you out of hand if you'd wanted me. But you didn't seem able -to clinch things, and so anyhow you're pigeon-holed for the present. -I'm glad I made you keep our little matter secret." - -The man's name was Austin. Many times during the voyage south through -the Bay, and down the Trades from the Islands, Kate told herself she -ought to announce the fact that she was engaged. But on every occasion -her femininity got up in arms. "Certainly not," said this intangible -force. "Mr. Austin is a man, and if he cares to be a man and gossip, -why let him. But a woman by reason of her sex is not called upon to -say more than she needs." So Kate held her tongue, and regretted more -and more every day that--well--that she should have cause for regrets. - -When she got back to England, a day ahead of time, Aunt Jane happened -to be in London, but Austin had a wire from Point Lynas and was there -on the landing stage to meet her. He wanted to kiss her there before -the world, but she had the advantage of height, and avoided him -skilfully and without advertisement. Their subsequent handshake was -somewhat of a failure. - -"Hullo, Henry," said Miss O'Neill, "fancy seeing you here. I suppose -you will try and make out you came down here to the landing stage on -purpose to meet me? How abominably hot Liverpool is, and how -atrociously the Mersey smells after that nice clean Smooth River. Have -you caught me any butterflies? I've brought four cases full home from -the Coast, and I honestly believe I've got two unnamed specimens. If -they turn out new, I shall christen one after myself--something -O'Neillii. There's vanity for you! And now for the Customs House." - -"Is that all you have to say to me, Kitty? I've been just hungry all -the time to see you again. I don't think a single hour of a single day -has passed but what I have thought of you, and where you were, and what -you were doing." - -"Well, Henry, that's more than I could say. Here, wait till I catch -that porter's eye. He's taking my cabin trunk to the wrong heap. -About what was in my head between here and the Coast, I'll not say, but -once out there, I'll tell you frankly I gave little enough thought to -anything except Coast interests. The first place I went ashore at -after Sierra Leone was our own factory at Smooth, and they'd had a -fight there which only ended up when our whistle blew. The clearing -between the factory buildings and the forest was full of dead men. I -found out that no fewer than 800 Okky savages had attacked the place, -and they were all held off by one of our clerks with a couple of -Winchesters, and a half-caste girl who loaded for him. It sounds like -a tale out of a book, and you needn't believe it unless you like; I -don't think I should believe it unless I had seen things for myself, -but I did see the men who had been actually shot when they tried to -rush the place, and I can guarantee the truth of the story." - -"Don't tell me there's a romance between you and your clerk." - -"There wasn't room for one. He was engaged to the heroine already, and -was as consistently rude to me as he knew how. But I don't mind -telling you he was a magnificent fellow. He was a gentleman, too, -which is rather a rare thing to find on the Coast. But you're letting -me do all the talk. You haven't told me about yourself. What have you -been doing?" - -"The usual work of a busy solicitor; getting new clients, and sticking -to the old ones. I can report good, steady success, Kitty. We can -start pretty comfortably." - -A Customs searcher put his usual questions, and Kate smiled on him and -said she had nothing to declare. He scrawled a chalk hieroglyphic on -all her property without opening a single piece. "There, look, Henry, -stop that porter. He's taking a case of mine to the wrong cab. -Thanks, I wouldn't have lost that case for a king's ransom." - -"Butterflies?" - -"No, a native war horn in ivory." - -"Oh, they're fairly common." - -"Yes, but a friend gave me this, and I want to keep it. There, I think -that's the lot. Good-by, Henry. You'll come and see me at Princes' -Park when I'm settled down again?" - -"But, Kitty, can't I drive out with you now? I'd so looked forward to -driving back with you. There's plenty of room in the cab." - -"No," said Kate, "I'd rather you went home now, and thought over again -what I'm like now that I've come back to England with a West Coast -flavor. I know you'll disapprove of me as a possible wife, but I do -hope you'll see your way of keeping me on the list of your friends. -Nobody knows you ever suggested anything more, unless you have told -them, and I don't see why they should know. But I'm more than ever -convinced that I'm not the girl to make you the wife you deserve. -Don't answer me now, there's a nice boy. Just go to the club and have -a good dinner, and ring me up some time this evening and say you -thoroughly agree with me." - -Mrs. Craven came back that evening from London and Kate told her of -West Africa happenings with a fine wealth of detail. - -The old lady looked at her very narrowly and when she had finished, -"Yes, my dear," said she, "and now are you going to tell me something -that will interest me far more than all that?" - -"No, Aunt, I think you have got the pith of it." - -"If you won't tell, you won't. But you must remember, Kitty dear, I -have known you and nursed you ever since you were a tiny child, and you -can't change--as you have done--without my noticing it. Now, this Mr. -Carter----" - -"Yes, I did forget to tell you that he's got frightfully red hair." - -"You say he's engaged to Laura Slade?" - -"Oppressively so." - -"But is he going to marry her?" - -"How can I tell, Aunt?" - -"Who is he going to marry, Kitty dear?" - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -TIN HILL: THE JOURNEY - -Now, lead-mining has been stopped in Upper Wharfedale these thirty -years, but still a boy who has been brought up in a village there may -well have some general knowledge of ores and the methods of getting -them. The mining first began in those dim British days before the -Romans came, and it has continued on down through the centuries till -the influx of foreign lead brought prices below £25 a ton, and the -mines could not be worked at a profit. - -Raw dumps and grass-covered dumps are traceable on every hand, and -though the older tunnels are obliterated, there are still enough shafts -and drifts and adits to be found in the gray stone hills to occupy many -months' exploration. - -George Carter had heard of the past glories of lead from his earliest -years, and old residents pointed to the ruined cottages that were -filled and flourishing when the village held 500 people who lived by -the mines, instead of the 200 who dwelt there now and made a lean -living out of a little limp farming. With pockets stuffed with -candle-ends he had splashed into the old levels and wandered for miles -in the heart of the limestone hills and hacked with rusty pickheads at -forgotten working faces; he had raked amongst the old ruined machinery -beside the dumps; he had studied the run of the water races, and as far -as a man with a natural engineering bent may reconstruct these things -from memorials of the past, he had done so most thoroughly, and, in the -old unscientific way, was as good a miner as any of those blue-gummed -ruffians of the past, and that without even having seen a lead mine in -real work. - -Tin-stone he had seen in a not very well-equipped school museum; a tin -mine he knew only from an old book on Cornwall, which treated that -country more from the picturesque point of view than the mechanical or -the scientific. - -But the thing that had fired his mind one baking day at Malla-Nulla was -a newspaper paragraph which spoke of the price of tin. Up till then, -like the majority of the human race, he had not troubled his head as to -whether tin was £5 a ton or £50. But here he saw that it had gone up -to no less a figure than £207 10s. per ton. He wished he could find a -tin mine, but concluding he might as well search that particular part -of steamy West Africa for great auk's eggs, went no further than -framing the wish. - -Then came the happenings at Mokki, and Ali ben Hossein's parting gift -of the little gray stone duck which had unmistakable brown tin crystals -for its head, its wings and its feet, and on the top of all arrived -Kate's cablegram. A sweating operator had read that message from under -sea, as it winked out in a darkened cable hut; runners had carried the -curt words along roaring beaches, paddlers had borne them by canoe up -muddy creeks, a great bank in far-off Hamburg had pledged the -performance of their promise. A day later the slatternly S.S. _Frau -Pobst_ lurched untidily up the muddy creeks, and commenced to ease the -factory buildings of their overflowing wealth of West African produce. - -Carter itched to be off. It had come to this; he could not trust -himself in Kate's neighborhood. Laura Slade saw, or fancied she saw -how things were, and bravely asked him one day to break their -engagement. - -But Carter drew her down onto the office chair beside him and put an -arm round her and kissed her. "Now," he said, "tell out frankly who it -is that you like better than you like me?" - -"It isn't that, George." - -"Well, as Cascaes is the only alternative, I didn't suppose it was. -Come now, out with it, what's the trouble? I suppose you're just going -to be a woman and tell me it's my fault? I don't agree with you. I'm -the same me as always was--red hair, large feet, and as big an appetite -as the Coast will allow." - -She put her face against his shoulder. "It's Kate, George." - -"You must let me refer to her as Miss O'Neill," said Carter dryly. -"You see, she's my employer--or was--and we're naturally not on -intimate terms-- Well, what's Miss O'Neill got to do with my marrying -you?" - -"She's always been opposed to it." - -"Twaddle! Now, look here, my dear, you've been nervy and upset ever -since that bit of a scrap at Smooth River. Now, haven't you?" - -"I suppose I have." - -"I'm sure of it. And it's not surprising. That was a pretty tough -time for any girl to go through. Well, as I've told you, I've got my -nose onto a fortune that's tucked away up in the bush, and I'm going to -look for it. In the meanwhile, as I managed to screw sixty golden -sovereigns out of that greedy old Balgarnie for curios that he'll sell -for at least a hundred and forty, there's just that amount of cash to -take you on a jaunt to Grand Canary for rose growing." - -"Rose growing?" - -"To put color in your cheeks, then, you pale young person." - -"But I couldn't take the money from you." - -"And pray who has a greater right to take care of you, and prescribe -what's best for you, and look after you generally? D'you think I want -to marry a wife who isn't in the pink of condition?" - -"I like to look nice for you, dear, but I couldn't take that money from -you now of all times." - -"How do you mean?" - -"When you are just going off on some desperate expedition into the -bush, and want every penny that can be scraped together." - -Carter laughed. "There you go, wanting to lead me into temptation. -Wanting me to take money in my pocket to buy (presumably) kid gloves -and fire-escapes in the shops of the bush villages, and spend my nights -in local music halls. Fie on you that will one of these days have to -turn into a thrifty wife! I shall avoid these temptations. I shall -travel as unostentatiously as possible, and so ensure getting through. -I shall take with me White-Man's-Trouble only, if the beggar will -condescend to go and live on native chop, for the best of all possible -reasons that it wouldn't be possible to take a lot of carriers. Can't -you see, my dear, that the choice lies between a three-thousand-pound -expedition, with carriers, and all the rest of it, and going quietly, -and being too obviously poor to rob?" - -"I suppose there is something in that. Father went quietly." - -"Of course he did, and so shall I. Some day, if things pan out as I -hope, I may march up country at the tail end of a brass band, and do -the thing in style; but not to-morrow, thank you. So if you won't take -charge of our superfluous £60 and decorate Grand Canary with it, I'm -hanged if I don't dash it amongst the factory boys here, and have one -flaring jamboree before we part company." - -"Oh, George, you are good!" - -"Don't you fret about my goodness, old lady. I'm a pretty bad fellow -at the bottom, only I try and keep my worst points out of your sight. -Man has to, you know, with the girl he's engaged to. It's only playing -the game. Now, you let me go, and I'll just slip across to the _Frau_ -and blarney her old Dutch skipper into giving you the best room he's -got to fight the cockroaches in." - -It was on a Thursday that the _Frau Pobst_ steamed away back down the -muddy creeks laden with one of the richest cargoes that one single -factory had ever collected in West Africa, and on that same day Carter -set off into the bush. Kate and Laura were to brave the terrors of the -steamer together as far as the Islands, and they found the boat even -more unspeakable than they had imagined her from the outrageous -descriptions of Captain Image and Mr. Balgarnie. - - * * * * * - -Now, as regards the matter of that £60, Carter, to put the matter -bluntly, had lied. With the King of Okky doing what he could to keep -the country side in a ferment, to go up into the bush even with a -strong party, and well provided, was risky. To go with empty pockets, -and with no following, seemed very little short of suicide. - -But Carter refused to see it in this light. "I'm tough," he told -himself, "and I've worked up a certain reputation for ju-ju. If I use -my wits I shall get through, and be successful. I absolutely refuse to -die here in Africa. I've promised to marry Laura, and, let it cost -what it may, I'm going to do it. I must; I've promised; and, besides, -she's absolutely no other prospect before her. But I do wish to -goodness I'd a decent shotgun. I'm no kind of hand with this badly -balanced Winchester." - -So, with a high courage, he addressed himself to departure, and invited -White-Man's-Trouble with the promise of goods, lands, goats, wives, -guns, and the other things that go to make up a Krooboy competency, to -accompany him. It was without surprise that he received a flat refusal. - -"O Carter," said his servant, "I no fit for lib for bush. I got -'nother palaver too-much-important here at factory. Dem headman of -factory boys say to me, 'Sar, you been stand-by-at-crane boy on -steamah? An' I say, 'Sar, I plenty-much-too-good educate.' And he say -to me, 'Sar, you fit for lib here an' take dem job of second headman?' -An' I say to him, 'Sar, I fit.' O Carter, if I lib for bush with you, -an' let Okky-men spear me, an' leopards chop me, I dam fool." - -"You're a cheerful animal. If you think you are more likely to get an -archbishopric by staying here, by all means stay. Hope you'll like the -Dutchmen when they come." - -White-Man's-Trouble crooked a bunch of fingers, and scratched his ribs. -"O Carter, dem Dutchman all-e-same bush-Englishmen?" - -"You've got it in once. I've no doubt they're a most degraded lot." - -"Dem Dutchman he no have as much savvy as an Englishman?" - -"Nowhere near. They wouldn't have chucked up the factory in the first -instance if they had, and in the second no Englishman would have bought -it back again at such an absurd figure as they were fools enough to pay -Missy Kate." - -"O Carter?" - -"Well?" - -"I fit for steal small-small sometimes from Englishmen?" - -"I can guarantee that, you scamp." - -"Then," said White-Man's-Trouble triumphantly, "I fit for steal -plenty-much-big from Dutchman, an' he no savvy." - -"You'll taste abundance of chiquot, my lad." - -The Krooboy snapped a piebald thumb and finger. "I take chiquot from -Englishman, not from bush-Englishman. If he flog me with chiquot, I -put ju-ju on him--" He picked up an empty bottle and handled it -thoughtfully. "Ju-ju, if dem Dutchmen give me chiquot." - -"Of the powdered-glass variety in his morning sausage," said Carter -thoughtfully. "Well, it would be no use warning the poor devils, -because, in the first place, they wouldn't believe me, and in the -second they'd get it all the same. I guess these new colonizers must -worry out the methods of dealing with the natives for themselves, as -their betters did before them. And for myself, I fancy a knapsack will -be the wear. Thank the Lord, I've tramped a good many hundred miles -with one before." - - * * * * * - -Now, Carter was strong, and he carried, moreover, a high courage and a -fierce energy, which even the steamy atmosphere of the West Coast could -not damp. Malaria he had with a certain regular periodicity, but he -was one of those rare men who threw off the attacks with speed, and -suffered little from their after effects. He was essentially moderate -in his habits of life, carrying a healthy hunger but never overeating, -being neither a drunkard nor a teetotaller through fear of drink. -Moreover, he did not abuse quinine, coffee, tobacco or drugs. As a -consequence, in that much-anathematized climate he preserved a very -level health and energy, and owned a normal mind where most men were -either hysterical or morbid. - -He had come ashore at Malla-Nulla, when he first landed on that ugly -beach from the _M'poso_, with two Gladstone bags. One of these had -been looted by some light-fingered merchant of the interior. The other -still remained with him, and had journeyed to Mokki. Its notable tint -of yellow had long since vanished. In places it was mottled black with -mildew, and the rest of the surface was a good mulatto brown. The -fastenings had burst, and been replaced by rope. - -He looked at it with a moment's indecision. It would make a vastly -ugly knapsack--but--it represented one of his few remaining possessions -in the world. (The £60, or, to be precise, the sum of £57 6s. 10d., -which he had forced Laura to carry off, had emptied his purse to the -dregs.) And as he could not make up his mind to desert the bag, he -packed what things he thought essential within its leaky leather sides, -arranged rope beckets for his shoulders, slung it on his back, tucked -the Winchester aforesaid under his arm, and set off down the narrow -forest road which ben Hossein had indicated, without further word of -farewell with anybody. - -The heat of noon had just faded, but the eighteen-inch wide road was -walled in with dense high bush, and the air down in that narrow cut was -breathless and stagnant. When the road curved away from the sun and -the high walls threw a shadow, Carter waited for a moment and panted; -when the sun teemed rays of molten brass directly down on him from -overhead, he hurried; and so moved on at an average gait of three miles -to the hour, which is good travelling for West Africa. - -It is curious how the brain works in these hours of discomfort and -abnormal stress. The one thing that occupied Carter's mind was a -rather good specimen of Okky war horn. It had been of ivory, massive, -well-carved, and with a mouthpiece of more than usual elaboration. In -fact, it was the finest specimen he had come across, and he was a -judge. He had purchased it from its native owner to copy for Mr. -Balgarnie's markets. But he had seen Kate's eye upon it just before -the _Frau Pobst_ took her away, and with the impulse of the moment had -given it to her. She took it at once, and thanked him lightly enough, -and he told himself, forgot it a moment later. A thousand times he -called himself an ass for trying to keep in her memory. What was he, a -factory clerk, to Miss O'Neill? And what, indeed, was Miss O'Neill to -him--an engaged man? - -The bush rustled back at him: "Laura is--well, what you know. Laura's -got a lick of the tar brush. Laura is probably the identical person a -certain reverend gentleman in Upper Wharfedale especially warned you -against. Laura may pass muster in Grand Canary, but she won't do -further North. Fancy Laura in Wharfedale!" Good God, in Wharfedale! -Now he came to think of it, he had never talked to Laura about home, -and the moors, and the grouse, and the roses. - -He laughed noisily at his fancies, and a flock of red and gray parrots -came on to the tree tops above and cawed at him. Well, after all, -there were plenty of Englishmen who lived out of England. He might -initiate a new era. He might be one of the first English colonists who -looked upon West Africa as a home, not a place of exile. He rubbed the -sweat from his face with a long forefinger and plodded on-- Why not? -He seemed to have the knack of health. Why should not he and Laura -become powers in the Oil Rivers? They might well rise to the rule of -cities and territories. - -Then a voice brought him to earth again. Someone hailed him from the -rear. "Carter, O Carter!" - -It was the excellent White-Man's-Trouble, who came up sullen, -frightened and abusive. His cheek-bones were whitened with lime, in -token of some ju-ju charm. He took over the battered Gladstone bag, -and balanced it on the centre plot of his own elaborately shaven -cranium. - -"I no fit for lib at dem factory an' know you carry dem load in dem -dam-fool way," said the Krooboy crustily. - -They pulled up that night at a small terror-shivering village, and -quartered themselves on the headman. He made no secret of his -displeasure at their visit. Carter talked of the glories of Mokki, and -the advantages of having a steady stream of trade pouring through one's -territory. The headman pointed out with peevish annoyance that the -King of Okky frowned upon Mokki in particular and trade in general, and -that the King's displeasure was generally fatal to those on whom it -fell, even though they had the happiness to live beyond his marches. -But in spite of his gloomy reception, he set before his guests a portly -bowl of kanki, when his women had cooked it, and himself ate a pawful -from the calabash as a testimonial to its freedom from poison. - -They spread their sleeping mats that night in the dark hut from which -the headman's fowls had been driven to make room for them, and next -morning Carter collected some wing feathers and some bits of wood, and -made a windmill to amuse the children who swarmed about the compound. -Presently there arrived the headman, who saw the toy spinning in the -breeze, and annexed it. He and White-Man's-Trouble harangued one -another with much noise and gesture, and then there was a bustle in the -village, and the cooking fires burned strongly. The headman's gloom -had dropped from him like a discarded cloth; he wore in its place an -air of oily obsequiousness that showed he could be quite the courtier -upon occasion. - -They breakfasted that morning on no mere kanki. - -"Dem," said White-Man's-Trouble, pointing to the three great bowls, -"dem hen-chop, dem monkey-chop, an' dem dug-chop." - -"Quack-quack dug?" - -"No, bow-wow dug." - -"Ugh!" said Carter, "I'll leave these rich dainties to you and His Nibs -there. Let me have a go at the stewed fowl. Great Christopher! No -wonder rubber's so hard to collect in this country when they use up so -much to make legs for their chickens. Well, thank heaven for sound -teeth and a tough inside!" - -"I tell dem headman," said the Krooboy when they had started their -day's march, "that dem windmill will be fine ju-ju. I say to him, 'You -savvy dem fight at Smooth River factory?' An' he savvy plenty. All -the bush savvy of dem fight. So I tell him me an' you, we keep dem -Okky-men away by ourselves, an' shoot most of them, an' kill more by -dem talking-god. So dem headman savvy we plenty-big ju-ju men, an' we -no fit eat kanki for breakfast." - -"My dear Trouble, your powers of diplomacy are only equalled by your -personal appearance. Keep it up. If your eloquence can carry us -through the country on the free hotel list it will save a lot of -trouble both for us and for everybody else we come near. I like to -think of myself as an adventurous knight exploring the black heart of -Africa, but I suppose in the States they'd call us a pair of hoboes, -and set the watch-dogs at us-- Gee! Look at that!" - -The rifle dropped to Carter's shoulder and cracked. A herd of small -deer were crossing the narrow road ahead of them, and one of them -tripped and fell, and there was payment for their next night's lodging. - -Thirteen days' march Ali ben Hossein had called it to the hill where an -unnamed river scoured the foot of a red-streaked bluff, and Carter, who -was lean and strong and wiry, flattered himself on being able to walk -as well as any Moslem in Haûsaland. But the fact remained that more -than three times thirteen days passed before they reached the place, -and the perils of the way proved many and glaring. In some of the -villages the headmen proved hospitable; in others they would have -neither truck nor dealing with any callers whatever. - -The country was full of war and unrest, and there was no doubt that it -was desperately poor. The cassava grounds were unplanted, the millet -was unsown, the banana gardens were wantonly slashed and ruined. The -small bush farmer is a creature of nerves, and he stands adversity -badly. Put him under a strong over-lord, and he will serve gladly and -efficiently. Leave him to himself, and when things go awry with him -for too many weeks together he is apt to suddenly give up the struggle, -and sit down with chin on his knees, and quietly starve to death. One -cannot reckon far upon the moods of a man who is ridiculously -unenthusiastic over his own life or his neighbors'. - -But at one place they marched in upon red war. - -The village lay amongst its farm lands in a break of the forest, and -the gaps between the houses had been filled with thorns. Shots came -from it at intervals, and were answered by the shots of invisible -marksmen who lay within the edge of the forest. The sun glared high -overhead in a fleckless sky. The air was salt with the smoke of the -crude trade powder. - -White-Man's-Trouble counselled retreat. - -"Yes, that's all right," said Carter irritably. "No one wants to ram -his head into a scrap less than I do. But where the deuce can we go -to? There's been no single branch to this road we've come along, and -the bush on each side is about the thickest in Africa. Nothing short -of a regiment of men with matchets would make a path through it -anywhere. Going back to that last village means getting skewered. All -the way along I've been wondering how on earth we got out of it without -having at least ten spears rammed into each of us." - -"O Carter, I no fit to go get mixed in dem fight palaver." - -"You're so beastly unoriginal. Why go on repeating the same thing? -I'd like further to point out that we've not had a bite to eat for -twenty-four hours, and I personally can't go on living on my own fat -without inconvenience, as you seem to do." - -"No savvy." - -"Well, to translate, I say I plenty-much fit for chop." - -White-Man's-Trouble rubbed the waistband of his trousers tenderly. -"Me, too," he admitted. - -"Then, as there is only starvation and other unpleasant things behind, -I'm going ahead to prospect. Gee! There's somebody on this side with -a rifle. And, by Christopher, there's another rifle in the village -shooting back!" - -The flintlock trade guns roared out at intervals, and every now and -again there came the sharp bark of smokeless powder, and its clean -whop-whop of a bullet from a modern rifle. By careful watching Carter -decided that there was only one rifle on each side, and he further made -out that one was bombarding the other to the exclusion of all lesser -interests. - -Now when a man has hunger gnawing at the inside of his ribs, and knows, -moreover, that any movement in retreat will be fatal, it does not take -much to spur him on to an advance. So Carter went cautiously ahead, -keeping well under the fringe of the cover, and White-Man's-Trouble, -who was copiously afraid, and who muttered evil things under his breath -in Kroo, hung on to the remains of the Gladstone bag and crouched along -at his heels. - -Carter took a step at a time, and was cautious always not to rustle a -leaf or tread on a dead branch. So he pushed his way ahead, and when -the Krooboy, with less dexterity, blundered and made the shadow of a -noise, he turned upon him with such a look of ferocity that it awed -even so cross-grained a person as White-Man's-Trouble. A dozen times -Carter nearly walked on to the heels of one or other of the attacking -force, and as often drew off unnoticed; and at last he made his way to -the place where he had located the rifle fire, and was closing in on it -from behind, when of a sudden he was confronted with a rifle muzzle -which suddenly spirted up from the middle of a clump of bush. - -It swung up till it covered the left side of his chest, and hung steady -there for an appreciable number of seconds, and then a very well-known -voice said, "Well, Mr. Carter, I congratulate you on keeping your nerve -in spite of the climate." - -"Gee!" said Carter under his breath. "That's old Swizzle-Stick Smith." - -"I beg your pardon?" - -"I said I'm sure that's Mr. Smith." - -A bald head, garnished with an eyeglass, shaggy gray hair and a shaggy -beard, came forth. "May I ask what you are doing here? Thrown up your -commission by any chance?" - -"Exactly that." - -"On your own?" - -"Well, sir, starvation's my master at present." - -"Oh, I beg pardon. Go into the mess and order what you'll have. Or -look here, I've shot my man, so I'm free for the moment, and I'll come -with you. Whiskey we're out of, but I can recommend gin and soda. We -looted a sparklet machine, by the way, from the Frenchman." - -They worked cautiously back from the firing line, and came upon a mean -lean-to of boughs and thatch which Mr. Smith referred to as "my -headquarters." As the mess-sergeant happened to be away, Mr. Smith -kindly produced from under the eaves a damp slab of translucent cassava -bread, which was obviously all the place contained in the way of food, -and extracting a square-faced bottle from a green box of trade gin, -poured out half a calabash full, added muddy water from a chattie, and -offered it to his guest. - -"Come to think of it, that's more healthy for you than soda, Mr. -Carter. So you're not up here on O'Neill and Craven's service, you -tell me?" - -"No; handed in my papers, sir. I'm passing through here on urgent -private affairs." - -Mr. Smith put a hand inside his shabby pyjama coat and produced a piece -of new black-watered silk ribbon, on the end of which was an eyeglass. -He screwed this in place, and stared at his guest. - -"Ah, then in that case, Mr. Carter, I shall have to hear more of your -projects before I can give you permission to pass through my territory." - -Carter stiffened. "Your territory? Oh, I remember. You've been -buying up rubber lands, of course, for the firm." - -"As a point of fact, I have not been worrying about the firm very -lately. When I said 'my territory,' I meant exactly that, neither more -nor less. Later I may turn it over to British protection. But -recently it was no man's land, and as that infernal blackguard, the -King of Okky, was after it, I seized it for myself." - -"Hear, hear," said Carter. "As the King of Okky was once indecently -keen on adding my head to his private collection, I can never be really -fond of that man, somehow." - -"Confound your head, sir! That had nothing to do with it. I didn't -quarrel with the man for following out his ordinary African methods. -I'm going for him for letting in the French." - -Carter was clearly puzzled. "What on earth have the French to do with -it?" - -"Exactly what they had to do with all the British West African -colonies. We hold a seaboard, and when the men on the spot try to -consolidate an influence in the hinterland, our Foreign Office promptly -truckles to the Anti-British party at home and tells them to drop it. -The Anti-British party says, 'Oh no, we mustn't make a sphere of -influence there. The Germans want it, or the French have set their -minds on it, or why shouldn't poor dear Portugal have a chance there? -But whatever you do, don't give it to nasty, greedy Great Britain.' -And unless the hand of the Foreign Office is absolutely forced, they -always do as the Anti-Britishers ask. You see the Anti-British party -is noisy and hysterical, and always shrieking that it can command -countless votes." Mr. Smith limped across the hut and sat on a green -case and emphasized his further remarks with a powder-stained -forefinger. - -"Well," he said, "it's an old game with me, and after all the official -kicks I've had I ought to have dropped it years ago. But somehow I -couldn't resist the temptation. The King of Okky is our man by -geography and agreement. I have made representations to the F.O., till -I am sick of putting pen to paper, that he ought to be recognized and -patted on the back. They don't even take the trouble to reply, much -less carry out the suggestions. Therefore the French, who have taken -hold of the hinterland, have done the obvious. They sent down a sort -of fourth-rate tin-pot sous-officier, and told him that if he fixed up -things all right for France they'd give him a commission and a 500 -francs gratuity; and as he'd absolutely no competitors, he naturally -did the trick." - -"What a beastly shame!" Carter blurted out, and then felt surprised at -himself. It was about the first time in his life that the Englishman -that was within him had ever peeped out upon the surface. - -"I know what the man's expedition cost--practically nothing. I saw the -presents he gave old Kallee--£50 would have covered them. And for -that, and a mouthful of empty words, he gets half a million square -miles of territory, and trade of a present value of £100,000, and a -potential value of £750,000, at a low estimate. Well, Mr. Carter, I'm -braver than our F.O. I'm going to buck against the Anti-British party, -and I'm going to see that we keep in our own hands what rightly belongs -to us. I shall be called a pirate, but that doesn't disturb me. I -lost all the reputation I had to lose at this same game years ago. I -was doing my duty here then in West Africa. A smug little beast of a -newspaper man got up in the House of Commons and demanded my dismissal. -He would never have been heard of if he hadn't been consistently -Anti-British on every occasion when the country was in disagreement -with anyone else. But it was his dirty line, and it brought him a -certain disgraceful notoriety, which was what he was after. He could -command votes, or said he could, and the Government believed him. They -didn't care particularly for England; their one interest was keeping -their party in office; and as I was a nuisance, I had to go. It wasn't -a case of being actually broke, you must understand, Mr. Carter, but -they made things so awkward that I had to send in my papers all the -same. They tried the same game with Rhodes, and Curzon, and Milner, -the dirty little curs. They hate a man who tries to uphold Great -Britain's dignity or give her another acre of territory. - -"But here now, thank the Lord, I personally am unofficial, and I'm -doing exactly what I know to be best without fear or favor of anybody." - -"How far does your territory extend, sir?" - -"As far as I can make it," said Mr. Smith dryly. - -"Are you going to let it be developed by the white man?" - -"Assuredly." - -"Then," said Carter, "we shan't clash, and I'm sure you will give me my -passports. I don't know whether the place I am making for is in your -territory or the next king's, but I'm going there purely for purposes -of development. I tell you frankly, I haven't a bit of ambition at -present beyond making a pile. If ever I find myself a rich man I may -take a hand in the thankless game you are on at here. But that's in -the future. In the meanwhile, if the question is not indiscreet, might -one ask if it was a Frenchman you were having that rifle duel with just -now?" - -"The Frenchman's down with fever. I was exchanging shots with a -soldier of fortune who is, I believe, an old acquaintance of yours. -Kwaka his name is." - -"Great Christopher! what a small place West Africa is. Old Kallee sent -Kwaka down to borrow my head for his collection, and after the way I -bamboozled that man I shouldn't have been surprised if he'd been struck -off the Okky army list. Did you--er--make a clean job of him?" - -"Winged only, I think. He kept very well to cover." - -"You were both blazing away for long enough." - -"Well," chuckled Mr. Smith, "I'm afraid he hardly had a fair chance at -me. You see, I'd a boy with a trade gun lying under a log a dozen -yards to my right, and I'd a string from my foot to his trigger. When -I loosed off the Winchester I pulled the other gun too, and Kwaka shot -for the smoke every time, and made very good practice of it. That log -would be worth mining for lead." - -"When you take the place what shall you do with the Frenchman?" - -"Just the same that he would do with me," said the old man grimly. -"Now suppose we change the subject. The bush telegraphs have been -persistently talking about a white woman who's been upsetting the face -of Africa, especially about our factories. Heard anything of her?" - -Carter laughed shortly. "Of course I've heard. In fact, she's why I'm -here. She's Miss Kate O'Neill." - -The old man dropped his eyeglass to the end of its ribbon, fumbled for -it till he caught it again, and three times tried to screw it in place -before he got it fixed. "Kate O'Neill, you say? She'd be about -twenty--no, twenty-three years old?" - -"I'm a bad judge, but I daresay she'd be about that. Why, do you know -her, sir?" - -Mr. Smith straightened himself with an obvious effort. "As I have not -been to England for five-and-twenty years, is it likely? You said she -was English, I think?" - -"As a point of fact, I did not, though presumably she is English. She -was not the late Godfrey O'Neill's real relative. She was adopted, so -I heard. But he left her the business for all that, and she's making -it hum. She's marvellously able. But of course you have seen for -yourself more of her efforts than I have, sir." - -"I have seen them?" - -Carter laughed. "I'm afraid you made the same mistake that everybody -else made, from Slade and old Image. She is the K. O'Neill of the -kindly-buck-up-and-get-it-done letters. She is the Mr. K. that you -chaffed me about at Malla-Nulla for admiring so much as a business man." - -"My God!" said Swizzle-Stick Smith, and sat back limply against the -wall of the hut, and then "My God!" he said again. - -Carter hesitated, and then, "Did you," he ventured, "know Miss Kate's -own people before the late Godfrey took her over?" - -Mr. Smith, with an obvious effort, pulled himself together. "I did, -Mr. Carter. Her mother--she--she died. Her father went under. He had -a pretty trying time of it first, but when the pinch came he went under -most thoroughly. Godfrey O'Neill, good fellow that he was, took the -child then, and so she got her chance, and, thank heaven, she's used -it." - -Carter looked at the old man narrowly. "And is the father alive now?" - -But by this time Mr. Smith was his old cool, profane self again. "How -the devil should I know? Do you think I keep track of all the failures -in Africa? You seem very interested in this young woman yourself. May -I ask if you've any aspirations in that direction?" - -"If you mean have I any wish to marry her, I can answer that best by -telling you that I'm engaged to marry Laura Slade." - -"Ah, I see. Well, Mr. Carter, we will drop the subject, which is a -painful one to me for many reasons. Let us get on to your personal -schemes. In what way can I forward them?" - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -TIN HILL: THE MINE - -Tin Hill, when they got to it, carried riches that lay in full view of -the sky. The mountain of country rock which held the veins reared up -out of the dark green bush, red-streaked and barren, and the last day's -march towards it lay through a heavy growth of rubber vines. Even the -Krooboy could not help noticing these. - -"O Carter," he said, "rubber lib for here. Dem Missy Kate she say -rubber-palaver beat oil-palaver, an' kernels, an' gum, all-e-same -cocked hat." - -"She didn't. Those are my words of wisdom you've got hold of. Still I -admit the sentiments are Miss O'Neill's. But the main thing is, -Trouble, that rubber takes capital and labor to handle, and this firm's -short of both at the moment. We'll leave rubber to Miss O'Neill for -the present." - -"O Carter, dem Missy Kate, she no fit for love you now?" - -"She no fit," said Carter, with a sigh, "because you savvy I fit for do -wife-palaver with dem Miss Laura." - -The last marches of Ali ben Hoosein's road had been little travelled -during these latter months of political upheaval, and this meant that -the ever-growing bush had encroached, and passage was difficult. -Moreover, food was painfully scarce. Swizzle-Stick Smith, out of his -scanty store, had given them what he could, but this was soon eaten, -and once more they had been forced to fall back on that marvellous -thing, the kola nut. But though nibbling kola puts off the desire for -a meal, and makes one able to endure prolonged strains, it does not -fill gaps in the inside. - -Both Carter and the Krooboy were very gaunt, and tattered, and -savage-looking when at last they arrived at the rock and the river; but -the omens seemed to change from that moment. - -To begin with, Carter had a snap-shot at a gazelle and brought it down. -They lit a fire where they were, ate, and felt the blessedness of being -full for the first time for a fortnight. Then, whilst hunting for a -site for a hut, they came across a clump of plantains, wild certainly, -and coarse, but filling enough to men who had long outgrown any -niceties of palate. And at the farther side of the plantains, what -appeared to be a mere cubical mound of greenery disclosed itself upon -inspection to be a house. - -"Ghosts," whimpered White-Man's-Trouble, and shrank back. - -"I hope so," said Carter. "They'd give us local news, anyway, and -might be amusing to talk to. But I never met ghosts outside a -story-book, and I'm afraid there'll be none here. I wonder who lived -on this spot? Stone house, with limed walls three feet six thick, and -a flat cement roof. Inside area--phew! it smells musty--twenty feet by -twelve. No, by Christopher! there's another room on beyond. Storeroom -that--oh, beg pardon, Mr. Snake. My mistake. Good-afternoon!" - -He shot out into the open again by the doorway, and several snakes who -resided in the farther room made exit by the window. - -"When in doubt as to the authorship of any West African monument, one -always puts it down to the early Portuguese," Carter mused, "and we'll -leave it at that for the present. Original occupants have been gone -any time these last two hundred years. Well, if we strip off these -vines and creepers from the outside, and light fires inside to sweeten -the air a bit, we shall have the most palatial quarters. The question -now is whether there is a mine and whether it is worth working." - -But that last point very quickly answered itself. Three great veins of -tin-stone sliced vertically into the mother rock. Two of them were -forty feet wide, the third was sixty. The face ran up at a steep -angle, and a great beer-colored river swilled away at its foot, and -undermined it, and with the help of the sun, kept chattering screes -always cascading down the slope. - -"This isn't a mine," Carter shouted exultantly, "it's a quarry! Bring -a steamer up alongside here, and every man that works could shovel two -hundred sovereigns' worth of ore into her from these dumps each hour -without so much as putting a pick in. Why, the outcrops are scarcely -leached at all. When we've worked twenty yards or so into the veins -I'll rig a temperley transporter and guy it to these rocks above, and -run the stuff straight from where it grew into a steamer's holds. -Great Christopher! Kate had better look out: I'm not going to let her -be the only millionaire on earth." - -"Dem stones with yellow glass on him worth money?" asked -White-Man's-Trouble. - -"Heaps." - -"In Liverpool?" - -"Well, say Swansea or Cardiff; practically the same thing." - -"No worth money here?" - -"I'd sell you a ton for a fill of tobacco." - -"How you get it to coast? You no fit to pay carriers." - -"By water, my pagan friend. We make steamah lib for here." - -"Steamah no fit," said the Krooboy, and spat contemptuously into the -yellow stream. "Dem cappies no savvy way here. Dem ribber no savvy -way to Coast." - -"That's a bit beyond my linguistic powers. You must translate some -more." - -"Dem ribber," the Krooboy explained patiently, "no fit for run to dem -sea." - -"Then where the deuce does it run to? Does a Ju-ju drink it?" - -"Ju-ju no fit for touch dem ribber," said White-Man's-Trouble, taking -the question literally. "But dem ribber run into dem squidge-squidge, -an' lib for die!" - -"Runs into a swamp and gets lost! My great Christopher, the odds are -you're right. But why in the name of thunder didn't you tell me that -before?" - -"I no savvy," said the Krooboy simply, "where you come. O Carter, I -come after you from Mokki because I think you no fit for carry dem bag." - -Carter swung round and picked up White-Man's-Trouble's hand and shook -it heartily. "You've got a very white inside to you," he said. - -But the African was not flattered. He pulled away his limp hand as -soon as it was set free, and rubbed his abdomen nervously. "O Carter, -I no fit for white inside. I no ju-ju boy. I dam common Krooboy." - -Thence onwards there was impressed on Carter's mind these three great -facts--One: He had found a mine of immense potential value. Two: He -could never turn his minerals into cash unless he could find a water -channel down to the Coast. And three: If he couldn't discover that -channel himself no one else would, at any rate for his benefit. - -He thought these matters over during one torrid night, and resolved to -devote the next day to exploration. He had had predecessors on the -place, house building predecessors who had left a series of -rust-streaks which he translated into mining tools. Presumably they -were Europeans. How did they propose to deal with this ore? Smelt it -on the spot, or bag it and get it to the Coast? - -If they were West African Portuguese of the olden time, he was fully -aware that they would be using slave labor for everything, and he tried -to figure out if it was possible, even with slave porters, to carry -concentrates down to the Coast and leave a sufficient margin for -profit. Even with the most liberal estimates he could not make it so, -taking into account the slow-sailing ships, the crude smelting methods, -and the lower prices of the old days. Remained then the passage of the -creek and river channels, and if these old Portuguese had found a -waterway, why, then, so could he. - -So next day he set out to hunt for a quay, or any other traces of -shipping ore, or perhaps some evidences of boat-building, and he -pressed his way through vine and bush, and over crag and scree, till -the scorching heat had drained his lean body of moisture, and his knees -zigzagged beneath him through sheer weakness and weariness. - -Then he made a discovery, and sat down, and for the moment felt faint -and discouraged. - -He had nearly walked in onto the top of a native village. - -He had been going down-wind, or the smoke of their fires would have -warned him earlier. As it was, the bark of a scavenger dog gave him -the first hint of the village's nearness, or he would have descended -onto its roofs. It lay beneath a small bluff, and its houses so -assimilated with the rest of the forest that even close at hand it was -hard to pick out the human dwellings. - -It was the hour of heat, when only Englishmen and dogs (according to -the old libel) are wont to be abroad, and the village slept. Even the -dogs found the heat too great for wakefulness, so that only the -Englishman carried an open eye. But the smell of the place advertised -it as a village of fishers, and a closer scrutiny showed the harvest of -the river, gutted, and strung up upon the stripped boughs of trees to -dry in the outrageous sun-heat. There are always markets for these -dried river fish throughout all West Africa. - -Carter backed into thicker cover, and waited till the sun began once -more to cast a shadow, and the village woke. First the dogs opened -their eyes and began their endless scavengers' prowl. Then the -children came out to play in the dust. Next the women roused to do the -village work. And last of all, the men emerged from the clumps of -bush, which one had to accept as huts, spear-armed all of them, and sat -in the patches of purple shade, and oversaw all, to approve and direct. - -"You lazy hounds," said the Englishman to himself, "I should like to -set you to shoveling ore all day, and signing checks all night for your -women's bonnet bills. But then," he reminded himself with a sigh, -"there are some women these days who insist on working themselves, -however hard you may press your services." - -He reported his find to White-Man's-Trouble on his return to the old -Portuguese house that evening, and that worthy was seized with his -usual tremors. "O Carter," said he, "dem bushmen that live by -fish-palaver fit for be worst kind of bushmen. They come here one day -soon, an' they throw spear till we lib for die, an' they chop us -afterwards. You savvy?" said the Krooboy, with a whimper and a -shudder--"chop us after?" - -"Don't try and work up my feelings over the post-mortem, because you -can't do it. Once dead, what happens to my vile corpse doesn't -interest me. But I don't intend to peg out yet, especially at the -hands of a pack of ignorant cannibals like these. Observe, Trouble. -You have seen me practise ju-ju already?" - -"I fit." - -"And you have been my assistant in the black art?" - -The Krooboy shuddered, but he said sturdily enough, "I fit." - -"Well and good. Then to-morrow we will weave infernal charms over this -pleasing spot, till no mere black man, be he cannibal or be he simple -fisherman, will dare to press his sacrilegious toes upon it." - -A stream of water poured over one part of the cliffs, that Carter -designed hereafter for a power-plant to handle his ores. But in the -meanwhile he turned it to a more immediate use. He cut wide bamboos, -and fitting them into one another, formed a great pipe which would -receive water and air together. With stones, and clay, and grasses he -built a box to receive the air and water, and made a cunningly devised -trap through which the water could escape, but not the air. Then with -more bamboos he built him organ pipes and set the mouths of these in -the box, so that the air should drive through them and blow a dismal -note. And next, with further ingenuity he fashioned a commutating -valve, also worked automatically by the water, which for a time would -shut off the water, and then set it going again to thrill the air with -the notes boo-paa-bumm, in ascending scale, and a minute later to reply -bumm-paa-boo. - -It was all extremely simple when one knew how it was done, and -extremely startling to walk in upon from the depths of a primeval -African forest, and the fishers of the village, when the sounds first -broke in upon their nervous ears, threw themselves down upon the dust, -and waited for the end of the world, which they felt sure was at hand. - -To them then appeared a white man who was clothed from head to foot -with garlands of dark green leaves of the rubber vine, and had on his -head hair which was of the sacred color of red. He was followed by a -Krooboy bearing the blue tribal mark between his brows, and having a -sheaf of feathers stuck above his right ear, where the ordinary -tooth-cleaning stick should have been carried. These explained in -bold, clear tones that they were the chief ju-ju men of all Africa, and -that the portent which was even then _boo-paa-bumm-ing_ behind them was -sent by powers unseen to herald their coming. But they did not -represent the evil, the harmful ju-ju. If only they were treated with -the profound respect which was their due they would be a beneficent -influence, with a special protective eye to that village of fishers. -The catch should increase, the markets widen, and peace should hem in -the roads through which the villagers travelled. - -"But each morning we must have an offering of fresh-caught fish," -White-Man's-Trouble proclaimed, "together with the wood necessary for -their cooking. (O Carter, I no fit for gather cook-wood when I ju-ju -man," he explained to his companion.) - -The scheme took; there was no doubt about that. Never were villagers -so pleased at securing the supernatural protection, which all Africans -desire, at so meagre a cost. Men, women and children, they got up from -the dust, and they slobbered over the Krooboy's toes, and over the -remains of Carter's canvas shoes, and to show their willingness, the -men went down to the marigold-smelling river then and there to procure -the wherewithal to make their initial offering. - -White-Man's-Trouble scratched himself thoughtfully and looked over -those that were left. "O Carter," he said, "I no fit for cook dem food -when I ju-ju man. We take with us two-three, all-e-same slaves, to be -house-boy an' do dem work." - -"No," said Carter shortly, "we shall do nothing of the kind." - -The Krooboy stared. "Why you no fit?" - -"I know what you're after, and I've got my reasons, though you wouldn't -appreciate them. However, I suppose I must invent something that will -appeal to you. If dem bushmen lib for house with us they soon see we -no real ju-ju men, an' they tell their friends. Then their friends -come up some dark night and chop us. Savvy?" - -"O Carter," said White-Man's-Trouble, "you plenty-great man!" - -Now there are two ways of working a mine. One is to sell it to a -limited company which in return for certain concessions kindly puts up -the necessary capital for development; the other way is to find the -capital out of one's own private resources, and annex all the resultant -profits. - -But Carter had a poor opinion of the size of his own share if the first -of these methods were carried out. To begin with, he knew nothing of -company promoting. He would have to employ an expert, who would want -the lion's share of the plunder; and indeed he quite realized that a -tin mine up an unknown river in the territory of no man's land would -take a powerful lot of selling even to that gullible body of -mining-share purchasers of the British public. The more he thought -over the limited company idea, the less chance of profits did he see in -it for himself. And he wanted those profits badly. He had not risked -life and health to study African scenery and customs. - -On the other hand, he was at the moment absolutely penniless. If he -did discover a waterway down to the coast--or rather when he had -discovered that waterway, for he was fully determined to do it--how -much forwarder would he be? What steamer could he charter? None. By -no means could he get one without giving up a large slice of his -precious mine to the man who ran the risk. He did not blame them. He -put himself in the traders' places. If he were running a down-river -factory, and had a launch, and some tattered red-headed fellow came -down out of the back of beyond with a wild tale about a tin mine, and -asked for the loan of the launch, and promised to pay when a cargo was -brought down, and sent to a smelter in England and realized upon, what -would he say to such a preposterous offer? Why, he would laugh at it. -The proposition was not one that any business man would entertain. - -No, he must get some capital, and buy that launch. And then came the -question of where was the capital to come from. - -His father? Well, he was engaged to Laura, and he did not feel like -going near his father. - -Slade?--Smith? Neither of them had a penny. - -O'Neill and Craven? That meant Kate. He started as if he had been -stung at the idea of going to Kate and asking her for money. Kate was -successful, and she could loan it easily. Granted, and if she had been -successful so would he be, and without her help. He shook an angry -fist at Africa. "Curse you, if you've given her a fortune you've got -to give me one too, or I'll take it in spite of you!" - -He had a touch of fever that night, and White-Man's-Trouble plied him -with decoctions of herbs of such appalling nastiness that (in his own -phrase) he decided to get well quickly, merely to avoid the drugs. But -it was a fancy built of that fever which put him on the path of success. - -He imagined that the shades of the old Portuguese, who had built the -strong stone house in those far-off days, came in that night to visit -him. They were miners, too, or metal workers, he could not make out -which, and they strutted about in long patched cotton stockings which -reached to mid-thigh, and a combination garment of thick cloth that -covered all the rest of them. Even in that stifling room, and in that -baking climate, they wore metal helmets and metal body armor, and -Carter wondered how they could go abroad into the sunshine and not be -cooked alive in their shells. - -But he did not content himself for long with this idle observation. -There was a method even in his fevered dreaming. He put the question: -Did they get their stuff down to the Coast on the heads of carriers? -The ghosts laughed at the idea of such a thing. "Why should we go -against our nature? We Portuguese--in the days when we lived, who -speak to you now--we were seamen and rivermen always. So we built -great flat boats and swam our goods down the rivers." - -"Christopher!" said the Englishman, "there's just the tip I've been -waiting for. A sort of raft. By Gee! I'm going to shake hands with -you for bringing the news." - -But in that hospitable attempt he was stopped by the burly -White-Man's-Trouble, who sat on his chest, till he promised to lie -still again. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE KING'S BOUNTY - -A further brilliant idea came to Carter next morning that after all he -and White-Man's-Trouble had been raising difficulties about the river's -navigation that were quite unnecessary. There was a village of natives -close at their door who were river-farers. What was more likely than -that there were many men there who could pilot a canoe through a chain -of creeks till at last they heard the great Atlantic surf roaring on a -river bar? - -White-Man's-Trouble shook his head when he heard the suggestion. "Dem -bushmen savvy nothing," said he contemptuously. - -Upon experiment it proved that he was right. The villagers had -acquired the habit of fishing on the reaches which ran two miles up -stream and two miles down; they had adopted the customs of their -forefathers; no one of them had ever paddled beyond these limits. They -were an incurious people. - -Their canoes were small, and narrow, and unwieldy. They were dug out -from cotton-wood trees with fire, and dubbed into vague shape with -native adzes, and through sheer idleness and incapacity the builders -had rarely selected straight timber. Even expert polers and paddlers -could not propel those miserable craft in a straight course. One thing -only were these fishers good at, and that was baling. But in this they -had abundant practice, for all the canoes were sun-cracked, and leaked -like baskets. - -"I wish," said Carter, "for a great raft that will carry twelve tons of -the shiny stones which fall from the mountain." - -They did not know what a raft was, neither did they appreciate the size -of a ton, but Carter demonstrated to them, and White-Man's-Trouble kept -them from forgetting. The Krooboy had found a chiquot, and, from -having felt chiquots across all parts of his own person many a time, -was well qualified to wield such a baton of authority. Carter picked -out suitable cotton woods, and the Krooboy apportioned out the cutters, -and stayed beside them till their work was done. - -They handspiked the logs down to the water, again having to be -instructed in this most elementary piece of mechanics, laid -cross-pieces at right angles, and lashed all tightly together with -lianes. Then when they had built up the interstices between the logs -with large pieces of tin-stone, they carried down the smaller ore in -baskets till the logs were sunk to three-quarters draught. - -Next they built a house on the raft and covered it with thatch, and in -part of the house they piled a great store of dried fish as provision -for the voyage. And all the while the ju-ju organ behind them boomed -out at intervals its dismal boo-paa-bumm, bumm-paa-boo. - -Now although Carter had been a trader long enough to get very African -notions of the negro and his ways, still he had an Englishman's natural -bias against forced labor. White-Man's-Trouble, who did not see the -desirability of working if others would do it for him, openly suggested -pressing what hands were required for navigation. But Carter said no. -He had no money to pay them with on arrival, and the lower castes of -Africans do not understand the delights of having outstanding accounts -with the white man for labor performed. The Krooboy and he must -struggle down the creeks and find the channel themselves. - -White-Man's-Trouble sniffed and scratched himself, and said they would -see. And presently when the time came for departure the usual African -surprise descended upon them surely enough. Seven naked savages from -the fishers' village squatted on the raft and refused to budge. Their -arguments were simple. Carter was a great ju-ju man. They knew he was -great, because since he came the _boo-baa-bumm_ noises had been -incessant. Moreover, these were beneficent noises, since whilst they -filled the air no one had died in the village from leopard, crocodile, -or alien spear. They therefore adopted him as their master. - -"Oh, but look here," said Carter, "I can't do this. It means I should -be a slave-holder, neither more nor less. Besides, with you seven -great lumps sitting there, the raft's awash. If I take you I shall -have to jettison some of my tin-stone." - -But they had no further arguments. They sat placid. They had lived in -cousinship with fear all their squalid lives, and here at last had -arrived the strong man who could certainly protect them if he would. -And they intended he should. - -Carter thought for a minute, and then, "I won't have it," said he. -"Trouble, drive them ashore." - -White-Man's-Trouble spoke, and nothing happened. He laced into their -bare backs with his chiquot, but still they did not budge. One of -them, who seemed to be spokesman, merely talked to him quietly. - -The Krooboy explained. "Dem bushmen very uneducate. Dey say if you no -take 'em dey lib for die. Dem big black fellow there wid one ear, he -say if you no take him, he walk into dem ribber an' be crocodile chop." - -"They'll do it, too, confound them," Carter assured himself vexedly. - -And so it came to pass, as he could not very well condemn the -enterprising seven to death--for that is what leaving them amounted -to--he was forced to take them with him, and very idle, inefficient -boatmen they proved. They knew nothing of the river, once the two -miles of their fishing had been passed; they had no idea of the obvious -set of currents, no eyes for the plainest shoal. If they were left to -themselves for a dozen minutes they would run the raft into the bush, -and as likely as not get on board a cargo of red ants that seemed to -have white-hot teeth when they started to bite. They gorged upon the -scanty store of dried fish if they were not watched, and never caught -more unless they were incessantly goaded. When the reeking yellow -river was more than usually full of crocodiles they would dangle their -legs over the side; and when the raft was drifting past a village which -was most probably hostile, they would break into song. They always -felt that the great white ju-ju man, under whose protection they had -elected to place themselves, was competent to shelter them if he so -desired. And if he willed otherwise, and they died, well, that did not -greatly concern them. They were very exasperating animals, and Carter -about three times a day much wished that the handling of them could be -transferred to some of those kind-hearted people at home who always -insist that the negro of the West Africa hinterland is a man and a -brother. - -They had a small dugout canoe in tow, and greatly they needed it. -After twice running the big raft down streams that ended in impassable -morass, and having tediously to tow and punt her back against the -current, they always hereafter sent the lighter craft ahead on voyages -of discovery. Or to be more accurate, Carter had to go in her with one -of the fishers as assistant. The excellent White-Man's-Trouble had -limits to his intelligence, and there was no driving into him that -water which would carry a canoe that drew three inches of water was too -shallow for a heavy raft that drew three feet. - -The Winchester rifle and the remains of the Gladstone bag seemed the -only two things that linked them now with civilization. They lived in -the African manner upon African food; the intricate branching of the -creeks was charted in matchet-scratches upon the smoothed surface of a -log of wood; even English speech was discarded in favor of the native -tongue. - -Carter had shaved till the steamy atmosphere of the bush had turned his -razors into mere sticks of rust; and with the growth of his red stubble -of beard, all respect for his outward man had vanished. He caught -sight of himself one evening in a pool of black water. "Well," he -commented, "I always thought that Swizzle-Stick Smith was a filthy old -ruffian, but at his worst he looks a prince to me now. That I suppose -is where gray has the pull over ginger." - -But it was the rescue of the King of Okky which really gave the turn to -the whole of Carter's fortune. They had got the raft into a regular -cul-de-sac of reeds and water-lilies, and she lay there stuck on a -shoal in the face of a falling river. Creeks radiated all around them -like the spokes of some gigantic wheel. The place was alive with -crocodiles and flies. Not very far away an intertribal battle -advertised itself by an ugly mutter of firing. - -"An' chop no lib," said White-Man's-Trouble, by way of winding up the -sum of their difficulties. - -"Well, find some," Carter snapped. "Make spears, and stab the fish up -out of the mud if you can't catch them with nets or hooks. Only see -that there's a meal ready for me when I get back, or I'll lam into you -with that chiquot you're so fond of using." - -He went off then in the warped dugout, with the one-eared man as bow -pole, laboriously hunting for a passage into some main stream. The -river beneath them gave up fat bubbles of evil odors; the banks of -slime on either side reeked under the sun blaze. A dozen times Carter -thought he saw open water ahead, and pushed on, and a dozen times found -himself embayed. And always he had to jot down compass notes with a -nail on the well-scored gunwale of the canoe, so as to keep in touch -with the raft, and be ready against that forthcoming time when he would -have to pilot a steam launch up to Tin Hill. For though he barely -expected to escape with life out of this horrible labyrinth of creeks -and waterways, be it always understood he intended to return and demand -from the country a fortune, if so be he ever got down again to the -seaboard. - -At last, however, he swung out into what was obviously a main channel, -and was on the point of turning back to fetch the raft, when his eye -was held by something that moved sluggishly in mid-stream. - -It lay up towards the sun, and was hard to make out because of the -dazzle of radiance. - -"Can you see what that is?" he asked his bow man in the native. - -"It is just a man on a branch," said that savage, with cheerful -indifference. "Presently the crocodiles will chop him. Shall we go -back now, Effendi, to the raft?" - -"No, my callous friend. We'll investigate the person in the tree -first. Full speed ahead!" - -The clumsy dugout lurched and twisted down the broad marigold-smelling -river, and as there was a strong current under her, she soon drew the -obstruction into clearer view. - -It was a tree clearly enough, swept down by some flood and stranded -here in mid-channel to form one of the myriad snags with which West -African rivers abound. In it was a black man who hung by his hands -from the upper branches, and was perpetually pulling up his toes like -some ridiculous jumping-jack. He was a very fat man, and his movements -were getting more feeble even as they watched him. But it was not till -they got close alongside that they saw the impelling motive of these -gymnastics. - -A twelve-foot crocodile was in attendance beneath the tree, and every -now and again it swam up with a great swirl and shot its grisly jaws -out of the water, and snapped noisily at the fat man's toes. - -Carter lifted his Winchester and waited for a chance, but of a sudden -his bow man turned to him with a face that was gray with fear. "That -man," he said, "is the King of Okky, and if you save him, presently we -shall both die." - -"I had already recognized the gentleman, and I fancy he's far more my -enemy than yours, but I'm going to pull him out of this mess for all -that, and give him a good level start again on dry land." - -Then as the crocodile jumped once more, he threw up his rifle and shot -it under the left foreleg, where the protective plates are absent. - -[Illustration: Then, as the crocodile jumped once more, he threw up his -rifle and shot it under the left foreleg, where the protective plates -are absent.] - -The brute jumped, and writhed, and swam away amid cascades of golden -spray, and as the bullet was soft-nosed and expanding there would -probably be, before many more hours were over, one less pest in Africa. -But Carter did not worry his head about that. He paddled the dugout to -the tree and called to the King. - -His Majesty of Okky was fat, and though once he had been a giant in -strength, in these latter years of kingship he had grown soft and -flabby. He did all his journeyings in hammock and canoe, and had -slaves who saved him the smallest scrap of exercise; and, moreover, he -ate and drank to vast excess. So that when the immediate strain was -over it can be understood how he hung in the upper branches of that -tree too limp and exhausted even to lower himself into the canoe. -Carter had to climb onto the branch, and bear a hand before he could -get down. - -The dugout sank perilously beneath his weight, but the King was no -amateur, and balanced cannily. Moreover, presently he panted himself -into articulate speech. "I fit for gin," said the King of Okky. - -"I bet you are," Carter agreed. "But unfortunately the bar on this -packet's closed for want of supplies just at the moment. Try a sup of -the local ditch-water out of the baler." - -The King did so, and made a face. "I have not drunk water since I -became a King," said he. "O Carter, do not turn up stream. I have men -at a village down yonder." - -"I don't doubt it. But having saved your skin, King, I've my own to -think of now." - -The King's great body began to shake with laughter. - -"Stop that," said Carter sharply, "or you'll burst the gunwales out." - -"O Carter," said Kallee, speaking in Okky, "listen. It is only by my -favor that you have lived so long. We are both ju-ju men, and between -such it is useless to make pretence. But I can tell you all you did -since you left Mokki, and met Smith, and went to the cliff whereof ben -Hossein told you, and saw the stones which carry the brown glass which -you covet so much. I can tell you of your machine which says -boo-paa-bumm, and of the way you came down these creeks on a raft, and -how you labored prodigiously in the blind channels. I had arranged to -let you get so far. To-morrow, when you came abreast of my villages, -canoes would have come out--" Here the King screwed round his fat neck -and eyed Carter over his shoulder--"O Carter, do you think it strange -that I should have wanted a head such as yours?" - -"You would not tell me this now if you still wanted that head." - -One could not deny that somehow the man had a certain regal dignity -about him. "O Carter," he said, "if I have a King's lusts, I have all -of a King's gratitude. I was travelling down this river. My canoe was -overturned by a snag, and it and the paddlers were swept away down -stream, and if the crocodiles have not dealt with the men I will give -them their due presently. For myself, I climbed into that tree as you -saw, and could not have endured longer. What account was open between -us we will wipe from the tally. I owe you for my life now, and I will -repay." - -"Are my Krooboy and the fishers included in the treaty?" - -The King shrugged his great shoulders. "I could give you a better -servant than White-Man's-Trouble, and better paddlers than those -fishermen. But if they please you, they shall remain alive and well -treated. Paddle now quickly down stream to the village, O Carter, and -we will drink Krug champagne till a goat is slain and chop prepared." - -The village, when they came to it, was not a pleasant sight. It had -been rebellious, and the King of Okky had been instilling discipline -with a strong hand. Furthermore, two of his canoemen had escaped from -the river and reported that the King was drowned. They were also -attended to in a way that prevented their ever erring again in this -world. The King dispensed champagne, and arranged great matters of -life and death with a massive impartiality. And between whiles he -found abundant time to talk with his guest, now using Coast English for -the sake of greater privacy. His knowledge of what had been going on -was at times almost uncanny. - -"O Carter," he said, "dem Laura, she lib for Teach-palaver house in Las -Palmas." - -"She left for Las Palmas in the _Frau Pobst_ certainly. But I don't -know where she is staying." - -"Teach-palaver house," said the King placidly, "by Telde." - -"She was at school once at a convent on the Telde road." - -"She lib for there now." - -"I say, King, how the deuce do you know that?" - -"Savvy plenty funny things," said the King, and turned to do justice on -another culprit who was brought before him for trial. - -The royal _ménage_ was simple. They dined off a couscousoo and a bowl -of stewed goat, such as any well-to-do native farmer might have set on -the floor before him for his meal, and thereafter they sat on mats of -elaborate straw-work upon the hard earth, and the King consumed at a -moderate computation one ounce of snuff before he was inclined for -further talk. - -Then, "O Carter," said he, "what for dis stone palaver?" - -"When that stone is taken to my country they heat it in a furnace with -other things, and a white metal runs out." - -"Okky-man no fit for make him?" - -"No, the job's too complicated." - -"Dem stone worth lot o' money, or you no fit for carry small-small load -all dem way to coast. And a whole hill of dem stone lib far up ribber. -So dem hill worth plenty-much lot o' money." - -"There goes my pile," thought Carter bitterly. "The greedy old -ruffian's going to hook it for himself." - -The King went on. "Dem Kate, she fit for be O'Neill and Craven now?" - -"I suppose you may say she is." - -"Smith an' Slade all-e-same work-boy for O'Neill and Craven?" - -"If you like to put it that way." - -"Good. And you," went on this well-informed monarch, wagging a fat -forefinger, "you want marry Kate, same's I wanted to marry Laura, an' -she no fit for have you, same's Laura no fit for have me dem time?" - -Carter dropped his chin onto his knees and said nothing. The King went -on, "O Carter, you fit for save my life dis day. If you no come wid -dem canoe, I lib for be crocodile chop this minute. So I do not take -your red--I do not make you lib for die as I say dis morning, but I fit -for make you glad. Dem Dutchmen hold dem factory now at Mokki?" - -"They do." - -"Then I send my war-boys in at back an' stop roads. But I take ju-ju -off roads to dem O'Neill and Craven factories at Smooth, an' Monk, and -Malla-Nulla." - -"That's very good of you, I'm sure." - -"Then dem Kate she love you much when she find dem factory once more do -trade." - -"I'm afraid, King, it would take a lot more than that to make Kate feel -attached to me. You see, I'm no longer in O'Neill and Craven's -service. I chucked it when she sold Mokki, and I've been on my own -ever since." - -The King's eyes gave the ghost of a twinkle. "Den I no fit for open -dem roads. So I make you dash another way. I send you for Coast in -big canoe of sixty paddles." - -"With White-Man's-Trouble?" - -"Wid your boy, an' your cargo. I send you in three days' time six more -canoes of sixty paddles, full of dem stone you wish. I dash you dem -hill of stone where you set up dem dam ju-ju boo-paa-bumm. I tell dem -men who lib for ribber banks that you be free for come an' go on all my -country while I lib for King; an' if any man he hurt you, I take dem -man an' I nail him by hands an' feet to a tree!" - -Carter looked up. "Do you mean that?" - -The King took snuff. "When I say to a man you lib for die, he die. -When I say 'I let you lib,' then he lib. When I say to a man, 'I make -you dash,' he get dem dash, even though I have to send my war-boys to -take it from somebody other to give it him. O Carter, I lib for be -real King." - -"You mean you've given me a fortune in return for the small thing I did -for you?" - -"My life," said the King dryly, "he seem small thing to you. But to -me"--he patted his rotundity--"to me dem life be plenty big." - -Three days Carter abode in the village, and kept to the inside of his -hut to avoid the sights of the place, which to a European eye are -unpleasant when an African King is visiting his displeasure upon unruly -subjects. He was ministered unto by White-Man's-Trouble, who paid him -much unaccustomed deference, and forebore to steal the smallest thing. -And at nights he sat with the King, who had an educated palate in -champagne, and drank vintage wine at the rate of one case in four days. - -"When I lib back for Okky City," the King said once, "you fit for come -and see me there now?" - -"Certainly, King, if you'll name a date when you haven't got a custom -on." - -King Kallee looked thoughtfully at his guest. "Dem English no fit for -like dem custom-palaver?" - -"They don't, one little bit." - -"For why?" - -"Gets on their nerves." - -"Dem English King, he send his war-boys if I make dem custom-palaver -more?" - -"It's the common topic of conversation down the Coast as to when -England will send an expedition to cut you up." - -"Because I stop dem roads an' spoil trade to factories?" - -"Pooh, King! You know precious little about the British Government. -You may spoil all the trade in Africa if you like, you may even cut up -half a dozen factory agents or so, and the British Government won't -care a little hang. But if you will go on in your simple way -crucifying slaves, and carving up your own subjects, why, then, it's -only a question of time before they'll pull you off your perch and send -you into an inexpensive exile in St. Helena." - -"Dem Swizzle-Stick Smith he say same thing." - -"It's so obvious." - -"But he want me to let him hand dem Okky country over to England, so I -say I pull his skin off if I catch him again. What you want for -yo'self?" - -"Do you mean what do I stand to make out of the deal? Well, not much -beyond the satisfaction of keeping your crucifixion tree in a more -sanitary state. With the mining right you have given me, I shall be a -rich man." - -"But if dem English took Okky country?" - -"Why, they'd tax the mine, and they'd clap on regulations, till they -made a very fine hole in the profits." - -"Say dem again." - -Carter explained more fully, and then for awhile the King of Okky sat -and took snuff in silence. - -Then, "O Carter," he asked, "dem King of England he got so many -war-boys as me?" - -Carter nodded. - -"And dey no have trade guns? All Winchesters?" - -"I don't know what the present regulation pump-gun is called, but we'll -say it's like the Winchester, only plenty-too-much better." - -Again the King thought in silence, and the hot night rustled and sighed -around them. The moonlight was strong enough to show even the fibre of -the fine state mats on which they sat. But at last he motioned away -the slave who carried his snuff-mull, and touched Carter's knee with an -emphatic finger. - -"I believe you speak for true about dem custom. Three days ago you no -care if I lib or die?" - -"I may as well be frank, and say I should have preferred you dead." - -The King gave the ghost of a grin. "There are many like that. But -now?" - -"Now I prefer you alive and King of Okky." - -"Dat is what I thought, an' so I believe you say true when you tell me -what you say about dem customs. I do not see why Okky customs should -make dem English king fit for send his war-boys. But I no fit for want -'em." - -"So you fit for stop dem customs?" - -"I fit," said the King, and by that decision gave respite, it has been -calculated, to at least eight thousand of his subjects each year who -had gone the red paths prescribed by ju-ju. - -They drew up a memorandum on the subject there and then, in the form of -a letter from the King of Okky to him of Great Britain. Carter -suggested the British Foreign Secretary, but Kallee would not hear of -it. He as a King, he said, was the equal of any other King. So on a -sheet of damp, mildewed note-paper the message was written, and signed -by the King in an Arabic scrawl. - -And next day it travelled down to the Coast in state inside the -battered remains of a once-yellow gladstone bag. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -KATE SENDS A CABLEGRAM - -Now to give Carter full due, his weaning of the King of Okky from the -habit of human sacrifice had been brought about more by accident than -design. By a further working of the law of chance, the circumstance -brought him out of modest obscurity into a very strong notoriety in a -little less than six short months. - -"A private trader," so ran the gist of the newspaper leaders, "has -brought to pass a thing which Government authorities, both civil and -military, not to mention missionaries and miscellaneous -philanthropists, have been trying for ineffectually ever since the -British rule was set up in West Africa. Throughout all our possessions -on that sickly Coast the natives have been addicted to human sacrifice; -and when instances of this from time to time leak out, civilization is -on each occasion chilled with a fresh douche of horror. The West -African Kingdom of Okky, though little known for other qualities, has -acquired a certain detestable celebrity for these red orgies.... Mr. -Carter, though he was brought up in his father's vicarage in -Wharfedale, has not been noted heretofore for any special benevolence -in dealing with native questions. Those who know him describe him as -essentially a strong man.... In fact, Mr. Carter, in his modesty, most -emphatically disclaims any such high motives, and avers that he took -his now celebrated journey into the bush merely for his own business -purposes, and nothing beyond. On this subject we prefer to hold our -own opinions. Explorers of his rare type--the almost unknown type that -does not advertise--carry with them a modesty that delights in -belittling its own triumphs. But even Mr. Carter's modesty cannot -explain away certain cold facts. The King of Okky till recently had a -most black reputation for human sacrifice. Many Europeans have gone up -to his horrible city to expostulate. Some he has sent back; some have -not been heard of again since they left the Coast, and one can only -shudder and guess at their fates; but none have effected any change. -The 'Customs,' as these orgies of slaughter are named locally, still -endured: indeed, evidence clearly showed that they were increasing -under the present reign of King Kallee both in frequency and -importance. Nothing, it was said by those on the spot, but a British -army, and a great outlay in life and treasure, could bring these -horrors of the hinterland to a close. Mr. Carter, however, thought -otherwise. He went up country practically unattended. He bearded the -king in his own fetich grove, and he achieved what experts called the -impossible. He has induced King Kallee to abandon human sacrifice now -and for always. - -"As will be seen by the two interviews which appear in our news -columns, the information on these points did not come from Mr. Carter -himself. Mr. Carter is that man so rare to find in these pushing days, -a man who does not care one jot for anything the press can do towards -his own self-advancement, a man, moreover, who does not mind saying so -in strong, rude Anglo-Saxon. But fortunately we have another mine of -information more easily tapped. The sensational rise into a new -prosperity of the old West African firm of O'Neill and Craven has been -one of the features of the year's finance, and it is now an open secret -that the sole partner and manager of the 'firm' is a young, attractive, -and unmarried lady. This Miss Kate O'Neill has so far evaded the -interviewer, but on the Okky topic she has volunteered the fullest -information. It is to her that we are indebted for our description of -Mr. Carter and his great achievement." - -On such lines ran the leaders in most of the great newspapers, though, -of course, they varied in their facts and their point of view. They -all paid graceful compliments to the pretty girl who had appeared of -late with such success in the field of larger finance. One paper alone -had the impudence to refer in cold print to a matter that the other -newspaper men smiled over quietly in the privacy of their offices. - -"We wish," wrote this sentimental journalist, "that we could indicate a -romance that would finish up this episode fittingly. But truth compels -us to record that Miss O'Neill, along with the rest of the biographical -matter which she so kindly supplied, mentioned the detail of Mr. -Carter's engagement to a Miss Laura Slade, who at present resides in -Grand Canary. We understand that a marriage will shortly take place." - -As it happened, this journal was the one of Mrs. Craven's daily -reading. She indicated the paragraph with a prim forefinger, and -called her niece to read it. - -"Did you say that, Kate, or is it one of the fellow's impudent -inventions?" - -"Oh, I told him that with the rest just to--well, to quiet him. He -seemed to think I was very interested in Mr. Carter." - -"And I suppose suggested you were in love with him?" - -"Well, he didn't put it exactly like that," said Kate thoughtfully. -"He was a very dashing young man, and rather gave me the idea that he -wanted to see if the coast was clear for himself." - -"I see. And so you told him about the engagement between Mr. Carter -and Laura, just to encourage him?" - -"I suppose so. He really was very amusing and pushing. He wanted me -to go out to lunch with him there and then." - -"Kate, are you going to let Mr. Carter marry Laura?" - -"My dear Aunt Jane, what an extraordinary question! What possible -influence can I have over either of them? I offered them both a -wedding present, and asked them each what they would like. Could I go -further than that?" - -"And each of them," suggested the old lady, "said 'there was time -enough for that,' or they'd 'let you know when the wedding day was -fixed,' or put you off, somehow, like that." - -"Look here, Aunt, what are you driving at?" - -"I am looking." - -"Well, speak, you irritating old person." - -"My dear, I am waiting for you to look back at me. You have carefully -avoided meeting my eye ever since I showed you the paper." - -Kate looked up, and Mrs. Craven read something in the girl's face that -made her sigh. "You will go your own way, I know, Kitty dear. You are -very capable, and very clever, and that has naturally made you very -self-reliant. You have shown yourself so wonderfully successful over -your business matters that I shouldn't dream of advising you there. -But do you ever bring up into mind that there is something more in life -than mere financial success?" - -"Of course I do, Aunt. But I suppose I am different from the other -girls. They look forward to their domestic pleasures. I have made -myself other interests." - -The old lady shook her head decisively. "You are not at all abnormal -in that way. You are the most entirely human person I ever saw. And -to prove it, I'll just instance to you the way you've fallen in love -with George Carter." - -"I refuse to admit it." - -"Even to me, Kitty?" - -"Even to myself. I like the man, and there it must end. He is engaged -elsewhere, and if you call me human, you must allow me pride. I run -after no man, nor do I lure any man away from another girl who has been -my friend, whatever my inclinations may be. And now, if you please, we -will drop that subject and talk of rubber. Our third company was -subscribed once and a half times over by lunch time to-day, and we've -closed the lists. How's that for a real solid triumph?" - -Mrs. Craven lay back in her chair and methodically folded the paper. -"Do the profits on that bring up your score to the million you arrived -at?" - -"Oh no, no. But they will help it along very nicely." - -"When you get a million will you stop?" - -"When I get my million, which, mark you, Aunt, is more than any girl of -my age has ever done, why, then, I shall start to make my second. It's -a most fascinating amusement." - -"But it doesn't make you happy. You are no better for it. You can't -spend it." - -"My dear Aunt, where have your eyes been? Haven't you seen my clothes -since I came back from the Coast? Why, I never knew what it was to -dress before. I'm seriously thinking I shall have to start a maid to -look after me." - -"My dear, you've a knack of carrying clothes." - -"That I learned from you, you extremely smart person." - -"Well, you got the knack somewhere, and you always were nicely turned -out. Now I know your wardrobe as well as you do yourself, and, let me -see"--Mrs. Craven took a pencil from her chatelaine, and made -calculations on the edge of a newspaper--"Since you came back to -England you've not spent, at a liberal estimate, above two hundred and -twenty-seven pounds ten on your own adornment." - -Kate laughed. "I give in to you, Aunt. I quite believe you know my -wardrobe better than I do myself. Well, perhaps I shall buy pearls, -then. I never had one, but I believe I'm prepared to adore a necklace -of big, smooth, delicately graded pearls, with shimmery skins, and a -fat, pear-shaped black pearl drop to dangle below it. Yes, that's the -real reason I'm making money, Aunt--to buy and wear great ropes of -pearls. Or, who knows, I may have a fancy for a peer. Now, with a -million, I'm told one can buy for marrying purposes a really fine -specimen of peer." - -"There are moments," said Mrs. Craven sharply, "when I'm very sorry -you're grown up." - -Kate went across and sat on the arm of the old lady's chair. "Do you -want to smack me and put me to bed?" - -"I've done it many a time when you've been in this mood." - -"Can you see the black dog on my shoulder?" - -"Larger than ever. Kate, you should try and control yourself." - -"Oh, be just, Aunt. I didn't lie down on the floor and kick or do -anything like that." - -"No, thanks to me you can keep your temper under more decent control -now. Now, don't you kiss me, and think I'm a silly old woman, and try -to get round me that way--I know exactly how you're feeling. Oh, you'd -lead any man a dance who married you." - -"I'm certain I should," said Kate cheerfully, "unless he was the right -one. But, Auntie dear, don't you think it would be safer not to press -me to marry anyone at all? I give you my word for it that there's no -one marriageable I want to marry. And if you leave me alone with my -other amusement, that keeps me out of worse mischief." - -At the Prince's Park house in the old days there had been a room known -as the Master's study. It had no books in it whatever, because the -excellent Godfrey disliked books. It had a writing-desk certainly, but -never even an inkpot on it to indicate use. There was just a -card-table and some early Victorian furniture of hard, uncompromising -ugliness. In short, it was not the Master's study at all, but it -emphatically was his card-room. - -It remained in its original state till Kate's return from the Coast, -and then she begged it from her Aunt, who gave it gladly. - -"I want a place where I can type a letter," Kate had said, "and have a -copying press, without going down to Water Street. They begin to stare -at me down there, and I hate it. No one objects to a girl being in -business if she is merely a clerk, but if she gets hold of big -successes, well, the men aren't nice about it. If I find it answers, I -may lay on a secretary." - -So she emptied the room and furnished it afresh, and Mrs. Craven's -heart warmed as she saw the girl's natural craving for a home express -itself in chairs and pictures, in pretty wall hangings and dainty -carpets, in graceful flower-bowls, and all those little touches of -domesticity which are the mysterious outcome of sex. There was, it -turned out, a small box-room alongside, which was never used, and which -could be linked up by a door knocked through the wall. This could be -the secretary's room, and hold the letter files, and the copying press, -and the typewriter, and all the other crude machinery of commerce; and -so "Miss Kate's room," as it came to be called, fulfilled in appearance -little enough of its original intention of office. - -One can hardly associate walls panelled in rose-pink brocade with the -much-abused art of company promotion. But Kate sat in that pretty -room, and thought out there all those tremendous schemes, which brought -her such brilliant success. She felt she had retired from the firing -line; she schemed and planned in secure cover outside the battle; and -when any idea eluded her for too long she went out and drove her motor -car, or played golf, till the idea arrived. In the season she -sometimes went away on butterfly-hunting trips. At the same time she -had great ideas of buying an estate where she could have a private golf -course of her own. She had grown so strangely sensitive to stares -these days, and, people said, unsociable. Her engagement to Mr. Austin -had been broken off long ago, and to tell the truth Austin was well -enough pleased to be rid of her. Africa, he felt, had eliminated from -her all the points which beforetime had caught his admiration. And -then again she was so enormously rich one could not, he told himself, -marry a woman with such an unwieldy amount of riches. At least he -could not. Nor did he intend that the future Mrs. Austin, if ever -there was one, should have more practice in high finance than was -necessary to manage her own accounts and the household weekly bills. - -In fact, it was over this question that he flattered himself had come -their split. She had given him, to be sure, a pretty broad hint that -day on the landing stage, but the actual rupture of their engagement -had not come till a week later, and Kate was clever enough to make Mr. -Austin think that the idea was his and his alone. Still they had -parted on excellent terms, and any service, professional or otherwise, -that Austin could render her in the future was one that he should look -forward to, as he promised, most keenly. - -"Though you cannot see your way to be my husband," she had said to him -lightly, "you will still upon occasion act as my solicitor?" - -"Let's call it 'friend,' Kate," he had answered, and they parted on -that. - -But that day, after Aunt Jane had showed her the Carter leader in the -paper, Kate went to her room, and somehow her thoughts went back to -Henry Austin. She tried to analyze why she had ever got engaged to -him. As far as she could define it, a sort of empty space, a partial -vacuum, had come into her life, and Austin appeared, and in a tentative -way seemed to fill it. Now that he was gone, the vacuum returned. It -did not exactly ache, but it caused a vague discomfort that annoyed -her, and when she demanded a cure, something within her kept repeating, -"Carter, Carter, Carter!" - -She resented this clamor. She told herself that she was a strong -woman. She refused to have her hand forced. She declined to allow an -ex-employe of her own to be forced into her life as its only -complement. And still that inner something, with irritating -persistency, kept repeating, "Carter, Carter," and then got -unpleasantly familiar, and began to murmur: "George." - -She stood it for an hour, stood for that time persistent, inward voices -urging her, with never a falter, to one narrow course, and then she got -up from her great cushioned chair and went to an old Sheraton bureau. -Only one narrow drawer in it was locked, and she carried the key of -that amongst the charms on her watch-bangle. She opened the drawer and -took from it a photograph. - -It was only a steamer group, crudely taken by an amateur on a kodak -film, a very imperfect thing at its best, and mottled now by the -persistent West African mildew. A piece of brown paper with a hole in -it was in the same drawer, a mask so cut that it blocked out all of the -group except one individual. She fitted this into place and gazed her -fill on this very crude presentment of George Carter. - -[Illustration: She gazed her fill on this very crude presentment of -George Carter.] - -Well, at any rate he was not a handsome man. But there was something -about even this indifferent photograph that gave her a great thrill. -It touched some inward chord that no other power on earth could set -into vibration, and she was discomforted thereby. - -The gong went for dinner. She ignored it. A servant came -presently--she had added to the number of servants at the Prince's Park -house and Mrs. Craven accepted the alteration passively--and the -servant most respectfully stated that dinner would be served in ten -minutes, and was not Miss Kate going up to dress? But Miss Kate was -busy and would have a cup of tea and a sandwich. - -Mrs. Craven below got the news, smiled grimly, and ate an extremely -good dinner. She felt a fine satisfaction in having set to work -exactly the right influences which would bring that ridiculous Kitty to -her senses. - -But upstairs, in the prettiest room in Liverpool, Kate wrestled with -Fate. She pictured the man that the mask singled out of the group: Red -hair, a dogged jaw, ill-cut clothes, and, upon occasion, a man who used -the language more fitted to an underpaid stevedore. She had overheard -Carter discoursing to the factory at large that night of the false -alarm at Mokki, when he chided the Portuguese and the factory boys in -phrases learned from Swizzle-Stick Smith. Was this the man she had -ever fancied for a husband? No, a thousand times no. - -She locked the group and the mask once more into its drawer, and went -back to her cushions and a novel. There was still another great rubber -company on the brink of flotation. This time the pugilistic Mr. Smith -had procured for her the grant of the land, and had assured her that -the King of Okky, thanks to his recent improvement in morals, would see -that the title remained unchallenged. The proposition was, she -honestly believed, commercially sound, but the risk lay in the British -Public. Were they loaded up with rubber stock? That was the point to -decide. So far she had not had a share of her companies underwritten, -in spite of abundant and pressing offers. But here was an awkward -question to decide: Should she insure this issue, or should she risk -having it not taken up, and invite a fiasco? - -She tried with cold logic to reason out the arguments for and against, -and to strike a balance between them. But for once her brain refused -to act. Even the novel, which she read and did not absorb, did not -offer her the necessary hint. It was an old trick of hers, this -reading of a dozen chapters of weak fiction, to get an inspiration, and -so far it had never failed her. She was an omnivorous novel reader. -She went through quite two-thirds of the fiction brought out annually -by British publishers, and could never, next morning, have passed the -easiest examination in a novel she had read the night before. But all -her clever business ideas were evolved when she was reading these -paltry books. - -At last she could endure the vague things that oppressed her no longer. -She dropped the book on the floor. And then she got up and went into -the secretary's narrow room next door. She found cable forms and sat -at a table. Then she wrote glibly enough this message. - -"_Burgoyne, Monk River, West Africa, Forward this to Cascaes Mokki -special runner want you act our agent Las Palmas_ 2,400 _commence cable -acceptance or refusal, O'Neill._" - -She counted up the words, laid down her pencil, and laughed. "At any -rate," she said, "that will give one a chance. And George was fool -enough to think that Mr. Cascaes was running after me. Oh, I have no -patience with men who can't see further through the fog than that." - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -CARTER MAKES A PURCHASE - -It was Captain Image returning red and wrathful from an unsuccessful -cargo foray amongst the southern and eastern factories that Carter met -the day after his arrival at the Coast. The mariner had heard of the -deal at Mokki, and felt personally affronted that a nest of cargo which -he had already looked upon as his own should have been handed over once -more to the Germans. - -"So you're on the beach, are you," said he, looking Carter up and down -with vast disapproval. "I must say you look it. I've seen old -Swizzle-Stick Smith come down after a jaunt in the bush and I thought -he couldn't be beat for general shagginess and rags. But you give him -points. What did Miss Kate bounce you for?" - -"I believe I resigned." - -"Same thing. And now you've come to ask me to take you home as a -distressed British subject, I suppose. Well, Carter-me-lad, a deck -passage is your whack according to consular understanding, but you've -sat in my chart house and you've sent me cargo, and so I'm going to put -my hand in my own breeches pocket and take you home in the second -class. And I tell you what: Chips and the bo's'n have got a shop in -the foc's'le that I'm not supposed to know about, and if you care to go -in there and get enough rig out to see you home, I'll foot the bill." - -"You're very good----" - -"I know I am. It puts me about five weeks further off that hen farm -outside Cardiff that I want to retire onto, being good like this. -There, run away out of this chart house, me-lad, and tell the chief -steward to give you a square blow-out of white-man's chop one-time. -I'm sure you need it. I never saw a man with so much of the lard -stewed off him." - -Carter laughed. "Will you let me slip a word in? I've cargo for you." - -"What! You!" - -"I'm afraid you won't hook much commission out of it, Cappie, as you'll -have to take it at ballast rates." - -"Catch me." - -"But there'll be about seventy tons of it as far as I can reckon." - -"My Christian Aunt! do you tell me, Carter-me-lad, that you've -scratched up seventy tons of cargo? Here, sit down. No, sit down. -Don't talk. I'm not going to have you going away and calling the -_M'poso_ a dry ship." - -Captain Image had no tariff rate for tin ore, but he invented one with -great readiness, and then knocked off ten per cent. by way of -encouraging a new industry. "Now, where is this mine of yours?" he -asked genially. "Tell me, and I warrant I'll find you an easier way to -bring your produce than paddling it in dugouts." - -"Up the river." - -"Well, let's look at your charts, me-lad." - -Carter shook his head. - -"Why, how's that? Haven't you made one?" - -"Oh, I've made one right enough, but it's inside my skull and out of -public view." - -"H'm," said Image. "Don't want any competitors, eh, Carter-me-lad?" - -"Why should I?" - -"Well, drink up, and let me fill your glass. Here, have another squirt -of bitters." - -"No, thanks, Cappie, no more. I drank enough champagne with the King -of Okky to last me months. I've got a lot of big business ahead of me -and I want a clear head. Now, if you take this consignment of tin ore -home for me, and rob me as little as you can help over freight, what's -next? Swansea and a smelter, I suppose?" - -"They're a bit Welsh down in Swansea," said Captain Image, who came -from Cardiff himself. "They'll do with a trifle of looking after. -What you want's a smart agent." - -"The thing I want first and soonest is cash. Now, look here, Cappie, -you know Swansea, and you're fond, by the Coast account, of a bit of -commission. Well, here's a nice lump of it on offer. If you'll get -some smelter firm to buy this parcel of ore on assay, and pay cash for -it, I'll give you five per cent. on what you raise." - -"It's a deal. You couldn't have come to a better man, Carter-me-lad. -I'll open you an account at the Bank of West Africa----" - -"And get the whole balance cabled out here?" - -"I was going to suggest that," said Captain Image, doubtfully, "if you -hadn't rushed me so. But you won't want the lot. Now, with fifty -pounds or so----" - -"I want every sixpence. Man, do you think I'm going to nibble at my -cake now it's been given me? Kallee's straight, I firmly believe. But -what's his life worth?" - -Captain Image shook his head. "Very heavy drinker even for a darky, -and of course he hasn't a white man's advantages in knowing the use of -drugs." - -"Besides, there are the usual risks of kings and of Africa. He's put -down the local anarchist. He cooked the only two who tried to -assassinate him, and took a day about it over slow fire, and that -discouraged the breed in Okky. But still there are risks. So that -altogether he's not a good life, and if he was to go out, it's quite on -the cards his heirs, successors, and assigns might not recognize my -title." - -"You're right, me-lad. What you've got to do is to rip the guts out of -that mine at the biggest pace possible, and I'll bring in the _M'poso_ -round here to load every time I come along the Coast." - -Carter nearly laughed. He knew the capacity of his mine--quarry, it -was, rather--and the hold space of the little _M'poso_. Tin was -wavering about just under £176 per ton just then; he had reckoned that -he could produce for £10 a ton; and the more profit he could get, the -more pleased he would be. But he was not afraid of bringing down the -price; he had plenty of margin for a cut. His only fear was that the -river road might be stopped before he had made his fortune. And he -intended to empty the veins of Tin Hill at the highest speed that all -the strained resources of Africa were capable of, and if necessary to -keep three steamers the size of the little _M'poso_ ferrying his riches -across to the markets. But he did not let out any word of this to -Image. If the locality and the enormous wealth of this mine were to -leak out, nothing could prevent a rush. At the existing moment he was -penniless, and in any great influx of capital and men must inevitably -be swamped. Secrecy was essentially his game for the present. - -So he accepted Captain Image's proposal in the spirit in which it was -made, and then put forward feelers for a steam launch. Was there such -a thing already on the Coast that one could pick up cheap just then? - -Captain Image lit a thoughtful pipe. "I don't know of any little -steamboat that you could buy just now out here, cheap or dear. There -are one or two in Sarry Leone, certainly, but they are all either too -big for your job or too tender to bring round the Coast." - -"I'm a bit of mechanic, you know. I wouldn't mind nursing engines. My -boy, White-Man's-Trouble, too, would make, according to his own -account, a pretty decent second engineer." - -"Oh, I know him. Used to be stand-by-at-crane boy on the _Secondee_, -and stole everything that wasn't nailed down. But you'd never get one -of those Sarry Leone wrecks round here without being drowned in the -process. I tell you what, though. D'ye know anything about motor -cars, me lad?" - -"Why?" asked Carter, who had never handled one in his life. - -"Because at Dutton and Maidson's factory at Copper River they've got an -old wreck of an oil launch, if she hasn't rotted and sunk at moorings, -that you could have cheap." - -"Everything cheap is dear to me just now. I haven't a penny in my -pocket. But what do you mean by cheap?" - -"Well, she certainly wasn't out in the river the last three times I -called, but I did hear they'd hauled her up a creek. But if she hasn't -sunk at moorings, and the ants haven't walked off with her, I should -think you could get the bits that rust couldn't eat for three ten-pound -notes." - -"Does she burn gasolene?" - -"No, ordinary canned paraffin. I know that was supposed to be the -great point about her when she was brought out. Only trouble was, she -didn't seem to be an amateurs' boat at all, and after the first week or -so there wasn't a soul in the factory that could get her to steam at -all. So they tied her up to a buoy and did their business in the old -dugouts and the surf boats as formerly." - -"I wonder if the old chief has got an emery wheel down in your engine -room?" - -Captain Image stared at this change of subject, and ran a finger round -inside his collar to shift the perspiration. "What do you want an -emery wheel for? Sharpen your wits on?" - -"No, my razor. If I go and try and buy a motor launch with this red -wool on my chin, they'll take me for the wild man down from the back of -beyond and stick up the price." - -"Quite right. You've a very sound business mind, Carter-me-lad. You -can, I believe, get a very sound thing in razors for a shilling at that -fo'c'sle shop if Chips is still keeping one, and whilst I was buying I -should get a bottle or two of Eno, if I were you. Capital thing to -keep your liver down to gauge." - -"I want to get all these things," said Carter emphatically. "I -daresay, indeed, I should like to buy up practically the whole of -Chips' remaining stock, partly for my own use and partly to take up -country. But the fact still remains unaltered that until I can get an -advance against bills of lading, I am without a copper in my pocket. I -suppose that greedy hound Balgarnie is the man to see about finance, -though." - -"He is a greedy hound, Carter-me-lad, between you and me. Let me fill -up your glass. No, don't put your hand across it. Well, I'll finish -the bottle if you won't. You're open, just as a matter of form, to -giving a lien on that cargo you're shipping? Just as a matter of form, -of course, in case you peg out before things can be squared up?" - -"Certainly, and I'm willing to give five per cent. per month for the -accommodation." - -"Oh, come now, me-lad, ten per cent.'s the usual. But I don't want to -be stiff with an old friend like you, so we'll call it seven and a -half." Captain Image went to the drawer under the chart table and -unlocked it. "Come, now, say what you want. Anywhere up to fifty -pounds." - -"I couldn't possibly do with less than a hundred," said Carter -definitely, and with that they began openly to wrangle. But it turned -out that Captain Image, even with the help of his financial partner, -Mr. Balgarnie, could only raise seventy-four sovereigns, and with that -the other had to be content. He gave his bond, and stood at the head -of the _M'poso's_ ladder ready to go back to his boat. But Captain -Image with genuine hospitality dragged him back. - -"I'm not going to let you go like this, me lad. I've one turkey left -in the refrigerator, and if you peg out afterwards up those beastly -rivers, I'd always like to think I'd stood you one good dinner when the -chance came in my way. Come now, Carter-me-lad; turkey-chop? There's -not another skipper on the Coast that would make you an offer like -that." - -Carter laughed and gave in, and turned towards the flesh-pots. He did -not like turkey. Once in Upper Wharfedale his father had come home -from Skipton with thirty turkey poults, which the family reared with -very vast care, and thereafter had to eat. Turkey once per annum is a -luxury; twice cloys; but thirty times, when legs follow breast, and -wings are succeeded by side-bones, would weary any man living. But by -custom in West Africa, turkey from a steamer's refrigerator is the -height of luxury, and Carter recognized the hospitable motive. - -Captain Image, when mellowed by food and wine that night, talked of -Miss Kate O'Neill, and Carter behind an elaborate indifference listened -with a hungry interest. She was floating rubber companies it appeared -with enormous success. She had very nearly been engaged to a law-sharp -named Austin, but had got out of it in time. She was reported in -Liverpool to be struck on some palm oil clerk on the Coast, but Captain -Image proclaimed that to be rot, and what did Carter-me-lad think? - -"Well, of course, there was Cascaes," said Carter judicially, "but I -don't see there was anyone else. All the rest of the men she met out -here were either married or engaged." - -But George Carter whistled cheerfully to the stars as his boat-boys -paddled him up through the steaming mangroves to his abiding place that -night, and Mr. Balgarnie and Captain Image nudged one another -delightedly as they listened to his music. - -Button and Maidson's launch, that ought to have served the factory in -Copper River, turned out upon inspection to be even worse than Captain -Image had forecasted, and the agent in charge was most enthusiastic in -accepting the two five-pound notes that were offered for her. And -thereafter for Carter and White-Man's-Trouble began a period of savage -toil. - -The white man was a mechanic born, but he had never seen an oil engine -in his life, knew nothing of clutch, water-jackets, or reversing gear, -and had to make his first acquaintanceship with a carburetor. The men -at the factory were frankly ignorant of the launch's mechanism; said so -indeed before they sold her. - -"But I know we have got a plan-thing of the works stowed away -somewhere," the agent stated. "Can you understand a machine from -seeing a drawing?" - -"Rather," said Carter. - -"Well, we'll find it," said the agent, and they wasted two days in -turning over every scrap of paper the factory contained, but the blue -prints refused to discover themselves. - -"Let you off your bargain if you like," said the agent ruefully, when -the place had been searched through without success. - -"Not a bit," said Carter. "Lend me a couple of boys and I'll take -those engines down and learn 'em for myself." - -Now, to anyone who does not know the hot, steamy climate of a West -African river from personal experience, the manner in which unguarded -ironwork can decay would sound beyond the borderland of fact. A nut -left long enough on a bolt in that moist stew of heat does not always -rust fast. As often as not, when one takes hold of it with a spanner, -the whole thing crumbles away into oxide. - -The forty-five-foot launch, when Carter first took her over, lay half -water-logged in the middle of a slimy creek. She was an open boat with -her engines housed under a wooden hutch aft, which had been further -reinforced by some rotten tarpaulin. She had no in-board reversing -gear, but was fitted with a feathering propeller, which if all went -well would drive her astern. - -As she lay there she was a perfect picture of what could be done by -neglect and ignorant handling, and there was not another man then -resident under that enervating West African climate who would have -thought her worthy of salvage. But Carter had got just that dogged -drop in him that brings men out to the front, and he proceeded to clean -up the launch's meagre tools and her spares, to borrow what others he -could from the factory, and then to attack the engines. It was here -that the prodigiousness of his job first displayed itself. The -brasswork was sound enough--even West Africa could not eat into -that--but everything iron was spongy with rust, and he had to set up a -forge, and weld and shape afresh, out of any scrap he could find about -the factory, each part as he destroyed it. - -There was no such thing as a lathe about the place; there were not even -taps and dies. He had to punch slots through his bolts and tighten -them up with forged and filed wedges. For the out-board work on the -feathering propeller he put the launch on the bank and worked up to his -armpits in the stinking slime, fitting, drilling, and rivetting with -his imperfect tools. - -The labor and the exposure very naturally brought its reward in a sharp -dose of fever, but White-Man's-Trouble attended to that after the -manner of the heathen, and he emerged from it little the worse, and -bore with composure the derision of the other Europeans at the factory -when they saw his whitened eyesockets. - -The engines were not ornamental when he had finished with them, and -they were cumbered with a hundred make-shifts; but when he gave the -whole a final inspection, he told himself that no vital part had -escaped a satisfactory repair. By a merciful chance there was tube -ignition, and after a good deal of manipulation he got the burners to -light. Then when the bunsens roared and the tubes glowed hot in their -cage, he and the Krooboys ground at the starting handle and turned the -engines till the sweat ran from them in rivulets. In England Carter -had heard without understanding that internal combustion liked their -"right mixture." He was thoroughly practised in finding the right -mixture for that elderly oil engine before it coughed itself into any -continuous activity. - -The heavy oil for lubricating that had originally been sent out, -Messrs. Dutton and Maidson's agent still had in stock because, as he -explained, he had found no possible means of disposing of it, and the -ordinary commercial square tins of paraffin were part of the wares they -always held in quantity. So Carter was able to buy fuel, in all -abundance, for his voyage. Food also he laid in, and a great roll of -canvas, and then turned to his host to say good-bye. - -"Wait a bit, man," said the agent, "and we'll build you a cabin out of -that canvas that will keep at least the thick of the dew off you at -nights. There are sockets along the gunwales for awning stanchions -that will carry bamboo side-poles capitally, and we can lash duplicate -roof-plates across and rig you a double-roofed tent in style." - -"Very much obliged," said Carter, "but I won't wait for that now. I -intend to do it as we go up river. You'll notice I have shipped a big -bundle of bamboos for the woodwork. Good-bye." - -"You seem in the devil of a hurry." - -"I am. Good-bye. Now then, Trouble, shove over that reversing lever -to make the boat go ahead. Confound you, that's astern, you bushman. -There, that's better. Good-bye all." - -"Good-bye, and good luck," said the agent, and he told his subordinates -at supper that night that another good, keen man had gone off to -disappear in Africa. - -But Carter was developing into one of those tough, tactful fellows that -people call lucky because they always seem to succeed in whatever they -set a hand to. When the flood tide was under her, the launch coughed -her way up the great beer-colored river at a rate that sometimes -touched ten knots to the hour. She added her own scents of half-burned -paraffin and scorched lubricating oil to the crushed-marigold odor of -the water, and disgusted all the crocodiles who pushed up their ugly -snouts to see what came between the wind and their nobility. On the -ebb she still hauled up past the mangroves at a good steady two miles -every hour. - -The engine, with rational treatment, seemed a very decent sort of -machine, though the feathering propeller, even till its final days, was -always liable to moods of uncertainty, and after twenty-four hours of -sending the launch ahead, would without any warning suddenly begin to -pull her astern. Still these erratic moods always yielded to -treatment, and, considering that she had been bought without a rag of -reputation, Carter was always full of surprise at prolonged spells of -good behavior. - -He did not go up direct as he had come down in the King of Okky's sixty -man-power war canoe. He prospected the labyrinth of waterways for -other channels, and charted them out with infinite care. He intended -to take every possible precaution for preserving the secrecy of his -mine. Even if he was followed, and he took it for granted that on some -future voyage he presently would be followed, he wanted to be able to -puzzle pursuit. - -At a point agreed upon he put into a village which sprawled along the -bank, and presented the King's mandate, and demanded canoes. The -villagers gave them without enthusiasm and without demur. He took -these in tow, great cotton-wood dugouts that would hold a hundred men -apiece, and hauled them after him, winding through great tree-hedged -waterways where twilight reigned half the day, and then coming out -between vast park-like savannas where the sun scorched them unchecked -and grazing deer tempted the rifle. - -When he arrived at Tin Hill again, the King's finger had left a visible -mark. Great heaps of picked ore lay along the waterside ready for -loading the flotilla. "Good man, Kallee!" said the Englishman -appreciatively. "I'll dash you a new state umbrella for that." - -The water-bellows organ that he had set up at the foot of the waterfall -bellowed out its _boo-paa-bumm_, and against each of the great bamboo -pipes there fluttered a bunch of red-dyed feathers to show that that -other ju-ju man, his majesty of Okky, countersigned the warning not to -unduly trespass. - - * * * * * - -Cargo after cargo Carter rushed down to the Coast, and dumped on land -he had hired behind a factory. Ever and again he sent a tidy parcel of -ore to a smelter in England and in due time had more money put to his -credit at the Bank of West Africa. But he did not try any expensive -tricks with the home tin market just then. He had got out a new -launch, a more solid affair this time, driven by a sixty horse-power -gasolene engine that had low-tension magneto ignition, and so many -other improvements on its predecessor, that White-Man's-Trouble, who -had it in charge, tied a dried monkey's paw to the compression cock on -each cylinder head, as an extra special protective ju-ju. - -He carried a cook and an oil-stove galley, and at last even bought two -tin plates and a knife and fork to assist his meals. He felt it was -pandering to luxury, but he did it all the same. When he made that -purchase he wondered how he would behave in a woman's society after so -long living as a savage. As an after-thought he told himself that -Laura was the woman he had in his mind, and hoped he would not shock -her with his crudities. By way of carrying out good intentions to the -full, he sat down there and then and wrote to her, and marvelled to -find how little he had to say. - -Then one day he came across Slade. - -A canoe drew in alongside as he was towing down river with his tenth -cargo, and brought off a note which said that there was a white man -ashore who had run out of everything and would be eternally grateful -for any European food that could be spared, and would gladly give him -I.O.U. for same, as he was out of hard cash at the moment of writing, -and had mislaid his check-book. - -Carter had his misgivings, but sent off a goodly parcel of food and -tobacco, and continued his way down stream. But the channel was new to -him--he had a suspicion of being watched on his ordinary route--and he -ran on a sandbar on an ebbing tide, and the heavily laden dugouts were -soon perched high and dry. So White-Man's-Trouble switched off his -magneto and stopped the engines, and Carter put a hand under the gauze -net to greet his prospective father-in-law. - -Slade looked curiously at both the launch and her tow. "You've been -getting hold of a gold mine of sorts, I hear. By the way, as you've -arranged to start work as my son-in-law, I suppose I ought to get more -familiar and call you Henry, or whatever it is." - -"George, as a matter of fact." - -"I believe you're right. George is what Laura did say. My mistake. -Where is your gold mine?" - -"It's tin. And it's up the rivers." - -"Oh, keep it dark, my dear fellow, if you like. Not that it makes the -smallest odds as far as I am concerned. You'd never catch me sweating -after a mine. Besides, as a point of fact, I'm doing pretty well at my -present job. Getting rubber properties, you know, for the mysterious -Kate." - -"Miss O'Neill." - -"Oh, certainly, Miss O'Neill, if you prefer it, though I don't see why -you need be a prig with me." - -"My late employer, you know." - -"Ah, of course. And you admired her more than a little, so I gathered -from Laura's letters, though she carefully refrained from saying so." - -Carter pulled himself through the mosquito bar and hit the edge of the -bunk. "Now, look here, Slade, I've known you ever since I've been on -the Coast, but this is the first time we've met on the new footing. I -don't want to quarrel with my prospective father-in-law, but, by -Christopher, if you don't leave Miss O'Neill out of the tale as far as -I'm concerned, there's going to be a row. Kindly remember I'm engaged -to Laura, and intend to marry her whether you like it or whether you -don't." - -Slade laughed. "Nice filial sort of statement, that; but don't mind -me. If you suit Laura's taste, I'll swallow you, too. I'm sure you'll -be pleased to hear that I'm making a goodish thing of it myself just -now. Kate--I beg your pardon--Miss O'Neill pays me my regular screw, -and in addition gives me a nice sum down on every property I've bought -for her, and a tidy block of shares when there's a company floated. I -shall be able to give you and Laura a decent wedding present--in -script. By the way, is she at Smooth River?" - -"No, Grand Canary." - -Slade stiffened. "How's that?" - -"Africa wasn't safe for her. You ought to be dam' well ashamed of -yourself for leaving her here. You knew the danger from old Kallee a -big sight better than she did. And you left her without a cent to get -away with and not an ounce of credit." - -"Then," said Slade stiffly, "do I understand that she's gone to the -islands at your expense?" - -"You can understand what you please," said Carter truculently. - -"Are you married to her?" - -"I am not at present. I shall be as soon as it suits Laura's -convenience and my own." - -"You will kindly understand that I resent your interference with my -finances and my daughter's." - -"You may resent," said the prospective son-in-law, "till you're black -in the face, and I shan't lose sleep over it." - -Bang went something outside, and Slade started. "Good Lord," he said, -"there's somebody firing at us. Sit down, man, on the floor." - -"Nothing of the kind," said Carter testily. "My boy Trouble has got -the engines going to try to work us off this bank, and with his usual -cleverness he has contrived a back fire, that's all. There--you can -smell it. Now, I don't think you are a quarrelsome man as a general -thing?" - -"Not I. Too much trouble to quarrel with people." - -"Well, I'll just ask you to give Laura and myself your benediction, and -leave the rest to us." - -Slade let off his limp laugh. "If a wedding present of such dubious -value will please you, I'm most pleased to give it. Especially as I -see you're inclined to stick to my little girl. To tell the truth, I'd -heard you were after somebody else and it made me rather mad. You know -how rumors float about in the bush." - -Carter's lips tightened. "Who's the other person, please?" - -"Oh, just my present employer--and your late one. But I've no doubt -it's all a mistake." - -"If you'll apply to her, I've no doubt she'll endorse that sentiment -most thoroughly. I don't think Miss O'Neill's a person to throw -herself away on one of her own ex-servants." - -Slade chuckled. "If you put it that way, I'm sure she isn't. By the -way, do you know who she is?" - -"What do you mean?" - -"Well, I suppose you've discovered by this time that the late Godfrey -O'Neill was a bachelor, and Kate's no relation to him at all. He and -his sister Jane, who married a hopeless blackguard called Craven, -adopted her between them and brought her up. I've never fagged myself -to find out how she was bred, but you're one of these energetic fellows -that like to dig into pedigrees, and I thought probably you'd know." - -"I don't know, and I shan't inquire." - -"All right, don't get excited about it, neither shall I. D'ye know I -think if you could soften that genial manner without straining -yourself, it would be an improvement. I'm led to believe that -fathers-in-law expect a civility and even at times a certain mild -amount of deference." - -"Did you defer to your father-in-law?" asked Carter brutally. - -The tone was insulting and the meaning plain, and ninety-nine men out -of a hundred in a similar place would have resented it fiercely. But -Slade merely yawned. His sallow face neither twitched nor changed its -tint. He got up and stretched himself lazily. "So that's the trouble, -is it? Well, you didn't ask me to consult you when I chose a wife, and -I didn't ask you to fall in love with my daughter." He turned his head -and eyed Carter thoughtfully--"You are in love with her, I suppose?" - -"Can you suggest any other possible reason why I should ask her to -marry me?" - -"Well, I can hardly imagine you did it for the honor of an alliance -with me. I suppose if I were an energetic man I should try and worry -out what it is you're so sore about. It must be something beyond the -detail that Laura's got a touch of color in her, because of course you -knew that from the first moment you met her. But I guess the something -else will show itself in its own good time. In the meanwhile if you'll -give me an account of what you advanced to Laura for this Grand Canary -trip, I'll give you an I.O.U. for it. I don't care to be indebted to -anyone for things like that." - -"I'll perhaps send in the bill when I hear there's a possibility of -getting cash payment," said Carter dryly. - -And then for the first time Slade lost his temper, and he cursed his -future son-in-law with all an old Coaster's point and fluency. Every -man has his tender point, and here was Owe-it Slade's. Throughout all -his life he had never paid a bill if he could help it, and he had -accepted the consequent remarks of injured parties with an easy -philosophy. But it seemed he owned a nice discrimination; some items -were "debts of honor," and these he had always sooner or later -contrived to settle. And the account which he decided he owed Carter -for Laura's maintenance in Grand Canary he set down as one which no -gentleman could leave unpaid without besmirching his gentility. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -SENHOR CASCAES - -Now, as the servant of O'Neill and Craven, Carter had done his work -well and indeed enthusiastically, and after he had left the firm's -employ he had neither competed with them in business nor done them harm -in any way whatever. It is true that at his memorable interview with -the King of Okky with a little persuasion he could have got that -grateful monarch to take off the embargo which he had laid on the -factories at Monk, Malla-Nulla, and Smooth River, though the fact that -he did not put forward pressure on this point could hardly have reached -the ear of Miss O'Neill. Indeed it is to be doubted if she ever knew -that any reference to her name or affairs cropped up at all. - -But be that as it may, she certainly from the date of sending her cable -to Cascaes began to interest herself in opposing Carter's schemes. - -The first he knew of it was a typewritten letter from Liverpool on the -firm's note-paper beginning "Dear sir," and ending "O'Neill & Craven, -per K. O'Neill." In arid business sentences it understood he had "a -tin-mining proposition up Smooth River," it pointed out that "our firm -for many years has had very far-reaching interests in this -neighborhood," and it suggested that O'Neill and Craven should buy the -mine "to prevent any clash of interests." - -Carter replied to this curtly enough that Tin Hill was not in the -market, and took the next boat home to Liverpool. He had picked up a -distressed merchant skipper named Kettle, and put him in charge of the -motor boat, and the canoes, and the mining work generally, and though -in their short interview he decided that Kettle was the most tactless -man in Africa, he believed him to be honest, and instinctively knew him -to be capable. - -"One thing I must ask," he said at the end of their talk, "and that is -that you do not try any proselytizing up here. Your creed, I have no -doubt, is very excellent at home, but out here where they are either -Moslemin or nothing it will only stir up disputes, and that I won't -have. Is that quite agreed?" - -"I have learned, sir," said the sailor, "to obey orders to the letter -even though I know them to be against an owner's best interests." - -"Um," said Carter, and stared at him thoughtfully. "Well, Captain, I -think it would be safest if you went on those lines. You will find -your chief engineer, who carries the name of White-Man's-Trouble, -beautifully unreliable in most things, but he understands the launch's -engines wonderfully, and I like him. I'd take it as a favor if you'd -deal with him as lightly as possible." - -"I'll bear your words in mind, sir, though, as a man who has handled -everything colored that serves afloat, I'd like to point out that -pampering spoils them." - -"The only other point to remember is that I've made my name up these -rivers mainly by being known as a ju-ju man--sort of wizard, in fact. -You'll have no difficulty, I suppose, in following up that line now -I've given you the hint?" - -"You'll pardon me, sir, but if that's made an essential, I must chuck -up the job, sorely in need of employment as I am at the moment. I have -my conscience to consider. And besides as a liar I am the poorest kind -of failure." - -"Pooh, man, it's only a little acting that's required." - -"Mr. Carter," said the sailor still more stiffly, "you see in me a man -who's sunk very low, but I've never descended yet to working as a -theatrical. According to our Persuasion, we hold that play acting is -one degree less wicked than bigamy, and indeed often leads to it." - -"Well," said Carter, "that mail-boat sails in half an hour's time, and -I've got to go by her. I've been building on you, Captain, as the most -trustworthy man now knocking about in West Africa." - -"I'm all that, sir." - -"So I shall have to respect your scruples and give you the billet." - -"You shall never regret it for one minute, sir. You'll find the -address of Mrs. Kettle on this slip of paper, and if you'll post -three-quarters of my wages to her as they fall due, I'd take it as a -favor. I've been out of--well, I won't pester you with domestic -matters, sir, but the fact is I'm afraid she must be in very poor -circumstances just at the moment." - -"She shall have a check posted the day after I land in Liverpool. I -give you my word for that." - -"I thank you, Mr. Carter. Now, if you wanted another officer, there's -a Mr. McTodd, an engineer who's just now at Akassa, that I could get." - -"Thanky, Captain, but not for me." - -"I believe I could persuade him to take a low wage." - -"Not for me, Captain. I know McTodd. He's far too thirsty and far too -cantankerous. You'd find him a ugly handful." - -"Me! By James, sir, I can handle that swine in a way that would -surprise you. He's had a bad up-bringing; he belongs to the Free Kirk; -but after I've had the manipulation of Mr. McTodd for a week, I can -make him as mild as Norwegian Swiss milk." - -"Well, we'll say 'not for the present,' at any rate. With the -organization I've got together, and the backing from the King of Okky -that I've told you about, you'll be able to haul down all the available -ore if you follow out my instructions, and when it comes to bonus, -Captain, if you've been successful, you'll find me a generous -paymaster. I don't toil for nothing myself. I work about ten times as -hard as my neighbors, and draw in about seventeen times as much pay. I -like a man who has got the same ambitions." - -The little sailor sighed. "I've always done ten times the normal whack -of work, sir, but somehow I've missed fingering the dibs. I tell you -flat, fourteen pounds a month has been good for me, and month in and -month out I've not averaged ten." - -"Then, if that's the case," said Carter briskly, "just here should come -the turn in your fortunes. Shake hands, Captain. Good-bye to you, -good health and good luck. Here's my surf boat. The steamer's heaving -short." - -"Good-bye, sir," said Kettle, "I'm sure you'll remember to send that -check." - - * * * * * - -The mail-boat called as usual at Las Palmas and was boarded on arrival -by the usual batch of invalids and Liverpool trippers for the run home. -Carter landed as soon as the port doctor gave clearance papers, rowed -to the mole and chartered a tartana, between whose shafts there drooped -a mouse-colored mule. In it he bumped over the badly laid tram lines -from the Isleta to the city, and then left the city by the Telde road. - -Las Palmas is the meeting place of all West Africa, and if one is there -long enough, one expects to meet sooner or later every man who has -business or other interests on the Coast. Carter waved his hand to a -Haûsa constabulary officer in the gateway of the Catalina, and to a -Lagos branch boat skipper who was standing on the steps of the Elder -Dempster office. Coming down from the telegraph station he saw one of -the Germans who had been frightened out of Mokki, and under a café -awning by the dry river bed no less a personage than Burgoyne of Monk -River waved a hospitable hand and invited him to try a glass of Bass. - -But further on, where the Telde road leaves the city, he saw a man -whose walk he knew, and instinctively leaned out from the tartana's -awning to show himself, and to wave a greeting. The man was Cascaes. -But the Senhor Cascaes stared him coolly in the face, and--cut him dead. - -The tartana rattled on, and Carter nodded after the Portuguese -thoughtfully. "You have always hated me pretty tenderly," he mused. -"I wonder why. I've hammered you a dozen times, but it's only been in -the ordinary way of business, and what any half-baked Portuguese has -got to expect. You surely can't be up against me for that." - -Laura was not living in the convent, but lodged in the house of a -banana farmer just beyond. Carter found her in the garden. She was -sitting on the end of a bench overhung with great lavender clots of -wistaria at one end and shaded by a purple mass of bougainvillea at the -other. He noted with a queer thrill that there was something cold in -the outward form of her greeting. - -She returned his kiss accurately enough, but without enthusiasm. -Still, from the moment she saw him, the light came into her eyes that -he had grown to know so well. The two things did not seem somehow or -other to tally. Carter sat himself on the bench and took a good hold -on his nerves. Then he slid an arm round her waist and drew her to -him. "Well," he said, "out with it. What's the trouble?" - -She dropped her head on his shoulder contentedly enough. "Oh, the -usual. When you're away from me, dear, I never feel quite certain if I -ought to marry you." - -"Now, that's awkward, isn't it? But as I have been up country -colloguing with your other suitor, old Kallee, you couldn't very well -have been with me there." - -"I wish you hadn't gone." - -"How delightfully unreasonable! We'd nothing to boil the pot on -before, and now we've plenty, and neither of us is a bit the worse. -What's broke since I've been away?" - -"The world, I think," said Laura miserably. - -"Then I hope I'm the sticking plaster that will mend it. Now, I want -to hear all about Las Palmas, and what you have been doing. I see most -of West Africa's here. Great Christopher! but it is fine to smell even -the outside edge of civilization once more. My mother used to get -tired of Wharfedale occasionally--ah, well, but that wouldn't interest -you." - -"No, you always cut yourself short when you begin to talk about your -people." - -"Do I? Well, what's sauce for the gander's sauce for the goose and -you're the goose. Did you ever speak to me about your folk? Not one -word, unless I dragged it out. Look here, Laura, are you trying to -wrangle? Because if so, and if it's my fault, just say what's the -crime, and give me my licking and get it over. I've got a clear -conscience, and I'll be as penitent as you please." - -"My dear, you've been perfect." - -"Oh, I say," said Carter, "not too sudden. That sort of thing brings -on heart attacks." - -"I know your temptations, and you've been an honorable gentleman all -through." - -"I wish," said Carter whimsically, "you could persuade other people to -look at me in that light. A missionary on the steamer yesterday called -me a gin-selling ruffian because I happened to be sitting in his deck -chair; one of the Protectorate officials a week ago accused me of being -a smuggling gun-runner, because I've been up country and happened to -get on with the native local headmen instead of scrapping with them, -and Miss K. O'Neill, of our mutual acquaintance, has given me to -understand that if I don't quit poaching on what she's pleased to call -O'Neill and Craven's territory, she'll run me out of business. To give -her her due I gather she proposes to pay me something to clear out." - -"And you're going to take it from her?" - -"Don't say 'her' so tragically. I'm not going to take anything from -her, or from anyone else. I've got a mine, and it's a nailing good -mine, and I'm going to run it by my lone or bust. It isn't a thing you -could sell to a company, and besides it isn't one of those mines one -would care to sell. It's too good for that. It's just a fortune for -two people, and one of them is presently going to sign herself Laura -Carter." - -"George, you're quite the best man on earth." - -"I doubt it myself at times. By the way, who should I see down in Las -Palmas just now but Cascaes. He did me the honor of ignoring my -existence. It wasn't the unshaved Coast Cascaes either; he'd got a -clean blue chin, and the rest of him was dressed fit to kill. Now, -what is the mysterious Cascaes doing here?" - -"He's O'Neill and Craven's agent for Grand Canary. I thought you'd -heard." - -"No, it's news to me. It's news, moreover, that they had any business -here that required an agent." - -"They haven't." - -"Hum," said Carter. "Miss O'Neill doesn't pay a salary without getting -value for it. Now this is one of her deep-laid schemes." - -Laura looked at him queerly. "Yes," she said, "this is one of Kate's -deep-laid schemes, George. I wonder if you can see through it." - -The sun above them scorched high, and the cool white buildings of the -banana farmer threw the shortest of purple shadows. The fresh breath -of the trade rustled the ferns and the palm leaves of the garden, and -stirred the great masses of the bougainvillea into rhythmical movement. -"It's grand to be in a place like this after a spell on the Coast," -said Carter. - -"Do you prefer it to England?" Laura asked pointedly. - -Carter held down a sigh. "I believe I do," he said steadily. "Come, -now, old lady, what do you say? Shall we buy a property here in Grand -Canary, and settle down, and grow the finest flower garden in the -island?" - -"But roses are your favorite flower and they don't do well here in the -South." - -"Oh, it's roses that my father cares for, at least he and the mater -together run the roses at home. But I think my taste runs more to -bougainvillea, say--and great trees of scarlet geranium with stalks as -thick as one's leg, and palms, and tree ferns. Besides, a garden means -irrigation here, and I've never had a real water-works scheme of my own -to play with since I was a kid and worked out a most wonderful system -by the old smelt mill at home. Yes, we should have great times -gardening out here." - -They had never said so in words, but both of them knew that George -Carter would never take Laura back to England when once he had married -her, and the girl through all her fierce tropical love for him -recognized what this self-denial must cost and valued it to the full. -But presently she brought him back to the matter they had been talking -of before. - -"Can't you see why Kate sent Senhor Cascaes here, George?" - -"I haven't given him another thought. Besides, although Miss O'Neill -is seeing fit to interfere with me, I don't intend to meddle with her." - -"I think you ought to defend what's your own." - -"Certainly I shall. Can anyone accuse me of not doing so? But I don't -see why you keep harping on Cascaes. The man is an open admirer of -Miss O'Neill's, and I suppose she's tickled thereby. Anyway that's the -only reason I can see why she should have provided him with a job." - -"Do you mean to say you think it is Kate the Senhor Cascaes is running -after?" - -"Certainly I do. Who else was there at Mokki?" - -"Do you think I've so few attractions then?" - -"But, my good girl, you're engaged to me, and he knew it all along. -There was no secret about our engagement. Everybody about the factory -knew of it." - -"And because a girl is engaged, or even married, do you think that's -any bar to another man admiring her?" - -Carter whistled. "I've been a blind ass, and I must say I did refuse -to listen to the highfalutin' nonsense Cascaes wanted to pour into my -sympathetic ear. How often have you seen him here in Grand Canary?" - -"He has called every day." - -"That's not answering my question." - -"George, dear, give me credit for loyalty. He told me one day when you -were building that fort at Mokki that he liked me, and that if the -Okky-men came he would die cheerfully before any harm should come to -me; and I told him that he had no right to say such things to a girl -who was engaged to you." - -"Why wasn't I told of this?" - -"Because he said to me he had nearly shot you once, and I was afraid -that if there was any trouble, dear, you might be hurt." - -"You could have trusted me," said Carter dryly, "to keep my end up with -a dago like that. Besides, if you'd given me the tip, I could have -seen to it that I had the drop on him first." - -Laura shivered. "You are rather mediæval. I don't want to be fought -for." - -"Still, I gather from what you say that you've been seeing the fellow -here?" - -"Never when I could help it. Each day I've refused to see him when he -came to the house. But he has waited for me when I went out into the -country, and once he was here in the garden, sitting on this very seat, -when I came out after lunch." - -"Does he always tell the same old tale?" - -"He says always he wants to marry me." - -"I thought you said you refused to listen to him?" - -"George, don't be unreasonable. I've told him over and over again it's -no use; I've gone away every time we've met; but it seems to be the one -occupation of his life." - -"Except for running after you, I can imagine he does have plenty of -time on his hands out here." - -"Don't you think, George, he was sent to the island to have nothing to -do except that?" - -"Sent here who by? By Miss O'Neill, do you mean? Great Christopher! -Laura, what morbid idea will you have in your head next? I don't -flatter myself that outside business Miss O'Neill cares whether I'm -alive or dead, and as for you, well, the pair of you may be friendly -enough when you were kids, but you seemed to have outgrown any past -civilities last time I saw you together on the Coast. Don't you go and -run away with any wild cat notions about Miss O'Neill. She's got one -amusement in the world, and that's business, and if she's sent Cascaes -here to Las Palmas, you can bet your best frock the only job he's got -in view so far as she's concerned is dividend hunting. Apropos of -which, I nearly forgot. Here's something to practise your autograph -in." - -"Why, it's a check-book." - -"Clever girl. Guessed it in once. I just opened a credit for you down -at the bank in Las Palmas for £500 to be going on with. That's for -chocolate, and hairpins, and a mantillina, and the latest thing in -Spanish slippers. I say, Laura, you must get a pair of those tan ones, -with the laces tied in a bow just down over the toe. And if you don't -go through the lot whilst I'm away squaring mine matters up in England, -I shall take you solemnly round the shops when I come back here, and -buy you a trousseau of all the ugliest and most unbecoming garments -they have in stock." - -"You are good to me, dear. But I can never spend all that." - -"If you've any balance you find unwieldy, buy Cascaes a smile with it, -if you can find one that will fit. No, seriously, old lady, you will -be marrying a rich man, although you did not know it when you took him, -and you may as well get used to spending. It's no use for us preparing -to save." - -"No use preparing to save," poor Laura repeated miserably to herself. -"There will be no--no one except ourselves to look forward to." But -she said nothing of this aloud. She just thanked him, and snuggled in -to his shoulder and patted his sleeve. - -Far away over the corner of the isle a steamer hooted in the harbor of -the Isleta, and the sound came to them dimly through the foliage -plants. Carter looked at his watch. "Hullo, I must go, or the -criminal who drives my tartana will flog that poor beast of a mule to -death in his effort to catch the boat. So now, Miss Slade, just please -give me a sample of your best good-bye." - -Twilight does not linger in the summer months, even so far north as -Grand Canary. The sun was balanced in lurid splendor on the rocky -backbone of the isle as Carter said his last words of farewell, making -the dead volcanoes look as though at a whim they could spring once more -into scarlet life. It was dark when he got on the road, and the -evening chill rode in on the Trade. The mouse-colored tartana mule -sneezed as he pressed his galled shoulders into the collar. - -Carter wedged himself in a corner of the carriage and resolutely looked -on life with a reckless gayety. After all, what was this ache called -Love? To the devil with it! Hereafter he would eat, and drink, and -work, especially work, and--well, Laura was a good sort, and he -intended to play the game, and please her. He had given his word to -Laura, he forgot exactly why, but he had given it, and that was enough. -For good or evil he was one of those dogged Englishmen who keep to a -promise that had once been given. - -Then with an equal doggedness he thrust all these things from his mind, -and resolutely clamped down his thoughts to Tin Hill and the details of -its working. No news had reached him of the importance which the -freakish British public had placed upon his little arrangement about -that detail of the human sacrifices. He saw himself merely as an -unknown business man who in the near future would be able to sway a -thing which at present he knew nothing about, and that was the tin -market. The idea unconsciously fascinated him. He had no enmity -against the present producers of tin, did not know indeed who they -were, but he smiled grimly as he thought of the way in which presently -he would govern them. It was the lust for power, which is latent in so -many men, leaping up into life. - -The brilliant stars shone down on him from overhead, and the cool Trade -carried to him salt odors of the sea, but they got from him no -attention. His mind was journeying away in the African bush, on -spouting river-bars, in offices, on metal exchanges.... - -He was roused from these dreams with much suddenness. In his up -country journeying in Africa he had developed that animal instinct for -the nearness of danger which is present in us all, but in nine hundred -and ninety-nine men out of the thousand becomes atrophied for want of -use. In the river villages the natives had given him a name which -means Man-with-eyes-at-the-back-of-his-head. - -It was this slightly abnormal sense that sprang into quick activity, -and Carter made so sudden a stoop that his face smacked against the -shabby cushions on the opposite side of the tartana. But -simultaneously he turned and clutched through the night, and seized a -wrist, and held it with all his iron force. A moment later he found -with his other hand that the wrist was connected with a long -bright-bladed knife, so he twisted it savagely till that weapon fell -onto the dirty carpet on the floor. And all the time, be it well -understood, no sounds had been uttered, and the mouse-colored mule -jogged steadily on with the tartana through the dust and the night. - -Then Carter began to haul in on the wrist, and the man to whom it was -attached came over into the body of the vehicle, bumping his knees -shrewdly against the wheel-spokes en route. - -"Ah, Cascaes, that's you, is it? And I thought once you claimed to be -a gentleman, and agreed not to go at me from behind? Well, I'm afraid -there's only one kind of medicine that will suit you, and that's the -kind one gives to dogs that turn treacherous. Have you got any -suggestions to make?" - -The Portuguese held his tongue. - -"Ready to take your gruel, are you? Well, I propose to give you a full -dose. Hi there, driver, pull up. Wake, you sleepy head! What is it? -Why, I've picked up a passenger whilst you've been nodding, and now we -want to get down for a minute. Here, give me your whip." - - * * * * * - -Carter's arm was lusty and his temper raw. Moreover, the whip, being -the property of a Las Palmas tartana driver, was made for effective use. - -"I may not cure you," said Carter between thumps, "of a taste for -cold-blooded assassination, but I'm going to make the wearing of a coat -and breeches an annoyance to you for the next three weeks at any rate." -After which statement, as the whip broke, he flung the patient into the -aloe hedge at the side of the road, got back into the tartana and told -the driver to hurry on to the Isleta, or they'd miss the boat. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -MAJOR MEREDITH - -"The _Liverpool Post_," said Mrs. Craven, "allows itself to hint gently -that you've been rather persecuting Mr. Carter, Kate. Now, I don't -call the _Post_ a sensational paper, nor is it given to introducing -personal matters, as a rule." - -"I wish it would mind its own business and leave mine alone," said Kate -crossly. - -"'The oppression of nations or individuals,'" read Mrs. Craven, "'may -begin by being a matter of merely domestic importance, but when it -assumes sufficient dimensions it forces itself into public notice.'" - -"Do they couple my name with that?" - -"They leave you to do that yourself," said the old lady dryly. - -"Well, I don't mind. They may say what they like. I'm entirely within -my rights." - -"The _Post_ admits that. Here, I'll read you what it says, my dear. -'Mr. George Carter, whose name has been so prominently before the -public of late in connection with his splendid efforts in winning over -the King of Okky to the side of humanity, has himself been the victim -of some very high-handed oppression. He has discovered a most valuable -vein of tin in a part of the back country where no European explorer -had ever trod before, and with toil and care, and in fact with genius, -had brought cargo after cargo of the valuable ore down mysterious -African creeks and rivers to a spot where the ocean steamers could -conveniently ship it. To be precise, he hired from Messrs. Edmondson's -small factory on the Smooth River a piece of waste-cleared ground, -dumped his ore on that as he towed it tediously down those unknown -creeks in a string of dugouts, and there let it accumulate so as not to -flood the markets, and cause ruin to the tin industries in England--' -Shall I go on?" - -"Please do, Aunt." - -"'But presently an interviewer arrived in the shape of a well-known -firm of West African merchants and financiers, who bought out Messrs. -Edmondson's interest in their Smooth River factory, found that Mr. -Carter had no lease, and gave him notice to quit within forty-eight -hours. As an alternative to removal they demand an annual rent which -amounts to more than fifteen per cent. of the value of the ore stacked -there. In other words, they are endeavoring, in a manner that almost -smacks of piracy, to force themselves into partnership with him.'" - -"Sneak," said Miss O'Neill, "to go and tittle-tattle to the papers like -that." - -Mrs. Craven looked at the girl over her spectacles, and then said she, -"Wait a minute till I read you a little more. 'We should add that what -gives these proceedings a more unpleasant flavor than would appear at -first sight is the fact Mr. Carter is unable to defend himself. He had -left West Africa when action was first taken, and it has been -discovered that he was still in ignorance of what had occurred when his -steamer called at Las Palmas. The whole thing will be sprung upon him -with a shock of unpleasant surprise when he lands in Liverpool -to-morrow." - -"Ah," said Kate. - -Mrs. Craven folded the paper, stood up, and walked towards the door. -"As usual, my dear, you have carried out your plan very perfectly." - -"What plan?" asked Kate incautiously. - -"Of treating Mr. Carter so badly," said Mrs. Craven, turning the -handle, "that presently when he hits you back you will be able to bring -yourself to hate him. But then you are always successful, Kitty dear, -in everything you set your hand to--tryingly successful sometimes," -Mrs. Craven added, and went out, and shut the door softly behind her. - -Kate nodded at the door. "Aunt Jane," she said viciously, "there are -moments when you are a perfect cat. But I will make him detest me for -all that, and then I can truly and comfortably hate him. It's all very -well their calling him a martyr. Why should everybody's feelings be -consulted except mine?" - -All the same, Kate bowed in a certain degree to public sentiment. One -thinks also that she had not toughened herself sufficiently to meet -Carter face to face. Anyway, she discovered that urgent affairs called -her to London, and whirled off Aunt Jane to her flat that very night. -She left Crewdson to fight the invader when he landed in Liverpool, and -gave the old man definite instructions in writing that he was not to -budge an inch from the firm's rights. "Show Mr. Carter this letter," -she ordered, "if there is the least occasion for it." - -But it seemed that West Africa pursued her. The telephone rang as soon -as she got to the flat. - -"That London? That Miss Head? This is Liverpool, Crewdson. London's -just been calling you up. Will you ring Four-owe-seven-three Pad. -What's that? No. Four-naught-seven-three Pad. Yes, that's it. -Good-night, Miss." - -Kate had more than half a mind to let 4,073 Pad alone. She was tired, -and somehow in spite of all her successes she was a good deal -dispirited. The British public had bought no less than four great -rubber companies that she had offered them; the shares were all at a -premium; everybody was pleased; and she had transferred her own profits -safely into land and trustee securities. Since her first burst of -success, money had simply rolled in on her, and already it had ceased -to give her amusement. Success lay sour in her mouth. She asked -Fortune for just one thing more. Because she was a woman she could not -go and get it for herself. She told herself that it was only a -convention that held her back--but she shuddered and chilled all over -at the thought of breaking that convention. - -She sat in a deep soft chair, twisting her long gloves into a hard -string, and staring into the glow of the fire, and then with a "Faugh" -at her own weakness, she threw the gloves onto the fender, and walked -across to a telephone that stood on a side-table. - -"Four-owe-seven-three Pad, please. No, Forty-seventy-three Paddington. -Yes. Hullo? Hullo? Is that Four-nought-seven-three? This is Miss -O'Neill. Liverpool rang up to say you wanted to speak to me. Who is -that, please?" - -"No one you know," came in the small clear voice of the telephone. -"One of those sort of people who writes letters to the papers above -some such signature as 'Well-Wisher.'" - -"If you don't give me your name," said Kate sharply, "I shall ring off." - -"I don't think you will when I tell you I'm going to give you some news -about your father." - -"My father unfortunately is dead. You've got hold of the wrong Miss -O'Neill." - -The telephone laughed. "Not a bit of it, it's the lady who is known -generally as Kate O'Neill I'm speaking with, but whose real name is -Katherine Meredith." - -Now Kate knew that Mrs. Craven was only "Aunt Jane" by courtesy and -adoption, and had naturally wondered many times over who her real -people might have been. She had always been a very practical young -woman, and had not worried herself unduly over the matter; but still -being human, she had her share of curiosity, and though the subject had -always been strictly taboo at the house in Princes' Park, still that -did not hinder her from discussing it with her own thoughts. And now, -"Katherine Meredith!" - -"I think you had better tell me who you are," she said to the telephone. - -"I prefer anonymity. Do you know Day-Pearce?" - -"No. Yes, perhaps I do, if you mean Sir Edward Day-Pearce, the West -African man. I don't know him personally." - -"All the better," rasped the telephone. "Anyway, he is lecturing -to-night in a non-Conformist temple in Westbourne Grove--the Athenæum, -they call it. Begins at eight. He's certain to say something about -Meredith. I should try to go if I were you." - -"I shouldn't dream--" Kate began, when whizz went the bell, and she was -cut off. She rang again, got the inquiry office, found that 4,073 was -a hairdresser's shop, once more got 4,073, spoke to the proprietor, -learned that the telephone had been hired for an hour by a gentleman -who had some business to transact. No, the gentleman had just gone. -No, they didn't know who he was: never seen him before--Miss O'Neill's -ring off had a touch of temper in it. - -She went back to the deep soft chair and tried to bring her thoughts -once more to the subject that had been in hand before the interruptions -came. She was a business woman, and had trained herself to concentrate -the whole of her mind on any matter she chose. But somehow those two -little words "My father" kept cropping up; and presently she began -trying to picture what her mother was like. She went to the telephone -and called up a theatre agency. She had to say three times over -"Athenæum--Westbourne Grove" before the young man at the other end -grasped the name, and she was rewarded by hearing him laugh as he said -he had no seats for Sir Edward Day-Pearce's lecture that evening. - -"Where can I get one?" she demanded. - -"At the door, madam," was the polite response. "I believe the prices -of entrance are threepence, sixpence, and one shilling, unless you -happen to be a subscriber." - -Supposing the whole thing were a hoax to draw her there, and by some -means to make her look ridiculous? It was quite likely. She was a -successful woman, and had already learned that one of the prices of -success is the spitting of spite and envy. But difficulties did not -often stay long in the path of Miss Kate O'Neill. She picked up a -telephone directory, turned the pages, found a number, called it up, -and made certain arrangements. Thereafter she dressed, dined, and took -Mrs. Craven to laugh over the new piece at the Gaiety. - -But poor Kate found even the Gaiety dull that night. There was a man -on the stage with a red head. He was not in the least like Carter -either in looks, speech, or manner, but--well, it must have been the -hair which persisted in calling up that unpleasant train of thought -which kept her vaguely irritated throughout all the evening. - -There was a bundle of type script waiting for her when she got back to -the flat, which happened to be the verbatim report of Sir Edward -Day-Pearce's lecture which she had arranged that two stenographers -should go and take down for her, but she did not choose to open this -before the keen eyes of Aunt Jane. Instead she waited till that astute -old lady should see fit to go to bed, and watched her eat sandwiches, -drink a tumbler of soda-water lightly laced with whiskey, and listened -to a résumé of all the other plays that had filled the Gaiety boards -since the house was opened. At the end of which Kate had the final -satisfaction of being laughed at. - -"You've been itching to be rid of me ever since we got back, my dear, -and as a general thing you don't in the least mind saying when you want -to be alone. I wonder what's in those mysterious papers you're so -anxious I shouldn't ask about. Good-night, Kitty dear." - -"Good-night, Aunt Jane," said Kate, and opened the package. - -The lecture was unexciting. It was the dull record of a dull but -capable man, who knew his work thoroughly, did it accurately, and in -the telling of it left out all the points that were in the least -picturesque or interesting. Sir Edward had spent half a lifetime in -Colonial administration, and the only times he rose into anything -approaching eloquence was when he had to tell of some colonial interest -that was ruthlessly sacrificed by some ignorant official at home for -the sake of a vote or a fad. Four several instances he gave of this, -and these stood out warmly against the gray background of the rest of -the speech. - -But to Kate, who knew her West Africa by heart, it was all dull enough -reading till he came to almost the last paragraph. - -"It is by a peculiar irony," the type report read, "that an agreement -should recently have been come to by which the notorious King of Okky -promises to discontinue his practice of human sacrifice. It is -six-and-twenty years since I first went out to West Africa, and my -immediate superior then was Major Meredith. He was a man of the -highest ideals, and we all thought of tremendous capabilities. He saw -what was wanted on the spot, and carried out his theories with small -enough regard for ignorant criticism at home. By the exercise of -tremendous personal influence, and at a fearful risk, he made his way -to Okky City itself, saw its unspeakable horrors, and made a treaty -with the then king. In return for certain concessions the king was to -come under British protection, and of course give up objectionable -practices. Well, I don't know whether there are any of the -Anti-British party here, but I daresay most of you will think that the -addition of a quarter of a million of square miles of rich country to -the empire was no mean gift. Ladies and gentlemen, you little know -what the Government was then. 'Perish West Africa' was one of their -many creeds, and with Exeter--" [here the reporter had written the word -"Disturbance," and evidently missed the next few sentences]--"I don't -care whether you like it or whether you are decently ashamed, the -thing's true. They refused to ratify the treaty, and my poor chief was -censured for exceeding instructions. Well, the backers of the -high-minded potentate, as I believe they called themselves, got their -way, and I wish they were not too ignorant to realize what their mean -little action caused in human lives. Putting the human sacrifice in -Okky City at the very low estimate of eight thousand a year, in -five-and-twenty years that brings the figure up to two hundred thousand -black men and women whose blood lies at the door of those unctuous -hypocrites who made it their business to break Major Meredith because -he was an Imperialist." - -Again the reporter put in the word "Disturbance," but he apparently -managed to catch the next sentence. "Aye, you may yap," the old -administrator went on, "and I dare say from the snug looks of some of -you you're own sons of the men who did it, and I hope you feel the -weight of their bloodguiltiness. Two hundred thousand lives, -gentlemen, and all thrown away to pander to the fads of some ignorant -theorists who had never been beyond the shores of England. If Major -Meredith could have held out against the clamor, I believe that he -would have been a man to stand beside Clive, and Rhodes, and Hastings, -in the work he would have done for the Empire; but as it was he left -the service in disgust, and drifted away into the savage depths of that -Africa he knew so well, and had so vainly tried to help. His wife went -with him, and, so I heard, bore him a daughter before she died. A -rumor reached me that some trader brought the child to England and -adopted her, but poor Meredith--well, he has disappeared from the -record...." - -The lecture closed, a few paragraphs farther on, again with -"Disturbance." - -Kate folded the sheets and put them on the table. She was somehow -conscious of a queer thrill of elation. One of the discomforts that an -adopted child who does not know her history must always carry through -life, is the feeling of having been bred of parents that were probably -discreditable. She had vague memories of her babyhood. There was a -village of thatched houses and shade trees. She had clear recollection -of one day playing in the dust with the village dogs and the other -babies--black babies, they were--when a huge spotted beast sprang -amongst them, roared, and for a moment stood over her, the white baby. -At intervals she had dreamed of that beast ever since. From maturer -knowledge she knew it must have been a leopard, and leopards do not -grow beyond a certain normal size. But in dreamland that leopard was -always enormous.... She could never remember whether in the dusty -village street under the heat and the sunshine it had done damage, or -whether the pariah dogs had frightened it away. - -Try how she would, she could remember no mother. The women of the -village were all black, and she lived, so faint memory said, first with -one and then with another. She had no clear recollection of any of -them.... And, indeed, there might have been many villages, because -there were hammock journeys, with a pet monkey riding on the pole, and -walls of thick green bush on either hand that held dangers.... She -still had a scar just below the nail on the first finger of her right -hand where the monkey bit her one day when she teased it. - -But plainest of all these dim pictures of the memory was one of a white -man who at rare intervals came into the scene and took her on his knee. -He had iron-gray hair and beard which were shaggy and matted, and he -always had a pipe between his lips and a glittering eye-glass on a -black watered-silk ribbon for her to play with. Furthermore, he always -brought some present when he came to see her, and gave another present -also, if he was pleased, to the black women with whom she lived. It -was he who hung round her neck the Aggry bead that she still had locked -away in the bottom tray of her jewel case. - -She remembered this man with a vague kindness. But if Godfrey O'Neill -cut her off from him with such completeness it must have been for some -profoundly good reason. Uncle Godfrey had been far from squeamish. -Uncle Godfrey in his lazy way stuck to friends when everybody else -voted them far outside the pale. And therefore, she had argued, the -iron-gray haired man with the eyeglass must have done something -peculiarly disgraceful. - -That he was her father she was entirely sure. Occasionally she had -tried to argue with herself that she was little more than a babe when -she saw him last, and was no judge, and that possibly the iron-gray man -was her father's friend. But something stronger than mere human reason -always rose up in arms against such a suggestion. - -Sir Edward's halting lecture had roused up one recollection in her head -that heretofore had persistently eluded her. A thousand times in those -dreams of Africa, and the hot villages, and the pet monkey with its red -seed necklace, and all the other old dim scenes, she had on the tip of -her memory the name of the iron-gray man with the eyeglass, and a -thousand times she had missed catching it by the smallest hair. In a -flash it came back--he was Meredith. - -Was he alive still? She could not tell; but that she would find out -now. For once she adjudged old Godfrey O'Neill to be wrong. She was -not going to let the discreet veil remain any longer over a man who, -whatever his subsequent career had been, at any rate was a martyr once, -and her father. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -THE FEELING ON THE COAST - -"Well, Carter-me-lad," said Captain Image, coming into the room, "they -tell me you're the most unpopular man in Liverpool. They want to give -you dinners, and put your photo in the papers, and hear you make a -speech, and you won't have anything to do with anybody. What's broke? -Tin troubling you?" - -"Oh! tin's all right. But I've got a constitutional dislike to -marching along at the tail of a brass band, that's all. Besides I feel -an awful humbug when all these silly stay-at-home people insist on -believing that the one and only reason I went up country was to chop -down old Kallee's private crucifixion tree. Have a cigar?" - -"Not me in here, me lad. I came home from the Islands with the old -_M'poso_ full of passengers, and I've smoked myself half sick on -cigars. I'll suck at a pipe. By the way, I've got a message for you -from Kallee. The old sinner came on board himself when we were lying -off Edmondson's factory trying to get your ore, and nearly drank the -ship dry before I could get quit of him. Owe-it Slade's been palming -off I.O.U.'s on him. He'd got quite a sheaf of them. He says when you -marry Laura he'll give them to you as a wedding present, or words to -that effect. But in the meanwhile if he can catch Slade he's just -going to chop his head off to prevent him putting any more paper into -circulation." - -"Well?" - -"Well, you see, me lad, Slade owes our fo'c'sle shop a matter of four -pounds odd which we can't collect, and he's got a Holland gun of mine -that I shouldn't really like to lose. Besides, come to thinking of it, -I suppose Laura's fond of him anyway. Couldn't you do something for -him?" - -Carter stared. "Has he left O'Neill and Craven's, then?" - -Captain Image stopped down the tobacco in his pipe with a horny -forefinger. "Why, no, and you'll have to pay to get him away." - -"But what mortal use is he to me?" - -Captain Image's pipe worked hard and he spoke in jerks. "Rubber -palaver. Owe-it Slade's the smartest man at dem rubber palaver on the -Coast." - -"Pooh! That slackster!" - -"That's where you're making the usual mistake. Slade's got his faults. -He wastes his money, he never pays his bills, he sponges for all -eternity, and he makes out he was born lazy. But don't you believe -him. Who got Miss Kate all these rubber properties that she's floated -off into such whacking big companies?" - -"Miss Kate O'Neill." - -"No more than you did, me lad. It was just Owe-it Slade. And to -think," Captain Image added with a sigh, "I always put that man down as -a borrowing waster, and never even hustled him to collect cargo for me. -Why, if I'd known then what I know now, I could have bought rubber -lands through him, for a half surf boat full of gin, that I might have -sold to a company myself, and dined off turkey in my own house ashore -every day for all the rest of my natural life. Why, my Christian Aunt! -I might even have married, if I'd worked him properly." - -Captain Image dabbed with his forefinger on Carter's coat sleeve and -left a print of tobacco ash. "You buy up Owe-it Slade, me lad, and not -only is your fortune made, but--well," he added rather lamely, "you buy -him up and just remember I told you to." - -"But--what were you going to say?" - -"Well," said Image desperately, "I didn't intend to tell you, but all -up and down the Coast, and in the hotels in Las Palmas, and even in the -bars and offices here, the boys don't like the way Miss Kate is playing -it on you. It's all right for a girl to take to business, if she's -built that way, but she ought to play the game. Of course the general -idea is, me lad, that you and she started sweet-hearting and had a -turn-up, but of course I'm in the know, and I've called 'em dam' liars -every time they've started that tale, and told 'em about Laura and how -you were fixed up long before Miss Kate came down onto the Coast. Why, -Carter-me-lad, I've backed up my words with bets to that extent that if -you were to marry the lady now by any kind of accident, I should stand -to lose what with one fiver and another, a matter of two hundred and -fifty pounds." - -Carter laughed. "That puts it finally out of the region of -possibility, doesn't it? I can't let you lose a pile like that. But -all the same I'm not going to interfere with Miss O'Neill. If Slade's -useful to her, let her keep him. I'm much obliged to a lot of -officious idiots for sympathizing with me, but really they're moving on -a lot too fast. It will be quite time for other people to be sorry for -me when I start in to be sorry for myself. Besides, I thought you, at -any rate, were a strong admirer of Miss O'Neill's?" - -"I am," said Captain Image patiently. He always flattered himself that -he left the more eloquent parts of his speech at Sierra Leone on each -trip north, and picked them up again there next voyage for vigorous use -on the Coast. It was his pride that he conformed most suitably to -Liverpool's sedate atmosphere. "I admire Miss Kate as a lady more than -anyone I know, and if she were only twenty years older, and I could -afford it, I wouldn't mind going in for her myself. But it's her -business ideas, as she showed them over that factory of Edmondson's, -that I can't stand. The way she stuck up the rent on you, me lad, is -the limit. Why, if that sort of thing went on, nobody would be safe. -It's Oil-Trust morals. I'm Welsh myself, but I do draw the line -somewhere." - -"What, Welsh?" said Carter politely. "I should never have guessed it." - -"I am," said Captain Image with sturdy truth, "and many times, look -you, I am proud of it. Which reminds me that little red-bearded Kettle -that you employed to run your launch and the mine is Welsh also. I -don't want to go against a fellow-countryman who's down on his luck, -but I saw him with my own eyes give old Kallee an illustrated methody -tract on bigamy when he was on the _M'poso_, and if His Portliness -finds anyone kind enough to translate it for him, there'll be the devil -to pay. Kallee's black, but he's a king, and he's not the kind to let -any man tamper with his domestic happiness. Now about Slade----" - -"We'll drop Slade. He's Miss O'Neill's man. If Miss O'Neill chooses -to amuse herself by gunning for me, that's her concern. But I don't -shoot back." - -Captain Image shook his head sadly. "Well, me lad, if you won't lift a -hand to help yourself, I don't see there's anything more to be said." -He put his pipe in his pocket, stood up and prepared to go. "Oh, by -the way, did anyone tell you about old Swizzle-Stick Smith?" - -"Not dead, is he?" - -"Lord bless you, no, me lad. Very much the reverse. Look here, what -was your idea of that man?" - -"In what way?" - -"What was he before he became the disreputable old palm oil ruffian you -first knew at Malla-Nulla?" - -"Oh, I suppose he was less disreputable once. He'd let himself drift, -that's all. One does get into frightfully slack ways in those lonely -factories." - -"Did he strike you as the usual type of man a factory agent's made of?" - -"Why, no." - -"Gentleman, wasn't he, or had been once? Always used to hitch up the -knees of his pyjamas when he sat down; spoke well; knew Latin; could -swear round any man on the Coast when he was that side out; and had a -pleasant way of making you feel you were dirt when the mood took him -that way?" - -Carter laughed. "He had some characteristic little ways." - -"Ever strike you he'd been a soldier once?" - -"I suppose it did." - -"Well, me lad, when I was tied up by that Edmondson factory, a boat -swung up to my ladder and a military party stepped out. Quite the -swell, I can tell you: nobby white helmet, hair cut with scissors, -smart gray mustache, gray imperial bristling underneath it, -clean-shaved chin, white drill coat with concertina pockets, white -drill pants with a crease down the shin, latest thing in pipe-clayed -shoes. If it hadn't been for the old trick with the eye-glass and the -black ribbon, I take my dick I shouldn't have known him. - -"'Hullo Swizzle-Stick Smith,' said I, 'you are a howler. Whose kit -have you been robbing?' - -"'Captain Image,' says he, 'allow me--ar--to present to you Mr. Smith, -a new acquaintance. It is not--ar--my wish to be mistaken for any of -your discreditable--ar--pot companions of the past.' That to me, and -on my own deck, me lad. What do you think of that?" - -"I bet you boiled." - -Captain Image scratched his head vexedly. "The rum part of it is, I -didn't. Somehow I took the man at his own valuation. There didn't -seem anything else left to do. He went into my chart house, and sat -there as solid as if he'd been the governor of a colony with six -letters after his name. Just drank one cocktail and took three -swallows at it, I'll trouble you, and actually left a second to stand -by itself on the tray. When I handed him the tobacco tin to see if -he'd got that frowsy old pipe in his pocket, I'm hanged if he didn't -pull out a book of cigarette papers and roll himself a smoke with -those. Well, me lad, when I remembered Swizzle-Stick Smith's opinion -of cigarettes, you might have knocked me down with a teaspoon." - -"He scared me out of cigarette smoking at Malla-Nulla," said Carter. -"He was pretty emphatic over the weak-kneed crowd (as he called them) -who only smoked cigarettes. But why all this revolution in Mr. Smith's -habits? Did he give any reason for it?" - -"That's the amazing thing, he didn't--at least not a proper reason. He -just let me see that the new Mr. Smith--I got to calling him Major, by -the way--was no relation to the Swizzle-Stick Smith that was, and then -went back over the side to his boat." - -"I suppose," said Carter thoughtfully, "he wanted the reformation to be -advertised." - -"Well, you don't think I'd keep a choice bit like that to myself," said -Captain Image. "Naturally I spread the news, though I certainly didn't -tell all the Coast, as I've told you, the way that the late -Swizzle-Stick Smith made me feel second man in my own chart house. But -that man doesn't need any advertising; the most genial drunk wouldn't -take liberties with him, and you'd fall into calling him Major yourself -if you sat with him for ten minutes. My Christian Aunt! just think -what a filthy old palm oil ruffian he used to be." - -"Did he give any reason for pulling up?" - -"Oh, I asked him that. Managed to slip it in, you know. And he -answered as dry as you please, 'Urgent private affairs, Captain Image,' -and then tagged on some Latin, which, as he remarked would be the case, -I didn't understand. You know, me lad," said the sailor thoughtfully, -"he's a gentleman right through, but I shouldn't think that even in his -palmy days he was a man who would have got on particularly well with -the people. A bit superior, I should call it, with those who hadn't -been birched in the same public school where he was birched." - -"I suppose," said Carter, "this is another instance of Miss O'Neill's -influence." - -"As to that," said Image, "I can't say, me lad; but this I can tell -you, the Major's what he calls 'sent in his papers' to O'Neill and -Craven's." - -"The deuce he has. What on earth for?" - -"Can't tell you. Old Crewdson gave me the news. I said to him I -didn't suppose the loss of Swizzle-Stick Smith, even now that he had -changed himself into Major Smith, would make their firm put up the -shutters. But Crewdson wouldn't take it as a joke. He told me Miss -Kate was very sorry indeed to lose him, and had herself written to ask -him to come and see her here in England. Now, me lad, what's her game -in that?" - -"I didn't know," said Carter resolutely, "and I don't want to know. As -I tell you, I flatly refuse to interfere in any of Miss O'Neill's -affairs." - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - -A FISHERMAN AND HIS CATCH - -The fisherman was discontented. - -The reasons for his discontent were not plain to the eye. There had -been as good a fly water as anyone could want; there had been enough -breeze to ruffle the surface, enough cloud to prevent glare; he had -picked just the right flies from his book to suit the river, and the -fish rose freely to them. He was carrying home as fine a dish of trout -as any man could wish for, and had scrupulously thrown back everything -under ten and a half inches. But even these things did not please him. -He sucked hard at his cold pipe, and bit at fate as he tramped on -inn-wards through the gathering dusk. - -He came to a cross-roads once, and abused the Welsh authorities for not -putting up a sign-post for his guidance. The district was new to him; -indeed he had come there for that reason: he wanted to be alone for -these last days in England. He had fished his way up stream all day, -and instead of following the water windings back again, was making his -return journey by road. And here, it appeared, were three roads to -choose from. But he was a man of resource. He depicted mentally a map -of the country, found the newly risen North star, and got his bearings, -and then trudged on again with confidence among towering mountains. - -It was night now, moonless, chill, and dark, and the mountains hung on -either side like great walls of blackness. The road was white and -faintly visible. But for all that he had presently to pull up sharply -to avoid an obstruction. "Hullo," he said, "a motor car." And then -aloud, "Anybody here?" - -A grumbling voice answered him from the ditch. "Yes, I'm the driver, -and I'm here bathing my confounded wrist." - -"Had a smash? Can I help? What is it? Bone broken?" - -"No, only a bad sprain"--the man peered at Carter through the dusk and -added "sir." - -"Your car seems to be standing up all right on her four wheels. How -did you get pitched out?" - -"Oh, it wasn't that sort of an accident. She was misfiring badly, and -then she stopped. When I tried to start her again, she back-fired on -me and I thought my arm had gone. It's the jet in the carburetter -that's choked, I believe, but I can't take the thing down with one -hand." - -"I could," Carter thought, and remembered certain episodes with his own -first motor boat in Africa. But he did not mention this aloud. "Owner -gone for help?" he asked. - -"Yes, sir. But there's none round here. At least there's no such -thing as a mechanic within twenty miles. A hay-motor and a tow to the -nearest barn is the best one can expect." - -"Where's your tool kit?" - -"But do you understand motors, sir?" the man asked doubtfully. - -"I had to. Just unship a light, and hold it with your sound hand so -that I can see what I'm about. That's the ticket. You're sure it's -the carburetter? Tried your spark and all four plugs?" - -"Yes, sir, both the magneto and high tension. That's all right. She's -getting no gas; that's the trouble. It's the gasolene feed that's -choked somewhere. I saw the fellow that filled us up this morning pour -in from a red-rusty tin before I could stop him, and it'll be a flake -of oxide from that jammed in the carburetter nozzle. If you could take -it down for us, sir, I'm sure it would be a very great favor." - -"Wait a bit. Before we begin to pull the car to pieces, suppose we -just make sure of one or two other things. Got a stick or anything to -sound your gasolene tank with?" - -"Oh, that's all right. We haven't run sixty miles since I put in eight -gallons." - -But Carter straightened out a length of copper wire, unscrewed the cap, -and sounded the tank. He pulled out the wire and examined it at the -lamp. He wiped it carefully and tried a second time. - -"Moses!" said the driver, "dry as a bone. Now, who's been playing -pranks here? Must have been some of that nasty Welsh crowd that was -hanging round whilst we was having lunch." - -"Why, there's the union underneath the tank half unscrewed. That would -account for the leak, anyway. Here, hold the lamp. Not too close. -Yes, and the vibration has cracked the feed pipe. There's a gap I can -get my finger nail into. Now, first of all, have you got any spare -gasolene?" - -"Yes, sir. Two tins." - -"Good. Then it's worth while mending this feed pipe. I suppose you -haven't a soldering iron?" - -"Afraid not, sir. There's rubber solution----" - -"Which gasolene melts. Here, let's go through your stock. Ah, here's -a tube of seccotine. Now I'll show you a conjuring trick. If we give -the crack three coats of that, and let each dry well before the next is -put on--Good Lord! Kate!" - -Miss O'Neill came up out of the darkness and bowed. "It's really very -good of you, Mr. Carter, to trouble over my car." - -"I didn't know it was yours. I didn't know you were in this -neighborhood. In fact I did not know where you were." - -Kate shrugged her shoulders. "Didn't some sapient person once record -that coincidences were the commonest things in life? A minute ago I -didn't know whether you were in England, or West Africa, or Grand -Canary; and you didn't know or care whether I was alive or dead; and -here we meet in the dark on an unnamed roadside in Wales. It's just -one of those ordinary, every-day, impossible coincidences, which the -vogue of motor cars is making a little more common than usual. I'm -glad you're letting business differences sink for the moment." - -"I didn't know it was your car." - -"Or you'd have bitten off your hand sooner than have touched it?" - -He laughed rather dryly. "I'm afraid I should have yielded to the -temptation of meddling. You see, internal combustion engines are -rather a fad of mine." - -"Excellent reason. How long is this ingenious repair going to take?" - -"H'm; three coats of seccotine--have to allow each twenty minutes to -dry--call it an hour. After that I think if we couple up the union, -and put in the spare gasolene your man says he's got, you should go -sailing off without a hitch. By the way, I didn't know you motored." - -"I'm full of unpleasant surprises." - -"Yes, Cascaes, for instance." - -"Well, why shouldn't I open up an O'Neill and Craven agency in Las -Palmas, pray?" - -"No reason whatever. I wasn't referring to Cascaes' business -abilities." - -"Wagner," said Miss O'Neill to her man, "there's a farm about a mile -down this road where they'll bandage up your wrist, and make you some -sort of a sling. Don't be away longer than you can help. Mr. Carter -and I will look after the car till you get back." - -"Thank you'm," said the driver, and marched off into the night. They -stared after him till the sound of his footfalls on the hard road died -away, and then said Miss O'Neill, "Why doesn't Mr. Cascaes answer when -I cable?" - -"You can hardly expect me to overlook the work of your Las Palm as -agency." - -"Don't quibble. Do you know why he is silent?" - -"I can make a guess." - -"Well, go on." - -"He's probably too busy picking aloe thorns out of his carcass to find -time for writing cables." - -"Oh, so you threw him into an aloe hedge, did you? What did Laura say -to that?" - -"Well, as she knew nothing about it, she naturally did not comment." - -"I see; and did Mr. Cascaes object?" - -"Not obtrusively. He took the best licking I ever gave to man or dog -without a whimper, and when I tossed him amongst those aloe hooks, he -lay there just as he fell." - -"Ah," said Kate, and drew a long breath. - -"Keen on motoring?" Carter asked after a pause. - -"I am, yes." - -"I'm taking a light four-cylinder back to the Islands with me." - -"Let me see, I promised you a wedding present, didn't I? Let me know -when it's for, and what you'll have. By the way, talking of -coincidences, I was motoring in the Yorkshire dales a week or so ago, -and coming down out of Wensleydale into Wharfedale, we dropped down -over a perfectly terrific piece of road that cost me a back tire. -Well, unluckily we'd used up the only other spare cover on the car -already, so the only thing left was to go slowly on the rim on into the -village below and wire for another. - -"Such a dear old village it was, of gray stone houses, tucked away -under the gray limestone hills, with all the gardens as bright with -flowers as you find them in a story-book. The parson saw us when we -came in from skating down that awful hill, and when he saw me -afterwards strolling round looking at the flowers, he very nicely asked -me to go in and look at his roses. A splendid old man he was, and such -gorgeous roses. He likes big blooms, and he snips off the superfluous -buds on the sly, and Mrs. Parson likes lots of blooms to cut at and to -give away, and she's always on the watch after him to see he doesn't -steal those buds. I met her, too, and they took me in and gave me tea. - -"They'd some Okky war horns on the wall of their draw-ing-room, and I -told them I'd a very fine one on mine, and so naturally we got to -talking 'Coast.' They've a son out there--or to be more accurate, they -had, because he seems to be in England now--and they're a good deal -troubled about him. He keeps on making excuses instead of going to see -them. Mrs. Parson, who by the way is a perfect dear, said they were -afraid he had done something foolish and was shy about coming home----" - -"Well?" said Carter. - -"Oh, I'm pretty certain the prodigal would have no trouble with her." - -"But the Parson? He said nothing about providing veal, I suppose?" - -"He did not. To be precise he confined his conversation to roses, and -the dale, and a very charming old gentleman he was." - -"As you may guess," said Carter savagely, "I don't thank you for going -to inspect my people like that." - -"I don't recollect," said Miss O'Neill with much sweetness, "ever -asking you to thank me. By accident I stumble across some delightful -people; I have the opportunity of enjoying their society, and for the -sake of seeing more of them I lived in the village for three whole -days. They've asked me to go and stay with them next summer, and I'm -going. I don't see how that can annoy you, as you've given up going -near them." - -"I think that crack in the gasolene pipe will stand another coat of -seccotine now," said Carter, and moved the lamp and knelt once more in -the dusty road. - -"It seems a pity," said Miss O'Neill musingly. - -"I don't see what business it is of yours anyway," Carter snapped. - -"Oh, but surely it's my car that you're so kindly working at. And I do -think it's a pity you should have all that trouble with that nasty, -smelling, sticky seccotine, when it will all have to be scratched off -to-morrow, and the hole soldered up." - -Carter laughed in spite of his rage. "You didn't mean that in the -least, but I'll own up you drew me smartly enough. It is a pity--I -mean the other thing--I love the dale, and I'm about as fond as a man -can be of my people. But when you're in love with a girl, and you've -promised to marry her, well, other things have to slide." - -"Ah, love," said Kate thoughtfully. "I wonder what being in love is -really like? I must try it some day as an experience. It seems to -alter one's obligations. I should like you to hear my friend the -Parson on obligations." - -"I can tell you his creed in the matter as he taught it to me as far -back as I can remember. The rule, according to him, is: First, keep -your word; second, go on keeping it; third, don't let any other -considerations whatever interfere with your keeping it." - -"Spartan, simple, admirable," said Kate, and then could have bitten out -her tongue for sending the words past her lips. She took Carter's hand -impulsively enough, and, "I beg your pardon for that," she said. "I -may think you're a fool, but I know you are also the most honorable man -alive." - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - -THE SONG OF SPEED - -For a business woman, Kate took singularly small interest in her -letters that morning, and Mrs. Craven from behind the coffee-pot looked -at her rather wistfully. They were staying in the Lakes, and were -supposed to be motoring. But though the old lady was vigorous enough, -and was only too pleased to bustle about from place to place, Kate was -listless, and always had an excuse when change was suggested. As a -reason, she said she had been overworking herself, and wanted to sit -still and do nothing; but she did not believe this herself nor did Mrs. -Craven believe it. Moreover, Kate knew that Mrs. Craven disbelieved. - -She was a very healthy young woman as a general thing, but that morning -she ate a thoroughly bad breakfast, and crumbled a slice of toast -beside her plate to give a general idea of performance. Then she threw -her napkin on the table, and again went through the envelopes. There -was one from the Liverpool office. She opened it, and drew out half a -dozen typewritten sheets. But the distaste for business was big in -her, and she was putting these down with the rest when a name caught -her eye. - -Cascaes. - -She read the sentence surrounding it. "Our Mr. Cascaes cables that he -this morning married a Miss Laura Slade, and on her insistence hereby -tenders us his resignation." - -Kate snapped the papers together, looked at her bracelet watch and -stood up briskly. - -"Aunt Jane, I am sorry, but a very important matter has turned up which -drags me off to Liverpool for the day." - -Mrs. Craven was a wise woman and could read signs. Moreover, she had -known Kate from three years old, upwards. "My dear," she said, "I'm -rejoiced at your news. Go and make it up with him." - -Kate blushed and laughed. "It isn't that at all, aunt. Or only -partly. But I must go." - -"There's no train now till mid-day." - -"I shall motor down to Carnforth and cut off the 10.38 there." - -"If you don't break your neck in the process, you'll land in gaol for -excessive speed," said the old lady; "and," she added dryly, "I'm sure -you'd prefer even one of those alternatives to staying sensibly here -with me, and waiting for a train in the decent course of things. -There, run along, Kitty, and get your things on, and I'll go and incite -Wagner." - -Miss O'Neill went upstairs to her bedroom two steps at a time, and for -the moment was minded to drag on any outer clothes that would cover -her. But then a thought came to her, and she smiled, and took out from -its box a Paris hat that she had never worn before. She pinned this -into place with infinite care, covered it and her auburn hair with a -capacious motor veil, and hung another veil, which had in it a -protective window of talc, over her pretty face. And then she put on a -great motor coat. She was very much guarded from the dust and the -weather externally, but inside the ugly chrysalis was as spruce a Kitty -O'Neill as any man could have sighed after. - -Wagner, as usual when he was wanted, had "just gone out" for something. -But Kate had an enthusiast's knowledge of her that year's forty-horse -car. She saw that both electric and magneto ignitions were switched -off, and then she turned on her gasolene, flooded the carburetter, and -applied herself to the starting handle. There was a high compression -in the engine, but she was strong, and just then she was goaded by -something which made her put out just a fraction more (she thought) -than the full of her strength. She filled the cylinders with gas. -Then she threw in the switch to all the insulators, and the engine -started most obediently. She stepped into the driving seat, collected -her wraps, threw out the clutch, dropped in the first speed, and let -the clutch slide home. - -The car drew out, as if it had been pulled by a rope, and Kate flung a -last hand wave to Mrs. Craven. Then she got on to the direct drive of -the third speed, and checked her throttle to keep down the pace till -she was out of the traffic. - -"Six-and-twenty miles to Carnforth," she reckoned, "and the train goes -through there in just sixty-one minutes from now. Well, I should -average thirty-five miles an hour for the run, and that will leave me -nice time to find someone to take charge of the car, and buy a ticket -to Liverpool for myself." - -They pulled out of the village, and Kate pushed up her spark and -throttle levers notch by notch. The purr of the motor increased in -shrillness. She drove often herself, but seldom at high speeds, and -just now, when she got into the long empty stretches of straight, out -of sheer exhilaration she let out the great car till it was wheeling -along at a good forty miles to the hour. It swayed rather dangerously, -but she had no nerves to be ruffled by a trifle like that. The motor -was giving out its high note of exultant speed, and she was thrilled -with the power she rode. - -Woods and rocks flew by, mile after mile of fencing shot astern, but -still the great car sang along its way, now bumping over a grip, now -slackening a trifle on a rise. The rhythm of the engines sounded in -her ears like a poem, and she tended to their needs with a real -affection; the pelt of the air exhilarated her. - -And then came the downfall. A whistle shrieked out from behind her, -another whistle shrilled in front, and a policeman sprang from the -hedge. Kate was in no mood for stopping. She tried to dodge round the -man. With ignorant courage he leaped across the road to stop her. She -threw out her clutch and desperately set her brakes. The great car -lurched, slid, sidled, and all but overturned. The policeman, by a -marvellous mixture of skill, presence of mind, and luck on Kate's part, -was not killed. But he stood scorching his hand on a very warm -radiator, and Kate sat white-faced at the wheel, taming down her -insulted engines. - -After that there was no hurry. She pleaded a life and death -engagement, but the majesty of the law was ruffled, and saw to it that -all things were done with dignity and in order. - -Kate was charged with driving to the danger of the public. The road -was entirely deserted just there, and there was no public, but she -admitted the crime, gave name and number, and humbly asked to go. But -not a bit of it. The Law wanted to see her driving license, which of -course she had not got, and then out came note-books and pencils. The -criminal lost her temper, and so the Law was deliberately slow.... - -Kate reached Carnforth station just three minutes after the express had -left, and was half-minded there and then to give up the chase. Carter -would sail in the _Secondee_ at the appointed hour, and when he got to -Las Palmas and heard the news he would return to her by the next boat. -She was sure enough of that. But no, she could not let him go. It -might be (terrific thing) unmaidenly of her to thrust herself and her -news in his way, but she could not help it. Besides, a fear cramped -her when she thought of Cascaes. She had heard to her horror of the -knife that Cascaes had wielded so undeftly in the dark along the Telde -road, although indeed Carter had made no mention of it, and she dreaded -what might happen should the two men come together a second time. - -She looked at the time-table; there was no train that would help her. -If she wanted to get to Liverpool before the _Secondee_ sailed, it must -be by car. So once more she sat herself in the seat of government.... - -The road held through Lancaster to Preston, and outside towns and -villages she crashed along often at a fifty-mile gait in her fear at -being too late. And then came the black cotton towns of Lancashire -with their slatternly women and shrill-voiced children scrambling over -the streets. She had to slow to a crawl through these, and even then -the tires skated dangerously over the greasy streets. But speed -triumphed over time and distance in the end. She swung at a rattling -gait into a Liverpool suburb, and for the third time had her number -taken by an indignant policeman, and thereafter slowed to a dignified -crawl. She glanced at her watch. With care now, and if no mishap -blocked her progress, she would be on the landing stage before the -mail-boat threw off her ropes. - -Luck and good nerve aided her bravely now. She wormed her way rapidly -through the increasing traffic of the Liverpool streets, and came to -the landing stage entrance. - -She patted her car and gave it a word of gratitude. A cabman took -charge, and with him also she left motor veils, coat and gloves, and -walked down onto the landing stage fully conscious of neat hair, a -perfect frock, and the Paris hat. Carter was standing gloomily at the -bookstall, with a chin that looked more dogged and hair that was redder -than ever. - -"Ah," she said lightly, "fancy meeting you here. Weren't you going by -last week's boat?" - -"No," he said heavily, "this." - -"Have you paid for your passage?" - -"Yes, of course. Why?" - -"Because I'm afraid you will waste it." - -He shook his head. - -"You had no cable from Las Palmas during the last two days?" - -"No. Have you? What are you driving at?" There was something so -pathetic in his brown eyes that she had not the heart to drag out her -explanation any further. She pulled a letter from her pocket, marked a -place with her thumb and showed it to him. - -He put a heavy hand down on the bookstall and stirred the papers into -little heaps. "My God! Laura married. Married! Let me think what -this means!" - -A very indignant bookstall keeper began to make remarks, but Kate said, -"Thank you. Those are the ones I want. Please tie them up for me. -Here's a sovereign." And then she put a hand on Carter's arm and led -him outside the crowd. - -"Well," she said, "have you decided yet if you are entirely -broken-hearted?" - -He thought a minute, and then said he, "I think my people will be glad -when they hear." - -Kate blushed rosy pink. "They are both very fond of me," she observed. - -"That," said Carter, "is what I was thinking about. Kitty, darling, -there isn't a girl in all Africa, Europe, or America, who has been -loved as dearly as I've loved you. But I couldn't marry you, could I, -till the way was cleared. Now, could I?--here, let's get out of this -crowd, and hire a cab, and drive to the North Pole, or somewhere we can -be alone to talk all this out. It's wonderful." - -"But what about your baggage?" - -"Oh, bother the baggage. White-Man's-Trouble has it somewhere, and -he'll jump overboard if he finds I'm not on the ship. There's no -shaking off that boy, Kitty dear, so I'm afraid you'll have to take him -along with me when you cease to be Kitty O'Neill." - -"George, do you know I've got a great secret for you. I'm not Kitty -O'Neill at all. I'm Kitty Meredith." - -"As a point of fact I gathered that from your father. From what old -Cappie Image told me, 'Major Smith,' as he calls him, will be home in -time to give you away on your wedding day. But I shouldn't trouble to -call yourself Kate Meredith, if I were you, sweetheart. When you do -practise a new signature let it be Kitty Carter." - -Kate blushed again most divinely. "As the deepest of secrets, let me -tell you that I can write it quite well already, though I have been -desperately afraid I should never have the luck to use it." - - - -THE END - - - - * * * * * - - - - - Former Works by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne - - THE LOST CONTINENT - PRINCE RUPERT, THE BUCCANEER - THOMPSON'S PROGRESS - McTODD - ATOMS OF EMPIRE - THE FILIBUSTERS - A MASTER OF FORTUNE - ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE - - - - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Kate Meredith, Financier, by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE MEREDITH, FINANCIER *** - -***** This file should be named 55962-8.txt or 55962-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/9/6/55962/ - -Produced by Al Haines -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. 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J. Cutcliffe Hyne - -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'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Kate Meredith, Financier - -Author: C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne - -Illustrator: Frank Parker - -Release Date: November 14, 2017 [EBook #55962] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE MEREDITH, FINANCIER *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines - - - - - -</pre> - - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-front"></a> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-front.jpg" alt="They explained in bold, clear tones that they were the chief ju-ju men of all Africa. Page 224." /> -<br /> -They explained in bold, clear tones that they<br /> -were the chief ju-ju men of all Africa. <a href="#p224">Page 224</a>. -</p> - -<h1> -<br /><br /> - Kate Meredith<br /> - <i>FINANCIER</i><br /> -</h1> - -<p class="t3b"> - By<br /> -</p> - -<p class="t2"> - C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE<br /> -</p> - -<p class="t3"> - Author of<br /> - "Captain Kettle, K.C.S.," "McTodd,"<br /> - "The Filibuster," "Adventures of Captain Kettle,"<br /> - "The Trials of Commander McTurk."<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> - Illustrated in Water-Colors by FRANK PARKER<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> - Copyright, 1906, by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> - A. HAMBURGER & SONS, INC.,<br /> - SPECIAL EDITION,<br /> - LOS ANGELES, CAL.<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> - NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> - THE AUTHORS AND NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION<br /> - 1906<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t4"> -<i>Copyright 1906 by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne</i> -<br /> -<i>Entered at Stationers' Hall</i> -<br /> -<i>All rights reserved</i> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t4"> - Composition and Electrotyping by<br /> - J. J. Little & Co.<br /> - Printed and bound by the<br /> - Plimpton Press, Norwood, Mass<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3b"> - CONTENTS<br /> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - CHAPTER<br /> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - I. <a href="#chap01">A West Coast Welcome</a><br /> - II. <a href="#chap02">Introduces Miss Laura Slade</a><br /> - III. <a href="#chap03">The King who Stopped the Roads</a><br /> - IV. <a href="#chap04">The Beach by Moonlight</a><br /> - V. <a href="#chap05">Events at Malla-Nulla</a><br /> - VI. <a href="#chap06">The Coming of the Okky-Men</a><br /> - VII. <a href="#chap07">The Invisible Fire</a><br /> - VIII. <a href="#chap08">Presents the Head of the Firm</a><br /> - IX. <a href="#chap09">Navigation of Dog's-Leg Creek</a><br /> - X. <a href="#chap10">Envoys in Council</a><br /> - XI. <a href="#chap11">Again Presents the Head of the Firm</a><br /> - XII. <a href="#chap12">Exhibits Antiseptics</a><br /> - XIII. <a href="#chap13">At the Liverpool End</a><br /> - XIV. <a href="#chap14">Tin Hill: The Journey</a><br /> - XV. <a href="#chap15">Tin Hill: The Mine</a><br /> - XVI. <a href="#chap16">The King's Bounty</a><br /> - XVII. <a href="#chap17">Kate Sends a Cablegram</a><br /> - XVIII. <a href="#chap18">Carter Makes A Purchase</a><br /> - XIX. <a href="#chap19">Senhor Cascaes</a><br /> - XX. <a href="#chap20">Major Meredith</a><br /> - XXI. <a href="#chap21">The Feeling on the Coast</a><br /> - XXII. <a href="#chap22">A Fisherman and his Catch</a><br /> - XXIII. <a href="#chap23">The Song of Speed</a><br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3b"> -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-front">These explained, in bold, clear tones that they were the chief -ju-ju men of all Africa</a> . . . . . . <i>Frontispiece</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-082">He fired on and on with deadly speed and accuracy, till the -heated barrels of the repeaters burned Laura Slade's hands</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-234">Then, as the crocodile jumped once more, he threw up the rifle -and shot it under the left foreleg, where the protective -plates are absent</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-251">She gazed her fill on this very crude presentment of George -Carter</a> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-005"></a> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-005.jpg" alt="(Facsimile Page of Manuscript from KATE MEREDITH FINANCIER)" /> -<br /> -(Facsimile Page of Manuscript from KATE MEREDITH FINANCIER) -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> - -<h2> -KATE MEREDITH, FINANCIER -<br /><br /> -</h2> - -<h3> -CHAPTER I -<br /> -A WEST COAST WELCOME -</h3> - -<p> -"Mighty beach to-day!" grumbled Captain Image, and -handed binoculars across to the purser. -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Balgarnie tossed his cigarette over the lee rail and -tucked a sheaf of papers into his mouth so as to have two -spare hands. Day had ten minutes before glared up over -an oily swell-writhing sea of bottle-green; dew lay in fat -greasy gouts on the deck planks and the skylight frames, -foretelling in clear prophecy another spell of scalding -West African sunshine; and a mile out from the crashing, -bellowing surf that smoked along the beach, the -S.S. <i>M'poso</i> buttocked sullenly over the swells, with engines -rung off, and sweating firemen on the top of the fiddley, -slewing ventilators to catch a flavor of the breeze. -</p> - -<p> -"They've seen us, sir, at the factory," said Mr. Balgarnie. -"All the boys are out working cargo, and there's -old Swizzle-Stick Smith sucking his eternal pipe and -hustling them with a chiquot. I can catch the glint of -his eyeglass. Wonder how long that man's been out on -the Coast? Must be a matter of twenty years now by all -accounts since he had his last run home. He's found the -right kind of ju-ju to dodge fever-palaver, anyhow. They -say he's a lazy old beach-comber as a general thing, but -he's up bright and early this morning." -</p> - -<p> -"Wouldn't you rouse out in a hurry if you only saw a -Christian steamboat once in three months at the oftenest? -I told the second mate to make fast the whistle string -to the bridge rail when he judged he was five miles off -the old sinner's beach, and I guess Swizzle-Stick Smith -jumped slap through his mosquito bar at the first toot. -See those pyjamas he's wearing? He bought them at the -forecastle shop aboard here just six months ago." -</p> - -<p> -"Blue, with a pink stripe, so they are. This is a rare -good glass of yours, sir. Yes, I remember Chips telling -me. Three pairs he got at nine bob a pair. Wouldn't -pay a sixpence more. And tried to get a bottle of Eno -thrown in as a make-weight. Phew! but this day's going -to be a ringtailed scorcher. Look at the mist clearing -away from those hills at the back already." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image stuffed a pipe and lit it. "It's a -murdering bad beach to-day," he repeated. "Always is when -there's a few tons of cargo waiting for me to get -commission on." -</p> - -<p> -The purser touched no cargo commission, and so had -but small sympathy for cargo gathering. "I see old -Swizzle-Stick's making his boys run down the oil casks -into the surf. They'll never swim them through. Rather -a pity, isn't it, sir, to stay on here and let them try? -They're bound to get half of them stove at the very least." -</p> - -<p> -"That's his palaver. I missed calling here last round. -There was a swell like a cliff that day; but then there -always is a bad beach along this run of the Coast; and so -he should have double lot of cargo ready for me. There'll -be oil and there'll be rubber, and I shouldn't wonder but -what he's a few bags of kernels as well. I bet that factory -on the beach there is just bulging with cargo. It ought -to tally up to quite fifty tons, and I'm not going to have -some other captain snapping up old Swizzle-Stick Smith's -trade if I know it. Balgarnie, my lad, I'd the straight tip -given me from O'Neill and Craven's in Liverpool when I -was home. If we don't make it handy to call at their -factories along this Coast, the Hamburg boats will. They've -shipped a new director or something at O'Neill and -Craven's—K. O'Neill he signs himself—and that man -intends to make things hum." -</p> - -<p> -"My Whiskers!" said the Purser. "I clean forgot. -We've a new clerk for O'Neill and Craven's here at -Malla-Nulla. It's that red-haired young chap, Carter, in the -second class." -</p> - -<p> -"Last three red-haired passengers I knew all pegged -out within three months of being put ashore. Color of -the hair seems to counteract the effects of drugs. Purser, -I'll bet you just two cocktails Carter's planted before we're -here again next trip." -</p> - -<p> -"It's on," said Mr. Balgarnie, "and I shall remember -it. The young chap's made me a picture frame for my -room as good as you could buy in a shop, and he's built -the Doc some barbed arrows just like those Kasai ones the -old chief brought along from the Congo when he was on -the Antwerp run. He's a handy young fellow." -</p> - -<p> -"That doesn't get over the red hair, Purser. You'll lose -that cocktail. Bet you another cocktail, if you like, he -gets spilt in the surf getting ashore." -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Balgarnie winked pleasantly. "Then we'll consider -that last one lost already." He put his head inside the -chart-house and called out the captain's Krooboy -steward—"Brass-Pan?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yessar." -</p> - -<p> -"We fit for two cocktail." -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy." -</p> - -<p> -"You lib for my room, you fetch dem gin-bottle, an' -give him to bar steward." -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, what are you waiting for? Get along, you -bush-man, one-time ... That's a poor boy I'm afraid -you've got, Captain." -</p> - -<p> -"Pipe-clays shoes very neatly," said Captain Image. -"Oh, you've brought those papers for me to sign. Well, -come into the chart-house, Purser, and we'll get them -through. Hope that fool of a boy will bring the cocktails -quick. These early morning chills are dangerous unless -you take the proper preventives." -</p> - -<p> -Meanwhile the brazen day had grown, and work proceeded -at a forced speed both on the steamer and on the -beach. Ashore, the lonely factory bustled with evil-scented -negroes, who strained at huge white-ended palm oil -puncheons. On the <i>M'poso</i> a crew of chattering Krooboys -busied themselves aft, and presently under the guidance -of a profane third mate a brace of surf-boats jerked down -towards the water, the tackles squealing like a parcel of -angry cats as they rendered through the blocks. The boats -spurned away into the clear sea before the steamer's rusty -iron side crashed down onto them: the Krooboys perched -themselves ape-like on the gunwales, paddle in hand: and -in the stern of each straddled a noisy headman, in billycock -and trousers, straining and swaying at the steering -oar. -</p> - -<p> -The headman was in charge, and the well-spiced official -English of ship-board ceased. The speech in the boats was -one of the barbaric tongues of savage Africa. But the work -they got through and the skill they showed exceeded by -far that which could have been put forth by any crew of -white men. Indeed, in his more pious moments, Captain -Image, in common with other mariners of his kind, firmly -believed that God had invented certain of the West African -Coast tribes for the sole purpose of handling the boats of -the Liverpool oil tanks on surf-smitten beaches. -</p> - -<p> -Now, Captain Image was not in the least degree a snob, -and he did not take even first-class passengers on their -face value. As he would explain to intimates, he was not -out on the Coast for his health; he very much wished to -be able some day to retire on a competency, and grow cabbages -outside of Cardiff; and so he dispensed his affability -on a nicely regulated scale. If a man could influence -cargo in the direction of the <i>M'poso</i>, Captain Image was -ready at all times to extend to him the rough red hand -of friendship, and to supply gin cocktails and German -champagne till conversation flowed into the desired -commercial channel. He called this casting bread upon the -waters, and could always rely on getting the prime cost -back in commission. But he was no man to waste either -his good liquor or his pearls of speech on a mere -fifty-pound-a-year clerk, with a red head, who would very -possibly be dead before the <i>M'poso's</i> next call, and who -certainly could influence no cargo for the next two years to -come. So from the day they left Liverpool to the day -when the steamer's forefoot scraped at her cable off -Malla-Nulla beach, Captain Image had not condescended to offer -that particular second-class passenger so much as a -morning nod. -</p> - -<p> -But Captain Image was kindly enough in the West -African way, and when he had drunk his morning cocktail -and gone through the Purser's papers, he came out of -the chart-house again and produced from his pyjama -pocket a half-filled box of pills. -</p> - -<p> -"There, my lad," he said to Carter, as he made the -presentation, "you take one of those according to the -directions on the lid, when required, and you'll have your -health kept in a repair that will surprise you. Now, mark -me well; you'll be tempted with other brands of pills; old -Swiz—I mean Mr. Smith, your boss, is a regular crank -on drugs; but as sure as you tip other medicines down into -your inside, my pills will get hindered at their proper -work, and you'll be knocked over." -</p> - -<p> -"Thanks," said Carter. "But I always understood——" -</p> - -<p> -"I'm sure you did. Now there's one other thing I want -to impress on you, my lad. Your duty is to get on, and -the way to do that is to scratch up cargo and send it home -by the <i>M'poso</i>. You see, my lad, I've got more influence -with O'Neill and Craven than any other captain on the -Coast (though you needn't go and stir up mischief by -spreading that about), and if you keep yourself in my -memory by the way Malla-Nulla ships cargo by me, I'll let -them fully understand at the home office that services like -yours want a big raise in salary. There, don't you bother -to thank me, my lad, and just you stow that box of pills -where they won't get lost if you're spilt going ashore -through that surf. It's a mighty bad beach to-day." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, morning, Carter," said Mr. Balgarnie as he bustled -up. "Got all your things up on deck? It's no concern -of mine, of course, but if there are any little odds and -ends you want, such as socks, or Florida water, or a -mosquito bar, I believe Chips and the bos'n keep a sort of -surreptitious shop somewhere in the forecastle where you -could fill up your stores." -</p> - -<p> -"Much obliged," said the passenger, "but I think I've -got all I want, or rather all I can afford." -</p> - -<p> -"Remembered to bring donkey-clippers for hair-cutting? -No? Well, just as you please. What I really wished to -mention to you was this: when your pay comes in, you'll -naturally want little comforts sent out from home, and -you won't care to worry any of your friends to get them -for you. Now don't you have any qualms about making -use of me. Just say what you want, and I'll get it and -bring it out." Mr. Balgarnie winked most pleasantly. -"I'm purser here, of course, and have to back up the -Company's charges, but I can always make the rates reasonable -to oblige a friend. There, good-by, old fellow. The boat's -ready to take you off." -</p> - -<p> -A surf boat swung dizzily up and down at the guess-warp -alongside and the two yellow gladstone bags on its -floor seemed ludicrously out of place beside the savage -paddlers. Carter was conscious that his heart worked up -to an unpleasant activity; but he carried a serene face, -dropped to his knees in the gangway, and began with -unaccustomed feet to clamber down the Jacob's ladder. He -noted without disturbance that he was daubing coal dust -and orange-colored palm oil onto his hands and white drill -clothes in the process; but he had a mind now which -entirely disregarded the trivial; all his interest was fixed -upon the boat. -</p> - -<p> -"Don't jump too soon." -</p> - -<p> -"Take care you don't drop that new pith hat." -</p> - -<p> -"Mind, don't let the boat come up and squash you." -</p> - -<p> -"Don't flurry the man so. Put your feet in your pocket -if you see a shark." -</p> - -<p> -A stream of advice, much of it satirical, pelted him from -above. Looking over his shoulder, he saw beneath him the -leaping boat and a ring of negro grins. It was these last -that stiffened him into action. The surf-boat swooped -up sideways, and when it seemed to him that she had -reached the zenith of her leap, he let go the Jacob's ladder -and sprang for her. -</p> - -<p> -It is a matter of nice judgment, this determination of -the psychological moment for a jump; and the amateur -has it not. As a consequence Carter's foot slid on the wet -gunwale; he buttocked painfully onto a thwart; and was -saved from spinning overboard by rough and ready black -fingers. The new pith helmet received its first crack, the -white drill clothes were further soiled, and he was left to -gather himself out of the slop of water on the bottom of -the boat as best he pleased. Already the Krooboy crew -were perched ape-like on the gunwales, and stabbing -strenuously at the water with trident-headed paddles. The -headman straddled in the stern with the muscles standing out -in him like nuts, as he sculled with the steering oar. -</p> - -<p> -It had all passed so quickly that the steamer had only -accomplished one-half of a roll. The white faces that he -had seen last beside him were now small and far away at -the top of an enormously high iron wall, and to their shouts -of farewell and fluttering of handkerchiefs he could not -bring himself to return more than a curt hand-wave. It -seemed to him that he was cut off entirely from white men -and white man's territory, and was launched beyond release -into West Africa with all its smells and accoutrements. -</p> - -<p> -He settled himself in the mid thwart of the surf-boat -with the water on the floor flowing merrily in and out of -his pipe-clayed shoes. Whatever a white man may feel, he -always assumes coolness and indifference before the black, -and Carter picked up the instinct of his race. -</p> - -<p> -His progress shoreward had two distinct phases. At -one time he and the boat lay in a watery ravine with high -sides towering above him, and no view save of sleek -bottle-green water and cobalt sky overhead. The next moment -he was expressed upwards on to an eminence and there -before him lay landscape and seascape of most pleasant -qualities. At these last moments of exaltation, he saw a glaring -beach set along the sea's edge, carrying white factory -buildings, and backed in by an orderly wall of green. -</p> - -<p> -He saw also palm-oil puncheons being brought off, and -an interest in the work bit him immediately. Here was the -commodity which (bar death) would for years to come be -his chiefest intimate. Between eclipses of the rollers, he -watched every stage of the work—the great white-ended -barrels rolled down the glaring beach, naked savages -swimming them through the surf with unimaginable skill, a -green painted surf-boat at anchor outside the breakers -making them fast to a buoyed hawser. He saw another -hawser-load being heaved out to the steamer's winch, with the -great casks popping about like a string of gigantic cherries. -Already on the <i>M'poso</i> he had seen other puncheons -howked on board by a steam-crane which was driven by a -one-eared Krooboy. -</p> - -<p> -He had grasped this much of his new trade when sight -seemed to grow misty to him, and his body was chilled with -an unpleasant perspiration. It is one thing to take one's -regular meals on a fine-sized steamboat, whatever weather -may befall; it is quite another to do one's voyaging in a -leaping, lancing, dancing, wallowing surf-boat. Few men -take their first surf-boat ride over a bad roll without being -violently seasick, and Carter was no exception to the -normal law. -</p> - -<p> -In a hazy sort of way he noted that the paddlers had -stopped their song and their monotonous effort, and he was -seized with a tremendous desire to hurry them forward and -get himself and his gladstone bags planted on the stable -beach. Ahead of them were roaring, spouting breakers, -which it seemed impossible for any boat to live through; -but waiting outside their fringe was even more intolerable. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, get on! For Heaven's sake, get on!" he wanted -to shout, but almost to his astonishment pride of race kept -him grimly silent. He had never felt before the whole debt -that is owing to a white skin. -</p> - -<p> -The headman in the stern-sheets sculled now and again -with his oar to keep the boat head on to the roll, and -between whiles chattered nervously. The Krooboy paddlers -on the gunwales rested on their paddles and scratched -themselves. Roller after roller went by, flinging the boat -up towards heaven, sucking her back again to the sea grass -below, with a rocking motion that was horrible beyond belief. -Carter felt the color ebb from his cheeks; he wondered -with a grisly humor if his head was paling also. -</p> - -<p> -But at last the headman delivered himself of a shriek, -and a galvanic activity seized the paddlers. They stabbed -the water with their trident-shaped blades, and stabbed and -stabbed again. The surf-boat was poised on the crest of a -great mound of water, and they were straining every sinew -to keep her there. But the water motion travelled more -swiftly than the clumsy boat. She slid down the slope, -still paddling frantically, and the following wave lifted her -rudely by the tail. She reared dizzily almost to the vertical, -the headman at the apex of the whole structure keeping -his perch with an ape's dexterity. -</p> - -<p> -She just missed being upset that time, and part of the -water which she had shipped was flung over the gunwales -as she righted. But she floated there half swamped: labor -with what frenzy they choose, the iron-muscled Krooboys -could not keep her under command; and the next roller -sent the whole company of them flying. -</p> - -<p> -There is one piece of advice constantly dinned into a -white man's ear on the West Coast. "If in a surf-boat -you see the boat boys jump overboard, jump yourself also -if you do not wish to have the boat on top of you." Profoundly -sound advice it is. But it has the disadvantage of -presupposing capability for obedience, and if (as -frequently happens) the passenger is dizzy and weak from -sudden seasickness, then the leap may be neither prompt -nor well-aimed. -</p> - -<p> -As to where Carter's fault occurred, I have no certain -information. The headman shrieked an order in his own -barbarous tongue; the boat boys took to water on either -side like so many black frogs; the boat spilt, flinging far -two yellow gladstone bags and one limp passenger in soiled -white ducks; and, look how one would into that boiling -hell of broken water, no red head appeared. -</p> - -<p> -On the glaring beach Swizzle-Stick Smith broke off from -his overseeing for a moment, and limped down into the -smoke of the surf. He had a chiquot in his hand, which -is a whip made of the most stinging part of the hippopotamus, -and with it he slashed venomously at every black -form that scrambled out of the brine. -</p> - -<p> -He screamed at them in their own tongue. "Get back, -you black swine! Get back, and fetch out my clerk. If -you drown my clerk, I will drown you, too. My last clerk -died a year ago, and they have got me no other out here -since. I won't lose this one. Back, you bushmen!" -</p> - -<p> -The chiquot had many terrors to the Krooboys, the water -few. It was as much out of forgetfulness as anything else -that they had not brought their passenger to shore with -them. Besides, how were they to know that he could not -swim as well as themselves (that is, about as well as a seal -can swim)? But they were not above striking a bargain -for their services. A black head, served upon a white -pother of creamy surf, gave tongue. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Smith. You give cash, suppose we fit for catch 'im?" -</p> - -<p> -"You lib for beach with my clerk, and I dash you one -whole box of gin. Hurry up now, you thieves, or a shark -will chop him, or else he'll drown." -</p> - -<p> -Heads disappeared, and many pairs of black heels kicked -upwards. The old man hitched together his shabby pyjamas, -and stared industriously at the broken water through -his eyeglass. "It's all very well for this K. O'Neill to send -out letters that the firm is going to double its business," -he grumbled, "but if they don't send me men that can get -ashore in one piece, how this factory at Malla-Nulla is -going to buck up, I can't see. By Jove, they've got him, -the beggars. Red-headed chap, too. Well, I might have -saved that dash, I'm thinking. Men with red heads never -seem to stand the climate here for long. It will be a -nuisance if the beggar pegs out within the month, after -I've spent a case of gin on him." -</p> - -<p> -It was a very limp and bedraggled Carter that was -brought ashore presently by the Krooboys. He was held -up by the heels, <i>more Africano</i>, to let the Atlantic drain -from his inside back into its proper place, but he did not -show any sign of consciousness till he had been lifted up -and carried to the shelter of the retail store. -</p> - -<p> -Swizzle-Stick Smith limped beside him, puffing at his -briar. "Beggar's got an arm broken," he commented. -"Just my luck. And K. O'Neill will expect the work to be -done just the same. Oh"—he said when the dripping -Krooboys had put down his guest on the counter—"so -you've concluded to come to your senses again?" -</p> - -<p> -Carter shuddered and slowly opened his eyes. A brown -cockroach, horrible with dust, dropped from the rafter -above onto his face. -</p> - -<p> -"I'm afraid you've had rather a rough bout of it, landing, -my lad. It's a very bad beach to-day. There, don't -move. You're all right. You'll feel a bit queer yet." -</p> - -<p> -"The boat upset——" -</p> - -<p> -"It did, most thoroughly. But you're now at Malla-Nulla -factory in West Africa, and I bid you welcome. I'm -Mr. Smith, your commanding officer. You'd like to lie -still for a bit, perhaps?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, buck up, and you'll soon be all right. You -needn't fancy you'll be a candidate for a top-hat and a -gun-case yet." -</p> - -<p> -"For a which?" -</p> - -<p> -The trader pointed with his pipe stem across the store to -a wooden box full of flintlock trade guns. "That's a gun -case. Man's usually too long to fit it comfortably, -especially if he's as well-grown as you are. So we knock out -one end, and nail on an old top-hat. Then you can plant -him in style." -</p> - -<p> -The patient's mouth twitched with the corner of a smile. -"A most tidy custom," he said faintly. "But I say, could -you do anything for my arm? Sorry to trouble you, but -it's most abominably painful." -</p> - -<p> -"Your arm's broken, worse luck. I'll set it for you when -I've got off this cargo." -</p> - -<p> -"I'd rather have a doctor. Will you send off to the -<i>M'poso</i> for the doctor there, please?" -</p> - -<p> -The old man laughed and polished his eyeglass on a -sleeve of his pyjamas. "My lad, you don't understand. -You've left the steamer now, and her doctor's not the kind -of fool to risk his own bones trying to get here with the -beach as bad as it is to-day. I don't suppose he mistakes -you for a millionaire. You came out in the second class, -I suppose?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes." -</p> - -<p> -"Then there you are. His responsibility ended when you -left the steamer, and ship's doctors don't come ashore on -this Coast unless they're sure of touching a big fat fee. -Now you must just lie quiet where you are, and bite on -your teeth till I've some time for surgery. Trade comes -first in West Africa." -</p> - -<p> -With which naked truth, Swizzle-Stick Smith relit his -pipe, and went out again into the brazen sunshine, and -presently was hustling on the factory boys at their cargo -work with his accustomed eloquence and dexterity. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap02"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER II -<br /> -INTRODUCES MISS LAURA SLADE -</h3> - -<p> -If a white man in a West African factory volunteers -details of his previous history, all hearers are quite at -liberty to believe or disbelieve, as suits their whim; but if, on -the other hand, no word about previous record is offered, -Coast etiquette strictly rules that none shall be asked for. -</p> - -<p> -George Carter found even upon the surface of his -superior officer at Malla-Nulla factory much that was -mysterious. There were moments when Mr. Smith exhibited -an unmistakable gentility; but these were rare; and they -usually occurred when the pair of them lunched <i>en tête-à-tête</i> -at 11 o'clock, and Smith had worked off his morning -qualm, and had not commenced his afternoon refreshment. -With a larger audience he was one part cynic and six parts -ruffian; he was admitted to be the most skilful compounder -of cocktails on all that section of the West African -seaboard; and he sampled his own brews in such quantities, -and with such impunity, as gave the lie to all text-books on -topical medicine. -</p> - -<p> -His head was bald, and the gray hair on his face and -above his ears was either as short as clippers could make -it, or else bristled with a two weeks' growth. Day and -night he wore more or less shrunken pyjamas, from the -neck buttonhole of which a single eyeglass dangled at the -end of a piece of new black silk ribbon. Carter guessed his -age as somewhere between fifty and fifty-five, and wondered -why on earth Messrs. O'Neill and Craven kept such a -disreputable old person as the head of what might have been -a very prosperous factory. -</p> - -<p> -Indeed, theories on this very point were already lodged -in the older man's brain. "It's this new partner, -K. O'Neill, that I don't like the sound of," he explained to -Carter one day. "By the way, who is he?" -</p> - -<p> -"Don't know. As I told you I was staying with my -father at the vicarage, and I was engaged by wire the day -before the <i>M'poso</i> sailed, and only caught her by the skin -of my teeth. There was nobody there to see me off, and on -the boat all they could tell me was that 'K.' came into the -business when the late head died." -</p> - -<p> -"Old Godfrey, that was"—Swizzle-Stick Smith sighed—"poor -old Godfrey O'Neill! He was one of the best fellows -going in the old days, not a bit like the usual cut of -palm-oil ruffian as we used to call the traders then. And, -my God! to think of my coming down to the grade of one -of them myself." -</p> - -<p> -Again the subject cropped up when one of their rare -mails came in. "Here's expense!" grumbled Swizzle-Stick -Smith. "Letters landed at our Monk River factory, and -sent on to Mulla-Nulla by special runner. K. O'Neill's -orders, the Monk River agent says. In the old days you could -always bet on the beach being too bad for the steamer to -call twice out of three times, and you weren't pestered with -a mail more than once in six months. That's mainly why -I've stuck by O'Neill and Craven all these years. Now this -new man wants our output of kernels to be doubled by this -time next year, and hopes I'll take steps to work up the -rubber connection. If I can't see my way to do all this, will -I kindly give my reasons in writing, and if necessary -forward same by runner to a steamer's calling point, so that -reply may be in Liverpool within six weeks at latest. What -do you think of that?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I should say it was reasonable enough from the -Liverpool point of view." -</p> - -<p> -"Bah! There's not much of the Coast about you." He -tore the letters into shreds, and folded these carefully into -pipe-lights. "Dear old Godfrey trusted me up to the hilt, -and this new fellow's got to learn to do the same, or I shall -resign my commission. If he understood anything about -running the office, he might know I should do all the work -that was good for me." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm sure you do," said Carter civilly. "I'm afraid I'm -the slacker. You let me have such an easy time of it whilst -my arm was getting well, that I've slid off into lazy ways. -I must buck up, and if you'll load the work onto me, -Mr. Smith, you'll find I can do a lot more." -</p> - -<p> -Swizzle-Stick Smith dried the perspiration from his eye -socket, fixed his glass into a firmer hold, and stared. -"Well," he said at last, "you <i>are</i> a d—d fool." And there -the talk ended. -</p> - -<p> -It was that same day that Carter had his first introduction -to Royalty. He was in the retail store—"feteesh," they -call it on the Coast—weighing out baskets of palm kernels, -measuring calabashes of orange-colored palm oil, judging -as best he could the amount of adulterants the simple negro -had added to increase the bulk, and apportioning the value -in cotton cloth, powder, flintlock guns at twelve and -six-pence apiece, and green cubical boxes of Holland gin. -Trade proceeded slowly. The interior of the feteesh was a -stew of heat and odors, and the white man's elaborate -calculations were none of the most glib. To knock some idea -of the fairness of these into the black man's skull was a -work that required not only eloquence, but also athletic -power. The simple savage who did only one day's shopping -per annum was willing always to let the delights of it -linger out as long as possible, and all the white man's -hustling could not drive the business along at more than a -snail's pace. -</p> - -<p> -By Coast custom, work for Europeans starts in those cool -hours that know the daybreak, and switches off between -eleven and twelve for breakfast; and thereafter siesta is -the rule till the sun once more begins to throw a shadow. -But on this particular day, when Swizzle-Stick Smith had -knocked out his pipe and turned in under his mosquito -bar, Carter sluiced a parrafin-can full of water over his red -head by way of a final refreshment, and went down once -more from the living rooms of the factory to the heat and -the odors of the feteesh below. -</p> - -<p> -The sweating customers saw him come and roused up out -of the purple shadows, and presently the game of haggle -was once more in full swing. -</p> - -<p> -Carter had a natural gift for tongues, and was picking -up the difficult Coast languages to the best of his ability, -but his vocabulary was of necessity small, and a Krooboy -stood by to translate intricate passages into idiom more -likely to penetrate the harder skulls. The Krooboy wore -trousers and singlet in token of his advanced civilization, -and bore with pride the name of White-Man's-Trouble. -</p> - -<p> -There was a glut of customers that baking afternoon. -High-scented trade stuffs poured into the factory in -pleasing abundance, and bundles of European produce were -balanced upon woolly craniums for transportation through -bush paths to that wild unknown Africa beyond the -hinterland. The new law of K. O'Neill allowed no lingering in -the feteesh. Once a customer had been delivered of his -goods, and had accepted payment, White-Man's-Trouble -decanted him into the scalding sunshine outside, and bade -him hasten upon his ways. K. O'Neill had stated very -plainly, in a typewritten letter, that the leakage by theft -was unpleasing to the directorate in Liverpool, and must -be stopped. K. O'Neill understood that the thefts took -place after a customer had spent all his cash on legitimate -purchase, as then all his savage intelligence was turned to -pilfering. Carter, as the man on the spot, recognized the -truth of all this, and carried out the instructions to the foot -of the letter. -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith warned him he would have trouble over it. -"Ever since the first factory came down to blight this -Coast," Smith explained, "the boys have been allowed to -hang around the feteesh and steal what wasn't nailed down. -They look upon it in the light of a legitimate discount, -and it's grown up into a custom. Now in West Africa you -may burn a forest, or blot out a nation, or start a new -volcano, and nobody will say very much to you, but if you -interfere with a recognized custom, you come in contact -with the biggest kind of trouble." -</p> - -<p> -"Still," Carter pointed out, "these orders are definite." -</p> - -<p> -"And you are the kind of fool that goes on the principle -of 'obeying orders if you break owners.' Well, go ahead -and carry out instructions. I won't interfere with you. -I'd rather like to see this cocksure K. O'Neill get a smack -in the eye to cure his meddling. And for yourself, keep -your weather eye lifting, or some indignant nigger will -ram a foot of iron into you. It's the Okky-men I'd take -especial care of if I were you. They've got their tails up a -good deal more than's healthy just now. I'm told, too, -that their head witch doctor wants his war drum -redecorated." Mr. Smith grinned—"I don't want to be -personal, of course." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, don't mind me. So far I rather fail to understand -what I've got to do with the Okky City war drum." -</p> - -<p> -"You see you carry round with you something that -would make the very best kind of heap-too-good ju-ju." -</p> - -<p> -"Still I don't understand." -</p> - -<p> -Swizzle-Stick Smith got up and stretched, and limped -across to the door. "It's that red head of yours, my lad," -he said over his shoulder as he went out. "Every witch -doctor in West Africa that sees it will just itch to have it -amongst his ornaments. I'd dye it sky-blue if I were you, -just for safety sake." -</p> - -<p> -This of course might be Mr. Smith's delicate irony, or -again it might be literally true. Carter had already been -long enough in West Africa to know that very unusual -and unpleasant things can happen there; but that made no -change in his determination. K. O'Neill was perfectly -right about the matter; this pilfering ought to be stopped; -and he felt convinced that White-Man's-Trouble would help -to see that justice was done. That particular Krooboy was -thievish himself, certainly, but he had a short way with -any fellow African who dared to be light-fingered. -</p> - -<p> -So during all that hot morning, and all that sweltering -afternoon, merchant after merchant was shown out into the -sunshine, and those who chattered and would not go willingly -were assisted by the strong right arm of White-Man's-Trouble. -</p> - -<p> -Just upon the time when siestas generally ended, that is, -about four o'clock, there came a burly Okky trader who -swaggered up to the factory with five carriers in his train -laden down with bags of rubber. -</p> - -<p> -Carter examined the evil smelling stuff, and cut open -two or three of the larger round lumps. The gentle savage -had put in quite thirty per cent. of sticks, and sand, and -alien gum by way of makeweight, and was as petulant as a -child at having this simple fraud discovered. He still -further disliked the price that was offered; and when it -came to making his purchases, and he found that the -particular spot-white-on-blue cotton cloth on which he had -built up his fancy was out of stock, the remaining rags of -his temper were frayed completely. For an unbroken ten -minutes he cursed Carter, and Malla-Nulla factory, and an -unknown Manchester skipper in fluent Okky, here and -there embroidered with a few words of that slave-trader's -Arabic, which is specially designed as a comfort for the -impatient, and when he had accepted a roll of blue cloth -spotted in another pattern, and was invited to leave the -feteesh, he held himself to be one of the worst used Africans -on the Dark Continent. -</p> - -<p> -Carter, who was tired and hot, signed to his henchman. -"Here, fire that ruffian out," he said. -</p> - -<p> -But White-Man's-Trouble affected to hear a summons -from outside. "Dat you, Smith? Yessar, I come -one-time," said he, and bolted out through the doorway. -</p> - -<p> -"Here you," said Carter to the big Okky-man, "you -follow that Krooboy out of here. If I have to tell you a -second time, there'll be trouble. Come, now, git." -</p> - -<p> -Carter's command of the native might be faulty, but the -grammar of his gestures was correct enough. What, go out -of the feteesh before he chose? The Okky-man had no -idea of doing such a thing. He lifted his walking spear -threateningly, and snarled. -</p> - -<p> -Simultaneously Carter put his right hand on the greasy -counter and vaulted. He caught the upraised spear with -his other hand before his feet had touched ground, and -broke the blade close off by the socket; and a short instant -later, when he had found a footing, he carried his weight -forward in the same leap, and drove his right against the -negro's left carotid, just beneath the ear. The man went -down as if he had been pole-axed. -</p> - -<p> -Carter went outside and beckoned to the Okky-man's -carriers. "Here, you, come and carry your master -outdoors"—the men hesitated—"or I'll start in to handle you -next." They did as they were bidden. And thereupon -Carter, with his blood now well warmed up, was left free -to attend to another matter elsewhere. -</p> - -<p> -A noise of voices in disagreement, and the intermittent -sounds of scuffling had made themselves heard from the -south side of the factory buildings, and now there were -added to these a woman's voice calling in English for some -one to help her, and then a sharp, shrill scream of -unmistakable distress. -</p> - -<p> -Now, Carter was no knight-errant. He had set up the -unknown K. O'Neill as his model, and had told himself -daily that he intended to meddle with nothing in West -Africa, philanthropic or otherwise, which would not directly -tend to the advancement of George Carter; but at the first -moment when they were put to the test, all these academic -resolutions broke to pieces. He picked up his feet and ran -at speed through the sunshine, and as he went a mist -seemed to rise up before his eyes which tinged everything -red. -</p> - -<p> -He felt somehow as he had never felt before; strangely -exhilarated and strangely savage; and when he arrived on -the scene of the disturbance, he was little inclined to weigh -the consequences of interference. There was a woman, -white-faced and terror-stricken—he could not for the life of -him tell whether she was handsome or hideous. Negroes -were handling her. On the ground lay a pole hammock, in -which presumably she had arrived. In front of her was a -fat negro, over whose head a slave held a gaudy gold and -red umbrella, and grouped around this fat one were eight or -ten negro soldiers, with swords slung over their shoulders, -and long flintlock trade guns in their hands. -</p> - -<p> -The whole scene was, as I say, dished up to Carter's eyes -in a red mist, and this thinned and thickened spasmodically -so that sometimes he could see clearly what he was doing, -and at other times he acted like a man bewitched. But -presently the red cleared away altogether, and he found -himself clutching the fat negro by a twist of the shoulder -cloth, and threatening to split his skull with a sword -recently carried by one of the man's own escort. The girl -sat limp and white on a green case before them, clearly on -the edge of a faint, and round them all stood negro carriers -and Haûsa soldiery, frozen to inaction by the fat man's -danger. -</p> - -<p> -All human noises had ceased. Only the hot insect hum -and the cool diapason of the Atlantic surf droned through -the silence. From the dull upraised sword blade outrageous -sunrays winked and flickered. -</p> - -<p> -Upon this impasse came Swizzle-Stick Smith from the -bush side of the white factory buildings, polishing his -eyeglass, and limping along at his usual pace, and no faster. -He removed his pipe, and wagged it at them. -</p> - -<p> -"Upon my soul a most interesting picture! Just like a -kid's fairy tale book. Gallant young knight rescuing -distressed damosel from the clutches of wicked ogre, who -incidentally happens to be the King of Okky as anyone but a -born fool could have guessed from his state umbrella, and -one of the firm's best customers. Kindly observe that I'm -the good fairy who always comes in on the last page to -put things safe. Carter, I prithee sheath thy virgin sword, -and then for God's sake run away and drown yourself." -</p> - -<p> -He had reached the group by this time, and took up in -his own the damp black hand of offended majesty, and -shook it heartily. He broke out in a stream of fluent Okky, -and gradually the potentate's wrath melted. The King still -gesticulated violently, and apparently demanded Carter's -red head upon a charger as a prelude to truce, but -Swizzle-Stick Smith was an old Coaster and knew his man. -</p> - -<p> -"Champagne," Mr. Smith kept on suggesting, "bubbly -champagne with plenty of Angostura bitters in it to make -it bite. I call attention to your Majesty's historic thirst. -Come up into the factory, old Tintacks, and we'll break -up a case in honor of the day." -</p> - -<p> -Finally the King, who being a West African king was -necessarily a shrewd man, decided that though vengeance -would keep till another day, Mr. Smith's champagne might -not; and he let himself be led back to the factory, and -up the stair. He graciously accepted the most solid-looking -of the long chairs in the veranda, sat in it carefully, kicked -off his slippers, and tucked his feet beneath him. He waved -away Mr. Smith's further speech. "Oh, Smith," he said, -"I fit for champagne-palaver, one-time," and loosened the -tuck of his ample waist-cloth to give space for the expected -cargo. "No damn use more talk-palaver now." -</p> - -<p> -Outside in the sunlight the Haûsa soldiers had taken the -cue from their master, and dissolved away unobtrusively; -the carriers were dismissed to the Krooboys' quarters under -the charge of White-Man's-Trouble, who, now that the -disturbance was over, bustled up with many protestations -of sorrow for his unavoidable absence, and Carter was left -for further attendance on his distressed damsel. -</p> - -<p> -For the first time he found himself able to regard her -critically; and he was somehow rather disturbed to find -before him a girl who was undeniably beautiful. When he -had rushed blindly in to the rescue, he had taken it for -granted that the person he saw so vaguely through that red -mist was an English or an American missionary woman -in distress, and (to himself) excused his mad lust for -battle by picturing himself as the champion of the Christian -martyr beset by pagans. -</p> - -<p> -The white missionary women of that strip of the Coast -occasionally quartered themselves at Malla-Nulla factory -on their journeyings, in spite of the very niggardly civility -of Mr. Smith, and Carter had been much impressed in the -way beneficent Nature had safeguarded them by homely -features and unattractive mien from attack by the other -sex. He could have taken off his hat to one of these, and -said: -</p> - -<p> -"Most happy to have been of service to you, madam. -Won't you come into the factory and have a cup of tea?" -</p> - -<p> -But this slim beauty in the frilled white muslins sent -speech further and further away from him the more that -he looked at her. For the first time since landing in Africa -six months before he was ashamed of mildew-stained pyjamas -for afternoon wear, and disgusted with the yellow -smears of palm oil which bedaubed them. He was hatefully -aware too that he had let his razors rust in the moist Coast -climate, and White-Man's-Trouble's fortnightly efforts with -the clippers had merely left his chin and head covered with -an obscene red bristle. -</p> - -<p> -"... It would be ridiculous," the girl was murmuring, -"merely to say 'thank you' for what you did, -Mr. Carter. You see I know your name. News about -new-comers soon spreads amongst the other factories on the -Coast here. If you only knew how I dread that fearful -King, you would understand my gratitude. You see this -isn't the first time he's tried to carry me off." -</p> - -<p> -"I wish you'd mentioned it earlier," Carter blurted -out, "and I'd have split his dirty skull, trade or no trade." -</p> - -<p> -She shook her head. "No, that wouldn't have done. -There's the law to be thought of even here. Besides, he's a -King, and could let loose, so they say, twenty thousand -fighting men against the Coast factories, and wipe them -out. If only I could get away to some place he couldn't -reach!" She shivered. "If I stay on here at my father's -factory, I'm bound to be caught and taken to Okky City." -</p> - -<p> -Carter's brown eyes opened in sheer surprise. "You -speak of your father's factory. Do you mean to say that -you live here on the Coast?" -</p> - -<p> -"At the Smooth River factory." -</p> - -<p> -"What, Slade's place?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, I'm Laura Slade. Couldn't you guess?" -</p> - -<p> -"How could I?" Carter blurted out. "Mr. Smith told -me that Slade's girl—" And there he stopped, and could -have bitten off his tongue for having said so much. -</p> - -<p> -She finished his sentence quietly, and, as it appeared, -without resentment. "Mr. Smith, I suppose, described me -as a nigger." -</p> - -<p> -Carter made no reply. His brown eyes hung upon her -pretty face intently. -</p> - -<p> -"Mr. Smith, of course, knew my father, and my mother, -too, for that matter, before I was born. My mother was a -quadroon, and that makes me, you see, one-eighth African." -</p> - -<p> -"You did not arrange your pedigree any more than I -did mine. If you hadn't told me, I should never have -guessed you weren't a full-blooded European. And after -all, what does it matter?" -</p> - -<p> -"There speaks the man who has only been out on the -Coast six months." -</p> - -<p> -"Six months or six years," said Carter stoutly, "makes -no difference so far as I am concerned. We're neighbors, -it appears, and I hope you will let me be one of your -friends. Miss Slade, will you take compassion on a very -lonely man and let him come over to Smooth River occasionally -and see you? I can't tell you how ghastly the loneliness -has been with only the Krooboys and Mr.—er—Swizzle-Stick -Smith to talk to, though perhaps you can -guess at it by the way I've let my outward man run to seed." -</p> - -<p> -She gave him her slim brown hand. "I take frankly -what you offer," she said. "If you let me become your -friend, I shall count myself fortunate; you see, after what -you have done for me to-day we can hardly start from the -ordinary basis." -</p> - -<p> -From there onwards their talk flowed easily. She had -come over on a business errand for her father, and Carter -settled that quickly and promptly. She went presently into -the factory to rest after her long hammock ride, and Carter -seized upon the chance to dive into his own room. -Therefrom he emerged an hour later with a chin half-raw from -recent shaving with a rusty razor, and wearing creased -white drill clothes and a linen collar that sawed his neck -abominably. -</p> - -<p> -"I've arranged," he said, when next he saw her, "that -you and I dine <i>tête-à-tête</i>, if you don't mind, down under -those palm trees yonder. The mosquitos don't trouble down -there just at sunset, and my boy, White-Man's-Trouble, only -tastes things when they're going back to the cook house. -It's mere prejudice to say he's had his filthy paw in every -dish before it comes to me. Oh, by the way, Mr. Smith -and his Majesty of Okky ask you to excuse them, as they -have still more business to discuss before they can break up -their meeting." -</p> - -<p> -She laughed and understood him to a nicety. They -slipped off into light easy talk as though they had known -one another all their lives, and there was neither that -narrow escape from tragedy behind them, nor Africa and -possible tragedy ahead. The girl was good comrade. The man -was hardly that. He too frankly devoured her with his -eyes. And certainly, in her cool, frilled muslin dress, and -her big green sun hat she was pretty enough to paint. Her -hair was black assuredly, but her pale olive face was moulded -in curves of the most delicious. In England, and as an -Englishwoman, she would have been dark perhaps, though -not noticeably so. Nine hundred and ninety-nine English -people out of the thousand would have commented on her -beauty only. In America—well, in America, she would at -once have been placed in that class apart. -</p> - -<p> -But Carter, the recently imported Englishman, saw -nothing save only her beauty and her charm, and he behaved -towards her as the English gentleman behaves towards his -equal. A man who had been longer in Africa would have -had the wisdom of one who had lived in the Southern -States, and have picked out the African blood at a glance, -and, as is the way of men who have eaten of the tree of -that wisdom, would have ordered his civilities accordingly. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap03"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER III -<br /> -THE KING WHO STOPPED THE ROADS -</h3> - -<p> -Mr. Smith was unsteady neither of speech nor foot, but -an expert could have diagnosed that he had been dining. -The expert, however, unless he had acquired his expertness -near Malla-Nulla factory, would hardly have guessed -that Mr. Smith was the better (or worse) for at least half -a case of German champagne, generously laced with -Angostura bitters. -</p> - -<p> -He limped into Carter's bedroom, put his lamp down on -the table, sat on the chair beside the mosquito bar, and -very carefully eased up the knees of his shrunk pyjamas. -</p> - -<p> -"I say, Mr. Assistant, wake up." -</p> - -<p> -Carter woke, and blinked at the glare of Mr. Smith's -eyeglass. -</p> - -<p> -"Don't get up, please. I apologize for waking you, my -dear follow, but since you turned in, you've been made a -pawn in the great game of diplomacy. The fate of -empires trembles on your nod." -</p> - -<p> -Carter roused up onto his elbow. "Don't you think the -empires would tremble no more if we left them over till -to-morrow morning?" -</p> - -<p> -"It would be most undiplomatic to leave them trembling -too long. I can tell you I have had a devilish hard time -of it putting his Majesty to sleep. He can carry his liquor -like a man, and he'd a most royal way of seeing I drank -level with him. But he may wake up any minute. Put -not your trust in the sleep of kings, Mr. Carter." -</p> - -<p> -"All right, sir. I'll make a note of that. I'll brew the -gasolene, and when the King wakes I'll stand by with -soda-water and fusel oil, which I should think will heal the -breach between us." -</p> - -<p> -"Don't you believe it for one instant. The King of -Okky's a seasoned vessel with a copper tummy, and you -could no more thaw the wickedness out of him with -soda-water than you could bring the devil to a reformed -temperature in an ice machine. You must recognize, -Mr. Carter, that both the King of Okky and the devil have their -little ways, and it's above your art to change either of -them very much. Question is, how much allegiance do you -think you owe to O'Neill and Craven?" -</p> - -<p> -This was a change of front with a vengeance. But Carter -took it coolly enough. "That's an interesting point, -sir. I hadn't reckoned it up before. But I shouldn't like -to give you an answer to so important a question about -the firm on the spur of the moment. So by your leave, I'll -sleep over it, and tell you in the morning." -</p> - -<p> -"Sorry, but can't allow you the time, and as you don't -seem to grasp the fact, I must point out that the fate of -this factory of O'Neill and Craven's at Malla-Nulla depends -on the august will of the King of Okky. His Portliness -also threatens to stop the roads which feed our other -factories at Monktown and Smooth River, though I don't -think when it comes to the point he'll do that. However, -Burgoyne and Slade must see to those themselves. After -the way this new K. O'Neill's been treating me on paper, -I'm not going to concern myself with the general welfare -of all the firm's factories on this coast. But I am in charge -of Malla-Nulla, and I'm going to preserve the trade here -from extinction if it can be managed." -</p> - -<p> -Carter lifted the mosquito bar and got out of bed. "I'm -afraid, sir, I must ask you to come down to my level, and -speak rather more plainly." -</p> - -<p> -Swizzle-Stick Smith sat back resignedly in his chair, and -dropped his eyeglass to the end of its black watered silk -ribbon. "<i>Dulce et decorum est pro factoria mori</i>, though -I don't suppose it will come to dying if you play your -cards right." Mr. Smith closed his eyes and evidently -imagined that he was uttering his next thought silently. -"Keep the young beggar out of the way of Slade's girl, -too. By Gad, I'd no idea Laura would grow up such a -pretty child. If he'd been an ordinary clerk I wouldn't -have minded, but the lad's a gentleman by birth, and now -he's done the gallant rescue business as a start, he's just -the sort of quixotic young ass to think he ought to go -and marry the girl as a proper capping for the romance. -And that of course would be the end of him socially." -</p> - -<p> -"I say," Carter called out loudly, "Mr. Smith, do you -know it's four o'clock in the morning, and there are some -dangerous chills about just now? Don't you think you had -better have a cigarette paper full of quinine by way of a -night cap, and then go to bed? It will be turning-out -time in another hour or so." -</p> - -<p> -"Matches, please. My pipe's out. Ah, thank you, -Mr. Carter. Well, as I was saying, the King's awfully taken -with that punkah you rigged for the mess-room, and the -water wheel you set up in the river to run it, and when -I showed him the native arrowheads, and the spears, and -the execution axes you'd made to sell to the curiosity shops -at home, he began to change his tune. By the time we'd -got to the fifth bottle he'd given up asking for your head -in a calabash to take home with him, and before we'd -finished the case he'd offered you the post of Chief -Commissioner of Works in Okky City, with a salary in produce -and quills of gold that'll work out to £1,000 a year." -</p> - -<p> -"That's very flattering." -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, isn't it, when you remember how he started. The -only question is, will he keep his royal word when he's -sober?" -</p> - -<p> -"It's a nice point. Among other things I believe they're -cannibals up in Okky City." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, come now, Mr. Assistant, you mustn't malign my -friend, the King, too much. You need have no fears on -that score. The Okky men have never been known to eat -anybody with a red head. The only thing you'd have to -funk would be sacrifice—with, of course, a most full and -impressive ceremony. So I think you'll go, eh? All for -the sake of K. O'Neill, whom you admire so much? And -then the King won't stop the roads." -</p> - -<p> -"No," said Carter shortly. "I have no intention of -committing suicide at present. But if I'm an embarrassment -at Malla-Nulla, you may fire me, or I'll resign if -you wish it." -</p> - -<p> -Swizzle-Stick Smith screwed his eyeglass into place and -examined his assistant with thoughtful care. "Shouldn't -dream of letting you go, my dear fellow. Always make a -point of sticking by my officers. Just thought I'd let you -know of the King's offer in case his Majesty refers to it -to-morrow. There now, go to bed again, and don't dream -the fighting's begun. You'll see plenty of service over this -affair without dreaming over it on ahead." -</p> - -<p> -</p> - -<p> -When Carter set out for the West Coast of Africa from -the Upper Wharfedale Vicarage, the one article in his kit -which he thought suitable for the Coast was a small-bore -nickel-plated revolver, which he had picked up second hand -in Skipton for ten and six. It had been smuggled in -without his mother's knowledge, as there was no reason to -add to her already great anxiety. His father had provided -half a sovereign towards the cost, had advised him not to -use the wretched thing except in case of necessity, but if -need arose, to take heed that he held it straight. -</p> - -<p> -Of course on arrival he found, firstly, that the weapon -was too small to be of effective use; secondly, that he could -not hit a mark six feet square at more than a twelve-yard -rise; and, thirdly, that revolvers are not really articles of -fashionable wear for clerks in West Coast factories, -whatever they may be in story-books. So the weapon lay in -his mouldy portmanteau, and the moist Coast climate -changed its nickel dress for a good coat of bright red rust. -</p> - -<p> -But the morning after the King of Okky's arrival, while -that bulky potentate was still asleep in the factory, Carter -went in, cleaned the revolver as well as he could, and -jammed cartridges into its reluctant chambers. He carried -it pirate-fashion for the remainder of that day inside the -band of his trousers, to his great personal discomfort, and -to the vast enjoyment of Mr. Smith. However, the truculent -Okky soldiers who had deliberately shaken weapons at -him in the morning were reduced by the sight of it to a -certain surly civility, and work in the feteesh went on -without any open rupture. -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith was distinctly irritable when dawn came in -with the morning tea, but presently, when the swizzle-stick -began its merry swishing in the cocktail pitcher, he thawed -into a pleasing geniality, which, by frequent application -of the same remedy, endured throughout the day. Laura -Slade had returned in her hammock by the beach road in -the cool of the preceding night, and Carter's thoughts -followed her to Smooth River factory, to the detriment of his -work down in the feteesh. He gave no mental attention -whatever to the King of Okky who sat cross-legged in a -long chair in the factory veranda above him, but that -bulky potentate kept returning with a dogged persistency -to the subject of George Carter. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Smith," he kept on saying, "I savvy champagne -palaver, n' I savvy cocktail palaver, n' I fit for chop when -chop-time lib. But I ask you for tell me, one-time, if you -fit for dash me dem Red-head that savvies machine-palaver. -If you no fit, I stop dem road, an' no more trade lib for -Malla-Nulla." -</p> - -<p> -To which Mr. Smith, who knew his West Africa from a -twenty-five years' study of its men and customs, would -reply with an unruffled geniality that he was sure the King -was far too good a heathen to try any such dirty game as -putting ju-ju on the factory of an old friend. "You're -pulling my leg, old Cockiwax," Mr. Smith would say. "I -pray you cease, and you shall have the best cocktail this -pagan Coast has seen or sniffed." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Smith," the King would say, "I fit," and thereafter -there would be truce till the houseboy brought the -ingredients, and Mr. Smith with his far-famed skill -compounded them, and the pink cocktails went their appointed -journey to perform their accustomed work. After which -the African would once more repeat his unwearied demand. -</p> - -<p> -From the rising of the King from his mat, to the hour -of the midday meal, this demand and reply went on, and -Swizzle-Stick Smith parried it with unruffled serenity. -But an open rupture very nearly came at the meal time. -As a king, the visitor was invited to sit at meat with the -white men in their mess-room. He said little during the -meal, but he appraised Carter's head so persistently with -his eyes that that irritated young man, with the pride of -race bubbling within him, would have openly resented the -performance if he had not given a promise to Mr. Smith -on this very point only a short half-hour before. -</p> - -<p> -Such a state of things could not last long without bringing -about an open breach, and Swizzle-Stick Smith, with -his vast experience, saw this earlier than anybody, and made -his arrangements accordingly. -</p> - -<p> -He tried hard to write a letter, but his pen was not in -the mood for intelligent calligraphy. So he had to fall -back on verbal instructions and a verbal message. -</p> - -<p> -"Mr. Assistant," he said, when at last he put down his -knife and fork, and the houseboy handed him his pipe -and a match, "Mr. Assistant, I intended to make you a -bearer of dispatches, but the gout's got into my confounded -fingers this morning, and I doubt if even Slade could read -my writing. So we'll just have to do the thing informally. -We must have some more of that spot-white-on-blue cloth, -and you must post off to the Smooth River factory and -bring it back with you. It seems to be in heavy demand -just now, though why, I can't imagine. I've been on the -Coast twenty-five years now, and I can no more foretell -the run of native fashions than I could the day I landed. -But there it is, and though I'm sure Slade won't want to -part, you must just make him. Say we'll pay him back -in salt. He's sure to be short of salt. I never yet knew -Slade to indent for half as many bags of salt as his trade -required. You needn't hurry. If you're back here in three -days' time that will be quite soon enough. You can take -a hammock, of course." -</p> - -<p> -"Thanks, very much, but I'd rather walk." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, just as you please. You must commandeer what -carriers you want from Slade." -</p> - -<p> -So it came to pass that when the sun had dropped to a -point whence it could throw a decent shadow, and the sea -breeze mingled a bracing chill even into a temperature of -eighty, Carter set off along the beach, with White-Man's-Trouble -balancing a mildew-mottled Gladstone bag on his -smartly-shaved cranium, in attendance. On one side of -him Africa was fenced off by a wall of impenetrable -greenery; on the other the Atlantic bumped and roared and -creamed along the glaring sand. On the horizon the smoke -of a Liverpool palm oil tank called from him the usual -Coaster's sigh. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter," said his valet when they had left the factory -buildings well out of earshot, "you plenty-much fine, -and you no lib for steamah." -</p> - -<p> -"It was about time I tidied up. When we get back to -the factory I'll teach you how to pipe-clay shoes." -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy thought over this proposition for some -minutes. Then said he: "I fit for tell you, Carter, dem -last white man I pipe-clay shoes for, he lib for cemetery -in two week. Savvy, Carter? Two week." -</p> - -<p> -"All right, don't get so emphatic. I wasn't doubting -you. But I'm going to risk the cemetery all the same. -You may start by providing me with one pair of clean -shoes a day, and when I get the taste of cleanliness again, -maybe I'll run to two. Savvy?" -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy plenty," grumbled White-Man's-Trouble, and -then presently. "You no fit for steamah palaver? You -no lib for home?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, I'm not going home yet awhile." -</p> - -<p> -"But you plenty-much fine." -</p> - -<p> -"Yes," admitted Carter, "I caught sight of myself in -mildewed pyjamas and a fortnight's beard, and was struck -with the general filthiness of my personal appearance. -Savvy?" -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy plenty. Oh, Carter, you lib for wife-palaver? -Dem plenty-much fine clothes always one of the customs -before wife-palaver." -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy pondered over this discovery during the -next two miles of the march, and then said he, "Oh, Carter?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well?" -</p> - -<p> -"Dem Slade. You savvy seegar?" -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose so. Why?" -</p> - -<p> -"I see Smith dash dem Slade one box seegar an' he -got what Slade said 'no fit' for before. Oh, Carter, you -dash dem Slade one box seegar," said White-Man's-Trouble, -and he treated his employer to a knowing wink. -</p> - -<p> -"Whatever for?" -</p> - -<p> -"Because then, after he got dem seegar, he sell you -Laura for half dem price he ask before." -</p> - -<p> -"You're an impertinent savage," said Carter half -tickled, half annoyed. -</p> - -<p> -But White-Man's-Trouble stopped, put down the yellow -Gladstone bag on the baking sand, and pointed to the -blue parallel tribal tattoo marks between his brows. "I -Krooboy, sar. I no bushboy, sar! I lib for educate as -deckboy an' stan'-by-at-crane boy on steamah, sar. I no fit -for stay with you, sar, if you call me impertinent savage." -</p> - -<p> -Carter stared. "Good heavens, man! I didn't intend to -hurt your feelings." -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble waved the bleached inside of his -paw towards his master. "Oh, Carter, you apologize. -Palaver set." He bowed a head which was quaintly shaved -into garden patches, replaced the Gladstone bag on its -central bed of wool, and once more strode cheerfully ahead. -</p> - -<p> -Carter followed moodily. How had they all guessed at -his admiration for Laura? He had thought it the most -intimate of secrets, a delicate confidence that he had no more -than dared breathe even to his own inner consciousness. -But first old Smith had blurted it out, and now even -his servant talked about it openly. He had no doubt -whatever that the whole thing had been fully discussed over -the cooking fires of the native compound at Malla-Nulla -the night before. -</p> - -<p> -Then somehow his eyes swung round to the dancing -horizon, and the Liverpool steamer's smoke, boring up -towards the North, easily ferried his thoughts across the -gap which lay between that baking African beach, and the -cool village tucked snugly in beneath the Upper Wharfedale -moors. He tried to concentrate his mind on the roses in -the vicarage garden. His mother liked abundance of -blooms, and cared little about the size. The Vicar -admired big blooms and snipped off superfluous buds when -his wife was out of the way, and during summer a gentle -wrangle over the roses was quite one of the features of -their quiet life. -</p> - -<p> -But the roses refused to stay in the centre of the -picture. Laura insisted on taking their place. Suppose he -took Laura back to Wharfedale—as Mrs. George Carter. -His mother, blessed woman, might be sorry, but she would -accept her. He was sure of that. But his father? Almost -the last piece of advice the Vicar had given on parting -was: -</p> - -<p> -"Now, lad, remember always you're a white man, and -don't get mixed up with any woman who owns a single -drop of blood darker than your own. If you do, you can -never come back here, and you'll hate yourself all the rest -of your life. Remember I held an Indian chaplaincy before -I got this living, and I know what I'm talking about." -</p> - -<p> -Carter shook a sudden fist at the steamer's smoke for -supplying him with such a distasteful train of thought, -and turned for light conversation to White-Man's-Trouble. -That garrulous person was quite ready to humor him in -the matter. -</p> - -<p> -The sea breeze died away a little after six, and they -marched in breathless heat till the cool land breeze took -its place, and brought them spicy odors of the inland trees. -And always on one side of them the surf roared, and -crashed, and creamed along the beaches. -</p> - -<p> -The sun drooped to the horizon and hurried beneath it -in visible inches of fall. Daylight went out. The colors -were blotted from the sky, and the stars lit up, one racing -another to be first. The noises from the forest changed -in correspondence. From close at hand a leopard roared -a greeting to the darkness. -</p> - -<p> -Night was fully dressed ten minutes after the sun had -vanished. It was after nine o'clock, and in the chill of a -wet gray mist, that they reached O'Neill and Craven's -factory on the banks of Smooth River. -</p> - -<p> -Now nine o'clock in the lonely factories of the Coast is -usually bed time, and Carter was a good deal surprised to -hear the hum of a great activity pulsing out into the night; -and presently, when they came within eye-range, to see -the buildings aglow with lights. But there was a further -surprise packed and ready for him. As they came close, -a black man leaned over the end of an upraised wall of -palm oil puncheons, and deliberately pointed a gun squarely -at Carter's chest. -</p> - -<p> -A good deal of discussion took place afterward as to -what would have been the proper procedure under the -circumstances, but that may conveniently be omitted from -this record, which deals only with immediate history; and -the fact is that Carter rushed the sentry, clipped him -under the ear, skinned his own knuckles, and captured the -gun. White-Man's-Trouble in the meanwhile had with -much presence of mind thrown himself on his face to -avoid any discharge of pot-leg from the concealed marksmen, -and was bawling lustily for "Slade, oh Slade," to -"Stop dem dam gun-palaver." Which noisy request -presently had its wished for result. -</p> - -<p> -Slade himself came out to meet them, and even then -his reception was sufficiently startling. "Good God!" he -rapped out, "then you've escaped, too, Carter, as well as -the Krooboy. What liars these niggers are! I imagined -that your—that parts of you were up at Okky City by now. -I supposed they've scuppered poor old Swizzle-Stick Smith -all right, though? Did he have a bad time of it? Why?" -he said as he came nearer, and saw his caller's spruce -getup, "you don't look as if you'd been scrapping much. Or -bolting very hard, either," he added as an afterthought. -</p> - -<p> -"Unless," said Carter, "you're referring to an invasion -by the Turks, or the French, or the Men in the Moon, I -haven't a notion what you're talking about." -</p> - -<p> -"Haven't you come from Malla-Nulla?" -</p> - -<p> -"Left there about a quarter to four." -</p> - -<p> -"And hasn't it been sacked?" -</p> - -<p> -"It was sitting down by the beach, looking just as white -hot as usual, and no more, when I left." -</p> - -<p> -"What about the King of Okky, then?" -</p> - -<p> -"He was there at Malla-Nulla, filling a very big chair -on the veranda." -</p> - -<p> -"And there has been no raid? I don't understand." -</p> - -<p> -"The King of Okky," said Carter patiently, "has raided -our factory to the extent of one case of fizz, of which -Mr. Smith says he drank half, but barring that, and about six -gallons of other mixed drinks, I didn't see him get much -out of us. He certainly was threatening to stop the roads -when I left, but I think that was all gas. He only wanted -to stick Mr. Smith for more drinks." -</p> - -<p> -"He's stopped the roads right enough." -</p> - -<p> -"Not he," said Carter cheerfully. -</p> - -<p> -The older man thought a minute and then, "Come along -with me," he said. "I guess ocular demonstration is about -the only thing that will convince you that there is mischief -in the air, and that that crafty old devil of a king -is at the bottom of it." He led to a factory outbuilding, -threw open a door, and scraped a match. "Look in there." -</p> - -<p> -Carter did so, and promptly felt sick, and came out. -But he got another light and returned resolutely to the -inspection. "Two, four, seven. And all killed the same -way. I say that's pretty ghastly." -</p> - -<p> -"Isn't it? They were all fine healthy Krooboys when -they marched out of here this morning, carrying up some -salt bags to our sub-factory on the Okky road. There were -some bits of feathers and a rag or two strung up alongside -the path, and they didn't notice them, or didn't tumble to -it that they were ju-ju. Consequently they are now what -you see. This is the King of Okky's way of hinting that -the road is stopped. That pot-leg must have been fired -at not more than a two-yard range. Some of the poor -devils are regularly blown inside out. Here, come into the -open again." -</p> - -<p> -"Thanks, you needn't give me the details over again. -I saw all that for myself." -</p> - -<p> -"That infernal King must have sent off his messengers -the very moment after you had that turn-up with him -about Laura—which, by the way, is a thing that I personally -shall never forget, so you can draw on me over that -down to the last breeches button. You see Okky City is -closer in at the back here, but it's quite five hours' march -further from Malla-Nulla. So the treacherous old brute -stayed where he was, tippling with Smith, in the pious -hope of keeping you all quiet till his men could come down -and blot you all out. How you got through is a marvel to -me. They must have reckoned on getting you as you -walked here along the beach or they'd never have let you -slip away. You and your boy have certainly escaped by -the skin of your teeth. It's a moral certainty that they've -got old Smith." -</p> - -<p> -"I don't think so. But I shall go back and see." -</p> - -<p> -"Rubbish! We may be able to hold out here, and perhaps -will not be attacked at all when they find out we're -ready for them. But it's perfectly impossible for you to -get back along the beach to Malla-Nulla. Come up into -the house, and we'll find you a bite of something to eat, -and Laura shall mix you a whiskey and soda. We've a -bit of the last steamer's ice still left, and you shall have it." -</p> - -<p> -"Thanks. I'll come up and see Miss Slade, but I shall -start back for Malla-Nulla in half an hour from now. -And if, as you prophesy, I don't land, well, at any rate, I -shall have done my best to get there." -</p> - -<p> -"It's very nice of you, and all that, but do you think -old Smith is worth it?" -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed. "Mr. Smith's a rough handful, but he's -a good sort, and I like him. Besides he happens to be a -gentleman." -</p> - -<p> -"Or was one once. A lot of us on the Coast were -gentlemen originally. I come of good people myself, and was -at Eaton and Jesus, although I don't suppose you'd have -guessed it if I hadn't told you. But you see Nature built -me with a cutaway chin, and I couldn't hold down a job -at home. However, come in, and we'll scratch you up -some chop. Here, Laura, I've brought a caller." -</p> - -<p> -"I feel this dreadful trouble is all my fault," said the -girl as they came into the lamplit room. "If you had -been killed, Mr. Carter, I should have looked upon myself -as a murderess." -</p> - -<p> -"My dear Miss Slade, you really mustn't worry about -a matter you've no concern in whatever. The whole thing's -a 'regrettable incident'—I believe that's the proper -term—that Mr. Smith told me has been brewing for years. It's -all due to the drop in the price of palm oil on the -Liverpool market, which means that we white traders pay less -for it on the Coast here, and the black traders get less, -and so there's less for the King of Okky to squeeze out of -them as they march through his territory from the hinterland. -That's what's put his fat back up. The only great -mistake that's been made is that I didn't split the old -brute's iniquitous skull when I had the chance. I say, do -you mind my commenting on those flowers you've got on -the table? I haven't seen a cut flower since I left England." -</p> - -<p> -He turned to his host. "You do the thing rather -palatially here, Mr. Slade. Board walls and real glass in the -windows! We've bamboo walls at Malla-Nulla that let in -the dust and the mosquitoes and the Krooboys' stares just as -they occur. It felt rather like living in a bird-cage till -one got used to it." -</p> - -<p> -"The walls are Laura's doing. You know she was at -school in a convent in Las Palmas, and came home with all -sorts of extravagant notions. Why, she actually insisted -on a tablecloth for meals, and napkins. I'll trouble you, -napkins! And yet they still call us palm oil ruffians in -Liverpool, and firmly believe that we live on orange-colored -palm oil chop, which we pick out of calabashes with our -fingers. I sent K. O'Neill a photograph of this room by -the last mail, with the table laid for chop, and flowers as -you see in a china bowl, in the hope he'd be impressed by -it, and raise my screw." -</p> - -<p> -"He's quite likely to do it, too," said Carter, "if I -understand Mr. K. right. He's always insisting in his -letters to Malla-Nulla that if we make ourselves comfortable, -and adapt ourselves to the climate, we shall be able to do -more and better work. By the way, do you know -Mr. K. O'Neill at all? At Malla-Nulla we only know him on -paper." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm in the same box," Slade confessed. "Godfrey, his -predecessor, of course I knew well enough. But this new -chap I only know from his letters, and they're a deal too -rousing for my easy-going tastes. Ah, here's the boy with -a tray of chop for you. Observe the parsley; that's Laura's -latest triumph in Coast gardening. Boy, Mr. Carter will -sleep in the spare bed in my room. See that there are no -live things inside the mosquito bar." -</p> - -<p> -"I thank you," said Carter firmly, "but I am going to -do as I said." -</p> - -<p> -"He wants to go back to Malla-Nulla," Slade explained -to his daughter, "and I tell him it is suicide to think of -such a thing. Here, you have a go at him, Laura." Slade -always put off onto someone else anything which he found -hard to do himself. -</p> - -<p> -But Laura Slade read a certain doggedness in Carter's -face that told her what to say. She did not join in -imploring him to stay at Smooth River when he had so -obviously determined to go. But instead, her mind flew to -some scheme that might make his passage less desperately -risky. "I am sure father could spare you some men. -With an escort you might get through. I wish you were -not so plucky." -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed. "Oh, I am frightened hard enough, -but I should be still more frightened at what I should -think of myself if anything happened to Mr. Smith which -I could have prevented if I'd been there. It's very kind -of you to offer an escort, and I'd thought of that before; -but I'm sure I shall be able to move quicker and more -quietly without one. But if Mr. Slade could lend me a -gun, I'd feel a lot more comfortable with that." -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly, my boy, certainly. You shall have my Winchester, -and I believe I can scare up a revolver somewhere." -</p> - -<p> -"You are very good. I have a revolver already, but it's -only useful to me as a sort of knuckleduster. I couldn't -hit a haystack with it ten yards off. Same with the rifle; -I've never used one. But where I was brought up in -Wharfedale, you see, the Governor had some glebe, and his -income was small. We mostly lived on rabbits and a few -grouse in the season, and so you see I learned to be pretty -useful with a shot gun." -</p> - -<p> -Slade handed a weapon. "There you are. That's a -double 12-bore hammer gun, and both barrels are cylinders. -It's an early Holland and was a swell tool in its day, which -was some time ago." -</p> - -<p> -"Thank you very much. I hope I shan't have to use it, -but it'll feel comfortable under my arm. When you've lived -most of your life in the country, you miss going out with -a gun. Well, now, I'll say good-by." -</p> - -<p> -"Wait a minute till we've called up your boy. I'll shout -from the veranda." -</p> - -<p> -"Don't, please," said Carter, remembering that on all -previous occasions when trouble foreboded White-Man's-Trouble -disappeared. He did not wish to call Laura's attention -more than necessary to the risks of the journey. -"I'd far rather go alone." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter," said the voice of the Krooboy from the -darkness outside, "then you plenty-much dam fool. I say -I lib for come with you to Malla-Nulla. You no fit to go -by your lone." -</p> - -<p> -They looked out through the lit doorway and saw the -yellows of White-Man's-Trouble's eyes, and the gleam of -his teeth, which latter were eclipsed when he finished his -speech, leaving the eyes alone to tell of his whereabouts. -</p> - -<p> -"Now, that's a real stout boy of yours, Carter," the -trader said. "Hi you, come in. You fit for a peg?" -</p> - -<p> -"I fit for a bottle," said White-Man's-Trouble, who -looked nipped and gray when he stood up in the lamplight. -Poor fellow, he thought he was going to certain -death with perhaps torture as an addition, but when it -came to a pinch, and the white man led, he screwed up -his pluck to follow. -</p> - -<p> -So at last the pair of them set off quietly into the -shadows. Two handshakes were all the farewell, but there -was a soft something in Laura's eyes that sent queer thrills -down George Carter's spine. Slade himself saw them -through the outer line of the sentries, and warned those -enthusiasts not to fire on them should they presently -return; and a dozen yards away from those sentries, they -melted into the warm blackness of the African night. -</p> - -<p> -Up on the veranda of the factory Laura Slade leaned -over the rail and listened to the beating of her own heart. -She strained her eyes and she strained her ears along the -line of mysterious phosphorescence which marked the -beach, but no trace or hint did she get of how it fared -with the man she loved. Once only during that watch did -she hear a sound which she took to be a distant gunshot, -and then, <i>din, din,</i> as though two other shots followed it. -Then the roar of the surf and the night noises of Africa -closed in again, and for safety or hurt Carter had passed -beyond her reach. -</p> - -<p> -"Kate will like that man," she said to herself, and then -she shivered a little. "I wonder if Kate will take him -away from me?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap04"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER IV -<br /> -THE BEACH BY MOONLIGHT -</h3> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble was abominably frightened during -that night march along the beach to Malla-Nulla, and -did not mind showing it. Indeed, the fact that he screwed -up his determination sufficiently to make the trip at all, -says a great deal for his admiration of Carter. -</p> - -<p> -Carter, on the other hand, though he was fully alive to -the desperate risks that lay ahead, felt himself to be the -white man in command, and adjusted his demeanor -accordingly. To look at him one might have thought that -he was merely taking exercise and the evening air for the -general good of his health. -</p> - -<p> -Had there been cover he would have taken it, but there -was none. The beach was the only path; the bush which -walled it on one side was impassable, and though the sea -might have been considered an alternative route, they had -only cotton-wood dug-outs at the Smooth River factory, -and it would have taken at least a surf-boat to get out -over the Smooth River bar, to say nothing of landing, when -the time came, through the rollers which crashed always -on Malla-Nulla beach. So he marched along where the -sand was wet and hard, just above the cream of surf, and -he carried the twelve-bore, hammers downwards, over his -shoulder, with his forefinger on the trigger guard above. -He was very grateful for those past days of rabbit shooting -in Upper Wharfedale which had taught him to be so quick -and deadly on a sudden mark. -</p> - -<p> -The surf on one side, and the night noises of Africa on -the other, roared in their ears as they marched, and every -now and again they came into a cloud of fireflies, which -switched their tiny lamps in and out with inconceivable -rapidity, and left them quite blinded during the intervals -of darkness. -</p> - -<p> -So that on the whole, as Carter realized very fully, if -the King of Okky had set men to waylay them, these -could scarcely be incompetent enough to miss their mark. -But he did not admit this knowledge to White-Man's-Trouble. -When that Krooboy stated things exactly as they -were, Carter pooh-poohed his deductions lightly enough, -and stormed at the man because he was ignorant of the -most approved method of pipe-claying shoes. -</p> - -<p> -An African moon floated cleanly overhead, and great -African stars punctured the purple roof of heaven, and to -Carter's chilled fancy he and the Krooboy were as -conspicuous as two actors strutting under lime light. But -there were two things he overlooked, and these I believe -must have been the salvation of the pair of them. The -thick night mists were steaming out of the forest, and -from the surf the thick white sea smoke drove in on the -land breeze to meet them. This translucent fog, though it -might not be very apparent to the eyes of the walkers -themselves, would be quite enough to screen them from -the gaze of hostile pickets who, after the manner of -Africans, were already half scared out of their dusky skins by -the fear of ghosts. -</p> - -<p> -They had made the journey out to Smooth River in five -and a quarter hours; they completed the journey back to -Malla-Nulla in four, which meant good travelling; and -because a heavy march like this may not be undertaken -without physical payment in the stewy climate of the Coast, -Carter felt certain premonitory symptoms which told him -that a good thumping dose of fever would be his when -once he slackened his efforts and gave it a chance to take -charge. But he was not much alarmed at the circumstance. -As he told himself coolly enough, either by the time the -fever came on he would have rejoined Mr. Smith at -Malla-Nulla, who in that case was perfectly capable of looking -after him, or he would have rejoined Mr. Smith in the -Shades Beyond, and a fever owing to his body left behind -on earth would not matter. As it happened neither of these -alternatives had to be bargained with. -</p> - -<p> -Malla-Nulla factory was eaves deep in white wet mist -when they got to it, and found it earthy-smelling and -empty. It was unmarked by fire, unsmirched by signs of -battle, and, strangest of all, unlooted. -</p> - -<p> -The pair of them charged up the veranda steps, Carter -in the lead, with the twelve-bore held ready for an instant -discharge. The Krooboy with matchet uplifted and teeth -at the snarl looked the very picture of savage desperation -and ferocity. They stepped into the empty mess-room and -lit matches and a lamp. The land breeze sang through the -bamboo walls, and Carter's home-made punkah swished -overhead to the unseen impulse of the water wheel; but of -quick human life, there was not a trace. -</p> - -<p> -He had fitted up bells about the place, or rather strings -that actuated wooden clappers which could beat on wooden -drums. He set these all a-clang and listened. The place -reeked of its usual mildew, and the smell nauseated him. -They had got rid of the mildew scent at the Smooth River -factory. But there was not a murmur of reply to his -clamor. -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble delivered himself of wisdom. -"Oh, Carter, I think dem Smith, an' all dem boys at -factory lib for die. Dis place lib for full of ghosts. I fit -for run back for Smooth River." -</p> - -<p> -"Run away, then," said Carter, who was beginning to -examine the mess-room systematically. -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy cowered in a chair and covered his eyes. -"Oh, Carter, I no fit for march back alone. Dem ghosts -plenty-too-much fond o' Kroo chop. Oh, Carter, you no -be dam fool an' stay here. You lib back for Smooth River -all-e-same me." -</p> - -<p> -"My pagan friend, don't get too familiar. The next -time I hear you calling me names, I shall break my knuckles -up against one of the places where the worsted's been shaved -off your skull. Observe"—said Carter, and poured some -whiskey onto the table top and set light to it—"Observe -those blue flames that crawl and flicker about, but do not -burn the wood. In those the ghosts that have been -threatening you are now being most painfully consumed. Do -you believe it?" -</p> - -<p> -"I fit for see 'em die," said White-Man's-Trouble -devoutly. "Oh, Carter, you plenty-much-fine witch doctor. -I fit for pipe-clay dem shoes, three pair a day. Oh, Carter, -if Okky men lib for come, you burn them, too?" -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly," said Carter, "anything to soothe your -nerves. Though, as a matter of fact, I should demonstrate -to them with a shotgun, not by burning methylated. Now, -just nose around, boy, and help me to find out where -Mr. Smith's evaporated to. They can't have eaten him, or -some of them must have stayed behind to digest the meal; -and they can't have kidnapped him, or he'd have broken -up the happy home before he condescended to go, and as -we see it now, it's no more squalid than usual. So now, -Trouble, produce Mr. Smith." -</p> - -<p> -"Smith? Oh, Carter, dem Smith lib for surf boat." -</p> - -<p> -"How on earth do you know that?" -</p> - -<p> -"Dem surf boat no lib for beach. Dem paddles no lib -for veranda, Okky man no fit for boat boy. So -Malla-Nulla Krooboy, dey boat boy for dem Smith in Malla-Nulla -surf boat. Savvy?" -</p> - -<p> -"I do clearly. But why the deuce didn't you tell me -all this before?" -</p> - -<p> -"Because," said the Krooboy simply, "I too plenty-much -frightened o' dem ghosts before you burn 'em." -</p> - -<p> -"I wonder," said Carter thoughtfully, "if I shall ever -understand all the workings of the African mind." He -went onto the veranda and peered out into the mists. A -fleecy blanket covered the sea and blotted out the water, -and all things of low elevation that floated thereon. In -the distance, between him and the moon, the two black -mastheads of an invisible steamer ploughed through the -whiteness, but between him and it a whole fleet of canoes -and surf boats might have been snugly tucked away from -his sight. -</p> - -<p> -Then a sudden pang of coldness came upon him, which -made him button up his white drill coat, and step back into -the mess-room and huddle into a chair. -</p> - -<p> -"Fever lib," said White-Man's-Trouble looking at him -critically. -</p> - -<p> -"I'm in for my usual two days' touch," said Carter, with -the listlessness of the malaria already creeping over him. -</p> - -<p> -"You fit for quinine-palaver?" -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose so." -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy fetched the quinine bottle from Mr. Smith's -well-filled medicine shelf. -</p> - -<p> -"I'd some pills of my own somewhere." -</p> - -<p> -"Steamah pills. Dem Cappy Image pills no dam good. -I eat dem box myself." -</p> - -<p> -"You thieving scoundrel!" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter, I tell you dem pills no good." He laid a -hand on his midriff. "No fit for give you even small-small -twist there. Oh, Carter, I save you lose your temper -over dem pills when I eat 'em mine self." -</p> - -<p> -"I wish they'd been calomel. You'll get poisoned one -of these days, Trouble, if you don't stop stealing. I've some -corrosive sublimate tabloids for skin preserving stowed -away somewhere, and if you bolt one of those, you lib for -die one-time. Here, give me a dose of quinine." -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy found a cigarette paper, tapped it full of -the feathery white powder, and rolled it up. Carter put it -on his tongue and swilled it down with whiskey and water. -"Quick, now, get me some blankets," he chattered. "I -shall burst if I don't sweat directly." -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble packed him with rugs and coats, -till in the baking atmosphere of the mess-room one -wondered that any skin could resist the invitation. -</p> - -<p> -But presently the wraps were flung aside, and Carter -sat aching and burning in his clammy drill clothes, with -his skin bone-dry, and a feel in his head as though it were -moving in and out like a concertina. -</p> - -<p> -"That last's the quinine," he told himself; and then, "I -say, Trouble, you'd better think for your own neck now. -I shall be otherwise occupied for the next thirty hours. -You'll be well advised if you went away back to Smooth -River. If the Okky men come here and knock me on the -head, I really don't care. And if they'll only chop my -unwholesome carcass, and get indigestion from it afterwards, -I feel I shall get a grim enjoyment from watching -their writhings from my own comfortable (or maybe -uncomfortable) seat on the Other Side." -</p> - -<p> -"You lib for bad fever," said White-Man's-Trouble -thoughtfully. -</p> - -<p> -Carter clutched at the Krooboy's brawny hand and wrung -it enthusiastically. "Hullo, Pater! Fancy seeing you out -here in this filthy hole! Well, sir, it is real good of you to -leave Wharfedale and come all this way to look me up. -How's the Mater? All right, eh? And did she do you in -the eye this year over the roses, or did you manage to -snip off the buds ahead of her? You didn't happen to -bring any beer with you, did you, sir? Nice cool draught -of Pateley ale, in your big silver tankard that you won for -stewing Hindoo babies alive at the burning ghats? We've -got muggers here, too.... Lord, what rot I'm -talking, and you aren't the Pater at all, but only a dashed -good sort of an ugly nigger with a blue frying pan tattooed -across the bridge of your nose. White-Man's-Trouble, -tell me solemnly and truly. Why do noses have bridges? -Why, for instance, not ferries? Wake up, you image, and -give me a civil answer." -</p> - -<p> -"You lib for dam bad fever," said White-Man's-Trouble -still more thoughtfully, "an' if you lib for die, Okky men -catch me one-time. So I fit for make you well one-time. -Oh, Carter, you hear, I plenty-much fine doctor." -</p> - -<p> -"You a doctor! With peacock's feathers growing out -behind your ears instead of whiskers!" -</p> - -<p> -"I savvy nothing white-man's drug-palaver. But I savvy -plenty cure fever Krooboy fashion." -</p> - -<p> -"Do you? Which of you? What rot I'm talking! But -upon my Sam, the Pater's gone, and there are three -distinct White-Man's-Troubles standing there all in a row. -I'll just talk to the middle one, and you others shut up. -Now, then, sir, you say you savvy Krooboy doctor-palaver?" -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy plenty." -</p> - -<p> -"Then, doc, I offer myself as a patient. Never mind -sending in to Grasington for your amputating tools. -Remember you are a Dales doctor, and as you've pointed out -with offensive cheerfulness many times, you saw me into -this hot and wicked world, and I know you jolly well hope -to see me out. You catch the patient and we do the rest, -as the undertakers say when they send round their cards -about top hats and gun cases. Special quotations for fever -patients F.O.B., for then a couple of firebars out of the -engine room does the trick, and saves the cost of an -elaborate coffin." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter, listen to me." -</p> - -<p> -"Well?" -</p> - -<p> -"I lib for Krooboy quarters for fetich ju-ju. You sit -here. No run away. Savvy?" -</p> - -<p> -"Be long gone?" -</p> - -<p> -"I come back one-time." -</p> - -<p> -"All right. Give my compliments to Miss Slade, and -say we had a jolly walk in the moonlight and found everything -all right when we got here, except that Mr. Swizzle-Stick—whose -other name I forget—had eloped with the -assistant typewriter. Say, it was rather a nuisance about -the typewriter woman, because she was the one who made -the jellies, jolly cool yellow jellies with just a drop of -sherry in them that were perfectly ripping when you had -been sick. My mother used to make jellies like that herself -for us kids when we were sick——" -</p> - -<p> -He was still rambling on when the Krooboy returned, -and by that time the fever was burning dangerously high. -It was not running its normal course. He had undergone -abnormal exertion, and the resulting fever was -correspondingly fierce. -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble came in out of the warm moist -night outside, with some liquid in a cracked teacup. The -patient refused to know him, and so the Krooboy picked -him up in his enormous arms and got the liquid down his -throat by drenching him as a nurse might drench a -fractious child. -</p> - -<p> -Carter coughed and spat, but the dose was down, and -in three minutes it had started its work. In five minutes -it had laid him out, and then White-Man's-Trouble carried -him into the next room and laid him on a bed. Then -from a bag he produced materials and did with them what -will not be set down here.... And after that he -groped around inside the mosquito bar, killed what insects -were lodged there, pulled down the netting, and tucked it -accurately round the mattress. -</p> - -<p> -Then he took up his matchet again, spat in his great -right hand to get a good grip on the hilt, lay down on the -mat before the door and went to sleep. -</p> - -<p> -The room pinged with mosquitoes; a leopard roared -persistently from the bush at the back of the factory, and a rat -somewhere up in the rafters gnawed at a sounding piece -of board with irritating persistence. Moreover, of course -there was the probability of the Okky men coming to the -factory at any moment for that much talked-of massacre. -But none of these things disturbed White-Man's-Trouble. -He suddenly wished for sleep, and therefore to sleep he -promptly resigned himself. All thoughts of anything -beyond that immediate desire were blotted out from his -simple brain. The patient might awake, and rave, or want -assistance; but that did not matter. Nothing mattered -beyond his wish there and then for sleep. -</p> - -<p> -The beautiful unreliability of his tribe was strongly -present in White-Man's-Trouble. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap05"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER V -<br /> -EVENTS AT MALLA-NULLA -</h3> - -<p> -Mr. Smith had been away from his creature comforts -for a spell of twenty hours, and most of that time had -been spent on the thwart of a dancing surf boat in the -embraces of a dank sea fog. He had been divorced from food, -stimulant and tobacco smoke for all that time—the surf -boat had been twice upset in getting off, and drowned all -the matches—and as a consequence his temper was vile, -and his language was sulphurous. He was barely thankful -when he came back to the beach again and found Malla-Nulla -factory neither burned nor looted; he was openly -ungrateful when he found that the last of the stock of -limes had gone mouldy, and realized for the moment a -Coast cocktail was beyond the limitations of art. As a -consequence Mr. Smith romped up and down the untidy mess-room -in a state bordering on frenzy, and in his own especial -polyglot reviled the unknown K. O'Neill as the <i>fons et origo -mali</i>. -</p> - -<p> -In addition to the legitimate boat boys, the whole of the -other factory boys had been crammed into the surf boat, -and as a consequence they also were chilled, cramped, and -bad-tempered. His own body servant was openly insolent -when commanded to produce dry tobacco and a pipe. And -when on the top of all this Mr. Smith opened Carter's -bedroom door, stumbled over the sleepy White-Man's-Trouble, -and was promptly floored by that nervous savage and threatened -with a well-filed matchet, the remaining rags of his -temper at last gave way. He sat there on the floor, a very -unkempt figure, and for five minutes without stopping (or -repeating himself) said exactly what he thought. -</p> - -<p> -During four of these minutes his Assistant had been -awake, and listening to him through the thin filter of the -mosquito bar. -</p> - -<p> -"Perhaps I should explain, sir," said Carter, stiffly, -when the flow of words at last ended, "that I came back -here because I thought you were in a hole and I might be -of use. I have not been indulging in whiskey as you suggest, -but I believe I have been through a stiffish bout of -fever." -</p> - -<p> -"Get up, man, and look at yourself in the glass." -</p> - -<p> -Carter did that, inspected a moment, and then whistled. -"Good Lord," he said, "I don't wonder you think I had -been on the razzle. What on earth's this white stuff painted -round my eyesockets? I look like a clown in a circus." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter," said White-Man's-Trouble, "dem ju-ju. -Last night you lib for fever plenty-too-much bad. I fit -for cure you. Now you well. If you touch dem ju-ju, you -lib for fever again, one-time." -</p> - -<p> -Carter's meddling hand dropped to his side as though -the white stuff round his eye had stung him. He turned -half-apologetically to Mr. Smith. "Do you think that's -likely, sir? You know West African ways better than I -do." -</p> - -<p> -"Beyond me. But you never can tell, and there's -always the probability of Africa springing something new -upon one. If I were you I should let your personal -appearance slide and risk wearing that decoration for the -day, if your boy says so. Ju-ju's a dangerous thing to -meddle with anyway, and he calls it that. Besides your -fever's gone, you say?" -</p> - -<p> -"Absolutely. And I don't even feel a wreck." -</p> - -<p> -"You're sure you were pretty bad last night?" -</p> - -<p> -"I fancy I was close upon pegging out. I never had -such a stiff bout before." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, Mr. Carter," said the old man screwing in an -eyeglass and staring at him, "if I were you I should dash -Trouble five bob for saving your life, and follow out the -rest of his instructions. Ju-ju often gets there when drugs -won't touch the spot at all, and, mark you, you're getting -that admission from the man who knows more about drugs -suitable for Coast ailments than anybody in West Africa. -The only trouble about putting this into general practice, -is, where are you going to find the proper ju-ju to meet the -case? But you seem to have got hold of the right boy for -this sort of thing in Trouble. Turning to business for a -moment, I hope you're satisfied with your exertions on -behalf of Craven and O'Neill with his Majesty of Okky?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I don't know what he's done yet, sir. Mr. Slade -said he had wiped out Malla-Nulla factory and killed you -and all the boys, but that seems, well, exaggerated." -</p> - -<p> -"Slade always takes the gloomy view. The King talked; -and I'll admit things looked ugly for a bit. You see you'd -walked off with the Firm's artillery." -</p> - -<p> -"Good heavens, do you mean that my tin-pot ten-and-sixpenny -revolver was the only gun about the place?" -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly I do. You see—er—Mr. Carter, one -occasionally—er—dines rather heavily here, and once after -dining too well I saw a man shoot another whose loss he -regretted afterwards. So as I wished to spare myself those -regrets, I saw to it that there was nothing more deadly -about the place than trade guns, and you wouldn't catch -me loosing off one of those, however drunk I might be. -I regret to say the King didn't continue to carry his liquor -like a gentleman after you'd left; he grew quarrelsome; -and finally I had to pull him up with some sharpness. -Then came the ultimatum. He said I should find the -roads stopped already—the old scoundrel had been playing -me like a trout, it seems, till everything had been got -ready, and he told me that as a fine for your lèse-majesté -he should help himself to the contents of the factory as -they stood." -</p> - -<p> -"But you headed him off there, sir, at any rate." -</p> - -<p> -Swizzle-Stick Smith chuckled. "Well, I haven't been -on this Coast for twenty-five years without knowing a thing -or two. I told the King I was rather glad to hear him -say that because it showed that a prophecy made a year -ago was now going to be fulfilled. He asked what it was. -I spouted to him -</p> - -<p class="poem"> - 'Maecenas Atavis edite regibus<br /> - O et præsidium et dulce decus meum,<br /> - Sunt, quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum<br /> - Conlegisse juvat, ...<br /> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -as the first thing that came into my head, and fine pompous -lines they are, as you'd remember if you'd ever been to a -public school, which you haven't." -</p> - -<p> -"I've written out all Horace twenty times over in -impositions and know the bulk by heart, but I can't say I -ever got a taste for construing it." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, we won't argue out the value of a classical -education just now. Anyway the King of Okky was impressed. -Of course he twigged the stuff was not English, or Okky, -or Kroo, or Arabic, or any of the tongues hereabouts. He -asked what it was. I said it was a priest's tongue. He -asked what the words meant. I romanced then and told -him they prophesied that the factory would be looted by -a King who had made himself a King—the old scoundrel -was born a slave, you'll remember, and made the throne -vacant by killing his predecessor—and that two days -afterwards a new and very curious sort of ju-ju would be put -on that King, who would thereupon die a new and very -painful sort of death." -</p> - -<p> -"Ripping!" said Carter. -</p> - -<p> -"The meeting broke up in confusion just about then, -because his soldiers down below began to run amuck -among our boys, and the King heard the row and went -for me. However, I'd my big lead tobacco box handy, and -I wiped him over the head with that, and as the boys -below were frightened, and had got our surf boat ready for -launching, I saw that they intended to quit, whatever I -might say, and I didn't see the force of holding the fort -here alone. So I went to sea with them, and spent the -evening preaching them a long sermon on the vice of -cowardice. I hadn't much faith that the King would be -fool enough to swallow my prophecy, but as I say, you -can never be sure which way the African brain will twist. -And here you see's the factory untouched." -</p> - -<p> -"When Mr. K. gets a report on this, sir, I fancy you'll -have a letter you will like." -</p> - -<p> -"Maybe. But I shan't wear myself out expecting it. -Look here"—Mr. Smith produced a letter from the breast -pocket of his stained pyjamas—"came in just after you'd -left. Sent by canoe and special runner from our factory -on the Monk River. Agent there says he wants to charge -me seven pound ten for forwarding my mail. If that's -K. O'Neill's idea of running a business economically, I -wish he'd come out to the Coast here and find a way of -making profits to correspond." -</p> - -<p> -Carter had a shrewd suspicion that if Mr. K. had ordered -an expenditure of seven pounds ten shilling sterling -over the forwarding of a letter, it contained an idea which -that very astute business man was sure would produce at -least seventy pounds in the near future. But he did not -irritate his superior by mentioning this aloud. Instead -he asked, "Any instructions for me, sir?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, yes. First of all there is a direct one. K. says, -'As Mr. Carter seems a good hand at collecting native -curios, I should be glad if he would get me some ivory -war horns. I want a row of them on my drawing-room -wall.' So, young man, you had better get hold of some -escribellos and your carving tools and set to work." -</p> - -<p> -"I don't propose," said Carter shortly, "to start faking -curios for Mr. K. A man like that would spot them at -once. But I'll send my model horn, and see to it he has -some other good specimens of the real thing." -</p> - -<p> -"As you like. Well, the letter goes on to advise us that -the next thing America and France and Great Britain -are going to gamble over is rubber. Not collected wild -rubber, you understand, but rubber estates where the vines -can be planted and cultivated. K.'s evidently going in for -Company Promoting, and as a preliminary he instructs -me to get options of suitable territory. He's got an idea -that an uncleared estate on the Coast here, which could -grow rubber if it had the chance, can be bought at the -rate of a case of gin per thousand acres; and if you've a -fancy for untouched bush, and a doubtful title, I daresay -that is so." -</p> - -<p> -"But one can get a clear title, I suppose, if one takes -the trouble?" -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith's pipe finally refused even to bubble, so he -started to clean out its more obvious horrors into Carter's -wash basin. He went on between the throes of this nice -operation—"Depends who you mean by 'one.' If you're -hinting at yourself, I have no doubt you could manage it, -because—you're a very painstaking young man, and I'm -sure—you see yourself as a partner of K. O'Neill already. -Isn't that so?" -</p> - -<p> -"That might do when I'm ready, sir," said Carter -laughing, "unless I see something better in the meantime. -But as a point of fact I wasn't setting up myself as a -man to see through the tangle of African land transfer." -</p> - -<p> -"If you were referring to me, I shouldn't recommend -you to bet on the result, unless the odds are big on your -side. And mark you I've been dabbling in West African -real estate at intervals for five-and-twenty years"—he -pointed to the crown of his bald head—"that's what's -worn my hair so thin in places. You get your eye on a -piece of land here, you get all the local evidence you can -rake up as to who is owner, and you pay that man and -put up your buildings. If within the next six months -more than three other owners don't turn up with absolutely -flawless-looking titles, you'll be lucky. It's a case of pay -each of them in turn, or clear out." -</p> - -<p> -"But surely there's the alternative of doing neither?" -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly, if you can get the Government to back you -up, and that's the rarest thing imaginable. You see any -land trouble of that kind, whatever the rights or wrongs -of it may be, always means a war when the white man -refuses either to pay or quit. The local kings and ju-ju -men always snap at the chance. Well, we needn't argue -this out any further. I know all the districts in at the -back here where rubber can be grown, and I shall go off -on a trip up country and see what I can do in the way of -negotiations. I leave you in charge here at Malla-Nulla. -Your particular object in life will have to be keeping down -expenses." -</p> - -<p> -"You think there will be no trade then?" -</p> - -<p> -"Not now the King of Okky has closed the roads," said -Smith decisively. -</p> - -<p> -Now Swizzle-Stick Smith had a long list of failings, but -letting his assistants eat the bread of idleness was not -among them. "Nothing like work—and a moderate -amount of drugs—for keeping fever and mischief out of a -man," was his motto, and he saw to it that Carter -remained steadily on the run. But now the roads were -stopped, and it was only the rare merchant who straggled -in scared, and often wounded, from that mysterious Africa -behind, George Carter discovered that life was a very -different thing. Beforetime, he had found work in the -feteesh, and round the factory generally, a trial to the -flesh; but the idleness that took its place was infinitely -more objectionable. -</p> - -<p> -He employed the Krooboy staff in whitewashing, in -building, in making a caricature of a garden; he made the -native clerks polish up their books into a shape that would -have satisfied even a Glasgow Chartered Accountant; and -for himself he made Okky arrows, axes, spears, drums and -warhorns, in such quantities that even the curiosity shops -of Europe would have been glutted if they had all gone -home. -</p> - -<p> -In despair he even thawed to a certain intimacy with -the Portuguese linguister, but presently cast him off in -disgust, and realized why on the West Coast one divides -up the population into white men, black men, and -Portuguese. Of course White-Man's-Trouble was always at his -elbow, but he hardly fulfilled the requirements of a -companion. -</p> - -<p> -To be precise, after the roads were stopped, and -Mr. Smith had departed elsewhere, the Trader-in-charge of -Malla-Nulla factory discovered for himself what many -millions of men have found out before, that it is not good -for man to live alone, and though he made many ingenious -plans for remedying the evil, all of these, save one, -invariably broke down on being tested. The one plan that -was sound related to Laura Slade. -</p> - -<p> -Every time that Laura's name inserted itself into the -argument his mind would presently leap back to Upper -Wharfedale, and he would hear afresh that warning of -his father's about taking a wife of one's own color. And -his father, he reminded himself, had once held an Indian -chaplaincy, and knew what he was talking about. -</p> - -<p> -But by degrees, as this proposition was argued out again -and again, and the loneliness of West Africa in general, -and Malla-Nulla in particular bit deeper and deeper home, -so did England and all that dwelt therein drift further and -further away. He had found occasion the day after he -had been left in sole charge of the factory to send a -business note to Slade at Smooth River. In it he enclosed -another to Laura, and to this latter he received a reply that -he found charming. The affairs of the factories required -many messages after that; and presently the pair of them -did away with the cloak and pretence of commerce -altogether, and White-Man's-Trouble was kept trotting -backwards and forwards across the glaring beaches, frankly as -Cupid's messenger. Only once did Slade interfere, and -that was when the Krooboy, presuming on his peculiar -position, stole from the Smooth River factory some article -of more than customary value. Slade said nothing publicly, -but took the law into his own hands, and after the -custom of the Coast banged White-Man's-Trouble lustily -with a section of a packing case; and even then Carter -would have known nothing about the matter had not there -been a nail in the weapon of offence, which left its marks, -and about which he made inquiries. -</p> - -<p> -Slade it seemed had also received from K. O'Neill similar -instructions to those recorded above, on the matter of -rubber estates, and with his usual indecision would -determine one day to set off personally into the bush, and the -next day to do the necessary bargaining by correspondence. -Finally he wrote to Carter a querulous letter saying that -as he got no help from anybody in deciding on such an -important subject, he was just going to stay on at Smooth -River and twiddle his thumbs, and so Carter was not in -the least surprised to hear from Laura within the next -twenty hours that her father with hammock-train and -escort had that day set off for a prolonged expedition into -the bush. -</p> - -<p> -"His last instructions," wrote Laura, "were that I was -not to be in the least nervous; he was going to avoid the -Okky country; and anyway he was an old Coaster, and -knew most thoroughly how to take care of himself. And -so, nervous I refuse to feel. But, oh! I am so lonely here -with no one whiter than Mr. and Mrs. da Silva to talk to. -I somehow quite share your instinctive dislike to West Coast -Portuguese." -</p> - -<p> -Within ten minutes after reading that letter, Carter was -out under a brazen glare of heat, marching along the sand -where it was wet and hard, and nearing the straggle of -palms which marked the banks of Smooth River, at the -rate of four good miles to the hour. When a white man -walks at that speed through West Africa mid-day heat, it -is only because some question of life or death hangs upon -the speed; though in this case Carter told himself that love -was the same as life. He pinned his eyes on the Smooth -River palms, which the refraction made to dance up and -down most coquettishly, and repeated this over and over -again, because another voice within him persisted in -sneering something about two very lonely people with nothing -to do, who were not in love at all, but merely bored with -idleness and their own society; and finally he got quite -angry over the matter. He stuck out his great dogged -chin, and presently cursed aloud. He shook his fist at -the splendor of the tropical sun. "I do love the girl," he -declared, "and I will marry her in spite of my father, and -K., and everyone, if she will have me. Curse it! Why -should I hesitate when I love her? This infernal climate -is making me as slack and undecided as even poor old -Slade." -</p> - -<p> -So with the surf booming ceaselessly in his ears, and -the sea-smoke driving over him and making his white drill -collar damp and sticky, he marched resolutely on to meet -Fate. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap06"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER VI -<br /> -THE COMING OF THE OKKY-MEN -</h3> - -<p> -The attack on Smooth River factory did not take place -without due warning. It seemed that a large caravan of -native merchants from the hinterland had come through -the Okky country with a fine cargo of produce since the -King had stopped the roads. Whether they had cut new -roads through the bush for themselves, or fought their way -past the obstructing ju-ju, they did not explain; they -arrived at the factory with kernels, a few tusks of discolored -ivory, a few quills of water-worn gold, and a fine parcel -of high-grade rubber, which were duly valued; they took -cloth, six flint-lock guns, a case or two of gin, and the -balance in pink Kola-nuts by way of payment; and with -these on the skulls of their carriers, they marched away -along the Beach and out of this history. -</p> - -<p> -Then presently there came down envoys from the King -of Okky demanding with a fine inconsistency that O'Neill -and Craven's factory should pay his Majesty the transit -blackmail which he had been unable to collect himself. -Carter was sent for, post-haste, from Malla-Nulla, and was -at first minded to tell those envoys to go to a kingdom -which repute says is even hotter than West Africa. But -thoughts of Laura living there by herself, and a dread of -the horrors of native war made him offer a compromise. -"Open the roads," said he, "and we'll pay up these fellows' -dues, though your King knows perfectly well he hasn't an -atom of claim on this factory. It's the custom for traders -to pay for going through a country if they can't avoid -paying; they never pay once they are through; and never, -never, never, throughout all the wicked history of Africa -has there been a case of an English factory being fool -enough to pay toll which its casual customers have slipped -through without paying. But, as I say, I am ready to meet -you in the matter. Open the roads and I'll dash you this -amount you ask for." -</p> - -<p> -Kwaka, the head envoy, a big, fine, bold-eyed Haûsa, -requested that the money might be handed them there and -then. -</p> - -<p> -"Not one sixpence," said Carter, "till the roads are -opened." -</p> - -<p> -The Haûsa was a professional soldier, and here he could -see was going to be a chance of working at his trade. He -gleefully delivered the King of Okky's ultimatum. If the -tribute was not paid, the King would withdraw his permission -for O'Neill and Craven's factories to exist on the -Coast. -</p> - -<p> -"Tell your old King," said the Englishman contemptuously, -"that he may have authority over his own filthy -mud-villages inland, but his law does not carry along the -Coast, as he knows full well. The Coast is the white -man's." -</p> - -<p> -Things were going exactly as Kwaka could have wished. -The man with the red head was warming up nicely. "If -you fight when we come down to the factory," said Kwaka, -"I will see to it that you are crucified separately. I should -like to take the woman who lives here into my own harem, -but the King has bespoken her already." -</p> - -<p> -"You," said Carter savagely, "a Moslem, ought to know -shame for living in the employ of pagans like Okky-men. -If you come back here, my first shot shall be for you, and -after you are dead I will have that done to your face with -the white man's doctor's tools as shall forever spoil its -beauty. So that when the Prophet takes you up into Paradise, -even the least of the houris will shrink from you and -hide her eyes from all sight of you in the folds of her -green robe. Just you stick that in your memory, -Mr. Kwaka, and don't come boasting 'round here. Observe, I -am a man of my hands: I can make white iron burn." -</p> - -<p> -He pulled a length of magnesium wire from his pocket -and lit it with a match. The big Haûsa stared owlishly at -the fierce white flame. -</p> - -<p> -"That is the glare of Gehenna," said Carter, "into which -if you come to Smooth River again you will presently -descend, after being cast out from Paradise because of the -reason I mentioned. You have now my permission to -depart. And I wonder," he added to himself, "if my -Mohammedan theology is fairly correct. Kwaka's swallowed -it right enough, but if he hands it along to a mullah, -he may find a flaw, and we shall have the whole brood of -them down about our ears in half no-time." -</p> - -<p> -However the portent was sufficiently startling for the -moment. Kwaka argued that a man who could make iron -burn could doubtless (as he claimed) spoil the good looks -of a True Believer by some other of his infernal arts, and -therefore was a person whom it would be healthy to let -alone. So he and his escort took themselves off into the -forest as unobtrusively as might be. -</p> - -<p> -But with Laura, Carter took another tone. "Look here, -my dear," he said, "you simply must run across to the -Canaries till things have simmered down again here. I -don't want to alarm you, but it's quite on the cards that -infernal old Mormon of a King may take it into his woolly -head to be dangerous. You've had one taste of his quality -already." -</p> - -<p> -"Two," said the girl, and shuddered, "and he's sent my -father presents and messages since. But I can't go away -from Smooth River, at any rate till my father comes back. -He left me in charge, you see." -</p> - -<p> -"Which I think very improper of him. I don't believe -in girls being mixed up in business matters, at any rate in -West Africa, and I am sure K. O'Neill would be frightfully -down on it—what are you laughing at? Laura, tell me -one-time what you are sniggering about in that ridiculous -way. Oh, I see. You think I have never seen Mr. K. and -am talking through my hat. Well, my dear, if you had -read fifty times over every letter that K. has written to -Malla-Nulla factory during the last eighteen months, you -would know that man and his likes and his dislikes, and -his ambitions, and his cranks just about as accurately as I -do. Anyway, I repeat, he'd hate to have you here in -charge." -</p> - -<p> -"Just remember that I don't agree with you one bit, -Mr. Carter." -</p> - -<p> -"Very well, Miss Slade, you can jolly well do the other -thing. But take charge here I shall, and go to the Islands -you must. There's a B. and A. boat due to call at Monk -River the day but one after to-morrow. I'll send for our -surf boat, and we'll take you there in style. Won't you -have a ripping time of it at Las Palmas and up in the -Monte! I wonder what the new hotel's like up there. And -I say, Laura, go down to that farm at the bottom of the -Caldera, and I bet you a new hat it takes you half an hour -longer than my record time to get up again as far as -Atalaya—Hullo, what's the matter now?" -</p> - -<p> -"You are making things rather hard for me. I'd go -away from this hateful Coast if I could, but we simply -can't afford it, and there you have the bare fact." -</p> - -<p> -"But I thought——" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, yes, of course you did, that father was a sort of -local millionaire. Well, he isn't. He did once have private -means, but that I think was before I was born, and only -the reputation of them remains now. He's made big commissions -on the factory's trading, I know, but he's invested -badly, and I think he's been robbed. Probably, too, I've -been extravagant." -</p> - -<p> -"Rubbish." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, anyway, the money's gone, and the brutal truth -is I haven't a sovereign in the world." -</p> - -<p> -"Good Lord! You ought not to have been left here -like that. It was beastly careless of Slade." -</p> - -<p> -"He never thought of it. And if he had, he couldn't -have done anything. His equipment of course came from -about the factory, but as regards money, he went away -without a pound in his pocket. There aren't shops that -one can spend money in to be found up in the bush." -</p> - -<p> -"It's disgustingly awkward," said Carter frowning. "Of -course every penny that I have in the world would be as -much yours as it ever had been mine, but the fact is, my -dear, I've paid it all away as it came. You see, in a way -I was a sort of bad egg before I got a billet out here on -the Coast, where, I suppose, if you come to look at it, there -are small opportunities of roystering. Besides, with -Mr. Smith always before one as an example of what not to be, -it doesn't take very much resolution to keep straight. -Anyway, in ancient days I ran up all the debts I could get -tick for, and I landed in the poor old Pater for a lot more -than a younger son's share. Well, what with selling curios -through that old blackguard Balgarnie on the <i>M'poso</i> (who -I know robs me of half the proceeds), and commission on -our turnover at Malla-Nulla, which has increased a lot -since I've been there (till of course this row cropped up), -and my small bit of regular screw, altogether I've made -a very decent income, and I've taken a bit of pride in -paying off the old debts with ten per cent. of interest added. -I knew that extra ten per cent. would tickle some of them -frightfully. It was just that chunk of interest that cleaned -me out down to the bone, and I chucked it in because I -thought one could not possibly want hard cash down on -the Coast here. What idiots men are to let themselves run -short of money! However, I shall have another quarter's -screw due in a couple of months' time and in the meanwhile -you must go to the Islands on tick." -</p> - -<p> -"You're a dear good boy, but it can't be done. I shall -stay on here and make the best of things." -</p> - -<p> -"You will do nothing of the kind, young woman. You -will travel on a Madeira chair in a palatial surf boat as far -as Monk River as we just now arranged, and then I shall -walk on board the B. and A. boat with you, and explain to -the purser who you are, and everything will be as right as -ninepence." -</p> - -<p> -She looked at him with full eyes. "You make things -difficult for me." -</p> - -<p> -"Not a bit of it. I'm the man that's going to shoulder -the difficulties." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, you didn't know it. But if you asked a favor for -my father's daughter from the purser of the <i>Secondee</i>—she's -the boat that's due—you would get an unkind answer. -We're in debt all round, and I'm afraid he didn't -behave very well to either the purser or the captain of the -<i>Secondee</i>. Now, please do not press me any more. I stay -here at Smooth River factory." -</p> - -<p> -George Carter hit the table with his fist. "Then I -stay, too. The da Silvas will put me up, and if they -object, I'll turn them out into the bush and live in their -house alone. Malla-Nulla must look after itself." -</p> - -<p> -"What will Mr. K. say to that?" -</p> - -<p> -"He will approve. K.'s a tough nut in business -matters, but he's a man all through." -</p> - -<p> -"Is he?" said the girl with a queer smile. "I don't -agree with you."' -</p> - -<p> -"One may not at the moment like the way he hustles -one along in his letters," said Carter stoutly, "but he's a -man all through, and if he was to get to know how things -are fixed here, and to hear I'd stuck to my own job at -Malla-Nulla and left you in the lurch at Smooth River, -he'd fire me one-time, even if he had to get a steamer -specially stopped to land his mail. No, K. O'Neill would -have no use for brutes of that description in his employ. -Now, if you'll be so very nice, my dear, as to pick up that -swizzle-stick and make me a good grippy cocktail, when -I've had that I'll go out and do what I can to discourage -the Okky men if they see fit to pay a call." -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -Now, his Majesty the King of Okky once boasted to a -West African official that he could put 20,000 spearmen -into the field, but there is no doubt that this was an -over-estimate. Moreover many of the Okky troops carried -flintlock guns and matchets in place of the spear, and others -again were bowmen, and still others wielded the Dahomey -axe. But his Majesty was a parvenu king who had fought -his way to the throne, and he saw to it that there was no -inefficiency in his War Office. He made the conditions of -service sufficiently pleasant to tempt in the fighting -Moslemin from the Haûsa country, and these fine soldiers of -fortune gave the needful stiffening to his own pagan levies. -</p> - -<p> -Then, also, the King of Okky made full use of the great -cult of Ju-ju. The average West African king is completely -under the thumb of the ju-ju men, and if he is not -actually their nominee and puppet, he knows that if he -runs at all counter to their wishes and policy, he will die -some frantic death devised by the cleverest poisoners on -earth. But King Kallee the First was not only King of -Okky but he was also Head Ju-ju man of that mysterious -state, or as it is sometimes written, Head Witch-doctor. -He could, when he chose, hale a subject from his dwelling -and pin him to the Okky City crucifixion tree for no further -reason than his kingly will. He could also cause a piece of -fluttering rag, or a bunch of hen's feathers to be tied above -a subject's lintel, and that subject and all his household -would not dare to pass the charm; nor would anyone else -dare to have communion with them; so that in the end -they would die of hunger and thirst and become a pestilence -to the community among whom they had lived; and -no one thought of raising the breath of objection. The -King had put ju-ju on one of his own subjects, and that -was all. -</p> - -<p> -Moreover the King, having set eyes on Laura Slade, -wished to instal her in a wing of the great mud palace of -Okky as his wife. So far, throughout life, when he had -created a wish, fulfilment followed as a matter of course, -be the means what they might. In his demands for Laura, -Kallee was at times amazed at his own moderation. He -had approached Slade (who to him was the girl's proprietor) -just as one native gentleman might approach another, and -inquired her price. Slade, who could not give a decisive -answer even to such a preposterous matter as this, temporized -after his usual custom. The King naturally saw in -this a scheme to enhance the girl's price and displayed royal -munificence. He would pay Slade a thousand puncheons of -palm oil and a thousand bags of rubber, and two thousand -bags of kernels; and when Slade waved this aside and -spoke of his daughter's reluctance for matrimony, Kallee -spoke of the splendor in which his chief queen would live. -Slaves in all abundance, cloth as fine as silk, ornaments of -gold, and an American alarm clock should be hers; her -food should be coos-cousoo of the finest, her drink should -be Heidsieck of a vintage year exclusively. All the affairs -of State should be exhibited for her approval, and even -his two brass cannon should be housed in her apartments. -The King showed himself to be the royal lover in lavish -perfection, and Slade could not bring himself to cut short -the offer and tell him that the whole thing was impossible. -He temporized, and congratulated himself each time the -matter came up on having got rid of the King without -rupture of their friendly relations. -</p> - -<p> -However, the royal patience, which had never been -strung out to such a length before, reached its breaking -strain that day at Malla-Nulla under circumstances already -recorded, and what the King could not obtain by this new -diplomacy he very naturally made up his mind to get hold -of by methods which were more native to his experience. -</p> - -<p> -Being moreover a strategist with a good deal of sound -elementary skill, he did not give the enemy time to bring -in reinforcements after the first news of danger. Kwaka's -embassy was a reconnoitring expedition as much as -anything, and the detail that the brazen Kwaka should be -scared out of his seven senses by the man whose red head -the King had already ordered for a palace ornament, was -a small thing which stood beyond his calculation. A force -of 500 picked men lay in bivouac a bare five miles inland -from the factory; the ju-ju signs on the bush roads -protected these from all espionage; and when night fell, a -ju-ju man who was the King's special envoy performed -a ceremony which he said, and which they understood, -granted the soldiers a special dispensation against those -ghosts which all West African natives know haunt the -darkness. So they advanced to the attack through the -gloom of the steaming forest shades, those of them who -were pagans with high spirit and fine hopes of loot, and -those of them who were Moslemin filled with a vague fear -which they gleaned from Kwaka's hints. -</p> - -<p> -Now Carter did not fall into the usual Englishman's -trick of despising his enemy. Indeed he had that figure of -20,000 fighting men firmly lodged in his head, and short of -the opportune arrival of a British gunboat, expected sooner -or later a furious fight. But he reckoned that Kwaka would -have to go back to Okky City with his report, and afterwards -return from thence with an attacking force; and he -counted also on the African's fear of ghosts, and looked -with confidence to no disturbance during the hours of -darkness. -</p> - -<p> -So although he worked the sweating factory hands at -high pressure in piling up puncheons and cases, and bales -of cloth, and sacks of salt into a substantial breastwork, -he went to bed himself that night and felt, as he tucked -in the edge of the mosquito bar, that few white men on -the Coast had ever earned better a spell of sleep. -</p> - -<p> -It was at 2 A.M. when the Okky yell and the crash of a -volley of pot-leg woke him, and he leaped up and through -the gauze in one jump. He ran out onto the veranda, and -met there Laura Slade. She was dressed, and had in her -hand the cheap Skipton revolver which he had given her, -and towards the purchase of which his father had once -contributed a hard-to-spare ten shillings out of the whole -half guinea that it cost. Moonlight poured down upon them -pure and silvery from a clear night overhead, but all the -land below up to the level of the veranda was filled with a -mist that was white and thick as cotton wool. In this fog -invisible black men screamed and yelled and cursed, and -occasionally there came to them the red glare, and the roar, -and the raw black-powder-smoke smell of the flintlocks. -</p> - -<p> -"The beggars will rush those barricades," said Carter, -"if I don't look out. You stay here, Laura, and put that -pistol down. It's a beastly dangerous toy." -</p> - -<p> -"I may want it for myself." -</p> - -<p> -"Don't be melodramatic. Now run into the mess-room, -there's a good girl, and get down those two Winchesters, -and load up the magazines. I'm going down to help the -boys." -</p> - -<p> -But even as he spoke there came a sudden hard puff -of the land breeze that made the mist swirl and twist up -into ghostly life, and left canals and pools of clearness. -He darted inside, snatched up one of the rifles, and -crammed it full of cartridges. "I wish I'd a scatter-gun," -he said. "I used to be a nailer at rabbits and the occasional -grouse at home. However, it won't do to miss here, -although the tool is new." He threw up the weapon to -his shoulder, and shot as a game shot shoots, with head -erect and both eyes staring wide at a leather charm-case -on the broad black chest which he picked as his object. -He did not know how to squint along the barrel. Then -he pressed home the trigger, and had the thrill of knowing -that he had shot his first man.... He warmed to the -work after that, and fired on and on with deadly speed and -accuracy, till the heated barrels of the repeaters burned -Laura Slade's hands as she charged the magazines beneath -them. From somewhere in the lower part of the factory -came White-Man's-Trouble, and when in answer to the -fusillade, showers of pot-leg began to rustle over the -veranda and scream through the roof, that valiant person -presently dragged out bedding to form a breastwork. But -although Carter kicked him till his foot ached the Krooboy -would not show his own head over it sufficiently to use a -gun for the mutual defence. He stuck to it stolidly that -he was a "plenty-too-much bad shot," and Carter was too -much occupied in keeping up his own fire to spare time for -further coercion. But as he changed rifles with Laura, he -said every poisonous thing to White-Man's-Trouble that his -mind could invent, and that African listened, but made -neither answer nor reply. -</p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-082"></a> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-082.jpg" alt="He fired on and on with deadly speed and accuracy, till the heated barrels of the repeaters burned Laura Slade's hands." /> -<br /> -He fired on and on with deadly speed and accuracy, till the<br /> -heated barrels of the repeaters burned Laura Slade's hands. -</p> - -<p> -The fight was going badly against the factory force. The -Okky men's original surprise had been very complete, and -they had rushed the outer line of the defences all round. -The inner line consisted merely of the buildings; and the -factory boys had bolted for these, and had joined the -mulatto clerks and the Portuguese who were there already. -The whole defence, of course, was badly managed; but then -it must be remembered that it was devised by traders, not -by soldiers. If it had not been for Carter's education on -the moors and warrens of Upper Wharfedale, and his -consequent deadliness with a rifle against rushes at close -quarters, the factory would have been put to the storm within -five minutes of the first attack. -</p> - -<p> -Besides, with a few exceptions, the factory boys were -Kroos; and these, though they are magnificent workers and -about as amphibious as seals, are emphatically not fighting -men. They battled manfully enough after the shock of the -first surprise, and because no path of escape offered itself; -and whilst there were trade guns to fire, they derived a -fine encouragement from the noise of the black trade-powder -explosions, and the acrid smell of smoke. But few -of them made any attempt to reload their flintlocks a -second time, and for cold matchet work at close quarters -they had little appetite. So by ones, and twos, and tens, -they began slipping off into the bush (to be hunted down -piecemeal by the savage enemy later on) and soon only the -clerks and the two fever-shaken Portuguese were left alive -in the lower buildings. -</p> - -<p> -It was at this point a new engine was added to the attack. -Dawn had just leaped up yellow and sickly over the -sea, when a crash rang out that jarred the air and every -building about the place. -</p> - -<p> -"Hear that?" croaked Carter. "That's a cannon, and -a brass one as you can tell by the ring. It's probably one -of those old brass guns that the Portuguese used to cast for -the natives two hundred years ago. One of my curiosity -dealers promised me fifty golden sovereigns for a genuine -specimen. If I don't spot that gun and pick off the men -who are serving it, they'll jug us for a certainty. But -they've got the blessed thing so jolly well hidden among the -bush! Well, I'm going to ease up on my own shooting and -watch for the next flash. Get me a drink, you plucky -darling, will you, or else my throat will crack in two. Bring -a chattie of water; that's what I want. The heat of this -night has been about the worst I have known on the Coast." -</p> - -<p> -"It is too hot to last," said the girl. "I'm afraid even -the water in the chattie will be as warm as tea." -</p> - -<p> -She went into the mess-room, and presently came back -on hands and knees to keep below the showers of pot-leg -which were persistently whistling overhead, and gave him -the wet porous bottle, and crouched beside him under the -breastwork as he drank. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, my sweetheart," said Carter, "if it isn't unlucky -to drink one's best girl's health in water, here's your toast! -You're the finest plucked lassie in all the wide and wondrous -earth, and now I come to think of it, I don't believe -I ever proposed to you." -</p> - -<p> -"No, you never did. I don't see why you should." -</p> - -<p> -"Stick your head lower down. That thing that said -'whisp-whisp!' was a rifle-bullet. They've got a blooming -marksman down there, and I can't have you picked off. -And don't talk rubbish. You know you're jolly going to -marry me as soon as ever we can afford it, if ever we get -out of this, which isn't likely." He clapped an arm snugly -round her, and <i>w-o-s-h</i> came a load of pot-leg into the -other side of the bedding which protected them. "Got any -silly objections to make to that?" -</p> - -<p> -"Have you thought over what it means, George? You -know I'm not white." -</p> - -<p> -"Bosh! Anyway you're white enough for me. Let go -the chattie. And as I said before, Here's luck. Ugh! -African river water, half mud, half essence of nigger from -higher up. Moreover, as you remarked, hot as tea. -Bang! there goes that infernal cannon again, and I've been -gossiping with you—proposing, I mean—and haven't seen the -flash. Plunked a shot into one of the palm oil puncheons -in the store below, by the sound of it. Hullo, here comes -the wind. Now, somebody will have his hair combed." -</p> - -<p> -As though the discharge of the ancient brass gun had -been a signal, a tornado opened upon them without warning, -and almost in its full strength in the first blast. -</p> - -<p> -One minute there was a stagnant calm, with air so hot -and stale that it hardly seemed to refresh one to breathe it. -The next wind travelling often at a hundred miles an hour -bellowed and roared at them in tearing spasms of fury. -The factory building reeled and groaned at its impact. -Sticks, boards, corrugated roofing and empty barrels solved -the problem of aerial flight. The close-grown trees of the -forest that hemmed the factory in on the landward side -were flattened earthwards as though by the pressure of some -unseen giant hand; yes, flattened down, and down, till one -thought that any human beings that were beneath them -must inevitably be crushed out of all living shape into the -foul, soft swampy ground beneath. And in cold truth some -of the Okky men who cowered there during the enforced -lull of the attack did so die. -</p> - -<p> -The firing had ceased automatically on both sides, and a -bombardment of sticks, leaves, sand and stones pelted them -all unmercifully. It was impossible to face the wind; -indeed, so violent was the torrent of air, that the mere act of -taking breath became a matter of the nicest art. -</p> - -<p> -The girl lay crouched under the huddle of bedding, buffetted -into semi-unconsciousness, with Carter's arm holding -her tight down to the floor boards of the veranda. He put -his lips to her ear and bawled a message. She shook her -head. Through the insane yell of the wind she could not -hear a word. He laughed and kissed her, and then, taking -away his protecting arm, worked his perilous way like some -clinging, creeping thing into the inside of the dwelling. -</p> - -<p> -Even this was filled with the wind. A door, smashed -from its hinges, clattered noisily about in one corner, as -though it had been some uncouth mechanical toy propelled -by clumsy clockwork. Everything movable hopped on the -floor, or danced from the walls. And of course to this -disorder was added all the dishevelment which had been -caused by the volleys of jagged cast iron fired through the -flimsy walls by the Okky men's flintlocks. But Carter knew -what he wanted, and sought for it with a single mind. -</p> - -<p> -Presently from amongst the <i>débris</i> he emerged with a -four-gallon drum; and then he worked his way to a cupboard -where Slade kept his store of cigarettes. Luckily it -was full. Slade had boarded a steamer lately where his -credit in the forecastle shop was still untarnished, and his -plausible tongue had procured him a whole two-dozen case -of half-hundred tins on some ingenious deferred-payment -scheme of his own. There were twenty-two of the green -tins left, and Carter got them all out, opened them, and -recklessly emptied their contents onto the floor. With -infinite pains, and sheltering the liquid from the blast under -his coat, he decanted the contents of the big drum into -the tins till all were full. Then he re-lidded them, and -jabbed a hole with his penknife in each lid. -</p> - -<p> -He rebuilt them into their own wooden case as he primed -them, and when this was full, dragged it out through the -doorway into the casemate of mattresses. Laura and -White-Man's-Trouble still crouched there helplessly, and the -tornado still yelled and roared and boomed. It was carrying -water with it now, bitter salt from the sea, and whipping -the face like hail where it impinged. -</p> - -<p> -Carter was breathless and panting by the time he had -managed once more to drag himself under the shelter of -the bedding; but he was keenly alive to the needs of the -immediate future. Already he noted a diminution in the -tornado's fury; the hustling cloud of sticks, and leaves, -and branches, which it carried along was growing less thick, -and although this was by far the hardest hurricane he had -ever seen, he knew from previous acquaintance with the -breed that it might well drop to perfect calm as suddenly -as it had arisen. -</p> - -<p> -As a point of fact it deceived him. The wind lulled, -and the forest trees swung upwards in unison as though -they had been performing a trick. The air cleared, and -Carter raised his head to try and spot the part of the bush -where the brass gun was masked. A black man sprang -from the undergrowth, lifted a gun, fired, and missed. -Carter threw up the Winchester for a snapshot. -</p> - -<p> -"Got him—Laura, for the Lord's sake keep down in -shelter, or they'll pick you off to a certainty. Trouble, you -hound, roll up those pillows and blankets underneath you -into a hard wad, and stuff them into that gap at the corner -there——" -</p> - -<p> -"Isn't there a splendid chill after that awful heat?" the -girl said. "Wrap up, George, or you'll have fever. Here's -your coat." -</p> - -<p> -"Look out," Carter shouted. "Hold on all with those -blankets. Here comes more tornado." -</p> - -<p> -Once more the wind slammed down upon them with insane -fury, and once more all loose inanimate things rose -into vigorous flight. The forest trees cowered down into the -swamps from which they grew. Solid rods of rain split -against the factory buildings, and sent deluges of water -squirting through the bamboo walls as though the matchwood -backing had not been there. The roar was like the -continuous passing of a hundred heavy trains over a -hundred iron bridges all side by side. -</p> - -<p> -Gone altogether now was the stagnant heat. The air -was scoured clean, and it was forced into the lungs at such -high pressure that it exhilarated one like some deliciously -choice vintage of champagne. -</p> - -<p> -"I'm hanged if I let those beggars kill us," Carter -bawled out during one of the lulls. "In this splendid air -life's too gorgeous." And then bump came the wind upon -them again. -</p> - -<p> -But the tornado had blown out the heart of its strength. -In five more minutes the wind had dropped, the rain -ceased, the air cleared, the sun glared out overhead and -began to heat the tropical day, and white steam oozed up -from all the face of creation. -</p> - -<p> -This time Carter's rifle represented the whole orchestra -of death for the defence. The factory Krooboys' flintlocks -spoke no more; the ill-aimed Winchesters of the -snuff-and-butter colored da Silva and his wife were silent. The -Portuguese and the factory clerks, and the factory porters -had cannily crawled away into the bush. They knew -nothing of what was ahead of them in those steamy shades. One -certainty alone fluttered big in their minds, and that was -that they were leaving massacre behind. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap07"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER VII -<br /> -THE INVISIBLE FIRE -</h3> - -<p> -In the factories which dot the West African seaboard -and rivers, death is such a constant visitor that much of his -grimness had faded. At home, in England, or America, -or Hamburg, we shiver with apprehension whenever our -relative who is "out on the West Coast" comes up into -the mind; but the relative himself takes his doses of fever -when they fall due with a certain callous philosophy, and -on his emergence shattered and shrunken from the attack, -congratulates himself on not being a candidate for a -gun-case and a top hat that time. Those who go up in the bush -and are there engulfed, those who get drowned in the -ever-grinding surf, those who go out by the thousand and one -opportunities which the climate and the surroundings offer, -slip off their human garb with an easy nonchalance; and -those who are left pronounce some pithy epitaph over the -deceased, and go on with their quicker interests. -</p> - -<p> -With the native African, death is an event of even smaller -moment still; and in the event of a quarrel, one competitor -will often sit down, cuddle his knees, shut his eyes, and -there and then deliberately suspend his vital processes, -merely to cause temporary annoyance to his rival. -</p> - -<p> -Now, the above paragraphs are somewhat of the nature of -a footnote elevated to the text. But they are necessary at -this point in these memoirs to explain the coolness with -which Laura and Carter viewed the near prospect of extinction. -Neither of them of course in the least wished to die, -but it never occurred to them to face death with anything -beyond the usual Coast philosophy. -</p> - -<p> -"I shall stick Mr. K. for a rise in screw if we get -through this," said Carter. -</p> - -<p> -"If I hadn't made a promise," said the girl, "I could -tell you something about your Mr. K. that would startle -you." -</p> - -<p> -"You're a tantalizing baggage, and I've a good mind to -pick you up and shake it out of you. Gad! Here they come. -Now, I'll shoot, and you get a box of matches and light -those bombs for White-Man's-Trouble to throw." -</p> - -<p> -"Bombs! Do you mean the cigarette-tins?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes. You'd a big brazing-lamp in the factory. Remember -it? Well, you had. And that meant benzoline, I -guessed. I found a drum full of it, anyway, and I've -loaded up those tins with benzoline. It'll burn like winking -in this sun, and the niggers'll never see the flame. Only -thing to take care of, is not to set light to the factory. -Now, do you understand?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, dear." -</p> - -<p> -"And d'you savvy, Trouble?" -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy plenty. Oh, Carter, I burn my leg plenty-too-much -with dem damhot lamp once on steamah. No can -see flame when sun lib for shine. I fit for serve as -stand-by-at-crane boy once, sar, on steamah." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, Mr. Engineer, throw straight and don't get hoist -by your own petard. By the living Jink we're in for it -now. Throw, Trouble, for all you're worth, right into the -blue of them." -</p> - -<p> -The four-fifty repeater yap-yapped its messages, and the -man who had learned to shoot quick and straight amongst -the rabbits and grouse of Upper Wharfedale, made deadly -practice at this bigger game. But two eight-shot Winchesters -are of very little more value than catapults in stopping -the rush of two hundred fighting black pagans officered by -Moslemin Haûsas. Beforehand the fire of the Portuguese -and the factory Krooboys had held them off, much more -by its noise than its deadliness. The one solitary shooter -who remained, they held in scorn; he was firing white -powder in the Winchester, and the smallness of the noise -and the absence of smoke encouraged them. They scorned -to shoot at him with their flintlocks. They would rush in -and put this man to the matchet, and save the girl alive. -And thereafter, when they rolled the red head at King -Kallee's feet, and made the girl stand up before him, many -and fine presents would be given to gladden them and their -women. -</p> - -<p> -So they gave the Okky yell, and sprang out of the bush -into the open, and rushed across the clearing. -</p> - -<p> -But lo, presently the white man called out, "Behold, I -put ju-ju on you blighters," and a black man who carried -between his brows the Kroo tribal mark began throwing -green tins which contained some liquid distilled by -witchcraft. And thereupon the clinging fires of hell broke out -amongst them, and burned the skin on their bodies till they -screamed and danced in their frenzy of pain, and the air -was rich with the smell of their cooking. Even Kwaka, -who led them, though he was the boldest fighting man in -all King Kallee's armies, showed by the grayness that grew -upon his face that he that day learned the lesson of fear. -And when presently they broke and fled for the bush (the -flames, be it understood, still sticking to them), it was -Kwaka who led that disordered retreat, and held a sleeve -of his jelab before his eyes lest the white man might bring -further witchcraft to bear, which would make his face a -derision for the houris in Paradise. -</p> - -<p> -"My Christian Aunt!" said Carter up on the factory -veranda, "but benzoline is filthy stuff to fight with. The -place stinks like a cookshop, and I feel like a beastly -Russian anarchist. Don't throw any more tins, Trouble. -We've saved our bacon, Laura, I do believe, but I hate -being unsportsmanlike. It's worse than netting your -neighbor's grouse moor, this. But they came up to the gun too -quick for me to stop them alone. White-Man's-Trouble, -if you throw another of those infernal bombs, I'll slip a -shot into you." -</p> - -<p> -Laura was crouched in behind the mattress casemate, her -face tucked away into the crook of an elbow, and her -shoulders heaving with sobs. -</p> - -<p> -"Hullo, old lady, what's the row with you? You're not -hit? Good God, don't tell me you're hit. What a careless -hound I am to let you get out of cover. I could have sworn -there wasn't a shot being fired. What a miserably incompetent -brute I am to get rattled and not see after you better." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, George, I'm not hit. I almost wish I were. That -would be fairer." -</p> - -<p> -Carter stared. "What's the matter, then?" -</p> - -<p> -She pulled herself together with an effort. "I suppose -I must feel very much as you do about the matter, only -more so. You see I lit the matches for each bomb Trouble -held out to me. It was I who am really responsible——" -</p> - -<p> -Carter tackled the situation with ready wit. "Now, look -here. I'm not going to have you presuming on being my -sweetheart. I know you'd like to have the credit of routing -the enemy, but you're not going to have it. I want all the -kudos I can get in that line for business purposes myself. -I'm going to point out in my report to Mr. K. that -it was my brilliant genius alone that rootled out that drum -of benzoline, and put it to a new and unpleasant use, and -that any idea of refusing me the ten-pound a year rise in -screw that I ask as a reward would be bang against all -O'Neill and Craven's most cherished traditions of fairness. -So just you remember that, Miss Slade, and don't go off -and brag about doing one single thing that wasn't ordered -by your superior officer in this Service (as old -Swizzle-Stick Smith would say), and that's me." -</p> - -<p> -"You're a dear, good boy." -</p> - -<p> -"I am," said Carter cheerfully. "I'm rather surprised -people don't see it oftener. You're the first person in -Africa who's made the discovery so far. Now I can't have -you eating the bread of idleness out here any longer. -Indoors you go, and tidy up." He took her by the arm and -led her gently to the living room. "Hasn't that breeze -made hay of the place? Sorry the houseboys have left this -desirable situation without warning, and I can't lend you -White-Man's-Trouble just now. So I want you to wade in, -if you please, my dear, and show me what an extremely -domesticated person the future Mrs. G. Carter can be when -she tries. 'We wish to make a point,' said Mr. K. in one -of his typewritten letters, 'of having all our factories neat -and comfortable.'" -</p> - -<p> -Laura shivered. "If I were to marry you, I wonder what -K. would say." -</p> - -<p> -"Say nothing. We should absolutely draw the line at -interference there, eh? But in the meanwhile there is no -harm in following out the gentleman's advice, which is -invariably sound, on the other points." -</p> - -<p> -"When you see Mr. K. I'm very much afraid you'll -change your mind about me." -</p> - -<p> -Carter drew the girl to him and kissed her on the lips. -"Don't you be jealous of K., sweetheart. Mine's only a -business admiration in that direction." -</p> - -<p> -"At present," she persisted. "Wait till you meet." -</p> - -<p> -"When we meet, I shall say, 'Sir, this very lovely and -desirable young person here is my wife,' and then we shall -go on to commercial topics. There's nothing romantic -about the boss. If you'd studied the Epistles of K. to the -Coasters as closely as I have, you'd know that off by heart." -</p> - -<p> -Laura still shook her head. "I love you," she said, -"more than anything else in life, and I can think of no -greater happiness than to be your wife. But I would never -marry you if I thought you could repent of it afterwards. -You can't deny that you are wrapped up in K. You must -see K. before you marry me, George." -</p> - -<p> -"If K. comes along before the parson, well and good, -you shall have your own way of it. But if a missionary -of the right complexion (if there is such a thing down here) -casts up at this factory, there'll be a wedding cake put on -the festive board, Miss Slade, and you'll be the bride that'll -cut it. Don't you try and wriggle out of your solemn -promises with me. Hullo, what's that?" -</p> - -<p> -"Thunder. Is the tornado coming again?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, listen. It isn't thunder. It's people thumping -monkey-skin drums. I've made dozens of those tuneful -instruments for the curiosity dealers at home, so I know -the note. Well, you get on with your dusting, there's a nice -girl, and I'll go out and have a cigarette." -</p> - -<p> -"You are going—to——" -</p> - -<p> -"What, clean up the mess outside? No, we'll leave that -for the present. Now, don't be scared, there's a sweetheart. -But, to tell the truth, those drums interest me. The -natives signal through the bush with them, you know, in a -sort of dot-dash-dot style; and so far their local Morse -alphabet has been a bit beyond me. Perhaps White-Man's-Trouble -may be able to decipher it. Now, don't you try and -shirk that dusting one moment longer." -</p> - -<p> -He went out then onto the veranda, shutting the door -behind him, and questioned the Krooboy sharply about the -drummings. Did he understand them? -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy plenty," said White-Man's-Trouble gloomily. -"Dem Okky-man's drums." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I didn't suppose it was a Chinaman's, you patent -idiot. You fit for understand dem tune?" -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy plenty. Dem tune say Okky-men fit for make -custom." -</p> - -<p> -"That means 'ceremony,' I suppose. Now, what sort -of a ceremony will suit the occasion? Dirge of defeat by -the ju-ju men, presumably, and then they'll crucify some -wretched slave so that his spirit can go into the Beyond -and arrange to have the luck changed. I wish Mr. Smith -were here, or Slade. No, I'm hanged if I do, though. I've -worked this thing off my own bat so far, and I'll see it onto -the finish. Dem Okky-men make crucify palaver?" he -asked, and translated the hard word by standing up -himself spread-eagled against the factory wall. -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble nodded a dismal assent. "Then, -by an' by they grow plenty-too-much more brave, an' they -come back one-time an' fight some more." -</p> - -<p> -"Then you bet your woolly whiskers it won't do for us -to sit quietly taking the air here. Ju-ju's the correct card -to play in this country anyway." -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy shivered. "Oh, Carter, I no fit for touch -ju-ju." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I am. With thought and care, I believe I should -develop into a very good ju-ju practitioner. Besides, the -subject fascinates me. No white men seem to know anything -very definite about it, above the fact that it is beyond -their comprehension, and it would be rather fine, if the -unlikely happened, and one chanced to survive, to be -known as the one authority on West African magic." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter, if you meddle with dem ju-ju palaver you -lib for die plenty soon. If you walk in bush, tree fall on -you; if you ride in canoe, arrow jump on you; if you chop,[*] -dem chop he fill with powdered glass, and presently you -lib for die of tear-tear-belly. Oh, Carter, you lib for Coast -now one year; I lib for Coast all my life; I savvy plenty; -you alle-same damfool." -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p class="footnote"> -[*] In West Coast English to chop is to take food. Chop is food. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -"My dear Trouble, I've admitted already that I know -meddling with ju-ju isn't altogether an insurance proposition. -Much obliged to you for the fresh warning all the -same. But I'm afraid your constitutional nervousness -rather clouds that massive brain of yours at times, or -you'd see that Smooth River factory and its three occupants -are in the devil of a fix just now. You say the Okky-men -when they've rubbed up their courage will presently -return; and I don't dispute your reading of the omens. If -they do come, we can't shoot them off, and that's a certain -thing. As I'm sure Mr. Smith would say, it's a case of -<i>Aut ju-ju aut nullus</i>, and to follow his rather objectionable -knack of translating for a man who happened to have -been at a different school to his own, that means we've -either got to play the ju-ju card or be scuppered. -White-Man's-Trouble, you are hereby made conjurer's -confederate." -</p> - -<p> -"I no fit." -</p> - -<p> -"Am I to hurt your feelings with this piece of packing-case -lid?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter, you look see. There's a nail in him -there." -</p> - -<p> -"I know there's a nail in it. The occasion demands a -nail, and I picked the weapon for that reason. Now, then, -are you going to obey orders, or will you take a first-class -licking?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter, I fit for do what you say." -</p> - -<p> -"Good. You're an excellent boy when you're handled the -right way. Now go to the feteesh and bring the biggest -coil of that inch lead piping you can stagger under." -</p> - -<p> -Carter himself went to Slade's room and brought from -there one of those crude carved wooden figures which the -natives make and the traders pick up as curiosities. At -home they are sold for stiff prices as the gods of the -heathen; but the negroes that make them are not idolaters, -and what they exactly are for the present writer knoweth -not, save only that they are not articles of worship. -Locally they come under that all-embracing term ju-ju, which -includes so much and explains so little. -</p> - -<p> -Carter found a brace and bit—an inch twist bit, which -for a wonder was in a calabash of yellow palm oil, and so -not rusty—and he worked on these carved men till the sweat -ran from him. Laura came out and told him that he was -inviting an attack of fever, which was obvious, since by -then it was high noon, and violent exertion for a white -man with the thermometer above par always has to be paid -for on the Coast. But he drove her back again into the -house and out of the heat with a volley of chaff, and went -gaspingly on with his tremendous work. -</p> - -<p> -The mouths of the figures were wide, but with knife -and drill he splayed them wider, but was careful always -not to distort them beyond the canons of local art; and -in a couple of hours' time he was ready for White-Man's-Trouble -and the heavy coils of lead piping. -</p> - -<p> -"Regard," he said, "O thou assistant to the great white -ju-ju man. We will place one of these graven images -opposite the entrance of each road which comes from the -bush into this factory clearing. We'll hoist it up onto -a green gin box, so, and give it a bit more height and -dignity. And we'll add a necklace of these green cigarette -tins, which have already advertised themselves into an ugly -notoriety. Then, into this hole you see in the back of -each image, we will fit an end of lead piping, and as the -holes are tapered, the unions will make themselves good. -Then, O helper of dark schemes, we'll pay out the coil, as -far as possible in swamp where it will sink out of sight, -and bring all the ends into the house here. Any piping -that shows, you must throw earth over. Savvy? And the -inside ends we'll splay out with this hardwood cone that -I've made, till a man can get his mouth well into them -and shout down the tube comfortably. I'm sure you catch -the idea?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter, I plenty-too-much afraid. Presently I lib -for die." -</p> - -<p> -"Not you. If I see any signs of your starting to fade -away, I'll whack you into life again with a piece of board -with two nails in it. Wherefore, O feared of the uninitiated, -buck up, and get a shovel, and cover that lead out -of sight where it shows. Afterwards I'll show you the -working of that early British contrivance, an office -speaking-tube. That is, if we have time for a rehearsal, but by -the extra big dot-dashing of those monkey-skin drums just -now, it rather looks as if we shall have the next act of this -play crowding down on us without much more interval." -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -The burned warriors had not, it appeared, retreated very -far. Their spiritual advisers, the ju-ju men, had by King -Kallee's orders been waiting not very far away down the -several bush roads; and when presently fugitives began to -come trotting in through the steamy forest shades, these -ecclesiastics rallied them, and when enough were collected, -they commenced a "custom" for the renewal of the -soldier's bravery. -</p> - -<p> -Savage superstitions, savage terrors, savage thrill at the -raw smell of blood were all worked upon with a high -dexterity. King Kallee had made a fine art of these -incitements; he had gained a throne by their practice, and -had handed them on to chosen ministers, who practised the -cult of ju-ju with a single eye to advancing the interests -of their king. -</p> - -<p> -The black soldiers were wearily tired, and many of them -carried wounds. They listened at first with a sullen torpor. -They heard without interest that the white man's bullets -were non-consecrate, and therefore the wounds they made -would soon heal. They learned, with a little thrill of -wonder, that the green tins which poured burning flame were -not true ju-ju, since the King of Kallee's ju-ju men -declared them unorthodox. And by degrees their dull nerves -were worked up till at the proper moment sacrifice was -made, and the screams and smells of the victim maddened -them. Even the Haûsa officers, who were Moslem, and -therefore contemptuous disbelievers in all pagan ceremony, -were stirred up almost equally with their men, and when -as a final exhortation they were bidden to return once -more to the factory, and bring the red head and the white -girl as presents for the King, they forgot their qualms and -their burns, and led on with a new, fierce courage. -</p> - -<p> -But whether the African be savage bushman or cultivated -Moslem gentleman, superstition is part of the very marrow -in his backbone. These men had felt the bullets, they had -felt the infernal burnings of the benzoline, but they were -wound up now to a pitch above dreading either. Orders -were given to concentrate in the edge of the bush, as near -to the clearing as they could get without being sighted from -the factory, and then when all was ready the monkey-skin -drums would beat the charge. -</p> - -<p> -The first comers peered through the outer fringe of the -cover, and saw the clearing desolate, and the factory buildings -to all appearance tenantless. The dead that they had -left in their hurried retreat still lay where they had -dropped, and glared up glassy stares at the outrageous sun. -But with eyes keen to pick up any hint at ju-ju charm, -the gaze of all this vanguard fell on five little wooden -mannikins set opposite the points where the several bush -roads cut into the open. -</p> - -<p> -There was nothing new about the mannikins themselves. -They were merely the things that their own uncles and -their grandfathers carved for a purpose which they -themselves knew better than did that tricky white man with the -red head who had doubtless put them there. But then -each of these mannikins was perched on a pedestal made -of one or more green gin cases, and that in itself looked -suspicious—or, in other words, smacked of ju-ju. And, -moreover, each was garlanded with those infernal green -cylinders which they had just been informed officially were -in truth not orthodox ju-ju, but which they knew from their -own painful experience could, upon occasion, vomit forth -the most horrible flames. -</p> - -<p> -They crouched in the edge of the cover once more thoroughly -shaken, and it only required the final portent to -fray their courage utterly. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -In the factory, tucked snugly out of sight in the -mess-room, Laura Slade, Carter and White-Man's Trouble lay -stretched out wearily upon the floor. A length of match -boarding had been stripped away from the wall, and only -a paling of vertical bamboos stood between them and the -external world. -</p> - -<p> -It was the code message of the monkey-skin drums, as -read by White-Man's-Trouble, that first gave them the news -that the Okky-men had rewound up their courage and were -returning once more to the attack; and so they promptly -retired out of sight. Guns and defenders would have been -a reassuring touch to the enemy, who had seen such things -before. But for them to find no guns, and no human -beings in view, would accentuate the effect of the graven -images which gazed woodenly upon them from the green -gin-box pedestals. -</p> - -<p> -For long enough they lay there in the sickly heat, staring -out over the litter of the morning's battlefield, which -danced up and down in the shimmering sunlight. The -factory lizards came out in full numbers for their daily -sun-baths, and most of the flies of Africa seemed to be -congregated in the clearing. -</p> - -<p> -Laura caught the first note of invasion. "Do you see," -she asked, "those two swallow-tailed butterflies flittering -about by that big silk cotton-wood that lost his top in the -tornado? They were feeding contentedly enough on that -stuff like meadow-sweet, but someone or something -disturbed them, and they flew up. If you notice, they dare -not go back, so that rather hints that the someone is still -hidden in the meadow-sweet." -</p> - -<p> -"Which said clump," observed Carter, "is just two yards -off the graven image which commands bush road number -three. Oh, assistant conjurer, canst thou swear?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter," said the Krooboy with simple dignity, "I -no bush-boy. I speak English. I learn him on steamah. -I work up to position of stand-by-at-crane boy before I -lib for come ashore to work at factory. Ah, Carter, I savvy -swear-palaver plenty-much-too-good. You fit for hear me?" -</p> - -<p> -"Not for one instant. I want you to make all your -remarks in Kroo, or preferably Okky, if you aren't too -rattled to remember any of that fashionable tongue. Here, -put your sweet lips to the tube, and just say in the thickest -language you can think of 'Get away back to Okky City, -you bushmen. If you hesitate, your noses shall drop off, -and your great fat lips shall follow, and red ants shall -spring up out of the earth to eat them whilst you -wait.' Savvy the idea?" -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy plenty," said White-Man's-Trouble, and rattled -venom into the tube with a savage gusto. -</p> - -<p> -The result was sufficiently surprising. Spear-heads and -gun-barrels bristled suddenly upwards from the clump of -meadow-sweet, as ambushed Okky-men scrambled to their -feet. For a full two minutes they stood there listening to -the abuse which they heard pouring from the lips of the -wooden mannikin close beside them, with eyes goggling, -and mouths gaping, and knees chattering, the worst scared -blacks in all the Oil Rivers. -</p> - -<p> -For the moment they were mesmerized by fright. But -then the two mannikins which were nearest on either side -began cackling with uncanny laughter, and a ju-ju man -who was with them recognized an art higher than his own, -and allowed the superstition that was native to him to rub -away the thin veneer of his education. "Let us begone -from here," he moaned, "even if it be to meet the curved -execution axe of King Kallee in Okky City. Better the -sharp edge of that, yes, better even lingering days on the -crucifixion tree than the neighborhood of these devils. -Wood they are now, I do believe. But they can talk as -no thing of wood ever could talk; and presently they will -come to life, and hurl at us those green tins of liquid fire -with which they are garlanded. If there are any that wish -to see more, let them stay. For myself I return to Okky -City, even if it means impalement." -</p> - -<p> -The other wooden mannikins broke out into words, and -immediately the bush around each of them rippled with -men. Carter, whose knowledge of the native was growing, -used every syllable of his vocabulary down two tubes -alternately. -</p> - -<p> -Laura, who had grown up bilingual, commenced at first -timidly. But the desperate peril of their surroundings, the -excitement of battle, the thrill of seeing men run, the drop -of negro blood that colored her veins, were all circumstances -that presently whirled her into a resistless torrent -of words. Never had she spoken with such a fluency; -never had she framed such sentences. It was all in the -Okky tongue, accurate, biting, glib, telling. Carter broke -off from his own halting speech to listen. He could not -speak the language yet with any great ease, but he could -understand almost every word. He chilled as he listened -to her. He coughed a warning. He called sharply that -she should stop. But that drop of negro blood held her to -her speech. The Krooboy, thoroughly warmed up to his -work, was yelling infamies down a tube at the other end of -the mess-room. Laura, with eyes glinting and hands -clinched, was growing almost beside herself with speech.... -Carter gripped her arm and plucked her almost -savagely away. -</p> - -<p> -"You had better shut up. The Okky men have gone, -minutes ago, and I do not think you know what you are -saying. Laura, do you hear me?" -</p> - -<p> -She stared at him, and then spoke with a dry throat. -"I said only what you told me. It was to save our lives. -And you—you could not understand what I said. It was -Okky talk; you surely could not follow it. Why do you -look at me like that? George, what is it?" She laughed -rather wildly, and plucked herself away from him. "Oh, -I see. Well, I warned you before that I was black, and -now I suppose you believe me." -</p> - -<p> -He returned her look steadily enough. "My dear girl, -you've gone through more than you can stand, and you've -just worn yourself to rags. I never quite knew what -hysterics meant before, but I fancy that in about two minutes -more you would show me. Now the trouble's over; we've -fixed 'em tight this time, and you needn't worry yourself -any more. Just you go to your room and lie down and -sleep." -</p> - -<p> -"Sleep! You think I could sleep?" -</p> - -<p> -"Very well," he said coolly, "then Trouble and I must -wait till you can. But please understand, my sweetheart, -that until you have put in a four-hours' spell of sleep, and -can get up rested to stand a watch, neither the boy nor I -must close an eye. So you see it's up to you to arrange -whether we shall all have a dose of overwork or not." -</p> - -<p> -She came to him and put her slim brown hands on his -shoulders and looked him in the face. There were black -rings under her eyes, and her cheeks were white and drawn, -but somehow with her delicious curves she appealed to him -more than ever, and he let her see it in his glance. "You -still call me by that name," she said, "you still call me -sweetheart even after what you have seen and heard?" -</p> - -<p> -"Of course. Don't be stupid. A man doesn't change -towards a girl just because she happened to get a bit excited -when she was doing her best to save his life. I'm half -sorry now I stopped you, only the myrmidons of my rival, -his Majesty of Okky, had run away, and you really were -rather working yourself up." He drew her to him and -kissed her on the forehead. "And now you will go and -turn in, won't you, like a good girl?" -</p> - -<p> -"I'll do anything my lord wishes. But you will look -after yourself, promise me?" -</p> - -<p> -"Rather." -</p> - -<p> -"Let your boy get you a meal. You've not had a crumb -all day, and you must be starving. It was horribly careless -of me not to have thought of it before." -</p> - -<p> -"That is rather a bright idea. Had anything yourself? -No, I see you haven't. Well, we'll sup, Laura, before you're -packed off to bed. It's five o'clock in the afternoon, but -we'll call it supper. Trouble?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter?" -</p> - -<p> -"We fit for chop. You kill two tin, one-time." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Carter, three tin. Me one, Missy two——" -</p> - -<p> -<i>Bang</i> went a gun, as it seemed to their jangled nerves, -close at their elbows. They all started violently, and the -girl clutched convulsively at Carter's sleeve. -</p> - -<p> -"Dem Okky cannon," wailed the Krooboy, and burrowed -forthwith into the casemate of bedding. -</p> - -<p> -"Not it," said Carter. "It's all right, Laura. It's a -steamer's mail gun. I never heard the roar of a loaded -cannon till this morning, but once heard, you can't mistake -it for blank cartridge." -</p> - -<p> -"Are you sure?" -</p> - -<p> -"Absolutely. I jumped when the thing went off, but -then I suppose we're all a bit fagged. Here, Trouble, you -shirker, get dem chop one-time, and then find some limes. -We shall have the steamer people ashore in ten minutes, -and when they hear the yarn they'll want about five -cocktails apiece to congratulate us in. Lord! Laura, but I'd -give a tooth and two finger nails to have Mr. K. dropping -in on us during the next hour or so to see the fine way -we've saved O'Neill and Craven's factory from a total loss. -I believe he'd raise my screw with such a jump that you -and I might get married out of hand. Let's see, what -boat's due? I've hardly got your time-table in my head; -one gets rusty at Malla-Nulla." -</p> - -<p> -"It's the <i>M'poso</i>, George. She's straight out from home. -Just think, you may really have K. descending on you in -half an hour's time." -</p> - -<p> -"No such luck. It will be Cappie Image-me-lad, with -his green umbrella and his best thirst, and that hearty -ruffian Balgarnie, who'll rob every corpse in the clearing if -he thinks he can collect one Aggry bead and a good slave -dagger. By Gad, I wonder if I can screw some money -out of Balgarnie. I sent at least eighty sovereigns' worth -of most carefully made curios home with him last time -the <i>M'poso</i> tried to roll herself over off our beach at -Malla-Nulla." -</p> - -<p> -"I think," said the girl, "I'll just go to my room for -a minute." -</p> - -<p> -Carter pointed the finger of derision at her. "O vanity," -said he. "You're going to tidy your hair, and smarten -your frock just for the sake of old Cappie Image and the -plump Balgarnie. By the way, now that you are an engaged -young woman, are you going to let those genial old -ruffians take you on their knees and kiss you, just in the -old sweet way? Of course, don't mind me if you'd like it -so." -</p> - -<p> -"Pouf!" said Laura, "they've both known me ever since -I was a baby, but I'll be as distant with them as you like -if you feel jealous, sir." -</p> - -<p> -"I think I'll wash off some of the battle scars myself," -said Carter. "One looks a bit melodramatic in this filthy, -smeary mess. Not to mention uncomfortable. I suppose, -by the way, somebody will turn up to pay a polite call. -They'll judge that something's wrong when they see that -all the factory boats and canoes have been cleared out of -the creek." -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -Even White-Man's-Trouble stole palm oil and attended -to his toilette in honor of the expected visit, and it was -a very gleaming and oily Krooboy in some clean (stolen) -pyjama trousers of Slade's that showed Captain Image, and -his passenger, and purser up the stair. -</p> - -<p> -Laura and Carter were there, spruce and smart, to -receive them, and Laura said, "Kate! I knew you'd come," -and ran forward and shook the passenger by the hand. -"There, you see, George," she said over her shoulder, -"how accurately I can keep a secret." -</p> - -<p> -"Hullo, Carter, me lad!" said Captain Image. "Glad -to see you looking so fit. You're a fine advertisement for -those pills of mine, and I'm sure you're glad now you kept -away from old Swizzle-Stick Smith's nostrums. You seem -to have been having a bit of a scrap round the factory here. -However, we will hear about that, and have your tally of -the cargo you want to ship from here and Malla-Nulla -afterwards. But for the present I want to introduce my -passenger and your boss, Miss O'Neill." -</p> - -<p> -Carter swallowed with a dry throat. "Mr. K. O'Neill's -sister?" -</p> - -<p> -"Miss Kate O'Neill, who is head of O'Neill and Craven." -</p> - -<p> -Carter blinked tired eyes, and saw a girl of three-and-twenty, -half a head shorter than Laura Slade, dressed as -simply, but with that something that somehow speaks of -Europe, and money, and taste. Her eye was brown and her -hair was the color of his own—nearly. No, it was darker. -She was holding out a hand to him—a neat, plump hand -that looked white, and firm, and cool, and capable, and -which somehow or other he found in his own. -</p> - -<p> -"Laura calls you George, I notice," he heard her saying. -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, of course she would. We are engaged, you know." -</p> - -<p> -He felt his hand dropped with suddenness, and up till -then he had never known how thoroughly objectionable a -laugh could be when it came from the lips of -Mr. Balgarnie. Everything swam before him, and he lurched -against the messroom wall. But with an effort he pulled -himself together. "Miss Slade and I are engaged. We -are to be married as soon as we can afford it. When you -look round, and see how we've saved the factory from the -Okky-men, we hope you'll raise my salary." -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, I think I can promise to do that," said Kate -O'Neill. "I had my eyes open when I came across the -clearing. But do you think you are wise to marry?" -</p> - -<p> -"Ha, ha, Carter, old fellow," laughed little Captain -Image, "got you there! Get dollars first. Find connubial -bliss later." -</p> - -<p> -"But," continued Miss O'Neill, "you and I and Laura -will talk over that later when we are alone." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image felt that he cleared away an awkward -situation with all the savoir faire of a shipmaster. "Well, -Carter, me lad," said he, "we know you've had a lot of -lessons from old Swizzle-Stick Smith, but what about a -cocktail? My Christian Aunt, look out, Balgarnie, there's -Laura fainting." -</p> - -<p> -Carter stared at them dully but did not try to help. -"My God," he muttered, "to think I never guessed that -K. could stand for Kate." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap08"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER VIII -<br /> -PRESENTS THE HEAD OF THE FIRM -</h3> - -<p> -"I don't care what you say, Purser, me lad," Captain -Image repeated, "but I call Miss O'Neill pretty." -</p> - -<p> -"Well," admitted Mr. Balgarnie, who prided himself on -being a bit of a judge, "she may be that as well, but I still -stick to it that her face is what I call strong." -</p> - -<p> -"I hate the word 'strong.' When a she-missionary is -too homely looking to be anything else, she prides herself -on wearing a strong face." -</p> - -<p> -"No, sir. 'Intense' for lady missionary," Mr. Balgarnie -corrected. -</p> - -<p> -"Strong," snapped his superior officer. Captain Image -was of Welsh extraction and disliked contradiction. -</p> - -<p> -The purser shifted his ground. "Well, at any rate, sir, -you'll own she's mighty standoffish. I used to call good old -Godfrey O'Neill, Godfrey, and therefore naturally I called -his daughter Kate, and told her why. She didn't seem to -hear me." -</p> - -<p> -"She wasn't Godfrey's daughter, anyway. Godfrey -never married, but I believe he'd nieces. Probably Miss -Kate is one of them. The old man must have left her -the business. Thing that amazes me is the way she's taken -her grip of the concern, and made it hum." -</p> - -<p> -"And kept it dark even in Liverpool that she was a -woman. That old head clerk of hers, that people thought -was the manager, must be a rare close-lipped one." -</p> - -<p> -"He is, blight him!" said Captain Image with emphasis. -"I called in there two or three times after I'd got some -of those please-buck-up letters from O'Neill and Craven, -that I didn't care about, and the cauliflower-headed old -humbug clean took me in. He was Mr. Crewdson, to be -sure; no, he was not Mr. K. O'Neill; no, I couldn't see -Mr. K. just then; no, he couldn't make an appointment for -me with the gentleman; anything I wanted he would attend -to personally. If I re-read the letters he was sure I should -find that they were not unreasonable, but, on the other -hand, would put me in the way of earning extra commission -on cargo for myself. So it ended in my being civil to him, -and he was really nothing more than a clerk. You can -just picture to yourself, Purser, what I felt when I found -out that I'd been civil to a clerk by mistake." -</p> - -<p> -"It was pretty hard lines, sir." -</p> - -<p> -"Of course a West African merchant's business is a rum -contract for a young girl to catch hold of, and I don't say -Miss Kate was wrong in keeping in the background to start -with. In fact I'll own up straight that she was right, and -the proof's plain in the way that firm's come back to life. -Why, Purser, I'll bet you a bottle of Eno that O'Neill and -Craven are doing just double the turn-over now they did -twelve months ago." -</p> - -<p> -"You'll know best about that, sir," said Mr. Balgarnie -with a sigh, as he remembered that only Captain Image -touched commission on the cargo which the <i>M'poso</i> -collected on the Coast. "But I will own up that she has got -the knack of making all the smarter men in the firm both -on the Coast and at Liverpool keen on her when they -thought she was a man. Of course it was a bit unlikely -that the old-timer palm-oil ruffians like Swizzle-Stick -Smith and Owe-it-Slade would take to new ways that -meant more work, all at once, though for that matter I'll -bet Slade put off making up his mind for so long as to -whether he liked hustling or he didn't, that finally he -dropped into the new ways without knowing it." -</p> - -<p> -"Slade's gone off up-country to find the firm a rubber -property, Purser, me lad. Laura told me about it last -night. She hasn't heard of him once since he pulled out -of Smooth River, and she's very anxious about him. I hope -none of those up-country bushmen have chopped Slade. I -should be sorry to lose that man. He owes me a matter -of three sovereigns, and that old Holland gun of mine -that he borrowed for half an hour eighteen months ago -has gone up-country with him. I believe he's in the ribs -of the fo'c'sle shop, too, for the thick end of a fiver." -</p> - -<p> -"Four-seventeen-nine. I've given both Chips and the -bo's'n a rare dressing down about it. They've no business -to let anyone with Slade's reputation have as much tick as -that. The bo's'n's new to the Coast—our bo's'ns always do -seem to die, sir—but old Chips ought to know that's no -way to run a fo'c'sle shop. They can chuck away their own -money as they choose, but I told them both plainly that I -can't afford to drop my share in a sum like that." -</p> - -<p> -"Nor can I," said the other sleeping partner. "You -can let both Chips and the bo's'n understand that unless -I see a good round sum in hard cash as my share of profits -when we get back to Liverpool, they don't ride in the old -<i>M'poso</i> next trip. They can put their book debts where -the monkey put the nuts. They don't pay me out with -those. No, by Crumbs!" -</p> - -<p> -"Miss Kate, by the way, was mighty anxious to know -what profits there were in fo'c'sle shops. Of course I said -I'd heard of them on other boats, but we'd never allow such -a thing on the <i>M'poso</i>." -</p> - -<p> -"Um," said Captain Image thoughtfully, "that tale's all -right for most passengers, but I don't think I'd have risked -it with Miss Kate. She strikes me as being a young woman -who likes to hear one's opinion on things, but generally -has her own information on the matter already cut and -packed beforehand. I told her last night how sorry I was -to see all that cargo waiting at the factory with no -Krooboys to work it out of their creek to the steamboat. By -Crumbs! Balgarnie, me lad, she'd nipped off back to the -<i>M'poso</i> here, and had hired our own blessed deck -passenger boys for the job before you could say 'gin.' You -know what an independent lot they are, going home with -money in their pockets. I bet you a box of oranges you -couldn't name me two white men on the Coast who could -have persuaded them. But she did it, one-time, and only -paid regular wages, too. Dressed for dinner in the evening -when she'd finished, just as if she was merely a tripper -going home from the Islands, and hadn't an object in life -outside trying to tickle the boys with her looks. I tell -you, Miss Kate's a very remarkable young woman, Balgarnie, -me lad, and if she doesn't peg out here on the -Coast, or go broke over floating a rubber swindle, or get -married and chuck it, I shall feather my nest very nicely -over the cargo she gets shipped." -</p> - -<p> -"I say, Captain, what's between her and Laura? They -seem to know one another pretty intimately." -</p> - -<p> -"Met in Las Palmas when they were kiddies. Pass me -the compasses off the chart table. My pipe's jammed. -Thank you, me lad. Owe-it-Slade got two years' tick at -that convent school out on the Telde road for Laura, and -Miss Kate was running about the islands a good deal then -with old Godfrey. Godfrey had a tomato farm out past -Santa Brigida, and they used to have Laura up there for -all her holidays. By Crumbs, Purser, me lad, how that -little girl's shot up. It's a dashed pity she's a nigger." -</p> - -<p> -"D'you suppose Carter knows it?" -</p> - -<p> -"If he doesn't I shan't tell him, and don't you; for two -reasons. First, there's Miss Kate to be thought of. I -watched the way that girl eyed him, and by Crumbs, I -tell you, me lad, I was glad he was booked. She's going to -stay out here on the Coast for a good spell, and he'll be -close and handy, and somehow I've got the opinion that -red-headed chap is just the sort of man she'll marry. He's -not a beauty, but he's a good, tough, wholesome face on -him; he's a lot struck on her; and he's a gentleman. I -can do with her bossing; she's a nice way of wrapping up -her pill and ramming it home with a smile. But I'd not -like to see a red-haired youngster I brought out here as a -clerk eighteen months ago, head of the O'Neill and Craven -concern and expecting me to knuckle under. I'd do it, of -course; I'd be civil to old Harry himself, me lad, if he -could bring cargo to the <i>M'poso</i>; but I'll not deny to you -it would stick if I had to start ladling out champagne in -this chart house to Carter, and sit and listen whilst he -strutted out his views on the decay of British influence in -West Africa." -</p> - -<p> -"It would be pretty tough," Mr. Balgarnie admitted. -"But you said there was another reason you wanted him to -marry Laura." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I do. I like that girl. I knew her when I first -came down the Coast as mate. I remember the first time -I saw her as if it was yesterday. I was standing up against -the tally desk beside number three hatch, ticking off the -cargo list as they hove stuff up and dropped it in the surf -boats. It was on the old <i>Fernando Po</i>, that beat her -bottom out afterwards when Williams tried to drive her over -Monk bar at half ebb. There was a case marked with -double-diamond that was O'Neill and Craven's consigning -all right, but with no name of factory. I knew old -Swizzle-Stick Smith and Malla-Nulla well enough already, and I -didn't know Slade, and so naturally I thought Smith -should have it, and ordered the case back again into the -hold. But just then up came a little nipper of about eight -or ten years old, as self-possessed as you like, and says, -'Are you Mr. Image?' 'That's me,' says I. 'What's the -message?' 'Oh, no message,' says she, 'only Daddy says -that if I can find you and stand by your heels and not -bother I may stay aboard, but if not I'm to go ashore by -the next boat and get on with my lessons.' Well, it didn't -take much seeing through what was meant there." -</p> - -<p> -"No, sir," said Mr. Balgarnie heartily. "By all -accounts old Cappie Williams was the hardest case they ever -knew even on the West Coast, and that's saying a lot. I -only knew him for a year, and I wasn't particular in those -days, but he was more than even I could stand." -</p> - -<p> -"He was the limit. Well, me lad, that was the first time -I saw Laura, and she stood beside me half the day at the -tally desk there, and thanked me for the entertainment -when Slade sent off a boy to take her ashore. She gave me -a kiss when she turned to go down the side—well, you see, -I've—I've never quite forgotten that kiss, Balgarnie, me -lad." -</p> - -<p> -"I know, skipper," said Mr. Balgarnie rather thickly. -"A kid once kissed me, of her own blessed accord, too, like -that. It sort of burnt in. I beg your pardon, sir, for -interrupting." -</p> - -<p> -"Not at all, me lad. Here you, steward. Hi, Brass-Pan." -</p> - -<p> -A Krooboy ran up. -</p> - -<p> -"We fit for two cocktail, plenty-long ones. Well, as -I was saying, Balgarnie, me lad, I've always had a bit of -soft place for Laura, though I suppose she rightly is snuff -and butter, by Crumbs you'd never guess it from her looks -unless you went over her with a lens, and I'd just feel all -broken up if she was to go the way that lot usually do go. -So if this young Carter, who seems a nice clean-run sort of -lad, will marry her with a ring, I'm going to weigh in with -at least a best silver-plate teapot for a wedding present." -</p> - -<p> -"You can put me down for the ditto sugar and cream," -said the purser with emotion. "It was a kiddie just like -Laura I was fond of myself. Only—only— Well, Skipper, -I suppose a good many of us are blackguards down -here on the Coast. Why the sulphur doesn't your boy -bring those cocktails?" -</p> - -<p> -But at this point Captain Image broke off the conversation. -"By Crumbs!" said he, "here's Miss Kate." And -then he did a thing that made Mr. Balgarnie whistle with -sheer surprise. He went down the ladder to help his -passenger on board. -</p> - -<p> -"Now, if I had done that," the Purser mused to -himself, "it would have meant a lot. But my Whiskers! I -never thought I should live to see old Cappie Image -trotting down onto the front doorsteps to receive a mere female -passenger. The Old Man must see enough solid dollars in -that girl to buy himself that hen farm outside Cardiff he -hopes to retire upon." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image stood on the grating at the foot of the -ladder and waved his panama in respectful salutation. The -beer-colored river swirled along the steamer's rusty flank a -foot beneath him, and the pungent smell of crushed -marigolds which it carried made him cough. The sun -shimmered exactly overhead in a sky of the most extravagant -blue, and the greenery which fenced in the slimy mud -banks hung in the breathless heat without so much as a -twitter. -</p> - -<p> -Miss Kate O'Neill was seated in a Madeira chair which -stood on the floor of a big green surf boat, and the -gleaming Krooboys perched on the gunwales paddled with more -than their usual industry. The headman, who straddled -at the steering oar in the stern, wore a tail-coat of an -extremely sporting cut and pattern and a woven grass -skullcap in honor of the occasion. And all this pomp and -circumstance was uninvited. But somehow people had the -knack of offering special service and deference to Miss -O'Neill. -</p> - -<p> -The only other woman on the <i>M'poso</i>, the austere wife -of a Benin trader, looked over the steamer's rail in gloomy -disapproval. These were no modes for Coast wear. A -billowy grass-green muslin dress that no Krooboy laundry-man -could wash twice without spoiling; neat, narrow pipe-clayed -shoes with no thickness of sole, and ridiculous heels; -a pale green felt hat, actually insulted by a feather in its -band; and final absurdity of all, a parasol, a flimsy thing -of silk, and ribbon, and effervescent chiffon, which would -be absolutely ruined by a splash of rain, instead of the big -sensible white cotton affair, with the dark green lining, -which all ordinary people know is the standard wear on -that torrid Coast. -</p> - -<p> -"Faugh," said the trader's wife, "and Captain Image -says she's one of the smartest business women in the world -to-day, and that fat, greedy purser would propose to her -in the next five minutes if he thought he'd a cat's chance -of being accepted. They think her good-looking, too, I'll -be bound, just because she wears those unsuitable clothes, -and has pink color in her cheeks. Well, the clothes will be -whisps of rag by this day week and"—the poor woman -sighed here—"the Coast will get the color and the -plumpness out of her face, and make her as lean and yellow as -the rest of us in a month." -</p> - -<p> -"You're a good, kind man," Miss O'Neill was saying to -a very smiling Captain Image, "and I know I did tell the -bedroom steward to have my big trunks got up on deck; -but, you see, I'm a woman, and therefore it's my prerogative -to be able to change my mind without being openly -abused for it. So I want you, please, to be very nice and -let me stay on the <i>M'poso</i> a little longer." -</p> - -<p> -"Miss Kate, I was sure you'd find that what I said was -true, and that Smooth River factory was no place for a -lady like you. You see those dead niggers are fresh now, -but when the sun gets on 'em—er—I mean there's no trade -coming into this section of the Coast just now till that -blessed old King of Okky opens the roads again, and he -won't do that yet awhile on his own dirty account, and -neither you nor I have got the ju-ju that will make him. -My dear Miss, I'm just as pleased as a monkey with -green—er—with a green tail to hear you're going to take the -round trip home with me, and if my clean collars do run -out, you must remember that we all wear panjammers when -we're south of the Islands and the trippers. If only I'd -thought of shipping a jack-wash when I got my Krooboys -at Sarry Leone. Well, one can't be prepared for -everything." -</p> - -<p> -The girl laughed. "I wouldn't strain the supply of -collars for worlds. I only want you to take me two days on -from here and drop me at this factory again on the way -back." -</p> - -<p> -The tint of Captain Image's vermilion face deepened to -plum color. He scented irony, and his touchy Welsh -temper bubbled up into view. "Miss," he said, "when I pull -my anchors out of Smooth River mud in ten hours from -now, I go out on the flood across the bar, and as you must -know I walk in and do the civil in Water Street, Liverpool, -before I smell the stink of these particular mud banks -again." -</p> - -<p> -She slipped a plump firm hand on his white drill sleeve. -"Won't you ask me into the chart house, Captain, and send -Brass-Pan for some tea? I'm absolutely dying for tea. -And you can have a cocktail. I've got a long story I want -to tell you. There's cargo waiting for you, Captain, up a -creek that opens off Smooth River which you've never been -up, and which I think will pretty well fill the <i>M'poso</i> -without your troubling to call anywhere else." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image's face cooled to vermilion again, and -puckered into a smile in spite of himself. He even went -so far as to pat the fingers that rested on his arm. "By -Crumbs, Miss, I'd ordered them to boil up that tea when -I saw you shoot out of the factory creek in your surf boat, -and till you reminded me, I'd clean forgotten it. And here -you've been standing and yarning to me on the front door -step all the time. They'll call the <i>M'poso</i> a dry boat with -a vengeance if this tale gets about. I shall be chaffed to -death over it. Come up on top." -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Balgarnie saw them ascending the ladder, and rushed -into the chart house and pulled down three photographs -that had been fastened on the wall with drawing pins since -Miss Kate O'Neill's departure. He was thumped on the -back by his grateful skipper who caught him in the act of -pocketing them. -</p> - -<p> -"Balgarnie, me lad," said Captain Image, "you'll have -to keep that hard collar of yours bent for two days longer. -You'll be pleased to hear that Miss Kate's not going to -throw us over yet. Just you go and see the chief steward -and the cook and ask them what they've got left in the -refrigerator. And I want you to break the rule of the -ship, and make all the other passengers jealous, and dine -at my table in honor of the occasion. Come in, Miss, and -please take the settee. You'll find this cushion soft and -free from mildew." -</p> - -<p> -Kate smiled gratefully on them both. "What dear, good -people you are. And I made sure you would detest me, -Captain, when I tell you I want you to change from your -usual routine." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image's face stiffened. -</p> - -<p> -"Even though it is to get all your holds full of cargo -which you would never have touched if it had not been for -a hint that just came to me an hour ago." -</p> - -<p> -"We carry mails, you know," said Image doubtfully, -"and there's a scheduled time for call at the various points, -and a bad time for being late. Bad——" -</p> - -<p> -"But cargo. Let me suggest to you again, cargo?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, Miss Kate, there's no other lady on earth I'd say -the same to, but I'll not deny the fact—to you, mind, and -quite between ourselves—that cargo interests me. And -letting you further into what's considered one of the -deadest of secrets, there are times when cargo commission can -just out-balance fines for being late with mails. You see -I guess what you have in your mind, Miss. You want me -to run back and take off the cargo that's waiting at -Malla-Nulla before those Okky-men come down and raid it." -</p> - -<p> -Miss O'Neill lay back against the cushion and sipped -composedly at her hard-boiled tea. "There," she said, "I -knew you'd consent. There's only one little detail you've -made a mistake about. How soon can you be off? Judging -from the music of the winches, you're working in the -cargo here at a famous speed." -</p> - -<p> -"The mate reported to me just before you came on -board that he'd have the lot shipped by five o'clock. Those -passenger boys of ours that you've made factory boys for -the time being were working splendidly, so Mr. Mate said. -But what's this little mistake, Miss Kate? I can't go right -away back to O'Neill and Craven's factory at Monk River, -if that's what you mean." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, my dear Captain Image, don't think me unreasonable. -I shouldn't dream of asking you to do such a thing -as that. I don't even want you to go out over Smooth -River bar for the present. But I'd better tell you just -what's happened. You see all afternoon the Krooboys who -had run away have been coming back, and some of the -clerks have turned up, and then came Mr. and Mrs. da -Silva. We had quite a gathering of it, and as Mr. Carter -set them all on to digging holes and tidying things away -as they arrived, by this time all the—well, you wouldn't -know there'd been fighting. -</p> - -<p> -"But the first to turn up at the factory after you'd left -me there was not one of our own people, but a caller. He -was the agent in charge of the German factory at Mokki. -He turned up in a dug-out, and he gave us to understand -that he was the most frightened man in Africa. He said -his voyage down the creeks was one series of miraculous -escapes. He said he'd come to take shelter under the -British flag; but when he found that by an oversight we -hadn't got such a piece of furniture about the place, and -when he saw the holes in the walls and the roof and -the—the—what there was lying about under that blazing sun -in the clearing, he was quite of opinion that he hadn't run -far enough." -</p> - -<p> -"The blighted Dutchman," said Captain Image contemptuously. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, you see," said the head of O'Neill and Craven -confidentially, "a chance like that suited me uncommonly -well. To let you into a secret of our Liverpool office, I had -reckoned on increasing the output of all our factories, and -found I was doing it even more than I had calculated -upon. Consequently when there was a big price bid for -palm oil and kernels for autumn delivery, I sold heavily." -</p> - -<p> -"And now the King of Okky has put ju-ju on you, -stopped the roads, and there you are caught short, me -lad—I beg pardon, Miss Kate, I should have said." -</p> - -<p> -"Of course it only worried me for the moment. These -tight places are never really tight if you take the trouble -to think out a way through to the other side. In this case -it's shown itself to be delightfully simple. I've bought out -the German." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image grunted. "Then I wish you'd asked me -for advice first. But perhaps you haven't clinched the -deal, and can back out of it still. If you'll take the tip -from an old Coaster like me, you have nothing to do with -it. His old Dutch factory's only worth scrap price." -</p> - -<p> -"That's all I've given for it." -</p> - -<p> -"And when you do get the oil out of it that's stored -there, if it hasn't been looted whilst he's been away -pleasuring down the creeks in his canoe, where are you? No -better than here. Your trade will be dead. The King of -Okky's stopped all the roads." -</p> - -<p> -"Now, I'm just going to give you a little geographical -surprise. Have you got a map?" -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image indicated the drawers beneath the chart -table. "Coast charts, of course, which include the river -mouths, but I should pile up the old packet in a week if I -relied on them. I'm my own pilot for the most part, Miss -Kate, and that's why with God's Providence and a sound -use of drugs I've managed to work successfully on the -coast all these years." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, if you haven't got a map of the back country -here in your stock, I carry a very accurate one in my head, -and if you'll give me a paper and a pencil, I'll draw out -something that will surprise you." -</p> - -<p> -The girl leaned over the chart table and began to draw, -and Captain Image sat back on his camp stool and nursed -a knee and frankly admired her. He did not in the least -believe in this Mokki venture, and had not the smallest -intention of breaking in upon his usual routine by going -there. But he had (so he told himself) a distinct eye for -the beautiful and the romantic, and he found his ideals in -these matters very considerably filled by Miss Kate O'Neill, -her dress, and her occupations. -</p> - -<p> -"There," she said at last, and handed him the sketch. -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image looked at it, laughed, and shook his -head. He had all of a sailor's intolerance for the amateur -map-drawer. Moreover, he had traded in part of the Oil -Rivers for twenty years, and if he did not know the back -country personally, he heard it spoken of in the factories -and in steamer smoke-rooms as matter of intimate knowledge -almost daily. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, Captain, don't just shake your head and laugh. -Let me have your criticisms." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm not saying, of course, that it's not a very clever -map. It is that, and the way you've put the rivers in -would beat the knowledge of many who have been on the -Coast for years. You've quite the knack of drawing a map, -Miss Kate, though there's another creek here that you've -missed, and this continuation of what we call the -Dog's-leg channel you must have guessed at, because I never -heard of its being navigated, and nobody knows where -it goes to." -</p> - -<p> -"It leads to my new factory at Mokki." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, it may do, though you can take it from me there's -no water for a steamboat that draws even eleven foot six. -But the thing you're mainly wrong in is this part you've -marked as the Okky country. You haven't carried it -anywhere near far enough back." -</p> - -<p> -Miss O'Neill tapped at her firm white teeth with the end -of the pencil. "You're quoting from the Royal Geographical -Map," she suggested. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, Miss, I am," Captain Image admitted, "and I -know it's just about as inaccurate as magazine fiction in a -whole lot of places. But I shouldn't set myself up to buck -against a Royal Geographical map unless I knew." -</p> - -<p> -"Neither should I. But you see maps have always been -a fad with me, and since Mr. Godfrey died, and I had the -whole weight of O'Neill and Craven landed upon my one -pair of shoulders whether I liked it or not, I looked upon -maps from a very different point of view. As everybody -on the Coast knows everybody else's business, I need hardly -point out to you that during Mr. Godfrey's latter days -O'Neill and Craven had been allowed to run down pretty -badly, and when I took hold, the firm was—well, what -shall I say?" -</p> - -<p> -"Dicky," suggested Captain Image kindly. "But I can -quite understand all the hard words you'd like to let out if I -wasn't here." -</p> - -<p> -The girl laughed. "Well, we'll put it, Captain, that the -firm was decidedly dicky, and I've had a most interesting -time in pulling it onto its feet. Incidentally I've given -up drawing maps from an amateur's point of view, and -have been drawing them with an entire eye to business in -the future. You've no idea how interesting it is to a -business woman, Captain, when some special information comes -to her and she is able to go to her map and fill in a mile or -so of river that she'd had to leave a gap for, or sketch in a -newly-discovered trade route through what was thought to -be hopeless swamp, or fill in part of the boundary line of -territory that up to then had merely merged off into blank -space." -</p> - -<p> -"My Crumbs," said Captain Image admiringly, "but -you are a daisy, Miss Kate." -</p> - -<p> -"It was only the day before I left Liverpool that I got -news of where the Okky territory ended. The French have -been having some mysterious expedition in at the back there -for purposes of their own, and the officer in command very -unwisely caned the only other white man with him, who -was a Zouave, and wasn't really white at all. He wanted -revenge, so he came to me and told, and got fifty pounds, -and said he'd never enjoyed letting off spite so much in his -life before." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image smacked his knee. "Daisy isn't the word -for you, Miss," he affirmed, "and you can tell people I -said so, if you like. A young lady that can pull the leg of -these beastly foreigners in that way is worth going a long -way to meet. You oughtn't to come out here to the Coast. -You ought to stay at home, Miss Kate, and marry a Member -of Parliament." -</p> - -<p> -"Poof! I wouldn't for worlds. They're all too pompous -and too dull. They only talk, and pose for the newspapers; -they never really do anything constructive in the House. -Now, I like to do things; and if ever I marry, it will be a -man who can do things that I've tried at rather better than -I can do them myself. But we're getting away from the -factory at Mokki. Now, the German agent doesn't know -it, and I didn't feel called upon to tell him, but it's quite -possible to open up trade routes to that point that don't -pass through the Okky country at all. So that upsets the -old King's notion of stopping the roads at present, and in -the future, when he gets tired of cutting off his nose to -spite his face, and tries to set trade going again, he'll find -the stuff is being carried round very comfortably outside -his boundary, and that there is no more blackmail to -collect. How does that strike you, Captain? Now, am I a -crazy woman who is bound to bust up O'Neill and Craven's -if I am left long enough to it?" -</p> - -<p> -"I never said that," Captain Image protested violently, -"and I'll wring that pious old Crewdson's neck next time -I see him. That man can't carry corn. He evidently gets -a heap too loose tongue if you offer him just a little -civility." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I really am awfully glad you're going to be nice," -said Miss O'Neill as she handed back her teacup with a sigh -of relief, "and steam off up to the creeks to Mokki when -you've finished working the cargo here." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image stood with the empty teacup in his hand, -revolving in his mind many things, and some of his -muttered comments were profane. He carried throughout all -the seaboard of West Africa a reputation for a hard -obstinacy of which in his way he was not a little proud, as -men can be of assets whose value is more than doubtful; -and he arrived at the idea that this pretty young woman -in the crisp grass green muslin was twisting him round to -carry out her own peculiar wishes with ridiculous ease. -"It's enough to make any man swear," declared Captain -Image, as a final summing up of his sentiments. -</p> - -<p> -"I agree with you cordially," said Miss O'Neill, "and -as I am sure that you must have done tremendous violence -to your feelings in letting me have so much of my own -way, I'll just let you swear as a reward." -</p> - -<p> -"No, I'm damned if I do, Miss Kate," said Image politely. -"I shouldn't dream of forgetting what is due to a -lady. But don't you be too sure of having your whim gratified -even now. I don't see any way of getting the <i>M'poso</i> -to Mokki up those bits of creeks unless we put wheels under -her and pull her there through the bush." -</p> - -<p> -"Have you ever seen a steamer called the <i>Frau Pobst</i>?" -</p> - -<p> -"I have. She's a funny old brig-rigged relic, with -sawn-off smoke stacks and no boats." -</p> - -<p> -"No boats?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, she started with some in the year one when she -was built, but as they always got washed overboard when -she found herself in a sea-way, I guess they grew tired of -replacing them. I believe she does carry some patent -folding concertinas tied up somewhere near her davits, but -they're to pass the Dutch Board of Trade. They aren't for -use. Yes, I know the old <i>Frau Pobst</i>. She generally wants -two crews each voyage." -</p> - -<p> -"How's that?" asked Kate, with a twinkle. -</p> - -<p> -"Goes so slow, the first lot die of old age." Captain -Image smacked his lips over the pleasantry. -</p> - -<p> -"What a labor it must have been to get an old tub like -that up to Mokki." -</p> - -<p> -"It would take her as many days as it would take me -hours in the <i>M'poso</i>," said Image, and could have bitten -out his tongue when the words escaped. But Kate O'Neill -had got up from the settee and was shaking his hand. "I -believe in reality, Captain, you're just as keen a business -man as I am a business woman. Only you're shockingly -shy about showing it. No, don't get up. I'm just going -to run back ashore again to finish things up here. I'll be -back by the time you've got steam. Please don't get up." -</p> - -<p> -"By Crumbs, Miss Kate, but don't you try to dictate to -me about that. I'm going to see you off from the front -doorsteps myself. By Crumbs, there isn't another lady in -Africa I admire half as much." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap09"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER IX -<br /> -NAVIGATION OF DOG'S-LEG CREEK -</h3> - -<p> -Captain Image yapped out his commands to the third -mate and a quartermaster in the wheelhouse in tones that -supplied many missing adjectives: -</p> - -<p> -"... Starboard your helm. Starboard. Hard-a-starboard, -you bung-eyed son of perdition—stop her. -Crumbs! but we sliced off a thumping big chunk of Africa -there, and broke half the tumblers in the steward's pantry -by the sound of it. I bet something big it's another case -of going home on what's left of the double bottom, and -Old Horny to pay in Water Street, Liverpool. Give her -full ahead now, and steady your helm, quartermaster. My -holy whiskers, who wouldn't sell a farm and go to sea? -Starboard your helm, six points. There, steady on that. -Half speed the engines." And so on over and over again -for every hour since the sun rose to blister the swamps, and -call forth the full volume of their earth and -crushed-marigold smell. -</p> - -<p> -There is a proverb bandied about amongst the sons of -men which states that the unknown has always its charm, -and harassed shipmasters often wonder why it is not -publicly contradicted in Norie's Epitome of Navigation. -Carter either forgot or never realized this, and furthermore -made the fatal blunder of going up onto the sacred upper -bridge without direct invitation. -</p> - -<p> -For half an hour he had stood there silent, and unspoken -to, listening to Captain Image's tirade against the creeks -that led to Mokki, and then catching for a moment the -mariner's eye, ventured on an observation. He suggested -that at any rate Captain Image would have the amusement -of feeling that he was an explorer; and there was the -opportunity the peppery Welshman really needed. -</p> - -<p> -He had not been able to say what he wished to Miss Kate -O'Neill, for many reasons; but here was her whipping-boy; -and on him Captain Image turned loose one of the most -powerful vocabularies that has ever been carried up and -down the West African seaboard. He neglected both -quartermaster and third mate—and these two experts, being -only too glad of the breathing space, kept the <i>M'poso</i> -accurately out of the mangroves, whilst their commander -gave an undivided attention to the very highly qualified -passenger who had dared to sully the unblemished deck plants -of the upper bridge. -</p> - -<p> -Now, under ordinary conditions, Carter would have -recognized the circumstances, and have remembered his -service, and swallowed the dose with a smile and a shrug. -But things had gone woefully awry with him during the -last score of hours. The strain of the fight, the discovery -that the man K. O'Neill of the letters was Miss Kate in -the flesh, the uncertain future of two Coast factories, the -way in which everybody received his engagement to Laura -Slade; all these things piled up on one another had set -his usually steady nerves jangling in a way to which he -was unaccustomed, and he felt himself forced by a rather -insane impulse to do something startling. He had -successive inclinations to throw up his berth altogether and -go home; to marry Laura Slade out of hand by the kind -assistance of Captain Image and the <i>M'poso's</i> log-book, -which occurred to him as the local equivalent of Gretna -Green; to violently abuse Miss Kate O'Neill for being -herself. Finally, when the premonitory symptoms of a -well-earned dose of fever gripped him with a stab and a -shudder, he had the usual malarial depression, which put the -usual question as to whether life were really worth living. -</p> - -<p> -Over and above all these things, since the first moment -of seeing Kate, it had been borne in upon him that he had -made a mistake over his engagement. He did not for a -moment think of getting free; he was doggedly determined -to see it through, or in other words to marry Laura, -whatever the cost and result might be. But from that date -onward he began to ask himself inconvenient questions. -He demanded of his inner conscience a definition of that -impalpable thing, love. He wished to be informed (from -the same source and at the shortest notice) if he was -exactly in love with Miss Slade at that particular moment, -and when the phenomenon commenced, and how long it -was likely to endure. And when Laura, who saw into a -good deal more of all this than he expected, offered to -release him from his promise, he abused her for the suggestion, -and protested his affection for her with such warmth -that he feared very much after the interview that he had -hopelessly overdone it. -</p> - -<p> -As a consequence, when Captain Image explained in a -two-minute speech that Mr. Flame-tipped Carter was -violating the etiquette of nations in daring to pollute that -upper bridge with his undesirable feet, without direct -invitation, he rather welcomed the opportunity and retorted -in kind. -</p> - -<p> -Now, Captain Image, as has been hinted, had made the -most of the years he had spent sea-going in the matter of -picking up a vocabulary; he has to this day brothers in -Wales who are local preachers and revivalist leaders, and -there is no doubt that he was the inheritor of some -ancestral strain of burning eloquence. Carter, on the other -hand, though not as a rule a man of much speech, had not -lived with Swizzle-Stick Smith all those long months -without taking lessons in the art of vituperation, and though -he was not conscious of it at the time, the education soaked -in, and when the moment of stress arrived his memory -served him faithfully. -</p> - -<p> -Miss Kate O'Neill heard the discussion and retired to -her room below. Stewards popped their heads round -doorways and listened appreciatively; deck hands took cover -round the angle of the houses and strained their ears, and -the second engineer, who was bred on Tyneside and openly -claimed to be a connoisseur, came out brazenly onto the -top of the fiddley three yards from the speakers and did -nothing to an unoffending ventilator cowl with a -three-quarter inch spanner. -</p> - -<p> -From the present writer's point of view the remarks on -both sides had the fatal drawback that their point lay far -more in artistic delivery than in their subject matter, and -so to report them here verbatim would give a totally -unjust idea of their weight and influence. But it must be -understood that Captain Image, who never till now had -met a foeman so worthy of his tongue, surpassed himself; -and Carter, who now for the first time used these winged -words in hard vicious earnest, felt all a sportsman's pride -in seeing his verbal missiles land and rankle. -</p> - -<p> -It is hard to award the victory; and, in plain truth, -each orator was so warmed with the effort of his own -tongue that in another second the British blood would -have reached fisticuff temperature, and they would have -clinched. But luckily an interruption arrived to break the -tension. The third mate, that terribly abused young man -who was gaining a breathing space whilst Carter stood up -against Captain Image's tongue, at first conned the <i>M'poso</i> -up the winding channel with a sigh of relief, and was ably -seconded by the quartermaster at the wheel, who had also -been suffering. But by degrees their sporting instincts -drew them from the matter immediately in hand, and made -them interested spectators of the duel. In fact their -interest absorbed them, and, well, the steamer got the -smallest bit out of hand. -</p> - -<p> -When it was too late the third mate turned attention -to his duties again, and had just time to give four frenzied -orders; there was a fine jangling of the engine-room -telegraph; the quartermaster did frantic windmill work on -the steering wheel, to the accompaniment of a rattling -chorus from the wheel engines below; but the <i>M'poso</i> took -a sheer and rammed her nose firmly into the mangroves. -And in she slid. Weight and speed made sufficient -momentum to put her into the mud and shrubbery well up -to the forerigging, and the jar sent the stiff-set Captain -Image flying onto the top of the fiddley gratings. -</p> - -<p> -Carter shot up against the white painted rail of the -upper bridge and held his balance there, and then with -that blind instinct for interfering for the welfare of others -which distinguishes the Anglo-Saxon, he vaulted the rail, -picked up Captain Image and set him on his feet. -</p> - -<p> -It is perhaps typical also of the peppery Welshman that -he forgot the enjoyable quarrel so promptly that he said, -"Thank you, me lad," with ready cordiality before he -turned to do full justice to the third mate, his ancestry, -and his probable future in this world and the next. -</p> - -<p> -"By Jove," broke in Carter, "I wish I'd a gun. There's -a monkey on the foredeck. I'd like that little beggar's -skin. I wonder if I could catch him." -</p> - -<p> -"Don't you try, me lad," said Image. "The odds are -that the front end of this packet's a menagerie of red -mangrove ants that could gnaw chunks off a tin-covered -crusader." He jammed the engine-room telegraph with -a vicious whirr to Full Speed Astern, and turned to the -unfortunate third mate. "Here, you, if you think you -know enough to tell the difference between land and water, -lower a boat and take out a kedge astern. Wait a minute. -Now, you're not to drop that kedge in the mud. It'll draw -through that like pulling a hairpin out of a pot of -marmalade. You're to get ashore and hook it among those -mangrove roots. Just try and get it into your intelligent -head that I don't want that kedge to come home directly -we put a strain on the wire. When you've done that you -can come back and go to your room and read Shakespeare. -I guess that's about all you blooming brass-bound Conway -sailors are fit for, except sparking the girls and drawing -your pay. By Crumbs! if we hadn't Miss Kate on board, -and for anything I know within earshot, I could just give -you an opinion of your looks that would make you want to -cry." -</p> - -<p> -But with the tide in the muddy river ebbing under her, -the <i>M'poso</i> stuck in the dock she had made, in spite of -reversed propeller, and winches straining on the kedge -wire till they threatened to heave themselves bodily from -the decks. The insect torments of Africa boarded her -from the mangroves and bit all live things they came -against; obscene land crabs dressed in raw and startling -colors waddled up onto the slime of the banks as the water -left them and blew impotent froth bubbles at the tough -steamboat which even they could not eat. Parrots crowed -at them from the shining green foliage of the mangroves -alongside; slimy things gazed at them from the mud -beneath the arches of the wire-like roots. -</p> - -<p> -The sun crawled up into the aching blue overhead till it -forgot how to cast a shadow, and the wet steam heat grew -so oppressive that even Laura Slade, country-born though -she was, felt sick with its violence. But Miss Kate -O'Neill on the awning deck did elaborate calculations on -sheets of paper, which she tore up and threw into the -beer-colored river when she had entered the results in her -pocket-book; and down in the purser's room, Carter carved -images on Okky calabashes for the English curiosity market. -</p> - -<p> -To him came Mr. Balgarnie, dripping and fuming. -"Great whiskers! man, why did you shut the port-hole? -You're lean; but if I stay in this atmosphere I shall peg -out of heat apoplexy in half an hour. Here, let me open -the port and stick out the wind scoop." -</p> - -<p> -"Wind scoop's no good; there isn't a breath. And if -you open the port you'll be devoured. I tried it. I'm a -Dalesman and I like a draught of air, but it's no go here. -Red ants, I think they are. Look at the way they've been -eating the insides out of your domestic cockroaches. Now -gaze on this chop bowl? Isn't it a gem? Any stay-at-home -Englishman would spot it as genuine native workmanship -in a moment. All done with a blunt knife; that's -the great tip in this sort of carving." -</p> - -<p> -"Have a drop of whiskey? You fit for dash me dem bowl?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, Purser, I'm not going to give away anything just -now. I want five shillings spot cash for this specimen, -and it's dirt cheap at that. When you've weathered it a -bit, and given it a dressing of good yellow palm oil, it -will fetch a golden sovereign from a Las Palmas tripper, -easy." -</p> - -<p> -"They're a hard-up lot, the people who come to the -Islands these days, and they're inclined to get too -familiar if you offer as a favor to sell them anything they -may see in your room. I've chucked showing them things. -But I might get three half-crowns for that bowl in -Liverpool. Of course, I don't want any commission from you, -old fellow. I'll hand over every penny I'm paid for it." -</p> - -<p> -Carter stuck out a dogged chin. "Look here, Purser, -it's too hot for frills, and we know one another a bit too -well for them to go down. Potter out five bob and the -thing's yours to make what you can of. If you don't, I've -another customer who'll give more. I'm hard up." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, of course, yes. You want to set up housekeeping, -don't you? Well, old fellow, here are the two half-crowns -towards the mangle or the grand piano or whatever you've -set your mind on getting first. Sorry I ragged you about -being engaged to Laura last night at Smooth River. But, -you see, I know Owe-it Slade, and I've known Laura all -her life, and of course I was a bit surprised to be told, you -know—well, to be told that you, of all people, had made -it up with her. But, as I say, I'm sorry I ragged you." -</p> - -<p> -"Please don't apologize on a hot day like this," Carter -snapped. "As I don't value your opinion on a matter -like that one jot, I naturally didn't let anything you said -disturb my sleep. Good-afternoon. If you're going to -occupy your room, I'll go out on deck and enjoy the -infernal crushed-marigold stink of this drain from a -different point." -</p> - -<p> -"That young man knows he's made a fool of himself," -commented the Purser sagely, "and he's as sore and -uneasy as a skinned eel in a tub of sand. Well, if he wants -to furnish a lil' log hut for his dusky Laura, so much the -better for trade. He's the neatest trick of making native -curios in all West Africa, and I've got all his home -business in my hand. It's all rot about his trading with -another purser; there isn't one on the Coast that works this -line, or I should have heard about it. If the output's -increased, I shall try and work up a connection with -America. My Whiskers! why not? What's wrong with -enriching the United States with some good broad-bladed Okky -spears, and a war horn or two just as a— Hullo, yes, -who's that? Ah, come in." -</p> - -<p> -There was a knock at the Purser's door, and -White-Man's-Trouble entered in reply to the invitation. "Oh, -Purser," he said, "dem bug," and opened a black fist and -showed three electric-blue butterflies in his white palm. -</p> - -<p> -The Purser took them one by one in his plump fingers -and dropped them gingerly into an empty cardboard -cigarette box. "I don't think they'll be much use, boy. -You've rubbed too much fluff off with those delicate paws -of yours. Savvy?" -</p> - -<p> -"I savvy I fit for dash," said the Krooboy pointedly. -</p> - -<p> -"Pooh, these are worth nothing. What do you take me -for? A tripper, or the Bank of England? Ah, would -you, you infernal thieving monkey?" Mr. Balgarnie had -turned his back and had glanced in a shaving mirror which -hung by the port and saw White-Man's-Trouble helping -himself to a Tauchnitz novel, which he promptly tucked -underneath his coat. -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy put the book down. He did not waste -time in apologizing for the theft of something that was -entirely useless to him. He went straight to a matter of -far graver interest. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Purser, how you seen me take dem thing? You -no see with you eyes. You eyes lib for look out of window." -</p> - -<p> -"Attend," said Mr. Balgarnie, and struck an attitude. -"I am the man known to science as the -Freak-who-has-eyes-at-the-back-of-his-head. -Observe, I have my back to -you and yet I can see that you are picking your nose with -your strong left hand, and scratching the floor with your -starboard toe." -</p> - -<p> -"I no fit for see you back eyes." -</p> - -<p> -"That is because they are ju-ju eyes. Oh, White-Man's-Trouble, -I bid you fear the Powers of Darkness and steal -no more anything that is mine. You savvy?" -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy plenty!" -</p> - -<p> -"And as a further punishment, I bid you catch me ten -more butterflies, and take care you don't rub the feathers -off, or they'll be no use to Miss Kate." -</p> - -<p> -"Missy Kate! What for she want dem bug? Dem no -fit for chop." -</p> - -<p> -"To make ju-ju of." -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble grinned. "Missy Kate no savvy -ju-ju palaver. Dem Carter, he show her dem god with -talk-pipe, an' she say, 'Well, dere no ju-ju about him.' Oh, -Purser, I say dem god with talk-pipe plenty-too-much-fine -ju-ju. Okky-men savvy plenty him ju-ju." -</p> - -<p> -"Your theology's a bit above my head, but I don't mind -telling you in confidence that butterfly collecting's the -lady's habit, just the same as—let me see—just the same -as stealing things that are no use to you is yours, and -spear making's Mr. Carter's. Savvy?" -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy some," said the Krooboy doubtfully. "Does -Missy sell dem bugs to steamah pursers, an' come ashore -an' say dem dam' greedy hounds?" -</p> - -<p> -"If you've got that idea in your aboriginal mind," said -Mr. Balgarnie with a yawn, "don't let me crowd it with -anything nearer the truth. You bring Miss Kate plenty -of butterflies without the pretty rubbed off, and presently -she dash you a new top hat with a gold band to it." -</p> - -<p> -"I no fit for take dash from Missy," said White-Man's-Trouble -with dignity. "I bring her plenty-too-many bugs -for nix. I fit for know my job." -</p> - -<p> -The purser stared with tired eyes. "So you honor her -with your respectful admiration, too, do you? I wish I -could get her knack. There, clear out with you, and put -the door on the hook. Take your dirty hands away from -that tooth-brush, confound you, and get out. It's my time -for siesta." -</p> - -<p> -In the meanwhile Laura Slade had gone out on the -bridge deck, had found a chair without a card on it, and -had dragged it up alongside her friend. She waited -patiently till one of the long calculations had been worked -out and the result entered up in the pocket-book, and then, -when the figures were torn small, she jumped up and took -the scraps of paper from the other girl's hand. -</p> - -<p> -"Please let me do something, Kate. At least I can -throw them overboard for you." -</p> - -<p> -Miss O'Neill laughed, and plied her palm leaf fan. "My -dear girl, I'm most pleased to be tempted away from work. -In school days, as you will remember, I was worse than -you were at sums. I've had to grind at them since, but -it's not made me love them any the more. Why can't I -be a rich woman without working for it?" -</p> - -<p> -"Do you want so very much to be rich?" -</p> - -<p> -Kate turned to her friend and opened her eyes wide. -They were brown eyes, and someone once described them as -talkative. But people who knew her better were very -conscious of the fact that Miss Kate O'Neill's eyes only -expressed things when she willed that they should do so. -</p> - -<p> -"Do I want to be rich? Well, of course. One can't -have things or do things unless one has money. And if -I don't get money, no one will for me; or, at least, I'd -rather they wouldn't. Of course, you have got Mr. Carter -to work for you, Laura; but I am sure, when you put it -into cold words, you'd like him to make money, too. You -don't want to live all your days on the Coast here, the pair -of you. You look forward to going home, and having a -house and a garden, and a motor car, and a man to drive -it. And you'd like to have good servants and nice frocks. -Yes, especially nice frocks." -</p> - -<p> -"Like yours. Yes, I should like a nice frock like that -one, Kate, if you won't mind my copying it." -</p> - -<p> -"What, this rag? My dear, sweet child, with your eyes, -and your figure, and the complexion you'd grow in England, -you'd pay to dress far more than ever I should. -Mr. Carter will work hard and earn a big income, just for -the satisfaction of seeing you decently clad." -</p> - -<p> -There was a minute's silence, and then, "Why do you -dislike my engagement so much, Kate?" -</p> - -<p> -"Me dislike it? What rubbish. I think it's a most -excellent thing for you, if only Mr. Carter goes on as he -has begun." -</p> - -<p> -"Then I'll word it differently. Why do you dislike -George so much?" -</p> - -<p> -"Whatever gave you that idea? Mr. Carter, considering -the short time he has been on the Coast, has done most -excellently for the firm, and—well—<i>l'état c'est moi</i>. I -know you condemn me for being abominably commercial, -but what nearer way do you think there can be to my -heart than through my pocket?" -</p> - -<p> -"Your heart!" Laura repeated, and stared large-eyed at -the yellow river that swirled past the steamer's rusty -flanks. An alligator, that looked very much like a half -submerged log, drifted down with the tide, and a bird -that rode upon him dug vigorously between the rows of his -plates with his beak. She watched them till they passed -away down the stream and were lost in the glare of the -sunshine. "I wonder," she said in a half-whisper, "if -your heart wants something which it will break my heart -for you to get?" -</p> - -<p> -Miss Kate O'Neill got up and gave a very healthy laugh. -"Don't mutter," she said, "and don't be ridiculous. To -begin with, I'm not of the marrying sort; to go on with, -your taste (as typified in Mr. Carter) and mine don't -agree one little bit; and to wind up with, Laura dear, -don't let's pose like a pair of school-girls. I don't know -whether there's a slight natural antipathy between two -red-haired people——" -</p> - -<p> -"Your hair's not red in the least, Kate. It's a very -dark auburn." -</p> - -<p> -"I should call it warmish. Anyhow, Mr. Carter's is red -enough. And as you will drag the subject up, I must -really point out to you that he's been hardly civil in the -way he's avoided me. I haven't got smallpox." -</p> - -<p> -"You're his employer. When you call him I'm sure -he's glad enough to talk to you about what you want. -But you must see his position; he wouldn't like to risk -a snub by coming up when you might not happen to -want him." -</p> - -<p> -"I see. The idea that all communications should be -conducted in a cold business footing. Am I to understand -that Mr. Carter wished you to convey that view to me, -Laura?" -</p> - -<p> -"You know quite well he didn't. Kate, we used to be -friends. I wish you'd answer me honestly what I asked -you just now." -</p> - -<p> -"Don't be tragic and ridiculous. You're half sick with -the heat, and I really believe you want to quarrel with -me by way of safety valve. Well, my dear, I shan't -quarrel with you, that's all. I hate quarrelling. I've been -dodging the excellent Captain Image all the day, as I -know he wants to ease off his temper on me just because -his silly old steamer has stuck her nose on the bank and -got left by the tide. By the way, I candidly believe the -accident happened just because he was amusing himself -just at that precise moment with having a turn-up with—oh, -well, we're getting onto touchy ground again. And—here -is Mr. Carter. You seem in a hurry." -</p> - -<p> -Carter came up the ladder to the bridge deck in two -strides, and it was noteworthy that he addressed his first -remark to his employer, and not to his fiancée. "Do you -mind going below? There are half a dozen big Okky war -canoes round that point ahead there. I've been forrad -there, and could see them quite plainly through the -mangrove roots." -</p> - -<p> -"Have you told the Captain?" -</p> - -<p> -"No. I'll tell him next. But will you go below, or into -one of these deck houses? They are probably covering us -this minute, and it's pot-leg they fire, not bullets. Pot-leg -spreads and can make ghastly wounds." -</p> - -<p> -"I don't like running away." -</p> - -<p> -"If you could do any good staying out in the open I -wouldn't ask you to move. Laura, will you persuade Miss -O'Neill to go into cover, as she won't take any notice of -me?" -</p> - -<p> -"Thank you," said Kate sharply, "but Laura need not -interfere. I am accustomed to making up my own mind, -Mr. Carter, without help from anyone. I am much obliged -to you for your care, and as I can't be of any use at -present, and as I have no insane wish to be shot, I shall -certainly go into shelter." -</p> - -<p> -"Very good," said Carter; "then I'll go and carry the -news to old Image. It's a lucky thing I brought along -that Winchester of Slade's. We shall keep them off all -right." -</p> - -<p> -It turned out that Captain Image already had -tidings of the war canoes, and was red with wrath at -the idea of any qualified black savages having the -unmentionable impudence to make a something naval -demonstration against a sacred Liverpool oil tank. His -language was quite unprintable, but his disposition of -the steamer's forces was remarkably sound. Tackles -squeaked as a Krooboy gang hoisted the ladder which -hung alongside. The boatswain loaded the two brass -signal guns on the bridge deck with their usual noisy charge -of blank, and rammed a three-pound parcel of four-inch -cut nails down the muzzle of each on the top of the powder -bags. The carpenter replaced the gangways which are -always unshipped when steamers are in the rivers working -cargo. And the winches chattered as they each hove up a -ponderous palm oil puncheon to the top of a derrick, -which was then swung outboard so that the puncheon -could be let go by the run, and smash any canoe made -of hands that happened to be underneath. -</p> - -<p> -When these pious duties had been fulfilled, the crew -lined out along each of the lower deck rails armed with -spanners, firebars, handspikes, and in fact any other -weapon which a modern steamer could provide, which in -lusty hands might be called upon to break a human head. -</p> - -<p> -On the upper bridge Captain Image oversaw the only -two mates who were not down with fever as they directed -and assisted these operations, and when all was ready he -laid his own hands on the siren string and let loose a -hoarse throaty blast of defiance across the creeks and the -steamy forest. -</p> - -<p> -"There, Carter, me lad," said he, "that's to show the -blighters we're here and waiting. I'm glad you've brought -that Winchester. It's the only gun in the ship since -Owe-it Slade borrowed my Holland and forgot to bring it back. -They tell me you're a nailing fine shot, too." -</p> - -<p> -"Couldn't hit a haystack with anything except a scatter -gun." -</p> - -<p> -"Well," said Image dryly, "as I saw some of your -patients spread about in the clearing outside Smooth River -Factory, I shall believe just as much of that as I choose. -It's not my affair to mention it, of course, but I do know -that Miss Kate was very considerably struck by the way -you kept those niggers off, and if you hadn't been -engaged to Slade's girl——" -</p> - -<p> -"Which I am, Captain. So, therefore, it's no use going -into useless possibilities. By the way, isn't that stern wire -slackening?" -</p> - -<p> -"By Crumbs, me lad, you've got a quick eye. The tide's -coming up underneath her, and she's slipping off. Here -you, Mr. Third Mate, ring those engines to full astern, -and try and keep it in your head that you'd be in your -room now if I weren't short of officers." -</p> - -<p> -With the lift of the yellow tide beneath her, the <i>M'poso</i> -drew out from her muddy dock as a sword is pulled from -its sheath, hung for a dozen minutes in mid-stream whilst -the stern-warp and its anchor were got aboard, and then, -gathering her boat and its crew up to davits, turned -stubbornly up the river. -</p> - -<p> -"I'll show these Okky blighters what trouble is," -declared Captain Image, "if they try and stop me. I've -had their old king in my chart house here with Swizzle-Stick -Smith and the other traders a score of times, and -if he didn't drink the ship dry, it was only because I -wouldn't let him. And now in return for that hospitality -he brings out his infernal war canoes. I only hope he's in -one of them and comes alongside. I'll brain him with an -oil puncheon if I get him in range." -</p> - -<p> -But when they opened up the reach behind the point -where the canoes had been seen, there was no offer of -attack. There were three craft in view, fifty paddle-power -dugouts all of them, crammed with men and weapons, -fantastic with horrible ju-ju charms; but they hung on to the -wire-like stems of the mangroves and remained so moored -till the steamer drew past and began to dance them up -and down upon its wash. A monkey-skin drum in each -was beaten impressively by two drummers, but no weapons -were levelled, and there was no threat of boarding. -</p> - -<p> -"Faugh!" said Image, and spat. "Did you catch the -smell of those beauties when we had them abeam? Talk -of a 'bus stable struck by lightning!" -</p> - -<p> -"They aren't there just to take in the scenery," said -Carter thoughtfully. -</p> - -<p> -"An Okky-man is born to mischief even as the sparks -fly upward. Look, they're casting off their shorefasts and -getting under weigh down stream. No, by Crumbs, they're -turning up stream after me. Well, of all the blighted -cheek! Do you know what that means, Carter, me lad? -They're going to follow us. They think they've got some -ju-ju by which they can cut us off from the Coast. Ah, -here's Miss Kate. Well, Miss, as I've you to think of as well -as my ship, I shall turn presently and run back again for -the bar. You see for yourself, I should think now, that it -isn't healthy up this river, and all the cargo in Africa is -no use to a man if he can't get it shipped when he comes -to the beach where it's stored. If any one of the war -canoes get in my way, I'll show you what those bushmen -look like when they're swimming in yellow water, for as -sure as the Lord made crocodiles, I'll ram their noisy -dugouts if I can. I'll teach them to thump their nasty -smelling war drums at me." -</p> - -<p> -"Poof, Captain, don't you try to take me in. I should -like to hear anyone else suggesting that you couldn't take -the <i>M'poso</i> to a spot where the <i>Frau Pobst</i> had made -regular voyages." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image thrust forward his head and glared. "I -can take this packet anywhere that blessed Dutchman's -been, Miss." -</p> - -<p> -"Of course you can. And when the <i>Frau Pobst's</i> -captain has shipped cargo from a spot——" -</p> - -<p> -"And given up going there, Miss, because it's too -dangerous." -</p> - -<p> -"Precisely. Well, as I couldn't insult you by calling -you less than twice as brave as the German, that means -that no little trouble that's going on between here and -Mokki will frighten you in the very least. Is that good -argument?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, go on, Miss. Twist me round your finger. I like -it. Besides it isn't the first time I've played a -neck-or-nothing game. But I'm hanged if I see that it's an -amusement for a pretty young lady like you." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image was speaking in plain earnest, and he -was a man who knew. Kate O'Neill was seized with a -sudden qualm. Was she right to force on this risk? Would -the Okky-men attack, or could they bring off the cargo -successfully? Nobody but herself seemed to see a shadow -of chance for success. And these others were all old -Coasters against whom she was setting up her will. -</p> - -<p> -But when she thought of giving way and turning back -the cost of retreat promptly leaped up and faced her in -plain figures. O'Neill and Craven were heavily involved, -how heavily no one knew but old white-haired Crewdson -and herself. The Mokki oil that she had bought so cheap -would save them. Without it there would be bankruptcy, -and, what she dreaded even more, the contemptuous finger -of Liverpool pointed at the woman who had taken upon -herself a man's responsibilities and broken down beneath -them. -</p> - -<p> -These thoughts dinned through her again and again, -but outwardly her face smiled and her lips spoke lightly. -</p> - -<p> -"Now, it is nice of you to give me a promise like that, -Captain." -</p> - -<p> -"Lake what?" -</p> - -<p> -"To say that you'll go on till my nerves give way. -Well, let it be so. I promise to give you news of it the -moment I'm frightened. Look, there's an omen for you -to read to me. The Okky-men in that first war canoe are -all standing up and waving their spears. What does that -mean, I wonder?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap10"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER X -<br /> -ENVOYS IN COUNCIL -</h3> - -<p> -"Hallo, Meredith, I heard rumors that there was a -white man up in this part of the bush, but I never guessed -it was you. I did think of sending on a runner to see, but -somehow I didn't." -</p> - -<p> -"No, you wouldn't," said the older man. "I never -knew you make up your mind to anything unless it was -decided for you. Now, look here, Slade, we're in lonely -country here, and if I shoot you, you'll never be missed; -and, by gad, shoot you I will unless you mend your memory." -</p> - -<p> -"Poof! what does it matter? We're the only white men -within two hundred miles, and the boys are out of earshot." -</p> - -<p> -"A black boy can hear a lot farther than you think, -and for that matter I've known trees in West Africa to -have ears that understand English—at least that has been -the only explanation one could find of the way things have -leaked out. But we'll leave all that alone. I've given you -to understand by what name I wish to be addressed." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, you needn't be so short about it. I've always -called you Smith down in the Coast factories. Of course -I can't forget that I once knew you when you were——" -</p> - -<p> -"Will you hold your slobbering tongue? If you can't, -say so, and I'll stop it once and for always. I've told you -my wish; to you or anyone else I'm Smith, or Swizzle-Stick -Smith, which you like. I've no connection with -anything that went before, and 'pon my soul, as you're -the only man now alive that knows it, I believe I'd be a -lot safer if you were out of the way." -</p> - -<p> -Slade turned his back petulantly. "Oh, do stop this -wrangle. I'll call you Swizzle-Stick Smith to the end of -the chapter, and forget that you were ever anything other -than a drunken old palm-oil ruffian, if it pleases you. -Come to my hut and chop. I shot some parrots this -morning. They'll taste a bit like high rook, but they are -better than tinned stuff anyway. They came over finely; -real raketers. It was quite like the old days at home. -This gun, by the way, is about my last link with ancestral -splendor. Look there, a Holland. They wanted me to -have ejectors, I remember, but I wouldn't." -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith screwed his eyeglass into his other eye and -straightened the new black silk ribbon by which it hung. -"No," he said grimly, "that was very wise of you, -especially as ejectors weren't invented when that gun was -built. I wonder what sort of a tale you told Image before -he trusted you with it?" -</p> - -<p> -"What are you driving at? What's Cappie Image to -do with it?" -</p> - -<p> -"That's my gun. I had it—well, as you've started the -forbidden subject already—I had it before the fall. Image -saw it at Malla-Nulla one day when I was full up and -walked off with it, and I never managed to get it back -from him. He always said the beach was too bad to risk -letting a surf boat bring it ashore. Well, you may keep -the thing for the present, and I'll take a bowlful of your -parrot stew by way of rent. This the house? You've -managed to find yourself pretty comfortable quarters, I -see." -</p> - -<p> -The house was a series of rooms packed round an internal -courtyard. The outer walls were of wattle, luted -with mud thrown onto them in vigorous handfuls, and -left to bake hard in the sun. The roof was a pile of -untidy thatch, the floor of hardened mud, and in the middle -of the courtyard was an ineffective shade-tree scorched by -the smoke of the cooking fires. Beyond this house sprawled -the other houses of a small West African village, with the -usual squalor heaped between them. -</p> - -<p> -To most Europeans there would have been much to -notice—the cooking vessels, the calabashes, the food, the ju-ju -charms that one met at unexpected corners, the scavenging -dogs, and the all-pervading smells. But Swizzle-Stick -Smith's curiosity was worn by twenty years attrition, -and these savage circumstances had grown native to -him. He did not even comment on the fact that Slade -was living entirely in local fashion, the thing was so -obvious a course for his friend to follow that he took it for -granted. He himself was a man of like tastes. Down at -Malla-Nulla the menu had mostly smacked of Africa; -but once he had left the Coast, Mr. Smith had travelled -as an Okky headman travels, living mainly on kanki and -couscousoo, and for beverage partaking of sour palm wine, -muddy bush-water, and an allowance of trade gin sternly -cut down to one square-faced bottle per diem. -</p> - -<p> -His only comment on the place was that Slade's mosquito -bar was made of a material that they had long ago -decided was faulty, and that a certain mark of cheesecloth -gave better passage to the air, and was more -impervious to insects. To which Slade made reply that he -knew it, but couldn't be bothered to change, after which -the cookboy brought in a calabash of odorous, highly-peppered -stew, colored bright orange with palm oil and -condiments, and set it on the floor of one of the rooms. -Mr. Smith pocketed his pipe, dropped his eyeglass to the -end of its black ribbon, and wiped his hands on his shabby -pyjamas, after which simple preparations the pair of -them sat down on the earth beside the calabash and -proceeded to eat skilfully from their fingers. -</p> - -<p> -Around them were the cases and bales of Slade's outfit, -each done up into a "load" ready for a carrier's head. -In the other room of the house and in the courtyard were -the carriers, some of them eating, some of them cleaning -their teeth with the rubbing stick, which all Coast natives -use incessantly in moments of leisure, some of them -chatting. Most of them sat bareheaded in the staring -sunlight; a few nestled in the purple shadows. One was -picking a jigger out of his toe with a splinter of -bamboo. In a spare corner another played tom-tom on the -bottom of an empty kerosene-tin bucket, and three -stalwarts stood up before him monotonously dancing. -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith finished his meal and took out his pipe. -"Does it run to a peg?" he asked. -</p> - -<p> -"It does. Don't spoil my fine vintage port with -tobacco. You can smoke afterwards. Here, boy, we fit for -gin." -</p> - -<p> -"Gin lib," said the Accra in attendance, and handed -a square-faced bottle and a bowl. -</p> - -<p> -"Good. Now, when you see dem Smith fit for smoke, -you bring fire, one-time. Savvy?" -</p> - -<p> -"I fit." -</p> - -<p> -Swizzle-Stick Smith moved back until his shoulders -rested against a bale, and hitched up the knees of his -shrunk pyjamas and stretched his arms pleasurably. -"You travel in comfort, Slade." -</p> - -<p> -"The secret is, I don't move along too fast. I've been -in this village a fortnight. I don't know when I shall -make up my mind to pull out and go on." -</p> - -<p> -"Not till you've eaten it bare or are forced off some -other way, I suppose. You're a curious envoy for a -confiding employer in Liverpool to send out into the bush." -</p> - -<p> -Slade grinned. "Old Godfrey wouldn't have done it. -But this new K. O'Neill hasn't seen my cutaway chin. -K.'s a hustler, but he's young, remarkably young." -</p> - -<p> -"Have you done anything in the way of getting him -a rubber property?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, curiously enough I have. At least, I've bought -him up a few square miles of country that rubber vines -would grow on well enough if it was cleared, and planted, -and tended, and no one put ju-ju on them." -</p> - -<p> -"Is it get-at-able?" -</p> - -<p> -"It's on some river or other. The ditch isn't marked -on the map, but I daresay a steamer could get up if it -was worth while. The title's as good as one could expect." -</p> - -<p> -"That means it won't be jumped so long as you pay -fifty pounds a year to the next claimant." -</p> - -<p> -"I should say five-and-twenty will fix him," said Slade -lazily. "You see he's headman of the next village and -he thinks he's got some unproductive bush to sell himself. -I've rammed into his skull the great truth that his -deal can't go through if he starts trying to jump his -neighbor's land and unsteadies the market. I think those -considerations will outweigh even his nigger's love for -litigation—" He went on to give listlessly enough a few -more details of the transaction. -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith was well-versed in the ways of West African -diplomacy, and could appreciate to a nicety all the -haggling and the patience and the tedious arguments that -had gone to build up these complicated bargains. He -screwed in his eyeglass and looked at Slade attentively. -"I wonder," he said, "why you always make yourself out -to be such an infernal waster? You know you must have -been doing some thundering good work. I couldn't have -put that deal through, and I know my West Africa as well -as you do or better. There's not one man in five thousand -could have managed it. What's your trick?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I found myself in comfortable quarters, and I -couldn't make up my mind to move on and try more -likely country elsewhere. So I stayed and talked -rubber-palaver with the headman. One had to do something for -amusement. Besides they'd a tree of alligator pears in -the village that were exactly ripe, and it would have been -a crime to leave them to benighted Africans. By the -way, very rude of me not to ask before, but what have -you done since you left the Coast?" -</p> - -<p> -"Got into a very ugly hole," said Swizzle-Stick Smith -shortly, "and wriggled out of it by the skin of my teeth." -</p> - -<p> -"Rubber-palaver?" -</p> - -<p> -"No." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, sorry for inquiring. I thought that was what you -came up for?" -</p> - -<p> -"So it was, and I started off from the Coast with a -full intention of carrying out O'Neill and Craven's -business. But I got led off on an old trail." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah," said Slade thoughtfully. "I believe I could -guess." -</p> - -<p> -"Guessing's dangerous. But I may as well own up to -you frankly that I've been seeing the King of Okky." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, you've a nerve. I shouldn't have cared for that -job myself." -</p> - -<p> -"It wasn't pleasant. Okky City jars one's sense of -decency rather badly just now. Old Kallee's been going -it extra strong on human sacrifices, you know. His -private crucifixion tree is a thing you don't like to think -about." -</p> - -<p> -"Filthy old beast he is." -</p> - -<p> -"But he's the strongest man hereabouts." -</p> - -<p> -"I see. And you got onto your old game of the pre-Smith -days and tried to get him to put the Okky country -and his royal self under the formal protectorate of the -British Empire? I thought you dropped all that tommyrot -when you got kicked—I mean when you turned trader -and became known to fame as Mr. Smith. Sink the past, -of course, sink the past, but you started it." -</p> - -<p> -"I couldn't help going. I got news of a French -expedition in Okky City. Of course I've been damnably -treated by the British Foreign Office in days gone by, but -the old fires will relight sometimes. Frenchmen in Okky -City, I'll trouble you, Slade, and of course with the usual -accompaniment. <i>Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes</i>. So I -couldn't resist trying my own hand with the Kallee, even -though I hadn't anything at all up to his weight as an -introductory dash." -</p> - -<p> -"Half a dozen cases of Heidsieck is the nearest way -to his royal ear, though I hear that lately he's developed -a taste for the better years of Krug." -</p> - -<p> -"That's quite true. It was a fancy touch of Burgoyne, -our Monk River man. I call that hardly legitimate -business, you know. German champagne and angostura are -good enough for me, and they ought to be good enough -for a black savage like Kallee. Dash it, what right's he -to a palate?" -</p> - -<p> -"Would he see you?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, of course I've known him since before he killed -his predecessor and got the King's stool, and so he's a -bit freer with me than he is with most people." -</p> - -<p> -Slade nodded. "And you drank together till you were -both blind speechless?" -</p> - -<p> -"I wasn't, anyway," said the older man shortly. "I -kept my head and stuck to my tale. The Frenchman -wasn't in it. He went to sleep before we whacked the -first ten bottles, and he was laid up with a fine dose of -fever next day; but there was no shifting Kallee. He -doesn't care an escribello for all the might, majesty, -dominion and power of the British Empire. He's got ten -small cannon up there, that, according to him, can quite -account for Great Britain if it comes to worry him, and -in the meanwhile the French are very kind friends. -They've given him a gramophone, and a general's -uniform, and an ice-making machine, and when they bring -him the canoe load of Winchester repeaters he's asked for, -he'll sign a treaty of allegiance to France." -</p> - -<p> -"Arms of precision! The Frenchman had better take -care. If any of our Government fellows catch him at -that game, they'll shoot him first and inquire into him -afterwards." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, what he's going to do in the matter, I don't -exactly know. You see, the beggar had Kallee's ear, and -to tell you the plain truth he had me deported. Kallee -said that if he laid hands on me again, he would have -my skin off, and stuff it with straw, and stick it in the -road that leads to Malla-Nulla as a warning to the next -Englishman that came along that it would be more healthy -to keep inside his own marches." -</p> - -<p> -Slade laughed. "I bet you footed it away." -</p> - -<p> -"What the devil else could I do? And here am I, no -forwarder with O'Neill and Craven's job than I was the -day I tramped out of Malla-Nulla. I did say 'Rubber' -to the King, and he did hear out my tale. He said it -was good palaver, and set on a couple of hundred slaves -there and then with matchets to clear bush and plant -rubber vines to grow revenue for himself. But he sells no -land to Englishmen, and I guess if another of the breed -comes up yet awhile, Kallee'll plant him. By the way, -Slade, have you been in touch with the bush telegraph?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I heard that the usual vague rows and horribles -were going on in Okky City, but I didn't pay much attention -to that. I did hear, too, that Cappie Image and the -<i>M'poso</i> helped a red-headed man, who I suppose was that -young Carter of yours, in some sort of a row at presumably -Malla-Nulla. I took the trouble to go into the dates; -the news must have travelled here in thirty hours, and -we're a good two hundred miles from the Coast. It is a -bit marvellous. I wonder how the deuce the niggers do -it. Some sort of ju-ju, I suppose, but I never met a white -man yet who understood the trick." -</p> - -<p> -"Did you hear anything about a white woman stirring -things up?" -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly, I did, and concluded it was Laura. I left -her in charge at Smooth River, you know, and she's grown -into a jolly capable girl, let me tell you, old man, when -she cares to spread herself. What are you twiddling about -your eyeglass for? Why don't you say out what you mean? -Oh, I see. White. By gad, I'd never thought of that. -Even a bush telegraph, which is always liable to mistake -in detail, would never blunder into calling my little girl -white. By gad, Smith, what a damnable thing that 'sins -of the fathers' law is. If I were a man that ever looked -so much as half a day ahead, I believe I should go mad -at the thought of what will become of Laura in the future. -You're a tough old ruffian with no cares and you could -never understand what that kiddie is to me." -</p> - -<p> -"No use crying over a marriage that's over. Everybody -that knows her will do his best for Laura, and if -any man tried hanky-panky tricks with her he'd probably -die one of the local deaths of Africa in very quick time. -But about this white woman. I heard about her, too. -There was a big tom-toming far away in the bush one -night, ten minutes after the sun went out, and my boys -listened hard and then set up a fine chatter. It was long -enough before I could make anything out of them, but -at last I heard something about 'a white mammy' that -set me thinking. I got the idea at first that someone, -probably the Okky-men, had been knocking a she-missionary -on the head, and that made me cock up my ears. You -know when a trader or a man in one of the services gets -scuppered out here, the pious people at home say it's his -own brutal fault and the poor African is quite right in -what he does. But when it's a missionary, the Exeter Hall -crew insist on war." -</p> - -<p> -Slade put up the usual Coaster's wish for the future of -Exeter Hall. -</p> - -<p> -"Quite so," said Swizzle-Stick Smith. He got up and -limped across to the doorway and stood there for a minute -puffing pale blue smoke into the dazzle of sunshine. Then -he came back again and once more sat on the earthen -floor with his back against a bale. "The boys out there, -both yours and mine, are still harping on the same subject." -</p> - -<p> -"I didn't make out that the white woman was killed." -</p> - -<p> -"Nor did I, when I went into the matter further. I -was only explaining what gave me the first interest in the -subject, because if there had been a she-missionary killed, -all the bush would know that meant war, and they would -slaughter every white man they came across out of sheer -light-heartedness. No, if that had happened, you would -not have seen me here. I should have lit out for the -Coast, one-time. But I presently found that the white -woman had not been killed, but that she was a someone -who seemed to puzzle my boys exceedingly. There seemed -to be heap-too-much ju-ju about her. She did things no -one else could tackle." -</p> - -<p> -"Sort of champion lady weight-lifter? Boy, fill -Mr. Smith's pipe and bring him fire." -</p> - -<p> -"You know that Kroo word, Oomsha, that means Sultana -or woman-above-a-headman, or something like that?" -</p> - -<p> -"I heard a tale of an Oomsha once somewhere up Sokoto -way. She's been head wife of an Emir, and when he -died she killed all the heirs and ran the town herself. I -thought it meant more witch or conjurer. It's a ju-ju -word." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I won't quarrel with you over etymology, and -we seem to agree enough on the definition for practical -purposes. Now, my boys said that this white woman was an -Oomsha. Did you hear that?" -</p> - -<p> -"Not I. I tell you I thought it was Laura they were -gassing about, and I didn't trouble myself to inquire more -deeply." -</p> - -<p> -"Dash it," said the old man fiercely, "do rouse up and -interest yourself in something. What the deuce has a -white sultana got to do messing around the Coast -factories, especially O'Neill and Craven's? And let me tell -that's what's happening." -</p> - -<p> -"Is the mythical lady setting everybody by the ears and -preparing for a holy something?" -</p> - -<p> -"That's the maddening part of it. They all seem to -like her. She's stirring up everybody, she's upsetting your -factory and mine, she's dragged the man with the red head -in adoration to her feet and then spurned him from her, -and she's even captured the warm and profane Cappie -Image as one of her servitors." -</p> - -<p> -"Poof! blarney old Image! Now, that proves you've -got onto a fairy tale." -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith thumped an emphatic fist on the hard stamped -floor beside him. "I tell you I have not. The bush -telegraph never lies. You may misunderstand it, but if you -take time and trouble, and dig deep enough, you'll always -come to the truth of things. As sure as we are sweating -in this bush village here, there's a white woman on the -Coast turning all the business there upside down." -</p> - -<p> -"I've got it," said Slade. "K. O'Neill's tired of having -all his bright ideas comfortably shelved by you and me, -and so his new happy thought is to send his fascinating -typewriter out to hand instructions over in person, and -wait till they're put through. Your Carter and my Laura -would be just the sort of enthusiastic young people to fall -in with a scheme like that. But I must say the conquest -of Image beats me. It would take a heap more than a -hen typewriter to tame Cappie Image-me-lad." -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, I thought of all that, but there's one blessed -thing that upsets it completely. The Oomsha is making -headquarters at the Dutch factory at Mokki, and building -a fort there. Now, play on that." -</p> - -<p> -"Weather too hot," said Slade. "Whe-ew! I wish -the breeze would come." -</p> - -<p> -"Dash it, man, think! A white woman building a fort -up at Mokki." -</p> - -<p> -"Sounds buccaneerish, or I'll tell you what, German." Slade -sat up with a sudden spurt of unaccustomed energy -and ran the perspiration off his face with a forefinger. -"By gad! I didn't think of that, but picture the joys of -having a beastly German in at the back of us, with a -Government subsidy, and a price-cutting apparatus all -complete." -</p> - -<p> -"Yes," said Swizzle-Stick Smith grimly, "and also -picture to yourself the eminently British Captain Image -yielding to the soft blandishments of a German Frau. -He'd as soon think of making himself amiable to a -gorilla. No, that theory's wrong. The thing stumps me, -and I'm sure if it's too big for me, it's outside your -size." -</p> - -<p> -"Quite so," said Slade, who had dropped back into his -normal slackness after the spurt of energy. Then he -screwed up his eyes tightly as the hot air was split with -a succession of piercing yells and screeches. -</p> - -<p> -"Good Lord, what's that?" the old man called out. -</p> - -<p> -"Some poor brute of a farmer, who's been working on -his cassava ground, being pulled down by a leopard. -There, don't get up; you can't do anything. Don't you -hear he's quiet now, which means 'palaver set' as far as -the farmer is concerned. That will make the rest of his -agricultural neighbors careful for the next twenty-four -hours, and go to their work in pairs, and take their spears. -At the end of twenty-four hours their massive memories -will fail them and they'll stroll out alone just as the -spirit moves them, and someone else will be chopped. -Those squeals used to make one feel rather sick at first, -and one was apt to get excited and rush out with a gun. -But it never did any good. Spotted Dick always prefers -to dine in privacy and drags his mutton back into the -bush. I can imagine," Slade added with a faint laugh, -"that an energetic man who was a bit of a sportsman -would find this place pretty exasperating. Thanks to -these careless animals of villagers ground-baiting the -creatures to the extent they have done, there's the best -stocked leopard-cover in Africa round here, but you -simply can't get them up to the gun. I've tried sitting up -for them over a kill, I've tried stalking, and always got -nothing. I risked a drive one day and the leopard chopped -a couple of beaters. It would be exasperating to an -energetic man, but thank goodness I'm not that, and so I've -simply taken things as they came." -</p> - -<p> -"H'm," said Smith thoughtfully. "When we walked in -here I noticed I limped on one side and you limped on the -other. We sort of jabbed at one another, in and out. Now, -limping is a new accomplishment for you. Have you been -interviewing a leopard personally?'"' -</p> - -<p> -Slade's sallow face flushed a little. "Well, you see, a -son of the headman here took it into his silly head to get -in a leopard's way one day, and I knew the old chap was -awfully fond of the lad. So I just retrieved him, and we -both got a bit clawed in the process. But it was purely a -matter of business for K. O'Neill. The old goat of a -headman wouldn't listen to any suggestion for buying -rubber lands before. Dash it all, Smith, I am slack, I -know, but I do try and put in a bit of work for the firm -in return for my pay sometimes." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap11"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XI -<br /> -AGAIN PRESENTS THE HEAD OF THE FIRM -</h3> - -<p> -"Fire's the only thing we have to be frightened of for -the present," said Carter, "and this soft, soggy wet -timber of which the fort is built wouldn't burn without a lot -of persuasion. Still, all the same I wish I could think of -something that would make it absolutely fireproof." -</p> - -<p> -"The ancients," said Miss O'Neill, "used to cover their -works with raw bull's hide to ward off fire arrows. That -wise remark comes from some school-book, but I've -forgotten where. Laura can quote?" -</p> - -<p> -"No," said Laura shortly. -</p> - -<p> -"Not having bulls," said Carter, "we can't have their -hide, but I'll just let word ooze out that if the Okky-men -attack, we'll skin those we bag and nail up their pelts——" -</p> - -<p> -"Mr. Carter!" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I beg your pardon for being horrible, but I tell -you frankly that if I thought for a moment that a message -like that would be believed, I'd send it in a moment. -You know, Miss Head, we're in an uncommon tight place, -and as acting commander-in-chief, I tell you flatly it will -be a case of 'all-in' if it comes to a scrap." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Missy, dem Carter mean he fit for use ju-ju -besides guns," White-Man's-Trouble explained. -</p> - -<p> -"It couldn't have been put more neatly. We must call -in even the powers of darkness, as far as they'll answer to -a whistle, if it comes to open fighting. But in the -meanwhile, as some solemn idiot said in a text-book, -'preparedness for war is the best insurance for peace,' and I ask you -to observe this tramway which the boys have laid down -during the night. Trouble here was ganger, and I've only -had to bang him for letting the gauge spread in two -places." -</p> - -<p> -"Is it to show sightseers quickly round the works?" -Kate asked. -</p> - -<p> -"No, madam. I shall mount on trucks those two tinpot -brass muzzle-loading signal guns that you bamboozled -out of old Image, have embrasures (if that's the word for -holes to shoot through) at all the corners, and I can rush -those guns round to fire at all points of the compass at a -pace that will surprise friend Kwaka, if he is in command -of the enemy. I am pleased to say Kwaka looks for the -supernatural when he is dealing with me, and I make a -point of conscience in seeing that he gets it. I found -some sheets of yellow tissue-paper in the feteesh here, all -mottled with black mildew, and they gave me an idea. -I cut out a leopard and pasted him together, and left a -hole in him underneath, and fitted that with a wire -carrier and a cotton wool burner that will hold spirit." -</p> - -<p> -"What, a fire balloon?" -</p> - -<p> -"Just that. With a dose of trade gin on the cotton -wool, and a match and a little careful manipulation, we'll -have a portent sailing up into the sky that will astonish -the Okky-men's weak nerves in most disastrous style." -</p> - -<p> -"You are really a most ingenious person," said Miss -O'Neill. "Isn't he, Laura?" -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose so," said Laura. -</p> - -<p> -"It's that blessed Cascaes that's the weak spot in the -defence. I suppose I've the usual West Coast prejudice -against Portuguese; you know even the natives divide -creation up into white men, black men, and Portuguese, -and the particular specimen we've taken over here with -the factory just bristles with bad points." -</p> - -<p> -"I think he's rather nice," said Laura. "You were -fighting with him this morning and I hated to see it." -</p> - -<p> -"Well," said Carter, judicially, "I shouldn't define it -as fighting exactly, but I'll admit, if you like, that I was -kicking him. You see, Miss Head here has given most -strict orders that not more than six strangers were ever -to be admitted into the fort together at one time. He'd -fourteen actually in the feteesh. Now, supposing those -gallant fourteen suddenly produced weapons and held the -gate whilst friends they'd ambushed outside ran across the -clearing and rushed us, where'd we be?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh," said Laura, "I'm sorry I interfered if it was -Kate's orders you were carrying out." -</p> - -<p> -"So, Miss Head, with your permission I'll run up a -chimbeque for the fellow outside the walls." -</p> - -<p> -"Where did you get that word chimbeque from?" Kate -asked. "It's Fiote, not Oil Rivers talk." -</p> - -<p> -Carter's brown eyes twinkled. "I say, what a marvel -you are to know things! I bet Laura didn't spot that. -Why did I use the word? Well, we had a Portuguee -linguister down at Malla-Nulla who had worked in the Congo, -and he imported that and a lot more Congolese words as -part of his baggage, and we absorbed them. Observe now. -Trouble! I say, Trouble, come in here, and keep away -from that sugar bowl in case you are tempted. Just stand -there by the door. Now, tell me. You fit for savvy what -a chimbeque is?" -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy's flat nose perceptibly lifted with -contempt. "Dem bushman's word for hut. I fit for learn -English on steamah. You can tell Missy I once was -stand-by-at-crane boy on black funnel boat. I no say -chimbeque; I say 'house.'" -</p> - -<p> -"You fairly overflow with education at times. There, -run away outside, and play again. So you see, Miss Head, -if Cascaes runs a sort of extra feteesh away out in the -clearing, he can't land us into much danger however -careless and indiscreet he may be. Of course it will entail a -little extra labor below in handling both produce and -trade goods, but now we've got the fort practically built, -I've a lot more boys I can set free for the ordinary work. -Which reminds me that I forgot to ask if this new boy -you've got for butterfly hunter is any better than the -last?" -</p> - -<p> -"I'm afraid he isn't much. He doesn't tear the net all -to bits, but he's rubbed every specimen fatally before he -pinned it into the collecting box." -</p> - -<p> -"I was afraid there was friction. I saw White-Man's-Trouble -call up that boy and look into the collecting box -when he thought I was safely siestaing. They had a little -excited conversation, and then Trouble grabbed him by a -handful of wool and lammed into him with a chiquot." -</p> - -<p> -"Ugh," said Kate, "it is very flattering to have -Trouble's kind approval, but I do wish there was not such a -local popularity for the methods of—what shall I say?" -</p> - -<p> -"Primitive man. They rather grow on one. Perhaps -I'm prejudiced in their favor, though. Even when I was -at school I always preferred a licking to an imposition. -By the way, you never showed me the butterflies you've -collected here since you took them out of splints and pinned -them in their case." -</p> - -<p> -"Then come at once and admire," said Kate, and the -pair of them left the veranda and went into the factory's -living room. -</p> - -<p> -Laura Slade looked after them wistfully. There was -something between these two that she could not fathom, -and vaguely feared. At Smooth River, and on the <i>M'poso</i>, -their talk had been on the chilliest details of business, -and only the most bare civilities passed beyond. It had -seemed to her then that at any moment a word might -bring a permanent rupture, and she had pleaded with each -to accept the other in a more reasonable spirit. She was -engaged to Carter; he kept reminding her of the tie in -twenty different ways each day. She had lived under the -ægis of the O'Neill and Craven firm all her life, and -exaggerated its importance, and she begged Carter not to -throw away what was his livelihood now and what would -be hers when she married him. -</p> - -<p> -Kate, too, was her friend, and together they had been -the closest of confidants. She had known the secret of -the firm's "Mr. K. O'Neill" almost as long as old Crewdson -had known it, and she had kept that secret loyally in -spite of the keenest temptation. -</p> - -<p> -"Kate, I even kept it from George," she had said, and -Kate had replied, "George being Mr. Carter, I suppose?" -</p> - -<p> -Up to the time that they left the <i>M'poso</i>, it seemed -hopeless to bring them even into the most stiff agreement. -And then the first morning she woke up at Mokki, there -was Kate in a Madeira chair on the veranda, with George -Carter sitting on the rail beside her, and the pair of them -were laughing and chatting as easily as though they had -known one another a year. -</p> - -<p> -She had never got what she thought any satisfactory -explanation of how this relief of the tension had been -brought about. She asked Carter, and he said he had -arrived at the conclusion he had "merely been a rude ass," -and it was time to be ashamed of himself and try ordinary -human civility. She had attempted to sound Kate, and -was merely congratulated on being engaged to a really -nice man. And thereafter she had watched an intimacy -grow between them, in which somehow or other, in spite -of their obviously labored efforts to include her, she had no -part. -</p> - -<p> -She turned away from the door now, and sat down in -one of the veranda chairs which the thrifty German had -made for himself out of a palm-oil puncheon. Behind her -the white man and the white woman talked butterflies. -Before her was Africa, and night. No moon had risen, a -few of the stars were lit. Fireflies blinked in and out -at unexpected places in the velvety blackness, uncannily -vanishing when their spasm of light was over. The night -breeze sang gently through the trees and gave sharpness -to the air, and the drone of insects kept to one low -insistent note like the distant murmur of the river. The -factory boys, tired with their merciless work, slept. But from -the bush beyond the clearing there came ever and again -a groan, or a roar, or a shriek, as often as not dimmed to -a mere murmur by distance, to keep her aware of the -axiom that Africa never sleeps and always carries pain. -</p> - -<p> -The land breeze blew strong and her dress was thin. -She shivered a little and called for Carter, as he had taught -her, to bring a wrap. He came running out with it at -once and covered her shoulders, as she was pleased to think, -tenderly. He even stopped and talked to her for a minute -or so. Then he said he must go and see Miss Head's last -case, and once more went into the living room. She -strained her ears to listen, and she heard the butterfly -talk begin again where it had broken off. -</p> - -<p> -They had an alarm that night that the Okky-men were -coming. Into the blank silence of sleep there came the -roar of a heavy charge of black trade powder as a sentry -discharged his dew-filled flintlock. The whites, the -Portuguese, and the tired factory boys roused into instant -wakefulness. Their nerves were too nicely set to need a second -shaking. -</p> - -<p> -Laura met Carter in pyjamas as he was in the act of -thumping upon her bedroom door. "Oh, you have got -up," he said. "That's good. Well, don't show a light -whilst you dress, and keep under shelter. I must just wake -Miss O'Neill before I go down." -</p> - -<p> -She put her arms round his neck and pulled him to her -and kissed him violently. "You came for me first then, -after all?" -</p> - -<p> -"You little goose, of course I did. Wives first, -employers next. Here, I must go, or the battle will be over -before I'm down. The odds are those heroes are blazing -away at nothing." -</p> - -<p> -They were. Each black man as he came up to the -palisade poked the muzzle of his gun through a loophole, -pulled trigger, and drew comfort from the din. Presently -Carter came up to the breastwork, climbed to the -banquette, and leaned over, and then peered long and hard -through the night. He could see nothing. He got down, -and with trouble found the sentry who had fired first. -When he had thumped the man into calmness, it turned -out that he had seen nothing also. He had "thought -ju-ju" and then his gun "lib for shoot by himself." Or -in plainer English, the man had dozed with his hand -round his gun lock to keep the damp from the priming; -he had been struck by a nightmare and had pulled the -trigger. He had aimed at nothing. His gun muzzle had -been upright, and he "lib for shoot dem moon." -</p> - -<p> -Cascaes, the Portuguese, came up with a Winchester -under his arm in time to hear the end of this explanation. -"The negro like-a some noise, eh, senhor?" -</p> - -<p> -"What about yourself?" asked Carter uncivilly. -"Haven't you been joining in? I suppose you're first -cousin to these fellows, anyway." -</p> - -<p> -Cascaes put a little finger down the muzzle of his rifle, -wiped it round, lit a match, and showed that the finger -was clean. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I beg pardon," said Carter. "I thought you were -likely to share in the local revels." -</p> - -<p> -"Well," said the Portuguese thoughtfully, "I suppose -I must count that an apology. Otherwise I should have -shot you. Good-night, senhor." -</p> - -<p> -Carter waited till the man turned, ran in quickly, and -plucked away his rifle. "And now," said he, "just let us -understand one another exactly before we go any further. -I'm standing quite all the risks from outside that I've -any use for just at present. If there's any shooting to be -done amongst ourselves, I prefer to do it myself. So first -of all let's hear your trouble." -</p> - -<p> -"In the first-a place I am not negro. I am European of -blood-a as pure as your own, an' far-a-more ancient." -</p> - -<p> -"If the apology I gave you just now doesn't cover that, -I'll apologize some more for calling you a nigger. -Furthermore, I didn't know that you claimed to be a gentleman, -not that gentility is any excuse for not carrying out one's -job here on the Coast." -</p> - -<p> -"Senhor, you are handsome. And I agree with you -that here in Africa we are all-a workmen, and must suffer -if the work-a is not well done." -</p> - -<p> -"Well," said Carter impatiently, "is that the lot? To -my simple British mind your reasons for wanting to shoot -me seem pretty thin so far. I suppose you are mad at -my basting you this morning, but if you think the circumstances -out coolly, I'm sure you'll see that we've women's -lives to think of here as well as our own, and by letting -the niggers you were overseeing scamp their work whilst -you were dreaming over a cigarette, you were risking the -safety of the fort." -</p> - -<p> -"Senhor, do you know of what-a I was dreaming?" -</p> - -<p> -"Private affairs probably, but anyway of something -immaterial." -</p> - -<p> -"Pardon, but I must tell-a you my dreaming. It was -of a woman's life I dreamed." -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed shortly. "I think you had better leave -it at that. It sticks in my mind that the three Portuguese -ladies in this factory at Mokki are all officially protected -by their lawful husbands, and I don't want to hear any -embarrassing confidences." -</p> - -<p> -"And may not a Portuguese gentleman, poor-a I grant -you, but still of good blood, give-a his affection to a lady -of another race?" -</p> - -<p> -A moon had lit up in the sky above, and under it Cartels -jaw looked of a sudden more square and grim than usual—at -least the other thought so. His tone, too, changed -from banter to something hard. "I decline to hear -another word on the matter. We will confine our dealings -with one another entirely to details of business, if you -please, Cascaes, and leave matters of sentiment alone. -Here is your gun. You say you are a gentleman, and I -believe you. That means you won't shoot me from behind, -or when I'm not armed equally with yourself. If -the necessity arrives for a turn-up on level terms, I'm your -man. Good-night." -</p> - -<p> -And so for that night they parted, each very much -misunderstanding the other. Once more the tired sentries -yawned at their posts, and the Europeans of the factory -retired to their beds, and the blacks to their sleeping mats; -but sleep for the rest of that hot, damp night was broken, -and no half-hour passed without a cry from some dreamer -which woke restless echoes from his neighbors. -</p> - -<p> -But with daylight the steady stream of merchandise, -which the factory was beginning to attract, recommenced. -The native traders of the hinterland had their hands full -of the stock that had been pouring in upon them ever -since the King of Okky had closed the roads to the old -Coast factories with which they were accustomed to deal, -and when the news spread, as it does spread in that -mysterious West Africa, that the white woman of Mokki -bought and sold in spite of the King's teeth, they were -only too ready to back her with their custom. The -merchants of that unknown back country are some of the -keenest traders on earth. -</p> - -<p> -Some came in single canoes through the gloom and -odors of uncharted muddy creeks, trusting to secrecy for -safe passage; others joined forces, and brought armed -flotillas of great sixty-man-power dugouts down the main -stream; others clubbed together into caravans, so strong -and so well-defended that even Kallee's truculent raiders -dared not cross the Okky marches to hold them up. So -marvellously accurate were the rumors that had spread -up country, that few of these keen merchants came into -Mokki without a grass basket full of spoiled specimens of -butterfly as a "dash" to propitiate the new trading power. -</p> - -<p> -Every day the influx of merchants increased, till at last -more came than the staff of the factory could deal with, -and they camped outside the fort awaiting their turn to -trade. Actually, a small native food market grew there to -supply them. Kate had lowered the price the factory paid -for every commodity, but still the bush merchants sold, and -were only too glad of the chance. Times they felt were -troublous; the shadow of the King of Okky hung over the -steaming forests, and they wished to get what they could -in European produce and be gone. At the Malla-Nulla, -the Monk, or the Smooth River factories they would not -have taken such prices; but the King of Okky had closed -the roads to these, and for business purposes they were -extinct. Nor would they have sold at such rates to the -Germans when they held Mokki. Keen business man -though he may be, the West African merchant is a creature -of whim; the German he defines as a "bush-Englishman," -which is a term of reproach; he distrusts both him -and his goods; and he will not trade with a German -factory on anything like the same terms he will accept from -the Briton, even though the Briton sell him German-made -goods. -</p> - -<p> -"We are doing such a tremendous business," said Carter -one day at the evening meal, "that presently we shall -strangle ourselves. We have used up all our own trade -stuff, and we have stripped the Smooth River factory and -Malla-Nulla, and pretty well emptied Burgoyne at Monk -River. I don't know how finances are?" -</p> - -<p> -"Tight," said Kate. -</p> - -<p> -"And yet we've got at the very least £8,500 in kernels, -palm oil, and high-grade rubber lying idle here. Moreover, -we've tapped an unexpected vein of ivory. I thought -at first that it was some small king's state reserve, some -hoard he'd got buried, under the bed of a stream perhaps, -which he wanted to realize on, and which would soon -come to an end. But it's not that, it's new stuff that's -been hunted within the last three years, and it's been -diverted, I really believe, from the Congo market. It's a -splendid line for us, but it will pinch out very promptly -if we once stop buying. I verily believe these natives can -telegraph a piece of commercial news half-way across -Africa in the inside of a week." -</p> - -<p> -"We are doing splendid business. -</p> - -<p> -"Of course, we've got the firm's Miss K. O'Neill here -on the spot, and hence the prosperity; but I wish we'd -got our Miss K. for just half a day at the Liverpool end -to diagnose that we're starving for a steamer. The fact is, -that greedy old scoundrel Cappie Image-me-lad looks -upon Mokki as his special private preserve, and he doesn't -intend to see any of the other skippers picking up his -cargo commission if he can avoid it." -</p> - -<p> -"Do you blame him?" said Kate. "I don't. But at -the same time I'm afraid Mokki factory can't wait each -time till Captain Image brings the <i>M'poso</i> on her round -trips from Liverpool. However, I sent a canoe off this -morning with a long cable which may ease matters." -</p> - -<p> -"You sent off a canoe? I don't know how I shall get -on without her crew." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I remembered how shorthanded you are, Mr. Manager, -but I've not piled more work onto you this time. -You recollect that tall Haûsa merchant with the one eye -who has been here for the last two days?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, Rotata." -</p> - -<p> -"I gave him the cable, and an order on Mr. Burgoyne -for £15, to be paid on delivery. Will you O.K. the -account?" -</p> - -<p> -"I guess," said Carter shortly, "that you are boss. But -if you'd told me you wanted to send a cable, I could have -arranged it for you." -</p> - -<p> -Kate looked at him steadily. "Why do you object to -my working for myself, Mr. Carter?" -</p> - -<p> -"Because I prefer to work for you. I'd work myself -to the bone for you, if you'd let me." -</p> - -<p> -"Why should you?" -</p> - -<p> -"Because I—well, it's natural enough, isn't it? If you -come to think of it, I am your paid employee." -</p> - -<p> -Kate still looked at him with a steady eye. "Of course -it is Laura that you are really working for." -</p> - -<p> -Carter cleared his throat. "Of course," he said. "Well, -if you and Laura will excuse me, I'll go into the other -room now and post up my books." He got up and walked -towards the mess-room door. -</p> - -<p> -Cascaes, who had been sitting at the other end of the -table with the Portuguese and their wives, got up, and -went towards the vacant place. But Carter turned at the -door and called him sharply. "I'm sorry to interrupt -further," he said, "but I want your valuable assistance, -Mr. Cascaes. So come along with me now." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap12"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XII -<br /> -EXHIBITS ANTISEPTICS -</h3> - -<p> -The night was hot, and steamy, and still. Even the -insect hum was pitched on a drowsy note. The darkness -seemed almost fat in its greasy heaviness. Two of the -sweating factory boys were playing tom-tom on upturned -kerosene cans, and a third was throwing in an erratic -obligato with two pieces of scrap iron for an instrument. -And from the river behind a pair of crocodiles made -unpleasant noises with irritating persistency. Carter thought, -too, that above the decay smell of the factory rubber store, -the stable smell of the Krooboys, the crushed-marigold -smell of the river, he could also catch the musky odor of -the crocodiles, and felt vaguely sickened thereby. -</p> - -<p> -"... Those last-a bags of kernels I have not got-a -weighed, senhor. I was weary, and so I go-a to change -and shave for dinner." -</p> - -<p> -"Why don't you shave in the morning, instead of carrying -a chin like a besom all through the day? I suppose, -as usual, you were going to weigh up those kernels -to-morrow?" -</p> - -<p> -"You are most indulgent, senhor." -</p> - -<p> -"I am nothing of the kind. Sufficient for the day is -the work thereof, and the man that puts it off till -to-morrow gets out of here. Like to hand in your -resignation?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, senhor, no." -</p> - -<p> -"Then go and weigh those kernels, one-time. Then -come back here and make up your books. D'ye think I'm -going to have my whole machinery of commerce held up -because you want to go and shave, and oil your head, and -put on clean whites and a crimson belly-band and -otherwise make yourself fetching for the benefit of Miss -O'Neill?" -</p> - -<p> -"Miss-a O'Neill?" said the Portuguese in surprise. "I -do not care a banana-skin——" -</p> - -<p> -"Here, don't try and fill me up," said Carter bluntly. -"And don't put on time. Take a lamp and go out and -weigh those kernels, and see you don't set the shed on fire, -and when you're through, and have posted your books, -come out and fetch me. I'm going to smoke a cigar out in -the open." -</p> - -<p> -"The dew-a is heavy. There is fever about." -</p> - -<p> -"Take your advice to the devil." -</p> - -<p> -"Which fever," said Cascaes, "I should have added, -if you had-a not interrupted me—which fever I hope you -will get." -</p> - -<p> -"That's all right. I like you dagos better when you -spit venom openly. Now, you hurry up and go through -those kernels, and see you get the weights right." -</p> - -<p> -The dew was thick on the grass in the clearing and -stood in sleek greasy drops on all the patches of bare -stamped earth. Moon and stars were all eclipsed. Even -the fireflies, although the dark would have given full value -to their manoeuvres, were absent. The unhealthy phosphorence -of rotting dead wood here and there was the only -illumination, except here and there a glow from a window -in the factory. -</p> - -<p> -Carter went out through a gate of the fort and walked -up and down with restless energy. He was wet to the -knees with dew; the damp Canary cigar between his teeth -had long since gone out; but he cared for no small -things like these. He kept repeating to himself that "a -man must play the game." "A man must play the game." -</p> - -<p> -And presently, when the tom-toms and the jangling iron -suggested some tune to his ear, he changed this to a jangle -which stated "I could—not love—thee dear—so much—loved -I—not hon—or more." And as the tune beat out -into the hot steamy night, so did the words keep time to -them with irritating repetition. -</p> - -<p> -Once he stopped and shook a fist at the invisible sky -above. "I am going to marry Laura," he declared, "if -she was ten times as black. I am going to marry her -though I know my father will never speak to me again, -and I can't take her home. I am going to marry her -though the heaven's fall. I am going to marry her for -one reason that can't be got over, and that is because I -said I would. A man must play the game. But my God! why -did I never guess that Kate was on earth somewhere?" -</p> - -<p> -There was an old cotton-wood stump in the clearing, -and he stood against it so thoughtful and still that he -became the object of attention of bats. He hit at them -angrily and recommenced his prowl. -</p> - -<p> -Hour after hour he tramped through the dripping grass, -biting against fate. Cascaes, who did not work unless he -was driven, had long since checked his tally of kernels, -and gone to bed. The factory lamps had one by one gone -out. The night noises of the forest that hemmed them in -were in full swing. His thin clothes were sodden with -the damp, and by every law of Africa he was gathering -unto himself the seeds of disease. But still he tramped on, -in and out amongst the huts and litter, wrestling with his -misery. -</p> - -<p> -The thing which in the end lifted him out of this -unhealthy pit of self-pity was commonplace enough in its -way. As he was passing a small rude shelter of boughs -and thatch, there came to his ears a very unmistakable -human groan. -</p> - -<p> -It was a temporary hut run up by some trader who was -waiting his turn to do business at the factory, and the -groan was of that timbre which told that it was wrenched -from a strong man by deadly pain. At another time -Carter would probably have passed on. One grows callous to -suffering in West Africa, and to interfere with a sick -native seldom brings thanks and very frequently produces -complications. But something just then moved him to -play the Samaritan. -</p> - -<p> -He put his head through the entrance and peered into -the darkness. "Well," he said, "who's here, and what's -the matter?" -</p> - -<p> -A voice replied in stately Haûsa, "O, Effendi, I am -close upon death, and it is hard to die far from one's own -lands and people." -</p> - -<p> -"Let's have a look at you," said Carter, in what he knew -of the same tongue, eked out with Kroo and Okky. He -scraped a damp and reluctant match. "Holy Christopher! -What have you been doing to your thigh?" -</p> - -<p> -"As I marched along the road to here, a leopard sprang -and seized me, but the men that were with me speared him, -and so I escaped with my life. They made a litter, and -on it carried me to this place. And here they left me in -the hands of Allah, whilst they followed up their own -private affairs." -</p> - -<p> -"But, man, the wound's alive. Why didn't you have it -dressed?" -</p> - -<p> -"It was written that the wound should be as it is." -</p> - -<p> -"Rot. You stay here another ten minutes or so till I -get the tackle, and then I will clean it out for you." -</p> - -<p> -"Effendi, it is written that Allah sent the things that -are in the wound, and with due submission I will not have -them touched." -</p> - -<p> -"Hum," said Carter, "now this requires argument. -You savvy Constantinople? I mean I'Stamboul?" -</p> - -<p> -"There lives the Kaleef, the chief of the Faithful of -Islam." -</p> - -<p> -"You've got it in once. Now, are you keeping yourself -posted in the Sultan's—that is the Kaleef's latest readings -of the Koran? You are not. I can see you have let yourself -get thoroughly behind the times. What's your name?" -</p> - -<p> -"Ali ben Hossein." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, Ali, I know what's the matter with you spiritually. -You've been thinking too much of the things of -this life—fighting, trading and so on. You've spread your -mat and faced Mecca, and said your daily prayer in a -formal sort of way, but you've been neglecting the moolah. -You have been lax in your attendance at mosque, and for -a fiver you aren't half the man at the Koran you used to -be." -</p> - -<p> -"The Effendi is very wise." -</p> - -<p> -"I am. I can't help it." -</p> - -<p> -"He has hit upon this Believer's sin." -</p> - -<p> -"Dead on the spot. So now let's get to the point. In -your ignorance, you believe that Allah sent all those -crawling horrors that are in your wound?" -</p> - -<p> -"For His own wise purposes He sent them. Allah can -do no wrong." -</p> - -<p> -"You are mixing up theological facts. Allah can do no -wrong. But what about Sheitan?" -</p> - -<p> -"I spit upon his name, O Effendi," said Ali ben -Hossein, and did it. -</p> - -<p> -"Hear now then the pronouncement of the Kaleef Abdul -Hamed of I'Stamboul. The unclean things that haunt -the wounds of the Faithful are no longer sent by Allah -as a test of Faith. They are sent now by Sheitan as a -torment to True Believers, and as an antidote, the Prophet, -through the Kaleef, has sent a liquid of his own devising, -of which by a happy chance I have a portion in the -factory." -</p> - -<p> -"Is it green in color?" -</p> - -<p> -"Green as the skirts of the houris of Paradise," said -Carter, and thanked heaven for a small parcel of aniline -dyes (green amongst them) which had been sent by an -enterprising Bradford dyeware merchant, to the order of a -dyer in far off Kano. -</p> - -<p> -"Then," said Ali ben Hossein simply, "if you, O -Effendi, can relieve me from the torments of Sheitan, from -which I am suffering, I and my sons will remember your -name in the fullest gratitude. Have you the holy liquid -here?" -</p> - -<p> -"Not in my pocket, O Ali ben Hossein, for I am not a -djinn. But there is a medicine chest up at the factory, -and within it is a bottle of crystal, blue in color, in which -are tabloids which bear the giaour name of perchloride of -mercury. They and the aniline green may take a bit of -finding, but presently when I've got a solution made, and -tinted to a True Believer's taste, I will return here and -work upon you that cure of which I am sure that the -Kaleef Abdul would approve if he'd a thigh as bad as -yours, and had ever heard of an antiseptic dressing. So -see to it that you don't slip through the gates of Paradise -whilst I am gone. D'you understand? The houris won't -look twice at a Haûsa with a leg as worm-eaten as yours." -</p> - -<p> -Now, Carter gathered from a casual inspection by two -damp matches that ben Hossein's thigh was pretty bad, -but he had not made allowance for the toughness of a -water-drinking, spare-eating Moslem. When he came back -with a parrafin lamp, followed by White-Man's-Trouble, -who carried a bowl of warm water and other things, and -commenced his amateur surgery, he was amazed, and he -was sickened. Like most traders in the West Coast -factories, he had acquired through almost daily practice a -certain deftness in cleansing and repairing wounds; but -here in the thigh of this great muscular Haûsa was a -grid of gashes whose untended horrors went far beyond -all his previous experience. -</p> - -<p> -The fact that the man had not bled to death, or died -of shock at the first impact, and the further fact that he -had withstood the attacks of all the abominable live things -that preyed thereafter upon his open flesh, were a -wonderful testimonial to his constitutional toughness; and the -detail that in spite of his fortitude he went clammy and -limp when Carter commenced dressing the wounds, was -only what could be expected. But it seemed that five days -had elapsed since the man had been brought in and left, -and during that time the other merchants outside the fort, -with the ordinary callousness of Africans for one another, -had neither brought him food nor reported his calamity. -On the other hand, they had stolen his goods and gone -their ways, otherwise non-interferent. And as a consequence -the man was three parts starved when Carter found -him and had his vitality perilously lowered. -</p> - -<p> -Carter had, perhaps, as has been stated, much of the -West Coast trader's callousness for the native, but he -certainly had all of the surgeon's interest in a patient. After -he had dressed the wounds he tried his best to bring -his patient back to consciousness, and then for the first -time only did he realize how near to the Borderland the -man had crept. He sent White-Man's-Trouble flying this -way and that on his errands, and with all the limited -knowledge in his power fought Death for the Haûsa's life -till the fatal hour of dawn was well past. -</p> - -<p> -And so he was found by Miss O'Neill at 5 A.M., white, -shaken and black-eyed, attired in stained and sodden -clothes, squatting in a miserable hutch that reeked of -iodoform, and welcoming with joy Ali ben Hossein's ungracious -return to a world he had so nearly left. -</p> - -<p> -Miss O'Neill regarded him for awhile with a pinched -lip, and then "I think you are perfectly disgraceful," said -she. "At least you might have let me know what you -were doing, so that I could have come to help part of the -time." -</p> - -<p> -Carter blinked at her for a moment with tired brown -eyes and then pulled himself together. "I beg your -pardon for not doing as you wished. But I didn't know that -you were interested in niggers, if there was no chance of -making a dividend out of them. I rather looked upon -this as an out-of-office-hours job; as a piece of private -amusement of my own, in fact, and so I did not dare to -repeat it." -</p> - -<p> -"Well," said Kate, seating herself beside the sick man, -"perhaps I was hateful to you after supper, indeed I'll -admit that I was. But you are being far more hateful to -me now, and as that should tickle your vanity as a man, -perhaps you'll be generous enough to call it quits. Trouble, -will you kindly take Mr. Carter back to the factory and -give him a large dose of quinine and all the hot, scalding -tea he will drink, and then put him to bed, and see to it -that there are no insects inside his mosquito bar." -</p> - -<p> -"I fit," said the Krooboy. "An' I got bottle of White -man's medicine dat I pinch from dem Cappie Image. I -give dem Carter a drink of him." -</p> - -<p> -"You will do nothing of the sort. Dem Cappie Image -patent medicine plenty bad ju-ju for Mr. Carter. So you -will do exactly as I ordered you. Ah, and here's Laura. -Now, my dear, if you don't want the man to whom you're -engaged to die before you marry him, you'd better look -after him and his health very narrowly. There, get away -out of this, the pair of you, and make up your silly -quarrel, whatever it may be." -</p> - -<p> -"But, Kate, George and I have no quarrel. Why, it -was you——" -</p> - -<p> -"If you haven't a quarrel, my dear, invent one, if it's -only for the amusement of making it up. I'm told it's -one of the chief luxuries of an engagement. Now, please -go, or you'll disturb Hossein. Hossein's the man who -wants attention here, and I can't have you bothering about -the place till he's better." -</p> - -<p> -Hossein was in fact the lucky man. Miss O'Neill, for -reasons best known to herself, nursed him in person; -Carter retained his interest as original discoverer; -White-Man's-Trouble fussed round him because it was the -popular thing to do, and Laura was also diligent in her -attendance on the sick room for reasons well-known to -herself. -</p> - -<p> -But Ali ben Hossein had all a Moslem gentleman's -diffidence with women, and he said little enough to either -Laura or Kate; the Krooboy was his caste inferior, and -he spoke to him only to give curt orders; and it was to -Carter alone that he was communicative. -</p> - -<p> -His native tongue was Haûsa, of course, but he had -been a trader all his life, and that in West Africa entails -a knowledge of languages. Carter knew little enough of -Haûsa, but he was handy with Okky and sound on Kroo, -and so when one vocabulary failed him, he passed on to -another, and was generally understood. Thus, by very -rapid degrees an intimacy grew between them, to as far -an extent as the color barrier would permit. -</p> - -<p> -They talked on weapons and they talked on war; they -talked of sport as each of them understood it; they talked -on horse-breeding as it was practised in Kano and Sokoto, -and also of horse-breeding as it was carried on in the -Craven district and the Yorkshire dales. -</p> - -<p> -Carter tried without any success whatever to make -Hossein understand the humor of the battle of the roses as -it was waged between his father and mother in the Yorkshire -vicarage; the Haûsa in his turn gave the light side -of a slave-hunting raid, and made Carter's flesh creep. -</p> - -<p> -They had abundant interests in common, too, in the -romance of commerce, and discussed regretfully the decay -of ivory and the sensational rise of rubber. Carter as the -paid servant of O'Neill and Craven tried to hear of -rubber lands which could be bought and resold to an English -company, but Ali ben Hossein was emphatic in his refusal -to help a white immigration onto the acres of his fatherland. -</p> - -<p> -"Let us talk as traders, oh Effendi. Do not ask me -to be the traitor who will make smooth the path for the -invader. And for the present I bid you to consider this -shortage in the supply of pink kola nuts. Now, the white -kola nuts, which have not that dryness which is demanded -by the palates of the Western Soudan, we can get from -Lagos and the Coast factories in larger quantities than -ever. But the growers declare the crop of pink nuts to be -practically a failure this year, and therein I say they lie." -</p> - -<p> -And so on, with matter which had too technical a flavor -to carry general interest. -</p> - -<p> -Now, the leopard had clawed Ali ben Hossein's thigh -grievously, and the subsequent neglect of the wound had -been abominable, but the man had been a clean liver and -his toughness was great. In ten days he could hobble, -and in a fortnight announced his departure. -</p> - -<p> -"I am a merchant without merchandise, Effendi, and -must needs be back about my affairs. If I do not gather -them into my hands again another will." -</p> - -<p> -"I'd stand you tick to the extent of a dozen loads of -goods if I had 'em," said Carter cordially, "but as you've -seen for yourself, the factory's cleaned out. And Allah -knows when the next steamer will drive in." -</p> - -<p> -"May your tribe increase, Effendi. I have had too much -at your hands already. But though no money may pass -over what you have done, yet I ask you to accept a gift, -that is a mere token." -</p> - -<p> -It was a piece of gray stone which sprouted with rich -brown crystals. It was shaped like a squat duck, some inch -and a half long, and Ali ben Hossein wore it alongside -the little leather parcel which held a verse of the Koran -and hung by a thong from his neck. -</p> - -<p> -"O Effendi, you are young, and that will bring you -pleasure more than could be bought with ten quills of -gold. Wear that, and your grief will fade." -</p> - -<p> -"Poof!" said Carter, "I've no griefs." -</p> - -<p> -Ali ben Hossein waved aside the statement with a long -slim hand, the hand of the Haûsa swordsman for whose -narrow grip Central African armorers make sword hilts -that no grown Englishman can use. "O Effendi, my -sickness was of the leg. Neither my eyes nor my ears were -touched by the leopard, and since I lay here I have both -seen and heard. There is a woman that I have watched, -a woman with brown hair that has in it the glint of -copper. She flaunts you now, as is the way of women with -those they love; but she is the one you desire, and -presently (having this charm) you will take her to wife. -Indeed, she will come to your house without purchase and -of free will." -</p> - -<p> -"You mistake," said Carter with a sigh. "It is the -black-haired one that I am contracted to marry." -</p> - -<p> -Ben Hossein smiled. He was not to be turned from his -idea by a small argument like that. "You may take her -as the lesser wife, but I know who will rule your harem, -Effendi." -</p> - -<p> -"You polygamous old scoundrel! I beg your pardon, -ben Hossein, but you're on the wrong tack, and so please -let us change the subject. This charm, this duck, is made -of what we call tin-stone. Does it come from Haûsaland?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, Effendi. It is found nearer to here than the -Haûsa country. There is a great island of red twisted -stone that rears itself up out of the bush, and this stone -that the duck is made of lies amongst it. There is no -value in the charm as a stone, but only value in its shape, -which is that of a duck as you see, Effendi. Half the -twisted mountain is made of that stone, and the river that -runs along its base at times eats into it." -</p> - -<p> -"How far is it from here?" -</p> - -<p> -"Twelve—no, thirteen marches. Look, I will spread -this sand upon the floor and draw you the roads.... -But the country is evil, Effendi, and though you go there -and spend a lifetime in search, yet will you not find -another stone formed like a duck. To get this, my grandfather -sent a hundred slaves who raked amongst the screes -for a year." -</p> - -<p> -"This is tin-ore," said Carter, "and I tell you frankly, -ben Hossein, that there is a fortune in what you have told -me." -</p> - -<p> -"I wish," said ben Hossein gravely, "that there were -ten fortunes, and so I could perhaps repay one-tithe of -what I owe to you, Effendi. May Allah be with you. I go -now back towards my people, and if Allah will, we shall -meet again." -</p> - -<p> -"Now, this stone and this tale must go to Kate," said -Carter to himself, and went in towards the factory and up -the stairs to the veranda. Kate came out of the mess room -to meet him, and waved a cablegram. -</p> - -<p> -"I have just de-coded it," she cried exultingly. "They -have accepted my terms." -</p> - -<p> -"I wish you would de-code the 'they.'" -</p> - -<p> -"The German firm that owned Mokki before we came." -</p> - -<p> -"What, the people you bought it from?" -</p> - -<p> -She nodded. -</p> - -<p> -"But why on earth sell it back to them?" -</p> - -<p> -"Because, my dear Mr. Carter, they are going to give -me £9,000 for the produce we have collected, and another -£8,000 for the fort and the good-will of the business. -How's that? £17,000 cash against a £1,500 outlay in three -months. That's better than staying out here in West -Africa." -</p> - -<p> -Carter had been carrying the duck in his hand. He -put it into his pocket. "I don't wonder you're exultant. -I suppose no other girl on earth ever made a coup like -that. And as for us here at the factory, that means our -occupation's gone?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I hope you'll go back to Malla-Nulla, where you -were, and work for us there." -</p> - -<p> -"I think not. As you're going home, and I cannot be -of any immediate use to O'Neill and Craven, I prefer to -leave the firm's employ if you'll let me?" -</p> - -<p> -"We shall be really sorry to lose you. But perhaps -you have something better in view?" -</p> - -<p> -"To tell the truth, I have. And it strikes me if I'm to -make a fortune, I must look out for it myself." -</p> - -<p> -"I quite agree with you," said Kate. "What was that -you were going to show me? The thing you put in your -pocket, I mean?" -</p> - -<p> -"A keepsake that was given me. It's a charm, a ju-ju -that will bring fortune to somebody, and I was going to -give it to you. But on your own recommendation I shall -keep it for myself." -</p> - -<p> -"You are quite right. It will be safer for us to go our -own several ways from here." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap13"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XIII -<br /> -AT THE LIVERPOOL END -</h3> - -<p> -Now, Godfrey O'Neill, deceased, was a man who at various -times in his life had extracted from West Africa very -considerable sums of money. He was shrewd, he was -popular, he had the knack of resisting sickly climates, and -he knew the possibilities of the Oil Rivers seaboard down -to the last bag of kernels. -</p> - -<p> -According to his own account he had started life as a -ship's purser. People who were more fond of accuracy -mentioned that as a matter of history he had first gone -as cabin-boy in a palm oil brig. But be that as it may, -he had been associated with the Coast from his earliest -days, and at the age of five-and-twenty was trading there -on his own account. -</p> - -<p> -At first he stuck to an old trading hulk with moorings -in the muddy Monk River and battled with its swarms -of cockroaches and got together a business; but by degrees -he gained the confidence of the native riparian magnates, -and by the time he was thirty he had built on piles a fine -set of factory buildings on the bank, had bought a treaty -with the then King of Okky, and had built another factory -at Malla-Nulla in spite of the fact that the beach -there was one of the most surf-smitten on the Coast. After -that he felt that his Liverpool correspondents were getting -more than their due share of his hard-wrung profits, and -so he put the Coast factories under managers and came -back to the Mersey. And thereafter, with occasional visits -to the Coast and the Islands, he made Liverpool his -headquarters. -</p> - -<p> -He had an office in Water Street, a warehouse near -Huskisson Dock, and a house furnished with mid-Victorian -solidity and ugliness out at Princes' Park. A sister, -Mrs. Craven, whose unsatisfactory husband had conveniently -died on the Coast, kept house for him, and as she voted -marriage a failure, Godfrey professed himself as quite -ready to take her verdict and was not anxious to dabble in -dangerous experiments. -</p> - -<p> -Finally, as Godfrey O'Neill discovered, after a two years' -trial of the style of living that suited him at Princes' Park, -that it cost him just £900 a year, he saw very little use -in bestirring himself to earn more. He quite admitted that -there were other luxuries in the world that he did not -indulge in. He might have kept horses, for instance; but -he happened to dislike them. He might have had a French -chef; only plain roast beef and plain roast mutton -appealed more to his appetite, and a plain British cook at -£20 a year produced these exactly to his taste. He might -have had a larger house, but frankly he did not want one. -</p> - -<p> -So he went down to the office in Water Street every -other day, and ceased to stir the business there when it -showed any signs of averaging a more than £1,500 profit -for any one year, not because he objected to additional -wealth, but because he far preferred to play whist to -pursuing money. One may here own freely that Godfrey -O'Neill was an active member of no less than five whist -quartettes which met at clubs and houses, and there was -the amusement which after long search he had discovered -pleased him best. -</p> - -<p> -In the comfortable ugly house in Princes' Park, besides -Godfrey and Mrs. Craven, and the two servants, there was -a child who afterwards developed into the Kate O'Neill of -these memoirs. Godfrey O'Neill brought her home on the -last visit he made to West Africa. She was then aged, -at a theoretical reckoning, three years, and she was more -fluent in the Okky tongue than in English. She had -never worn shoes till Godfrey bought her a pair in Las -Palmas on the voyage home. -</p> - -<p> -"Is she white?" Mrs. Craven had asked. -</p> - -<p> -"White, clean through," Godfrey had assured her. -</p> - -<p> -"Then who are her people?" -</p> - -<p> -"That I shall not tell even you. Her mother is dead. -Her father has gone under. He was a very clever man -once, though I must say he used to be more high and -mighty than I cared about on the rare occasions that I met -him. But, as I say, he's gone under, hopelessly." -</p> - -<p> -"And presently," said Mrs. Craven, "when we get this -little wild thing tamed, and clothed, and teach her to -speak English and go to church, up will come some -drunken reprobate to take her away again." -</p> - -<p> -"No, he won't. I've fixed that. He'll never claim her -again. To start with he doesn't know if she's in England, -or Canada, or Grand Canary. I even changed the name -he called her by. I called her Kate from the day I left -him, and had her christened by that name in Sierra Leone -on the off chance she hadn't been christened before. And -to go on with, he gave me his word of honor that if I -took her away, he'd never embarrass me by inquiring for -her again. You see, he was living as a native, and the -child was running about with the other pickaninnies in the -village, and I guess I made him pretty well ashamed of -himself by what I said. The mother's dead, you know." -</p> - -<p> -"Poof," said Mrs. Craven, "he promised you, did he? -And what do you suppose the word of a man like that is -worth?" (The late Craven had, it will be remembered, -his strong failings.) -</p> - -<p> -"Ninety-nine beach combers out of a hundred will lie -as soon as look at you," Godfrey owned. "This one is -the exception. He will keep his word, at any rate on this -matter. He's just as proud as a king." -</p> - -<p> -"Between drinks," suggested the widow. -</p> - -<p> -"He's more objectionably proud drunk than sober. He -always quotes Latin at one when he's full, and then says, -'Ah, but you've not been to school anywhere, so you'll not -understand that.' You needn't be frightened he'll call here, -Jane. Just remember I'm a man with a taste for ease -myself. If I'd thought there was the smallest chance of -being bothered with him, I shouldn't have saddled myself -with the kid." -</p> - -<p> -"Well," said Mrs. Craven, "as you have brought her, -I suppose we must do the best we can for her. The average -orphanage doesn't take them till they are six, but I -suppose if we hunt round we can find some sort of -institution which will accept three-year-olds." -</p> - -<p> -"Orphanage, h'm. You see, Jane, I was thinking we -might keep her ourselves. I am sure we could look after -her." -</p> - -<p> -"I object to the word 'we,'" said Mrs. Craven dryly. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I suppose most of the work would fall on your -shoulders." -</p> - -<p> -"I am sure of it." -</p> - -<p> -"Come along, old lady, don't you think you can manage -it? Kitty isn't a bad sort of kid. Y'know, I saw a -goodish deal of her on the steamer coming home." -</p> - -<p> -"I thought you gave her in charge of a steward?" -</p> - -<p> -"I never told you that." -</p> - -<p> -Mrs. Craven laughed. "You see, I know your little -ways—'Steward, here's a girl for you. If you nursery-maid -the kid nicely till we get to Liverpool, and don't let -me see more of her than I want, and don't let her come -in and prattle when I'm playing whist with Captain Image, -there'll be another quid for you when we land. After -that my sister will take her over, and she won't want a tip -at all.'" -</p> - -<p> -"H'm," said Godfrey, "now, diamonds aren't in your line." -</p> - -<p> -"I wouldn't be seen with one. I'll take a brown cloth -gown, please." -</p> - -<p> -"Shall I order it?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, you can pay the bill." -</p> - -<p> -"Right-o. Then you will take Kitty and bring her up -here?" -</p> - -<p> -"You stupid goose," said Mrs. Craven, "I intended -that from the moment I saw her. Cook's out buying her -a cot this minute." -</p> - -<p class="thought"> -***** -<br /> -</p> - -<p> -Here then was the way that Kate first came into the -house at Princes' Park. She arrived without a surname, -and Godfrey, in spite of hints and plain questions, kept -back any further pedigree. The child arranged a name -for herself. When she had been a year in England she -went out to a small folks' party: -</p> - -<p> -"Let me see, what's your name?" asked the hostess, -who had got tangled up among her many small guests. -</p> - -<p> -The child had answered "Kate O'Neill," as a matter of -course. She had called Mrs. Craven, Aunt Jane, and her -brother Uncle Godfrey from the first, and after that -juvenile party she was introduced as "my niece, Kate -O'Neill." -</p> - -<p> -As she grew, anything to do with West Africa and with -business fascinated her, and curiously enough her -principal instructor in these matters was Mrs. Craven. -Godfrey, honest man, was not going to be bothered. His -repartee when Kate asked him anything about the Coast -was, "Go and invite some one to come in and let's make up -a rubber of whist." When one day he died, and left Kate -the O'Neill and Craven business, both she and her aunt -supposed he had done it as an effort of humor. -</p> - -<p> -Mrs. Craven had the house and furniture at Princes' -Park, and a comfortable annuity to keep it up on. Kate -came into a business that had been thoroughly neglected, -and allowed to run down till it was in a very shaky -position, indeed, financially. -</p> - -<p> -"Sell it," said Mrs. Craven, "for what it will fetch." -</p> - -<p> -"I'd rather run it myself," said Kate. -</p> - -<p> -"Rubbish," said her aunt; "you're twenty, and the -world's before you to enjoy. Besides, my dear, you're sure -to marry. Sell the business." -</p> - -<p> -"If you want plain facts, aunt, I don't see why anyone -should give sixpence for it, and if we tried to wind it up, -it would mean bankruptcy. Some of the money's a very -long way out." -</p> - -<p> -"Your poor Uncle Godfrey intended to leave you -comfortably off, I know." -</p> - -<p> -"And I'm pleased to think he died believing he had -done so. They had the quaintest way of keeping books -down at Water Street. Cutting notches on a tally-stick -was nothing to some of their dodges. They hadn't struck -a proper balance sheet for years, and both Uncle Godfrey -and Mr. Crewdson really and honestly imagined that the -firm was flourishing." -</p> - -<p> -"You sell," said Mrs. Craven. -</p> - -<p> -"Not I, aunt. Uncle Godfrey left me the concern believing -it to be a small fortune for me, and a fortune I'm -going to make out of it, and not a small one, either." -</p> - -<p> -"I don't believe in business women," said Mrs. Craven -severely. "I'd rather see a womanly woman." -</p> - -<p> -"My dear," said Kate, "you shall see the two combined -in me presently. I'm going to make a ve-ry large and -extensive fortune; but the moment you see anything -unfeminine about me, I want you to tell me, and I'll sell -out forthwith." -</p> - -<p> -Thereafter from eight o'clock A.M. to six-thirty P.M. for -five days a week Kate sat in an inner room of the -Water Street office, with the ancient Crewdson as a buffer -between her and the world. She came into the place with -a talent for figures, and a good general idea of the -business, and she set herself first to the conversion of -Mr. Crewdson. -</p> - -<p> -That worthy old person was entirely of opinion that -what was good enough for poor Mr. Godfrey was quite -good enough for anybody else, and (when pressed) said so -with unfriendly plainness. A man, in Kate's shoes, would -have dismissed him, and brought in younger blood. Kate -preferred conversion. She knew that there was a great -quarry of information on matters West African stowed -beneath Mr. Crewdson's dull exterior, and she intended -to dig at it. So she reduced his wages, which he quite -agreed with her the firm could not afford, and then, -unasked, offered him a fine commission on the next year's -profits. It was curious to see how soon she galvanized -him into an opinion that these profits must certainly be -forthcoming. -</p> - -<p> -She laid in a typewriter, burned the office quills, wrote -the firm's letters, signed them <i>For O'Neill and Craven, -K. O'Neill</i>, and before she knew it had created a personality. -Ten callers a day—captains, pursers, traders, -merchants—wanted to shake hands with "your new head, -Mr. K.," and went away with the idea that old Crewdson had -suddenly developed capacity, and on the strength of it had -stood himself a new signature. -</p> - -<p> -On Saturdays, during the summer, Miss O'Neill caught -butterflies, and in the winter played golf. On Sunday -morning she went to church. On Sunday afternoons and -evenings she had something very nearly approaching a -salon. On these latter occasions Mrs. Craven flattered -herself that she brought success by her artistic attention -to the commissariat. -</p> - -<p> -Now, the girl was attractive to men, and although she -was emphatically a girl's girl, still she had as many friends -of one sex as the other. She was good-looking, she was -amusing, she was always well turned out, and she carried -about with her that indescribable charm (above and -beyond these other matters) which always makes people -desirous of warming up a first acquaintance into intimacy. -</p> - -<p> -To one man only had she shown any special degree of -preference, and he was enough encouraged thereby to -propose marriage to her. -</p> - -<p> -She accepted him—provisionally. -</p> - -<p> -"I am not absolutely certain that I wish to be married -just yet," she told him, "but I am going abroad now, -and I will let you know definitely when I return. Those -are not nice terms, but they are the best I can offer. I -have always been able to give a 'yes' or 'no' decision -on every other matter in life so far. But here I can't. It -is weak of me. Perhaps it is merely womanly." -</p> - -<p> -"You are exquisite in your womanliness, as you are exquisite -in everything else," he had replied. "I am grateful -for any bone of comfort you throw me, Kitty dear." -</p> - -<p> -She was going away then to West Africa, as has been -related above, and the man saw her off from the landing -stage. She returned the waving of his handkerchief. -"Now, if you had abused me for my indecision, and said -you would either be engaged or not engaged, I believe I'd -have married you out of hand if you'd wanted me. But -you didn't seem able to clinch things, and so anyhow -you're pigeon-holed for the present. I'm glad I made you -keep our little matter secret." -</p> - -<p> -The man's name was Austin. Many times during the -voyage south through the Bay, and down the Trades from -the Islands, Kate told herself she ought to announce the -fact that she was engaged. But on every occasion her -femininity got up in arms. "Certainly not," said this -intangible force. "Mr. Austin is a man, and if he cares -to be a man and gossip, why let him. But a woman by -reason of her sex is not called upon to say more than she -needs." So Kate held her tongue, and regretted more -and more every day that—well—that she should have cause -for regrets. -</p> - -<p> -When she got back to England, a day ahead of time, -Aunt Jane happened to be in London, but Austin had a -wire from Point Lynas and was there on the landing stage -to meet her. He wanted to kiss her there before the world, -but she had the advantage of height, and avoided him -skilfully and without advertisement. Their subsequent -handshake was somewhat of a failure. -</p> - -<p> -"Hullo, Henry," said Miss O'Neill, "fancy seeing you -here. I suppose you will try and make out you came down -here to the landing stage on purpose to meet me? How -abominably hot Liverpool is, and how atrociously the -Mersey smells after that nice clean Smooth River. Have you -caught me any butterflies? I've brought four cases full -home from the Coast, and I honestly believe I've got two -unnamed specimens. If they turn out new, I shall christen -one after myself—something O'Neillii. There's vanity for -you! And now for the Customs House." -</p> - -<p> -"Is that all you have to say to me, Kitty? I've been -just hungry all the time to see you again. I don't think -a single hour of a single day has passed but what I have -thought of you, and where you were, and what you were -doing." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, Henry, that's more than I could say. Here, -wait till I catch that porter's eye. He's taking my cabin -trunk to the wrong heap. About what was in my head -between here and the Coast, I'll not say, but once out there, -I'll tell you frankly I gave little enough thought to -anything except Coast interests. The first place I went ashore -at after Sierra Leone was our own factory at Smooth, -and they'd had a fight there which only ended up when -our whistle blew. The clearing between the factory -buildings and the forest was full of dead men. I found out -that no fewer than 800 Okky savages had attacked the -place, and they were all held off by one of our clerks with -a couple of Winchesters, and a half-caste girl who loaded -for him. It sounds like a tale out of a book, and you -needn't believe it unless you like; I don't think I should -believe it unless I had seen things for myself, but I did see -the men who had been actually shot when they tried to -rush the place, and I can guarantee the truth of the story." -</p> - -<p> -"Don't tell me there's a romance between you and your -clerk." -</p> - -<p> -"There wasn't room for one. He was engaged to the -heroine already, and was as consistently rude to me as he -knew how. But I don't mind telling you he was a -magnificent fellow. He was a gentleman, too, which is rather -a rare thing to find on the Coast. But you're letting me -do all the talk. You haven't told me about yourself. What -have you been doing?" -</p> - -<p> -"The usual work of a busy solicitor; getting new clients, -and sticking to the old ones. I can report good, steady -success, Kitty. We can start pretty comfortably." -</p> - -<p> -A Customs searcher put his usual questions, and Kate -smiled on him and said she had nothing to declare. He -scrawled a chalk hieroglyphic on all her property without -opening a single piece. "There, look, Henry, stop that -porter. He's taking a case of mine to the wrong cab. -Thanks, I wouldn't have lost that case for a king's ransom." -</p> - -<p> -"Butterflies?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, a native war horn in ivory." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, they're fairly common." -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, but a friend gave me this, and I want to keep -it. There, I think that's the lot. Good-by, Henry. You'll -come and see me at Princes' Park when I'm settled down -again?" -</p> - -<p> -"But, Kitty, can't I drive out with you now? I'd so -looked forward to driving back with you. There's plenty -of room in the cab." -</p> - -<p> -"No," said Kate, "I'd rather you went home now, and -thought over again what I'm like now that I've come back -to England with a West Coast flavor. I know you'll -disapprove of me as a possible wife, but I do hope you'll see -your way of keeping me on the list of your friends. -Nobody knows you ever suggested anything more, unless you -have told them, and I don't see why they should know. -But I'm more than ever convinced that I'm not the girl -to make you the wife you deserve. Don't answer me now, -there's a nice boy. Just go to the club and have a good -dinner, and ring me up some time this evening and say -you thoroughly agree with me." -</p> - -<p> -Mrs. Craven came back that evening from London and -Kate told her of West Africa happenings with a fine -wealth of detail. -</p> - -<p> -The old lady looked at her very narrowly and when she -had finished, "Yes, my dear," said she, "and now are -you going to tell me something that will interest me far -more than all that?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, Aunt, I think you have got the pith of it." -</p> - -<p> -"If you won't tell, you won't. But you must remember, -Kitty dear, I have known you and nursed you ever since -you were a tiny child, and you can't change—as you have -done—without my noticing it. Now, this Mr. Carter——" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, I did forget to tell you that he's got frightfully -red hair." -</p> - -<p> -"You say he's engaged to Laura Slade?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oppressively so." -</p> - -<p> -"But is he going to marry her?" -</p> - -<p> -"How can I tell, Aunt?" -</p> - -<p> -"Who is he going to marry, Kitty dear?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap14"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XIV -<br /> -TIN HILL: THE JOURNEY -</h3> - -<p> -Now, lead-mining has been stopped in Upper Wharfedale -these thirty years, but still a boy who has been -brought up in a village there may well have some general -knowledge of ores and the methods of getting them. The -mining first began in those dim British days before the -Romans came, and it has continued on down through the -centuries till the influx of foreign lead brought prices -below £25 a ton, and the mines could not be worked at a -profit. -</p> - -<p> -Raw dumps and grass-covered dumps are traceable on -every hand, and though the older tunnels are obliterated, -there are still enough shafts and drifts and adits to be -found in the gray stone hills to occupy many months' -exploration. -</p> - -<p> -George Carter had heard of the past glories of lead -from his earliest years, and old residents pointed to the -ruined cottages that were filled and flourishing when the -village held 500 people who lived by the mines, instead of -the 200 who dwelt there now and made a lean living out -of a little limp farming. With pockets stuffed with candle-ends -he had splashed into the old levels and wandered for -miles in the heart of the limestone hills and hacked with -rusty pickheads at forgotten working faces; he had raked -amongst the old ruined machinery beside the dumps; he -had studied the run of the water races, and as far as a -man with a natural engineering bent may reconstruct -these things from memorials of the past, he had done so -most thoroughly, and, in the old unscientific way, was as -good a miner as any of those blue-gummed ruffians of the -past, and that without even having seen a lead mine in -real work. -</p> - -<p> -Tin-stone he had seen in a not very well-equipped school -museum; a tin mine he knew only from an old book on -Cornwall, which treated that country more from the -picturesque point of view than the mechanical or the scientific. -</p> - -<p> -But the thing that had fired his mind one baking day at -Malla-Nulla was a newspaper paragraph which spoke of -the price of tin. Up till then, like the majority of the -human race, he had not troubled his head as to whether -tin was £5 a ton or £50. But here he saw that it had -gone up to no less a figure than £207 10s. per ton. He -wished he could find a tin mine, but concluding he might -as well search that particular part of steamy West Africa -for great auk's eggs, went no further than framing the -wish. -</p> - -<p> -Then came the happenings at Mokki, and Ali ben Hossein's -parting gift of the little gray stone duck which had -unmistakable brown tin crystals for its head, its wings -and its feet, and on the top of all arrived Kate's cablegram. -A sweating operator had read that message from -under sea, as it winked out in a darkened cable hut; -runners had carried the curt words along roaring beaches, -paddlers had borne them by canoe up muddy creeks, a -great bank in far-off Hamburg had pledged the performance -of their promise. A day later the slatternly S.S. <i>Frau -Pobst</i> lurched untidily up the muddy creeks, and commenced -to ease the factory buildings of their overflowing -wealth of West African produce. -</p> - -<p> -Carter itched to be off. It had come to this; he could -not trust himself in Kate's neighborhood. Laura Slade -saw, or fancied she saw how things were, and bravely asked -him one day to break their engagement. -</p> - -<p> -But Carter drew her down onto the office chair beside -him and put an arm round her and kissed her. "Now," -he said, "tell out frankly who it is that you like better -than you like me?" -</p> - -<p> -"It isn't that, George." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, as Cascaes is the only alternative, I didn't -suppose it was. Come now, out with it, what's the trouble? -I suppose you're just going to be a woman and tell me it's -my fault? I don't agree with you. I'm the same me as -always was—red hair, large feet, and as big an appetite as -the Coast will allow." -</p> - -<p> -She put her face against his shoulder. "It's Kate, -George." -</p> - -<p> -"You must let me refer to her as Miss O'Neill," said -Carter dryly. "You see, she's my employer—or was—and -we're naturally not on intimate terms— Well, what's -Miss O'Neill got to do with my marrying you?" -</p> - -<p> -"She's always been opposed to it." -</p> - -<p> -"Twaddle! Now, look here, my dear, you've been nervy -and upset ever since that bit of a scrap at Smooth River. -Now, haven't you?" -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose I have." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm sure of it. And it's not surprising. That was a -pretty tough time for any girl to go through. Well, as -I've told you, I've got my nose onto a fortune that's tucked -away up in the bush, and I'm going to look for it. In -the meanwhile, as I managed to screw sixty golden -sovereigns out of that greedy old Balgarnie for curios that -he'll sell for at least a hundred and forty, there's just that -amount of cash to take you on a jaunt to Grand Canary -for rose growing." -</p> - -<p> -"Rose growing?" -</p> - -<p> -"To put color in your cheeks, then, you pale young -person." -</p> - -<p> -"But I couldn't take the money from you." -</p> - -<p> -"And pray who has a greater right to take care of you, -and prescribe what's best for you, and look after you -generally? D'you think I want to marry a wife who isn't in -the pink of condition?" -</p> - -<p> -"I like to look nice for you, dear, but I couldn't take -that money from you now of all times." -</p> - -<p> -"How do you mean?" -</p> - -<p> -"When you are just going off on some desperate expedition -into the bush, and want every penny that can be -scraped together." -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed. "There you go, wanting to lead me -into temptation. Wanting me to take money in my pocket -to buy (presumably) kid gloves and fire-escapes in the shops -of the bush villages, and spend my nights in local music -halls. Fie on you that will one of these days have to turn -into a thrifty wife! I shall avoid these temptations. I -shall travel as unostentatiously as possible, and so ensure -getting through. I shall take with me White-Man's-Trouble -only, if the beggar will condescend to go and live -on native chop, for the best of all possible reasons that it -wouldn't be possible to take a lot of carriers. Can't you -see, my dear, that the choice lies between a three-thousand-pound -expedition, with carriers, and all the rest of it, and -going quietly, and being too obviously poor to rob?" -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose there is something in that. Father went -quietly." -</p> - -<p> -"Of course he did, and so shall I. Some day, if things -pan out as I hope, I may march up country at the tail -end of a brass band, and do the thing in style; but not -to-morrow, thank you. So if you won't take charge of our -superfluous £60 and decorate Grand Canary with it, I'm -hanged if I don't dash it amongst the factory boys here, -and have one flaring jamboree before we part company." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, George, you are good!" -</p> - -<p> -"Don't you fret about my goodness, old lady. I'm a -pretty bad fellow at the bottom, only I try and keep my -worst points out of your sight. Man has to, you know, -with the girl he's engaged to. It's only playing the game. -Now, you let me go, and I'll just slip across to the <i>Frau</i> -and blarney her old Dutch skipper into giving you the best -room he's got to fight the cockroaches in." -</p> - -<p> -It was on a Thursday that the <i>Frau Pobst</i> steamed away -back down the muddy creeks laden with one of the richest -cargoes that one single factory had ever collected in West -Africa, and on that same day Carter set off into the bush. -Kate and Laura were to brave the terrors of the steamer -together as far as the Islands, and they found the boat -even more unspeakable than they had imagined her from -the outrageous descriptions of Captain Image and Mr. Balgarnie. -</p> - -<p class="thought"> -***** -<br /> -</p> - -<p> -Now, as regards the matter of that £60, Carter, to put -the matter bluntly, had lied. With the King of Okky -doing what he could to keep the country side in a ferment, -to go up into the bush even with a strong party, and well -provided, was risky. To go with empty pockets, and with -no following, seemed very little short of suicide. -</p> - -<p> -But Carter refused to see it in this light. "I'm tough," -he told himself, "and I've worked up a certain reputation -for ju-ju. If I use my wits I shall get through, and be -successful. I absolutely refuse to die here in Africa. I've -promised to marry Laura, and, let it cost what it may, -I'm going to do it. I must; I've promised; and, besides, -she's absolutely no other prospect before her. But I do -wish to goodness I'd a decent shotgun. I'm no kind of -hand with this badly balanced Winchester." -</p> - -<p> -So, with a high courage, he addressed himself to -departure, and invited White-Man's-Trouble with the promise -of goods, lands, goats, wives, guns, and the other things -that go to make up a Krooboy competency, to accompany -him. It was without surprise that he received a flat refusal. -</p> - -<p> -"O Carter," said his servant, "I no fit for lib for -bush. I got 'nother palaver too-much-important here at -factory. Dem headman of factory boys say to me, 'Sar, -you been stand-by-at-crane boy on steamah? An' I say, -'Sar, I plenty-much-too-good educate.' And he say to -me, 'Sar, you fit for lib here an' take dem job of second -headman?' An' I say to him, 'Sar, I fit.' O Carter, if -I lib for bush with you, an' let Okky-men spear me, an' -leopards chop me, I dam fool." -</p> - -<p> -"You're a cheerful animal. If you think you are more -likely to get an archbishopric by staying here, by all means -stay. Hope you'll like the Dutchmen when they come." -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble crooked a bunch of fingers, and -scratched his ribs. "O Carter, dem Dutchman all-e-same -bush-Englishmen?" -</p> - -<p> -"You've got it in once. I've no doubt they're a most -degraded lot." -</p> - -<p> -"Dem Dutchman he no have as much savvy as an Englishman?" -</p> - -<p> -"Nowhere near. They wouldn't have chucked up the -factory in the first instance if they had, and in the second -no Englishman would have bought it back again at such -an absurd figure as they were fools enough to pay Missy -Kate." -</p> - -<p> -"O Carter?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well?" -</p> - -<p> -"I fit for steal small-small sometimes from Englishmen?" -</p> - -<p> -"I can guarantee that, you scamp." -</p> - -<p> -"Then," said White-Man's-Trouble triumphantly, "I -fit for steal plenty-much-big from Dutchman, an' he no -savvy." -</p> - -<p> -"You'll taste abundance of chiquot, my lad." -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy snapped a piebald thumb and finger. "I -take chiquot from Englishman, not from bush-Englishman. -If he flog me with chiquot, I put ju-ju on him—" He -picked up an empty bottle and handled it thoughtfully. -"Ju-ju, if dem Dutchmen give me chiquot." -</p> - -<p> -"Of the powdered-glass variety in his morning sausage," -said Carter thoughtfully. "Well, it would be no use warning -the poor devils, because, in the first place, they wouldn't -believe me, and in the second they'd get it all the same. -I guess these new colonizers must worry out the methods -of dealing with the natives for themselves, as their betters -did before them. And for myself, I fancy a knapsack will -be the wear. Thank the Lord, I've tramped a good many -hundred miles with one before." -</p> - -<p class="thought"> -***** -<br /> -</p> - -<p> -Now, Carter was strong, and he carried, moreover, a high -courage and a fierce energy, which even the steamy -atmosphere of the West Coast could not damp. Malaria he had -with a certain regular periodicity, but he was one of those -rare men who threw off the attacks with speed, and -suffered little from their after effects. He was essentially -moderate in his habits of life, carrying a healthy hunger -but never overeating, being neither a drunkard nor a -teetotaller through fear of drink. Moreover, he did not -abuse quinine, coffee, tobacco or drugs. As a consequence, -in that much-anathematized climate he preserved a very -level health and energy, and owned a normal mind where -most men were either hysterical or morbid. -</p> - -<p> -He had come ashore at Malla-Nulla, when he first landed -on that ugly beach from the <i>M'poso</i>, with two Gladstone -bags. One of these had been looted by some light-fingered -merchant of the interior. The other still remained with -him, and had journeyed to Mokki. Its notable tint of -yellow had long since vanished. In places it was mottled -black with mildew, and the rest of the surface was a good -mulatto brown. The fastenings had burst, and been -replaced by rope. -</p> - -<p> -He looked at it with a moment's indecision. It would -make a vastly ugly knapsack—but—it represented one of -his few remaining possessions in the world. (The £60, -or, to be precise, the sum of £57 6s. 10d., which he had -forced Laura to carry off, had emptied his purse to the -dregs.) And as he could not make up his mind to desert -the bag, he packed what things he thought essential within -its leaky leather sides, arranged rope beckets for his -shoulders, slung it on his back, tucked the Winchester aforesaid -under his arm, and set off down the narrow forest road -which ben Hossein had indicated, without further word of -farewell with anybody. -</p> - -<p> -The heat of noon had just faded, but the eighteen-inch -wide road was walled in with dense high bush, and the -air down in that narrow cut was breathless and stagnant. -When the road curved away from the sun and the high -walls threw a shadow, Carter waited for a moment and -panted; when the sun teemed rays of molten brass directly -down on him from overhead, he hurried; and so moved on -at an average gait of three miles to the hour, which is -good travelling for West Africa. -</p> - -<p> -It is curious how the brain works in these hours of -discomfort and abnormal stress. The one thing that -occupied Carter's mind was a rather good specimen of Okky -war horn. It had been of ivory, massive, well-carved, and -with a mouthpiece of more than usual elaboration. In fact, -it was the finest specimen he had come across, and he was -a judge. He had purchased it from its native owner to -copy for Mr. Balgarnie's markets. But he had seen Kate's -eye upon it just before the <i>Frau Pobst</i> took her away, and -with the impulse of the moment had given it to her. She -took it at once, and thanked him lightly enough, and he -told himself, forgot it a moment later. A thousand times -he called himself an ass for trying to keep in her memory. -What was he, a factory clerk, to Miss O'Neill? And what, -indeed, was Miss O'Neill to him—an engaged man? -</p> - -<p> -The bush rustled back at him: "Laura is—well, what -you know. Laura's got a lick of the tar brush. Laura -is probably the identical person a certain reverend gentleman -in Upper Wharfedale especially warned you against. -Laura may pass muster in Grand Canary, but she won't -do further North. Fancy Laura in Wharfedale!" Good -God, in Wharfedale! Now he came to think of it, he had -never talked to Laura about home, and the moors, and -the grouse, and the roses. -</p> - -<p> -He laughed noisily at his fancies, and a flock of red -and gray parrots came on to the tree tops above and cawed -at him. Well, after all, there were plenty of Englishmen -who lived out of England. He might initiate a new era. -He might be one of the first English colonists who looked -upon West Africa as a home, not a place of exile. He -rubbed the sweat from his face with a long forefinger and -plodded on— Why not? He seemed to have the knack of -health. Why should not he and Laura become powers in -the Oil Rivers? They might well rise to the rule of cities -and territories. -</p> - -<p> -Then a voice brought him to earth again. Someone -hailed him from the rear. "Carter, O Carter!" -</p> - -<p> -It was the excellent White-Man's-Trouble, who came up -sullen, frightened and abusive. His cheek-bones were -whitened with lime, in token of some ju-ju charm. He took -over the battered Gladstone bag, and balanced it on the -centre plot of his own elaborately shaven cranium. -</p> - -<p> -"I no fit for lib at dem factory an' know you carry -dem load in dem dam-fool way," said the Krooboy crustily. -</p> - -<p> -They pulled up that night at a small terror-shivering -village, and quartered themselves on the headman. He -made no secret of his displeasure at their visit. Carter -talked of the glories of Mokki, and the advantages of -having a steady stream of trade pouring through one's -territory. The headman pointed out with peevish annoyance -that the King of Okky frowned upon Mokki in particular -and trade in general, and that the King's displeasure was -generally fatal to those on whom it fell, even though they -had the happiness to live beyond his marches. But in spite -of his gloomy reception, he set before his guests a portly -bowl of kanki, when his women had cooked it, and himself -ate a pawful from the calabash as a testimonial to its -freedom from poison. -</p> - -<p> -They spread their sleeping mats that night in the dark -hut from which the headman's fowls had been driven -to make room for them, and next morning Carter collected -some wing feathers and some bits of wood, and made a -windmill to amuse the children who swarmed about the -compound. Presently there arrived the headman, who saw -the toy spinning in the breeze, and annexed it. He and -White-Man's-Trouble harangued one another with much -noise and gesture, and then there was a bustle in the -village, and the cooking fires burned strongly. The -headman's gloom had dropped from him like a discarded cloth; -he wore in its place an air of oily obsequiousness that -showed he could be quite the courtier upon occasion. -</p> - -<p> -They breakfasted that morning on no mere kanki. -</p> - -<p> -"Dem," said White-Man's-Trouble, pointing to the three -great bowls, "dem hen-chop, dem monkey-chop, an' dem -dug-chop." -</p> - -<p> -"Quack-quack dug?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, bow-wow dug." -</p> - -<p> -"Ugh!" said Carter, "I'll leave these rich dainties to -you and His Nibs there. Let me have a go at the stewed -fowl. Great Christopher! No wonder rubber's so hard -to collect in this country when they use up so much to -make legs for their chickens. Well, thank heaven for -sound teeth and a tough inside!" -</p> - -<p> -"I tell dem headman," said the Krooboy when they -had started their day's march, "that dem windmill will -be fine ju-ju. I say to him, 'You savvy dem fight at -Smooth River factory?' An' he savvy plenty. All the -bush savvy of dem fight. So I tell him me an' you, we -keep dem Okky-men away by ourselves, an' shoot most -of them, an' kill more by dem talking-god. So dem headman -savvy we plenty-big ju-ju men, an' we no fit eat kanki -for breakfast." -</p> - -<p> -"My dear Trouble, your powers of diplomacy are only -equalled by your personal appearance. Keep it up. If -your eloquence can carry us through the country on the -free hotel list it will save a lot of trouble both for us and -for everybody else we come near. I like to think of myself -as an adventurous knight exploring the black heart of -Africa, but I suppose in the States they'd call us a pair -of hoboes, and set the watch-dogs at us— Gee! Look at -that!" -</p> - -<p> -The rifle dropped to Carter's shoulder and cracked. A -herd of small deer were crossing the narrow road ahead -of them, and one of them tripped and fell, and there was -payment for their next night's lodging. -</p> - -<p> -Thirteen days' march Ali ben Hossein had called it to -the hill where an unnamed river scoured the foot of a -red-streaked bluff, and Carter, who was lean and strong and -wiry, flattered himself on being able to walk as well as -any Moslem in Haûsaland. But the fact remained that -more than three times thirteen days passed before they -reached the place, and the perils of the way proved many -and glaring. In some of the villages the headmen proved -hospitable; in others they would have neither truck nor -dealing with any callers whatever. -</p> - -<p> -The country was full of war and unrest, and there was -no doubt that it was desperately poor. The cassava grounds -were unplanted, the millet was unsown, the banana gardens -were wantonly slashed and ruined. The small bush farmer -is a creature of nerves, and he stands adversity badly. Put -him under a strong over-lord, and he will serve gladly and -efficiently. Leave him to himself, and when things go -awry with him for too many weeks together he is apt to -suddenly give up the struggle, and sit down with chin on -his knees, and quietly starve to death. One cannot reckon -far upon the moods of a man who is ridiculously -unenthusiastic over his own life or his neighbors'. -</p> - -<p> -But at one place they marched in upon red war. -</p> - -<p> -The village lay amongst its farm lands in a break of the -forest, and the gaps between the houses had been filled -with thorns. Shots came from it at intervals, and were -answered by the shots of invisible marksmen who lay -within the edge of the forest. The sun glared high -overhead in a fleckless sky. The air was salt with the smoke -of the crude trade powder. -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble counselled retreat. -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, that's all right," said Carter irritably. "No one -wants to ram his head into a scrap less than I do. But -where the deuce can we go to? There's been no single -branch to this road we've come along, and the bush on each -side is about the thickest in Africa. Nothing short of a -regiment of men with matchets would make a path through -it anywhere. Going back to that last village means getting -skewered. All the way along I've been wondering how -on earth we got out of it without having at least ten spears -rammed into each of us." -</p> - -<p> -"O Carter, I no fit to go get mixed in dem fight -palaver." -</p> - -<p> -"You're so beastly unoriginal. Why go on repeating -the same thing? I'd like further to point out that we've -not had a bite to eat for twenty-four hours, and I -personally can't go on living on my own fat without -inconvenience, as you seem to do." -</p> - -<p> -"No savvy." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, to translate, I say I plenty-much fit for chop." -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble rubbed the waistband of his -trousers tenderly. "Me, too," he admitted. -</p> - -<p> -"Then, as there is only starvation and other unpleasant -things behind, I'm going ahead to prospect. Gee! There's -somebody on this side with a rifle. And, by Christopher, -there's another rifle in the village shooting back!" -</p> - -<p> -The flintlock trade guns roared out at intervals, and -every now and again there came the sharp bark of -smokeless powder, and its clean whop-whop of a bullet from a -modern rifle. By careful watching Carter decided that -there was only one rifle on each side, and he further made -out that one was bombarding the other to the exclusion -of all lesser interests. -</p> - -<p> -Now when a man has hunger gnawing at the inside of -his ribs, and knows, moreover, that any movement in -retreat will be fatal, it does not take much to spur him on -to an advance. So Carter went cautiously ahead, keeping -well under the fringe of the cover, and White-Man's-Trouble, -who was copiously afraid, and who muttered evil -things under his breath in Kroo, hung on to the remains -of the Gladstone bag and crouched along at his heels. -</p> - -<p> -Carter took a step at a time, and was cautious always -not to rustle a leaf or tread on a dead branch. So he -pushed his way ahead, and when the Krooboy, with less -dexterity, blundered and made the shadow of a noise, he -turned upon him with such a look of ferocity that it awed -even so cross-grained a person as White-Man's-Trouble. A -dozen times Carter nearly walked on to the heels of one -or other of the attacking force, and as often drew off -unnoticed; and at last he made his way to the place where -he had located the rifle fire, and was closing in on it from -behind, when of a sudden he was confronted with a rifle -muzzle which suddenly spirted up from the middle of a -clump of bush. -</p> - -<p> -It swung up till it covered the left side of his chest, -and hung steady there for an appreciable number of -seconds, and then a very well-known voice said, "Well, -Mr. Carter, I congratulate you on keeping your nerve in spite -of the climate." -</p> - -<p> -"Gee!" said Carter under his breath. "That's old -Swizzle-Stick Smith." -</p> - -<p> -"I beg your pardon?" -</p> - -<p> -"I said I'm sure that's Mr. Smith." -</p> - -<p> -A bald head, garnished with an eyeglass, shaggy gray -hair and a shaggy beard, came forth. "May I ask what -you are doing here? Thrown up your commission by any -chance?" -</p> - -<p> -"Exactly that." -</p> - -<p> -"On your own?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, sir, starvation's my master at present." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I beg pardon. Go into the mess and order what -you'll have. Or look here, I've shot my man, so I'm free -for the moment, and I'll come with you. Whiskey we're -out of, but I can recommend gin and soda. We looted a -sparklet machine, by the way, from the Frenchman." -</p> - -<p> -They worked cautiously back from the firing line, and -came upon a mean lean-to of boughs and thatch which -Mr. Smith referred to as "my headquarters." As the -mess-sergeant happened to be away, Mr. Smith kindly produced -from under the eaves a damp slab of translucent cassava -bread, which was obviously all the place contained in the -way of food, and extracting a square-faced bottle from a -green box of trade gin, poured out half a calabash full, -added muddy water from a chattie, and offered it to his -guest. -</p> - -<p> -"Come to think of it, that's more healthy for you than -soda, Mr. Carter. So you're not up here on O'Neill and -Craven's service, you tell me?" -</p> - -<p> -"No; handed in my papers, sir. I'm passing through -here on urgent private affairs." -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith put a hand inside his shabby pyjama coat -and produced a piece of new black-watered silk ribbon, -on the end of which was an eyeglass. He screwed this in -place, and stared at his guest. -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, then in that case, Mr. Carter, I shall have to hear -more of your projects before I can give you permission -to pass through my territory." -</p> - -<p> -Carter stiffened. "Your territory? Oh, I remember. -You've been buying up rubber lands, of course, for the -firm." -</p> - -<p> -"As a point of fact, I have not been worrying about the -firm very lately. When I said 'my territory,' I meant -exactly that, neither more nor less. Later I may turn it -over to British protection. But recently it was no man's -land, and as that infernal blackguard, the King of Okky, -was after it, I seized it for myself." -</p> - -<p> -"Hear, hear," said Carter. "As the King of Okky was -once indecently keen on adding my head to his private -collection, I can never be really fond of that man, somehow." -</p> - -<p> -"Confound your head, sir! That had nothing to do -with it. I didn't quarrel with the man for following out -his ordinary African methods. I'm going for him for -letting in the French." -</p> - -<p> -Carter was clearly puzzled. "What on earth have the -French to do with it?" -</p> - -<p> -"Exactly what they had to do with all the British West -African colonies. We hold a seaboard, and when the men -on the spot try to consolidate an influence in the -hinterland, our Foreign Office promptly truckles to the -Anti-British party at home and tells them to drop it. The -Anti-British party says, 'Oh no, we mustn't make a sphere -of influence there. The Germans want it, or the French -have set their minds on it, or why shouldn't poor dear -Portugal have a chance there? But whatever you do, -don't give it to nasty, greedy Great Britain.' And unless -the hand of the Foreign Office is absolutely forced, they -always do as the Anti-Britishers ask. You see the -Anti-British party is noisy and hysterical, and always shrieking -that it can command countless votes." Mr. Smith limped -across the hut and sat on a green case and emphasized -his further remarks with a powder-stained forefinger. -</p> - -<p> -"Well," he said, "it's an old game with me, and after -all the official kicks I've had I ought to have dropped it -years ago. But somehow I couldn't resist the temptation. -The King of Okky is our man by geography and agreement. -I have made representations to the F.O., till I am sick -of putting pen to paper, that he ought to be recognized -and patted on the back. They don't even take the trouble -to reply, much less carry out the suggestions. Therefore -the French, who have taken hold of the hinterland, have -done the obvious. They sent down a sort of fourth-rate -tin-pot sous-officier, and told him that if he fixed up things -all right for France they'd give him a commission and a -500 francs gratuity; and as he'd absolutely no competitors, -he naturally did the trick." -</p> - -<p> -"What a beastly shame!" Carter blurted out, and then -felt surprised at himself. It was about the first time in -his life that the Englishman that was within him had ever -peeped out upon the surface. -</p> - -<p> -"I know what the man's expedition cost—practically -nothing. I saw the presents he gave old Kallee—£50 -would have covered them. And for that, and a mouthful -of empty words, he gets half a million square miles of -territory, and trade of a present value of £100,000, and a -potential value of £750,000, at a low estimate. Well, -Mr. Carter, I'm braver than our F.O. I'm going to buck -against the Anti-British party, and I'm going to see that -we keep in our own hands what rightly belongs to us. I -shall be called a pirate, but that doesn't disturb me. I lost -all the reputation I had to lose at this same game years -ago. I was doing my duty here then in West Africa. A -smug little beast of a newspaper man got up in the House -of Commons and demanded my dismissal. He would never -have been heard of if he hadn't been consistently -Anti-British on every occasion when the country was in -disagreement with anyone else. But it was his dirty line, -and it brought him a certain disgraceful notoriety, which -was what he was after. He could command votes, or said -he could, and the Government believed him. They didn't -care particularly for England; their one interest was -keeping their party in office; and as I was a nuisance, I had -to go. It wasn't a case of being actually broke, you must -understand, Mr. Carter, but they made things so awkward -that I had to send in my papers all the same. They tried -the same game with Rhodes, and Curzon, and Milner, the -dirty little curs. They hate a man who tries to uphold -Great Britain's dignity or give her another acre of territory. -</p> - -<p> -"But here now, thank the Lord, I personally am unofficial, -and I'm doing exactly what I know to be best without -fear or favor of anybody." -</p> - -<p> -"How far does your territory extend, sir?" -</p> - -<p> -"As far as I can make it," said Mr. Smith dryly. -</p> - -<p> -"Are you going to let it be developed by the white man?" -</p> - -<p> -"Assuredly." -</p> - -<p> -"Then," said Carter, "we shan't clash, and I'm sure you -will give me my passports. I don't know whether the -place I am making for is in your territory or the next -king's, but I'm going there purely for purposes of development. -I tell you frankly, I haven't a bit of ambition at -present beyond making a pile. If ever I find myself a rich -man I may take a hand in the thankless game you are -on at here. But that's in the future. In the meanwhile, -if the question is not indiscreet, might one ask if it was -a Frenchman you were having that rifle duel with just now?" -</p> - -<p> -"The Frenchman's down with fever. I was exchanging -shots with a soldier of fortune who is, I believe, an old -acquaintance of yours. Kwaka his name is." -</p> - -<p> -"Great Christopher! what a small place West Africa is. -Old Kallee sent Kwaka down to borrow my head for his -collection, and after the way I bamboozled that man I -shouldn't have been surprised if he'd been struck off the -Okky army list. Did you—er—make a clean job of him?" -</p> - -<p> -"Winged only, I think. He kept very well to cover." -</p> - -<p> -"You were both blazing away for long enough." -</p> - -<p> -"Well," chuckled Mr. Smith, "I'm afraid he hardly -had a fair chance at me. You see, I'd a boy with a trade -gun lying under a log a dozen yards to my right, and I'd -a string from my foot to his trigger. When I loosed off -the Winchester I pulled the other gun too, and Kwaka shot -for the smoke every time, and made very good practice of -it. That log would be worth mining for lead." -</p> - -<p> -"When you take the place what shall you do with the -Frenchman?" -</p> - -<p> -"Just the same that he would do with me," said the -old man grimly. "Now suppose we change the subject. -The bush telegraphs have been persistently talking about -a white woman who's been upsetting the face of Africa, -especially about our factories. Heard anything of her?" -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed shortly. "Of course I've heard. In -fact, she's why I'm here. She's Miss Kate O'Neill." -</p> - -<p> -The old man dropped his eyeglass to the end of its ribbon, -fumbled for it till he caught it again, and three times -tried to screw it in place before he got it fixed. "Kate -O'Neill, you say? She'd be about twenty—no, -twenty-three years old?" -</p> - -<p> -"I'm a bad judge, but I daresay she'd be about that. -Why, do you know her, sir?" -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith straightened himself with an obvious effort. -"As I have not been to England for five-and-twenty years, -is it likely? You said she was English, I think?" -</p> - -<p> -"As a point of fact, I did not, though presumably she -is English. She was not the late Godfrey O'Neill's real -relative. She was adopted, so I heard. But he left her -the business for all that, and she's making it hum. She's -marvellously able. But of course you have seen for -yourself more of her efforts than I have, sir." -</p> - -<p> -"I have seen them?" -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed. "I'm afraid you made the same mistake -that everybody else made, from Slade and old Image. -She is the K. O'Neill of the kindly-buck-up-and-get-it-done -letters. She is the Mr. K. that you chaffed me about at -Malla-Nulla for admiring so much as a business man." -</p> - -<p> -"My God!" said Swizzle-Stick Smith, and sat back -limply against the wall of the hut, and then "My God!" -he said again. -</p> - -<p> -Carter hesitated, and then, "Did you," he ventured, -"know Miss Kate's own people before the late Godfrey -took her over?" -</p> - -<p> -Mr. Smith, with an obvious effort, pulled himself -together. "I did, Mr. Carter. Her mother—she—she died. -Her father went under. He had a pretty trying time of -it first, but when the pinch came he went under most -thoroughly. Godfrey O'Neill, good fellow that he was, -took the child then, and so she got her chance, and, -thank heaven, she's used it." -</p> - -<p> -Carter looked at the old man narrowly. "And is the -father alive now?" -</p> - -<p> -But by this time Mr. Smith was his old cool, profane -self again. "How the devil should I know? Do you -think I keep track of all the failures in Africa? You -seem very interested in this young woman yourself. May -I ask if you've any aspirations in that direction?" -</p> - -<p> -"If you mean have I any wish to marry her, I can -answer that best by telling you that I'm engaged to marry -Laura Slade." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, I see. Well, Mr. Carter, we will drop the subject, -which is a painful one to me for many reasons. Let -us get on to your personal schemes. In what way can I -forward them?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap15"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XV -<br /> -TIN HILL: THE MINE -</h3> - -<p> -Tin Hill, when they got to it, carried riches that lay -in full view of the sky. The mountain of country rock -which held the veins reared up out of the dark green bush, -red-streaked and barren, and the last day's march towards -it lay through a heavy growth of rubber vines. Even the -Krooboy could not help noticing these. -</p> - -<p> -"O Carter," he said, "rubber lib for here. Dem Missy -Kate she say rubber-palaver beat oil-palaver, an' kernels, -an' gum, all-e-same cocked hat." -</p> - -<p> -"She didn't. Those are my words of wisdom you've got -hold of. Still I admit the sentiments are Miss O'Neill's. -But the main thing is, Trouble, that rubber takes capital -and labor to handle, and this firm's short of both at the -moment. We'll leave rubber to Miss O'Neill for the -present." -</p> - -<p> -"O Carter, dem Missy Kate, she no fit for love you now?" -</p> - -<p> -"She no fit," said Carter, with a sigh, "because you -savvy I fit for do wife-palaver with dem Miss Laura." -</p> - -<p> -The last marches of Ali ben Hoosein's road had been -little travelled during these latter months of political -upheaval, and this meant that the ever-growing bush had -encroached, and passage was difficult. Moreover, food was -painfully scarce. Swizzle-Stick Smith, out of his scanty -store, had given them what he could, but this was soon -eaten, and once more they had been forced to fall back on -that marvellous thing, the kola nut. But though nibbling -kola puts off the desire for a meal, and makes one able to -endure prolonged strains, it does not fill gaps in the inside. -</p> - -<p> -Both Carter and the Krooboy were very gaunt, and tattered, -and savage-looking when at last they arrived at the -rock and the river; but the omens seemed to change from -that moment. -</p> - -<p> -To begin with, Carter had a snap-shot at a gazelle and -brought it down. They lit a fire where they were, ate, and -felt the blessedness of being full for the first time for a -fortnight. Then, whilst hunting for a site for a hut, they -came across a clump of plantains, wild certainly, and -coarse, but filling enough to men who had long outgrown -any niceties of palate. And at the farther side of the -plantains, what appeared to be a mere cubical mound of -greenery disclosed itself upon inspection to be a house. -</p> - -<p> -"Ghosts," whimpered White-Man's-Trouble, and shrank back. -</p> - -<p> -"I hope so," said Carter. "They'd give us local news, -anyway, and might be amusing to talk to. But I never -met ghosts outside a story-book, and I'm afraid there'll -be none here. I wonder who lived on this spot? Stone -house, with limed walls three feet six thick, and a flat -cement roof. Inside area—phew! it smells musty—twenty -feet by twelve. No, by Christopher! there's another room -on beyond. Storeroom that—oh, beg pardon, Mr. Snake. -My mistake. Good-afternoon!" -</p> - -<p> -He shot out into the open again by the doorway, and -several snakes who resided in the farther room made exit -by the window. -</p> - -<p> -"When in doubt as to the authorship of any West African -monument, one always puts it down to the early Portuguese," -Carter mused, "and we'll leave it at that for the -present. Original occupants have been gone any time these -last two hundred years. Well, if we strip off these vines -and creepers from the outside, and light fires inside to -sweeten the air a bit, we shall have the most palatial -quarters. The question now is whether there is a mine -and whether it is worth working." -</p> - -<p> -But that last point very quickly answered itself. Three -great veins of tin-stone sliced vertically into the mother -rock. Two of them were forty feet wide, the third was -sixty. The face ran up at a steep angle, and a great -beer-colored river swilled away at its foot, and undermined it, -and with the help of the sun, kept chattering screes always -cascading down the slope. -</p> - -<p> -"This isn't a mine," Carter shouted exultantly, "it's a -quarry! Bring a steamer up alongside here, and every -man that works could shovel two hundred sovereigns' worth -of ore into her from these dumps each hour without so -much as putting a pick in. Why, the outcrops are scarcely -leached at all. When we've worked twenty yards or so into -the veins I'll rig a temperley transporter and guy it to -these rocks above, and run the stuff straight from where -it grew into a steamer's holds. Great Christopher! Kate -had better look out: I'm not going to let her be the only -millionaire on earth." -</p> - -<p> -"Dem stones with yellow glass on him worth money?" -asked White-Man's-Trouble. -</p> - -<p> -"Heaps." -</p> - -<p> -"In Liverpool?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, say Swansea or Cardiff; practically the same thing." -</p> - -<p> -"No worth money here?" -</p> - -<p> -"I'd sell you a ton for a fill of tobacco." -</p> - -<p> -"How you get it to coast? You no fit to pay carriers." -</p> - -<p> -"By water, my pagan friend. We make steamah lib for here." -</p> - -<p> -"Steamah no fit," said the Krooboy, and spat -contemptuously into the yellow stream. "Dem cappies no -savvy way here. Dem ribber no savvy way to Coast." -</p> - -<p> -"That's a bit beyond my linguistic powers. You must -translate some more." -</p> - -<p> -"Dem ribber," the Krooboy explained patiently, "no fit -for run to dem sea." -</p> - -<p> -"Then where the deuce does it run to? Does a Ju-ju -drink it?" -</p> - -<p> -"Ju-ju no fit for touch dem ribber," said White-Man's-Trouble, -taking the question literally. "But dem ribber -run into dem squidge-squidge, an' lib for die!" -</p> - -<p> -"Runs into a swamp and gets lost! My great Christopher, -the odds are you're right. But why in the name -of thunder didn't you tell me that before?" -</p> - -<p> -"I no savvy," said the Krooboy simply, "where you -come. O Carter, I come after you from Mokki because I -think you no fit for carry dem bag." -</p> - -<p> -Carter swung round and picked up White-Man's-Trouble's -hand and shook it heartily. "You've got a very -white inside to you," he said. -</p> - -<p> -But the African was not flattered. He pulled away his -limp hand as soon as it was set free, and rubbed his -abdomen nervously. "O Carter, I no fit for white inside. I -no ju-ju boy. I dam common Krooboy." -</p> - -<p> -Thence onwards there was impressed on Carter's mind -these three great facts—One: He had found a mine of -immense potential value. Two: He could never turn his -minerals into cash unless he could find a water channel -down to the Coast. And three: If he couldn't discover that -channel himself no one else would, at any rate for his -benefit. -</p> - -<p> -He thought these matters over during one torrid night, -and resolved to devote the next day to exploration. He -had had predecessors on the place, house building predecessors -who had left a series of rust-streaks which he translated -into mining tools. Presumably they were Europeans. -How did they propose to deal with this ore? Smelt it on -the spot, or bag it and get it to the Coast? -</p> - -<p> -If they were West African Portuguese of the olden time, -he was fully aware that they would be using slave labor for -everything, and he tried to figure out if it was possible, -even with slave porters, to carry concentrates down to the -Coast and leave a sufficient margin for profit. Even with -the most liberal estimates he could not make it so, taking -into account the slow-sailing ships, the crude smelting -methods, and the lower prices of the old days. Remained -then the passage of the creek and river channels, and if -these old Portuguese had found a waterway, why, then, so -could he. -</p> - -<p> -So next day he set out to hunt for a quay, or any other -traces of shipping ore, or perhaps some evidences of -boat-building, and he pressed his way through vine and bush, -and over crag and scree, till the scorching heat had drained -his lean body of moisture, and his knees zigzagged beneath -him through sheer weakness and weariness. -</p> - -<p> -Then he made a discovery, and sat down, and for the -moment felt faint and discouraged. -</p> - -<p> -He had nearly walked in onto the top of a native village. -</p> - -<p> -He had been going down-wind, or the smoke of their -fires would have warned him earlier. As it was, the bark -of a scavenger dog gave him the first hint of the village's -nearness, or he would have descended onto its roofs. It -lay beneath a small bluff, and its houses so assimilated -with the rest of the forest that even close at hand it was -hard to pick out the human dwellings. -</p> - -<p> -It was the hour of heat, when only Englishmen and dogs -(according to the old libel) are wont to be abroad, and the -village slept. Even the dogs found the heat too great for -wakefulness, so that only the Englishman carried an open -eye. But the smell of the place advertised it as a village -of fishers, and a closer scrutiny showed the harvest of the -river, gutted, and strung up upon the stripped boughs of -trees to dry in the outrageous sun-heat. There are always -markets for these dried river fish throughout all West -Africa. -</p> - -<p> -Carter backed into thicker cover, and waited till the -sun began once more to cast a shadow, and the village -woke. First the dogs opened their eyes and began their -endless scavengers' prowl. Then the children came out to -play in the dust. Next the women roused to do the village -work. And last of all, the men emerged from the clumps -of bush, which one had to accept as huts, spear-armed all -of them, and sat in the patches of purple shade, and -oversaw all, to approve and direct. -</p> - -<p> -"You lazy hounds," said the Englishman to himself, -"I should like to set you to shoveling ore all day, and -signing checks all night for your women's bonnet bills. -But then," he reminded himself with a sigh, "there are -some women these days who insist on working themselves, -however hard you may press your services." -</p> - -<p> -He reported his find to White-Man's-Trouble on his -return to the old Portuguese house that evening, and that -worthy was seized with his usual tremors. "O Carter," -said he, "dem bushmen that live by fish-palaver fit for be -worst kind of bushmen. They come here one day soon, -an' they throw spear till we lib for die, an' they chop us -afterwards. You savvy?" said the Krooboy, with a whimper -and a shudder—"chop us after?" -</p> - -<p> -"Don't try and work up my feelings over the post-mortem, -because you can't do it. Once dead, what happens -to my vile corpse doesn't interest me. But I don't intend -to peg out yet, especially at the hands of a pack of ignorant -cannibals like these. Observe, Trouble. You have seen -me practise ju-ju already?" -</p> - -<p> -"I fit." -</p> - -<p> -"And you have been my assistant in the black art?" -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy shuddered, but he said sturdily enough, -"I fit." -</p> - -<p> -"Well and good. Then to-morrow we will weave infernal -charms over this pleasing spot, till no mere black man, -be he cannibal or be he simple fisherman, will dare to press -his sacrilegious toes upon it." -</p> - -<p> -A stream of water poured over one part of the cliffs, -that Carter designed hereafter for a power-plant to handle -his ores. But in the meanwhile he turned it to a more -immediate use. He cut wide bamboos, and fitting them -into one another, formed a great pipe which would receive -water and air together. With stones, and clay, and grasses -he built a box to receive the air and water, and made a -cunningly devised trap through which the water could -escape, but not the air. Then with more bamboos he built -him organ pipes and set the mouths of these in the box, -so that the air should drive through them and blow a -dismal note. And next, with further ingenuity he fashioned -a commutating valve, also worked automatically by the -water, which for a time would shut off the water, and then -set it going again to thrill the air with the notes -boo-paa-bumm, in ascending scale, and a minute later to reply -bumm-paa-boo. -</p> - -<p> -It was all extremely simple when one knew how it was -done, and extremely startling to walk in upon from the -depths of a primeval African forest, and the fishers of the -village, when the sounds first broke in upon their nervous -ears, threw themselves down upon the dust, and waited -for the end of the world, which they felt sure was at hand. -</p> - -<p> -<a id="p224"></a> -To them then appeared a white man who was clothed -from head to foot with garlands of dark green leaves of -the rubber vine, and had on his head hair which was of the -sacred color of red. He was followed by a Krooboy -bearing the blue tribal mark between his brows, and having a -sheaf of feathers stuck above his right ear, where the -ordinary tooth-cleaning stick should have been carried. -These explained in bold, clear tones that they were the -chief ju-ju men of all Africa, and that the portent which -was even then <i>boo-paa-bumm-ing</i> behind them was sent by -powers unseen to herald their coming. But they did not -represent the evil, the harmful ju-ju. If only they were -treated with the profound respect which was their due they -would be a beneficent influence, with a special protective -eye to that village of fishers. The catch should increase, -the markets widen, and peace should hem in the roads -through which the villagers travelled. -</p> - -<p> -"But each morning we must have an offering of fresh-caught -fish," White-Man's-Trouble proclaimed, "together -with the wood necessary for their cooking. (O Carter, I no -fit for gather cook-wood when I ju-ju man," he explained -to his companion.) -</p> - -<p> -The scheme took; there was no doubt about that. Never -were villagers so pleased at securing the supernatural -protection, which all Africans desire, at so meagre a cost. -Men, women and children, they got up from the dust, and -they slobbered over the Krooboy's toes, and over the -remains of Carter's canvas shoes, and to show their -willingness, the men went down to the marigold-smelling river -then and there to procure the wherewithal to make their -initial offering. -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble scratched himself thoughtfully -and looked over those that were left. "O Carter," he -said, "I no fit for cook dem food when I ju-ju man. We -take with us two-three, all-e-same slaves, to be house-boy -an' do dem work." -</p> - -<p> -"No," said Carter shortly, "we shall do nothing of the -kind." -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy stared. "Why you no fit?" -</p> - -<p> -"I know what you're after, and I've got my reasons, -though you wouldn't appreciate them. However, I suppose -I must invent something that will appeal to you. If -dem bushmen lib for house with us they soon see we no -real ju-ju men, an' they tell their friends. Then their -friends come up some dark night and chop us. Savvy?" -</p> - -<p> -"O Carter," said White-Man's-Trouble, "you plenty-great -man!" -</p> - -<p> -Now there are two ways of working a mine. One is to -sell it to a limited company which in return for certain -concessions kindly puts up the necessary capital for -development; the other way is to find the capital out of one's -own private resources, and annex all the resultant profits. -</p> - -<p> -But Carter had a poor opinion of the size of his own -share if the first of these methods were carried out. To -begin with, he knew nothing of company promoting. He -would have to employ an expert, who would want the lion's -share of the plunder; and indeed he quite realized that a -tin mine up an unknown river in the territory of no man's -land would take a powerful lot of selling even to that -gullible body of mining-share purchasers of the British -public. The more he thought over the limited company -idea, the less chance of profits did he see in it for -himself. And he wanted those profits badly. He had not -risked life and health to study African scenery and customs. -</p> - -<p> -On the other hand, he was at the moment absolutely -penniless. If he did discover a waterway down to the -coast—or rather when he had discovered that waterway, -for he was fully determined to do it—how much forwarder -would he be? What steamer could he charter? None. -By no means could he get one without giving up a large -slice of his precious mine to the man who ran the risk. -He did not blame them. He put himself in the traders' -places. If he were running a down-river factory, and had -a launch, and some tattered red-headed fellow came down -out of the back of beyond with a wild tale about a tin -mine, and asked for the loan of the launch, and promised -to pay when a cargo was brought down, and sent to a -smelter in England and realized upon, what would he -say to such a preposterous offer? Why, he would laugh at -it. The proposition was not one that any business man -would entertain. -</p> - -<p> -No, he must get some capital, and buy that launch. -And then came the question of where was the capital to -come from. -</p> - -<p> -His father? Well, he was engaged to Laura, and he did -not feel like going near his father. -</p> - -<p> -Slade?—Smith? Neither of them had a penny. -</p> - -<p> -O'Neill and Craven? That meant Kate. He started -as if he had been stung at the idea of going to Kate and -asking her for money. Kate was successful, and she could -loan it easily. Granted, and if she had been successful -so would he be, and without her help. He shook an angry -fist at Africa. "Curse you, if you've given her a fortune -you've got to give me one too, or I'll take it in spite of -you!" -</p> - -<p> -He had a touch of fever that night, and White-Man's-Trouble -plied him with decoctions of herbs of such appalling -nastiness that (in his own phrase) he decided to get -well quickly, merely to avoid the drugs. But it was a fancy -built of that fever which put him on the path of success. -</p> - -<p> -He imagined that the shades of the old Portuguese, who -had built the strong stone house in those far-off days, came -in that night to visit him. They were miners, too, or metal -workers, he could not make out which, and they strutted -about in long patched cotton stockings which reached to -mid-thigh, and a combination garment of thick cloth that -covered all the rest of them. Even in that stifling room, -and in that baking climate, they wore metal helmets and -metal body armor, and Carter wondered how they could go -abroad into the sunshine and not be cooked alive in their -shells. -</p> - -<p> -But he did not content himself for long with this idle -observation. There was a method even in his fevered -dreaming. He put the question: Did they get their stuff -down to the Coast on the heads of carriers? The ghosts -laughed at the idea of such a thing. "Why should we go -against our nature? We Portuguese—in the days when we -lived, who speak to you now—we were seamen and rivermen -always. So we built great flat boats and swam our -goods down the rivers." -</p> - -<p> -"Christopher!" said the Englishman, "there's just the -tip I've been waiting for. A sort of raft. By Gee! I'm -going to shake hands with you for bringing the news." -</p> - -<p> -But in that hospitable attempt he was stopped by the -burly White-Man's-Trouble, who sat on his chest, till he -promised to lie still again. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap16"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XVI -<br /> -THE KING'S BOUNTY -</h3> - -<p> -A further brilliant idea came to Carter next morning -that after all he and White-Man's-Trouble had been raising -difficulties about the river's navigation that were quite -unnecessary. There was a village of natives close at their -door who were river-farers. What was more likely than -that there were many men there who could pilot a canoe -through a chain of creeks till at last they heard the great -Atlantic surf roaring on a river bar? -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble shook his head when he heard the -suggestion. "Dem bushmen savvy nothing," said he -contemptuously. -</p> - -<p> -Upon experiment it proved that he was right. The -villagers had acquired the habit of fishing on the reaches -which ran two miles up stream and two miles down; they -had adopted the customs of their forefathers; no one of -them had ever paddled beyond these limits. They were -an incurious people. -</p> - -<p> -Their canoes were small, and narrow, and unwieldy. -They were dug out from cotton-wood trees with fire, and -dubbed into vague shape with native adzes, and through -sheer idleness and incapacity the builders had rarely -selected straight timber. Even expert polers and paddlers -could not propel those miserable craft in a straight course. -One thing only were these fishers good at, and that was -baling. But in this they had abundant practice, for all -the canoes were sun-cracked, and leaked like baskets. -</p> - -<p> -"I wish," said Carter, "for a great raft that will carry -twelve tons of the shiny stones which fall from the -mountain." -</p> - -<p> -They did not know what a raft was, neither did they -appreciate the size of a ton, but Carter demonstrated to -them, and White-Man's-Trouble kept them from forgetting. -The Krooboy had found a chiquot, and, from having -felt chiquots across all parts of his own person many -a time, was well qualified to wield such a baton of -authority. Carter picked out suitable cotton woods, and the -Krooboy apportioned out the cutters, and stayed beside -them till their work was done. -</p> - -<p> -They handspiked the logs down to the water, again -having to be instructed in this most elementary piece of -mechanics, laid cross-pieces at right angles, and lashed all -tightly together with lianes. Then when they had built -up the interstices between the logs with large pieces of -tin-stone, they carried down the smaller ore in baskets till the -logs were sunk to three-quarters draught. -</p> - -<p> -Next they built a house on the raft and covered it with -thatch, and in part of the house they piled a great store -of dried fish as provision for the voyage. And all the -while the ju-ju organ behind them boomed out at intervals -its dismal boo-paa-bumm, bumm-paa-boo. -</p> - -<p> -Now although Carter had been a trader long enough to -get very African notions of the negro and his ways, still -he had an Englishman's natural bias against forced labor. -White-Man's-Trouble, who did not see the desirability of -working if others would do it for him, openly suggested -pressing what hands were required for navigation. But -Carter said no. He had no money to pay them with on -arrival, and the lower castes of Africans do not understand -the delights of having outstanding accounts with the white -man for labor performed. The Krooboy and he must -struggle down the creeks and find the channel themselves. -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble sniffed and scratched himself, and -said they would see. And presently when the time came -for departure the usual African surprise descended upon -them surely enough. Seven naked savages from the fishers' -village squatted on the raft and refused to budge. Their -arguments were simple. Carter was a great ju-ju man. -They knew he was great, because since he came the <i>boo-baa-bumm</i> -noises had been incessant. Moreover, these were -beneficent noises, since whilst they filled the air no one -had died in the village from leopard, crocodile, or alien -spear. They therefore adopted him as their master. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, but look here," said Carter, "I can't do this. It -means I should be a slave-holder, neither more nor less. -Besides, with you seven great lumps sitting there, the raft's -awash. If I take you I shall have to jettison some of my -tin-stone." -</p> - -<p> -But they had no further arguments. They sat placid. -They had lived in cousinship with fear all their squalid -lives, and here at last had arrived the strong man who -could certainly protect them if he would. And they -intended he should. -</p> - -<p> -Carter thought for a minute, and then, "I won't have -it," said he. "Trouble, drive them ashore." -</p> - -<p> -White-Man's-Trouble spoke, and nothing happened. He -laced into their bare backs with his chiquot, but still they -did not budge. One of them, who seemed to be spokesman, -merely talked to him quietly. -</p> - -<p> -The Krooboy explained. "Dem bushmen very uneducate. -Dey say if you no take 'em dey lib for die. Dem -big black fellow there wid one ear, he say if you no take -him, he walk into dem ribber an' be crocodile chop." -</p> - -<p> -"They'll do it, too, confound them," Carter assured -himself vexedly. -</p> - -<p> -And so it came to pass, as he could not very well -condemn the enterprising seven to death—for that is what -leaving them amounted to—he was forced to take them -with him, and very idle, inefficient boatmen they proved. -They knew nothing of the river, once the two miles of -their fishing had been passed; they had no idea of the -obvious set of currents, no eyes for the plainest shoal. If -they were left to themselves for a dozen minutes they -would run the raft into the bush, and as likely as not get -on board a cargo of red ants that seemed to have white-hot -teeth when they started to bite. They gorged upon -the scanty store of dried fish if they were not watched, -and never caught more unless they were incessantly goaded. -When the reeking yellow river was more than usually full -of crocodiles they would dangle their legs over the side; -and when the raft was drifting past a village which was -most probably hostile, they would break into song. They -always felt that the great white ju-ju man, under whose -protection they had elected to place themselves, was -competent to shelter them if he so desired. And if he willed -otherwise, and they died, well, that did not greatly concern -them. They were very exasperating animals, and Carter -about three times a day much wished that the handling -of them could be transferred to some of those kind-hearted -people at home who always insist that the negro of the -West Africa hinterland is a man and a brother. -</p> - -<p> -They had a small dugout canoe in tow, and greatly they -needed it. After twice running the big raft down streams -that ended in impassable morass, and having tediously to -tow and punt her back against the current, they always -hereafter sent the lighter craft ahead on voyages of -discovery. Or to be more accurate, Carter had to go in her -with one of the fishers as assistant. The excellent -White-Man's-Trouble had limits to his intelligence, and there -was no driving into him that water which would carry a -canoe that drew three inches of water was too shallow for -a heavy raft that drew three feet. -</p> - -<p> -The Winchester rifle and the remains of the Gladstone -bag seemed the only two things that linked them now with -civilization. They lived in the African manner upon -African food; the intricate branching of the creeks was -charted in matchet-scratches upon the smoothed surface of -a log of wood; even English speech was discarded in favor -of the native tongue. -</p> - -<p> -Carter had shaved till the steamy atmosphere of the -bush had turned his razors into mere sticks of rust; and -with the growth of his red stubble of beard, all respect for -his outward man had vanished. He caught sight of -himself one evening in a pool of black water. "Well," he -commented, "I always thought that Swizzle-Stick Smith -was a filthy old ruffian, but at his worst he looks a prince -to me now. That I suppose is where gray has the pull -over ginger." -</p> - -<p> -But it was the rescue of the King of Okky which really -gave the turn to the whole of Carter's fortune. They had -got the raft into a regular cul-de-sac of reeds and water-lilies, -and she lay there stuck on a shoal in the face of a -falling river. Creeks radiated all around them like the -spokes of some gigantic wheel. The place was alive with -crocodiles and flies. Not very far away an intertribal -battle advertised itself by an ugly mutter of firing. -</p> - -<p> -"An' chop no lib," said White-Man's-Trouble, by way -of winding up the sum of their difficulties. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, find some," Carter snapped. "Make spears, and -stab the fish up out of the mud if you can't catch them -with nets or hooks. Only see that there's a meal ready -for me when I get back, or I'll lam into you with that -chiquot you're so fond of using." -</p> - -<p> -He went off then in the warped dugout, with the one-eared -man as bow pole, laboriously hunting for a passage -into some main stream. The river beneath them gave up -fat bubbles of evil odors; the banks of slime on either side -reeked under the sun blaze. A dozen times Carter thought -he saw open water ahead, and pushed on, and a dozen times -found himself embayed. And always he had to jot down -compass notes with a nail on the well-scored gunwale of -the canoe, so as to keep in touch with the raft, and be ready -against that forthcoming time when he would have to pilot -a steam launch up to Tin Hill. For though he barely -expected to escape with life out of this horrible labyrinth of -creeks and waterways, be it always understood he intended -to return and demand from the country a fortune, if so -be he ever got down again to the seaboard. -</p> - -<p> -At last, however, he swung out into what was obviously -a main channel, and was on the point of turning back to -fetch the raft, when his eye was held by something that -moved sluggishly in mid-stream. -</p> - -<p> -It lay up towards the sun, and was hard to make out -because of the dazzle of radiance. -</p> - -<p> -"Can you see what that is?" he asked his bow man -in the native. -</p> - -<p> -"It is just a man on a branch," said that savage, with -cheerful indifference. "Presently the crocodiles will chop -him. Shall we go back now, Effendi, to the raft?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, my callous friend. We'll investigate the person -in the tree first. Full speed ahead!" -</p> - -<p> -The clumsy dugout lurched and twisted down the broad -marigold-smelling river, and as there was a strong current -under her, she soon drew the obstruction into clearer view. -</p> - -<p> -It was a tree clearly enough, swept down by some flood -and stranded here in mid-channel to form one of the -myriad snags with which West African rivers abound. In -it was a black man who hung by his hands from the upper -branches, and was perpetually pulling up his toes like some -ridiculous jumping-jack. He was a very fat man, and his -movements were getting more feeble even as they watched -him. But it was not till they got close alongside that they -saw the impelling motive of these gymnastics. -</p> - -<p> -A twelve-foot crocodile was in attendance beneath the -tree, and every now and again it swam up with a great -swirl and shot its grisly jaws out of the water, and snapped -noisily at the fat man's toes. -</p> - -<p> -Carter lifted his Winchester and waited for a chance, -but of a sudden his bow man turned to him with a face -that was gray with fear. "That man," he said, "is the -King of Okky, and if you save him, presently we shall -both die." -</p> - -<p> -"I had already recognized the gentleman, and I fancy -he's far more my enemy than yours, but I'm going to pull -him out of this mess for all that, and give him a good level -start again on dry land." -</p> - -<p> -Then as the crocodile jumped once more, he threw up -his rifle and shot it under the left foreleg, where the -protective plates are absent. -</p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-234"></a> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-234.jpg" alt="Then, as the crocodile jumped once more, he threw up his rifle and shot it under the left foreleg, where the protective plates are absent." /> -<br /> -Then, as the crocodile jumped once more, he threw up his <br /> -rifle and shot it under the left foreleg, where the <br /> -protective plates are absent. -</p> - -<p> -The brute jumped, and writhed, and swam away amid -cascades of golden spray, and as the bullet was soft-nosed -and expanding there would probably be, before many more -hours were over, one less pest in Africa. But Carter did -not worry his head about that. He paddled the dugout -to the tree and called to the King. -</p> - -<p> -His Majesty of Okky was fat, and though once he had -been a giant in strength, in these latter years of kingship -he had grown soft and flabby. He did all his journeyings -in hammock and canoe, and had slaves who saved him the -smallest scrap of exercise; and, moreover, he ate and drank -to vast excess. So that when the immediate strain was -over it can be understood how he hung in the upper -branches of that tree too limp and exhausted even to lower -himself into the canoe. Carter had to climb onto the -branch, and bear a hand before he could get down. -</p> - -<p> -The dugout sank perilously beneath his weight, but the -King was no amateur, and balanced cannily. Moreover, -presently he panted himself into articulate speech. "I fit -for gin," said the King of Okky. -</p> - -<p> -"I bet you are," Carter agreed. "But unfortunately -the bar on this packet's closed for want of supplies just -at the moment. Try a sup of the local ditch-water out -of the baler." -</p> - -<p> -The King did so, and made a face. "I have not drunk -water since I became a King," said he. "O Carter, do not -turn up stream. I have men at a village down yonder." -</p> - -<p> -"I don't doubt it. But having saved your skin, King, -I've my own to think of now." -</p> - -<p> -The King's great body began to shake with laughter. -</p> - -<p> -"Stop that," said Carter sharply, "or you'll burst the -gunwales out." -</p> - -<p> -"O Carter," said Kallee, speaking in Okky, "listen. It -is only by my favor that you have lived so long. We are -both ju-ju men, and between such it is useless to make -pretence. But I can tell you all you did since you left -Mokki, and met Smith, and went to the cliff whereof ben -Hossein told you, and saw the stones which carry the -brown glass which you covet so much. I can tell you of -your machine which says boo-paa-bumm, and of the way -you came down these creeks on a raft, and how you labored -prodigiously in the blind channels. I had arranged to let -you get so far. To-morrow, when you came abreast of my -villages, canoes would have come out—" Here the King -screwed round his fat neck and eyed Carter over his -shoulder—"O Carter, do you think it strange that I should have -wanted a head such as yours?" -</p> - -<p> -"You would not tell me this now if you still wanted -that head." -</p> - -<p> -One could not deny that somehow the man had a certain -regal dignity about him. "O Carter," he said, "if I have -a King's lusts, I have all of a King's gratitude. I was -travelling down this river. My canoe was overturned by -a snag, and it and the paddlers were swept away down -stream, and if the crocodiles have not dealt with the men -I will give them their due presently. For myself, I climbed -into that tree as you saw, and could not have endured -longer. What account was open between us we will wipe -from the tally. I owe you for my life now, and I will -repay." -</p> - -<p> -"Are my Krooboy and the fishers included in the treaty?" -</p> - -<p> -The King shrugged his great shoulders. "I could give -you a better servant than White-Man's-Trouble, and better -paddlers than those fishermen. But if they please you, -they shall remain alive and well treated. Paddle now -quickly down stream to the village, O Carter, and we will -drink Krug champagne till a goat is slain and chop prepared." -</p> - -<p> -The village, when they came to it, was not a pleasant -sight. It had been rebellious, and the King of Okky had -been instilling discipline with a strong hand. Furthermore, -two of his canoemen had escaped from the river and -reported that the King was drowned. They were also -attended to in a way that prevented their ever erring again -in this world. The King dispensed champagne, and -arranged great matters of life and death with a massive -impartiality. And between whiles he found abundant -time to talk with his guest, now using Coast English for -the sake of greater privacy. His knowledge of what had -been going on was at times almost uncanny. -</p> - -<p> -"O Carter," he said, "dem Laura, she lib for -Teach-palaver house in Las Palmas." -</p> - -<p> -"She left for Las Palmas in the <i>Frau Pobst</i> certainly. -But I don't know where she is staying." -</p> - -<p> -"Teach-palaver house," said the King placidly, "by -Telde." -</p> - -<p> -"She was at school once at a convent on the Telde road." -</p> - -<p> -"She lib for there now." -</p> - -<p> -"I say, King, how the deuce do you know that?" -</p> - -<p> -"Savvy plenty funny things," said the King, and turned -to do justice on another culprit who was brought before -him for trial. -</p> - -<p> -The royal <i>ménage</i> was simple. They dined off a -couscousoo and a bowl of stewed goat, such as any well-to-do -native farmer might have set on the floor before him for -his meal, and thereafter they sat on mats of elaborate -straw-work upon the hard earth, and the King consumed at a -moderate computation one ounce of snuff before he was -inclined for further talk. -</p> - -<p> -Then, "O Carter," said he, "what for dis stone palaver?" -</p> - -<p> -"When that stone is taken to my country they heat it in -a furnace with other things, and a white metal runs out." -</p> - -<p> -"Okky-man no fit for make him?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, the job's too complicated." -</p> - -<p> -"Dem stone worth lot o' money, or you no fit for carry -small-small load all dem way to coast. And a whole hill -of dem stone lib far up ribber. So dem hill worth -plenty-much lot o' money." -</p> - -<p> -"There goes my pile," thought Carter bitterly. "The -greedy old ruffian's going to hook it for himself." -</p> - -<p> -The King went on. "Dem Kate, she fit for be O'Neill -and Craven now?" -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose you may say she is." -</p> - -<p> -"Smith an' Slade all-e-same work-boy for O'Neill and -Craven?" -</p> - -<p> -"If you like to put it that way." -</p> - -<p> -"Good. And you," went on this well-informed monarch, -wagging a fat forefinger, "you want marry Kate, -same's I wanted to marry Laura, an' she no fit for have -you, same's Laura no fit for have me dem time?" -</p> - -<p> -Carter dropped his chin onto his knees and said nothing. -The King went on, "O Carter, you fit for save my -life dis day. If you no come wid dem canoe, I lib for be -crocodile chop this minute. So I do not take your red—I -do not make you lib for die as I say dis morning, but I -fit for make you glad. Dem Dutchmen hold dem factory -now at Mokki?" -</p> - -<p> -"They do." -</p> - -<p> -"Then I send my war-boys in at back an' stop roads. -But I take ju-ju off roads to dem O'Neill and Craven -factories at Smooth, an' Monk, and Malla-Nulla." -</p> - -<p> -"That's very good of you, I'm sure." -</p> - -<p> -"Then dem Kate she love you much when she find dem -factory once more do trade." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm afraid, King, it would take a lot more than that -to make Kate feel attached to me. You see, I'm no longer -in O'Neill and Craven's service. I chucked it when she -sold Mokki, and I've been on my own ever since." -</p> - -<p> -The King's eyes gave the ghost of a twinkle. "Den I -no fit for open dem roads. So I make you dash another -way. I send you for Coast in big canoe of sixty paddles." -</p> - -<p> -"With White-Man's-Trouble?" -</p> - -<p> -"Wid your boy, an' your cargo. I send you in three -days' time six more canoes of sixty paddles, full of dem -stone you wish. I dash you dem hill of stone where you -set up dem dam ju-ju boo-paa-bumm. I tell dem men who -lib for ribber banks that you be free for come an' go on all -my country while I lib for King; an' if any man he hurt -you, I take dem man an' I nail him by hands an' feet to a -tree!" -</p> - -<p> -Carter looked up. "Do you mean that?" -</p> - -<p> -The King took snuff. "When I say to a man you lib -for die, he die. When I say 'I let you lib,' then he lib. -When I say to a man, 'I make you dash,' he get dem dash, -even though I have to send my war-boys to take it from -somebody other to give it him. O Carter, I lib for be real -King." -</p> - -<p> -"You mean you've given me a fortune in return for the -small thing I did for you?" -</p> - -<p> -"My life," said the King dryly, "he seem small thing -to you. But to me"—he patted his rotundity—"to me -dem life be plenty big." -</p> - -<p> -Three days Carter abode in the village, and kept to the -inside of his hut to avoid the sights of the place, which -to a European eye are unpleasant when an African King -is visiting his displeasure upon unruly subjects. He was -ministered unto by White-Man's-Trouble, who paid him -much unaccustomed deference, and forebore to steal the -smallest thing. And at nights he sat with the King, who -had an educated palate in champagne, and drank vintage -wine at the rate of one case in four days. -</p> - -<p> -"When I lib back for Okky City," the King said once, -"you fit for come and see me there now?" -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly, King, if you'll name a date when you haven't -got a custom on." -</p> - -<p> -King Kallee looked thoughtfully at his guest. "Dem -English no fit for like dem custom-palaver?" -</p> - -<p> -"They don't, one little bit." -</p> - -<p> -"For why?" -</p> - -<p> -"Gets on their nerves." -</p> - -<p> -"Dem English King, he send his war-boys if I make -dem custom-palaver more?" -</p> - -<p> -"It's the common topic of conversation down the Coast -as to when England will send an expedition to cut you up." -</p> - -<p> -"Because I stop dem roads an' spoil trade to factories?" -</p> - -<p> -"Pooh, King! You know precious little about the British -Government. You may spoil all the trade in Africa if -you like, you may even cut up half a dozen factory agents -or so, and the British Government won't care a little hang. -But if you will go on in your simple way crucifying slaves, -and carving up your own subjects, why, then, it's only a -question of time before they'll pull you off your perch and -send you into an inexpensive exile in St. Helena." -</p> - -<p> -"Dem Swizzle-Stick Smith he say same thing." -</p> - -<p> -"It's so obvious." -</p> - -<p> -"But he want me to let him hand dem Okky country -over to England, so I say I pull his skin off if I catch -him again. What you want for yo'self?" -</p> - -<p> -"Do you mean what do I stand to make out of the deal? -Well, not much beyond the satisfaction of keeping your -crucifixion tree in a more sanitary state. With the mining -right you have given me, I shall be a rich man." -</p> - -<p> -"But if dem English took Okky country?" -</p> - -<p> -"Why, they'd tax the mine, and they'd clap on regulations, -till they made a very fine hole in the profits." -</p> - -<p> -"Say dem again." -</p> - -<p> -Carter explained more fully, and then for awhile the -King of Okky sat and took snuff in silence. -</p> - -<p> -Then, "O Carter," he asked, "dem King of England -he got so many war-boys as me?" -</p> - -<p> -Carter nodded. -</p> - -<p> -"And dey no have trade guns? All Winchesters?" -</p> - -<p> -"I don't know what the present regulation pump-gun -is called, but we'll say it's like the Winchester, only -plenty-too-much better." -</p> - -<p> -Again the King thought in silence, and the hot night -rustled and sighed around them. The moonlight was -strong enough to show even the fibre of the fine state -mats on which they sat. But at last he motioned away -the slave who carried his snuff-mull, and touched Carter's -knee with an emphatic finger. -</p> - -<p> -"I believe you speak for true about dem custom. Three -days ago you no care if I lib or die?" -</p> - -<p> -"I may as well be frank, and say I should have -preferred you dead." -</p> - -<p> -The King gave the ghost of a grin. "There are many -like that. But now?" -</p> - -<p> -"Now I prefer you alive and King of Okky." -</p> - -<p> -"Dat is what I thought, an' so I believe you say true -when you tell me what you say about dem customs. I do -not see why Okky customs should make dem English king -fit for send his war-boys. But I no fit for want 'em." -</p> - -<p> -"So you fit for stop dem customs?" -</p> - -<p> -"I fit," said the King, and by that decision gave respite, -it has been calculated, to at least eight thousand of his -subjects each year who had gone the red paths prescribed -by ju-ju. -</p> - -<p> -They drew up a memorandum on the subject there and -then, in the form of a letter from the King of Okky to -him of Great Britain. Carter suggested the British -Foreign Secretary, but Kallee would not hear of it. He as a -King, he said, was the equal of any other King. So on a -sheet of damp, mildewed note-paper the message was -written, and signed by the King in an Arabic scrawl. -</p> - -<p> -And next day it travelled down to the Coast in state -inside the battered remains of a once-yellow gladstone bag. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap17"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XVII -<br /> -KATE SENDS A CABLEGRAM -</h3> - -<p> -Now to give Carter full due, his weaning of the King -of Okky from the habit of human sacrifice had been -brought about more by accident than design. By a further -working of the law of chance, the circumstance brought -him out of modest obscurity into a very strong notoriety -in a little less than six short months. -</p> - -<p> -"A private trader," so ran the gist of the newspaper -leaders, "has brought to pass a thing which Government -authorities, both civil and military, not to mention -missionaries and miscellaneous philanthropists, have been -trying for ineffectually ever since the British rule was set up -in West Africa. Throughout all our possessions on that -sickly Coast the natives have been addicted to human -sacrifice; and when instances of this from time to time leak -out, civilization is on each occasion chilled with a fresh -douche of horror. The West African Kingdom of Okky, -though little known for other qualities, has acquired a -certain detestable celebrity for these red orgies.... -Mr. Carter, though he was brought up in his father's vicarage -in Wharfedale, has not been noted heretofore for any -special benevolence in dealing with native questions. Those -who know him describe him as essentially a strong man.... -In fact, Mr. Carter, in his modesty, most emphatically -disclaims any such high motives, and avers that -he took his now celebrated journey into the bush merely -for his own business purposes, and nothing beyond. On -this subject we prefer to hold our own opinions. Explorers -of his rare type—the almost unknown type that does not -advertise—carry with them a modesty that delights in -belittling its own triumphs. But even Mr. Carter's modesty -cannot explain away certain cold facts. The King of Okky -till recently had a most black reputation for human -sacrifice. Many Europeans have gone up to his horrible city -to expostulate. Some he has sent back; some have not -been heard of again since they left the Coast, and one can -only shudder and guess at their fates; but none have -effected any change. The 'Customs,' as these orgies of -slaughter are named locally, still endured: indeed, evidence -clearly showed that they were increasing under the -present reign of King Kallee both in frequency and importance. -Nothing, it was said by those on the spot, but a British -army, and a great outlay in life and treasure, could bring -these horrors of the hinterland to a close. Mr. Carter, -however, thought otherwise. He went up country practically -unattended. He bearded the king in his own fetich -grove, and he achieved what experts called the impossible. -He has induced King Kallee to abandon human sacrifice -now and for always. -</p> - -<p> -"As will be seen by the two interviews which appear -in our news columns, the information on these points did -not come from Mr. Carter himself. Mr. Carter is that -man so rare to find in these pushing days, a man who does -not care one jot for anything the press can do towards his -own self-advancement, a man, moreover, who does not mind -saying so in strong, rude Anglo-Saxon. But fortunately -we have another mine of information more easily tapped. -The sensational rise into a new prosperity of the old West -African firm of O'Neill and Craven has been one of the -features of the year's finance, and it is now an open secret -that the sole partner and manager of the 'firm' is a -young, attractive, and unmarried lady. This Miss Kate -O'Neill has so far evaded the interviewer, but on the Okky -topic she has volunteered the fullest information. It is -to her that we are indebted for our description of Mr. Carter -and his great achievement." -</p> - -<p> -On such lines ran the leaders in most of the great -newspapers, though, of course, they varied in their facts and -their point of view. They all paid graceful compliments -to the pretty girl who had appeared of late with such -success in the field of larger finance. One paper alone had -the impudence to refer in cold print to a matter that the -other newspaper men smiled over quietly in the privacy -of their offices. -</p> - -<p> -"We wish," wrote this sentimental journalist, "that we -could indicate a romance that would finish up this episode -fittingly. But truth compels us to record that Miss O'Neill, -along with the rest of the biographical matter which she -so kindly supplied, mentioned the detail of Mr. Carter's -engagement to a Miss Laura Slade, who at present resides -in Grand Canary. We understand that a marriage will -shortly take place." -</p> - -<p> -As it happened, this journal was the one of Mrs. Craven's -daily reading. She indicated the paragraph with a -prim forefinger, and called her niece to read it. -</p> - -<p> -"Did you say that, Kate, or is it one of the fellow's -impudent inventions?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I told him that with the rest just to—well, to -quiet him. He seemed to think I was very interested in -Mr. Carter." -</p> - -<p> -"And I suppose suggested you were in love with him?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, he didn't put it exactly like that," said Kate -thoughtfully. "He was a very dashing young man, and -rather gave me the idea that he wanted to see if the coast -was clear for himself." -</p> - -<p> -"I see. And so you told him about the engagement -between Mr. Carter and Laura, just to encourage him?" -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose so. He really was very amusing and pushing. -He wanted me to go out to lunch with him there -and then." -</p> - -<p> -"Kate, are you going to let Mr. Carter marry Laura?" -</p> - -<p> -"My dear Aunt Jane, what an extraordinary question! -What possible influence can I have over either of them? -I offered them both a wedding present, and asked them -each what they would like. Could I go further than -that?" -</p> - -<p> -"And each of them," suggested the old lady, "said -'there was time enough for that,' or they'd 'let you know -when the wedding day was fixed,' or put you off, somehow, -like that." -</p> - -<p> -"Look here, Aunt, what are you driving at?" -</p> - -<p> -"I am looking." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, speak, you irritating old person." -</p> - -<p> -"My dear, I am waiting for you to look back at me. -You have carefully avoided meeting my eye ever since I -showed you the paper." -</p> - -<p> -Kate looked up, and Mrs. Craven read something in the -girl's face that made her sigh. "You will go your own -way, I know, Kitty dear. You are very capable, and very -clever, and that has naturally made you very self-reliant. -You have shown yourself so wonderfully successful over -your business matters that I shouldn't dream of advising -you there. But do you ever bring up into mind that there -is something more in life than mere financial success?" -</p> - -<p> -"Of course I do, Aunt. But I suppose I am different -from the other girls. They look forward to their domestic -pleasures. I have made myself other interests." -</p> - -<p> -The old lady shook her head decisively. "You are not -at all abnormal in that way. You are the most entirely -human person I ever saw. And to prove it, I'll just -instance to you the way you've fallen in love with George -Carter." -</p> - -<p> -"I refuse to admit it." -</p> - -<p> -"Even to me, Kitty?" -</p> - -<p> -"Even to myself. I like the man, and there it must -end. He is engaged elsewhere, and if you call me human, -you must allow me pride. I run after no man, nor do I -lure any man away from another girl who has been my -friend, whatever my inclinations may be. And now, if you -please, we will drop that subject and talk of rubber. Our -third company was subscribed once and a half times over -by lunch time to-day, and we've closed the lists. How's -that for a real solid triumph?" -</p> - -<p> -Mrs. Craven lay back in her chair and methodically -folded the paper. "Do the profits on that bring up your -score to the million you arrived at?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh no, no. But they will help it along very nicely." -</p> - -<p> -"When you get a million will you stop?" -</p> - -<p> -"When I get my million, which, mark you, Aunt, is -more than any girl of my age has ever done, why, then, -I shall start to make my second. It's a most fascinating -amusement." -</p> - -<p> -"But it doesn't make you happy. You are no better for -it. You can't spend it." -</p> - -<p> -"My dear Aunt, where have your eyes been? Haven't -you seen my clothes since I came back from the Coast? -Why, I never knew what it was to dress before. I'm seriously -thinking I shall have to start a maid to look after me." -</p> - -<p> -"My dear, you've a knack of carrying clothes." -</p> - -<p> -"That I learned from you, you extremely smart person." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, you got the knack somewhere, and you always -were nicely turned out. Now I know your wardrobe as -well as you do yourself, and, let me see"—Mrs. Craven -took a pencil from her chatelaine, and made calculations -on the edge of a newspaper—"Since you came back -to England you've not spent, at a liberal estimate, -above two hundred and twenty-seven pounds ten on your -own adornment." -</p> - -<p> -Kate laughed. "I give in to you, Aunt. I quite believe -you know my wardrobe better than I do myself. Well, -perhaps I shall buy pearls, then. I never had one, but I -believe I'm prepared to adore a necklace of big, smooth, -delicately graded pearls, with shimmery skins, and a fat, -pear-shaped black pearl drop to dangle below it. Yes, -that's the real reason I'm making money, Aunt—to buy -and wear great ropes of pearls. Or, who knows, I may -have a fancy for a peer. Now, with a million, I'm told -one can buy for marrying purposes a really fine specimen -of peer." -</p> - -<p> -"There are moments," said Mrs. Craven sharply, "when -I'm very sorry you're grown up." -</p> - -<p> -Kate went across and sat on the arm of the old lady's -chair. "Do you want to smack me and put me to bed?" -</p> - -<p> -"I've done it many a time when you've been in this -mood." -</p> - -<p> -"Can you see the black dog on my shoulder?" -</p> - -<p> -"Larger than ever. Kate, you should try and control -yourself." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, be just, Aunt. I didn't lie down on the floor and -kick or do anything like that." -</p> - -<p> -"No, thanks to me you can keep your temper under -more decent control now. Now, don't you kiss me, and -think I'm a silly old woman, and try to get round me that -way—I know exactly how you're feeling. Oh, you'd lead -any man a dance who married you." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm certain I should," said Kate cheerfully, "unless -he was the right one. But, Auntie dear, don't you think -it would be safer not to press me to marry anyone at all? -I give you my word for it that there's no one marriageable -I want to marry. And if you leave me alone with my -other amusement, that keeps me out of worse mischief." -</p> - -<p> -At the Prince's Park house in the old days there had -been a room known as the Master's study. It had no books -in it whatever, because the excellent Godfrey disliked books. -It had a writing-desk certainly, but never even an inkpot -on it to indicate use. There was just a card-table and -some early Victorian furniture of hard, uncompromising -ugliness. In short, it was not the Master's study at all, -but it emphatically was his card-room. -</p> - -<p> -It remained in its original state till Kate's return from -the Coast, and then she begged it from her Aunt, who gave -it gladly. -</p> - -<p> -"I want a place where I can type a letter," Kate had -said, "and have a copying press, without going down to -Water Street. They begin to stare at me down there, and -I hate it. No one objects to a girl being in business if she -is merely a clerk, but if she gets hold of big successes, well, -the men aren't nice about it. If I find it answers, I may -lay on a secretary." -</p> - -<p> -So she emptied the room and furnished it afresh, and -Mrs. Craven's heart warmed as she saw the girl's natural -craving for a home express itself in chairs and pictures, -in pretty wall hangings and dainty carpets, in graceful -flower-bowls, and all those little touches of domesticity -which are the mysterious outcome of sex. There was, it -turned out, a small box-room alongside, which was never -used, and which could be linked up by a door knocked -through the wall. This could be the secretary's room, and -hold the letter files, and the copying press, and the -typewriter, and all the other crude machinery of commerce; -and so "Miss Kate's room," as it came to be called, fulfilled -in appearance little enough of its original intention of -office. -</p> - -<p> -One can hardly associate walls panelled in rose-pink -brocade with the much-abused art of company promotion. -But Kate sat in that pretty room, and thought out there -all those tremendous schemes, which brought her such brilliant -success. She felt she had retired from the firing line; -she schemed and planned in secure cover outside the battle; -and when any idea eluded her for too long she went out -and drove her motor car, or played golf, till the idea -arrived. In the season she sometimes went away on -butterfly-hunting trips. At the same time she had great ideas of -buying an estate where she could have a private golf course -of her own. She had grown so strangely sensitive to stares -these days, and, people said, unsociable. Her engagement -to Mr. Austin had been broken off long ago, and to tell -the truth Austin was well enough pleased to be rid of her. -Africa, he felt, had eliminated from her all the points which -beforetime had caught his admiration. And then again -she was so enormously rich one could not, he told himself, -marry a woman with such an unwieldy amount of riches. -At least he could not. Nor did he intend that the future -Mrs. Austin, if ever there was one, should have more -practice in high finance than was necessary to manage her own -accounts and the household weekly bills. -</p> - -<p> -In fact, it was over this question that he flattered himself -had come their split. She had given him, to be sure, a -pretty broad hint that day on the landing stage, but the -actual rupture of their engagement had not come till a -week later, and Kate was clever enough to make Mr. Austin -think that the idea was his and his alone. Still they had -parted on excellent terms, and any service, professional or -otherwise, that Austin could render her in the future was -one that he should look forward to, as he promised, most -keenly. -</p> - -<p> -"Though you cannot see your way to be my husband," -she had said to him lightly, "you will still upon occasion -act as my solicitor?" -</p> - -<p> -"Let's call it 'friend,' Kate," he had answered, and -they parted on that. -</p> - -<p> -But that day, after Aunt Jane had showed her the Carter -leader in the paper, Kate went to her room, and -somehow her thoughts went back to Henry Austin. She tried -to analyze why she had ever got engaged to him. As far -as she could define it, a sort of empty space, a partial -vacuum, had come into her life, and Austin appeared, and -in a tentative way seemed to fill it. Now that he was gone, -the vacuum returned. It did not exactly ache, but it -caused a vague discomfort that annoyed her, and when she -demanded a cure, something within her kept repeating, -"Carter, Carter, Carter!" -</p> - -<p> -She resented this clamor. She told herself that she was -a strong woman. She refused to have her hand forced. -She declined to allow an ex-employe of her own to be -forced into her life as its only complement. And still that -inner something, with irritating persistency, kept repeating, -"Carter, Carter," and then got unpleasantly familiar, -and began to murmur: "George." -</p> - -<p> -She stood it for an hour, stood for that time persistent, -inward voices urging her, with never a falter, to one narrow -course, and then she got up from her great cushioned chair -and went to an old Sheraton bureau. Only one narrow -drawer in it was locked, and she carried the key of that -amongst the charms on her watch-bangle. She opened the -drawer and took from it a photograph. -</p> - -<p> -It was only a steamer group, crudely taken by an amateur -on a kodak film, a very imperfect thing at its best, -and mottled now by the persistent West African mildew. -A piece of brown paper with a hole in it was in the same -drawer, a mask so cut that it blocked out all of the group -except one individual. She fitted this into place and gazed -her fill on this very crude presentment of George Carter. -</p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-251"></a> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-251.jpg" alt="She gazed her fill on this very crude presentment of George Carter." /> -<br /> -She gazed her fill on this very crude presentment<br /> -of George Carter. -</p> - -<p> -Well, at any rate he was not a handsome man. But -there was something about even this indifferent photograph -that gave her a great thrill. It touched some inward chord -that no other power on earth could set into vibration, and -she was discomforted thereby. -</p> - -<p> -The gong went for dinner. She ignored it. A servant -came presently—she had added to the number of servants -at the Prince's Park house and Mrs. Craven accepted the -alteration passively—and the servant most respectfully -stated that dinner would be served in ten minutes, and was -not Miss Kate going up to dress? But Miss Kate was busy -and would have a cup of tea and a sandwich. -</p> - -<p> -Mrs. Craven below got the news, smiled grimly, and ate -an extremely good dinner. She felt a fine satisfaction in -having set to work exactly the right influences which would -bring that ridiculous Kitty to her senses. -</p> - -<p> -But upstairs, in the prettiest room in Liverpool, Kate -wrestled with Fate. She pictured the man that the mask -singled out of the group: Red hair, a dogged jaw, ill-cut -clothes, and, upon occasion, a man who used the language -more fitted to an underpaid stevedore. She had overheard -Carter discoursing to the factory at large that night of the -false alarm at Mokki, when he chided the Portuguese and -the factory boys in phrases learned from Swizzle-Stick -Smith. Was this the man she had ever fancied for a -husband? No, a thousand times no. -</p> - -<p> -She locked the group and the mask once more into its -drawer, and went back to her cushions and a novel. There -was still another great rubber company on the brink of -flotation. This time the pugilistic Mr. Smith had -procured for her the grant of the land, and had assured her -that the King of Okky, thanks to his recent improvement -in morals, would see that the title remained unchallenged. -The proposition was, she honestly believed, commercially -sound, but the risk lay in the British Public. Were they -loaded up with rubber stock? That was the point to decide. -So far she had not had a share of her companies underwritten, -in spite of abundant and pressing offers. But here -was an awkward question to decide: Should she insure this -issue, or should she risk having it not taken up, and invite -a fiasco? -</p> - -<p> -She tried with cold logic to reason out the arguments -for and against, and to strike a balance between them. -But for once her brain refused to act. Even the novel, -which she read and did not absorb, did not offer her the -necessary hint. It was an old trick of hers, this reading -of a dozen chapters of weak fiction, to get an inspiration, -and so far it had never failed her. She was an omnivorous -novel reader. She went through quite two-thirds of the -fiction brought out annually by British publishers, and -could never, next morning, have passed the easiest -examination in a novel she had read the night before. But all -her clever business ideas were evolved when she was -reading these paltry books. -</p> - -<p> -At last she could endure the vague things that oppressed -her no longer. She dropped the book on the floor. And -then she got up and went into the secretary's narrow room -next door. She found cable forms and sat at a table. -Then she wrote glibly enough this message. -</p> - -<p> -"<i>Burgoyne, Monk River, West Africa, Forward this -to Cascaes Mokki special runner want you act our agent -Las Palmas</i> 2,400 <i>commence cable acceptance or refusal, -O'Neill.</i>" -</p> - -<p> -She counted up the words, laid down her pencil, and -laughed. "At any rate," she said, "that will give one a -chance. And George was fool enough to think that -Mr. Cascaes was running after me. Oh, I have no patience -with men who can't see further through the fog than that." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap18"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XVIII -<br /> -CARTER MAKES A PURCHASE -</h3> - -<p> -It was Captain Image returning red and wrathful from -an unsuccessful cargo foray amongst the southern and -eastern factories that Carter met the day after his arrival -at the Coast. The mariner had heard of the deal at Mokki, -and felt personally affronted that a nest of cargo which -he had already looked upon as his own should have been -handed over once more to the Germans. -</p> - -<p> -"So you're on the beach, are you," said he, looking -Carter up and down with vast disapproval. "I must say -you look it. I've seen old Swizzle-Stick Smith come down -after a jaunt in the bush and I thought he couldn't be -beat for general shagginess and rags. But you give him -points. What did Miss Kate bounce you for?" -</p> - -<p> -"I believe I resigned." -</p> - -<p> -"Same thing. And now you've come to ask me to take -you home as a distressed British subject, I suppose. Well, -Carter-me-lad, a deck passage is your whack according -to consular understanding, but you've sat in my chart -house and you've sent me cargo, and so I'm going to put -my hand in my own breeches pocket and take you home -in the second class. And I tell you what: Chips and the -bo's'n have got a shop in the foc's'le that I'm not -supposed to know about, and if you care to go in there and -get enough rig out to see you home, I'll foot the bill." -</p> - -<p> -"You're very good——" -</p> - -<p> -"I know I am. It puts me about five weeks further off -that hen farm outside Cardiff that I want to retire onto, -being good like this. There, run away out of this chart -house, me-lad, and tell the chief steward to give you a -square blow-out of white-man's chop one-time. I'm sure -you need it. I never saw a man with so much of the lard -stewed off him." -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed. "Will you let me slip a word in? I've -cargo for you." -</p> - -<p> -"What! You!" -</p> - -<p> -"I'm afraid you won't hook much commission out of -it, Cappie, as you'll have to take it at ballast rates." -</p> - -<p> -"Catch me." -</p> - -<p> -"But there'll be about seventy tons of it as far as I -can reckon." -</p> - -<p> -"My Christian Aunt! do you tell me, Carter-me-lad, -that you've scratched up seventy tons of cargo? Here, sit -down. No, sit down. Don't talk. I'm not going to have -you going away and calling the <i>M'poso</i> a dry ship." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image had no tariff rate for tin ore, but he -invented one with great readiness, and then knocked off -ten per cent. by way of encouraging a new industry. -"Now, where is this mine of yours?" he asked genially. -"Tell me, and I warrant I'll find you an easier way to -bring your produce than paddling it in dugouts." -</p> - -<p> -"Up the river." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, let's look at your charts, me-lad." -</p> - -<p> -Carter shook his head. -</p> - -<p> -"Why, how's that? Haven't you made one?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I've made one right enough, but it's inside my -skull and out of public view." -</p> - -<p> -"H'm," said Image. "Don't want any competitors, eh, -Carter-me-lad?" -</p> - -<p> -"Why should I?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, drink up, and let me fill your glass. Here, have -another squirt of bitters." -</p> - -<p> -"No, thanks, Cappie, no more. I drank enough champagne -with the King of Okky to last me months. I've got -a lot of big business ahead of me and I want a clear head. -Now, if you take this consignment of tin ore home for -me, and rob me as little as you can help over freight, -what's next? Swansea and a smelter, I suppose?" -</p> - -<p> -"They're a bit Welsh down in Swansea," said Captain -Image, who came from Cardiff himself. "They'll do with -a trifle of looking after. What you want's a smart agent." -</p> - -<p> -"The thing I want first and soonest is cash. Now, look -here, Cappie, you know Swansea, and you're fond, by the -Coast account, of a bit of commission. Well, here's a nice -lump of it on offer. If you'll get some smelter firm to -buy this parcel of ore on assay, and pay cash for it, I'll -give you five per cent. on what you raise." -</p> - -<p> -"It's a deal. You couldn't have come to a better man, -Carter-me-lad. I'll open you an account at the Bank of -West Africa——" -</p> - -<p> -"And get the whole balance cabled out here?" -</p> - -<p> -"I was going to suggest that," said Captain Image, -doubtfully, "if you hadn't rushed me so. But you won't -want the lot. Now, with fifty pounds or so——" -</p> - -<p> -"I want every sixpence. Man, do you think I'm going -to nibble at my cake now it's been given me? Kallee's -straight, I firmly believe. But what's his life worth?" -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image shook his head. "Very heavy drinker -even for a darky, and of course he hasn't a white man's -advantages in knowing the use of drugs." -</p> - -<p> -"Besides, there are the usual risks of kings and of -Africa. He's put down the local anarchist. He cooked -the only two who tried to assassinate him, and took a day -about it over slow fire, and that discouraged the breed in -Okky. But still there are risks. So that altogether he's -not a good life, and if he was to go out, it's quite on the -cards his heirs, successors, and assigns might not recognize -my title." -</p> - -<p> -"You're right, me-lad. What you've got to do is to rip -the guts out of that mine at the biggest pace possible, and -I'll bring in the <i>M'poso</i> round here to load every time I -come along the Coast." -</p> - -<p> -Carter nearly laughed. He knew the capacity of his -mine—quarry, it was, rather—and the hold space of the -little <i>M'poso</i>. Tin was wavering about just under £176 -per ton just then; he had reckoned that he could produce -for £10 a ton; and the more profit he could get, the more -pleased he would be. But he was not afraid of bringing -down the price; he had plenty of margin for a cut. His -only fear was that the river road might be stopped before -he had made his fortune. And he intended to empty the -veins of Tin Hill at the highest speed that all the strained -resources of Africa were capable of, and if necessary to -keep three steamers the size of the little <i>M'poso</i> ferrying -his riches across to the markets. But he did not let out -any word of this to Image. If the locality and the -enormous wealth of this mine were to leak out, nothing could -prevent a rush. At the existing moment he was penniless, -and in any great influx of capital and men must inevitably -be swamped. Secrecy was essentially his game for the -present. -</p> - -<p> -So he accepted Captain Image's proposal in the spirit -in which it was made, and then put forward feelers for a -steam launch. Was there such a thing already on the -Coast that one could pick up cheap just then? -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image lit a thoughtful pipe. "I don't know -of any little steamboat that you could buy just now out here, -cheap or dear. There are one or two in Sarry Leone, -certainly, but they are all either too big for your job or too -tender to bring round the Coast." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm a bit of mechanic, you know. I wouldn't mind -nursing engines. My boy, White-Man's-Trouble, too, -would make, according to his own account, a pretty -decent second engineer." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I know him. Used to be stand-by-at-crane boy on -the <i>Secondee</i>, and stole everything that wasn't nailed down. -But you'd never get one of those Sarry Leone wrecks round -here without being drowned in the process. I tell you -what, though. D'ye know anything about motor cars, me -lad?" -</p> - -<p> -"Why?" asked Carter, who had never handled one in -his life. -</p> - -<p> -"Because at Dutton and Maidson's factory at Copper -River they've got an old wreck of an oil launch, if she -hasn't rotted and sunk at moorings, that you could have -cheap." -</p> - -<p> -"Everything cheap is dear to me just now. I haven't -a penny in my pocket. But what do you mean by cheap?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, she certainly wasn't out in the river the last three -times I called, but I did hear they'd hauled her up a creek. -But if she hasn't sunk at moorings, and the ants haven't -walked off with her, I should think you could get the bits -that rust couldn't eat for three ten-pound notes." -</p> - -<p> -"Does she burn gasolene?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, ordinary canned paraffin. I know that was supposed -to be the great point about her when she was brought -out. Only trouble was, she didn't seem to be an amateurs' -boat at all, and after the first week or so there wasn't a -soul in the factory that could get her to steam at all. So -they tied her up to a buoy and did their business in the -old dugouts and the surf boats as formerly." -</p> - -<p> -"I wonder if the old chief has got an emery wheel down -in your engine room?" -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image stared at this change of subject, and ran -a finger round inside his collar to shift the perspiration. -"What do you want an emery wheel for? Sharpen your -wits on?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, my razor. If I go and try and buy a motor launch -with this red wool on my chin, they'll take me for the -wild man down from the back of beyond and stick up the -price." -</p> - -<p> -"Quite right. You've a very sound business mind, -Carter-me-lad. You can, I believe, get a very sound thing -in razors for a shilling at that fo'c'sle shop if Chips is still -keeping one, and whilst I was buying I should get a bottle -or two of Eno, if I were you. Capital thing to keep your -liver down to gauge." -</p> - -<p> -"I want to get all these things," said Carter emphatically. -"I daresay, indeed, I should like to buy up practically -the whole of Chips' remaining stock, partly for my -own use and partly to take up country. But the fact still -remains unaltered that until I can get an advance against -bills of lading, I am without a copper in my pocket. I -suppose that greedy hound Balgarnie is the man to see -about finance, though." -</p> - -<p> -"He is a greedy hound, Carter-me-lad, between you and -me. Let me fill up your glass. No, don't put your hand -across it. Well, I'll finish the bottle if you won't. You're -open, just as a matter of form, to giving a lien on that -cargo you're shipping? Just as a matter of form, of course, -in case you peg out before things can be squared up?" -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly, and I'm willing to give five per cent. per -month for the accommodation." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, come now, me-lad, ten per cent.'s the usual. But -I don't want to be stiff with an old friend like you, so -we'll call it seven and a half." Captain Image went to the -drawer under the chart table and unlocked it. "Come, -now, say what you want. Anywhere up to fifty pounds." -</p> - -<p> -"I couldn't possibly do with less than a hundred," said -Carter definitely, and with that they began openly to -wrangle. But it turned out that Captain Image, even with -the help of his financial partner, Mr. Balgarnie, could only -raise seventy-four sovereigns, and with that the other had -to be content. He gave his bond, and stood at the head -of the <i>M'poso's</i> ladder ready to go back to his boat. But -Captain Image with genuine hospitality dragged him back. -</p> - -<p> -"I'm not going to let you go like this, me lad. I've -one turkey left in the refrigerator, and if you peg out -afterwards up those beastly rivers, I'd always like to think I'd -stood you one good dinner when the chance came in my -way. Come now, Carter-me-lad; turkey-chop? There's -not another skipper on the Coast that would make you -an offer like that." -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed and gave in, and turned towards the -flesh-pots. He did not like turkey. Once in Upper -Wharfedale his father had come home from Skipton with -thirty turkey poults, which the family reared with very -vast care, and thereafter had to eat. Turkey once per -annum is a luxury; twice cloys; but thirty times, when -legs follow breast, and wings are succeeded by side-bones, -would weary any man living. But by custom in West -Africa, turkey from a steamer's refrigerator is the height -of luxury, and Carter recognized the hospitable motive. -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image, when mellowed by food and wine that -night, talked of Miss Kate O'Neill, and Carter behind an -elaborate indifference listened with a hungry interest. She -was floating rubber companies it appeared with enormous -success. She had very nearly been engaged to a law-sharp -named Austin, but had got out of it in time. She was -reported in Liverpool to be struck on some palm oil clerk -on the Coast, but Captain Image proclaimed that to be -rot, and what did Carter-me-lad think? -</p> - -<p> -"Well, of course, there was Cascaes," said Carter -judicially, "but I don't see there was anyone else. All the -rest of the men she met out here were either married or -engaged." -</p> - -<p> -But George Carter whistled cheerfully to the stars as -his boat-boys paddled him up through the steaming -mangroves to his abiding place that night, and Mr. Balgarnie -and Captain Image nudged one another delightedly as they -listened to his music. -</p> - -<p> -Button and Maidson's launch, that ought to have served -the factory in Copper River, turned out upon inspection -to be even worse than Captain Image had forecasted, and -the agent in charge was most enthusiastic in accepting -the two five-pound notes that were offered for her. And -thereafter for Carter and White-Man's-Trouble began a -period of savage toil. -</p> - -<p> -The white man was a mechanic born, but he had never -seen an oil engine in his life, knew nothing of clutch, -water-jackets, or reversing gear, and had to make his first -acquaintanceship with a carburetor. The men at the -factory were frankly ignorant of the launch's mechanism; -said so indeed before they sold her. -</p> - -<p> -"But I know we have got a plan-thing of the works -stowed away somewhere," the agent stated. "Can you -understand a machine from seeing a drawing?" -</p> - -<p> -"Rather," said Carter. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, we'll find it," said the agent, and they wasted -two days in turning over every scrap of paper the factory -contained, but the blue prints refused to discover -themselves. -</p> - -<p> -"Let you off your bargain if you like," said the agent -ruefully, when the place had been searched through -without success. -</p> - -<p> -"Not a bit," said Carter. "Lend me a couple of boys -and I'll take those engines down and learn 'em for myself." -</p> - -<p> -Now, to anyone who does not know the hot, steamy -climate of a West African river from personal experience, -the manner in which unguarded ironwork can decay would -sound beyond the borderland of fact. A nut left long -enough on a bolt in that moist stew of heat does not -always rust fast. As often as not, when one takes hold of it -with a spanner, the whole thing crumbles away into oxide. -</p> - -<p> -The forty-five-foot launch, when Carter first took her -over, lay half water-logged in the middle of a slimy creek. -She was an open boat with her engines housed under a -wooden hutch aft, which had been further reinforced by -some rotten tarpaulin. She had no in-board reversing -gear, but was fitted with a feathering propeller, which -if all went well would drive her astern. -</p> - -<p> -As she lay there she was a perfect picture of what could -be done by neglect and ignorant handling, and there was -not another man then resident under that enervating West -African climate who would have thought her worthy of -salvage. But Carter had got just that dogged drop in him -that brings men out to the front, and he proceeded to clean -up the launch's meagre tools and her spares, to borrow -what others he could from the factory, and then to attack -the engines. It was here that the prodigiousness of his -job first displayed itself. The brasswork was sound -enough—even West Africa could not eat into that—but everything -iron was spongy with rust, and he had to set up a -forge, and weld and shape afresh, out of any scrap he could -find about the factory, each part as he destroyed it. -</p> - -<p> -There was no such thing as a lathe about the place; -there were not even taps and dies. He had to punch slots -through his bolts and tighten them up with forged and -filed wedges. For the out-board work on the feathering -propeller he put the launch on the bank and worked up -to his armpits in the stinking slime, fitting, drilling, and -rivetting with his imperfect tools. -</p> - -<p> -The labor and the exposure very naturally brought its -reward in a sharp dose of fever, but White-Man's-Trouble -attended to that after the manner of the heathen, and he -emerged from it little the worse, and bore with composure -the derision of the other Europeans at the factory when -they saw his whitened eyesockets. -</p> - -<p> -The engines were not ornamental when he had finished -with them, and they were cumbered with a hundred make-shifts; -but when he gave the whole a final inspection, he -told himself that no vital part had escaped a satisfactory -repair. By a merciful chance there was tube ignition, and -after a good deal of manipulation he got the burners to -light. Then when the bunsens roared and the tubes glowed -hot in their cage, he and the Krooboys ground at the -starting handle and turned the engines till the sweat ran from -them in rivulets. In England Carter had heard without -understanding that internal combustion liked their "right -mixture." He was thoroughly practised in finding the -right mixture for that elderly oil engine before it coughed -itself into any continuous activity. -</p> - -<p> -The heavy oil for lubricating that had originally been -sent out, Messrs. Dutton and Maidson's agent still had in -stock because, as he explained, he had found no possible -means of disposing of it, and the ordinary commercial -square tins of paraffin were part of the wares they always -held in quantity. So Carter was able to buy fuel, in all -abundance, for his voyage. Food also he laid in, and a -great roll of canvas, and then turned to his host to say -good-bye. -</p> - -<p> -"Wait a bit, man," said the agent, "and we'll build you -a cabin out of that canvas that will keep at least the thick -of the dew off you at nights. There are sockets along the -gunwales for awning stanchions that will carry bamboo -side-poles capitally, and we can lash duplicate roof-plates -across and rig you a double-roofed tent in style." -</p> - -<p> -"Very much obliged," said Carter, "but I won't wait -for that now. I intend to do it as we go up river. You'll -notice I have shipped a big bundle of bamboos for the -woodwork. Good-bye." -</p> - -<p> -"You seem in the devil of a hurry." -</p> - -<p> -"I am. Good-bye. Now then, Trouble, shove over that -reversing lever to make the boat go ahead. Confound you, -that's astern, you bushman. There, that's better. -Good-bye all." -</p> - -<p> -"Good-bye, and good luck," said the agent, and he told -his subordinates at supper that night that another good, -keen man had gone off to disappear in Africa. -</p> - -<p> -But Carter was developing into one of those tough, tactful -fellows that people call lucky because they always seem -to succeed in whatever they set a hand to. When the flood -tide was under her, the launch coughed her way up the -great beer-colored river at a rate that sometimes touched -ten knots to the hour. She added her own scents of -half-burned paraffin and scorched lubricating oil to the -crushed-marigold odor of the water, and disgusted all the -crocodiles who pushed up their ugly snouts to see what came -between the wind and their nobility. On the ebb she still -hauled up past the mangroves at a good steady two miles -every hour. -</p> - -<p> -The engine, with rational treatment, seemed a very decent -sort of machine, though the feathering propeller, even -till its final days, was always liable to moods of -uncertainty, and after twenty-four hours of sending the launch -ahead, would without any warning suddenly begin to pull -her astern. Still these erratic moods always yielded to -treatment, and, considering that she had been bought without -a rag of reputation, Carter was always full of surprise -at prolonged spells of good behavior. -</p> - -<p> -He did not go up direct as he had come down in the -King of Okky's sixty man-power war canoe. He prospected -the labyrinth of waterways for other channels, and -charted them out with infinite care. He intended to take -every possible precaution for preserving the secrecy of his -mine. Even if he was followed, and he took it for granted -that on some future voyage he presently would be followed, -he wanted to be able to puzzle pursuit. -</p> - -<p> -At a point agreed upon he put into a village which -sprawled along the bank, and presented the King's -mandate, and demanded canoes. The villagers gave them -without enthusiasm and without demur. He took these in tow, -great cotton-wood dugouts that would hold a hundred men -apiece, and hauled them after him, winding through great -tree-hedged waterways where twilight reigned half the day, -and then coming out between vast park-like savannas where -the sun scorched them unchecked and grazing deer tempted -the rifle. -</p> - -<p> -When he arrived at Tin Hill again, the King's finger -had left a visible mark. Great heaps of picked ore lay -along the waterside ready for loading the flotilla. "Good -man, Kallee!" said the Englishman appreciatively. "I'll -dash you a new state umbrella for that." -</p> - -<p> -The water-bellows organ that he had set up at the foot -of the waterfall bellowed out its <i>boo-paa-bumm</i>, and against -each of the great bamboo pipes there fluttered a bunch of -red-dyed feathers to show that that other ju-ju man, his -majesty of Okky, countersigned the warning not to unduly -trespass. -</p> - -<p class="thought"> -***** -<br /> -</p> - -<p> -Cargo after cargo Carter rushed down to the Coast, and -dumped on land he had hired behind a factory. Ever and -again he sent a tidy parcel of ore to a smelter in England -and in due time had more money put to his credit at the -Bank of West Africa. But he did not try any expensive -tricks with the home tin market just then. He had got -out a new launch, a more solid affair this time, driven by a -sixty horse-power gasolene engine that had low-tension -magneto ignition, and so many other improvements on its -predecessor, that White-Man's-Trouble, who had it in -charge, tied a dried monkey's paw to the compression cock -on each cylinder head, as an extra special protective ju-ju. -</p> - -<p> -He carried a cook and an oil-stove galley, and at last -even bought two tin plates and a knife and fork to assist -his meals. He felt it was pandering to luxury, but he -did it all the same. When he made that purchase he -wondered how he would behave in a woman's society after so -long living as a savage. As an after-thought he told -himself that Laura was the woman he had in his mind, and -hoped he would not shock her with his crudities. By way -of carrying out good intentions to the full, he sat down -there and then and wrote to her, and marvelled to find -how little he had to say. -</p> - -<p> -Then one day he came across Slade. -</p> - -<p> -A canoe drew in alongside as he was towing down river -with his tenth cargo, and brought off a note which said -that there was a white man ashore who had run out of -everything and would be eternally grateful for any -European food that could be spared, and would gladly give -him I.O.U. for same, as he was out of hard cash at the -moment of writing, and had mislaid his check-book. -</p> - -<p> -Carter had his misgivings, but sent off a goodly parcel -of food and tobacco, and continued his way down stream. -But the channel was new to him—he had a suspicion of -being watched on his ordinary route—and he ran on a -sandbar on an ebbing tide, and the heavily laden dugouts -were soon perched high and dry. So White-Man's-Trouble -switched off his magneto and stopped the engines, and -Carter put a hand under the gauze net to greet his -prospective father-in-law. -</p> - -<p> -Slade looked curiously at both the launch and her tow. -"You've been getting hold of a gold mine of sorts, I hear. -By the way, as you've arranged to start work as my -son-in-law, I suppose I ought to get more familiar and call -you Henry, or whatever it is." -</p> - -<p> -"George, as a matter of fact." -</p> - -<p> -"I believe you're right. George is what Laura did say. -My mistake. Where is your gold mine?" -</p> - -<p> -"It's tin. And it's up the rivers." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, keep it dark, my dear fellow, if you like. Not that -it makes the smallest odds as far as I am concerned. You'd -never catch me sweating after a mine. Besides, as a point -of fact, I'm doing pretty well at my present job. Getting -rubber properties, you know, for the mysterious Kate." -</p> - -<p> -"Miss O'Neill." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, certainly, Miss O'Neill, if you prefer it, though I -don't see why you need be a prig with me." -</p> - -<p> -"My late employer, you know." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, of course. And you admired her more than a little, -so I gathered from Laura's letters, though she -carefully refrained from saying so." -</p> - -<p> -Carter pulled himself through the mosquito bar and hit -the edge of the bunk. "Now, look here, Slade, I've known -you ever since I've been on the Coast, but this is the first -time we've met on the new footing. I don't want to quarrel -with my prospective father-in-law, but, by Christopher, -if you don't leave Miss O'Neill out of the tale as far as -I'm concerned, there's going to be a row. Kindly remember -I'm engaged to Laura, and intend to marry her -whether you like it or whether you don't." -</p> - -<p> -Slade laughed. "Nice filial sort of statement, that; but -don't mind me. If you suit Laura's taste, I'll swallow -you, too. I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that I'm -making a goodish thing of it myself just now. Kate—I -beg your pardon—Miss O'Neill pays me my regular screw, -and in addition gives me a nice sum down on every property -I've bought for her, and a tidy block of shares when -there's a company floated. I shall be able to give you and -Laura a decent wedding present—in script. By the way, -is she at Smooth River?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, Grand Canary." -</p> - -<p> -Slade stiffened. "How's that?" -</p> - -<p> -"Africa wasn't safe for her. You ought to be dam' -well ashamed of yourself for leaving her here. You knew -the danger from old Kallee a big sight better than she did. -And you left her without a cent to get away with and not -an ounce of credit." -</p> - -<p> -"Then," said Slade stiffly, "do I understand that she's -gone to the islands at your expense?" -</p> - -<p> -"You can understand what you please," said Carter -truculently. -</p> - -<p> -"Are you married to her?" -</p> - -<p> -"I am not at present. I shall be as soon as it suits -Laura's convenience and my own." -</p> - -<p> -"You will kindly understand that I resent your -interference with my finances and my daughter's." -</p> - -<p> -"You may resent," said the prospective son-in-law, "till -you're black in the face, and I shan't lose sleep over it." -</p> - -<p> -Bang went something outside, and Slade started. "Good -Lord," he said, "there's somebody firing at us. Sit down, -man, on the floor." -</p> - -<p> -"Nothing of the kind," said Carter testily. "My boy -Trouble has got the engines going to try to work us off -this bank, and with his usual cleverness he has contrived a -back fire, that's all. There—you can smell it. Now, I -don't think you are a quarrelsome man as a general thing?" -</p> - -<p> -"Not I. Too much trouble to quarrel with people." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I'll just ask you to give Laura and myself your -benediction, and leave the rest to us." -</p> - -<p> -Slade let off his limp laugh. "If a wedding present of -such dubious value will please you, I'm most pleased to -give it. Especially as I see you're inclined to stick to my -little girl. To tell the truth, I'd heard you were after -somebody else and it made me rather mad. You know how -rumors float about in the bush." -</p> - -<p> -Carter's lips tightened. "Who's the other person, -please?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, just my present employer—and your late one. -But I've no doubt it's all a mistake." -</p> - -<p> -"If you'll apply to her, I've no doubt she'll endorse that -sentiment most thoroughly. I don't think Miss O'Neill's -a person to throw herself away on one of her own ex-servants." -</p> - -<p> -Slade chuckled. "If you put it that way, I'm sure she -isn't. By the way, do you know who she is?" -</p> - -<p> -"What do you mean?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I suppose you've discovered by this time that the -late Godfrey O'Neill was a bachelor, and Kate's no relation -to him at all. He and his sister Jane, who married a -hopeless blackguard called Craven, adopted her between them -and brought her up. I've never fagged myself to find out -how she was bred, but you're one of these energetic fellows -that like to dig into pedigrees, and I thought probably -you'd know." -</p> - -<p> -"I don't know, and I shan't inquire." -</p> - -<p> -"All right, don't get excited about it, neither shall I. -D'ye know I think if you could soften that genial -manner without straining yourself, it would be an -improvement. I'm led to believe that fathers-in-law expect a -civility and even at times a certain mild amount of -deference." -</p> - -<p> -"Did you defer to your father-in-law?" asked Carter -brutally. -</p> - -<p> -The tone was insulting and the meaning plain, and -ninety-nine men out of a hundred in a similar place would -have resented it fiercely. But Slade merely yawned. His -sallow face neither twitched nor changed its tint. He got -up and stretched himself lazily. "So that's the trouble, -is it? Well, you didn't ask me to consult you when I chose -a wife, and I didn't ask you to fall in love with my -daughter." He turned his head and eyed Carter -thoughtfully—"You are in love with her, I suppose?" -</p> - -<p> -"Can you suggest any other possible reason why I should -ask her to marry me?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I can hardly imagine you did it for the honor -of an alliance with me. I suppose if I were an energetic -man I should try and worry out what it is you're so sore -about. It must be something beyond the detail that Laura's -got a touch of color in her, because of course you knew -that from the first moment you met her. But I guess the -something else will show itself in its own good time. In -the meanwhile if you'll give me an account of what you -advanced to Laura for this Grand Canary trip, I'll give -you an I.O.U. for it. I don't care to be indebted to -anyone for things like that." -</p> - -<p> -"I'll perhaps send in the bill when I hear there's a -possibility of getting cash payment," said Carter dryly. -</p> - -<p> -And then for the first time Slade lost his temper, and -he cursed his future son-in-law with all an old Coaster's -point and fluency. Every man has his tender point, and -here was Owe-it Slade's. Throughout all his life he had -never paid a bill if he could help it, and he had accepted -the consequent remarks of injured parties with an easy -philosophy. But it seemed he owned a nice discrimination; -some items were "debts of honor," and these he -had always sooner or later contrived to settle. And the -account which he decided he owed Carter for Laura's -maintenance in Grand Canary he set down as one which no -gentleman could leave unpaid without besmirching his -gentility. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap19"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XIX -<br /> -SENHOR CASCAES -</h3> - -<p> -Now, as the servant of O'Neill and Craven, Carter had -done his work well and indeed enthusiastically, and after -he had left the firm's employ he had neither competed -with them in business nor done them harm in any way -whatever. It is true that at his memorable interview with -the King of Okky with a little persuasion he could have -got that grateful monarch to take off the embargo which -he had laid on the factories at Monk, Malla-Nulla, and -Smooth River, though the fact that he did not put forward -pressure on this point could hardly have reached the ear -of Miss O'Neill. Indeed it is to be doubted if she ever -knew that any reference to her name or affairs cropped up -at all. -</p> - -<p> -But be that as it may, she certainly from the date of -sending her cable to Cascaes began to interest herself in -opposing Carter's schemes. -</p> - -<p> -The first he knew of it was a typewritten letter from -Liverpool on the firm's note-paper beginning "Dear sir," -and ending "O'Neill & Craven, per K. O'Neill." In arid -business sentences it understood he had "a tin-mining -proposition up Smooth River," it pointed out that "our -firm for many years has had very far-reaching interests in -this neighborhood," and it suggested that O'Neill and -Craven should buy the mine "to prevent any clash of -interests." -</p> - -<p> -Carter replied to this curtly enough that Tin Hill was -not in the market, and took the next boat home to -Liverpool. He had picked up a distressed merchant skipper -named Kettle, and put him in charge of the motor boat, -and the canoes, and the mining work generally, and though -in their short interview he decided that Kettle was the -most tactless man in Africa, he believed him to be honest, -and instinctively knew him to be capable. -</p> - -<p> -"One thing I must ask," he said at the end of their -talk, "and that is that you do not try any proselytizing up -here. Your creed, I have no doubt, is very excellent at -home, but out here where they are either Moslemin or -nothing it will only stir up disputes, and that I won't -have. Is that quite agreed?" -</p> - -<p> -"I have learned, sir," said the sailor, "to obey orders -to the letter even though I know them to be against an -owner's best interests." -</p> - -<p> -"Um," said Carter, and stared at him thoughtfully. -"Well, Captain, I think it would be safest if you went on -those lines. You will find your chief engineer, who carries -the name of White-Man's-Trouble, beautifully unreliable -in most things, but he understands the launch's engines -wonderfully, and I like him. I'd take it as a favor if -you'd deal with him as lightly as possible." -</p> - -<p> -"I'll bear your words in mind, sir, though, as a man -who has handled everything colored that serves afloat, I'd -like to point out that pampering spoils them." -</p> - -<p> -"The only other point to remember is that I've made -my name up these rivers mainly by being known as a ju-ju -man—sort of wizard, in fact. You'll have no difficulty, I -suppose, in following up that line now I've given you the -hint?" -</p> - -<p> -"You'll pardon me, sir, but if that's made an essential, -I must chuck up the job, sorely in need of employment as -I am at the moment. I have my conscience to consider. -And besides as a liar I am the poorest kind of failure." -</p> - -<p> -"Pooh, man, it's only a little acting that's required." -</p> - -<p> -"Mr. Carter," said the sailor still more stiffly, "you see -in me a man who's sunk very low, but I've never descended -yet to working as a theatrical. According to our Persuasion, -we hold that play acting is one degree less wicked -than bigamy, and indeed often leads to it." -</p> - -<p> -"Well," said Carter, "that mail-boat sails in half an -hour's time, and I've got to go by her. I've been building -on you, Captain, as the most trustworthy man now knocking -about in West Africa." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm all that, sir." -</p> - -<p> -"So I shall have to respect your scruples and give you -the billet." -</p> - -<p> -"You shall never regret it for one minute, sir. You'll -find the address of Mrs. Kettle on this slip of paper, and if -you'll post three-quarters of my wages to her as they fall -due, I'd take it as a favor. I've been out of—well, I -won't pester you with domestic matters, sir, but the fact -is I'm afraid she must be in very poor circumstances just -at the moment." -</p> - -<p> -"She shall have a check posted the day after I land in -Liverpool. I give you my word for that." -</p> - -<p> -"I thank you, Mr. Carter. Now, if you wanted another -officer, there's a Mr. McTodd, an engineer who's just now -at Akassa, that I could get." -</p> - -<p> -"Thanky, Captain, but not for me." -</p> - -<p> -"I believe I could persuade him to take a low wage." -</p> - -<p> -"Not for me, Captain. I know McTodd. He's far too -thirsty and far too cantankerous. You'd find him a ugly -handful." -</p> - -<p> -"Me! By James, sir, I can handle that swine in a -way that would surprise you. He's had a bad up-bringing; -he belongs to the Free Kirk; but after I've had the -manipulation of Mr. McTodd for a week, I can make him as -mild as Norwegian Swiss milk." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, we'll say 'not for the present,' at any rate. With -the organization I've got together, and the backing from -the King of Okky that I've told you about, you'll be able -to haul down all the available ore if you follow out my -instructions, and when it comes to bonus, Captain, if you've -been successful, you'll find me a generous paymaster. I -don't toil for nothing myself. I work about ten times as -hard as my neighbors, and draw in about seventeen times -as much pay. I like a man who has got the same ambitions." -</p> - -<p> -The little sailor sighed. "I've always done ten times -the normal whack of work, sir, but somehow I've missed -fingering the dibs. I tell you flat, fourteen pounds a -month has been good for me, and month in and month -out I've not averaged ten." -</p> - -<p> -"Then, if that's the case," said Carter briskly, "just -here should come the turn in your fortunes. Shake hands, -Captain. Good-bye to you, good health and good luck. -Here's my surf boat. The steamer's heaving short." -</p> - -<p> -"Good-bye, sir," said Kettle, "I'm sure you'll remember -to send that check." -</p> - -<p class="thought"> -***** -<br /> -</p> - -<p> -The mail-boat called as usual at Las Palmas and was -boarded on arrival by the usual batch of invalids and -Liverpool trippers for the run home. Carter landed as -soon as the port doctor gave clearance papers, rowed to the -mole and chartered a tartana, between whose shafts there -drooped a mouse-colored mule. In it he bumped over the -badly laid tram lines from the Isleta to the city, and then -left the city by the Telde road. -</p> - -<p> -Las Palmas is the meeting place of all West Africa, and -if one is there long enough, one expects to meet sooner or -later every man who has business or other interests on the -Coast. Carter waved his hand to a Haûsa constabulary -officer in the gateway of the Catalina, and to a Lagos -branch boat skipper who was standing on the steps of the -Elder Dempster office. Coming down from the telegraph -station he saw one of the Germans who had been frightened -out of Mokki, and under a café awning by the dry river -bed no less a personage than Burgoyne of Monk River -waved a hospitable hand and invited him to try a glass of -Bass. -</p> - -<p> -But further on, where the Telde road leaves the city, he -saw a man whose walk he knew, and instinctively leaned -out from the tartana's awning to show himself, and to -wave a greeting. The man was Cascaes. But the Senhor -Cascaes stared him coolly in the face, and—cut him dead. -</p> - -<p> -The tartana rattled on, and Carter nodded after the -Portuguese thoughtfully. "You have always hated me -pretty tenderly," he mused. "I wonder why. I've hammered -you a dozen times, but it's only been in the ordinary -way of business, and what any half-baked Portuguese has -got to expect. You surely can't be up against me for -that." -</p> - -<p> -Laura was not living in the convent, but lodged in the -house of a banana farmer just beyond. Carter found her -in the garden. She was sitting on the end of a bench -overhung with great lavender clots of wistaria at one end and -shaded by a purple mass of bougainvillea at the other. -He noted with a queer thrill that there was something -cold in the outward form of her greeting. -</p> - -<p> -She returned his kiss accurately enough, but without -enthusiasm. Still, from the moment she saw him, the light -came into her eyes that he had grown to know so well. -The two things did not seem somehow or other to tally. -Carter sat himself on the bench and took a good hold on -his nerves. Then he slid an arm round her waist and -drew her to him. "Well," he said, "out with it. What's -the trouble?" -</p> - -<p> -She dropped her head on his shoulder contentedly enough. -"Oh, the usual. When you're away from me, dear, I never -feel quite certain if I ought to marry you." -</p> - -<p> -"Now, that's awkward, isn't it? But as I have been -up country colloguing with your other suitor, old Kallee, -you couldn't very well have been with me there." -</p> - -<p> -"I wish you hadn't gone." -</p> - -<p> -"How delightfully unreasonable! We'd nothing to boil -the pot on before, and now we've plenty, and neither of us -is a bit the worse. What's broke since I've been away?" -</p> - -<p> -"The world, I think," said Laura miserably. -</p> - -<p> -"Then I hope I'm the sticking plaster that will mend -it. Now, I want to hear all about Las Palmas, and what -you have been doing. I see most of West Africa's here. -Great Christopher! but it is fine to smell even the outside -edge of civilization once more. My mother used to get -tired of Wharfedale occasionally—ah, well, but that -wouldn't interest you." -</p> - -<p> -"No, you always cut yourself short when you begin to -talk about your people." -</p> - -<p> -"Do I? Well, what's sauce for the gander's sauce for -the goose and you're the goose. Did you ever speak to me -about your folk? Not one word, unless I dragged it out. -Look here, Laura, are you trying to wrangle? Because if -so, and if it's my fault, just say what's the crime, and -give me my licking and get it over. I've got a clear -conscience, and I'll be as penitent as you please." -</p> - -<p> -"My dear, you've been perfect." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I say," said Carter, "not too sudden. That sort -of thing brings on heart attacks." -</p> - -<p> -"I know your temptations, and you've been an honorable -gentleman all through." -</p> - -<p> -"I wish," said Carter whimsically, "you could persuade -other people to look at me in that light. A missionary on -the steamer yesterday called me a gin-selling ruffian -because I happened to be sitting in his deck chair; one of -the Protectorate officials a week ago accused me of being -a smuggling gun-runner, because I've been up country and -happened to get on with the native local headmen instead -of scrapping with them, and Miss K. O'Neill, of our -mutual acquaintance, has given me to understand that if I -don't quit poaching on what she's pleased to call O'Neill -and Craven's territory, she'll run me out of business. To -give her her due I gather she proposes to pay me something -to clear out." -</p> - -<p> -"And you're going to take it from her?" -</p> - -<p> -"Don't say 'her' so tragically. I'm not going to take -anything from her, or from anyone else. I've got a mine, -and it's a nailing good mine, and I'm going to run it by -my lone or bust. It isn't a thing you could sell to a -company, and besides it isn't one of those mines one would -care to sell. It's too good for that. It's just a fortune for -two people, and one of them is presently going to sign -herself Laura Carter." -</p> - -<p> -"George, you're quite the best man on earth." -</p> - -<p> -"I doubt it myself at times. By the way, who should -I see down in Las Palmas just now but Cascaes. He did -me the honor of ignoring my existence. It wasn't the -unshaved Coast Cascaes either; he'd got a clean blue chin, -and the rest of him was dressed fit to kill. Now, what is -the mysterious Cascaes doing here?" -</p> - -<p> -"He's O'Neill and Craven's agent for Grand Canary. -I thought you'd heard." -</p> - -<p> -"No, it's news to me. It's news, moreover, that they -had any business here that required an agent." -</p> - -<p> -"They haven't." -</p> - -<p> -"Hum," said Carter. "Miss O'Neill doesn't pay a salary -without getting value for it. Now this is one of her -deep-laid schemes." -</p> - -<p> -Laura looked at him queerly. "Yes," she said, "this -is one of Kate's deep-laid schemes, George. I wonder if -you can see through it." -</p> - -<p> -The sun above them scorched high, and the cool white -buildings of the banana farmer threw the shortest of -purple shadows. The fresh breath of the trade rustled -the ferns and the palm leaves of the garden, and stirred -the great masses of the bougainvillea into rhythmical -movement. "It's grand to be in a place like this after -a spell on the Coast," said Carter. -</p> - -<p> -"Do you prefer it to England?" Laura asked pointedly. -</p> - -<p> -Carter held down a sigh. "I believe I do," he said -steadily. "Come, now, old lady, what do you say? Shall -we buy a property here in Grand Canary, and settle down, -and grow the finest flower garden in the island?" -</p> - -<p> -"But roses are your favorite flower and they don't do -well here in the South." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, it's roses that my father cares for, at least he and -the mater together run the roses at home. But I think -my taste runs more to bougainvillea, say—and great trees -of scarlet geranium with stalks as thick as one's leg, and -palms, and tree ferns. Besides, a garden means irrigation -here, and I've never had a real water-works scheme of my -own to play with since I was a kid and worked out a most -wonderful system by the old smelt mill at home. Yes, we -should have great times gardening out here." -</p> - -<p> -They had never said so in words, but both of them knew -that George Carter would never take Laura back to England -when once he had married her, and the girl through -all her fierce tropical love for him recognized what this -self-denial must cost and valued it to the full. But -presently she brought him back to the matter they had been -talking of before. -</p> - -<p> -"Can't you see why Kate sent Senhor Cascaes here, -George?" -</p> - -<p> -"I haven't given him another thought. Besides, although -Miss O'Neill is seeing fit to interfere with me, I -don't intend to meddle with her." -</p> - -<p> -"I think you ought to defend what's your own." -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly I shall. Can anyone accuse me of not doing -so? But I don't see why you keep harping on Cascaes. -The man is an open admirer of Miss O'Neill's, and I -suppose she's tickled thereby. Anyway that's the only -reason I can see why she should have provided him with -a job." -</p> - -<p> -"Do you mean to say you think it is Kate the Senhor -Cascaes is running after?" -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly I do. Who else was there at Mokki?" -</p> - -<p> -"Do you think I've so few attractions then?" -</p> - -<p> -"But, my good girl, you're engaged to me, and he knew -it all along. There was no secret about our engagement. -Everybody about the factory knew of it." -</p> - -<p> -"And because a girl is engaged, or even married, do you -think that's any bar to another man admiring her?" -</p> - -<p> -Carter whistled. "I've been a blind ass, and I must -say I did refuse to listen to the highfalutin' nonsense -Cascaes wanted to pour into my sympathetic ear. How -often have you seen him here in Grand Canary?" -</p> - -<p> -"He has called every day." -</p> - -<p> -"That's not answering my question." -</p> - -<p> -"George, dear, give me credit for loyalty. He told me -one day when you were building that fort at Mokki that -he liked me, and that if the Okky-men came he would die -cheerfully before any harm should come to me; and I told -him that he had no right to say such things to a girl who -was engaged to you." -</p> - -<p> -"Why wasn't I told of this?" -</p> - -<p> -"Because he said to me he had nearly shot you once, -and I was afraid that if there was any trouble, dear, you -might be hurt." -</p> - -<p> -"You could have trusted me," said Carter dryly, "to -keep my end up with a dago like that. Besides, if you'd -given me the tip, I could have seen to it that I had the -drop on him first." -</p> - -<p> -Laura shivered. "You are rather mediæval. I don't -want to be fought for." -</p> - -<p> -"Still, I gather from what you say that you've been -seeing the fellow here?" -</p> - -<p> -"Never when I could help it. Each day I've refused to -see him when he came to the house. But he has waited -for me when I went out into the country, and once he was -here in the garden, sitting on this very seat, when I came -out after lunch." -</p> - -<p> -"Does he always tell the same old tale?" -</p> - -<p> -"He says always he wants to marry me." -</p> - -<p> -"I thought you said you refused to listen to him?" -</p> - -<p> -"George, don't be unreasonable. I've told him over -and over again it's no use; I've gone away every time we've -met; but it seems to be the one occupation of his life." -</p> - -<p> -"Except for running after you, I can imagine he does -have plenty of time on his hands out here." -</p> - -<p> -"Don't you think, George, he was sent to the island to -have nothing to do except that?" -</p> - -<p> -"Sent here who by? By Miss O'Neill, do you mean? -Great Christopher! Laura, what morbid idea will you -have in your head next? I don't flatter myself that outside -business Miss O'Neill cares whether I'm alive or dead, -and as for you, well, the pair of you may be friendly -enough when you were kids, but you seemed to have -outgrown any past civilities last time I saw you together on -the Coast. Don't you go and run away with any wild cat -notions about Miss O'Neill. She's got one amusement in -the world, and that's business, and if she's sent Cascaes -here to Las Palmas, you can bet your best frock the only -job he's got in view so far as she's concerned is dividend -hunting. Apropos of which, I nearly forgot. Here's -something to practise your autograph in." -</p> - -<p> -"Why, it's a check-book." -</p> - -<p> -"Clever girl. Guessed it in once. I just opened a -credit for you down at the bank in Las Palmas for £500 -to be going on with. That's for chocolate, and hairpins, -and a mantillina, and the latest thing in Spanish slippers. -I say, Laura, you must get a pair of those tan ones, with -the laces tied in a bow just down over the toe. And if -you don't go through the lot whilst I'm away squaring -mine matters up in England, I shall take you solemnly -round the shops when I come back here, and buy you a -trousseau of all the ugliest and most unbecoming garments -they have in stock." -</p> - -<p> -"You are good to me, dear. But I can never spend -all that." -</p> - -<p> -"If you've any balance you find unwieldy, buy Cascaes -a smile with it, if you can find one that will fit. No, -seriously, old lady, you will be marrying a rich man, although -you did not know it when you took him, and you may as -well get used to spending. It's no use for us preparing to -save." -</p> - -<p> -"No use preparing to save," poor Laura repeated miserably -to herself. "There will be no—no one except ourselves -to look forward to." But she said nothing of this -aloud. She just thanked him, and snuggled in to his -shoulder and patted his sleeve. -</p> - -<p> -Far away over the corner of the isle a steamer hooted -in the harbor of the Isleta, and the sound came to them -dimly through the foliage plants. Carter looked at his -watch. "Hullo, I must go, or the criminal who drives -my tartana will flog that poor beast of a mule to death -in his effort to catch the boat. So now, Miss Slade, just -please give me a sample of your best good-bye." -</p> - -<p> -Twilight does not linger in the summer months, even so -far north as Grand Canary. The sun was balanced in -lurid splendor on the rocky backbone of the isle as Carter -said his last words of farewell, making the dead volcanoes -look as though at a whim they could spring once more -into scarlet life. It was dark when he got on the road, -and the evening chill rode in on the Trade. The -mouse-colored tartana mule sneezed as he pressed his galled -shoulders into the collar. -</p> - -<p> -Carter wedged himself in a corner of the carriage and -resolutely looked on life with a reckless gayety. After all, -what was this ache called Love? To the devil with it! -Hereafter he would eat, and drink, and work, especially -work, and—well, Laura was a good sort, and he intended -to play the game, and please her. He had given his word -to Laura, he forgot exactly why, but he had given it, and -that was enough. For good or evil he was one of those -dogged Englishmen who keep to a promise that had once -been given. -</p> - -<p> -Then with an equal doggedness he thrust all these things -from his mind, and resolutely clamped down his thoughts -to Tin Hill and the details of its working. No news had -reached him of the importance which the freakish British -public had placed upon his little arrangement about that -detail of the human sacrifices. He saw himself merely as -an unknown business man who in the near future would -be able to sway a thing which at present he knew nothing -about, and that was the tin market. The idea -unconsciously fascinated him. He had no enmity against the -present producers of tin, did not know indeed who they -were, but he smiled grimly as he thought of the way in -which presently he would govern them. It was the lust for -power, which is latent in so many men, leaping up into -life. -</p> - -<p> -The brilliant stars shone down on him from overhead, -and the cool Trade carried to him salt odors of the sea, -but they got from him no attention. His mind was journeying -away in the African bush, on spouting river-bars, -in offices, on metal exchanges.... -</p> - -<p> -He was roused from these dreams with much suddenness. -In his up country journeying in Africa he had developed -that animal instinct for the nearness of danger -which is present in us all, but in nine hundred and -ninety-nine men out of the thousand becomes atrophied for want -of use. In the river villages the natives had given him -a name which means Man-with-eyes-at-the-back-of-his-head. -</p> - -<p> -It was this slightly abnormal sense that sprang into -quick activity, and Carter made so sudden a stoop that his -face smacked against the shabby cushions on the opposite -side of the tartana. But simultaneously he turned and -clutched through the night, and seized a wrist, and held it -with all his iron force. A moment later he found with -his other hand that the wrist was connected with a long -bright-bladed knife, so he twisted it savagely till that -weapon fell onto the dirty carpet on the floor. And all -the time, be it well understood, no sounds had been -uttered, and the mouse-colored mule jogged steadily on with -the tartana through the dust and the night. -</p> - -<p> -Then Carter began to haul in on the wrist, and the man -to whom it was attached came over into the body of the -vehicle, bumping his knees shrewdly against the -wheel-spokes en route. -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, Cascaes, that's you, is it? And I thought once -you claimed to be a gentleman, and agreed not to go at -me from behind? Well, I'm afraid there's only one kind -of medicine that will suit you, and that's the kind one -gives to dogs that turn treacherous. Have you got any -suggestions to make?" -</p> - -<p> -The Portuguese held his tongue. -</p> - -<p> -"Ready to take your gruel, are you? Well, I propose to -give you a full dose. Hi there, driver, pull up. Wake, -you sleepy head! What is it? Why, I've picked up a -passenger whilst you've been nodding, and now we want to -get down for a minute. Here, give me your whip." -</p> - -<p class="thought"> -***** -<br /> -</p> - -<p> -Carter's arm was lusty and his temper raw. Moreover, -the whip, being the property of a Las Palmas tartana -driver, was made for effective use. -</p> - -<p> -"I may not cure you," said Carter between thumps, -"of a taste for cold-blooded assassination, but I'm going -to make the wearing of a coat and breeches an annoyance -to you for the next three weeks at any rate." After which -statement, as the whip broke, he flung the patient into the -aloe hedge at the side of the road, got back into the tartana -and told the driver to hurry on to the Isleta, or they'd -miss the boat. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap20"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XX -<br /> -MAJOR MEREDITH -</h3> - -<p> -"The <i>Liverpool Post</i>," said Mrs. Craven, "allows itself -to hint gently that you've been rather persecuting Mr. Carter, -Kate. Now, I don't call the <i>Post</i> a sensational paper, -nor is it given to introducing personal matters, as a rule." -</p> - -<p> -"I wish it would mind its own business and leave mine -alone," said Kate crossly. -</p> - -<p> -"'The oppression of nations or individuals,'" read -Mrs. Craven, "'may begin by being a matter of merely -domestic importance, but when it assumes sufficient dimensions -it forces itself into public notice.'" -</p> - -<p> -"Do they couple my name with that?" -</p> - -<p> -"They leave you to do that yourself," said the old lady -dryly. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I don't mind. They may say what they like. -I'm entirely within my rights." -</p> - -<p> -"The <i>Post</i> admits that. Here, I'll read you what it -says, my dear. 'Mr. George Carter, whose name has been -so prominently before the public of late in connection with -his splendid efforts in winning over the King of Okky to -the side of humanity, has himself been the victim of some -very high-handed oppression. He has discovered a most -valuable vein of tin in a part of the back country where -no European explorer had ever trod before, and with toil -and care, and in fact with genius, had brought cargo after -cargo of the valuable ore down mysterious African creeks -and rivers to a spot where the ocean steamers could -conveniently ship it. To be precise, he hired from -Messrs. Edmondson's small factory on the Smooth River a piece -of waste-cleared ground, dumped his ore on that as he -towed it tediously down those unknown creeks in a string -of dugouts, and there let it accumulate so as not to flood -the markets, and cause ruin to the tin industries in -England—' Shall I go on?" -</p> - -<p> -"Please do, Aunt." -</p> - -<p> -"'But presently an interviewer arrived in the shape of -a well-known firm of West African merchants and -financiers, who bought out Messrs. Edmondson's interest in -their Smooth River factory, found that Mr. Carter had -no lease, and gave him notice to quit within forty-eight -hours. As an alternative to removal they demand an -annual rent which amounts to more than fifteen per -cent. of the value of the ore stacked there. In other words, -they are endeavoring, in a manner that almost smacks of -piracy, to force themselves into partnership with him.'" -</p> - -<p> -"Sneak," said Miss O'Neill, "to go and tittle-tattle to -the papers like that." -</p> - -<p> -Mrs. Craven looked at the girl over her spectacles, and -then said she, "Wait a minute till I read you a little more. -'We should add that what gives these proceedings a more -unpleasant flavor than would appear at first sight is the -fact Mr. Carter is unable to defend himself. He had left -West Africa when action was first taken, and it has been -discovered that he was still in ignorance of what had -occurred when his steamer called at Las Palmas. The whole -thing will be sprung upon him with a shock of unpleasant -surprise when he lands in Liverpool to-morrow." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah," said Kate. -</p> - -<p> -Mrs. Craven folded the paper, stood up, and walked -towards the door. "As usual, my dear, you have carried -out your plan very perfectly." -</p> - -<p> -"What plan?" asked Kate incautiously. -</p> - -<p> -"Of treating Mr. Carter so badly," said Mrs. Craven, -turning the handle, "that presently when he hits you back -you will be able to bring yourself to hate him. But then -you are always successful, Kitty dear, in everything you -set your hand to—tryingly successful sometimes," -Mrs. Craven added, and went out, and shut the door softly -behind her. -</p> - -<p> -Kate nodded at the door. "Aunt Jane," she said -viciously, "there are moments when you are a perfect cat. -But I will make him detest me for all that, and then I can -truly and comfortably hate him. It's all very well their -calling him a martyr. Why should everybody's feelings -be consulted except mine?" -</p> - -<p> -All the same, Kate bowed in a certain degree to public -sentiment. One thinks also that she had not toughened -herself sufficiently to meet Carter face to face. Anyway, -she discovered that urgent affairs called her to London, -and whirled off Aunt Jane to her flat that very night. -She left Crewdson to fight the invader when he landed -in Liverpool, and gave the old man definite instructions in -writing that he was not to budge an inch from the firm's -rights. "Show Mr. Carter this letter," she ordered, "if -there is the least occasion for it." -</p> - -<p> -But it seemed that West Africa pursued her. The -telephone rang as soon as she got to the flat. -</p> - -<p> -"That London? That Miss Head? This is Liverpool, -Crewdson. London's just been calling you up. Will you -ring Four-owe-seven-three Pad. What's that? No. -Four-naught-seven-three Pad. Yes, that's it. Good-night, -Miss." -</p> - -<p> -Kate had more than half a mind to let 4,073 Pad alone. -She was tired, and somehow in spite of all her successes -she was a good deal dispirited. The British public had -bought no less than four great rubber companies that she -had offered them; the shares were all at a premium; everybody -was pleased; and she had transferred her own profits -safely into land and trustee securities. Since her first -burst of success, money had simply rolled in on her, and -already it had ceased to give her amusement. Success lay -sour in her mouth. She asked Fortune for just one thing -more. Because she was a woman she could not go and get -it for herself. She told herself that it was only a -convention that held her back—but she shuddered and chilled -all over at the thought of breaking that convention. -</p> - -<p> -She sat in a deep soft chair, twisting her long gloves -into a hard string, and staring into the glow of the fire, -and then with a "Faugh" at her own weakness, she threw -the gloves onto the fender, and walked across to a telephone -that stood on a side-table. -</p> - -<p> -"Four-owe-seven-three Pad, please. No, Forty-seventy-three -Paddington. Yes. Hullo? Hullo? Is that -Four-nought-seven-three? This is Miss O'Neill. Liverpool rang -up to say you wanted to speak to me. Who is that, -please?" -</p> - -<p> -"No one you know," came in the small clear voice of the -telephone. "One of those sort of people who writes -letters to the papers above some such signature as -'Well-Wisher.'" -</p> - -<p> -"If you don't give me your name," said Kate sharply, -"I shall ring off." -</p> - -<p> -"I don't think you will when I tell you I'm going to -give you some news about your father." -</p> - -<p> -"My father unfortunately is dead. You've got hold of -the wrong Miss O'Neill." -</p> - -<p> -The telephone laughed. "Not a bit of it, it's the lady -who is known generally as Kate O'Neill I'm speaking with, -but whose real name is Katherine Meredith." -</p> - -<p> -Now Kate knew that Mrs. Craven was only "Aunt Jane" -by courtesy and adoption, and had naturally wondered -many times over who her real people might have been. -She had always been a very practical young woman, and -had not worried herself unduly over the matter; but still -being human, she had her share of curiosity, and though -the subject had always been strictly taboo at the house in -Princes' Park, still that did not hinder her from discussing -it with her own thoughts. And now, "Katherine Meredith!" -</p> - -<p> -"I think you had better tell me who you are," she said -to the telephone. -</p> - -<p> -"I prefer anonymity. Do you know Day-Pearce?" -</p> - -<p> -"No. Yes, perhaps I do, if you mean Sir Edward -Day-Pearce, the West African man. I don't know him -personally." -</p> - -<p> -"All the better," rasped the telephone. "Anyway, he -is lecturing to-night in a non-Conformist temple in -Westbourne Grove—the Athenæum, they call it. Begins at -eight. He's certain to say something about Meredith. I -should try to go if I were you." -</p> - -<p> -"I shouldn't dream—" Kate began, when whizz went -the bell, and she was cut off. She rang again, got the -inquiry office, found that 4,073 was a hairdresser's shop, -once more got 4,073, spoke to the proprietor, learned that -the telephone had been hired for an hour by a gentleman -who had some business to transact. No, the gentleman -had just gone. No, they didn't know who he was: never -seen him before—Miss O'Neill's ring off had a touch of -temper in it. -</p> - -<p> -She went back to the deep soft chair and tried to bring -her thoughts once more to the subject that had been in -hand before the interruptions came. She was a business -woman, and had trained herself to concentrate the whole -of her mind on any matter she chose. But somehow those -two little words "My father" kept cropping up; and -presently she began trying to picture what her mother was -like. She went to the telephone and called up a theatre -agency. She had to say three times over -"Athenæum—Westbourne Grove" before the young man at the other -end grasped the name, and she was rewarded by hearing -him laugh as he said he had no seats for Sir Edward -Day-Pearce's lecture that evening. -</p> - -<p> -"Where can I get one?" she demanded. -</p> - -<p> -"At the door, madam," was the polite response. "I -believe the prices of entrance are threepence, sixpence, and -one shilling, unless you happen to be a subscriber." -</p> - -<p> -Supposing the whole thing were a hoax to draw her -there, and by some means to make her look ridiculous? -It was quite likely. She was a successful woman, and had -already learned that one of the prices of success is the -spitting of spite and envy. But difficulties did not often stay -long in the path of Miss Kate O'Neill. She picked up a -telephone directory, turned the pages, found a number, -called it up, and made certain arrangements. Thereafter -she dressed, dined, and took Mrs. Craven to laugh over -the new piece at the Gaiety. -</p> - -<p> -But poor Kate found even the Gaiety dull that night. -There was a man on the stage with a red head. He was -not in the least like Carter either in looks, speech, or -manner, but—well, it must have been the hair which persisted -in calling up that unpleasant train of thought which kept -her vaguely irritated throughout all the evening. -</p> - -<p> -There was a bundle of type script waiting for her when -she got back to the flat, which happened to be the verbatim -report of Sir Edward Day-Pearce's lecture which she had -arranged that two stenographers should go and take down -for her, but she did not choose to open this before the keen -eyes of Aunt Jane. Instead she waited till that astute old -lady should see fit to go to bed, and watched her eat -sandwiches, drink a tumbler of soda-water lightly laced with -whiskey, and listened to a résumé of all the other plays -that had filled the Gaiety boards since the house was -opened. At the end of which Kate had the final -satisfaction of being laughed at. -</p> - -<p> -"You've been itching to be rid of me ever since we got -back, my dear, and as a general thing you don't in the least -mind saying when you want to be alone. I wonder what's -in those mysterious papers you're so anxious I shouldn't -ask about. Good-night, Kitty dear." -</p> - -<p> -"Good-night, Aunt Jane," said Kate, and opened the -package. -</p> - -<p> -The lecture was unexciting. It was the dull record of -a dull but capable man, who knew his work thoroughly, -did it accurately, and in the telling of it left out all the -points that were in the least picturesque or interesting. -Sir Edward had spent half a lifetime in Colonial -administration, and the only times he rose into anything -approaching eloquence was when he had to tell of some -colonial interest that was ruthlessly sacrificed by some -ignorant official at home for the sake of a vote or a fad. -Four several instances he gave of this, and these stood -out warmly against the gray background of the rest of the -speech. -</p> - -<p> -But to Kate, who knew her West Africa by heart, it was -all dull enough reading till he came to almost the last -paragraph. -</p> - -<p> -"It is by a peculiar irony," the type report read, "that -an agreement should recently have been come to by which -the notorious King of Okky promises to discontinue his -practice of human sacrifice. It is six-and-twenty years -since I first went out to West Africa, and my immediate -superior then was Major Meredith. He was a man of -the highest ideals, and we all thought of tremendous -capabilities. He saw what was wanted on the spot, and carried -out his theories with small enough regard for ignorant -criticism at home. By the exercise of tremendous personal -influence, and at a fearful risk, he made his way to Okky -City itself, saw its unspeakable horrors, and made a treaty -with the then king. In return for certain concessions the -king was to come under British protection, and of course -give up objectionable practices. Well, I don't know -whether there are any of the Anti-British party here, but -I daresay most of you will think that the addition of a -quarter of a million of square miles of rich country to the -empire was no mean gift. Ladies and gentlemen, you -little know what the Government was then. 'Perish West -Africa' was one of their many creeds, and with Exeter—" -[here the reporter had written the word "Disturbance," -and evidently missed the next few sentences]—"I don't -care whether you like it or whether you are decently -ashamed, the thing's true. They refused to ratify the -treaty, and my poor chief was censured for exceeding -instructions. Well, the backers of the high-minded potentate, -as I believe they called themselves, got their way, -and I wish they were not too ignorant to realize what their -mean little action caused in human lives. Putting the -human sacrifice in Okky City at the very low estimate of -eight thousand a year, in five-and-twenty years that brings -the figure up to two hundred thousand black men and -women whose blood lies at the door of those unctuous -hypocrites who made it their business to break Major Meredith -because he was an Imperialist." -</p> - -<p> -Again the reporter put in the word "Disturbance," but -he apparently managed to catch the next sentence. "Aye, -you may yap," the old administrator went on, "and I -dare say from the snug looks of some of you you're own -sons of the men who did it, and I hope you feel the weight -of their bloodguiltiness. Two hundred thousand lives, -gentlemen, and all thrown away to pander to the fads of -some ignorant theorists who had never been beyond the -shores of England. If Major Meredith could have held -out against the clamor, I believe that he would have been -a man to stand beside Clive, and Rhodes, and Hastings, in -the work he would have done for the Empire; but as it was -he left the service in disgust, and drifted away into the -savage depths of that Africa he knew so well, and had so -vainly tried to help. His wife went with him, and, so I -heard, bore him a daughter before she died. A rumor -reached me that some trader brought the child to England -and adopted her, but poor Meredith—well, he has -disappeared from the record...." -</p> - -<p> -The lecture closed, a few paragraphs farther on, again -with "Disturbance." -</p> - -<p> -Kate folded the sheets and put them on the table. She -was somehow conscious of a queer thrill of elation. One -of the discomforts that an adopted child who does not -know her history must always carry through life, is the -feeling of having been bred of parents that were probably -discreditable. She had vague memories of her babyhood. -There was a village of thatched houses and shade trees. -She had clear recollection of one day playing in the dust -with the village dogs and the other babies—black babies, -they were—when a huge spotted beast sprang amongst -them, roared, and for a moment stood over her, the white -baby. At intervals she had dreamed of that beast ever -since. From maturer knowledge she knew it must have -been a leopard, and leopards do not grow beyond a certain -normal size. But in dreamland that leopard was always -enormous.... She could never remember whether -in the dusty village street under the heat and the sunshine -it had done damage, or whether the pariah dogs had -frightened it away. -</p> - -<p> -Try how she would, she could remember no mother. -The women of the village were all black, and she lived, -so faint memory said, first with one and then with -another. She had no clear recollection of any of them.... -And, indeed, there might have been many villages, because -there were hammock journeys, with a pet monkey riding -on the pole, and walls of thick green bush on either hand -that held dangers.... She still had a scar just below -the nail on the first finger of her right hand where -the monkey bit her one day when she teased it. -</p> - -<p> -But plainest of all these dim pictures of the memory -was one of a white man who at rare intervals came into -the scene and took her on his knee. He had iron-gray -hair and beard which were shaggy and matted, and he -always had a pipe between his lips and a glittering -eye-glass on a black watered-silk ribbon for her to play with. -Furthermore, he always brought some present when he -came to see her, and gave another present also, if he was -pleased, to the black women with whom she lived. It was -he who hung round her neck the Aggry bead that she still -had locked away in the bottom tray of her jewel case. -</p> - -<p> -She remembered this man with a vague kindness. But -if Godfrey O'Neill cut her off from him with such -completeness it must have been for some profoundly good -reason. Uncle Godfrey had been far from squeamish. -Uncle Godfrey in his lazy way stuck to friends when everybody -else voted them far outside the pale. And therefore, -she had argued, the iron-gray haired man with the eyeglass -must have done something peculiarly disgraceful. -</p> - -<p> -That he was her father she was entirely sure. Occasionally -she had tried to argue with herself that she was little -more than a babe when she saw him last, and was no judge, -and that possibly the iron-gray man was her father's -friend. But something stronger than mere human reason -always rose up in arms against such a suggestion. -</p> - -<p> -Sir Edward's halting lecture had roused up one recollection -in her head that heretofore had persistently eluded -her. A thousand times in those dreams of Africa, and the -hot villages, and the pet monkey with its red seed necklace, -and all the other old dim scenes, she had on the tip -of her memory the name of the iron-gray man with the -eyeglass, and a thousand times she had missed catching it -by the smallest hair. In a flash it came back—he was -Meredith. -</p> - -<p> -Was he alive still? She could not tell; but that she -would find out now. For once she adjudged old Godfrey -O'Neill to be wrong. She was not going to let the discreet -veil remain any longer over a man who, whatever his -subsequent career had been, at any rate was a martyr once, -and her father. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap21"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XXI -<br /> -THE FEELING ON THE COAST -</h3> - -<p> -"Well, Carter-me-lad," said Captain Image, coming -into the room, "they tell me you're the most unpopular -man in Liverpool. They want to give you dinners, and -put your photo in the papers, and hear you make a speech, -and you won't have anything to do with anybody. What's -broke? Tin troubling you?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh! tin's all right. But I've got a constitutional -dislike to marching along at the tail of a brass band, that's -all. Besides I feel an awful humbug when all these silly -stay-at-home people insist on believing that the one and -only reason I went up country was to chop down old Kallee's -private crucifixion tree. Have a cigar?" -</p> - -<p> -"Not me in here, me lad. I came home from the Islands -with the old <i>M'poso</i> full of passengers, and I've -smoked myself half sick on cigars. I'll suck at a pipe. By -the way, I've got a message for you from Kallee. The old -sinner came on board himself when we were lying off -Edmondson's factory trying to get your ore, and nearly drank -the ship dry before I could get quit of him. Owe-it Slade's -been palming off I.O.U.'s on him. He'd got quite a sheaf -of them. He says when you marry Laura he'll give them -to you as a wedding present, or words to that effect. But -in the meanwhile if he can catch Slade he's just going to -chop his head off to prevent him putting any more paper -into circulation." -</p> - -<p> -"Well?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, you see, me lad, Slade owes our fo'c'sle shop a -matter of four pounds odd which we can't collect, and he's -got a Holland gun of mine that I shouldn't really like to -lose. Besides, come to thinking of it, I suppose Laura's -fond of him anyway. Couldn't you do something for him?" -</p> - -<p> -Carter stared. "Has he left O'Neill and Craven's, then?" -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image stopped down the tobacco in his pipe -with a horny forefinger. "Why, no, and you'll have to -pay to get him away." -</p> - -<p> -"But what mortal use is he to me?" -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image's pipe worked hard and he spoke in jerks. -"Rubber palaver. Owe-it Slade's the smartest man at -dem rubber palaver on the Coast." -</p> - -<p> -"Pooh! That slackster!" -</p> - -<p> -"That's where you're making the usual mistake. Slade's -got his faults. He wastes his money, he never pays his -bills, he sponges for all eternity, and he makes out he was -born lazy. But don't you believe him. Who got Miss -Kate all these rubber properties that she's floated off into -such whacking big companies?" -</p> - -<p> -"Miss Kate O'Neill." -</p> - -<p> -"No more than you did, me lad. It was just Owe-it -Slade. And to think," Captain Image added with a sigh, -"I always put that man down as a borrowing waster, and -never even hustled him to collect cargo for me. Why, if -I'd known then what I know now, I could have bought -rubber lands through him, for a half surf boat full of gin, -that I might have sold to a company myself, and dined -off turkey in my own house ashore every day for all the rest -of my natural life. Why, my Christian Aunt! I might -even have married, if I'd worked him properly." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image dabbed with his forefinger on Carter's -coat sleeve and left a print of tobacco ash. "You buy -up Owe-it Slade, me lad, and not only is your fortune -made, but—well," he added rather lamely, "you buy him -up and just remember I told you to." -</p> - -<p> -"But—what were you going to say?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well," said Image desperately, "I didn't intend to -tell you, but all up and down the Coast, and in the hotels -in Las Palmas, and even in the bars and offices here, the -boys don't like the way Miss Kate is playing it on you. -It's all right for a girl to take to business, if she's built -that way, but she ought to play the game. Of course the -general idea is, me lad, that you and she started -sweet-hearting and had a turn-up, but of course I'm in the -know, and I've called 'em dam' liars every time they've -started that tale, and told 'em about Laura and how you -were fixed up long before Miss Kate came down onto the -Coast. Why, Carter-me-lad, I've backed up my words -with bets to that extent that if you were to marry the lady -now by any kind of accident, I should stand to lose what -with one fiver and another, a matter of two hundred and -fifty pounds." -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed. "That puts it finally out of the region -of possibility, doesn't it? I can't let you lose a pile like -that. But all the same I'm not going to interfere with -Miss O'Neill. If Slade's useful to her, let her keep him. -I'm much obliged to a lot of officious idiots for -sympathizing with me, but really they're moving on a lot too -fast. It will be quite time for other people to be sorry -for me when I start in to be sorry for myself. Besides, I -thought you, at any rate, were a strong admirer of Miss -O'Neill's?" -</p> - -<p> -"I am," said Captain Image patiently. He always flattered -himself that he left the more eloquent parts of his -speech at Sierra Leone on each trip north, and picked -them up again there next voyage for vigorous use on the -Coast. It was his pride that he conformed most suitably -to Liverpool's sedate atmosphere. "I admire Miss Kate -as a lady more than anyone I know, and if she were -only twenty years older, and I could afford it, I wouldn't -mind going in for her myself. But it's her business ideas, -as she showed them over that factory of Edmondson's, -that I can't stand. The way she stuck up the rent on you, -me lad, is the limit. Why, if that sort of thing went on, -nobody would be safe. It's Oil-Trust morals. I'm Welsh -myself, but I do draw the line somewhere." -</p> - -<p> -"What, Welsh?" said Carter politely. "I should never -have guessed it." -</p> - -<p> -"I am," said Captain Image with sturdy truth, "and -many times, look you, I am proud of it. Which reminds -me that little red-bearded Kettle that you employed to run -your launch and the mine is Welsh also. I don't want to -go against a fellow-countryman who's down on his luck, -but I saw him with my own eyes give old Kallee an -illustrated methody tract on bigamy when he was on the -<i>M'poso</i>, and if His Portliness finds anyone kind enough -to translate it for him, there'll be the devil to pay. -Kallee's black, but he's a king, and he's not the kind to let -any man tamper with his domestic happiness. Now about -Slade——" -</p> - -<p> -"We'll drop Slade. He's Miss O'Neill's man. If Miss -O'Neill chooses to amuse herself by gunning for me, that's -her concern. But I don't shoot back." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image shook his head sadly. "Well, me lad, if -you won't lift a hand to help yourself, I don't see there's -anything more to be said." He put his pipe in his pocket, -stood up and prepared to go. "Oh, by the way, did anyone -tell you about old Swizzle-Stick Smith?" -</p> - -<p> -"Not dead, is he?" -</p> - -<p> -"Lord bless you, no, me lad. Very much the reverse. -Look here, what was your idea of that man?" -</p> - -<p> -"In what way?" -</p> - -<p> -"What was he before he became the disreputable old -palm oil ruffian you first knew at Malla-Nulla?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I suppose he was less disreputable once. He'd let -himself drift, that's all. One does get into frightfully -slack ways in those lonely factories." -</p> - -<p> -"Did he strike you as the usual type of man a factory -agent's made of?" -</p> - -<p> -"Why, no." -</p> - -<p> -"Gentleman, wasn't he, or had been once? Always used -to hitch up the knees of his pyjamas when he sat down; -spoke well; knew Latin; could swear round any man on -the Coast when he was that side out; and had a pleasant -way of making you feel you were dirt when the mood took -him that way?" -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed. "He had some characteristic little ways." -</p> - -<p> -"Ever strike you he'd been a soldier once?" -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose it did." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, me lad, when I was tied up by that Edmondson -factory, a boat swung up to my ladder and a military -party stepped out. Quite the swell, I can tell you: nobby -white helmet, hair cut with scissors, smart gray mustache, -gray imperial bristling underneath it, clean-shaved chin, -white drill coat with concertina pockets, white drill pants -with a crease down the shin, latest thing in pipe-clayed -shoes. If it hadn't been for the old trick with the -eye-glass and the black ribbon, I take my dick I shouldn't -have known him. -</p> - -<p> -"'Hullo Swizzle-Stick Smith,' said I, 'you are a -howler. Whose kit have you been robbing?' -</p> - -<p> -"'Captain Image,' says he, 'allow me—ar—to present -to you Mr. Smith, a new acquaintance. It is not—ar—my -wish to be mistaken for any of your discreditable—ar—pot -companions of the past.' That to me, and on my -own deck, me lad. What do you think of that?" -</p> - -<p> -"I bet you boiled." -</p> - -<p> -Captain Image scratched his head vexedly. "The rum -part of it is, I didn't. Somehow I took the man at his -own valuation. There didn't seem anything else left to -do. He went into my chart house, and sat there as solid -as if he'd been the governor of a colony with six letters -after his name. Just drank one cocktail and took three -swallows at it, I'll trouble you, and actually left a second -to stand by itself on the tray. When I handed him the -tobacco tin to see if he'd got that frowsy old pipe in his -pocket, I'm hanged if he didn't pull out a book of cigarette -papers and roll himself a smoke with those. Well, me -lad, when I remembered Swizzle-Stick Smith's opinion of -cigarettes, you might have knocked me down with a teaspoon." -</p> - -<p> -"He scared me out of cigarette smoking at Malla-Nulla," -said Carter. "He was pretty emphatic over the -weak-kneed crowd (as he called them) who only smoked -cigarettes. But why all this revolution in Mr. Smith's -habits? Did he give any reason for it?" -</p> - -<p> -"That's the amazing thing, he didn't—at least not a -proper reason. He just let me see that the new Mr. Smith—I -got to calling him Major, by the way—was no relation -to the Swizzle-Stick Smith that was, and then went back -over the side to his boat." -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose," said Carter thoughtfully, "he wanted the -reformation to be advertised." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, you don't think I'd keep a choice bit like that to -myself," said Captain Image. "Naturally I spread the -news, though I certainly didn't tell all the Coast, as I've -told you, the way that the late Swizzle-Stick Smith made -me feel second man in my own chart house. But that man -doesn't need any advertising; the most genial drunk -wouldn't take liberties with him, and you'd fall into -calling him Major yourself if you sat with him for ten -minutes. My Christian Aunt! just think what a filthy old -palm oil ruffian he used to be." -</p> - -<p> -"Did he give any reason for pulling up?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I asked him that. Managed to slip it in, you -know. And he answered as dry as you please, 'Urgent -private affairs, Captain Image,' and then tagged on some -Latin, which, as he remarked would be the case, I didn't -understand. You know, me lad," said the sailor thoughtfully, -"he's a gentleman right through, but I shouldn't -think that even in his palmy days he was a man who would -have got on particularly well with the people. A bit -superior, I should call it, with those who hadn't been birched -in the same public school where he was birched." -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose," said Carter, "this is another instance of -Miss O'Neill's influence." -</p> - -<p> -"As to that," said Image, "I can't say, me lad; but this -I can tell you, the Major's what he calls 'sent in his -papers' to O'Neill and Craven's." -</p> - -<p> -"The deuce he has. What on earth for?" -</p> - -<p> -"Can't tell you. Old Crewdson gave me the news. I -said to him I didn't suppose the loss of Swizzle-Stick -Smith, even now that he had changed himself into Major -Smith, would make their firm put up the shutters. But -Crewdson wouldn't take it as a joke. He told me Miss -Kate was very sorry indeed to lose him, and had herself -written to ask him to come and see her here in England. -Now, me lad, what's her game in that?" -</p> - -<p> -"I didn't know," said Carter resolutely, "and I don't -want to know. As I tell you, I flatly refuse to interfere -in any of Miss O'Neill's affairs." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap22"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XXII -<br /> -A FISHERMAN AND HIS CATCH -</h3> - -<p> -The fisherman was discontented. -</p> - -<p> -The reasons for his discontent were not plain to the eye. -There had been as good a fly water as anyone could want; -there had been enough breeze to ruffle the surface, enough -cloud to prevent glare; he had picked just the right flies -from his book to suit the river, and the fish rose freely to -them. He was carrying home as fine a dish of trout as -any man could wish for, and had scrupulously thrown back -everything under ten and a half inches. But even these -things did not please him. He sucked hard at his cold -pipe, and bit at fate as he tramped on inn-wards through -the gathering dusk. -</p> - -<p> -He came to a cross-roads once, and abused the Welsh -authorities for not putting up a sign-post for his -guidance. The district was new to him; indeed he had come -there for that reason: he wanted to be alone for these last -days in England. He had fished his way up stream all -day, and instead of following the water windings back -again, was making his return journey by road. And here, -it appeared, were three roads to choose from. But he was -a man of resource. He depicted mentally a map of the -country, found the newly risen North star, and got his -bearings, and then trudged on again with confidence among -towering mountains. -</p> - -<p> -It was night now, moonless, chill, and dark, and the -mountains hung on either side like great walls of blackness. -The road was white and faintly visible. But for all -that he had presently to pull up sharply to avoid an -obstruction. "Hullo," he said, "a motor car." And then -aloud, "Anybody here?" -</p> - -<p> -A grumbling voice answered him from the ditch. "Yes, -I'm the driver, and I'm here bathing my confounded -wrist." -</p> - -<p> -"Had a smash? Can I help? What is it? Bone -broken?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, only a bad sprain"—the man peered at Carter -through the dusk and added "sir." -</p> - -<p> -"Your car seems to be standing up all right on her -four wheels. How did you get pitched out?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, it wasn't that sort of an accident. She was misfiring -badly, and then she stopped. When I tried to start -her again, she back-fired on me and I thought my arm -had gone. It's the jet in the carburetter that's choked, I -believe, but I can't take the thing down with one hand." -</p> - -<p> -"I could," Carter thought, and remembered certain episodes -with his own first motor boat in Africa. But he did -not mention this aloud. "Owner gone for help?" he -asked. -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, sir. But there's none round here. At least there's -no such thing as a mechanic within twenty miles. A -hay-motor and a tow to the nearest barn is the best one can -expect." -</p> - -<p> -"Where's your tool kit?" -</p> - -<p> -"But do you understand motors, sir?" the man asked -doubtfully. -</p> - -<p> -"I had to. Just unship a light, and hold it with your -sound hand so that I can see what I'm about. That's the -ticket. You're sure it's the carburetter? Tried your spark -and all four plugs?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, sir, both the magneto and high tension. That's -all right. She's getting no gas; that's the trouble. It's -the gasolene feed that's choked somewhere. I saw the -fellow that filled us up this morning pour in from a red-rusty -tin before I could stop him, and it'll be a flake of oxide -from that jammed in the carburetter nozzle. If you could -take it down for us, sir, I'm sure it would be a very great -favor." -</p> - -<p> -"Wait a bit. Before we begin to pull the car to pieces, -suppose we just make sure of one or two other things. -Got a stick or anything to sound your gasolene tank with?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, that's all right. We haven't run sixty miles since -I put in eight gallons." -</p> - -<p> -But Carter straightened out a length of copper wire, -unscrewed the cap, and sounded the tank. He pulled out the -wire and examined it at the lamp. He wiped it carefully -and tried a second time. -</p> - -<p> -"Moses!" said the driver, "dry as a bone. Now, who's -been playing pranks here? Must have been some of that -nasty Welsh crowd that was hanging round whilst we was -having lunch." -</p> - -<p> -"Why, there's the union underneath the tank half -unscrewed. That would account for the leak, anyway. Here, -hold the lamp. Not too close. Yes, and the vibration has -cracked the feed pipe. There's a gap I can get my finger -nail into. Now, first of all, have you got any spare gasolene?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, sir. Two tins." -</p> - -<p> -"Good. Then it's worth while mending this feed pipe. -I suppose you haven't a soldering iron?" -</p> - -<p> -"Afraid not, sir. There's rubber solution——" -</p> - -<p> -"Which gasolene melts. Here, let's go through your -stock. Ah, here's a tube of seccotine. Now I'll show you -a conjuring trick. If we give the crack three coats of that, -and let each dry well before the next is put on—Good -Lord! Kate!" -</p> - -<p> -Miss O'Neill came up out of the darkness and bowed. -"It's really very good of you, Mr. Carter, to trouble over -my car." -</p> - -<p> -"I didn't know it was yours. I didn't know you were -in this neighborhood. In fact I did not know where you -were." -</p> - -<p> -Kate shrugged her shoulders. "Didn't some sapient -person once record that coincidences were the commonest -things in life? A minute ago I didn't know whether you -were in England, or West Africa, or Grand Canary; and -you didn't know or care whether I was alive or dead; and -here we meet in the dark on an unnamed roadside in -Wales. It's just one of those ordinary, every-day, -impossible coincidences, which the vogue of motor cars is -making a little more common than usual. I'm glad you're -letting business differences sink for the moment." -</p> - -<p> -"I didn't know it was your car." -</p> - -<p> -"Or you'd have bitten off your hand sooner than have -touched it?" -</p> - -<p> -He laughed rather dryly. "I'm afraid I should have -yielded to the temptation of meddling. You see, internal -combustion engines are rather a fad of mine." -</p> - -<p> -"Excellent reason. How long is this ingenious repair -going to take?" -</p> - -<p> -"H'm; three coats of seccotine—have to allow each -twenty minutes to dry—call it an hour. After that I -think if we couple up the union, and put in the spare -gasolene your man says he's got, you should go sailing off -without a hitch. By the way, I didn't know you motored." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm full of unpleasant surprises." -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, Cascaes, for instance." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, why shouldn't I open up an O'Neill and Craven -agency in Las Palmas, pray?" -</p> - -<p> -"No reason whatever. I wasn't referring to Cascaes' -business abilities." -</p> - -<p> -"Wagner," said Miss O'Neill to her man, "there's a -farm about a mile down this road where they'll bandage -up your wrist, and make you some sort of a sling. Don't -be away longer than you can help. Mr. Carter and I will -look after the car till you get back." -</p> - -<p> -"Thank you'm," said the driver, and marched off into -the night. They stared after him till the sound of his -footfalls on the hard road died away, and then said Miss -O'Neill, "Why doesn't Mr. Cascaes answer when I cable?" -</p> - -<p> -"You can hardly expect me to overlook the work of -your Las Palm as agency." -</p> - -<p> -"Don't quibble. Do you know why he is silent?" -</p> - -<p> -"I can make a guess." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, go on." -</p> - -<p> -"He's probably too busy picking aloe thorns out of his -carcass to find time for writing cables." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, so you threw him into an aloe hedge, did you? -What did Laura say to that?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well, as she knew nothing about it, she naturally did -not comment." -</p> - -<p> -"I see; and did Mr. Cascaes object?" -</p> - -<p> -"Not obtrusively. He took the best licking I ever gave -to man or dog without a whimper, and when I tossed him -amongst those aloe hooks, he lay there just as he fell." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah," said Kate, and drew a long breath. -</p> - -<p> -"Keen on motoring?" Carter asked after a pause. -</p> - -<p> -"I am, yes." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm taking a light four-cylinder back to the Islands -with me." -</p> - -<p> -"Let me see, I promised you a wedding present, didn't -I? Let me know when it's for, and what you'll have. By -the way, talking of coincidences, I was motoring in the -Yorkshire dales a week or so ago, and coming down out -of Wensleydale into Wharfedale, we dropped down over a -perfectly terrific piece of road that cost me a back tire. -Well, unluckily we'd used up the only other spare cover -on the car already, so the only thing left was to go slowly -on the rim on into the village below and wire for another. -</p> - -<p> -"Such a dear old village it was, of gray stone houses, -tucked away under the gray limestone hills, with all the -gardens as bright with flowers as you find them in a -story-book. The parson saw us when we came in from skating -down that awful hill, and when he saw me afterwards -strolling round looking at the flowers, he very nicely asked -me to go in and look at his roses. A splendid old man -he was, and such gorgeous roses. He likes big blooms, -and he snips off the superfluous buds on the sly, and -Mrs. Parson likes lots of blooms to cut at and to give away, -and she's always on the watch after him to see he doesn't -steal those buds. I met her, too, and they took me in and -gave me tea. -</p> - -<p> -"They'd some Okky war horns on the wall of their -draw-ing-room, and I told them I'd a very fine one on mine, -and so naturally we got to talking 'Coast.' They've a -son out there—or to be more accurate, they had, because -he seems to be in England now—and they're a good deal -troubled about him. He keeps on making excuses instead -of going to see them. Mrs. Parson, who by the way is a -perfect dear, said they were afraid he had done something -foolish and was shy about coming home——" -</p> - -<p> -"Well?" said Carter. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I'm pretty certain the prodigal would have no -trouble with her." -</p> - -<p> -"But the Parson? He said nothing about providing -veal, I suppose?" -</p> - -<p> -"He did not. To be precise he confined his conversation -to roses, and the dale, and a very charming old gentleman -he was." -</p> - -<p> -"As you may guess," said Carter savagely, "I don't -thank you for going to inspect my people like that." -</p> - -<p> -"I don't recollect," said Miss O'Neill with much sweetness, -"ever asking you to thank me. By accident I stumble -across some delightful people; I have the opportunity -of enjoying their society, and for the sake of seeing more -of them I lived in the village for three whole days. They've -asked me to go and stay with them next summer, and I'm -going. I don't see how that can annoy you, as you've -given up going near them." -</p> - -<p> -"I think that crack in the gasolene pipe will stand -another coat of seccotine now," said Carter, and moved the -lamp and knelt once more in the dusty road. -</p> - -<p> -"It seems a pity," said Miss O'Neill musingly. -</p> - -<p> -"I don't see what business it is of yours anyway," -Carter snapped. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, but surely it's my car that you're so kindly working -at. And I do think it's a pity you should have all that -trouble with that nasty, smelling, sticky seccotine, when it -will all have to be scratched off to-morrow, and the hole -soldered up." -</p> - -<p> -Carter laughed in spite of his rage. "You didn't mean -that in the least, but I'll own up you drew me smartly -enough. It is a pity—I mean the other thing—I love the -dale, and I'm about as fond as a man can be of my people. -But when you're in love with a girl, and you've promised -to marry her, well, other things have to slide." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, love," said Kate thoughtfully. "I wonder what -being in love is really like? I must try it some day as -an experience. It seems to alter one's obligations. I -should like you to hear my friend the Parson on -obligations." -</p> - -<p> -"I can tell you his creed in the matter as he taught it -to me as far back as I can remember. The rule, according -to him, is: First, keep your word; second, go on keeping -it; third, don't let any other considerations whatever -interfere with your keeping it." -</p> - -<p> -"Spartan, simple, admirable," said Kate, and then -could have bitten out her tongue for sending the words -past her lips. She took Carter's hand impulsively enough, -and, "I beg your pardon for that," she said. "I may -think you're a fool, but I know you are also the most -honorable man alive." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap23"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER XXIII -<br /> -THE SONG OF SPEED -</h3> - -<p> -For a business woman, Kate took singularly small interest -in her letters that morning, and Mrs. Craven from -behind the coffee-pot looked at her rather wistfully. They -were staying in the Lakes, and were supposed to be -motoring. But though the old lady was vigorous enough, and -was only too pleased to bustle about from place to place, -Kate was listless, and always had an excuse when change -was suggested. As a reason, she said she had been -overworking herself, and wanted to sit still and do nothing; -but she did not believe this herself nor did Mrs. Craven -believe it. Moreover, Kate knew that Mrs. Craven disbelieved. -</p> - -<p> -She was a very healthy young woman as a general thing, -but that morning she ate a thoroughly bad breakfast, and -crumbled a slice of toast beside her plate to give a general -idea of performance. Then she threw her napkin on the -table, and again went through the envelopes. There was -one from the Liverpool office. She opened it, and drew out -half a dozen typewritten sheets. But the distaste for -business was big in her, and she was putting these down with -the rest when a name caught her eye. -</p> - -<p> -Cascaes. -</p> - -<p> -She read the sentence surrounding it. "Our Mr. Cascaes -cables that he this morning married a Miss Laura -Slade, and on her insistence hereby tenders us his -resignation." -</p> - -<p> -Kate snapped the papers together, looked at her bracelet -watch and stood up briskly. -</p> - -<p> -"Aunt Jane, I am sorry, but a very important matter -has turned up which drags me off to Liverpool for the -day." -</p> - -<p> -Mrs. Craven was a wise woman and could read signs. -Moreover, she had known Kate from three years old, -upwards. "My dear," she said, "I'm rejoiced at your news. -Go and make it up with him." -</p> - -<p> -Kate blushed and laughed. "It isn't that at all, aunt. -Or only partly. But I must go." -</p> - -<p> -"There's no train now till mid-day." -</p> - -<p> -"I shall motor down to Carnforth and cut off the 10.38 -there." -</p> - -<p> -"If you don't break your neck in the process, you'll -land in gaol for excessive speed," said the old lady; "and," -she added dryly, "I'm sure you'd prefer even one of those -alternatives to staying sensibly here with me, and waiting -for a train in the decent course of things. There, run along, -Kitty, and get your things on, and I'll go and incite -Wagner." -</p> - -<p> -Miss O'Neill went upstairs to her bedroom two steps at -a time, and for the moment was minded to drag on any -outer clothes that would cover her. But then a thought -came to her, and she smiled, and took out from its box a -Paris hat that she had never worn before. She pinned this -into place with infinite care, covered it and her auburn -hair with a capacious motor veil, and hung another veil, -which had in it a protective window of talc, over her pretty -face. And then she put on a great motor coat. She was -very much guarded from the dust and the weather externally, -but inside the ugly chrysalis was as spruce a Kitty -O'Neill as any man could have sighed after. -</p> - -<p> -Wagner, as usual when he was wanted, had "just gone -out" for something. But Kate had an enthusiast's knowledge -of her that year's forty-horse car. She saw that both -electric and magneto ignitions were switched off, and then -she turned on her gasolene, flooded the carburetter, and -applied herself to the starting handle. There was a high -compression in the engine, but she was strong, and just -then she was goaded by something which made her put out -just a fraction more (she thought) than the full of her -strength. She filled the cylinders with gas. Then she -threw in the switch to all the insulators, and the engine -started most obediently. She stepped into the driving seat, -collected her wraps, threw out the clutch, dropped in the -first speed, and let the clutch slide home. -</p> - -<p> -The car drew out, as if it had been pulled by a rope, -and Kate flung a last hand wave to Mrs. Craven. Then -she got on to the direct drive of the third speed, and checked -her throttle to keep down the pace till she was out of the -traffic. -</p> - -<p> -"Six-and-twenty miles to Carnforth," she reckoned, -"and the train goes through there in just sixty-one -minutes from now. Well, I should average thirty-five miles -an hour for the run, and that will leave me nice time to -find someone to take charge of the car, and buy a ticket -to Liverpool for myself." -</p> - -<p> -They pulled out of the village, and Kate pushed up her -spark and throttle levers notch by notch. The purr of the -motor increased in shrillness. She drove often herself, but -seldom at high speeds, and just now, when she got into -the long empty stretches of straight, out of sheer exhilaration -she let out the great car till it was wheeling along at -a good forty miles to the hour. It swayed rather dangerously, -but she had no nerves to be ruffled by a trifle like -that. The motor was giving out its high note of exultant -speed, and she was thrilled with the power she rode. -</p> - -<p> -Woods and rocks flew by, mile after mile of fencing shot -astern, but still the great car sang along its way, now -bumping over a grip, now slackening a trifle on a rise. -The rhythm of the engines sounded in her ears like a poem, -and she tended to their needs with a real affection; the -pelt of the air exhilarated her. -</p> - -<p> -And then came the downfall. A whistle shrieked out -from behind her, another whistle shrilled in front, and a -policeman sprang from the hedge. Kate was in no mood -for stopping. She tried to dodge round the man. With -ignorant courage he leaped across the road to stop her. -She threw out her clutch and desperately set her brakes. -The great car lurched, slid, sidled, and all but overturned. -The policeman, by a marvellous mixture of skill, presence -of mind, and luck on Kate's part, was not killed. But he -stood scorching his hand on a very warm radiator, and -Kate sat white-faced at the wheel, taming down her -insulted engines. -</p> - -<p> -After that there was no hurry. She pleaded a life and -death engagement, but the majesty of the law was ruffled, -and saw to it that all things were done with dignity and in -order. -</p> - -<p> -Kate was charged with driving to the danger of the -public. The road was entirely deserted just there, and -there was no public, but she admitted the crime, gave name -and number, and humbly asked to go. But not a bit of it. -The Law wanted to see her driving license, which of course -she had not got, and then out came note-books and pencils. -The criminal lost her temper, and so the Law was -deliberately slow.... -</p> - -<p> -Kate reached Carnforth station just three minutes after -the express had left, and was half-minded there and then -to give up the chase. Carter would sail in the <i>Secondee</i> at -the appointed hour, and when he got to Las Palmas and -heard the news he would return to her by the next boat. -She was sure enough of that. But no, she could not let -him go. It might be (terrific thing) unmaidenly of her to -thrust herself and her news in his way, but she could not -help it. Besides, a fear cramped her when she thought of -Cascaes. She had heard to her horror of the knife that -Cascaes had wielded so undeftly in the dark along the -Telde road, although indeed Carter had made no mention -of it, and she dreaded what might happen should the two -men come together a second time. -</p> - -<p> -She looked at the time-table; there was no train that -would help her. If she wanted to get to Liverpool before -the <i>Secondee</i> sailed, it must be by car. So once more she -sat herself in the seat of government.... -</p> - -<p> -The road held through Lancaster to Preston, and outside -towns and villages she crashed along often at a fifty-mile -gait in her fear at being too late. And then came the -black cotton towns of Lancashire with their slatternly -women and shrill-voiced children scrambling over the -streets. She had to slow to a crawl through these, and -even then the tires skated dangerously over the greasy -streets. But speed triumphed over time and distance in -the end. She swung at a rattling gait into a Liverpool -suburb, and for the third time had her number taken by an -indignant policeman, and thereafter slowed to a dignified -crawl. She glanced at her watch. With care now, and if -no mishap blocked her progress, she would be on the -landing stage before the mail-boat threw off her ropes. -</p> - -<p> -Luck and good nerve aided her bravely now. She -wormed her way rapidly through the increasing traffic of -the Liverpool streets, and came to the landing stage -entrance. -</p> - -<p> -She patted her car and gave it a word of gratitude. A -cabman took charge, and with him also she left motor -veils, coat and gloves, and walked down onto the landing -stage fully conscious of neat hair, a perfect frock, and the -Paris hat. Carter was standing gloomily at the bookstall, -with a chin that looked more dogged and hair that was -redder than ever. -</p> - -<p> -"Ah," she said lightly, "fancy meeting you here. -Weren't you going by last week's boat?" -</p> - -<p> -"No," he said heavily, "this." -</p> - -<p> -"Have you paid for your passage?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, of course. Why?" -</p> - -<p> -"Because I'm afraid you will waste it." -</p> - -<p> -He shook his head. -</p> - -<p> -"You had no cable from Las Palmas during the last -two days?" -</p> - -<p> -"No. Have you? What are you driving at?" There -was something so pathetic in his brown eyes that she had -not the heart to drag out her explanation any further. -She pulled a letter from her pocket, marked a place with -her thumb and showed it to him. -</p> - -<p> -He put a heavy hand down on the bookstall and stirred -the papers into little heaps. "My God! Laura married. -Married! Let me think what this means!" -</p> - -<p> -A very indignant bookstall keeper began to make -remarks, but Kate said, "Thank you. Those are the ones -I want. Please tie them up for me. Here's a sovereign." And -then she put a hand on Carter's arm and led him -outside the crowd. -</p> - -<p> -"Well," she said, "have you decided yet if you are -entirely broken-hearted?" -</p> - -<p> -He thought a minute, and then said he, "I think my -people will be glad when they hear." -</p> - -<p> -Kate blushed rosy pink. "They are both very fond of -me," she observed. -</p> - -<p> -"That," said Carter, "is what I was thinking about. -Kitty, darling, there isn't a girl in all Africa, Europe, or -America, who has been loved as dearly as I've loved you. -But I couldn't marry you, could I, till the way was cleared. -Now, could I?—here, let's get out of this crowd, and hire -a cab, and drive to the North Pole, or somewhere we can -be alone to talk all this out. It's wonderful." -</p> - -<p> -"But what about your baggage?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, bother the baggage. White-Man's-Trouble has it -somewhere, and he'll jump overboard if he finds I'm not -on the ship. There's no shaking off that boy, Kitty dear, -so I'm afraid you'll have to take him along with me when -you cease to be Kitty O'Neill." -</p> - -<p> -"George, do you know I've got a great secret for you. -I'm not Kitty O'Neill at all. I'm Kitty Meredith." -</p> - -<p> -"As a point of fact I gathered that from your father. -From what old Cappie Image told me, 'Major Smith,' as -he calls him, will be home in time to give you away on -your wedding day. But I shouldn't trouble to call yourself -Kate Meredith, if I were you, sweetheart. When you do -practise a new signature let it be Kitty Carter." -</p> - -<p> -Kate blushed again most divinely. "As the deepest of -secrets, let me tell you that I can write it quite well -already, though I have been desperately afraid I should -never have the luck to use it." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> -THE END -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="thought"> -******** -<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap24"></a></p> - -<p class="t3b"> - Former Works by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne -</p> - -<p class="t3b"> - THE LOST CONTINENT<br /> - PRINCE RUPERT, THE BUCCANEER<br /> - THOMPSON'S PROGRESS<br /> - McTODD<br /> - ATOMS OF EMPIRE<br /> - THE FILIBUSTERS<br /> - A MASTER OF FORTUNE<br /> - ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Kate Meredith, Financier, by C. J. 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