Max had no difficulty in recognizing whence came these appalling sounds;
for, as he hastened forward, they were repeated, again and again. It
was as if the night were filled with terror, as if some wild, tormented
spirit had been let loose upon the stillness of the jungle.
From the opened doorway of de Costa’s hut a bright light shone forth,
making a wide, diverging pathway to the foot of the stockade. And in
this pathway two shadows danced like fiends. They were here, there and
everywhere, whilst time and again that piercing shriek went forth.
Max dashed into the hut, and there was brought to a standstill by the
sight that he beheld.
On one knee upon the floor, with an arm upraised as if in
self-protection, was the half-caste, de Costa, with abject fear stamped
upon every feature of his face. Still yelping like a cur, flinching
repeatedly for no ostensible reason, he looked up furtively, and into
the face of the man who stood above him.
This was Cæsar, with the Great Dane snarling at his side. His right arm
was bare to the elbow, and in his hand he held a whip. It was a cruel
whip, if ever there were such a thing. The handle was short, but the
lash was long and tied in many a knot.
"Drop that!" cried Max; and, without a moment’s thought, he lifted his
revolver and directed the muzzle full at the head of the Portuguese.
At that the dog crouched low, as if about to spring, and filled the hut
with a growl.
What happened in the next brief moments cannot be told in a word. The
Great Dane sprang straight at the throat of the young Englishman, who
was borne headlong through the doorway, to fall at full length upon the
ground. Simultaneously, Max’s revolver went off, and the bullet flew
high into the roof. The next thing that he knew of was that both his
hands were pressed tight into the throat of the huge beast that had
pinned him to the ground. Strive as he might, he was not able to rise.
By sheer weight and strength Gyp held him down.
[Illustration: "THE GREAT DANE SPRANG STRAIGHT AT THE THROAT OF THE
YOUNG ENGLISHMAN."]
Then the hound was lifted bodily into the air. Max struggled to his
feet, and beheld his uncle, whose great hands grasped the dog by the
scruff of the neck. Harden was holding the animal so that it stood
upright on its hind-legs, and in that position Gyp was little shorter
than he. The dog was almost mad; it snarled like a wild animal, and its
white fangs gleamed in the light.
The voice of Cæsar sounded sharp, but calm and collected, in the midst
of this turmoil and confusion.
"Gyp," he cried, "come here!"
Edward let go his hold, and immediately the dog lay down, growling at
the feet of her master.
"I should like to know," said Edward, "the cause of this disturbance."
"A private matter," said Cæsar, "which concerns no one but de Costa and
myself."
But Max, though he had been overthrown by the dog, who had come upon him
so unexpectedly, was in no mind to let the matter drop. He was so hot
in anger, and his indignation so great, that his lips trembled when he
spoke.
"Why did you strike that man?" he demanded, pointing to the half-caste.
"That, I repeat," said the other, "is my affair--and his."
"Understand," said Max, "that I make it mine. When I entered this room,
this poor wretch was on the floor, and you stood over him, whip in
hand."
For the first time since they had entered the stockade, they saw the
real man under the calm, black mask that the Portuguese habitually wore.
Setting his brows in a frown, he whipped round upon Max, and spoke in
much the same manner as a cat spits at a dog.
"You have yet to learn," he cried, "that in this place I am master. I
take orders from no one. In Makanda my word is law. This half-bred cur
is my servant. He knows it, as well as I. He knows, also, that if he
serves me faithfully he will be rewarded. But if he dares to disobey my
orders, he incurs the penalty I choose to inflict. There is my answer;
and I ask you, who are you to come here and presume to dictate to me?"
"I have no more special mission," answered Max, "than any other who
knows the difference between what is right and wrong. You may be master
here--for all I care you may be master of the whole of Africa--but I am
not going to stand by and see one man flog another for any cause. Raise
that whip again on peril of your life."
Max dared the man on purpose. The fact was, he would have been glad
enough to shoot. As for Edward, though all this time he had stood by in
silence, his finger had never left the trigger of his revolver. But,
Cæsar was not such a fool as to give either of them the chance they
waited for. He cast his whip upon the ground.
"After this," said he, "I presume you will avail yourselves of my
hospitality no longer. I shall be glad to see your backs."
"We shall be only too glad to go," said Max.
"I put no obstacle in your way," said Cæsar. "It is almost daylight
now."
Max turned and left the hut, followed by his uncle. Each asked himself
the same question the moment he got out into the open air: where was
Captain Crouch?
Crouch must have heard the disturbance. The shrieks of the half-caste,
the growling of the dog and the firing of Max’s revolver had been enough
to have awakened the dead. Yet he had never put in an appearance. When
they entered their hut they found him seated cross-legged on the floor,
with his pipe between his teeth. The atmosphere was tainted with the
smell of Bull’s Eye Shag.
"Where have you been?" asked Edward.
Crouch never deigned to reply, but, taking his pipe from his lips, asked
a question himself.
"Did you come to blows?" he said.
"Practically," said Max, with a shrug of the shoulders. "I found him
thrashing that half-caste within an inch of his life. I threatened him,
and his dog flew at me, and, had it not been for Edward, would have torn
me to bits. We had a kind of an argument, and in the end he told us to
clear out, which we said we were perfectly ready to do."
Crouch returned his pipe to his mouth.
"I was afraid of that," said he.
"Why?"
"I would like to have stayed here just a little longer. I haven’t
probed the mystery yet. When I saw you two run into de Costa’s hut, I
knew there was going to be trouble. I knew you wouldn’t come out for
some minutes, and I had the chance of a lifetime."
"Where did you go?" asked Harden.
"Into Cæsar’s hut," said Crouch, winking with his only eye. "I searched
everywhere, but could find nothing. As I told you before, this man has
a secret, and that secret is locked up in his chest. In Central Africa
a man doesn’t have a chest like that to keep his clothes in. It’s
iron-bound, and locked with three padlocks, and I suppose he keeps the
key in his pocket. It would have been sheer waste of time to have tried
to open it. I couldn’t lift it. It’s as heavy as if it were filled
with lead. That’s why I’m sorry we’ve got to clear out. I mean to
discover what that chest contains."
"We’ve got to go," said Max. "I wouldn’t stay here another hour for all
the secrets in the universe."
"You’re quite right," said Crouch. "As the natives say on the Ogowe, ’a
bad man’s bread is poison.’ We’ll sheer off at once."
Edward went out, and returned in a few minutes with M’Wané and the four
Fans.
"M’Wané," said Crouch, still seated on the ground, "we’re going back to
Hippo Pool."
M’Wané smiled as though he were glad to hear it.
"That is good news," said he. "I do not like this place."
"Why?" asked Crouch, looking up.
"We have been told," said M’Wané, "that if we try to leave the camp, we
shall be shot by the Arab men."
"Have you found out anything?" asked Crouch.
M’Wané shook his head.
"I have seen no one," said he. "I know nothing. To speak the truth, I
am afraid."
In the half-light of morning, the party left the stockade. Their canoe
was moored to the bank of the river, in the place where they had left it
on the afternoon of the day before. They clambered into their places:
Max and his uncle to the stern seat, and Crouch to his old place in the
bows. Then the canoe shot out into mid-stream, and it was not until a
month later that any one of them looked again upon the mysterious
settlement of Makanda.