"Bosh!"
Very emphatically he said it, too. Then he wheeled right round and
proceeded with his duty.
'Ngaloo went away then, somewhat crestfallen; but he had a private
commissariat of his own, and he found some rum there, so he consoled
himself with that.
A few hours afterwards, 'Ngaloo might have been seen marching about
among Harry's troops, with a sottish kind of a smile on his face.
'Ngaloo was taking lessons in modern warfare. He told Harry, when he
met him, that he meant to remodel his own army upon the principles of
Googagoo's.
The cross-bows greatly took his fancy. So did the amazons.
He could not tire looking at them, and as soon as he got home, he said,
he would arm and drill every one of his wives, and make amazons of them.
"And if they do not be good soldiers," he added, "why, there is the
tongs."
He snapped that weapon as he spoke, and cackled and laughed as if he had
said something very clever and witty.
The next stupid thing that 'Ngaloo did was to take Harry by the arm, and
tell him with a burst of confidence, which was no doubt meant to be very
friendly, that when they returned to King Kara-Kara's, and captured the
white slaves, Harry should have no less than two of them, and that he,
'Ngaloo, would only keep four to himself.
Harry burst out laughing in the great king's face; but instead of being
offended, 'Ngaloo was delighted, for he thought that Generalissimo Harry
Milvaine was pleasedly acquiescing in his pretty little arrangement.
'Ngaloo was so delighted that he must needs go and help himself to
another dose of his brain-devouring rum or fire-water.
Then he turned his attentions towards Googagoo. He made this honest
king a very long speech indeed, laudatory of his own exceeding
greatness, and of the comparative insignificance of every other king and
chief in creation.
To all of this Googagoo listened with the politeness and urbanity
inseparable from his nature.
But the king of the hundred islands, in a return speech, reminded
'Ngaloo that however great and glorious we were in this world, we must
all die one day and go to another, where the Great Spirit would judge us
according to the deeds done in the flesh, or forgive us if we trusted
the Son that He had long, long ago sent to save us.
Alas! 'Ngaloo was not much impressed by the earnest words of Googagoo.
He was silent for a short time, as if in deep thought; then he spoke to
the following effect:
"Very likely all you say is true; but I suppose in the next world I will
be just as big a chief, and have more territory than I have in this.
For," he added, "there is no getting over the greatness of 'Ngaloo."
It took the united armies a whole week to reach King Kara-Kara's
country.
Harry had taken the precaution to keep his people quite separate and
well in advance of 'Ngaloo's, and gave strict orders to Walda and his
other officers to watch for the slightest signs of, treachery on the
part of 'Ngaloo.
Our hero mistrusted him, and perhaps he had reason; but, on the other
hand, he need not have done so either, for "the greatest king in all the
world" was so frequently overcome by frequent applications to his
fire-water commissariat, that he had to be carried in a grass-cloth
hammock nearly all the way.
It was forest land mostly which they traversed, woods filled with
chattering monkeys and bright-winged silent birds, woods in which lions
roared and hyaenas laughed all night long, woods often dripping with
dank dews, and at times so dark by day that it was difficult to find a
way through them.
But anon they would come to open glades and glens among the hills and
mountains, with clear streams rippling through them, in which many a
lusty trout gambolled and fed, with sweet bird-voices and the murmur of
insect life, making music in the air, every creature happy and busy,
because of the sunshine that gladdened all.
They came at last to the foot of the mountain or conical hill, where
Harry's unhappy shipmates were imprisoned.
Some slight show of resistance was made by those beneath, while those at
the top and on guard rolled down great stones and rocks upon them.
But Harry's brave fellows, he himself at the head of them--he well knew
how to climb a hill--took the place with one wild determined rush.
Many of the assaulters were wounded and some were killed with the
descending stones, so that their savage instincts got the better of
their judgment, and in spite of all that Harry could do, an ugly scene
of carnage took place as soon as the fort was captured. Harry had found
his men at last. And not a whit too soon, for at the very moment when,
waving his victorious sword on high, he scaled the last parapet, they
were being ordered out for instant execution.
Ordered out? From what? Out, dear reader, from one of the most
loathsome dungeons it is possible to imagine, dark, slimy, dismal, and
filled with noisome vapours, a dungeon that for months they had shared
with centipedes and slimy, slow-creeping lizards.
And all this time their food had been only raw cassava root and a
modicum of half-putrid water.
And now Harry Milvaine, their beloved officer, stood in their midst.
They had not forgotten their discipline, for each and all touched their
brows by way of salute.
"My poor fellows?" said Harry, his voice half-choked with emotion.
It was the first kind words they had heard for years. No wonder they
broke down, and that those once sturdy British sailors--babies now in
their very weakness--sobbed over Harry's hands or hugged him in their
feeble arms.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harry had been telling Walda that, in all probability, there would be a
quarrel with 'Ngaloo about his shipmates, the survivors of the
_Bunting's_ men, and that there would possibly be some fighting.
"But," said Walda, "I know the people of King 'Ngaloo well; they do not
love fighting, they would rather cross the hills to their own homes."
"Yes, true, Walda; but the king--the king. Remember that he rules over
them, and if he bids them fight, then fight they must, and will."
"Ah! the king!" replied the wily Walda. "Yes, to be sure, only they
will not fight if he does not order them to do so."
"No, Walda. But why do you smile? Now you are laughing outright. What
amuses you, Walda?"
"Not anything much," said Walda, "but--leave the king to me."
Harry with his men and Googagoo's army were to start the very next
morning, against all odds, however fearful these might be; so, to be
ready for any emergency, he drew his people well to the north, at some
distance from those of 'Ngaloo's. And then they camped all night ready
armed.
But Walda had managed matters very prettily. He had sat up with King
'Ngaloo nearly all night, telling him wonderful stories of his own
invention, and every now and again helping his majesty to another dose
of his beloved fire-water.
The consequence of all this was, that when Googagoo and Harry went to
bid him goodbye next morning in the hammock where he still lay, they
found him rather forgetful of all recent events, but otherwise in a most
amiable mood indeed.
The king said farewell at least a dozen times.
He shook hands with each of his visitors _more_ than a dozen times.
And his last words were these:
"'Ngaloo is the greatest king in all the world. Don't forget 'Ngaloo.
Come again and see the greatest king in all the world. Don't forget
Ngaloo."
"I'm not likely to," said Harry, shaking hands again.
Then away he went, laughing.
And the march northwards was commenced at once.
Two of the men of the _Bunting_ had to be carried a great part of the
way, but they got stronger and stronger as the time went on, and could
soon both stand and walk.
They found the boats precisely where they had left them, and in a few
hours all were back once more--though sadly thinned in ranks--at their
homes in the hundred islands.
Raggy, rejoiced beyond measure, met them at the beach. He was not
content with shaking hands with his old messmates; shaking hands was
slow work.
Raggy must dance. And dance he did, a regular sailor's hornpipe.
"As sure as I'm alive, by Heaven's mercy," said Nicholls, the bo's'n, "I
think I could dance a bit myself."
"And so do I," cried another sailor.
And they both joined Raggy.
It was as merry a hornpipe as ever was seen.
No wonder the king cried "Lobo! Lobo!" and laughed till the tears
gushed out of his eyes, or that the welkin rang with the admiring shouts
of the sturdy amazons.
Then Raggy, who had reigned here so long and so well, resigned his
regency, and in a day or two more all the old, quiet life had settled
down upon the islands.
For a whole month longer Harry and his men lived with this innocent
king; then, the strength of his men being now thoroughly recruited, they
all said farewell to the good King Googagoo, with many regrets, and
commenced the long and tedious march to the eastern coast, which they
reached at last safe and sound, having met only the usual exciting
adventures, and come through all the hardships incidental to African
travel.
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Dear young readers, I have little more to do now, except to say
"Goodbye." I sincerely trust that, while I do my best in my tales to
interest and instruct you, no one can accuse me of painting the life of
the sailor wanderer in too rosy colours. I speak and write from my own
experience of sea-life and of other lands. And--yes, I will confess it,
I love the sea, and ever did.