"I said we'd never hear the last of it!" said Will, with a scowl at me.
"Shall we wait for her?" I repeated.
My own vote would have been in favor of going upstairs and leaving her
to her own devices. I could see that Fred was afire with curiosity,
but guessed that Will would agree with me. However, the point was
settled for us by the arrival of her maid, who smiled with unusual
condescension and produced from a basket an assortment of drinks, nuts,
cigarettes and sandwiches. She spread them on the table and went away
again.
We sat and smoked for an hour after that, imagining every moment that
Lady Saffren Waldon would be coming. Whenever we yawned in chorus and
rose to go upstairs, a footstep seemed to herald her arrival. To have
passed her on the stairs would have been too awkward to be amusing.
At last we really made up our minds to go to bed; and then she really
came, appearing at the bend in the stairs just as I set my foot on the
lower step, so we trooped back to our chairs by the window. She was
dressed in a lacy silk negligee, and took pains this time to appear
gracious.
"I waited until I felt sure we should not be disturbed," she said,
smiling. "Won't you come and sit down?"
We brought our chairs to the table, she sitting at one end and we
together at one side, Fred nearest her and I farthest away. She made a
sign toward the wine and sandwiches, and offered us cigarettes of a
sort I had never seen. Without feeling exactly like flies in a
spider's web, we were nervous as schoolboys.
"What do you want with us?" asked Will at last.
She laughed and took a cigarette.
"Don't let us talk too loud. You three men are after the Tippoo Tib
ivory. So is the Sultan of Zanzibar. So is the German government. So
am I."
She gave the statement time to do its own work, and smoked a while in
silence. The strength of her position, and our weakness, lay in there
being three of us. Any one of us might let drop an ill-considered word
that would commit the others. I think we all felt that, for we sat and
said nothing.
"You answer her, Fred," I said at last, and Will nodded agreement.
So Fred got up and sat on the other side of the table, where we could
see his face and he ours.
"You haven't answered Mr. Yerkes' question," he said. "What do you want
with us, Lady Saffren Waldon?"
"I want an understanding with you. I will be plain to begin with. We
all know you know where the ivory is. Lord Montdidier is not the man
to connect himself with any wild goose chase. We don't pretend to know
how you came by the secret or why he has gone to London, but we are
sure you know it, perfectly sure, and for five or six reasons. We are
willing to buy the secret from you at your own price."
"Who are 'we'?" asked Fred pointedly, helping himself to nuts.
"The German government, the Sultan of Zanzibar, and myself."
Fred smiled. "Between you you probably could pay," he remarked.
"I will tell you a few hard facts," she said, "now that the ice is
broken. You will never be allowed to make full use of your own secret.
You have arrived at an inopportune moment, for you and for us. Our
plans have been on foot a long time. Our search has been systematic,
and it is a mathematical certainty we shall find what we look for in
time. We do not propose to let new arrivals on the scene spoil all our
plans and disappoint us just because they happen to have information.
If you go ahead you will be watched like mice whom cats are after. If
you find the ivory, you will be killed before you can make the
discovery known!"
"We seem up against it, don't we!" smiled Fred.
"You are! But you can save us trouble, if you will. Name your price.
Tell me your secret. Go your way. If your story proves true you shall
be paid by draft on London."
"Are you overlooking the idea," asked Fred, "that we might tell the
secret to the British government, and be contented with our ten per
cent. commission?"
"I am not. You are expressly warned against any such foolishness. In
the first place, you will be killed at once if you dare. In the
second place, how do you know the British government would pay you ten
per cent.?"
"I've had dealings with the English!" laughed Fred.
"Bah! Do you think this is Whitehall? Do you think the officials here
are proof against temptation? When I tell you that in Whitehall itself
I can bribe two officials out of three, perhaps you'll understand me
when I say that all these people have their price! And the price is
low! Tell them where the ivory is--lead them to it--and they'll swear
they found it themselves, so as to keep the commission themselves! And
as for you--you three"--she sneered with the most sardonic, thin-lipped
smile I ever saw--"there are lions out here, and buffalo, snakes,
fevers, native uprisings--more ways of being rid of you than by choking
you to death with butter!"
"Do you suppose" asked Fred, "that Lord Montdidier has no influence in
London, that he--"
"I know he had influence. I should have told you first, perhaps. Lord
Montdidier was murdered on board ship. A telegram reached Mombasa
yesterday at ten A.M. from up-coast saying that the body of an unknown,
Englishman had been picked up at sea by an Arab dhow, with the face too
badly eaten by fish to be recognizable. You may take it from me, that
is Lord Montdidier's corpse."
The calm announcement was intended to surprise us, and it did, but the
result surprised her.
"You she-devil!" said Will. "If you and your gang have murdered that
fine fellow I'll turn the tables on you! You go up-stairs, and pray he
isn't dead! Pray that corpse may prove to be some one's else! If he's
dead I'll guarantee you it's the worst day's work you ever had a hand
in! Go up-stairs!"
He flung away the cigarette she had given him and knocked his chair
away.
"Sit down, you young fool!" she said. "Don't make all that noise!"
But Will had none of the respect for titles acquired by marriage that
made most men an easy mark for her.
"Leave the room!" he ordered. "Go away from us! Just you hope that's
a lie about Monty, that's all!"
"Sit down!" she repeated. "I admit I am a little previous. The story
is unconfirmed yet. Sit down and be sensible! Something of the sort
will happen to all of you unless you three men get religion!"
But Will began to pace the floor noisily, stopping to glare at her each
time he turned.
"Is there any sense in protracting the scene?" asked Fred.
"No," she admitted. "I see you are too hot-headed to be reasoned with.
But it makes little difference!
Fever--animals--climate--sun--flood--accident--natives--there are
excuses in plenty--explanations by the dozen! I will say good night,
then--and good-by!"
"Yes, good-by!" growled Will, facing her with his back to the stairs.
"You take us for men with a price, do you?"
"All men have a price," she smiled bitterly. "Only it is no use
offering flowers to pigs! We must treat pigs another way--pigs, and
young fools! And fools old enough to know better!" she added with a
nod toward Fred, who bowed to her in mock abasement--too politely, I
thought.
Will got out of her way and she went up-stairs with the manner of an
empress taking leave of subjects. Fred swept her food and wine from
the table and stowed it in a corner, and we sat down at the table again.
"The whole thing's getting ridiculous." he said.
"Why don't we hunt up some official in the morning," I proposed, "and
simply expose her?"
"No use," said Will. "She never followed us up here and tried that
game without being sure of her pull. Besides--what kind of a tale
could we tell without letting on we're after the ivory? I vote we see
the game through to a finish."
"Good!" said Fred. "I agree!"
"The only clue we've got," said I, "is Courtney's advice about Mount
Elgon."
"And what Coutlass said in Zanzibar about German East," added Will.
"Tell you what," said Fred, rapping the table excitedly. "Instead of
falling foul of this government by slipping over the dead-line, why not
run down to German East--pretend to search for the stuff down
there--and go from German East direct to Mount Elgon, giving 'em all
the slip. Who's got the map?"
"It's up-stairs," I said. "I'll fetch it."
There was nothing like silence in the rooms above. Men were smoking
and drinking in one another's rooms. Some doors were open to make
conversation easier across the landing, and nobody was asleep. But I
was surprised to see Georges Coutlass leaning against the door-post of
the room he shared with the other Greek and the Goanese, obviously on
guard, but against whom and on whose behalf it was difficult to guess.
"Are you off to bed?" he asked, piercing me with his unbandaged eye.
"Why don't the others go, too?"
It dawned on me what he was after.
"Take the wine if you want it," I said. "None of us will prevent you."
He went down-stairs in his stocking feet, leaving his own door wide. I
glanced in. The other Greek and the Goanese were asleep. Hassan lay
on the floor on a mat between their cots. He looked up at me. I did
not dare speak, but I smiled at him as friendly as I knew how and made
a gesture I hoped he would interpret as an invitation to come and
attach himself to our party. Then I hurried on, for Coutlass was
coming back with a bottle of wine in each hand.
I was five minutes in our bedroom. In a minute I knew what had
happened. We had left the door locked, but the lock was a common one;
probably the keys of other doors fitted it, and there was not one thing
in the room placed exactly where we had left it. Everything was more
or less in place, but nothing quite.