"He studies sleeping sickness. If he can find the key to the solution
of that scourge it will mean promotion for him. He has noticed that
the sleeping sickness is always at its worst beside the lake, and
putting two and two together like a sensible man has reached the
conclusion that the disease may be propagated in some way in the blood
of these things."
We emerged into a clearing in which a pool more than a hundred yards
long and nearly as many wide was formed naturally by a hollow in the
surface of a great sheet of granite. The pool was fed by a trickle of
water from a jumble of rocks at one end. At the other end the bottom
of the pond sloped upward gradually, so that a ramp of smooth rock was
formed, emerging out of shallow water. A stone wall had been built
about three feet high to enclose that end of the pond, and all the way
along both sides the granite had been broken and chipped until the
edges were sheer and unclimbable.
"Look!" he said, pointing.
I looked and grew sick. On the ramp, half in the water and half out
lay about a hundred crocodiles basking in the sun, their yellow eyes
all open. They were aware of us, for they began to move slowly higher
out of water as if they expected something.
"You see that post?" asked Schillingschen.
The stump of a dead tree that he referred to stood up nearly straight
out of a crack in the rock, and a few yards above water level. The
crocodiles all lay nose toward it, some of them twelve or fourteen feet
long, some smaller, and some very small indeed, all interested to
distraction in the dead tree-trunk.
"That is where he feeds them," Schillingschen announced. "He has
tested them for hearing, smell, and eyesight. By making fast a living
animal to that post be has been able to convince himself that from
about nine in the morning until five in the afternoon their senses are
limited. Only occasionally do they come and take the bait between
those hours. They are hungriest in the early morning just before
daylight. Recently a large ape tied to the post at midday was not
killed and eaten until four next morning, and that is about the usual
thing, although not the rule. Now my proposal is--"
He stepped back and eyed me with the coldest look of appraisal I ever
sickened under. I blenched at last--visibly suffered under his eye,
and he liked it.
"--that you tell your secret or be fastened to that post from noon,
say, until the crocodiles make an end of you!"
He stepped back a pace farther, perhaps to gloat over my discomfort,
perhaps from fear of some concealed weapon.
"You have not much time to arrive at your decision!"
He took another pace backward. It occurred to me then that he was
looking for some one he expected. Nobody turning up, he began to
gather loose stones and throw them at the reptiles, driving them down
into deep water, first in ones and twos and then by dozens. Most of
them swam away to the far side of the pool, and hid themselves where it
was deep.
Then, panting with having run, there came a native who looked like a
Zulu, for he had enormous thighs and the straight up and down carriage,
as well as facial characteristics.
"You are late!" shouted Schillingschen in German "Warum? What d'ye
mean by it?"
The man opened his mouth wide and made grimaces. He had no tongue.
Schillingschen laughed.
"This is a servant who does no tattling in the market-place!" he said,
turning again toward me. "He and I can tie you to that post easily.
What do you say?"
There was nothing whatever to say, or to do except wonder how to
circumvent him, and nothing in sight that could possibly turn into a
friend--except a little tuft of faded brown that out of the corner of
my eye I detected zigzagging toward me in the direction from which we
had come. A moment later I knew it really was a friend. "Crinkle," a
mongrel dog that Fred had adopted the day after our arrival, breasted
the low rise, saw me, gave a yelp of delight and came scampering.
The dog sniffed my knee to make sure of me, and then trotted over to
sniff Schillingschen. The professor stooped down to pat him, rubbed
his ear a moment to get the dog's confidence, and then seized him
suddenly by both hind legs. I saw what he intended too late.
"Stop, or I'll kill you!" I shouted, and made a rush at him. But he
swung the yelping dog and hurled him far out into the pool.
A second later my fist crashed into his face and he staggered backward.
A second later yet the dumb Zulu pinned my elbows from behind and set
his knee into the small of my back with such terrific force that I
yelled with pain. Then Schillingschen approached me and began to try
to drive my teeth in with unaccustomed fists. He loosened my front
teeth, but cut his own knuckles, so began looking about for a stick.
Strangely enough my own attention was less fixed on Schillingschen than
on the wretched "Crinkle" swimming frantically for shore. Dog-like he
was making straight for me, and there was no possibility whatever of
his being able to scramble up the steep side. I shouted to call his
attention, and tried to motion to him to swim toward shallow water, but
the Zulu would not let my arms free, and the dog only thought I was
urging him to hurry.
Schillingschen found a stick and came back to give me a hammering with
it just at the moment when a crocodile saw "Crinkle." A blow landed on
my head, cut my forehead, and sent the blood down into my eyes at the
same moment that I heard the dog's yelp of agony; and next time I
looked at the pond there was a tiny whirlpool on the surface, slightly
tinged with red.
"You swine!" I shouted at Schillingschen, trying to break loose and
attack him. For answer he raised his cudgel in both hands and stood on
tiptoe to get leverage. If that blow had landed it must have broken
something, for he was strong as a gorilla; but somebody shouted--I
recognized Fred's voice, and in another second he and Will charged down
on us. Schillingschen turned about to strike Fred instead of me, but
Will's fist hit him on the ear and split it. The professor staggered
backward, and a moment later Fred had felled the Zulu. I reeled from
weakness and excitement, and nearly fell down.
"Throw him to the crocks, you men!" I urged madly. "He threw Crinkle
in. Throw him! Nobody'll ever know! He'd have dared throw me in!
Nobody comes here! Throw him in and trust the crocks to leave no
trace!"
"Shut up, you fool!" growled Fred.
"Did you see him throw that dog in?" I retorted.
"No," he answered, "but I saw him strike you. That's enough! I'll
deal with him!"
I suppose Fred intended to knock the professor down and belabor him
with the same stick he had used on me, but the plan died stillborn.
Schillingschen bethought him of his hip-pocket, produced a repeating
pistol, and leveled it.
"Any nonsense, and I shoot you all!" he announced.
That ended the battle as far as we were concerned. We had no firearms.
Schillingschen wasted no time on explanations, but beckoned his Zulu
and walked off, striding at a great pace and only looking back over his
shoulder once or twice to make sure we were not in pursuit.
Fred and Will lent me an arm apiece and we followed slowly, I
recounting as fast as I could all that had happened, and they trying to
chaff me back into a sensible frame of mind.
"That was a decent dog!" I insisted. "He slept on my bed those nights
when I had fever!"
"I know it," Fred answered. "Will and I lay and scratched, while you
rested, with proper flea-food for protection! Don't worry, we'll find
you another dog!"
Schillingschen's consideration for my wound had vanished with the
chance of making use of me. As we emerged into the open we saw him in
the distance lolling in the hammock he had brought me in.
"Never mind!" grinned Will. "I'll bet the brute has an earache!"
"And teeth-ache!" added Fred.
"And I'll bet he has gone to prepare us a hot reception!" said I. "He
owns this town!"
But nothing happened immediately on our return into the town. Actually
Fred and Will had been outside township limits and could be arrested;
suspecting foul play as soon as they saw me with Schillingschen, they
had followed at once. They were as mystified as I when no swift
vengeance lit on them. We saw Schillingschen carried in the hammock up
the steep path leading to the commandant's house; but no one came down
again. After we got back to camp we spent all the rest of the day
waiting for the vengeance we felt sure was overdue, but none came.
Toward evening we even began to grow hopeful again and to talk about
the dhow. Fred and Will had examined it through field-glasses from the
top of the rock, and were optimistic 'regarding its size and general
condition.
"Even if it leaks rather badly," said Will, "we could reach some
island, and beach it there, and caulk it."
"How about that launch, that brought the professor and Lady Saffren
Waldon?" I asked.
"What about it?"
"Couldn't they follow us with that?"
"You bet they could!" said Will. "We've either got to spike the
launch's boilers, or give them the complete slip on a dark night!"
"We might steal the launch!" suggested Fred, but that was too wild a
proposal to be taken seriously. The launch was the apple of the German
governmental eye, and the engine crew slept on it always.
The prospect was unpromising as ever, yet I went to bed and listened to
the strains of Fred's concertina in the next tent with less foreboding
than at any time since reaching Muanza, and fell asleep to the tune of
Silver Hairs among the Gold, a melancholy piece that Will liked to sing
when hope or courage stirred him.
I was awakened near midnight of a moonless black night by a hand on my
bedclothes and the light of a lantern in my eyes.
"Hus-s-s-h!" said some one. "Don't speak yet! Listen!"
It was a woman's voice, and it puzzled me indescribably, for a sick
man's wits don't work swiftly as a rule when he lies between sleeping
and waking.
"Listen!" said the voice again. "I must come to terms with you three
men! You are the only hope left me! I have no friends in Muanza--and
none whom I trust! Those Greeks and that Goanese would sell me to the
first bidder, and these Germans are worse than dogs!"
"But who are you?" I asked stupidly.
For answer she held the lantern so that I could see her face. Her hand
trembled, and the unsteady light threw baffling shadows, but even so I
could see she looked drawn and aged.
"Where is your maid, then, Lady Waldon?" I asked, for it seemed to me
that was one friend who had served her through thick and thin.
"Ask the commandant!" she answered. "The poor fool thinks he will
marry her! Little she knows of the German method! I am alone! I have
not even a servant any longer! I have walked through the shadows from
the commandant's house, only lighting this lantern after I was inside
the hedge. Nobody knows I am here. One watchman was asleep; the
others did not see me. All you need fear is those Greeks. As long as
they don't suspect I am here we can talk safely."
I tumbled out of bed on the far side, and went to waken the other two.
After a hurried consultation we decided my tent was the best for the
interview, because of the light that had burned in it nearly always
while I was so deathly ill. We wrapped ourselves in blankets, and Fred
went and shook Simba awake.
"Watch those Greeks!" he ordered him. "If they show signs of life,
come and give the alarm!"
Then we set Lady Waldon's lantern on the ground in the back of my tent,
closed the tent up, and foregathered. There was one chair. We three
sat on the bed.
"Before we begin," said Fred, "we'd like some kind of proof, Lady
Waldon, that your overture is honest! I've no need to labor the point.
Until now you have been our implacable enemy. Why should we believe
you are our friend to-night?"
She sighed. "I don't expect friendship," she answered. "You and I are
in deep water, and must find a straw that may float us all! If I can
help you to escape out of the country I will. If you can help me, you
must! If you don't escape there are worse things in store for you than
you imagine! If you tell your secret now, they intend to prevent your
telling it to any one else afterward! And unless you tell they intend
to take terrible steps to compel you! As for me--they have discovered
that after all I know nothing, and am of no further use to them! They
have not said so, but it is very clear to me how the land lies.
Professor Schillingschen is drunk to-night; he came home with his car
and mouth bleeding, and has plied the whisky bottle freely ever since
until he fell asleep an hour and a half ago. He boasted over his cups.
They are simply using this long wait for Major Schunk, who is supposed
to be coming from the coast, to gather additional evidence against you.
They have men out following your trail back by the way you came, and
if they can find no genuine evidence they will invent what they need;
the purpose is to get you legally behind the bars; and if you ever
come out again alive that would not be their fault!"
"What do you propose?" asked Fred.
"Escape!" she answered excitedly. Then another thought made her clench
her fists. "Is it possible you told Professor Schillingschen your
secret to-day? Did one of you tell him? Is that why he is drunk?"
She saw by our faces that that fear was groundless, but a greater one,
that she might not be able to convince us, seized her next and she made
such an excited gesture that the shawl she wore over her head and
shoulders fell away and her long hair came tumbling down like a witch's.
"Listen! There is nothing that you men from your point of view
could say too bad about me! I know! I have been in the pay of Germany
for many years, but what you don't know is how they got me in the toils
and kept me in, dragging me down from one degradation to another! They
have dragged me down so far at last that I am not much more use to
them. If we were in British territory they would simply expose me to
the British government and save themselves the trouble of ending my
career. They did that to Mrs. Winstin Willoughby, and Lord James Rait,
and fifty others; it was so easy to put incriminating evidence against
them in the hands of the public prosecutor. Lord James Rait died in
Dartmoor Prison--a common felon. I shall not! But believe me--I am
certain as I sit here that they only wait for my return to British
East! To have me murdered here might start inconvenient rumors that
would lead to unanswerable questions! It was proposed to me to-day
that I should return to British East on the launch!"
"Then why talk about escaping?" Fred wondered. "Why not go?"
"Because," she hissed emphatically, "don't you see, you stupid!--if
they send me back it will be to my doom! My one chance is to escape
from their clutches--get into touch with British officials--and save
the situation by telling my own tale first!"
Fred was in no hurry to be convinced. I was already for accepting her
story and helping her out; but that was perhaps because I was a sick
man, too recently recovered from the gates of death to care to be hard
on any one.
"I still don't see your danger," Fred told her. "In all my life I fail
to recall a single instance of the British courts passing a severe
sentence on a spy. If you'll excuse my saying so, your story about
Lord James Rait is incorrect. I recall the case well. He got a
twenty-year sentence for forgery."
"True!" she answered. "And Mrs. Winstin Willoughby was sentenced to
fifteen years for theft! Lord James did forge--in the way of business
for the German government! Jane Winstin Willoughby did steal--for the
same blackguard masters! Do you think they will expose me as a spy?
That would be too clumsy, even for such bullies as they are! Do you
suppose they could have dragged me down to this without some sword held
over me? They can prove that I committed a crime in England several
years ago. Oh, yes, I am a criminal! I raised a check. It was a
check on a German bank, given to me by a German on behalf of a
countryman of his. I needed money desperately, and the man who brought
the check to me suggested I should raise it! Since then I have tried
to repay that money with interest a dozen times, but they have always
laughed and told me they preferred to leave matters as they are."
"What would be the use of returning to British territory, then?" asked
Fred. "If they hold that over you, they can denounce you at any time."
"Not they!" she answered. "Not if I get there first! I know too much!
I can tell too much! I can prove too much! If I were once arrested
on the charge of raising that check, no government in the world would
listen to me. But if I can tell my story first, and confess about the
check, and explain why the charge is likely to be brought against me,
then there will be Downing Street officials who know how to whisper to
the German Embassy words that will frighten them into silence! I can
prove too much against the German government, if only I can tell my
tale before they crush me!"
"Why not write it?" asked Fred, and it seemed to me there was humor in
his eye, but she only detected stubbornness, and laughed scornfully.
"My own maid even gave them the letters written to me by my sister! If
I should be suspected of writing they would never rest until they had
the letter!"
"Give me your letter to mail!" suggested Fred maliciously.
"Deluded man!" she sneered. "All the letters you have written since you
came to Muanza lie in a drawer in the commandant's desk! I myself have
read them!"
In the dark, with shifting shadows thrown by the cheap trade lantern,
it was difficult to judge what was going on behind that beard of
Fred's. I had begun to suspect he was coming over to my way of
thinking and would yield to her presently, but he returned to the
attack--very directly and abruptly.
"What is it you know against the German government?" he demanded, and
sat with his jaw in the palm of his hand waiting for her answer.
"Why should I tell you? Why should I put myself completely in your
power?"
"Why not?" asked Fred.
"What would prevent you from stealing my thunder, and telling my story
as your own--leaving me at the Germans' mercy?"
"Something very potent that I think you would not understand if I
talked of it," Fred answered. "Listen to me now a minute. I haven't
conferred with my friends here, as you know. Whatever I tell you is
subject to their agreeing with me. The only condition on which I, for
one, would consent to taking part with you in anything--after all our
experience of you!--would be that you should put yourself so completely
in our power that we could feel we had your safekeeping. On those
terms I would be willing to do my best to help you out."
"I agree to that like a shot!" said Will; and I nodded.
"You mean--?"
"All or nothing!" Fred insisted.
"You mean that you also, just like these Germans, must have a sword to
hold over me?"
"I thought you wouldn't understand!" Fred answered. "What we demand,
Lady Saffren Walden, is proof that you really do give us your
confidence. Without that we have nothing to say to you, and nothing to
do with you!"
She broke down then and cried a little, tearing herself with sobs she
hated to release. Suddenly she raised her head and glared at us
wildly, dry-eyed; not a tear had accompanied the sobbing.
"If I tell you--if you fail me after that--I shall kill myself in such
way that you shall know--my blood is on your heads!"
Fred laughed. It was no doubt the best thing to do, but I wondered how
he managed it.
"Suppose you begin by telling us," he said. "We can discuss the
blood-stains afterward!"
Then she suddenly burst into her tale, as if she had rehearsed it a
hundred times in readiness to pour into the ears of the first British
official who had power enough to shield her. She told it dramatically,
in few words, wasting no breath on side-issues, and without once
pausing to explain, letting her words smash down the barriers of
unbelief and pave their own way for explanations afterward.
"Germany is planning to conquer the world!--not now, but ten or a dozen
years from now! She is getting ready ceaselessly! Part of the plan is
to undermine British rule in Africa by means of a religious influence
among the natives. That is the special duty of Professor
Schillinschen. As soon as possible a great native army is to be
trained, and thoroughly schooled in the fanatical precepts of Islam.
But the German people are too heavily taxed already, and refuse to vote
money for this miserable colony, where the great beginning must be made
because it is only here that they can work unsuspected. So funds must
be found in some other way!"
She paused for breath. No woman pleading at the bar of justice could
have seemed more in earnest. Of one thing I was quite sure: she had
found it worth her while to convince us if that were possible. She was
playing no half-hearted game.
"Do you begin to see now why the Germans are so set on finding Tippoo
Tib's hoard of ivory? Do you begin to understand why they are
determined, not only to prevent your finding it, but to learn your
secret? If rumor is one-half true, the Arab buried somewhere enough
ivory to finance this plan of theirs! They have been going about the
search systematically, and sooner or later they feel they must stumble
on it. They will not let you forestall them!"
She paused again. Her very earnestness exhausted her more than the
walk through the dark in danger had done.
"Take your time," Fred advised her. "We're all listening!"
"When I told you in Nairobi that Lord Montdidier had been murdered, I
believed I was so near the truth that you would never know the
difference. I knew the order had been given to have him killed on
board ship--given by men who are accustomed to be obeyed--who do not
excuse failure on any ground. They feared he might be going to divulge
the secret of the ivory to his government in London. Oh, I tell you
they stop at nothing! To-day London is the ivory market of the world,
but they have their arrangements made for transferring that center of
trade to Hamburg! They mean first to crush competitors, and then
monopolize! They hope the ivory is in this country. In that case
their task will be easy. But if it should be found in British East,
they are all ready with the necessary men of influence to apply for a
mining or agricultural concession, and they will fence that place off
so thoroughly that no one will ever be the wiser until they have
carried the ivory out of the country!"
"They could never get it out of British East without the government
knowing," objected Fred; but she laughed at him.
"If worse came to the worst, they are ready with an offer to exchange
ten times the territory elsewhere for just that small section of the
country. They would give up German New Guinea, or Southwest
Africa--anything! They have fooled the French and Russian governments
until they are ready to bring pressure to bear on England
diplomatically to induce her to make almost any bargain of that kind
that the Germans want. They are even willing to concede to England the
whole of Abyssinia, which nobody owns yet, and to back her up against
the claims of France and Italy! Why should they not be willing to make
temporary concessions, when all Africa is to be theirs in ten years'
time! They will give to-day, and with the help of the money that ivory
will bring they will create an army that shall take away to-morrow!"
"But how can you prove all this?" Fred asked her.
"How? I know the names of the men who are preaching Germany's sermons
all through British East! I know all Schillingschen's secrets! Why
should I not? I have suffered enough! He is a drunken brute nearly
always after the sun goes down, and his caresses are disgusting; I
have endured them until I know all he knows! Now he realizes that I
know his secrets and have none of my own to tell, so he hopes to send
me to my doom at the hands of the government I have betrayed too many
times! What is the use of my pretending to be better than I am? I am
a spy--a traitress--a divorced woman with worse than no reputation! I
am not a person likely to be shown much mercy! I never would have
recanted unless the end of my rope had come! Now I know I must buy my
pardon--I must earn it--I must pay for it with solid value! Luckily I
can do that! I do not ask you men for mercy. I know what is in store
for you if you do not escape! I offer to help you to escape, in
exchange for helping me!"
"Better be more precise!" suggested Fred. "Exactly what is in store
for us?"
She pointed her finger at me. "You went out of bounds to-day with
Schillingschen! Well and good; he was with you. But you, and you--"
She pointed at Fred and Will. "--went without permission. Why do you
suppose they over-looked such a splendid chance of jailing you legally?
Schillingschen came up to the commandant's house in a towering
passion, demanding the immediate arrest and close confinement of all
three of you. He was only persuaded to wait a few days longer because
a runner has come in with word that the bodies of several Masai whom
you shot on this side of the German border have been found! The
bones--the bullets found among the bones--and cartridge cases that will
fit your rifles are being brought to Muanza! After that--the deluge,
my friends! That is why Professor Schillingschen gets drunk and sings
himself to sleep in spite of your being still at liberty! Either
escape before that evidence reaches Muanza, or make up your minds for
the worst! It is growing late--answer me--do you agree?"
Fred glanced once at each of us. We both nodded.
"We agree with reservations," he said.
"What are they? Man--don't be a fool! Don't fritter the lives of all
of us away!"
"They're simple. We've a friend in the jail here. His name's Brown."
"That drunkard? Leave him! He's worthless!"
"We've a servant on the chain-gang. His name is Kazimoto."
"A nigger? You'd risk another day in this place for a nigger? How
absurd! They're never grateful. They don't see things from the white
man's standpoint. They don't expect ideal treatment. Leave him his
wages and tell him to follow when they let him off the chain!"
"And we have a string of porters," Fred continued. "We will not leave
Muanza without the porters, our man Kazimoto, and Mr. Brown of Lumbwa!"
"You are mad! You are crazy!"
"We are the men you have invited to trust you," Fred answered kindly.
"Those are our conditions. We will not 'bate one iota! Take
'em or leave 'em, Lady Waldon!"