THE MAKER OF LAWS
The discovery made as to the source of Deadman's Pool gave a new
interest to the valley, and the boys played the role of detectives
under an arrangement to report the results of their investigations
at night. Each spent a day of careful observation, and at the camp-
fire each wore a look of preoccupation.
"Any success?"
They nodded their heads.
"I met the chief's mother at the council tree," said Mr. Hume, "and
she said she would pay us a visit in the morning. She has been ill,
or she would have come before."
"Well," said Venning, "I met a boy five minutes after I left the
cave, and he stuck to me like a leech."
"One followed me also," muttered Compton.
"Seems to me we are under police inspection."
"Yes; there were boys everywhere."
"Anyway, I found a 'splash' beetle."
"Eh!"
"A beetle that has developed the protective instinct till it looks
like a splash of white on a rock. Here it is;" and Venning displayed
his find.
"Doesn't help us much."
"No; but when I took it off the rock I could hear a faint rumbling
from below, over here to the left, between our gorge and the canon
where the river disappears."
"Come, that's something."
"Yes; but as far as I could make out, there was not an opening in
the cliff on that side big enough to hold a swallow's nest."
"Better luck to-morrow. Now, lads, if that old woman puts any
leading questions about the pool, don't give yourselves away."
But when the chief's mother came up the next day, she never breathed
a word about the pool. She talked of the "good white man" who had
lived in the cave when Muata was a boy.
"Often have I sat here and talked with him, and well do I remember
his teaching."
"Let us hear, mother," said Compton.
"He taught us how to till the land, so that it would produce other
crops than manioc. The men he showed how to win iron from the rock,
and how to forge the spear-heads and the hoes for the tilling.
Medicine he made from the leaves and the juices of the trees, and he
bade the women keep clean the huts and the place around the village.
But the thing he said most was that living here in peace, in a place
set aside for the weak, it was well we saw that no strangers who
came in should ever leave. For, said he, the strong will take from
the weak."
"This is a small place," said Venning--"too small for any people to
fight over."
"I thought I heard the sound of battle in the valley but two days
since."
"It might serve Hassan as a robber's den; but I spoke of other
people--white men, mother."
"Since I had ears to hear the meaning of words," she said, "the talk
was ever of white men, and one 'white man' warned us against those
very men who eat up the land and the waters."
"But what use would this little spot be to them? In a short time it
will be too small for your own people."
"When that day comes, O Spider, we would be free to go to the land
of my fathers, where my son will find his kraal."
"You will want many canoes, mother, when that day comes."
"And they tell me," said the woman, with a keen glance, "that you
white men are good boat-builders. Aye, I have seen your boats on the
great river, with wings and with fire."
"Our boat--the one you sat in--the boat down in the pool, has
wings," said Venning, innocently.
"Muata the chief tells me the boat has gone. Wow! The place is
taboo; I knew the spirit people would take it; but you can build
others."
"We have no tools."
"Wow! You could make them."
"We have no skill in such work."
The wise woman pondered. "He, the white man who lived here,
consulted a familiar he carried much with him; he would find from it
how to build boats and to forge iron."
Compton produced his log-book. "See, mother, was it like that?"
"Wow! It was like."
"Bring me the 'familiar' of the white man, for he was my father, as
you know, and you will hear his voice again. Maybe we will learn
from it how to make tools for the building of boats."
"I will search, O son of my white man."
She sat awhile, then produced a cob-pipe, and, after getting a fill
of tobacco, went off smoking with the bowl against her cheek.
"Humph!" said Venning. "Wants to keep us as boat-builders. I bet
she's taken the Okapi as the first of the fleet for the great
exodus."
"And intends that we should be the navigators as well as the
builders."
Mr. Hume was of the same opinion when he joined them later on and
was in possession of the wise woman's remarks.
"She is the power behind the throne," he said musingly, "and I have
been wondering for some time what was her object. Now I see. I have
been giving my consent as chief to laws which are framed evidently
to keep us here."
"Making laws?"
"Been doing nothing else. There was a law making it a crime for any
man to leave the valley without the consent of the people. Another
law calling on all--men as well as women--to work for the good of
the clan. Another making it a crime to withhold knowledge that would
be for the general good. There was another declaring that the vice-
chief must have at least two wives."
"But you have not one wife."
"That is easily remedied," said the Hunter, with a groan.
"What do you mean, sir?"
"See that?" and Mr. Hume pointed at a spot in the valley where many
women were at work.
"They are building a hut," said Venning.
"My hut!" Mr. Hume filled his pipe with great deliberation, took a
coal from the fire, and stared at his two companions till his hand
was scorched. "I am to be married at the full moon!"
Venning sniggered.
"You can't mean it, sir," said Compton.
"It's true enough," said the Hunter, solemnly. "I was passing the
acts, as it were, without paying much attention when the women
clapped their hands. 'What was that last law?' I said to the chief
councillor, whose duty it is to keep the laws in his mind. 'The
great chief,' he said, 'will take to himself two wives at the full
moon.' 'I repeal that act,' I said; but they would not understand.
A law was a law when it became a law, and no one could alter it, but
considering my position they would build my hut for me. And, as you
see, they are building it."
He stared gloomily down into the valley; while Venning and Compton
made singular grimaces in the effort to keep becomingly grave.
"It is a great honour," said Compton, presently.
"And two of them!" said Venning. "I don't know, I'm sure. I'm no
lawyer, but I rather think that you, as an Englishman, would not be
allowed to take two. Polygamy would become bigamy."
"I never thought of that," said the Hunter, brightening up.
"On the other hand," went on Venning, with a judicial air, "as you
have been sworn in as a member of the clan, you become of course
amenable to the laws, and it may be that two wives will not meet the
requirements of your exalted rank."
Mr. Hume leant forward, and caught Venning by the ear.
"It is no joking matter," he went on. "When will the moon be at the
full?"
"In three weeks from to-day," said Compton, grinning.
"Then before that we must be well away, or we may find ourselves
life prisoners. Have you made any discovery to-day?"
"None! We were 'shadowed,' as before, by boys."
"So. Well, I will take measures to-morrow to put an end to this
spying. They have had their fun out of me as chief, but I will have
my turn."
Next day the vice-chief had his turn. He declared the next three
days to be a period of work. Some of the men were to build a boom
across the river in the defile, others were to construct a stone
wall across the gorge leading from the Deadman's Pool; while he
started the women and children on a new set of huts, having
condemned the old village as unfit for habitation. Further, he
passed a law that any man, woman, or child found wandering about
idle during the three days, would have to pass a night on the banks
of the "tabooed" pool tied to a tree; and, finally, he appointed
himself and the two sub-chiefs, the Young Lion and the Spider, as
overseers, with right to appoint substitutes in their place.
"Those be the new laws," he said, in a roar, when the astounded
council had listened to the end. "If any one disputes them, I will
tie them head to heels and throw them into the river to learn
wisdom."
No one so much as murmured, for they did not like the look of those
yellow eyes.
"Then see that ye begin your appointed work at sunrise," he said,
"for I will make medicine to see these laws are obeyed."
Then he returned to the ledge, and spent the afternoon with the two
boys making rockets, using stout reeds as cases. In the dark these
were fired off with great and awe-inspiring' effect on the
villagers, who scuttled into their huts, and remained hid for the
rest of the night, convinced that the "strong medicine" would indeed
find them out if they did not obey this strange new law.
"I think I have fixed them for a time," said the Hunter, grimly, as
he described his new feat as a lawmaker. "For three days we should
have liberty to fully inspect the side of the valley above the
pool."
In the morning, at sunrise, the entire clan started out promptly to
their allotted tasks, and Mr. Hume inspected each gang. The women
and children went to the far end of the valley, where the reeds
grew, and the wise woman was appointed inspector.
"What is this new law, O great one?" she asked quietly, having been
much subdued by the fiery rockets.
"You made the law, mother, that all should work, and I have honoured
it. See that you honour it also."
"Yebo, great one. We women do not complain. It is a joy to us to see
the men work also. Maybe in time," she added significantly, "the
great one will do his turn also."
"Each in his turn, mother."
He went on up to the gorge, where Venning was on duty, remained a
few minutes inspecting the work of wall-building, which should have
been done before for defence, then appointed one of the headmen as
overseer, and went on with Venning to the river outlet, where
Compton was in charge. An overseer was appointed there, and Compton
went on a tour of inspection from gang to gang, while the other two
made a close investigation of the cliff for an entrance to the
caves. The two following days they each in turn acted as general
inspector of the works, while the two disengaged made a close
inspection of the cliff; but at the end of the third day they had no
success to report.
"The only thing to do now," said Mr. Hume, "is to visit the pool,
and make a close examination of the walls."
"We could not examine the wall without swimming in the pool," said
Venning, "and before I do that I am prepared to stay here a very
long time."
"I cannot say I relish the idea myself, but I see no other way out
of the mess. We must have the Okapi before the full moon. I will
take a look at the pool alone to-morrow."