The victorious band marched triumphantly into Equatoria as the shades of
night were falling; but their joy, alas! was quickly changed to wailing.
Nowhere was there a soul to be seen in or about the town. Leigh was
missing, with his wife and child, the Atagbondo guards, and the whole of
Zero's plunder divisible amongst the three bands--all, everything was
gone.
On carefully searching the public building, however, the whole of the
"People of the Stick" were found tightly bound in the condemned cell,
which was fastened from outside. The poor creatures were almost dead
with thirst and starvation, having been locked up for over four days.
They soon, however, revived under friendly treatment, and then, calling
up the interpreter, our anxious friends listened to their moving tale.
As a matter of fact, however, these men had very little to tell beyond
saying that the very night the main body had left Equatoria they had
been visited by an ancient man, the biggest Forest Fetish in those
parts, and called by him to a "great dance" in the common hall, which
was well lighted by priests holding torches in their hands.
He had delivered a long harangue to the "People of the Stick" regarding
the gifts they were to send him from their own country, and after this
the unfortunate audience heard no more, their senses gradually leaving
them under the subtle influence of the smoke from the torches, which
made the air heavy with a curious pungent odour. But though the men
could neither move nor exercise the faculties of sight or hearing, each
realised that he was being fettered and carried away, whilst he
gradually yielded to an overpowering desire to sleep. Naught knew they
of the Fetish beyond the fact that his habitation was somewhere in the
dense and tangled forest of the east, into whose dark avenues no mortal
man dare venture, for they were the home of ghosts and spirits, and the
haunts of snakes, and wolves, and many evil things.
It was, of course, too late to make any move that night; so, after
roundly cursing the ill-luck which had brought this latest misfortune
upon them, the tired wayfarers ate their supper, set a watch, and then
lay down to snatch a few hours' rest before the dawn.
The earliest gleam of daylight saw Grenville afoot, and with Kenyon, the
Zulus, and a couple of hundred Mormons, he commenced to quarter the
forest in every direction. Fearful work this was, for the place was
simply a tangled and practically impenetrable jungle, upon which even
the axes of the party made little impression. For three whole days did
the little band prosecute their arduous search, returning to Equatoria
each night utterly worn out with their fruitless and cruel labour.
On the third night, when Grenville, thinking sadly upon the unknown fate
of his much-loved cousin, supposed his friend Kenyon to be asleep, to
his utter astonishment that worthy suddenly shot up to his feet.
"Gods!" he yelled, fairly trembling with excitement. "Gods! I have it.
Dick, what cursed fools we've been--how could those priests have taken
bound and stupefied people through these thickets, beyond which our axes
cannot carry us. Ten to one in sovereigns, I take you straight to their
lair at dawn, old man;" and so he did, never making a single mistake,
and a mighty queer place they found it, _up amongst the tree-tops_.
Entering confidently a great hollow tree which stood about a mile from
the town, and on the outskirts of the impenetrable bush, Kenyon
triumphantly pointed to _a strong rough ladder run up the inside of the
giant trunk_, and mounting this for near a hundred feet, all found
themselves in a fair way to enter the abode of the famous Forest Fetish
who dominated the timid natives in those parts, and was had--as is
always the case--in even more repute amongst them, on account of his
abominable extortions and deeds of violence, than was Muzi Zimba, the
Ancient Fetish of the Hills, in consideration of his uniform kindness of
soul.
High up upon the interlaced branches of the trees were fastened rough
boards, thickly covered with grass matting, and on these, from tree to
tree, our adventurers followed _for upwards of two miles_, a perfectly
safe and absolutely silent road, of a uniform width of perhaps five
feet, until they penetrated into the sacred presence of the arch-humbug
himself. A mighty uproar there was, and a great seizing and brandishing
of sacrificial knives and swords, as the first of our friends entered
the roomy tree-top, boarded throughout, in which the priests had their
semi-aerial domicile. But when these rascals, perhaps thirty or forty
in number, saw the whole rescue-party file in, and the grim row of
frowning muzzles opening in line with their wretched carcases, the
entire band simply flopped down upon their knees, and howled for mercy,
the "big man fetish" himself making more noise than anyone.
By great good fortune, poor Leigh, with his wife and child, had been
preserved for the occasion of a great fetish dance at next new moon, and
were soon found and released, and, as restitution was quickly made of
all the plunder stolen from Equatoria, our friends contented themselves
with giving the rascals what Kenyon called "a jolly good hiding all
round," and then drove them out of the forest altogether, and set fire
to their abominable nest, the dry matting making a fine blaze amongst
the tree-tops, out of which it scared the monkeys, parrots, and other
legitimate denizens in very large numbers. The simple "People of the
Stick" were astonished at the discovery made by their white associates;
for the poor fetish-ridden creatures of these parts had been almost
harried out of their lives by the priests, who were supposed to dwell
invisibly under a tree, in whose upper branches, however, was located
their real abode. Under this tree, which could be reached only by a
bridle-path from the rear of the belt of forest, the miserable negro
would devoutly deposit his offering, and when returning upon his way to
Equatoria, and passing near the hollow tree, _two miles off_, he would
probably find the gift which, not unfrequently, comprised his little
all, thrown contemptuously in his path, whilst hidden voices admonished
the terror-stricken wretch to hurry off, and bring a better offering,
unless he wished to have his heart torn out of his body. This, of
course, was "very big fetish" to such a superstitious people, and they
would do almost anything to propitiate the awful Spirit of the Air. Not
content with these thievish tricks, however, the priests slew very many
men, stole the women, and generally played the "hanky-panky
spiritualist" game to their hearts' content.
Before liberating the "big man fetish" himself, Kenyon closely
questioned him, through the interpreter, regarding the drug which he had
used for the purpose of stupefying the "People of the Stick," and found
that the feat was accomplished by steeping torches of fibrous bark in a
compound made from bruised herbs, and which closely resembled chloroform
in its effect, and of which, he added, he had often made quantities for
Zero.
Asked if he knew how Zero used the drug, this man at once fully
explained the whole "death," stupefaction, and abduction of Lady
Drelincourt and her child--a miserable aboriginal savage thus calmly
elucidating a mystery which had proved altogether too much for the
wisest doctors and keenest detectives in far-away and enlightened
England.
Upon Kenyon, however, expressing the most utter disbelief of his
statement, the "Fetish" boldly offered to exhibit the result of the
experiment in his own proper person, provided the white men would give
him some powder and a gun before they went away; and Kenyon having
undertaken to make him happy with a flint-lock and six feet of superior
English tower-marked "gas-pipe," the man forthwith proceeded to
demonstrate the truth of his curious tale.
First obtaining a small gourd of the drug referred to, he then took from
a pouch at his side a beautiful _little tame white monkey_. Next
picking a sharp thorn, he coated the point well with the nameless
compound, and, giving the instrument to the monkey, pointed to himself.
The little animal cunningly concealed the thorn within its palm, and
then offered to shake hands with its master, and this ceremony having
been performed, the old man held up his hand and exhibited a small red
mark in the palm. He then explained that the properties of the drug
were distinctly anaesthetic, and that he could not feel the puncture,
which was painlessly made; but he would nevertheless shortly go to sleep
for three or four days, and then wake up again, being quite recovered,
and none the worse for the experiment.
The drug had no perceptible effect upon the man for several hours, but
towards evening he began palpably to get very drowsy, and no power on
earth could keep him awake. The suspicious Kenyon, however, was not to
be "done," and punched and kicked the old man unmercifully--an operation
in which he was most ably seconded by Amaxosa, who beat the "cunning man
of the witch-finders black and blue" with the handle of his spear,
pausing only now and then to take a pinch of snuff. "Ow! my father," he
said at last, throwing down the spear in disgust--"Ow, my father, who
can beat the life into a dead dog like this? What is gone is gone for
ever, and the breath will never come again, so we had best throw this
low fellow to the jackals; he is far too cunning to live with men."
Kenyon, however, kept his man safely and watched him keenly; he found
that during the continuance of the trance there was no perceptible
pulse, nor was there any movement of the heart or respiratory organs; it
was, in point of fact, an astonishing case of absolutely suspended
animation. Everyone who examined the man insisted that he was an
undoubted corpse, and ridiculed the very idea of his returning to life;
and, to all appearance, he certainly was stone dead, and even Kenyon
began to fear that the old fellow, in his eagerness to vindicate his
reputation as a witch-doctor, had overdone the thing and settled himself
once for all.
On the fifth night, however, the "fetish man" awoke, sat up, coolly
asked for his powder and gun, and got both and a double allowance in
exchange for his wonderful secret, which he imparted to the delighted
Kenyon.
Lady Drelincourt confirmed all that the man had said. She perfectly
remembered the pretty pet monkey, which had been brought round by Zero,
who was himself disguised as an organ-grinder, and both she and her
child had shaken hands with the little creature, and all the rest, of
course, was simple to a man of Zero's capabilities, to whom the work of
a resurrectionist was an unconsidered trifle, and whose devilish cunning
had rightly calculated that the old family doctor would say anything, or
sign anything, to protect his friend from the grisly horrors attendant
upon a post-mortem examination.
Of her removal by sea poor Dora knew nothing, and her first
recollections were upon a steamer bound for Madagascar, some days out
from France; and whenever she began to come out of her trance, Madame
Zero would promptly renew the dose, and effectually prevent the poor
girl from getting loose or making mischief, whilst she was given out on
board as being a delicate lady with an extremely feeble mind.
Zero's original intention had been to hold her for ransom, and apply to
Leigh for an enormous sum of money; but his "wife" stopped this, feeling
sure that it would bring upon the community the vengeance of the
outraged English law.
As soon, however, as the slaver knew of Leigh's arrival in his vicinity,
he determined upon the devilish plan of forcing Dora to marry one of his
own men, and then promised himself the hellish satisfaction of
_presenting her to her own husband as the wife of another man, and that
man, a Mormon_.
Having once disposed of the "fetish palaver," Kenyon became more eager
than anyone to turn his face homewards, and two days afterwards the
whole party accordingly left Equatoria, and after destroying the Bridge
of Rope, firing the public building, and razing to the ground the last
stronghold of Zero the slaver, his conquerors steered a straight course
for the south-western seaboard.