"She comes! Margarita!" burst from the lips of every assembled Dhah, as
the queen slowly advanced and passed between her subjects, who lined the
path leading to the tent. As she moved amid them they bent low, while
here and there a warrior Dhah pressed with his lips her trailing garment
as she passed. Reaching the tent the queen turned and faced the excited
throng of subjects grouped round it, and then we saw more distinctly her
features and the attire which she wore.
The age of the queen was apparently less than twenty, her clear, fair
skin forcibly contrasting with the dark complexion of her subjects, whom
she alone resembled in the colour of the soft, full eyes with which she
glanced upon them. A look almost of sadness overshadowed her face, which
all the adulation which she received from her subjects could not
entirely banish. Her form, which was above the medium height, was clad
in a flowing robe of a wonderfully soft and silky-looking material,
woven possibly, we thought, from the inner bark of some tree. Its loose
folds were bare of ornament, save that the queen wore a girdle over it
thickly interwoven with pearls as white as those of Manaar, of which a
profuse number also braided her light flowing hair, meshes of which
partly concealed her forehead. When the queen stood in silence before
her subjects, after the greeting which they had given her subsided,
there issued from among the Dhahs that one whom first we saw in the
forest. Prostrating himself before her he afterwards rose, and, having
bent low his head, began:--
"Margarita, white queen of the dusky race whose habitation is the
pathless forest, hail! Here, upon the border which limits thy domains,
we pledge anew to thee the promise of fealty, of which the crimson star
upon our foreheads is the token. By it we swear to thee that thy foes
shall be our foes, and that over us, thy slaves, shalt thou have the
power of life and death." Then, turning to the Dhahs, who throughout
this speech had maintained a death-like silence, he asked:--
"Swear ye this by the crimson star of blood which is placed upon your
brows?"
The last word had scarcely left his lips when the subject Dhahs rose
and, placing upon their foreheads their left hands, held aloft the right
above their heads as they cried:--
"By the crimson tide, which rules the life of man, we swear!"
We watched the strange scene intently as each of the Dhahs, in turn,
came forward and fell prostrate before the queen, then gave place to
those who followed. The Dhah who had administered the oath remained near
the queen until the ceremony was concluded, and seemed to number the
subjects as they came forward. Then he fell before her and, for a second
time, kissed the hem of her robe. Smiling gravely upon him, the queen
extended to him her hand. Pressing his lips fervently upon it he rose,
then, turning to those around, he exclaimed:--
"All have not sworn fealty. One among us has not taken the oath, and at
sundown he did not bear upon his forehead the sacred mark!" There was an
ominous frown apparent upon the brows of the Dhahs as these words were
uttered, and when he added: "Ye know the penalty which such
transgression deserves; how then judge ye?" each man's hand gripped his
bow in a threatening manner, while even the faces of the women grew
terribly stern. By one of those assembled was uttered a cry which leapt
from lip to lip, for it was immediately caught up by all:--
"Death to the false one! Death when the day shall dawn!" A gleam of
satisfaction, one almost of savage joy, passed over the face of the Dhah
who stood beside the queen as he added:--
"The sentence upon the traitor is a just one; do thou then confirm it!"
He turned as if about to seek himself for the one who was the cause of
the tumult, when the momentary silence was strangely broken. Upon our
ears was borne the sharp whizz of an arrow shot true from a
tightly-strung bow; then the Dhah who had just finished speaking, with a
wild cry that pierced the forest, threw his arms up as if grasping the
empty air, and fell dead at the queen's feet!
[Illustration: "THE DHAH FELL DEAD."]
"Look yonder, sahib!" whispered Hassan, who was still beside me, "there
is the one who sent forth the deadly shaft!" I turned my gaze hastily in
the direction which the Arab indicated, and saw Denviers struggling with
a fierce Dhah from whose hands he was trying to wrest a bow, and who had
hidden in the brushwood near him without being observed hitherto! They
were seen in a moment by the assembled Dhahs, and, with a wild rush, the
latter poured down upon the combatants, seizing them as they still
grasped the bow.
"Hassan," I cried to our guide, "come on, we must get Denviers out of
the hands of this horde somehow!" We dashed across the intervening
space, and made a brief but desperate attempt to release our companion.
It was as useless as it was rash, for we were directly afterwards
dragged, in spite of our struggles--as well as Denviers and his
opponent--into the open glade, close to the dead body of the man lying
there.
"We are betrayed!" cried one of the Dhahs. "The white spies have been
led hither by the traitor among us that they may learn our strength, and
then return with a force to destroy us! One of our number has already
fallen; shall we not slay the captives over his dead body?" A fierce cry
of assent rose from the others, as they fitted each a shaft to their
bows and took deliberate aim at us as we were held fast by our captors.
I saw the face of the queen grow pale as she rested her eyes, first upon
the fallen Dhah and then upon us. Had men of her own race come that they
might destroy the tribe which obeyed her slightest word? She made an
imperative gesture, which caused the Dhahs to hold their arrows
undischarged, though they still kept their bows bent, waiting eagerly
for her to utter the word of command to slay us.
"Stop!" she cried, in a commanding tone. "Upon your foreheads ye wear
still the pledge of obedience to me, with whom rests alone the power of
life and death. Ye shall have justice to the full: I will hear what they
can say in their defence, but if wantonly they have caused life to be
taken, white though they be, I swear unto ye that they shall surely
die." The Dhahs shifted their arrows from the bowstrings and seemed
reluctant to give us even this short respite. I looked into the queen's
face and read there that her threat against us was no idle one. She
commanded the women and most of the men to retire--leaving us still held
fast by our captors.
"We are not cowards," said Denviers, calmly, to her. "Hear what we have
to say, and then decide our fate. Bid these savages release us from
their grasp--we shall make no attempt to escape, I pledge my word." The
queen glanced coldly at him as she responded:
"Be it as ye say." Then, turning to the Dhahs, she continued: "Take them
within the tent, and then retire. Remain within an arrow shot from here,
and if ye see one of the prisoners attempt to escape, slay him and spare
not." We were conducted into the queen's tent, and there released. As
the Dhahs withdrew Denviers turned to Hassan, and said:--
"Bid this savage who shot the arrow explain that we know nothing of
him." The queen looked sharply at us, and then pointing to Hassan,
asked:--
"Who is this whom ye have brought into the forest?"
I answered for us, saying: "He is our guide, with whom we have been
wandering for some time. Why do you mistrust us, since you have ample
proof that the fallen Dhah was shot by your own subject there?" and I
pointed to the man, who, for a moment, had thrown himself down in the
tent.
"Speak!" she commanded him. "Why did you shoot forth the winged
messenger of death?"
To our surprise the man rose and confronted her boldly, as he
answered:--
"Am I not a warrior? Can I not bend the bow and endure hardships better
than anyone among the tribe over which thou rulest? Was not I prince of
these Dhahs until the day when thou tookest possession of my right? Thou
hast despised me and looked kindly upon another, wherefore have I sworn
to refuse to take the pledge of fealty to thee when the time came round,
and to stretch him dead at thy feet. Deliver me into the hands of the
tribe if thou wilt, but thou art powerless to bring back life to thy
favourite!" He stopped and drew himself up defiantly before her. The
eyes of the imperious queen shone brightly with the fierce resentment
which the Dhah's words roused in her.
"Darest thou then to confront thy queen so?" she asked, scornfully. "May
not I choose whom I will upon whom to bestow my favours? Coward that
thou art to shoot the shaft secretly, because thou darest not face thine
enemy as a brave Dhah ever does! Thy crime has nearly cost these other
prisoners dear; and I, ruling as I do this tribe without the
exterminating feuds which distinguished it under thy misgovernment, doom
thee to death. At sundown to-morrow shalt thou die; till then thou shall
live, scorned by the race upon which thou hast brought this stain." She
moved to the front of the tent, and then we saw the Dhah dragged away by
those whom the queen quickly summoned.
We were bidden to rest ourselves upon the piles of soft, rich skins
which were spread there, and having promised to secure our safety, the
queen, whose anger gradually subsided, observing the inquiring glances
which we turned towards her, said, in a low tone:--
"The deed which ye have seen enacted to-night has smitten me sorely. For
ten years have I lived among these Dhahs, for to-day is the anniversary
of that upon which I came to them, and so it is that ye chance to see
their promise to obey me renewed. To-morrow it is expected that I, too,
will take in turn the oath, by which yearly I have sworn to them to
remain in this forest until the seasons change and change again. At
midnight to-night my last promise expires, and for a few brief hours I
shall not be their bond queen. By your glances I judge that ye would
learn my history. Strange as it is, I must narrate it briefly, for,
because of the death which ye have witnessed, I now have a request to
make which may sound unusual upon your ears."
[Illustration: "TO-MORROW SHALT THOU DIE!"]