PRISONERS.

At length, after a tremendous amount of unnecessary confusion and

trouble, the oxen were inspanned, and with the usual unearthly yells and

loud cracking of the long whip by Jantje, mounted upon the wagon box,

the creaking, lumbering vehicle was got under way, Ramoo Samee following

close behind and leading the horses, while the dogs and Leo came to heel

and trotted along close behind Grosvenor and Dick, as was their wont

when their masters chose to walk, which was not very often. As for the

soldiers, they arranged themselves as a cordon round the entire cortege,

the officer in command leading the way.

This order was maintained until the noon outspan, when the officer,

after some pressing, laid aside his aloofness sufficiently to accept

Grosvenor's invitation to join him and Dick at luncheon. This proved to

be the thin end of the wedge, so to speak; for the man could scarcely

sit at the same table with his two prisoners, partake of their fare, and

still preserve his original attitude of silence toward them; indeed it

soon became evident that he was consumed with curiosity concerning the

two people who had travelled such a distance with such few retainers;

who seemed to have absolutely no knowledge of what fear was; and who

apparently numbered lions as well as dogs among their domestic animals.

He began by making a few tentative remarks, to which Grosvenor responded

at some length, and then suddenly demanded, with an air of astonishment

that he made scarcely any effort to conceal, how it came about that he,

Grosvenor, a total stranger, was able to communicate with a native of

the country in what was practically his own language. Then Grosvenor

entered into a long explanation, involving a brief history of the

principal seats of learning in England, with the methods and subjects of

study pursued therein, and including the interesting fact that Hebrew,

being commonly regarded as one of the most ancient tongues in the world,

was there regarded as especially worthy of attention.

This last statement seemed to be particularly gratifying to the young

officer's vanity, and had a distinctly mollifying effect upon his

original hauteur and coldness. He thawed visibly, and even condescended

to laugh at some mild joke upon which Grosvenor ventured, and then

sought to further satisfy his curiosity by making a number of personal

enquiries as to where Phil and his friend came from, why they came, how

long they had been upon the journey, and so on. To all these enquiries

Grosvenor replied pretty fully, but when in his turn he attempted to

elicit some information respecting their destination, and the treatment

that they might expect to receive upon their arrival, the man at once

shut up like a trap, and thenceforward for the remainder of the journey

refused to hold any communication whatever with his prisoners.

Their route lay in the direction of a range of distant hills, which they

judged it was the intention of their captor to cross; and as they went

they found the country gradually changing its character by subtle

gradations, growing ever more fertile and more highly cultivated with

every mile of progress, while the houses increased in number and

clustered more thickly together. At length, after passing through one

of these hamlets, they emerged upon a narrow field path, which widened

somewhat when the next hamlet was passed, and so gradually became a more

prominent feature until ultimately it developed into a full-blown road,

which, rough and uneven at first, steadily improved in appearance and

quality until it became a very excellent and much-used thoroughfare,

shaded by trees on either hand. In short the country, which on its

extreme frontier was a perfect wilderness, steadily improved with every

mile of progress toward its interior, as regarded the evidences of a

high state of civilisation. One of the strangest things, however, which

came under the notice of the Englishmen was that, from the moment of

their arrest, the inhabitants--whom they encountered in ever-increasing

numbers as the day wore on--manifested the most absolute indifference

with regard to them, not even deigning to cast a second glance upon what

was clearly a most novel and unusual sight in that country.

At sunset the party encamped at the foot of the hills toward which they

had been journeying all day, and which proved to be much more lofty, and

at a much greater distance, than they had imagined them to be when they

were first sighted; and the whole of the next day was consumed in

climbing, by means of an excellent road, to the summit of a pass where,

having safely negotiated a short length of exceedingly narrow and

difficult roadway between two enormous vertical cliffs, they emerged

upon a small plateau of rich grassland that afforded good camping ground

for the night.

The spot where the travellers outspanned was the bottom of a miniature

basin of some five or six acres in extent, and was surrounded on all

sides by steep slopes terminating in a series of jagged peaks, some four

or five hundred feet high, that bounded the view in every direction and

limited it to a distance of about half a mile. But when, after

inspanning on the following morning, they crossed the little plateau

upon which they had spent the night, and passed round a bluff at its

farther side, a wonderful prospect at once burst upon their astonished

gaze. For they now found that the chain of hills, up the outer slope of

which they had been laboriously climbing during the whole of the

preceding day, formed an unbroken if somewhat irregular circle of

something like forty miles in diameter, measuring across from ridge to

ridge, the inner slopes of the encircling hills being from three to five

miles wide, with a plain of from five to ten miles in width at their

feet, this plain in turn encircling a lovely lake, measuring about

twenty miles across, the very centre of which was occupied by an island

of perhaps three or four miles in diameter, the whole rugged surface of

which appeared to be covered with buildings embowered in leafy gardens.

Now at last the travellers began to really understand the wealth and

importance of the people into whose country they had entered, uninvited;

for, as far as the eye could reach, even with the aid of their

exceedingly powerful field glasses, the mountain slopes and the plain

that lay circling at their feet consisted of nothing but a practically

unbroken sweep of highly cultivated land, dotted with snug farmhouses,

and bearing ripening crops of various kinds, interspersed here and there

with trim vineyards, or orchards of fruitbearing trees; while, at

distances of from three to eight or ten miles apart, there nestled among

groves of noble shade trees, villages which must have sheltered from a

hundred-and-fifty to, perhaps, four or five hundred inhabitants. And

through all there ran a perfect network of roads, carrying, as could be

seen with the aid of their glasses, a considerable amount of traffic,

among which could be distinguished a number of wheeled vehicles, the

first they had seen since entering the country.

The officer, who was their custodian, was evidently intensely gratified

at the surprise and admiration freely expressed by his two principal

prisoners at the scene that lay spread out at their feet, and even

halted the cortege for a few minutes to enable Dick and Grosvenor to

take in its multudinous details conveniently, and examine them through

their field glasses. It was noticed by the two Englishmen that he

regarded these instruments with the most acute curiosity, but either

pride or reserve deterred him from asking any question concerning them.

When, however, Dick offered him a peep through them, he was wholly

unable to resist the temptation, or to restrain his expressions of

amazement as, glancing through the tubes at the island, some twenty

miles distant, he was enabled to distinguish such details as the roofs,

windows, and doors of houses built thereon, while of course the details

of houses in the plain below, the character of the several vehicles on

the roads, the numbers of oxen in the teams which drew them, were quite

unmistakable. But when Grosvenor, seeking to avail himself of this

temporary relaxation of manner, attempted once more to engage the man in

conversation, he instantly relapsed into his former attitude of

unresponsiveness; and his manner soon made it clear that he was

determined to risk no complications of any kind by allowing anything in

the nature of familiarity or friendliness between himself and his

prisoners.

The descent from the crest of the encircling hills to the circular belt

of plain below was of course quite an easy matter, compared with the

ascent of the outer slope on the previous day, the gradient of the road

being practically uniform all the way, and just steep enough to

necessitate a slight application of the brakebar to the rear wheels of

the wagon from the crest to the plain; and Dick noted with some surprise

that their taciturn friend, the officer in command, appeared to be

greatly interested in the working of this exceedingly simple piece of

apparatus, as though it was something with which he was quite

unfamiliar. The party effected the descent and reached the level plain

in about an hour and a half from the moment of starting, and soon found

themselves travelling along a broad, level, well-kept road among a large

number of other people, most of whom looked at them with more or less

curiosity, but steadfastly refrained from addressing a word of remark to

any of the guard who had them in charge.

About half an hour after reaching the plain they debouched into another

and much broader road than that by which they had been previously

travelling, and it then became tolerably evident that their ultimate

destination must be the island in the centre of the lake; for the road

which they were now traversing was absolutely straight all the way to

the margin of the lake, and pointed accurately toward the island.

They had been travelling along this road for nearly an hour, and were

approaching a village of more importance than any which they had

hitherto passed, when there suddenly arose a considerable commotion

among the people on the road ahead of them, who were seen running

confusedly hither and thither amid a great cloud of dust, while shouts,

shrieks, and a sound of low, angry bellowing rose upon the stagnant air.

Mechanically the whole party came to a halt to see what was the matter,

while Jantje and 'Nkuku began shouting to each other in greatly excited

tones, and the oxen which were drawing the wagon began to low, snort,

sniff the air, stamp excitedly on the ground, and lunge at each other

with their long horns. For perhaps a minute it was impossible to guess

what was happening; then the shouts suddenly grew much louder and more

excited, the crowd ahead parted right and left as though panic-stricken,

there arose a shriek of terror, or pain, or perhaps both, a man's body

was seen to go whirling some eight or ten feet into the air, and then a

bulky something, which presently resolved itself into a huge buffalo

bull, emerged from the dust-cloud and came charging along the road,

striking out with its immense, curved, sharp-pointed horns at everybody

in its way. The brute was then only about two hundred yards off, and

was galloping straight toward the party, with tail high in the air, head

low, eyes aflame with fury, and great gouts of froth dripping from its

heavy muzzle. For a moment the soldiers seemed paralysed with terror,

the next they all turned as with one accord, and, leaping an irrigation

ditch that ran alongside the road, sought safety in flight across a

field of young wheat. The buffalo paused a moment in mid-career, as

though hesitating whether he should pursue them or charge the wagon and

its team of oxen; but the next moment the brute had made up its mind,

and, perhaps attracted by the crimson trimming and glittering ornaments

of the officer's tunic, leaped the ditch and deliberately selected that

unfortunate individual as the especial object of his pursuit. The

position of the man at once became one of deadly peril, for, fast though

he ran, the buffalo had the advantage in the matter of speed, and was

rapidly gaining upon him when Dick and Grosvenor sprang to the wagon

and, hastily seizing their rifles, prepared to act. Dick was the first

on the ground again with his weapon, and, sinking on one knee to secure

steadiness of aim, he brought the sights to bear exactly behind the

animal's left shoulder, and fired. The spirt of flame and the little

jet of filmy blue smoke extorted a sharp ejaculation of astonishment

from those who were near enough to notice it, but it was as nothing

compared with the shout of mingled amazement, terror, and relief that

went up when the huge beast stumbled, fell forward on his head, turned a

complete somersault, and lay still, slain at the very instant when,

having overtaken the fugitive, he had lowered his head to impale the

shrieking man upon his horns.

With such startling abruptness did the huge beast collapse that the

pursued officer did not realise the fact until he had run a farther

distance of some thirty yards or so, and even then, when at length he

halted and looked back at the prostrate and motionless animal, he seemed

quite unable to understand that it was dead and harmless; for he shouted

an order to his men to close in round the buffalo and secure it with

cords before it recovered itself and resumed the aggressive. It was not

until a few of the bolder spirits, having cautiously approached the

carcass, nearly enough to perceive the bullet hole and the blood flowing

from it, had satisfied themselves that the brute was in very truth dead,

and had borne emphatic testimony to the extraordinary fact, that he was

able to screw up his own courage to the point of personal investigation.

Then he calmly made his way back to the road and, approaching

Grosvenor, demanded an explanation of the seeming miracle; but even

after he had been told, and the rifle exhibited to him and its powers

laboriously explained, he seemed quite unable to understand, and was at

last fain to dismiss the mystery with an impatient shrug of the

shoulders, and an order for the march to be resumed.

But Dick had seen a man tossed by the buffalo, and had judged, by the

victim's shriek of agony, that he was badly hurt; he therefore kept his

eyes open as they passed along the road, and sharply directed Grosvenor

to call upon the officer to halt when presently they came upon a group

of about a dozen persons standing by the side of the road surrounding a

little group consisting of two persons, a man and a woman; the man

bleeding profusely from a ghastly wound in the thigh, and already grey

and sharp of feature under the shadow of death, while the woman crouched

helplessly in the dust, supporting the wounded man's head upon her

knees.

Without ceremony Dick forced his way through the little crowd of

onlookers, gave one keen glance at the prostrate man, and then, turning,

shouted to Grosvenor:

"This chap is bleeding to death, Phil--artery severed apparently. Just

explain to our man, will you, and tell him that, with his permission, I

propose to save the poor fellow's life. Mafuta, bring my medicine chest

here, quick!"

The little crowd, that was fast being augmented by new arrivals, scowled

ferociously at the, to them, uncouthly clad but stalwart figure of the

young doctor who had so unceremoniously forced his way in among them,

but remained passive, possibly gathering, from the tone of his speech,

that he proposed to succour the wounded man; nor did the officer in

charge of the party offer any objection, but obediently called a halt

when requested by Grosvenor to do so. A few seconds later, therefore,

Dick, with Grosvenor as his assistant, was kneeling beside the wounded

man, deftly bathing his terrible injury with an antiseptic lotion, prior

to the more difficult and delicate task of searching for and securing

the ends of the severed artery, which had been spouting blood like a

fountain until Dick had applied the tourniquet. The entire operation of

dressing, stitching, and binding up the wound occupied the best part of

half an hour, by which time the roadway was packed with people anxiously

enquiring what was amiss, and eager to get a glimpse of the benevolent

young barbarians who had so strangely come among them and at so

opportune a moment. Those who were favourably enough placed actually to

see what was going on were filled with amazement and--despite their

unreasoning hatred of strangers--admiration at the deftness with which

Dick first stanched the flow of blood and then proceeded to dress the

injury; for, strangely enough, this people, highly civilised though they

were in some respects, possessed but the most rudimentary knowledge of

medicine and surgery, pinning their faith chiefly to the virtue of

charms and incantations, their knowledge being not nearly sufficient to

enable them successfully to grapple with so serious an injury as that

with which the young Englishman was so calmly and competently dealing.

As the operation proceeded, these people, usually so cold and self-

contained, reported progress to those who were less favourably situated

for observation than themselves, and in this way the entire crowd were

kept posted up in every step, until finally a great sigh of relief arose

from them as Dick concluded his task and rose to his feet.

But the young doctor had not yet finished with his patient, by any

means; he intended to see him safely into his own home before he left

him, and this he did, a half-dozen of the soldiers fetching the man's

bed from his house, carefully lifting him thereon, and carrying him in,

under Dick's watchful care, aided by Grosvenor as interpreter. This

done, he administered a soothing and fever-allaying draught; after

which, upon being informed by the young officer that he would probably

have no opportunity of seeing his patient again, he hypnotised the man

and subjected him to a powerful mental suggestion that all danger was

now past, that no complications of any kind would arise, and that he

would rapidly get well without further attention. This done, he and

Grosvenor rejoined the wagon and resumed their march.

The delay occasioned by this incident of the buffalo so retarded their

progress that it was close upon noon before they arrived at the margin

of the lake; and here they were curtly informed that they were about to

be conveyed to the island, and that as it was not proposed to take the

wagon or any of the animals with them, they must indicate what few

articles they thought they might require during the next few days, and

those articles would be conveyed across with them. There was a certain

indefinable, sinister suggestiveness in the character of this

communication that seemed to imply a doubt in the mind of the official

who made it whether the individuals to whom it was made would require

anything at all after "the next few days"; but Dick and Grosvenor,

acting as usual upon the general principle of taking an optimistic view

of everything, gave no sign that they detected anything of a covert

character in the intimation, and calmly indicated the trunks containing

their clothing, the medicine chest, their rifles and revolvers, and a

case of ammunition for the same, all of which were duly placed in a

large craft, in shape something between a canoe and a lighter, which

they afterward discovered was propelled by sixty paddles. At the last

moment it transpired that their black attendants, Mafuta, Jantje, and

'Nkuku were to be left behind on the mainland--which arrangement also

appeared to bear a certain sinister significance--whereupon Grosvenor

suggested the extreme importance of placing them in charge of the wagon

and its remaining contents, part of which--two cases of ammunition, to

wit--he explained, consisted of terribly powerful magic, any tampering

with which by unauthorised persons must inevitably have the most

appallingly disastrous results. This suggestion, Grosvenor was

informed, would receive the most careful consideration of the

authorities; and he had the satisfaction of believing that not only

would this probably result in saving the lives of the blacks, at least

for a time, but he also perceived that his hint respecting the "magic"

had made a very distinct impression.

The preparations for the transport of the prisoners across the lake were

soon made, and in about half an hour from the moment of their arrival

upon the beach they were under way. A circumstance which at once struck

Dick as peculiar was the fact that the craft in which they were making

the passage was unprovided with sails, in consequence of which they had

to depend entirely upon the exertions of the paddlers, although, as it

happened, there was a gentle breeze blowing that was dead fair for them.

Thus the boat, being large and of somewhat clumsy model, occupied fully

two hours in her passage, of about eight miles from the mainland to the

island, notwithstanding the fact that sixty stalwart men were toiling at

the paddles.

But this matter was soon banished from the minds of the two young

Englishmen by their growing interest in the mysterious island which they

were gradually approaching. For mysterious it certainly was in several

respects. In the first place its solitary situation, right in the

centre of that unknown lake, invested it with a certain aspect of

secrecy, and secrecy always suggests mystery. Also there seemed to be

little or no traffic between the island and the mainland, for during the

two hours occupied by their crossing no other boat or craft of any kind

appeared upon any part of the lake. Then, as they gradually drew nearer

to the island, and its various details revealed themselves, the two

young Englishmen became aware that the entire island, excepting perhaps

the actual soil of it, was artificial; that is to say, every square inch

of its surface had apparently been arranged or modified by the hand of

man, for either it bore a building, was traversed by a road, or formed

part of a garden every tree and plant in which owed its existence and

its precise position to human design and arrangement. All the natural

features of the island seemed to have been ruthlessly swept away to make

room for something forming part of a complete, comprehensive plan. And

that plan bore eloquent evidence in its every feature that it owed its

inception to intellects characterised by a very high degree of culture

and refinement, and its execution to hands exceptionally skilled in many

of those arts and sciences that are the heritage of ages of

civilisation. The architecture was massive, almost heroic in its

proportions, and its ornamentation was severe yet graceful, with a very

strong and marked suggestion of Egyptian influence. The gardens were

elaborately terraced, and consisted for the most part of wide, smooth,

grassy lawns thickly dotted with flower beds cut into graceful and

fanciful shapes, with trees growing only where they would afford a

grateful shade either to the wayfarer or to the gardens arranged upon

the flat-topped roofs of the houses. The roads were so cunningly

planned that, by means of their serpentine windings, an easy gradient

was everywhere maintained; and, lastly, the entire island was

encompassed by a lofty and immensely solid wall, or quay, built of

enormous blocks of granite the face of which had been worked to so

smooth a surface as to render it absolutely unclimbable, the only means

of obtaining a landing seeming to be by way of a double flight of wide

stone steps leading up from the water to a wide platform which was shut

off from the interior of the island by an immensely strong gateway

flanked by two lofty towers.

By the time that Dick and Grosvenor had become imbued with a fairly

accurate general impression of the extraordinary characteristics of the

mysterious unknown island city to which they were bound, the craft that

bore them was close in under the frowning protective wall which

engirdled it, and a few minutes later the boat ranged up alongside one

of the two flights of landing steps, the paddles were laid in, and the

crew, springing to their feet, checked the vessel's way by grappling a

number of large bronze mooring rings the shanks of which were deeply

sunk into the face of the massive masonry. Then the officer who had

arrested the prisoners, and still had them in charge, gave the word to

land, and the young Englishmen stepped ashore, closely followed by half

a dozen men bearing their several belongings, except their firearms,

which they insisted on carrying themselves.

Ascending the long, easy flight of steps, the little procession, led by

the officer, presently reached the broad platform on the top, and found

themselves confronting a pair of enormous bronze doors which completely

filled the gateway, and which swung slowly open, apparently by some

mechanical means, to admit them. Passing through the gateway, and

noting, as they went, the extraordinary strength and solidity of the

doors, they found themselves in a kind of tunnel, or passage, some

twenty feet long, in the structure of the gateway, with a sunlit vista

of a paved street, bordered on either hand by lofty shade trees, with

houses behind them, and thronged with people. Another minute and they

had emerged from the archway and were in the street itself, which they

now perceived to be one of the business streets of the island, for the

houses on either side of it were arranged as shops, the whole of the

lower part of each being open, affording a view of the various wares for

sale, displayed upon a gently sloping platform, at the rear end of which

sat the owner, cross-legged, Eastern fashion, arrayed in long flowing

robes of brilliant hues. The fronts of the shops were unglazed, and

unprotected by screen or barrier of any kind, nor did the shopkeeper

make the slightest attempt to solicit custom; his property was simply

protected from the ardent rays of the sun by a gaily coloured blind, or

awning, and he sat silently and gravely awaiting the arrival of such

customers as might chance to require the particular kind of wares that

he had for disposal. These wares, it soon appeared, consisted chiefly

of fruit; bread, in the form of small, fancifully shaped loaves; cakes;

sweetmeats; drinks of various kinds, mostly compounded of powders while

the customer waited--there seemed to be a brisk demand for these--fish,

presumably from the lake, alive and swimming about in a large tank from

which they were withdrawn as required by means of a hand net; light

flimsy muslins, white or dyed in a number of brilliant colours; lengths

of exquisite embroidery in gold, silver, or silk thread, and in some

cases studded with what looked very much like uncut gems; saddlery and

harness, some of it richly mounted or embroidered with gold; queershaped

household utensils made of copper or some other metal that had the

colour and sheen of gold; jewellery, necklaces, bracelets, armlets,

anklets, earrings, and finger rings of gold, and vari-coloured stones

that might or might not be gems; and articles of clothing, including

sandals of all kinds, from the perfectly plain piece of board, secured

by a single strap, to articles of the most elegant design and costly

workmanship.

The little party traversed this street for about a quarter of a mile,

attracting little or no notice from the passers-by as they went, and

then turned abruptly out of it into a wide road leading gradually

uphill. The houses which bordered this road were all private

residences, detached from each other, and each embosomed in its own

spacious garden, aflame with flowers of the most brilliant hues and

exquisite perfume, several of the species being quite unknown to the

Englishmen. The people who were encountered in this road, or were seen

passing in or out of the houses, or moving about in the gardens,

appeared to be of decidedly higher caste than any that the travellers

had thus far seen. Their skins were not so swarthy, their features were

more refined, many of the women being exceedingly beautiful, although

the good looks of the men were to a considerable extent marred by an

expression which may best be described as latent, cold-blooded ferocity.

All these people wore garments of exceedingly fine material, mostly

white, richly trimmed with elaborate embroidery in colours or gold, the

women's dress being a long, sleeveless garment reaching from the throat

to the feet and confined at the waist by an ornamental belt, handsome

sandals, much jewellery, and the head bare, the heavy masses of dark

hair being wound upon the head very becomingly, and intertwined with

ribbon or strings of coloured beads. The costumes of the men were of

two kinds: the elders wore for the most part a long, flowing _burnous_

kind of garment with enormous loose sleeves reaching to the wrists,

while the younger men wore a kind of tunic confined at the waist by a

belt and reaching just below the knee. All wore either sandals or

buskins, and all were bareheaded, the hair of the men being exceedingly

thick, allowed to grow long enough to reach the shoulder, and mostly

dressed in thick clusters of tight, straight curls. The general type of

countenance, as Grosvenor again took occasion to remark to Dick, was

distinctly Hebraic.

The road which the party now followed twisted and turned hither and

thither, apparently with the object of securing a uniform gradient, but

it led continuously upward, until at length it conducted them to an

enormous, massively constructed building of brown granite that towered,

tier after tier, for five tiers in height; the top tier consisting of a

comparatively small edifice with a metal roof which shone in the

afternoon sun like burnished gold. This building somehow suggested the

idea of a temple, partly, perhaps, because of the fact that it was the

topmost portion of the building which occupied the extreme apex of the

island; but the newcomers had scant opportunity to take in its details,

for they were marched straight to a low doorway cut in the tremendously

thick wall of the lower story of the building, which gave them admission

to a long labyrinth of twisting passages, lighted only by the smoky

flare of half a dozen torches. This network of passages they traversed

for a distance which both of them estimated at fully five hundred yards,

finally arriving at a small door which was flung open by a man who had

accompanied the party from the outer door. The officer motioned his

prisoners to enter, and, there being no alternative, they did so, the

bearers following with their belongings. These last being deposited on

the ground, the bearers retired, the door was slammed-to and barred on

the outside, and the two adventurous young Englishmen found themselves

alone in a cell or dungeon about eight feet square, devoid of every

suggestion of furniture, and lighted only by a small aperture, some six

inches square, pierced in an outer wall of the building which must have

been at least twelve feet thick.