Determined to afford Her Majesty neither time nor opportunity to repent
of her sudden decision, Malachi hastened out of the palace as speedily
as his poor old limbs would carry him, and, making the best of his way
back to the enormous building in which the strangers were lodged,
presented himself in their apartment, which he found them in the act of
returning to by way of the window after a stroll round the roof garden
outside. Almost incoherent from want of breath and his eagerness to
impress upon the pair the necessity to seize the present favourable
opportunity, the Elder hastily explained that his mission to the Queen
had been successful, and entreated Dick and Grosvenor to accompany him
to the palace forthwith; with which request they were of course
perfectly ready to comply. The palace was but a bare hundred yards from
the larger building, both in fact being built on the same plot of
ground, and a few minutes sufficed the trio to pass from the one
building to the other, to traverse the noble entrance hall of the
palace, and to make their way to the Queen's private suite of
apartments, outside the door of which two soldiers armed with spear and
target stood on guard. The next moment they were in the presence of the
Queen, who, surrounded by some half a dozen ladies, reclined listlessly
upon a couch of solid gold gorgeously upholstered in richly embroidered
silk.
As the trio entered and bowed low before her, the young Queen glanced
listlessly at her visitors for a moment, and then a look of interest
crept into her eyes, such as Malachi had not seen there for months,
causing his heart to leap within him as he wondered whether this young
doctor had indeed the power to perform a miracle and effect the cure of
the lovely young creature upon whom the hopes of the whole nation
depended.
For lovely the Queen most certainly was, indeed it is the only word
which adequately expresses the perfection of her charms. The Izreelite
women were, as the young Englishmen had already had opportunity to
observe, mostly of more than prepossessing appearance, tall, stately,
statuesque creatures of Juno-like proportions, with melting dark eyes,
and luxuriant tresses of dark, curly hair. But Queen Myra's beauty was
of a totally different type, for she was _petite_ yet exquisitely
formed, fair as the dawn of a summer's day, with golden-brown locks, and
eyes as blue as the sapphire sky overhead. So lovely indeed was she
that Grosvenor, surprised out of his manners, whistled softly, and
remarked to Dick, in quite audible tones:
"Phew! Dick, my boy, did you ever see such a beauty in all your born
days? No wonder that these old jossers the Elders are anxious to keep
the darling alive--eh, what?"
As he spoke the faintest suspicion of a smile seemed to flicker for a
moment in the eyes of the Queen, but Dick, who noticed it, thought it
must have been provoked by Malachi's genuflexions as he performed the
ceremony of introduction, pointing to Dick first as the physician, and
then to Grosvenor as the friend who had journeyed with him across the
Great Water, and who, happening in some mysterious way--which he,
Malachi, did not pretend to understand--to possess some slight knowledge
of the Izreelite tongue, would act as interpreter between Her Majesty
and the physician.
By the time that Malachi had finished his speech the terrible
listlessness and indifference of the Queen's manner, which had for so
many months been a source of anxiety to the nation in general and the
Elders and nobles in particular, had completely vanished, and she
electrified the chief Elder by raising herself upon her couch and
bidding him imperiously to be gone and to leave her alone with her
ladies and the two strangers. The poor old gentleman, his head dizzy
with many conflicting emotions, hastily bowed himself out, and was
halfway back to his own quarters in the Legislature before he well knew
whether he was on his head or his heels.
The door had no sooner closed upon Malachi than an extraordinary change
took place in the appearance and demeanour of the Queen; the languor of
her attitude and the absolute listlessness and indifference with which
she had regarded her chief Elder vanished as if by magic. Her eyes lit
up eagerly, a wave of colour suffused her hitherto marble-white cheeks
and brow, and, turning to her two visitors, she astounded them by
exclaiming in excellent English, with only a trace of accent, as she
stretched out her hands toward them:
"Gentlemen--gentlemen, are you indeed English, or has my poor brain at
last given way under the strain of my terrible trouble?"
For a moment the friends were literally smitten speechless by
astonishment; then Grosvenor, who was the first to recover full
possession of his faculties, sprang forward and, sinking upon one knee,
raised one of the little outstretched hands respectfully to his lips.
"Madam," he said, absent-mindedly retaining the Queen's hand in his own
as he still knelt before her, "we are indeed Englishmen, and entirely at
your service. There are but two of us, as you see; but you have only to
command us, and whatever two Englishmen in the midst of thousands of
enemies can do, that will we do for you. Isn't that so, Dick?"
"It is, indeed," answered Dick, smiling at the passionate fervour of his
friend's speech. "Your Majesty has but to explain to us the nature of
your trouble, and it shall go hard indeed with us if we do not devise
some means to help you, especially as, unless I am entirely mistaken,
you are a countrywoman of our own. Get up, Phil, and let Her Majesty
tell us her story. And mind your `P's' and `Q's', old man," he added in
a low tone; "don't let your sympathy and enthusiasm run away with you,
or you will be apt to excite possibly awkward comment on the part of Her
Majesty's ladies. You have made some of them open their eyes pretty
wide already, I can assure you."
With a muttered ejaculation Grosvenor hastily scrambled to his feet,
while the Queen, beckoning to two of her ladies, directed them to place
a couple of settees for her visitors close to her couch. Upon these the
two Englishmen seated themselves, in obedience to a sign from Her
Majesty, who thereupon addressed them:
"I fear," said she, "that I shall find it quite impossible to make you
understand how astonished and how glad I am to see you both. I am
astonished, because it is a law of this land that no aliens are ever
permitted to enter it--and live; and I am glad because you, like myself,
are English, and my dear mother taught me to believe that Englishmen are
always ready to help their countrywomen in distress under all
circumstances. And I am in distress, the greatest distress that I
suppose it is possible for a woman to be in. But let me tell you my
story--it will not take long--and then perhaps you will understand.
"I am twenty-three years of age, and of English parentage. My father
was an officer in the Indian army, and for nearly four years my mother
resided with him at a little frontier post called Bipur. Then trouble
arose; the hill tribes in the neighbourhood of Bipur committed certain
excesses, and an expedition was dispatched under my father's command.
Fighting ensued, and my father was killed in one of the earliest
engagements that took place. There was now nothing to keep my mother in
India, therefore, as the climate did not suit her, she made immediate
arrangements to return to England, taking passage in a sailing ship that
was proceeding home by way of the Cape, a long sea voyage having been
prescribed for the benefit of her health.
"I do not know how it happened, nor did my mother, but the ship was
wrecked on the African coast, and many lives were lost. My mother,
however, happened to be one of the saved; and she, with the rest of the
survivors, fell into the hands of certain natives who surprised their
camp on the beach in the dead of night. The men of the party were all
slain; and what became of the few women who survived I do not know, for
my mother never told me; but she was brought by her captors to this
country and presented to King Geshuri, who made her his queen. Two
months later I was born; and my mother never had any other children.
"Five years ago King Geshuri died; and my mother became the reigning
monarch of the country, in accordance with the Izreelite law. But she
was never strong; and three years ago she, too, died, leaving me
absolutely alone to govern this fierce, headstrong people as best I
could."
Here the Queen's emotion overcame her for a moment, and she hid her face
in her hands, while the tears welled over and trickled through her
fingers. Her distress moved the young Englishmen powerfully, and they
began to murmur expressions of sympathy and assurances of help. But,
quickly recovering her composure, the Queen resumed her narrative.
"That, however, is not what is troubling me, for my mother, realising
that I must one day become a queen, devoted herself entirely to
educating me in such a manner as to prepare me, as well as she could,
for the discharge of my difficult duties. Unfortunately, we had no
books, so my mother was compelled to rely entirely upon her own
knowledge and experience in the matter of my education and training; but
she not only taught me the English language, but also how to read and
write it, spending many hours in printing with her own hand long
passages containing maxims for my guidance, simply that I might have the
means of learning to read English books, should ever any such fall into
my hands.
"And now I come to the matter that is troubling me. The Elders tell me
that the time has arrived when I must take to myself a husband; and they
have suggested--oh, I cannot tell you how many men!--Izreelite nobles,
of course--from whom I may make my choice. But I do not like any of
them; there is not one among them all whom I do not thoroughly detest,
for they are all fierce, arrogant, overbearing men who do not even
pretend that they have any desire to make me happy. All they want is to
be king, so that they may enjoy the absolute power and authority of a
monarch; for, if I marry, my husband will at once become the ruler of
the country, according to the Izreelite law, and I shall merely be his
wife. Fortunately, I cannot be compelled to marry, and I won't--I
won't," with a passionate little stamp of the foot, "until I meet with a
man whom I can--can--love. But I know I shall have no peace until I
consent to marry somebody; the Elders are wild with anxiety that I
should choose a husband; they worry me every day, ay, and almost every
hour of the day, about it, until I am driven very nearly out of my
senses by the thought that, sooner or later, I shall be constrained to
become the wife of some man whom I detest. That is my trouble,
gentlemen; I wonder if you are clever enough to devise a means of
helping me."
"Yes, Your Majesty, we are," answered Dick confidently. "I don't say
that we already have a plan; for that would be asserting far too much.
But you have told us the nature of your trouble, which of course is the
first thing that it is necessary for us to know; and now we will lose no
time in thinking out a remedy. Trust to us, madam; we will not fail
you. We have practically pledged ourselves to spend the remainder of
our lives in your country--your Elders compelled us to do that--and the
removal of your trouble and the securing of your happiness shall have
precedence of every other consideration with us."
The Queen's gratitude was so great that she seemed scarcely able to find
words in which to express herself adequately; it was almost painful to
witness, so eloquently did it testify to the desperation with which she
had been compelled to combat the suggestions of unwelcome alliances with
which she had been perpetually harassed; but she contrived to make it
quite clear that the arrival of the two Englishmen filled her with
renewed hope and a revived zest in life. "I know," she said, "that it
must sound unkind of me to say so, but I cannot help being glad that you
are here; for now at last I feel that I have two friends who will stand
by me and help me to the utmost of their ability. Besides," she added
delightedly, as the thought came to her, "you will be companions for me.
I have been utterly lonely and friendless since my mother died; but you
will come to see me often--every day--won't you? And we can walk and
talk together, and I can again be happy."
"Of course," answered Grosvenor eagerly. "You may absolutely depend
upon us both to do anything and everything that you may ask of us. I
believe we are each to be assigned certain duties, which I suppose we
shall be expected to perform; but our first duty is to you, our first
care must be for your happiness, and, so far as we can prevent it, you
shall never again be worried by those old jossers the Elders, or anybody
else. We have a few books among our baggage, and as soon as it is
delivered to us I will turn them out and bring them over to you; and as
to coming to see you, why of course we shall be delighted to do so; we
will come over every evening after our day's work is over. Eh, Dick?"
"Certainly," answered Dick; "or at least as often as it may be prudent
to do so. And now, madam," he continued, addressing the Queen, "I think
it will be well that we should retire, for above all things else we must
carefully avoid anything and everything that may excite suspicion or
jealousy, and I imagine that both might easily be aroused by a too-
sudden appearance of friendship between ourselves and Your Majesty.
Besides, Malachi the Elder will be anxiously awaiting our report. But,
as my friend has said, you may absolutely rely upon our loyal friendship
and our best help at all times and seasons. Possibly we may be able to
arrange another call before the day is over; meanwhile I crave Your
Majesty's permission for us to retire."
As Dick anticipated, they found the chief Elder anxiously awaiting their
return, eager to learn the young doctor's opinion relative to the mental
and physical condition of the Queen; and Dick, with Phil for his
interpreter, was not slow to give it. Of course, to his practised eye
it had at once been evident that Queen Myra was simply being worried and
badgered and terrified out of her senses by these old men who, with that
idiotic prophecy dominating their minds, desired one thing and one only,
namely to see the Queen married as speedily as possible to somebody; but
to whom it seemed that they cared very little. Dick intended to put a
stop to that at once; he therefore directed Grosvenor to inform the
Elder, Malachi, that the Queen was in a most critical condition, but
that he could cure her, provided that his instructions were all
implicitly obeyed, but not otherwise. This last statement set the poor
old Elder absolutely quivering with apprehension; but Dick was not
worrying overmuch about him or anybody else save the Queen, and he
contrived to frighten the unhappy Elder so thoroughly that at length he
unreservedly promised, both for himself and everybody else, that the
word "marriage" should never again be spoken in Her Majesty's presence
until Dick gave permission; and he also agreed that Dick should have an
absolutely free hand with regard to the Queen's treatment, the visitors
she should receive, the exercise she should take, and so on; thus
providing for Dick's and Grosvenor's free admission to the palace and
the Queen's presence as often as they chose.
This important matter settled, the friends retired to their own quarters
to talk matters over. They found that all their various belongings had
been brought from the cell in which they had passed the previous night,
and were now carefully arranged in their own private apartment.
Grosvenor at once went to his trunk, opened it, bundled its contents
upon the floor, and feverishly proceeded to sort out the half-dozen
books--novels, and two volumes of poems--which it contained, exhorting
Dick to do the same, in order that "that poor girl" might be provided
with a new form of amusement with the least possible delay. It was easy
for Dick to perceive, from his companion's talk, that the latter had
been profoundly impressed by the charms and the lonely state of the
young Queen; and Maitland quietly chuckled, as he reflected that
Grosvenor would never have seen her had he not fled to South Africa for
distraction from the smart of a heart severely lacerated by some fickle
fair one, who, by the way, seemed now to be completely forgotten. But
he shook his head with sudden gravity, as his thoughts travelled on into
the future and he foresaw the possibility of a mutual attachment
springing up between Phil and the Queen. That would be a complication
with a vengeance, and he determined quietly to do everything in his
power to prevent it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ensuing six months passed with the rapidity of a dream; for no
sooner had the two Englishmen arranged matters relating to the Queen
upon a satisfactory basis than they discovered that there was another
cause for anxiety of the gravest character in the behaviour of the
savage nations that hemmed in Izreel on every side. Hitherto these had
been too busily engaged in fighting each other to do more than make
desultory war upon the Izreelites; but now news of an apparently
reliable character came to Bethalia, the island city, to the effect that
a certain king, named Mokatto--a very shrewd fellow by all accounts--had
entered into friendly communication with the rulers of the other nations
whose countries bordered on Izreel, and had pointed out the folly of
fighting each other for no particular reason, when, by uniting their
forces, they could attack the Izreelites, overwhelm them, and divide
their country equally among the victors. This counsel, there was every
reason to believe, had been accepted; for reports were almost daily
coming to hand of preparations which pointed to nothing less than an
impending attack upon Izreel by the confederated kingdoms.
This was precisely what the Izreelites had always feared more than any
other earthly thing; and when authentic intelligence began to arrive,
pointing to the conclusion that the long-feared attack was about to be
made, the Izreelites grew almost crazy with panic, some of them
contending that their gods were angry at the admission of two aliens
into the country, and that the only way by which their anger could be
appeased was by offering the strangers as a sacrifice upon the great
altar of the temple which formed the top story of the Legislative
building. This theory took a very strong hold upon certain of the most
influential of the nobles, who quickly developed extreme jealousy of the
two strangers, whom they vaguely suspected of being in some unexplained
way inimical to them and their interests; and for a time Dick and
Grosvenor undoubtedly went in danger of their lives.
At length, however, this peril became so imminent that the pair agreed
to take the bull by the horns and deal with it forthwith. They
accordingly convened a meeting of the Seven Elders and all the nobility,
at which Dick delivered an address, graphically describing the danger in
which the nation stood, and boldly asserting that only he and Grosvenor
could possibly avert it.
This, of course, was rather a staggering statement, and one which the
Izreelites were not at all disposed to accept unquestioningly, or
without proof. But Dick was equal to the occasion. He and Grosvenor
had discussed the matter together, had decided upon their plan of
campaign, and the Opposition were silenced by his first question.
"What do you suppose would happen to your Queen," he demanded, "if you
were unwise enough to put us to death? I will tell you. She is now on
the highroad to recovery; but, deprived of our ministrations, she would
suffer an immediate relapse, and die! Do you need to be reminded of
what would follow upon that? If there is any truth in your ancient
prophecy the very thing that you most dread would immediately happen.
In other words, our destruction would immediately be followed by that of
the entire nation.
"But, apart from that, our destruction would be the gravest mistake that
you could possibly make; for we, who are natives of the greatest
fighting nation that the world has ever known, can teach you much in the
art of war, your knowledge of which is of the slightest. Your weapons
are poor and inefficient, and you know nothing of strategy and
generalship; but we can instruct you in those important matters, and
also teach you how to make new and powerful weapons, by means of which
you will be able effectually to subjugate the nations which now threaten
you. Say, then, will you destroy us, and so involve yourselves in
irretrievable ruin? Or shall we teach you how to emerge victoriously
from the coming struggle with your enemies?"
There could be but one answer to such a question; the jealousy of the
nobles gave way to fear. They no longer clamoured for the death of the
Englishmen, but, on the contrary, were as willing as the rest that the
strangers should be afforded every opportunity to make good their boast,
and from that moment Dick and Grosvenor became virtually the Dictators
of the nation.
Their victory was perhaps the easier from the fact that during the six
months of their sojourn they had already accomplished much. The Queen,
for example, enlivened and encouraged by the intimate companionship of
her two fellow countrymen, had gradually thrown off the incubus of her
terror, and was now almost her former self again; while Grosvenor had
found congenial occupation in fitting the few craft upon the lake with
sails, and designing and building other craft of greatly improved model,
including half a dozen cutters of the racing-yacht type, which he
conceived would be exceedingly useful should the savages ever again
attempt, as they had done on several previous occasions, to attack the
island city. As for Dick, the densely populated city alone provided him
with more patients than he could conveniently deal with; and he had
effected many remarkable cures.
One of the first things that particularly attracted the attention of the
two friends immediately upon their arrival in Izreel was the inadequacy
of the weapons--a spear, or sheaf of spears, and a small round shield or
target--with which the people were armed; and this they now proceeded to
rectify by the general introduction of bows and arrows as an auxiliary
to the spear and shield. There was an abundance of suitable wood for
bows to be found in a forest on the inner slope of the mountains on the
mainland, while reeds suitable for the shafts of arrows grew in
inexhaustible quantities along the margin of the lake; and when once a
pattern bow and arrow had been made, and a sufficiency of wood and reeds
provided, the furnishing of every man with a good bow and quiverful of
arrows was speedily accomplished. There had at first been a difficulty
in the matter of arrowheads, but this had been overcome by the discovery
of an enormous deposit of flints--in searching for which a rich mine of
diamonds had come to light.
The construction of his fleet and the training of their crews having
been accomplished, Grosvenor next took the army in hand and proceeded to
train it in the use of the bow, succeeding at length, by dint of
indefatigable perseverance, in converting the soldiers into an army of
really brilliant marksmen.
This achievement brought the time on to nearly nine months from the date
of the adventurers' arrival in Izreel, during the first eight months of
which information had come in from time to time which left no room to
doubt that the savages of the adjoining nations had combined together
and were making the most elaborate preparations for a simultaneous
attack upon Izreel from all sides. Then the sources of information
seemed to suddenly dry up, and no news of any description relative to
the movements of the savages could be obtained.
The Izreelites were disposed to regard this as a favourable omen, many
even asserting their conviction that the savages had quarrelled among
themselves, and that attack from them was no longer to be feared; but
Dick and Grosvenor took quite another view of the matter. They regarded
the cessation of news as ominous in the extreme, and dispatched
imperative orders to the frontier for the maintenance of the utmost
vigilance, night and day. They also organised strong relays of swift
runners, radiating from various points along the shore of the lake to
those points where attack might first be expected, in order that
intelligence of an invasion might be brought to the capital with the
utmost promptitude. The strength of the garrisons in the outlying
blockhouses was also doubled, which were put under the command of the
most resolute and intelligent captains that could be found, with
instructions that each post was to be stubbornly defended until the
enemy should threaten to surround it, when it was to be abandoned, and
the garrison--or what might remain of it--was to retire inward to the
next post, and so on; the various garrisons contesting every inch of
ground, cutting up the enemy as severely as possible, and gradually
retiring inward toward the lake and Bethalia if they could not maintain
their ground. These preparations did not take long to make, since it
was merely a matter of marching supplementary troops to the frontier,
and the provisioning of the various blockhouses, fortified farms,
castles, and strongholds generally; and as the preparations had all been
made beforehand, a week sufficed to place the entire nation on the
defensive.
Still the task was accomplished none too soon, for on the very day
succeeding that upon which the preparations for defence were completed,
news arrived in Bethalia that large bodies of savages had been seen
massing upon various parts of the border, while the next day brought
intelligence of attacks upon almost every one of the outlying
blockhouses, and of the retirement of their respective garrisons after
severe fighting in which heavy loss had been sustained by both sides.
The invasion of Izreel had begun, and was being prosecuted with
relentless determination and energy.