TEMPTATION
Dane's preparations for his journey were quickly made, and he was ready
to start before the sun was overhead.
"Life is very uncertain in this country, and because we are partners it
might be as well if you took this map with you in case you should not
find me on your return," said Maxwell. "I worked it out from Niven's
notes, and have the knowledge safe within my brain; but you will
remember that the information would be of value to another white man,
who has already made attempts to obtain it. It might also be well, in
case Miss Castro happens to be present at her father's factory, if you
conducted yourself with a little more than your usual diplomacy."
"Your advice is a trifle superfluous," returned Dane testily. "Do you
think I'm fool or rogue enough to make love to her?"
Maxwell smiled.
"You are one person, and I mentioned two. With all respect to Miss
Castro, it is not quite impossible that she might make love to you.
Remember that she might either prove a useful friend or a dangerous
enemy."
A few minutes later Dane, followed by three men of Moslem faith, was on
his way; and eventually limped--hungry, half-dazed, and sick of
fever--out of the dim forest, which, it seemed to him, was loth to let
its victim go. The glare of sunlight was overpowering, and at first he
could see little more than the two ragged scarecrows, one muttering
excitedly as he stretched out a brown hand toward the southern horizon,
and the other leaning very heavily on his long Snider rifle. The third
man lay full length among the grass. Dane could never recollect all the
incidents of that journey through a land of eternal shadow, but he felt
tolerably certain that if his dusky followers had not served him
faithfully his bones would have lain rotting somewhere among its
jungles.
Then, as his eyes grew accustomed to the change of light, he shouted
exultantly, in a voice his British friends would not have recognized.
The shining to the southward was, beyond all doubt, the sea, and the
white blurs among the palms could represent only factories! Turning, he
shook his fist at the forest with childish solemnity.
"Tell Amadu to turn that gun away from him, Monday. It might go off, and
I be no fit to lose him," he said in coast jargon. "I don't care what
your color is, you are fine fellows too much, both of you, and now we'll
go on while we have strength left to reach them factory."
How much his followers comprehended did not appear. The man he called
Monday grinned from ear to ear, the other slung his rifle, and they went
on, staggering at their best pace toward the sea, though Dane had a
vague impression that, with one arm beneath either shoulder, the two
ragged Africans dragged him most of the way. Some time later a
blindingly whitewashed factory rose up before them against a background
of tossing spray and equally dazzling sea, and Dane made shift to reach
its outer stairway unaided. An elderly man and a lady who sat on the
shady veranda rose at the sight of him. Making an attempt to raise his
battered sun-hat, he lurched up the stairway. The attempt was not
successful. The sun-hat fell over the balustrade, and he saw it long
afterward, painted green and blue, upon a Krooboy's head. Clutching at
the topmost rail, he steadied himself by it.
"Unexpected pleasure to see you here, Miss Castro," he said.
"Salutations, Dom Pedro! Sorry to arrive in this fashion; not quite
myself to-day."
The elderly man shouted, clapping his hands, the lady moved toward the
newcomer; then factory and palm trees went round and round before him,
and Dane, loosing his hold, went down with a crash.
What happened next he did not remember, having only a hazy recollection
of tossing in burning torment for an interminable space, during which at
intervals somebody held a glass filled with cooling liquid to his lips,
while now and then gentle hands, whose touch was soothing, raised his
aching head. Still, he fancied that at times a white face bent over him,
and once, when the dim light of a calabash lamp beat into his eyes, that
waves of dusky hair drooped close above his forehead, and that he
caught, and held fast with all his strength, the cool fingers that
slipped into his own. They seemed to draw him back out of the black
abyss into which he was sliding; and, he surmised afterward, they
actually did so.
Attacks of malarial fever, however, are usually brief; and not long
after his arrival Dane lay, clothed in neatly mended garments and more
or less in his right mind, beside an open window of Castro's factory.
The words "more or less" are used advisedly, for the malaria leaves a
strange lassitude behind it, and the sufferer often takes up the burden
of life again, as it were, reluctantly, and with somewhat clouded
brain. The sea breeze had set in fresh and cool, but the man lay limp
and dejected, scarcely troubling to breathe it in, while a haggard
English surgeon from a neighboring British colony sat near by watching
him with an irritating curiosity. White men recognize the bond of color
in West Africa, and the surgeon had remained to fight hard for the life
of a stranger when passing that way. Also, where all dwell under the
shadow in a land where the veneer of civilization wears thin, and the
primitive passions show through, the Briton casts aside much of his
normal reticence.
"Tolerably bad, was I not?" asked Dane; and the surgeon answered
frankly.
"You were. In fact, on two occasions, I concluded you were going to beat
me. Wouldn't even take a draught from--me, and one might compliment you
on your determined obstinacy."
"I'm much obliged," Dane said slowly. "That's not quite all I mean, but
it's the best I'm capable of just now. I don't know who you are, or why
you did so much for me."
The surgeon laughed good-humoredly.
"If you must have a reason, you were an interesting case. I'm Dennis
Ormond, of the Gold Coast service, and Dom Pedro asked me to look at
you. I obliged him, and at first you were not a very encouraging
spectacle. Of course, I did my little, but I may say that my medicine
was not the only thing responsible for your cure. The senorita assisted
me very ably, and--for a man must sleep sometimes--without her help it
is quite probable we should have attended the expected funeral."
Ormond said this with an indifference which Dane, because he did not
then know how much his little had been, or that his was an eminent name
on the fever coast, thought hardly civil; but there was a warning
gravity in his tone as he continued:
"It was, of course, my business; but not the senorita's; and you might
have changed the pronouns in your last sentence advantageously."
Dane was ashamed of several things he said and did that day, and his
answer among them; but few white men are quite accountable for their
actions when recovering from fever, and there was that in the surgeon's
glance which aroused his indignation.
"Are you not taking an unfair advantage--considering how much I owe
you!" he asked.
"Perhaps so!" said Ormond. "In this land one takes an advantage when and
how one can. I dare say I'm a meddlesome idiot; but I conceived a
certain respect for you, if only because of the spirited manner in which
you resisted my attempts to cure you; and more for the senorita. Now, I
don't think Miss Castro, curious combination of ministering angel,
child, and--well, the angel's antithesis, as she evidently is, would
have done so much for everybody!"
Dane answered nothing. One cannot rebuke the man one owes one's life to.
Ormond, however, had not finished with the subject.
"You crawled off your cot in delirium one night, and I found you groping
among some papers scattered from your pocket-book about the floor," he
said. "It required the assistance of two Krooboys to induce you to lie
down again, and Miss Castro helped me to pick up the papers. I, however,
found this among them first, and considered it well to take charge of it
in the meantime. Miss Castro, you have heard, made an excellent nurse."
Dane felt that the surgeon noticed the way his fingers tightened on the
little photograph handed him; but the man went on, with a smile:
"Your sister, presumably, for one could not help glancing at the
picture. Still, I can't flatter you by saying that I recognize a family
likeness. Therefore--I kept it aside."
Dane thanked him, and Ormond answered lightly:
"The rest of the papers Miss Castro returned to the pocket-book. All you
have to do now is to lie still and recover."
"I will try," Dane said. "When can I start again?"
Ormond pointed out through the window toward the sea.
"In a week, if you are prudent--in fact, the sooner you start in that
direction the wiser you will be. This country is not healthy for
full-blooded Englishmen of your description. If you march inland again,
cable anybody interested to double your life insurance."
Dane made a negatory gesture, but Ormond anticipated his answer.
"Of course, I hardly expected you would take good advice, but it was my
duty to give it. Just now I'll leave you to your own resources, because
Dom Pedro is waiting with the chessmen below. Most gentlemanly old
rascal, and you are indebted to him; but I wouldn't tell him too much
respecting the supposititious treasure you rambled about if I were you.
Henceforward you will have to get better in your own way, because word
has just been sent me that my niggers are dying by dozens."
He went out, and left Dane staring at the photograph in his hand.
Although not improved by long exposure to tropic heat, or the dampness
of the African climate, it had been a good portrait of Lilian
Chatterton, and the eyes that looked out from the faded paper seemed to
challenge the man. On inspecting the dim picture later he decided it
must have been because he remembered them so well. They were clear and
searching, honest above all things, but, as it were, demanding equal
sincerity from whoever looked into them; and though perhaps this was due
to the observer's fancy, the whole face seemed to possess a spiritual
beauty. Dane, however, was certainly a little light-headed still, for as
he gazed the face grew scornful.
To most Europeans in that country there comes a time of mental weakness
and black dejection, and Dane's courage had melted before the fever
which left him unstable as water, and fanciful as a child. Thus it was
that, in a sudden access of bitterness, he slipped the picture back into
its case. Lilian, he decided, had cruelly misjudged him, and now
doubtless enjoyed the sunny side of life in the cool British air,
careless of the fact that for her sake he risked life and reason in the
pestilential steam of Africa.
There was a rustle of draperies, and Bonita Castro swept into the room
with the grace of movement and carriage which characterizes her mother's
race. There was, however, nothing spiritual about Miss Castro's beauty,
which was of the flesh and of the glowing south, appealing to the
senses, delighting the eye; and Dane's pulse throbbed a little faster as
she came toward him with a low cry of pleasure. It was the first time he
had risen from his trestle cot in the adjoining room. Stooping, she held
toward him a great cluster of the spotless African lilies--which,
scented ambrosially, spring up wherever decay is rankest--then sank
with lithe gracefulness into a chair near his side.
"It is very good to see you better, Don Ilton," she said.
"It is the result of your kindness, senorita. Unfortunately, I don't
know how to thank you----"
"Then you will not try." Miss Castro raised a restraining hand. "We do
not leave the sick to die. Even if it had been another, there is always
enjoined on us the charity."
Dane had lost his sense of humor, and just then Bonita Castro looked all
ministering angel, and his attitude expressed rather reverential respect
than personal admiration, which, it is possible, did not please the lady
so well.
"But you have done so much for one who is almost a stranger," he
persisted.
Miss Castro's mood changed swiftly, and spreading out her hands with a
gesture of amusement, and a smile which Dane fancied most men would have
given much to win, she was again all a woman, and a very alluring one.
"It is true that you English have not the graceful speech. Are we, then,
the mere stranger, Don Ilton? _Carramba!_ One takes pride in what one
save from the fever, and it was on my lips to call you _carino_."
Dane had acquired sufficient knowledge of Castilian in South America to
appreciate the possible significance of the substantive; and he
afterward remembered that he was not wholly displeased with it.
"You make me a vain man, senorita," he said lightly.
Miss Castro laughed again, and Dane lay silent for a while.
"I am the more indebted to your care because every day is precious, and
I must rejoin my comrade as soon as possible," he said at last.
The damask warmth deepened just a trifle in his companion's cheek.
"You two still go on into the forest--why?" she asked.
"Because I am a poor man, and, as you have guessed, my comrade believes
there is treasure waiting up yonder."
Bonita Castro smiled scornfully, and answered him with the assurance of
one stating a definite fact.
"The Senor Maxwell will never bring gold out of the Leopards' country.
Two white men have try already and, both of them, they die. You must not
go back there, Don Ilton, nor let your comrade go, though I know he is a
very clever and fearless man."
"How do you know that?"
Dane found it hard to conceal his astonishment at her tranquil answer:
"I try if he is fearless on board the steamer. I can use the pistol
well."
"It is fortunate you did not test my courage in the same fashion. But
was there not a third man?"
Miss Castro's fingers closed viciously, and the questioner experienced
an instinctive shrinking as he saw the hatred in her deep black eyes.
"The third was not a white man, though he call himself so," she said,
with a quietness that was ominous. "_Maldito sea el perro!_ To-day again
he infect this factory."
Dane could not help feeling that, unless the gentleman were prudent, he
might have cause to regret his visit to the factory. He was inclined to
admire high-spirited women, but Miss Castro looked more than dangerous
just then; though Dane learned afterward that her hatred was
justifiable.
Following her glance, he saw a short and very sallow-faced gentleman,
neatly dressed in spotless duck, cross the compound below and disappear
into the salt shed, evidently in search of Dom Pedro. There was nothing
particularly noticeable about him; but another taller figure, draped in
blue and white cotton and wearing a crimson turban, followed, and
squatted in the hot dust outside the shed. This man was an African, but
lighter in color than the seaboard tribes, and his movements reminded
Dane of those of the midnight assassin. He decided, however, that the
resemblance was fanciful.
"Is that the person you mentioned?" he asked. "It is evident that you
dislike him. May I ask why?"
Miss Castro appeared to consider, and then answered frankly:
"Why should I not tell you? You are _muy caballero_, and I think, good
friend of me. He was partner with my father, this Victor Rideau. They
once go inland to trade with an Emir, who at that time gather much
plunder of ivory, and perhaps they give their carrier boy the good rifle
and cartridge, for the Emir is treacherous. He is very bad man,
and--_pobre padre mio!_--when Rideau is go away he put pressure on Dom
Pedro, and demand all his rifle and black carrier boy. What would you?
My father he is not desire his throat cut, and he agree. The Emir write
safe conduct and agreement, and sent him back with ivory, but this
Rideau he guard the scroll in Arabic, and now always demand the silver
from my father for fear he denounce him to the authority. One must not
sell the black boy, and there is heavy penalty for giving the negro the
arm of precision."
Dane grasped the situation, surmising that the Emir in question was one
who had, for a time, successfully defied both British and French. He
also surmised that the Gallic authorities would deal stringently with
whoever had supplied the Moslem soldier with modern weapons at a time
when it appeared quite possible he would even march upon the coast.
Still, he was not sure that very much pressure had been required to
convince Dom Pedro.
Returning to her almost caressing manner, Miss Castro touched his arm:
"Why you need that gold?"
"Gold is generally useful, isn't it?" smiled Dane. "It would help me to
earn a little more than my bread when I go back to England."
Bonita Castro laughed, and then grew serious. There was a light in her
dark eyes, and her voice grew deeper; and it was only because it
appeared necessary that Dane afterward told his comrade part of what
followed. Indeed, there was little to relate, but much to be imagined.
"Is there no other place than England, when all the world is good?" she
said. "Is not this much better than your mud and snow, and the sight of
the men with anxious faces groping through the fog? _Vaya!_ You men of
the English cities, you not know how to live."
The speaker pointed out through the open window, and most men would have
agreed with her in a measure. If the beauty of the fever coast is that
of a whited sepulcher, it is a sufficiently alluring region, and Dom
Pedro's factory stood high and healthily upon the summit of a bluff.
Tall palms swaying about it before the sea breeze tossed their emerald
traceries against transparent blue. In the cottonwoods' shadow beyond
them tall white lilies grew, and the rollers of the southern ocean,
flaming dazzlingly, dissolved into spouts of incandescence upon a
crescent of silver sand below. The whole scene was flooded with light
and color, and permeated by the languorous spell of the tropics, which
it is not good for white men to linger under.
"It is all very beautiful," he said; "but I have my bread to win."
"You are very modest, Don Ilton. Is there no place for such as you in
Africa? Now I know one who would give much--even a share in the profits
of several factories--for the help of two men he could trust. There will
be more gold to win than you will ever find in the Leopards' country;
and there will be the excitement you hunger for. The man who needs the
assistance has a cunning enemy. Will you not listen when again he speaks
to you?"
Miss Castro leaned slightly forward.
"It is the life you English long for. There would be adventure; much
profit, I think, too, and--for that you like also--an enemy. He is bad
enemy of--me. This England of yours is far off, and the wise man he--is
it not so?--takes gratefully what the good saints send him. Is it not
enough, Don Ilton?"
Dane was not a vain man, but there was a subtle inflection in the
woman's voice which suggested an amplification of the meaning of her
last words. England certainly seemed very far away, Maxwell's project a
mad one; and Dane remembered that the woman for whose sake he had joined
in it had been ready to think ill of him. His companion was very
alluring, he was weak in mind and body, very grateful to one who had
saved his life for him, and loath to resume the burden which was part
of his birthright as a civilized Englishman. A word, even a gesture,
would, it seemed, smooth out many difficulties, and, shaking off
responsibility, he might henceforward live for the day only; but though
intoxicated by the spell of the tropics and the eyes of his companion,
Dane had a memory, and he realized that he stood on the brink of a
declivity. He had seen the end of other Britons who, selling their
birthright for a few years' indulgence, sank beyond the level of the
beasts. The face of a countrywoman, no longer cold and disdainful, but
innocent and gentle, rose up before him; and the struggle ended.
"It is so much that I do not deserve it," he said humbly, answering her
question. "I must accomplish the purpose which brought me here, and then
go back to England. Nothing would turn back my comrade."
Miss Castro did not speak for a few moments, but Dane felt that she
understood more than he had said. Then she looked at him steadily.
"You are a strange people, but, go when you will, God go with you, Don
Ilton. Now, at least from my hands, you will take the medicine."
Dane's hand trembled as he held it out for the glass, for the struggle
had left its mark on him; but he felt inclined to resent this climax,
which appeared grotesquely ludicrous. Nevertheless, he duly swallowed
the medicine, and resisted an inexplicable impulse which prompted him to
smash the glass. Then, with a wondrous unfolding of filmy draperies, his
companion rose languidly, and, it seemed to Dane, melted out of the
room. Almost simultaneously the crouching figure in the dusty compound
rose and vanished too.
Dane decided that it would be well to gather strength with all possible
celerity, and leave the factory as soon as he was fit to travel in a
hammock. Accordingly, in spite of the protests of Dom Pedro, who, after
repeating in definite form the offer made by his daughter, found him
supplies and carriers, he presently took his leave, and shook hands with
Miss Castro beside the waiting hammock at the compound gate. Her manner
had been a shade more reserved of late, but she spoke with friendly
earnestness when she laid in his hand a tiny object wrought in silver
and ivory.
"You will take this for what you call a keep-a-sake, Don Ilton," she
said. "There is always peril in the bush country, and it was given my
mother by a holy man. It has the virtue. If you meet Rideau in the
forest, remember he is my enemy and beware of him. And now, senor, the
good saints keep you."
Dane bent over the little olive-tinted fingers, then Amadu helped him
into the hammock, and presently Dom Pedro's factory had faded to a white
blur against the sparkling sea.
As he journeyed northward Dane had much to ponder over. He regretted
that he had been unable to secure a closer view of Rideau or his dusky
follower. He fancied he once heard the Frenchman's voice raised angrily
in an altercation with Dom Pedro; but he could learn nothing about the
tall negro, who had vanished mysteriously. When the journey was almost
accomplished, and he was recovering strength again, there was added
another subject for consideration. Searching for the map Maxwell had
given him, he failed to find it; but, after the first shock of dismay
had passed, he was almost thankful that time and distance prevented his
returning to the factory in search of it. Dane, remembering the
surgeon's narrative, felt himself unequal to the task of asking Miss
Castro what she had done with it. He pushed on, hoping for the best, and
that Maxwell might not ask too many questions.
Maxwell, when he heard the news, sat silent for several minutes.
"We are not beginning well," he then said gravely, "but that is perhaps
not material. It seems to me that the future of the mine will be settled
when we meet Monsieur Rideau and his lieutenant, as I think we will. Of
course it is no use asking where you lost the map."
Dane recognized the significance of the last sentence, and answered
accordingly.
"If I had possessed that knowledge I should have returned and found it.
I have reasons for believing it was in my pocket-book when I left the
factory."
Maxwell glanced at him keenly and smiled.
"After what you told me, I suppose one could expect nothing else from
you," said he.