PESTILENCE
The result of the day's work was encouraging, though it cost Dane an
effort to concentrate his attention upon his task. Rideau's swarthy face
haunted him; he would have felt more cheerful had his companion decided
to defy him. Maxwell, however, said little, and appeared to find
pleasure in working with concentrated energy.
Evening came at last, and thick darkness closed about the lonely tent.
Neither of the men ate much, and when the frugal meal had been cleared
away, Maxwell once more spread his map on the table.
"We have to make an eventful decision, and it might be well to consider
our position," he said, laying his finger on the map. "We are somewhere
here, just beyond the fringe of Shaillu's country, with a difficult and
dangerous country between us and civilization, and a little-known land,
whose inhabitants are supposed to be predatory tribes, to the north."
"We will take all that for granted," responded Dane. "Can you give me
Rideau's record?"
"But little of it. He is evidently of mixed blood, and partly educated,
a trader by profession, with a mysterious inland connection. I was told
that the authorities suspect him of trafficking in unlawful weapons, or
even in black humanity. I have little doubt it was he who hired the man
with the scar on his forehead to arrange for Niven's destruction; and,
while several points are not clear to me, I fancy he is at least partly
responsible for our own misfortunes. Seeing his efforts to circumvent us
fail, he has decided to join us--for a time. Lastly, I am inclined to
surmise that by reason of some unlawful speculation, jointly undertaken,
he has a hold on Dom Pedro, and so obtained possession of the map you
lost. Now, what are we to say to him?"
"Very little, in my opinion!" grunted Dane. "Tell him to go to the
devil! If that rouses his indignation, as I hope it will, I should find
satisfaction in assisting him."
Maxwell smiled, but shook his head.
"Your ways are delightfully simple, but hardly practicable, Hilton," he
said. "In the first place, Rideau means to stay, and has, he tells us, a
force much superior to our own. Suppose we succeeded in driving him out
by violence, we should have to meet a charge of filibustering when we
returned to the coast, or stand a siege if he returned with a host of
native allies. The one safe step in that direction would be the
entrapping and total annihilation of Rideau and his party, which,
presumably, would not recommend itself to you!"
"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Dane, convinced against his will. "Am I a
professional murderer? Since you don't agree with mine, let me hear your
views."
"In the first place we must hope that, as he suggests, there may be gold
enough for three. Further, I consider Rideau least dangerous when under
my own eye, and therefore consider it would be wisest to accept his
proposal and watch him carefully. We shall thus have peace for a time,
at least, and when necessary must endeavor to match our wits against his
guile. That the man's company will not be pleasant, I need hardly say;
but we can't afford to be particular with so much at stake. Remember
that we came here to make money, and not in search of adventures, or to
maintain our dignity."
Dane only nodded, and so the conference concluded. Sooner than lose what
he hoped for he was prepared to concede anything; but it might have been
better if he had adhered to his own simple plan; for it is difficult to
make a bargain with such a man as Rideau, and keep it without material
losses as well as diminished self-respect.
Early the next morning Rideau arrived, bringing with him an imposing
number of colored desperadoes; and a written agreement was drawn up.
They were to share all risks and expenses, and divide what gold they won
on its safe arrival at the coast. Rideau showed bland satisfaction when
he read it through; but, before he filled a rusty pen, Dane rose and
laid Bonita Castro's keepsake on the table.
"Faith is a question of training, and exactly what each man believes
concerns only himself; but probably all of us respect this as a symbol,"
he said. "Is that not so, Monsieur Rideau?"
Rideau glanced from the speaker to Maxwell, and there was a gleam in his
eyes, then he bent his head.
Flinging down his battered sun-hat, Dane laid his right hand on the
object on the table, saying: "So I solemnly promise, first to keep this
bargain and faith with my partners, if it cost me my life or fortune;
and secondly, to demand a full account from either should he betray his
trust, as, if I fail them, they shall do to me."
Maxwell in turn recorded his promise with quiet simplicity; but Rideau
started when the object was passed on to him. It was a beautifully
wrought crucifix of medieval workmanship. For a moment he stared
malevolently at Dane, and then a look akin to fear crept into his eyes.
But, raising one hand aloft, he pledged himself more solemnly than
either, and attached his name first of all to the foot of the agreement.
He retired shortly afterward to pitch his camp, for the new partners had
decided that their respective carriers would be best kept apart; and
Maxwell looked at his comrade.
"Had you mentally rehearsed that scene, Hilton?" he asked. "It was
almost a stroke of genius."
"No. I don't claim to be a genius. It was simply the most solemn thing I
could think of from his point of view. I meant exactly what I said, and
I feel somewhat easier now that Rideau has passed the test."
Maxwell smiled.
"You are very confiding, Hilton--and he did not pass the test. Still,
considering the blend between the worthy missionaries' teaching and
African superstition which, while it would probably astonish them,
accounted for his momentary hesitation, Rideau is either braver or more
avaricious than I supposed him. Did it occur to you that he recognized
Miss Castro's gift?"
Dane was somewhat astonished.
"How do you know that it was Miss Castro's gift; and what if he did?"
"I saw it once in her possession, and, as she naturally would not sell
such a thing, I presumed that you had not stolen it. I heard that Rideau
had persecuted that lady with his attentions. It would be well to
remember henceforward that ceaseless vigilance is the price of safety."
Thus, with the prospect of treachery on one side, the partnership with
Rideau began; but the new carriers were sturdy men, and the gold-washing
was carried on with characteristic energy, alike under the burning sun
of noon and by the glare of great fires until long into the steamy
night. Dane labored with his own hands among his Krooboys, stripped to
the waist. Maxwell seconded him loyally, for he had now relinquished the
leader's place; and by degrees the pair drilled their dusky subordinates
into capable workmen. It is true that they usually suspended operations
the moment the white men relaxed their vigilance; but that was only to
be expected, and their masters got a good deal out of them considering
that most negroes have a chronic distaste for manual labor. Rideau's
detachment, Dane noticed, were the most amenable to discipline, and
obeyed all orders with a submission which puzzled the observer, for he
knew that meek obedience is not a characteristic of the seaboard
African. Their master, who did little beyond expressing his approval of
Danes' efforts, grew more cordial as the weeks went by. But Maxwell was
civil, and nothing more; and Dane surmised that he was rather more
watchful and suspicious than he had been before.
One night when, worn out by physical exertion and aching in every joint,
they dragged themselves, dripping with river water, back to their tent,
there was a covert sneer in Rideau's laugh as he addressed them:
"You English are a curious people, and there are those who call you mad.
The more tired and dirty you are, the more happy. I once see your naval
officer on the Niger harness with the indigene, like the mule, to drag
the wheel-gun through a robber headman's swamp. One drole, he tell me it
was the glorious fun."
"I dare say he meant it," retorted Maxwell. "It is probably owing to
that very form of insanity that, while you--the French, I mean--have
with commendable foresight appropriated the best of Africa, we others
remain at least its commercial masters."
The pause and apparent correction was not made by accident, and Dane
fancied that Rideau grasped its significance. He retired shortly, and
Maxwell looked thoughtful.
"I am afraid I was not judicious; but we are only human, and there are
times when my dislike for that rascal almost masters me," he said. "I
would give much to learn who it is that slinks into his camp at night."
Dane looked puzzled, for Rideau's camp lay across the river, and was
watched by black sentries; no negro was permitted on any excuse to pass
its boundaries.
"As you know, I have of late taken an interest in botany," Maxwell
laughed. "During my researches I found considerably more specimens of
African vegetation in the forest surrounding Rideau's camp than I know
the names of, and on several occasions what is of greater
interest--footsteps leading toward our partner's tent. The man who made
them wore sandals; there is nobody among our combined followers who
does."
Dane had no suggestions to make, and therefore kept silent; but that
piece of information left him uneasy.
It was a still, oppressive day some months later when Dane stood leaning
heavily on a shovel near the edge of the bush. The temperature made
exertion almost impossible, and there was a weight in the atmosphere
which rendered respiration an effort; for the last two weeks the sun had
been hidden all day long and the stars shrouded by haze at night, and
the same heavy stillness had brooded over the camp. In such weather
sickly white men die off, and wise ones lie still in a hammock whenever
possible; but the lust of gold had held two at least of the party
strenuously to their task, and already a little heap of yellow grains
reposed within an iron-bound chest. The men had, however, experienced
some trouble with their colored assistants, who had been unusually
dejected and apathetic of late.
While Dane ran his eyes along his trenches it struck him that the raw
heaps of sand and the rude wooden flumes appeared strangely out of place
in that gap in the primeval forest. It towered about them, vast,
shadowy, and impressive, rotting as it grew, but throbbing with the
pulse of an untrammeled life that would tear down the conduits, and bury
the workings with verdure, almost as soon as their constructors
relinquished them. The voices of the negroes, rising hollowly through
the motionless atmosphere, sounded weak and feeble against its silence.
"If all goes well, and the yield increases as it has done of late, we
should have enough to leave us a creditable profit before the year is
done," Dane said. "We have been long enough in this country, Carsluith,
and I mean to return to England before it wastes all the life out of
me."
Perhaps it was the weather, for Maxwell appeared in an unusually somber
mood.
"Your proviso covers a good deal," he replied. "This is a land of
surprises, where it is more than usually useless to predict what any man
will do. Neither are the signs auspicious at present."
"No," Dane agreed reflectively; "I can't say that I consider them so.
This dead stillness worries me. Does it presage a premature change in
the seasons, or has it any other unpleasant meaning?"
"Who can tell? Anything abnormal carries a hint of death with it in this
country. Still, there are other tokens. The few tribesmen who brought us
in provisions have vanished completely. The last we saw looked like
badly frightened men and were moving south with, for natives, surprising
celerity. As you know, the interpreter failed to understand them, but I
have an uneasy feeling that there was a sufficient cause for their
hurry. The negro is not a foreseeing person, and does not run away
unless the danger which threatens him is tangible and near."
Dane twice turned to move back toward the workings, but did not do so.
His physical nature revolted from toil that day, and his brain felt sick
and useless under the stress of temperature. So the two lingered until a
negro near them, dropping his shovel, rolled over, clawing at the sand,
as suddenly as a rabbit stricken by the gun. His fall was so swift and
unexpected that Dane stared at the twitching black limbs motionless
until Maxwell's voice roused him.
"Shake yourself together, Hilton. There is work before us! That fellow
must be carried into the bush before the rest discover what he is
suffering from."
The man proved a heavy lift, and his greasy limbs writhed within their
grasp; but they laid him among the creepers without attracting
attention, and Dane, running to the tent, returned with a phial.
"Where do you feel them pain lib?" he asked.
The sufferer laid a black hand on his waist-cloth.
"Somebody done put hot iron in heah, sah, and turn him round and round."
Dane managed to drench him from the phial before his teeth met in an
agony, and Maxwell closed one hand as he looked at his partner.
"It is very hard that this should happen--now--but you and I must see
the poor devils through," he said. "Our help may not be worth much, but
it is all that stands between them and destruction. It is one of the
scourges of this afflicted country--swifter than cholera, and more
deadly. This camp will resemble the pit presently."
Maxwell next glanced down at the negro pitifully, his forehead
contracted and his lips firmly set, but he nodded abruptly when Dane
spoke again.
"I have seen something like it in South America. Is it invariably
contagious?"
"To negroes, yes; to white men, less so. In any case you have run the
worst risk of infection already."
"Confound you! Do you suppose--?"
Maxwell interrupted, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"I think you and I are going to fight a very tough battle together,
Hilton."
He had hardly spoken when Rideau appeared from behind them, and glanced
at the groaning man. Then he shuffled backward well away from him;
answered Maxwell's look of interrogation with a nod; and, while his
face grew distinctly less like that of a European, he fumbled inside his
jacket. The barrel of a pistol was visible the next moment. "It is," he
said suggestively, "if the cases are few, the best way for preserve the
others. In their own country they use the paddle. One good blow where
the skull she is thinnest, and--voila, the safe remedy!"
Dane stretched a big hand out, and Rideau winced with a stifled
expletive as he dropped the weapon; while the Briton was sensible of a
distinct disappointment when he saw that the man's wrist remained
unbroken. The suggestion had apparently revolted Maxwell also; he stared
at the speaker with unconcealed loathing, while the latter opened his
lips for a moment in a wolfish snarl as he glanced sideways at Dane.
Just then, Victor Rideau looked very much less like a French gentleman
than a low-caste negro. Nevertheless, he was the first to recover his
serenity.
"You have the mistaken squeamish; but me, I know the most advisable, and
have great fear of the sick which catches," said he. "She is distressful
for me. Sacre! Here is more other. To-morrow I consult you. Alors, I
go."
A shrill scream of human agony rang through the lifeless air, and
Rideau, who did not stand upon the order of his going, departed with all
possible celerity.
Neither of his partners was much inclined for mirth, but there is often
a ludicrous side to a tragedy; and Maxwell positively laughed when Dane
savagely hurled the pistol after its vanishing owner.
"Missed! I would have given a good deal of the gold to strike him
squarely between the shoulders. I meant it to hurt," he said.
Then an uproar began. Black figures, swarming out of the workings,
gathered about the fallen man, clamoring excitedly, and Maxwell resumed
command.
"They're panic-stricken; and fear will spread the sickness fastest. This
must be stopped at once! We have not a moment to lose, or there will be
murder done."
Dane felt very helpless as they ran forward to disperse the mob of
terror-stricken black men. He still carried the shovel, though Maxwell
went empty-handed, because, either from pride or policy, he never
displayed a weapon once camp had been pitched. He appeared quietly
resolute, though Dane afterward admitted feeling desperately anxious and
more than a little afraid, for the mass of dusky faces with unreasoning
fear and its accompanying ferocity stamped upon them was not an
encouraging spectacle. Any one of those negroes was physically a match
for two white men, and there were a good many of them.
The mob came to a standstill at the sight of them. Maxwell, removing his
hat, straightened out the dints in it before he spoke a few words, and
then, thrusting his way through the groups which opened up before him,
halted beside the fallen man.
Some of the negroes began to chatter; some shrank farther back; but
there was presently an ominous growling, and again the mob surged
forward, one man with a matchet launching himself straight at his white
master. Hitherto he had shown himself both cheerful and docile, but now
he seemed possessed of a devil, the devil of fear transmuted into
maniacal savagery. Maxwell did not at first see him, and when he did it
would have been too late, but that Dane whirled aloft the shovel, and
when it came down the negro fell like a pole-axed ox at his comrade's
feet. Even then Dane felt sick and sorry as he saw the red drops run
from the steel, for he had often encouragingly patted his victim's
brawny shoulder; but the negro is above all things unstable, and that
blow was the saving of many lives. The crowd stood silent, cowed for a
few moments by the swift retribution.
"Thanks," said Maxwell; "I think you have nipped it in the bud, Hilton."
Before he began to speak again his lieutenant, Amadu, and Dane's special
follower, Monday, sprang to their side. Both carried rifles; and that
turned the scale. Before half an hour had elapsed the two had not only
restored a degree of confidence and order, but had picked out a number
of men who might be trusted to act as sanitary police. By this time,
however, the plague had claimed other victims, and Maxwell started
forthwith to choose an isolated site for a hospital camp; while Dane,
moving to and fro among the laborers, set apart any with suspicious
symptoms.
It was midnight before either found leisure for food or rest, and then
Dane knelt, with a biscuit in one hand, beside the little medicine chest
in the tent, while Maxwell bent over a medical treatise as he ate.
Several sick men lay moaning just outside the illuminated canvas, and
one, apparently in delirium, had during the last hour never ceased
crooning the hammock-bearers' song.
"That chanty grows wearisome," said Maxwell at length; and, because Dane
was overwrought, his companion's composure jarred upon him.
"Put down that tin and hold the glass for me. You have eaten three
biscuits already, and this is no time for feasting! I'm going to start
with chlorodyne. We found it good in South America when we could give it
to them quick enough; but these fellows have an irritating trick of
crawling away into some lair to die quietly. There. Give this to the
first two poor devils, half each by measure."
Maxwell went swiftly, and returned very grim in face.
"Too late," he reported. "One is cold already; the other testified that
there is but one Allah as I bent over him, and ended in a gurgle. Hallo!
What is this?"
Preceded by a negro carrying a torch, Rideau, smoking sedulously,
approached the tent, and halted well clear of it. The man was not, as
his partners had cause to know, unduly timid, but now fear was plainly
stamped on his face, which the red glare of the torch forced up against
the gloom.
"I have great fear of this sick, and make proposition," he said. "I go
take all the boy of me back a league into the forest, and make other
camp. If any he is fall ill, I with all possible expedition send him
you."
Both of the listeners found heart to smile at the latter sentence before
Dane's resentment mastered him.
"It is particularly considerate of him, but his proposition has some
sense in it," said Maxwell aside. "You are acting surgeon-major, Hilton.
What do you suggest?"
"You can go straight to perdition, or anywhere else that pleases you, so
long as you don't waste our time!" thundered Dane; and with a salute
which expressed no resentment, but only relief, Rideau withdrew.
"How long does this thing generally last?" asked Dane.
"Sometimes it clears a village out in a fortnight, more often it hangs
round a month, or even longer, picking out odd victims; and before that
time has gone we shall have the rains."
"Which will prevent any further mining, probably cut off our road to the
coast, and render life here almost impossible," Dane said hoarsely.
"Exactly. There can be no more mining now."
As the two men's eyes met, each knew just what his comrade was thinking.
"We must see them through," said Dane, and Maxwell answered, as though
this decision had never been in doubt: "Of course!"
With that they fell to work again, for there was much to do, which was
fortunate, because, otherwise, the thought of what both would certainly
lose and what one was risking for the sake of naked heathen, many of
whom were little higher in intelligence than dumb cattle, might have
maddened them. Still, even the most stupid had trusted the white men,
and, in their own fashion, served them well.