"Yes, sir, as well as I could."
"But do you think you made him understand you?"
"Yes, sir; I think he did."
"And what did he say?"
"Nothing, sir. Only shook his head, just like that."
"Bother! Don't get wagging your head in that way," cried Mark angrily,
"or you will have it come loose. Well, what did you do with the soup?"
"Ate it, sir."
"What!" cried Mark sharply.
"Well, sir, I couldn't drink it, it was that thick and strong. It was
some of my best."
"And so you ate it?"
"Yes, sir; I was so precious hungry."
"Did you ever hear such impudence, Dean?"
"Well, I thought it a pity to waste it, sir, and I have always got
plenty more on the way."
"Bah!" cried Mark. "You couldn't have half looked."
"No, sir; I put my back into it and did it thorough. But he was gone;"
and Dan shook his head again.
"What do you mean by that?" said Dean.
"Same as black Mak did, sir."
"And what did black Mak mean?" cried Mark.
"Seems to me as he thought the poor old chap had dried up like and
gone."
"What nonsense!"
"Well, sir, it may be nonsense, but I had a good look at the poor old
chap when we had him out. Why, you see him, sir. Look what his face
was like. Walnut shell was nothing to his skin. I have been thinking
about it a deal, sir, and I have heard what you gentlemen have said
about this 'ere place as we have found. I have been about a deal, sir,
all round the world, and seen and heerd much more than you would think."
"Oh, of course you would see and hear a good deal, being aboard ship."
"Yes, gentlemen, and it set me thinking a deal, both as I was going up
and as I was coming back again with the empty tin. I thought a deal,
Mr Mark, sir."
"Perhaps it was the soup made you think so much, Dan," said Mark
sarcastically.
"Very like, sir," said the man with an innocent look.
"Well, what did you think?" asked Mark.
"I thought about that old fellow being so awful old, and that he must
have had to do with the building up of them stones."
"Nonsense! It must be two or three thousand years since those walls
were built."
"Daresay, sir, and he's been there ever since."
"Oh, that's impossible," said Dean.
"Ah, that's what you say, sir, but nothing is impossible out in a place
like this. Why, just look at him. Why, if you got him out in the
sunshine where you could see what a way inside his eyes were, you would
have found that he was always looking right backwards. He was a regular
old 'un, he was--lots older than he knew hisself. You heard what the
doctor said the other day about this being the place where King Solomon
sent his ships to find gold?"
"Yes, and it's quite possible," said Mark.
"Oh, you own to that, sir?"
"To be sure I do. He had ships built, and sent them round by Africa, or
else south down by the Red Sea."
"Yes, sir, that's right enough, sir. I have pretty well been both ways
myself, and seen plenty of big stones there. Up in North Africa and in
Egypt. I should say, sir, that that old chap will like as not been one
of them as dug out and melted the gold. He don't look a bit like the
regular natives, do he? He was hook-nosed, wasn't he, sir?"
"Yes, Dan."
"Not a bit like one of the regular natives, sir?"
"Not a bit."
"A lot of them seem as if their mothers used to sit upon their faces
when they was kids, to keep them warm and flatten their noses out."
"Well, yes. They are of another race, though--the regular niggers.
These Zulu sort of chaps like Mak are quite different."
"That's so, sir; and this old fellow, he was a regular hooked beaked
'un. Put me in mind of one of them big tortoises as you see in the
islands up by Mauritius."
"Never seen them, Dan."
"Well, you take my word for it, then, sir; they look as old as if they
had come out of the Ark. Now then, sir, just you tell me this. What
was King Solomon?"
"King of Israel, of course."
"I don't mean that, sir. Warn't he a Jew?"
"Of course: a descendant of Abraham."
"Well, that's what that old chap is, sir."
"Stuff!" said Dean.
"Ah, you may call it stuff, sir; but see where we found him, in this old
cave. He's been there for ages and ages, and he got so old at last that
he crawled in there to die, but found he couldn't die a bit. He's been
going on keeping just alive for nobody knows how long; and when an old
man gets as old as that he has got past wanting to eat and drink. He
just goes on living; and it's my belief, as I said afore, that he's one
of them as set up those walls and dug the gold and melted it for King
Solomon's ships to take away. Did you ever hear of the wandering Jew,
sir?"
"Yes, Dan. Of course."
"Well, sir, that's 'im."
"We did find a curiosity, then," said Mark merrily.
"Oh, bother!" said Dean. "Here, Dan, you had better leave history
alone. I shouldn't be at all surprised, though, if the animated fossil
has lived as long as old Parr."
"Old Parr, sir? You mean him as made the Life Pills?"
"No, he doesn't," said Mark, laughing. "He was an old fellow who lived
to about a hundred and fifty."
"A hundred and fifty, sir! Why, that's nothing! Why, look at
'Thusalem; he lived close upon a thousand years. Well, if a man could
live to one thousand years, why couldn't he live to three or four, or
five, if you come to that? I don't say as this 'ere old fellow is quite
so old, but he's the oldest chap I ever see except the mummies, and
that's what this chap might be, only he's just got life enough in him to
move, and they arn't."
"Well, that will do, Dan," said Mark. "But I am sorry you didn't find
the poor old fellow after all."
The boys related their conversation with Dan to Sir James and the
doctor, the former laughing heartily at the little sailor's belief.
"I suppose," said Sir James, "the poor old fellow must have summoned up
strength enough to crawl away."
"I don't think that was possible," said the doctor. "He could not have
stirred without help."
"But he had no help," said Sir James.
"I don't know," said the doctor quietly.
"What do you mean?" said Sir James; and the boys listened in surprise.
"I mean this, sir," said the doctor. "We have found that these ruins
were well known to Mak and the pigmy."
"Of course."
"And we have found too this poor old fellow in his sort of cell."
"Exactly," said Sir James.
"Well, we know that, however old, no man could exist without nutriment.
Consequently we have just had proof that a tribe of the natives must
have regular communication with this place."
"Yes, I suppose that must be the explanation," said Sir James.
"And I am disappointed," said the doctor, "because I was in hopes that
we had the place all to ourselves so that we could go on with our
interesting researches."
"Well, it would have been better," said Sir James. "But so long as they
don't interfere with us it will not matter."
"And very likely," put in Mark, "if they come and find us here they will
keep away."
"That's what I hope," said the doctor.
"And you think," said Dean, "that some of these people have been and
carried that old fellow away?"
"Yes, my boy; that's exactly what I do think."
"Well," said Mark musing, "I suppose we shall soon know. But we
certainly don't want them here."