CANARIS UNFOLDS A TALE.
"Well," said Canaris, "I will tell you. Rao Khan has promised your lives
to the people. It was his only hope, and now, his word once given, he
will not dare to break it."
Melton covered his face with his hands, and Guy staggered backward.
"When?" he cried huskily. "Today?"
"No," said Canaris, "not today. The Emir bids me tell you that you will
have four days yet to live. On the fifth day you will die by the
executioner, in the square of the town."
They shuddered as these dreadful words fell from the Greek's lips.
"Is there no hope, then, at all?" said Melton. "Let us know the worst at
once and be done with it."
Canaris made no reply for a moment. His eyes were fixed on the floor,
and he seemed to be thinking deeply. When he looked up the expression of
his face was changed. A strange light shone in his eye, a mixture of
triumph and fear.
"I can tell you nothing now," he said hastily. "Tonight you shall have
an answer. But tell me, how is your wound?"
"Better," replied Melton. "I can scarcely feel it at all."
"Good," said Canaris. "Now do just as I tell you. Lie down on the straw;
pretend that you are much worse; moan loudly from time to time, and when
I come tonight I shall have something to impart to you."
With this strange admonition, Canaris hastily left the dungeon and the
guard rebolted the door.
"Is the fellow crazy?" said Melton. "What can he mean to do?"
"Crazy?" rejoined Guy. "No; I have a strange faith in that man, Melton.
Do just as he tells you and see what turns up tonight."
With much grumbling Melton assumed the part of a very sick man. He
rather overdid the thing, in fact, for twice the guard opened the door
and looked in. About noon food was brought, and from that time no one
came near them.
The minutes dragged along like hours. They tried to forget the awful
fate that stared them in the face, but in spite of the Greek's
encouraging words the future looked very black.
At last the feeble light in their dungeon began to fade away, and soon
they were in darkness.
"The fellow will never come back," said Melton bitterly. "It's all up
with us, Chutney, so don't try to raise any more false hopes."
But Guy refused to give up, and his faith was rewarded. Quick footsteps
approached the dungeon, the bolts rattled, and Canaris entered with a
rude lamp and a leather case, which he placed carefully on the floor.
Then he pulled a paper from his pocket and waved it gleefully.
"See," he cried, "a permit from Rao Khan, admitting me to the prison at
all times. I told him that your wound was very bad, that the Arab doctor
had failed to help you, and that I knew enough of English surgery to
cure you if he would allow it. Rao Khan reluctantly consented, and here
I am."
He listened intently for a moment, glanced round the dungeon, and then
went on in a low, excited tone:
"Get close together. I have something important to tell you."
They squatted down in a group on the straw, and with a strange, exultant
sparkle in his eyes, Canaris began:
"When I came to Harar two years ago this very cell held a white slave,
like yourselves an Englishman. He was an old man, with long white hair
and beard, and had been so long in slavery that he had forgotten his own
name and could scarcely speak the English tongue.
"My duties then were to carry food and drink to the slaves, and before
long I was on intimate terms with the old Englishman. He was very ill,
and the Arab doctors made him no better. Perhaps it was old age that was
the trouble, but at all events he died two months after I came. At
different times he had told me the story of his life, and that is what I
am going to tell you now.
"He had been thirty years in slavery. How and where he had been captured
he could no longer remember. His mind was a blank on that point. But one
thing he told me that is important. For twenty years he had lived among
the Gallas in a village fifty miles to the south of Harar, and it was a
few years after he had been brought there that he nearly succeeded in
making his escape.
"He had often heard from the natives of an underground river that was
said to exist, and which emptied either into the River Juba or into the
sea. The tales concerning the river were many and strange, but the chief
of the Gallas assured him that at one time a tribe of natives had lived
in the mouth of a huge cavern which gave access to the river."
"I have heard something of that myself," interrupted Melton. "An Arab at
Zanzibar told me, but I never had any faith in the story."
"That river exists," said Canaris solemnly. "The Englishman found it."
"What!" cried Guy and Melton in one breath. "He found the underground
river?"
"Yes, he discovered it," resumed Canaris. "He found it one day while
hunting in a concealed cavern. He ventured down and came to a great
sandy beach, past which flowed swiftly a broad stream. On the beach lay
half a dozen strong canoes with paddles. All this he saw by the light
that streamed in from narrow crevices overhead. He went back to the
village and began to lay aside provisions for the journey, for he
intended making his escape by the river. In a week all was ready. He had
concealed near the cavern supplies for a long voyage. The very day fixed
for his escape he was sold to a Galla chief who lived twenty miles
distant. In the years that followed he made many attempts to escape, but
on every occasion was captured and brought back. At last he was given as
tribute to the Emir by this Galla chief, and here in this dungeon, on
the spot you are sitting on now, he breathed his last."
Canaris paused and helped himself to a glass of water.
"A strange story, indeed," said Guy; "but what has it got to do with
us?"
"I will tell you," responded Canaris, with a slight tremor in his voice.
"It may have nothing to do with any of us, and it may be of the greatest
importance to us all."
"Did the old man tell you where to find the cavern?" asked Guy.
"No," answered Canaris, "but before he died he gave me this," and,
pulling a folded bit of linen from his pocket he handed it to Guy.
"Can you read that?" he asked in strange excitement. "I have never been
able to make anything out of it."
Guy pulled it carefully open and gazed with interest on the faded
characters that had apparently been written in blood.
"Yes," he said after a pause, "I can read it. It is French."
"Go on," said Canaris. "Tell me quickly what it is."
"It translates as follows," rejoined Guy:
"Half way between Elephant Peak and the Lion's Head. The south side of
the stone kraal. The rock with the cross."
Canaris sprang to his feet and staggered back against the wall of the
dungeon.
"It was Providence that brought you here," he cried. "It is wonderful,
wonderful!"
"What do you mean?" said Guy. "How can this aid us?"
"It is the secret of the cave," replied Canaris. "The stone kraal is a
curious formation of rocks that lie between the two mountains that bear
those names. Close by is the village of the chief of all the Gallas."
"But how under the sun can this discovery benefit us?" repeated Guy,
half angrily. "Can you open our prison for us, Canaris?"
The Greek threw a cautious glance toward the door and then whispered in
a voice that trembled with emotion: "Nothing is impossible; hope for the
best. But stay," he added in sudden fear; "I must have money, or all is
lost. Alas! you have none, I am sure."
For answer Guy hastily rose, and, loosening his clothes, unhooked a
small buckskin belt. He tore open the end and dropped a stream of golden
sovereigns into his hand.
"Here is money!" he cried. "The Arabs overlooked this when they searched
me."
The Greek's eyes glittered.
"Give me twenty," he said. "That will be plenty."
He stowed the coins away in his clothes and picked up the lamp.
"I must leave you now," he said. "I will return in the morning."
He would have added more, but steps were heard in the corridor. The
dungeon door clanged behind him, and Guy and Melton were left in
darkness, half stupefied by the strange story they had just heard and by
the hope of escape which the Greek so confidently held out to them.