CHAPTER XXVI--THE PALE-FACE QUEEN HAS FLED
Leeboo, the young queen, could see that the woman was flurried andexcited.
She stood with her face to the pony and one arm was held aloft in theair. Her eyes were gleaming, and her hat had fallen over her back,allowing her wealth of coal-black hair to escape.
Weenah stood by the saddle.
"I have that to say," exclaimed her mother, in her strangely musicallanguage, "that must be said speedily. If I am seen we are all doomed.But listen, and listen intently. You are free if you are fortunate.Liberty is at hand. Your friends are twenty miles down stream in camp.Down the stream of Bitter Waters. Ride this way to-morrow, and when farenough away take Weenah in your saddle, and gallop for your life intothe forest. Weenah will be your guide."
So quickly did the woman vanish that for a few moments our heroine halfbelieved she must have been dreaming.
But she pulled herself together at once, and now rode back to meetKaloomah.
She was all smiles too.
"Why waits poor Kaloomah here?" she said, in her softest sweetest tones.
Kaloomah placed his hand on the saddle pommel, and panted somewhat. ButKaloomah was in the seventh heaven.
"Say--say--say 'poor Kaloomah' again," he muttered.
"Poor Kaloomah! Poor dear Kaloomah!"
She could even afford to place emphasis on the "dear", she was so happy.
"Oh--ugh!" sighed the savage; "but to-morrow it may be 'poor dearKalamazoo!'"
"Ah, you are jealous! A little forest bird is pecking, pecking at yourheart. But listen; to-morrow it shall not be Kalamazoo, but Kaloomahonce again."
Well, I dare say that love-making is very much the same all over thewide, wide world, and so we cannot even laugh at this cannibal if he didbend rapturously down and kiss the toe of Leeboo's sandal-shapedstirrup.
"And now, Kaloomah," she added, "I would gather some wild flowers, andlisten for a little while to the soo-soo's song while you twine my wildflowers into a garland. My little handmaiden, Weenah, will assist you.
"But, Kaloomah!" she continued archly.
"Yes, my moon-dream."
"You must not make love to my maiden, else a little forest bird willpeck poor Leeboo's heart to pieces and Leeboo die."
----
I hardly think it would be putting it one whit too strongly to say thatthe pale-face maiden queen had turned this savage's head.
They all returned together at last to the palace, and the queen with herlittle handmaiden retired to her chamber to dine.
As to Kaloomah, the spirit of pride had got into him, and this is reallyas difficult to get rid of as if one were possessed of an evil spirit.So the chief, decorated with the garland of wild flowers that Leeboo thequeen had placed around his neck, could not resist the temptation toparade himself on the plateau before Kalamazoo's tent. He wished theprince to see him. And the prince did.
The prince, moreover, was strongly tempted to rush forth, spear in hand,and slay his rival where he stood.
But he remembered in time that Kaloomah was not only a great chief but amighty warrior. Over and over again had he led the cannibal armyagainst the glens and valleys of distant highland chiefs. And he hadbeen ever victorious, his soldiers returning after a great slaughter ofthe foe, laden with heads and hams, to hold nights and nights of fearfulorgie.
Kalamazoo knew that Kaloomah was the people's favourite, and that if heslew him, he himself would speedily be torn limb from limb.
So he was content to gnash his own teeth, to count his mother's over andover again, and to remain quiescent.
It is seldom indeed that a savage is troubled with sleeplessness, butthat night poor Benee was far too anxious to slumber soundly. For heknew not what another day might bring forth. It might be pregnant withhappiness for him and the young girls he loved so dearly, or it mightend in bloodshed and in death.
What a glorious morning broke over the woodlands at last! Lookingeastwards Benee could note a strip of the deepest orange just above thedark forest horizon. This faded into palest green, and above all wasethereal blue, with just one or two rosy clouds. And westwards thosepatches of snow in the hollow of the mighty Sierras were pink, withpurple shadows.
And this innocent and unsophisticated savage bent himself low on hisknees and prayed to Him who is the author of all that is beautiful, tobless his enterprise and take his little mistress safe away from thisblood-stained land of darkness and woe.
He felt better when he rose to his feet. Then he entered the cottageand had breakfast.
"I will come again some day," he said, as his "mother" bade him atearful farewell. "I will come again and take Father and you to thefar-off happy land of the pale-faces."
So he hied him away to the forest, looking back just once to wave hishand.
He well knew the road that Weenah and Leeboo--no, let us call her Peggyonce more--would take, if indeed they should succeed in escaping.
He walked towards the river of Bitter Waters therefore, and, journeyingfor some miles along its wild romantic banks, lay down to wait.
Wild flowers trailed and climbed among the bushes where he hid; he sawnot their bright colours, he was scarcely sensible of their perfume.
The soo-soo's song was sweet and plaintive; he heard it not.
He was wholly absorbed in thought. So the sun got higher and higher,and still he waited and watched--waited and hoped.
Only, ever and anon he would place his ear against the hard ground andlisten intently.
'Twas noon, and they came not.
Something must have happened. Everything must have failed.
What should he do? What could he do?
----
But hark! A joyful sound. It was that of a horse at the gallop, and itwas coming nearer and nearer.
Benee grasped his rifle.
It must be she. It must, and was poor Peggy, and Weenah was seatedbehind her.
He looked quickly to his repeating rifle, and patted the revolvers inhis belt.
"Oh, Benee, Benee! how rejoiced I am!"
"But are you followed, Missie Peggy?"
"No, no, Benee, we have ridden clean and clear away from the savagechief Kaloomah, and we fear no pursuit."
"Ah, Missie! You not know de savage man. I do. Come. Make track now.
"Weenah," he added. "Oh, my love, Weenah! But come not down. We mus'fly foh de cannibal come in force."
It seemed but child's play to Benee to trot lightly along beside thepony.
Love, no doubt, made the labour lighter. Besides, on faithful littleDixie's back was all that Benee cared much for in the world, Weenah and"Missie Peggy".
True enough, he liked and respected Roland, and Dick as well, but theywere not all the world to him as these girls were. And ever since hehad found Roland and Peggy in the dark forest and rescued them, hislittle mistress had been in his eyes an angel. Never an unkind word wasit possible for her to say to anyone, least of all--so he flatteredhimself--to Benee.
The poor, untutored savage felt, in his happiness, at this moment, thatit would be sweet to die were the loved ones only near to hold his hand.
But he could die, too, fighting for them; ay, fighting to the end. Whowas he that would dare touch the ground where Peggy or Weenah trod ifhe--Benee--were there?
And so they journeyed on and on by the river's side and through jungleand forest, never dreaming of danger or pursuit.
Ah! but wild as a panther was Kaloomah now.
When he found that he was baffled, befooled, deserted, then all hisfury--the fury of an untamed savage--boiled up from the bottom of hisheart.
Love! Where was love now? It found no place in this wild chief'sheart; hate had supplanted it, and it was a hate that must be quenchedin blood. Yes, her blood! He would be revenged, and then--well then,the sooner he should die after that the better. For his life's sun hadgone out, his days could only
be days of darkness now.
Yet how happy had he been only this morning, and how proud when hestalked forth from his hut and passed that of Kalamazoo, still wearingthe wild flowers with which she had adorned him!
He tore those wild flowers from his neck now, and scattered them to thewinds.
Then, as fast and fleet as ever savage ran, he hied him back to thepalace.
Few had more stentorian lungs than Kaloomah!
"The queen has gone! The white queen has fled!"
That shout awakened one thousand armed men to action, and in less thanan hour they were on the warpath.