CHAPTER VII
LORD RAGNALL'S STORY
That night Hans slept at my house, or rather outside of it in thegarden, or upon the stoep, saying that he feared arrest if he went tothe town, because of his quarrel with the white man. As it happened,however, the other party concerned never stirred further in thebusiness, probably because he was too drunk to remember who had knockedhim into the sluit or whether he had gravitated thither by accident.
On the following morning we renewed our discussion, debating in detailevery possible method of reaching the Kendah people by help of suchmeans as we could command. Like that of the previous night it provedsomewhat abortive. Obviously such a long and hazardous expedition oughtto be properly financed and--where was the money? At length I cameto the conclusion that if we went at all it would be best, in thecircumstances, for Hans and myself to start alone with a Scotch cartdrawn by oxen and driven by a couple of Zulu hunters, which we couldlade with ammunition and a few necessaries.
Thus lightly equipped we might work through Zululand and thencenorthward to Beza-Town, the capital of the Mazitu, where we were sure ofa welcome. After that we must take our chance. It was probable thatwe should never reach the district where these Kendah were supposed todwell, but at least I might be able to kill some elephants in the wildcountry beyond Zululand.
While we were talking I heard the gun fired which announced the arrivalof the English mail, and stepping to the end of the garden, saw thesteamer lying at anchor outside the bar. Then I went indoors to write afew business letters which, since I had become immersed in the affairsof that unlucky gold mine, had grown to be almost a daily task with me.I had got through several with many groanings, for none were agreeablein their tenor, when Hans poked his head through the window in a silentkind of a way as a big snake might do, and said: "Baas, I think thereare two baases out on the road there who are looking for you. Very finebaases whom I don't know."
"Shareholders in the Bona Fide Gold Mine," thought I to myself, thenadded as I prepared to leave through the back door: "If they come heretell them I am not at home. Tell them I left early this morning for theCongo River to look for the sources of the Nile."
"Yes, Baas," said Hans, collapsing on to the stoep.
I went out through the back door, sorrowing that I, Allan Quatermain,should have reached a rung in the ladder of life whence I shrank fromlooking any stranger in the face, for fear of what he might have to sayto me. Then suddenly my pride asserted itself. After all what was thereof which I should be ashamed? I would face these irate shareholders as Ihad faced the others yesterday.
I walked round the little house to the front garden which was plantedwith orange trees, and up to a big moonflower bush, I believe _datura_is its right name, that grew near the pomegranate hedge which separatedmy domain from the road. There a conversation was in progress, if so itmay be called.
"_Ikona_" (that is: "I don't know"), "_Inkoosi_" (i.e. "Chief"), saidsome Kafir in a stupid drawl.
Thereon a voice that instantly struck me as familiar, answered:
"We want to know where the great hunter lives."
"_Ikona_," said the Kafir.
"Can't you remember his native name?" asked another voice which was alsofamiliar to me, for I never forget voices though I am unable to placethem at once.
"The great hunter, Here-come-a-zany," said the first voice triumphantly,and instantly there flashed back upon my mind a vision of the splendiddrawing-room at Ragnall Castle and of an imposing majordomo introducinginto it two white-robed, Arab-looking men.
"Mr. Savage, by the Heavens!" I muttered. "What in the name of goodnessis he doing here?"
"There," said the second voice, "your black friend has bolted, and nowonder, for who can be called by such a name? If you had done what Itold you, Savage, and hired a white guide, it would have saved us a lotof trouble. Why will you always think that you know better than anyoneelse?"
"Seemed an unnecessary expense, my lord, considering we are travellingincog., my lord."
"How long shall we travel 'incog.' if you persist in calling me my lordat the top of your voice, Savage? There is a house beyond those trees;go in and ask where----"
By this time I had reached the gate which I opened, remarking quietly,
"How do you do, Lord Ragnall? How do you do, Mr. Savage? I thought thatI recognized your voices on the road and came to see if I was right.Please walk in; that is, if it is I whom you wish to visit."
As I spoke I studied them both, and observed that while Savagelooked much the same, although slightly out of place in these strangesurroundings, the time that had passed since we met had changed LordRagnall a good deal. He was still a magnificent-looking man, one ofthose whom no one that had seen him would ever forget, but now hishandsome face was stamped with some new seal of suffering. I felt atonce that he had become acquainted with grief. The shadow in his darkeyes and a certain worn expression about the mouth told me that this wasso.
"Yes, Quatermain," he said as he took my hand, "it is you whom I havetravelled seven thousand miles to visit, and I thank God that I havebeen so fortunate as to find you. I feared lest you might be dead, orperhaps far away in the centre of Africa where I should never be able totrack you down."
"A week later perhaps you would not have found me, Lord Ragnall," Ianswered, "but as it happens misfortune has kept me here."
"And misfortune has brought me here, Quatermain."
Then before I had time to answer Savage came up and we went into thehouse.
"You are just in time for lunch," I said, "and as luck will have itthere is a good rock cod and a leg of oribe buck for you to eat. Boy,set two more places."
"One more place, if you please, sir," said Savage. "I should prefer totake my food afterwards."
"You will have to get over that in Africa," I muttered. Still I let himhave his way, with the result that presently the strange sight was seenof the magnificent English majordomo standing behind my chair inthe little room and handing round the square-face as though it werechampagne. It was a spectacle that excited the greatest interest in myprimitive establishment and caused Hans with some native hangers-onto gather at the window. However, Lord Ragnall took it as a matter ofcourse and I thought it better not to interfere.
When we had finished we went on to the stoep to smoke, leaving Savageto eat his dinner, and I asked Lord Ragnall where his luggage was. Hereplied that he had left it at the Customs. "Then," I said, "I will senda native with Savage to arrange about getting it up here. If you do notmind my rough accommodation there is a room for you, and your man canpitch a tent in the garden."
After some demur he accepted with gratitude, and a little later Savageand the native were sent off with a note to a man who hired out amule-cart.
"Now," I said when the gate had shut behind them, "will you tell me whyyou have come to Africa?"
"Disaster," he replied. "Disaster of the worst sort."
"Is your wife dead, Lord Ragnall?"
"I do not know. I almost hope that she is. At any rate she is lost tome."
An idea leapt to my mind to the effect that she might have run away withsomebody else, a thing which often happens in the world. But fortunatelyI kept it to myself and only said,
"She was nearly lost once before, was she not?"
"Yes, when you saved her. Oh! if only you had been with us, Quatermain,this would never have happened. Listen: About eighteen months ago shehad a son, a very beautiful child. She recovered well from the businessand we were as happy as two mortals could be, for we loved each other,Quatermain, and God has blessed us in every way; we were so happy thatI remember her telling me that our great good fortune made her feelafraid. One day last September when I was out shooting, she drove in alittle pony cart we had, with the nurse, and the child but no man, tocall on Mrs. Scroope who also had been recently confined. She often wentout thus, for the pony was an old animal and quiet as a sheep.
"By some cursed trick of fate it chanced that when they were passingthro
ugh the little town which you may remember near Ragnall, they met atravelling menagerie that was going to some new encampment. At the headof the procession marched a large bull elephant, which I discoveredafterwards was an ill-tempered brute that had already killed a man andshould never have been allowed upon the roads. The sight of the ponycart, or perhaps a red cloak which my wife was wearing, as she alwaysliked bright colours, for some unknown reason seems to have infuriatedthis beast, which trumpeted. The pony becoming frightened wheeled roundand overturned the cart right in front of the animal, but apparentlywithout hurting anybody. Then"--here he paused a moment and withan effort continued--"that devil in beast's shape cocked its ears,stretched out its long trunk, dragged the baby from the nurse's arms,whirled it round and threw it high into the air, to fall crushed uponthe kerb. It sniffed at the body of the child, feeling it over with thetip of its trunk, as though to make sure that it was dead. Next, oncemore it trumpeted triumphantly, and without attempting to harm my wifeor anybody else, walked quietly past the broken cart and continued itsjourney, until outside the town it was made fast and shot."
"What an awful story!" I said with a gasp.
"Yes, but there is worse to follow. My poor wife went off her head, withthe shock I suppose, for no physical injury could be found upon her. Shedid not suffer in health or become violent, quite the reverse indeedfor her gentleness increased. She just went off her head. For hours ata time she would sit silent and smiling, playing with the stones of thatred necklace which those conjurers gave her, or rather counting them,as a nun might do with the beads of her rosary. At times, however, shewould talk, but always to the baby, as though it lay before her or shewere nursing it. Oh! Quatermain, it was pitiful, pitiful!
"I did everything I could. She was seen by three of the greatestbrain-doctors in England, but none of them was able to help. The onlyhope they gave was that the fit might pass off as suddenly as it hadcome. They said too that a thorough change of scene would perhaps bebeneficial, and suggested Egypt; that was in October. I did not takemuch to the idea, I don't know why, and personally should not haveacceded to it had it not been for a curious circumstance. The lastconsultation took place in the big drawing-room at Ragnall. When it wasover my wife remained with her mother at one end of the room while I andthe doctors talked together at the other, as I thought quite out of herearshot. Presently, however, she called to me, saying in a perfectlyclear and natural voice:
"'Yes, George, I will go to Egypt. I should like to go to Egypt.' Thenshe went on playing with the necklace and talking to the imaginarychild.
"Again on the following morning as I came into her room to kiss her, sheexclaimed,
"'When do we start for Egypt? Let it be soon.'
"With these sayings the doctors were very pleased, declaring that theyshowed signs of a returning interest in life and begging me not tothwart her wish.
"So I gave way and in the end we went to Egypt together with LadyLongden, who insisted upon accompanying us although she is a wretchedsailor. At Cairo a large dahabeeyah that I had hired in advance, mannedby an excellent crew and a guard of four soldiers, was awaiting us. Init we started up the Nile. For a month or more all went well; also tomy delight my wife seemed now and again to show signs of returningintelligence. Thus she took some interest in the sculptures on the wallsof the temples, about which she had been very fond of reading when inhealth. I remember that only a few days before the--the catastrophe,she pointed out one of them to me, it was of Isis and the infant Horus,saying, 'Look, George, the holy Mother and the holy Child,' and thenbowed to it reverently as she might have done to an altar. At lengthafter passing the First Cataract and the Island of Philae we came tothe temple of Abu Simbel, opposite to which our boat was moored. On thefollowing morning we explored the temple at daybreak and saw the sunstrike upon the four statues which sit at its farther end, spendingthe rest of that day studying the colossal figures of Rameses that arecarved upon its face and watching some cavalcades of Arabs mounted uponcamels travelling along the banks of the Nile.
"My wife was unusually quiet that afternoon. For hour after hour she satstill upon the deck, gazing first at the mouth of the rock-hewn templeand the mighty figures which guard it and then at the surroundingdesert. Only once did I hear her speak and then she said, 'Beautiful,beautiful! Now I am at home.' We dined and as there was no moon, wentto bed rather early after listening to the Sudanese singers as they sangone of their weird chanties.
"My wife and her mother slept together in the state cabin of thedahabeeyah, which was at the stern of the boat. My cabin, a small one,was on one side of this, and that of the trained nurse on the other. Thecrew and the guard were forward of the saloon. A gangway was fixed fromthe side to the shore and over it a sentry stood, or was supposed tostand. During the night a Khamsin wind began to blow, though lightly aswas to be expected at this season of the year. I did not hear it for, asa matter of fact, I slept very soundly, as it appears did everyone elseupon the dahabeeyah, including the sentry as I suspect.
"The first thing I remember was the appearance of Lady Longden justat daybreak at the doorway of my cabin and the frightened sound of hervoice asking if Luna, that is my wife, was with me. Then it transpiredthat she had left her cabin clad in a fur cloak, evidently sometime before, as the bed in which she had been lying was quite cold.Quatermain, we searched everywhere; we searched for four days, but fromthat hour to this no trace whatever of her has been found."
"Have you any theory?" I asked.
"Yes, or at least all the experts whom we consulted have a theory. It isthat she slipped down the saloon in the dark, gained the deck and thencefell or threw herself into the Nile, which of course would have carriedher body away. As you may have heard, the Nile is full of bodies. Imyself saw two of them during that journey. The Egyptian policeand others were so convinced that this was what had happened that,notwithstanding the reward of a thousand pounds which I offered for anyvaluable information, they could scarcely be persuaded to continue thesearch."
"You said that a wind was blowing and I understand that the shores aresandy, so I suppose that all footprints would have been filled in?"
He nodded and I went on. "What is your own belief? Do you think she wasdrowned?"
He countered my query with another of:
"What do _you_ think?"
"I? Oh! although I have no right to say so, I don't think at all. Iam quite sure that she was _not_ drowned; that she is living at thismoment."
"Where?"
"As to that you had better inquire of our friends, Harut and Marut," Ianswered dryly.
"What have you to go on, Quatermain? There is no clue."
"On the contrary I hold that there are a good many clues. The wholeEnglish part of the story in which we were concerned, and the threatsthose mysterious persons uttered are the first and greatest of theseclues. The second is the fact that your hiring of the dahabeeyahregardless of expense was known a long time before your arrival inEgypt, for I suppose you did so in your own name, which is notexactly that of Smith or Brown. The third is your wife's sleep-walkingpropensities, which would have made it quite easy for her to be drawnashore under some kind of mesmeric influence. The fourth is that you hadseen Arabs mounted on camels upon the banks of the Nile. The fifth isthe heavy sleep you say held everybody on board that particular night,which suggests to me that your food may have been drugged. The sixth isthe apathy displayed by those employed in the search, which suggests tome that some person or persons in authority may have been bribed, as iscommon in the East, or perhaps frightened with threats of bewitchment.The seventh is that a night was chosen when a wind blew which wouldobliterate all spoor whether of men or of swiftly travelling camels.These are enough to begin with, though doubtless if I had time to thinkI could find others. You must remember too that although the journeywould be long, this country of the Kendah can doubtless be reachedfrom the Sudan by those who know the road, as well as from southern oreastern Africa."
"Then you think that my wi
fe has been kidnapped by those villains, Harutand Marut?"
"Of course, though villains is a strong term to apply to them. Theymight be quite honest men according to their peculiar lights, as indeedI expect they are. Remember that they serve a god or a fetish, orrather, as they believe, a god _in_ a fetish, who to them doubtless isa very terrible master, especially when, as I understand, that god isthreatened by a rival god."
"Why do you say that, Quatermain?"
By way of answer I repeated to him the story which Hans said he hadheard from the old woman at Beza, the town of the Mazitu. Lord Ragnalllistened with the deepest interest, then said in an agitated voice:
"That is a very strange tale, but has it struck you, Quatermain, thatif your suppositions are correct, one of the most terrible circumstancesconnected with my case is that our child should have chanced to come toits dreadful death through the wickedness of an elephant?"
"That curious coincidence has struck me most forcibly, Lord Ragnall.At the same time I do not see how it can be set down as more thana coincidence, since the elephant which slaughtered your child wascertainly not that called Jana. To suppose because there is a warbetween an elephant-god and a child-god somewhere in the heart ofAfrica, that therefore another elephant can be so influenced that itkills a child in England, is to my mind out of all reason."
That is what I said to him, as I did not wish to introduce a new horrorinto an affair that was already horrible enough. But, recollecting thatthese priests, Harut and Marut, believed the mother of this murderedinfant to be none other than the oracle of their worship (though howthis chanced passed my comprehension), and therefore the great enemyof the evil elephant-god, I confess that at heart I felt afraid. If anypowers of magic, black or white or both, were mixed up with the matteras my experiences in England seemed to suggest, who could say what mightbe their exact limits? As, however, it has been demonstrated again andagain by the learned that no such thing as African magic exists, thisline of thought appeared to be too foolish to follow. So passing it by Iasked Lord Ragnall to continue.
"For over a month," he went on, "I stopped in Egypt waiting tillemissaries who had been sent to the chiefs of various tribes in theSudan and elsewhere, returned with the news that nothing whatsoever hadbeen seen of a white woman travelling in the company of natives, norhad they heard of any such woman being sold as a slave. Also through theKhedive, on whom I was able to bring influence to bear by help ofthe British Government, I caused many harems in Egypt to be visited,entirely without result. After this, leaving the inquiry in the hands ofthe British Consul and a firm of French lawyers, although in truth allhope had gone, I returned to England whither I had already sent LadyLongden, broken-hearted, for it occurred to me as possible that my wifemight have drifted or been taken thither. But here, too, there was notrace of her or of anybody who could possibly answer to her description.So at last I came to the conclusion that her bones must lie somewhere atthe bottom of the Nile, and gave way to despair."
"Always a foolish thing to do," I remarked.
"You will say so indeed when you hear the end, Quatermain. Mybereavement and the sleeplessness which it caused prayed upon me somuch, for now that the child was dead my wife was everything to me,that, I will tell you the truth, my brain became affected and like Job Icursed God in my heart and determined to die. Indeed I should have diedby my own hand, had it not been for Savage. I had procured the laudanumand loaded the pistol with which I proposed to shoot myself immediatelyafter it was swallowed so that there might be no mistake. One night onlya couple of months or so ago, Quatermain, I sat in my study at Ragnall,with the doors locked as I thought, writing a few final letters beforeI did the deed. The last of them was just finished about twelve whenhearing a noise, I looked up and saw Savage standing before me. I askedhim angrily how he came there (I suppose he must have had another key toone of the other doors) and what he wanted. Ignoring the first part ofthe question he replied:
"'My lord, I have been thinking over our trouble'--he was with us inEgypt--'I have been thinking so much that it has got a hold of my sleep.To-night as you said you did not want me any more and I was tired, Iwent to bed early and had a dream. I dreamed that we were once more inthe shrubbery, as happened some years ago, and that the little Africangent who shot like a book, was showing us the traces of those two blackmen, just as he did when they tried to steal her ladyship. Then in mydream I seemed to go back to bed and that beastly snake which we foundlying under the parcel in the road seemed to follow me. When I had gotto sleep again, all in the dream, there it was standing on its tailat the end of the bed, hissing till it woke me. Then it spoke in goodEnglish and not in African as might have been expected.
"'"Savage," it said, "get up and dress yourself and go at once and tellhis lordship to travel to Natal and find Mr. Allan Quatermain" (you mayremember that was the African gentleman's name, my lord, which, with somany coming and going in this great house, I had quite forgotten, untilI had the dream). "Find Mr. Allan Quatermain," that slimy reptile wenton, opening and shutting its mouth for all the world like a Christianmaking a speech, "for he will have something to tell him as to thatwhich has made a hole in his heart that is now filled with the sevendevils. Be quick, Savage, and don't stop to put on your shirt or yourtie"--I have not, my lord, as you may see. "He is shut up in the study,but you know how to get into it. If he will not listen to you let himlook round the study and he will see something which will tell him thatthis is a true dream."
"'Then the snake vanished, seeming to wriggle down the left bottombed-post, and I woke up in a cold sweat, my lord, and did what it hadtold me.'
"Those were his very words, Quatermain, for I wrote them down afterwardswhile they were fresh in my memory, and you see here they are in mypocket-book.
"Well, I answered him, rather brusquely I am afraid, for a crazed manwho is about to leave the world under such circumstances does not showat his best when disturbed almost in the very act, to the edge of whichlong agony has brought him. I told him that all his dream of snakesseemed ridiculous, which obviously it was, and was about to send himaway, when it occurred to me that the suggestion it conveyed that Ishould put myself in communication with you was not ridiculous in viewof the part you had already played in the story."
"Very far from ridiculous," I interpolated.
"To tell the truth," went on Lord Ragnall, "I had already thought ofdoing the same thing, but somehow beneath the pressure of my imminentgrief the idea was squeezed out of my mind, perhaps because you were sofar away and I did not know if I could find you even if I tried. Pausingfor a moment before I dismissed Savage, I rose from the desk at which Iwas writing and began to walk up and down the room thinking what I woulddo. I am not certain if you saw it when you were at Ragnall, but it isa large room, fifty feet long or so though not very broad. It has twofireplaces, in both of which fires were burning on this night, and itwas lit by four standing lamps besides that upon my desk. Now betweenthese fireplaces, in a kind of niche in the wall, and a little in theshadow because none of the lamps was exactly opposite to it, hung aportrait of my wife which I had caused to be painted by a fashionableartist when first we became engaged."
"I remember it," I said. "Or rather, I remember its existence. I did notsee it because a curtain hung over the picture, which Savage told meyou did not wish to be looked at by anybody but yourself. At the timeI remarked to him, or rather to myself, that to veil the likeness of aliving woman in such a way seemed to me rather an ill-omened thing todo, though why I should have thought it so I do not quite know."
"You are quite right, Quatermain. I had that foolish fancy, a lover'sfreak, I suppose. When we married the curtain was removed although thebrass rod on which it hung was left by some oversight. On my return toEngland after my loss, however, I found that I could not bear tolook upon this lifeless likeness of one who had been taken from me socruelly, and I caused it to be replaced. I did more. In order that itmight not be disturbed by some dusting housemaid, I myself made it fastwith t
hree or four tin-tacks which I remember I drove through the velvetstuff into the panelling, using a fireiron as a hammer. At the timeI thought it a good job although by accident I struck the nail of thethird finger of my left hand so hard that it came off. Look, it has notquite finished growing again," and he showed the finger on which the newnail was still in process of formation.
"Well, as I walked up and down the room some impulse caused me to looktowards the picture. To my astonishment I saw that it was no longerveiled, although to the best of my belief the curtain had been drawnover it as lately as that afternoon; indeed I could have sworn that thiswas so. I called to Savage to bring the lamp that stood upon my table,and by its light made an examination. The curtain was drawn back, verytidily, being fastened in its place clear of the little alcove by meansof a thin brass chain. Also along one edge of it, that which I hadnailed to the panelling, the tin-tacks were still in their places; thatis, three of them were, the fourth I found afterwards upon the floor.
"'She looks beautiful, doesn't she, my lord,' said Savage, 'and pleaseGod so we shall still find her somewhere in the world.'
"I did not answer him, or even remark upon the withdrawal of thecurtain, as to which indeed I never made an inquiry. I suppose thatit was done by some zealous servant while I was pretending to eat mydinner--there were one or two new ones in the house whose names andappearance I did not know. What impressed itself upon my mind was thatthe face which I had never expected to see again on the earth, even ina picture, was once more given to my eyes, it mattered not how. This, inmy excited state, for laudanum waiting to be swallowed and a pistol atfull cock for firing do not induce calmness in a man already almost mad,at any rate until they have fulfilled their offices, did in truth appearto me to be something of the nature of a sign such as that spoken ofin Savage's idiotic dream, which I was to find if 'I looked round thestudy.'
"'Savage,' I said, 'I don't think much of your dreams about snakes thattalk to you, but I do think that it might be well to see Mr. Quatermain.To-day is Sunday and I believe that the African mail sails on Friday. Goto town early to-morrow and book passages.'
"Also I told him to see various gunsmiths and bid them send down aselection of rifles and other weapons for me to choose from, as Idid not know whither we might wander in Africa, and to make furthernecessary arrangements. All of these things he did, and--here we are."
"Yes," I answered reflectively, "here you are. What is more, here isyour luggage of which there seems to be enough for a regiment," and Ipointed to a Scotch cart piled up with baggage and followed by along line of Kafirs carrying sundry packages upon their heads that,marshalled by Savage, had halted at my gate.