CHAPTER NINETEEN.
KING M'BONGWELE TURNS THE TABLES UPON HIS VISITORS.
In reaching his palace that night king M'Bongwele dismissed hisfollowers with but scant ceremony, and at once retired to rest. Hepassed a very disturbed night of alternate sleeplessness and harassingfitful dreams, and arose next morning in a particularly bad temper. Hewas anxious, annoyed, and uneasy in the extreme at the unexpected andunwelcome presence of these extraordinary visitants to his dominions--these spirits, or men, whichever they happened to be, who had taken suchpains to show him that they despised his power, and were quite preparedto ride rough-shod over him unless he slavishly conformed to all theirwishes; who had frightened and humiliated him in the presence of hisimmediate followers and most powerful chiefs, and entailed upon him aloss of prestige which it would be difficult if not impossible torecover. He was childishly jealous of the slightest interference withhis supreme authority, and he fretted and chafed himself into a state offury almost bordering upon madness as he reflected upon the veiledmenaces to himself which had been only too distinctly recognisable inevery manifestation of these strangers' extraordinary power on thepreceding day. He recognised that their deliberate intention had beento show him that during their sojourn in his country he must in allrespects conform to their wishes, and model his conduct strictly inaccordance with their ideas of what was right and proper, or take theconsequences. And what were those consequences likely to be? Judgingfrom what he had already seen, his dethronement and utter humiliationseemed to be among the least severe of future possibilities. Instead ofremaining the irresponsible autocrat he had hitherto been, he would,during the sojourn of these strangers in his vicinity, be obliged tocarefully weigh and consider his every word and action, in order that hemight neither say nor do anything which could by any possibility provedistasteful to them. And if this state of servile, abject, slavishsubmission was to be his condition during the period of their stay--which might last the Great Fetisch himself only knew how long--his lifewould not be worth having, it would simply be a grinding, insupportableburden to him.
As these unwelcome reflections thronged through his mind he grew somadly ferocious that he issued orders for the instant execution ofcertain white prisoners which had fallen into his hands a few monthsbefore, countermanding the order almost immediately afterwards--and,happily, in good time--partly because they were women, and he stillhoped, notwithstanding present difficulties and frequent formerfailures, to add them to his harem; and partly because he was under theapprehension that, among their other attributes, his mysterious visitorsmight possess that of omniscience, and, getting knowledge of theexecution, object to and call him to account for it. It was a similarconsideration alone which deterred him from solacing himself by theimpalement of half a dozen or so of his principal ministers, the entiresuite having an exceedingly lively time of it that morning, and beinginfinitely thankful when they were at last dismissed with whole skins.
The question which harassed and perplexed M'Bongwele for the remainderof that day was: could the visit of these extraordinary beings be by anymeans shortened or terminated? And, if so, how? Or if the visit couldnot be cut short, was there any possibility of subjugating the visitors?This particular African monarch possessed at least one virtue, that ofperseverance under difficulties. He was not at all the sort of man tosit down and tamely submit to evils if he thought there was even themost remote and slender possibility of overcoming them. He had, on aprevious occasion, encountered certain fair-skinned men so similar inappearance, and in every other respect, except dress, to these presenttroublesome visitors of his that they might well have been taken forbeings of the same race; yet _they_ had proved so thoroughly mortal thathe had had no difficulty whatever in disposing of them. True, he hadshot an arrow at one of these visitants yesterday, striking him fairupon the breast, and the arrow, instead of piercing him through andthrough, had fallen splintered to pieces at his feet. Yet this veryextraordinary incident was not, to M'Bongwele, wholly conclusiveevidence as to their invulnerability. Lualamba had on the previous daymade certain suggestive remarks tending to strengthen his monarch'sbelief that if these persons could by any means be separated from thehuge structure which seemed to be their home they might possibly proveto be very ordinary mortals after all. He was inclined to believe thata great deal, if not the whole, of their power was centred in thegigantic fabric which they called a ship. And, if that should indeedprove to be the case, all that they had done on the previous day couldbe done by anyone into whose hands the ship might happen to fall. Itcould be done by _him_. As this reflection flashed across his brain hepictured to himself the immense accession of power and prestige whichwould come to him with the possession of that wonderful structure; ofthe conquests it would enable him to make, and of the boundlessextension of his dominions which it would enable him to secure; and hiseyes flashed and his bosom heaved with unsuppressed excitement as heinwardly vowed that he would achieve its possession or die in theattempt. All the conditions of his life, he angrily told himself, hadbeen violently and permanently disarranged by the incidents of theprevious day; he had been publicly threatened; publicly terrified into acowardly and disgraceful state of submission; and it was quiteimpossible that he could permanently continue as he then was. He mustfully recover all his lost prestige and add immeasurably to it, or mustbe content to see some ambitious chief rise up and wrest the kingdomfrom him. These presumptuous strangers had forced him into enmityagainst them, and they must take the consequences.
Lualamba was one of M'Bongwele's most trusted chiefs, and shortly beforesunset he and the head witch-doctor were summoned to a specialconference with the king.
Meanwhile the travellers, having enjoyed a most excellent night's rest,rose betimes in the morning and prepared for a thorough systematicinvestigation of the ruins. They bathed and breakfasted in due course,and then, armed to the teeth, set out upon a tour of general inspection,the professor carrying his camera, and Sir Reginald his sketch-block andcolour-box, whilst Mildmay and the colonel, provided with a box-sextantand a light measuring chain, set themselves the task of making a roughsurvey of the ruins and a portion of the surrounding country. The tourof the ruins, the taking of an occasional sketch or photograph, and themaking of the survey, kept the party fully occupied for the whole of thefirst day; and they returned to the ship just before sunset, tired andhungry, but thoroughly satisfied with their day's work, and fullyconvinced that their success in penetrating to this interesting spotwould alone more than repay them for all the trouble and expenseconnected with the outfit of the expedition. One important fact atleast had been clearly ascertained by them in the course of the day,which was, that the ruins were extremely ancient, their antiquity beingdemonstrated by the circumstance that during successive ages the soilhad gradually accumulated about the ruins until they were nearly halfburied. The most interesting discovery made by them during the day wasthat of an enormous block of ruins, which, from its extent and theimposing character of its architecture, they felt convinced must havebeen a temple or other public building, and it was resolved that theirinvestigations should commence with it. It was situated about a miledistant from the spot occupied by the _Flying Fish_, and their firstintention had been to move the ship somewhat nearer; but an inspectionof the intervening ground had shown it to be so encumbered with ruinsthat it was soon apparent that she must be left where she was.
A very large amount of excavation--much more than they could possiblymanage alone--would be necessary before the lower portion of the wallsand the pavement of the building could be laid bare, and they decided togo over to M'Bongwele's village on the following morning and arrangewith him if possible for the hire of some fifty or a hundred men. This,however, proved to be unnecessary, for whilst they were at breakfastnext day the sound of a horn was heard without, and, going on deck, theydiscovered Lualamba below in charge of a party of some twenty womenbearing a present of milk (in closely woven grass baskets), eggs, fowls,and frui
t, and a message from the king asking whether his visitorsrequired assistance of any kind in the pursuit of their investigations.
"Capital!" exclaimed the baronet when von Schalckenberg had translatedthe message. "This is as it should be. Lower the ladder, professor,and ask Lualamba to come on deck. We must send back a present to theking in return for that which he has sent us; and we can at the sametime forward a message explaining our wants."
Lualamba quickly made his appearance on deck, where, after receiving afurther small present for himself and a cast-off soldier's coat,battered cocked-hat, an old pair of uniform trousers, the seams of whichwere trimmed with tarnished gold braid, and half a dozen strings ofbeads, as a present for the king, the wants of the travellers wereexplained to him. The chief shook his head; he feared it would bedifficult, if not impossible, to meet the wishes of the illustriousstrangers in the particular manner spoken of. The male inhabitants ofthe village were all warriors, to whom work of any description would bean unspeakable degradation. But he would see what could be done. Ifwomen, now, would serve the strangers' purpose as well as men, the thingcould easily be arranged.
Had the travellers been less experienced than they were this suggestionas to the employment of women would have come upon them as a surprise;but they were well aware that among many savage races labour is lookedupon as degrading, and therefore imposed solely upon the women; so theymerely thanked Lualamba for his promise, and intimated that women wouldserve them equally as well as men. Upon which Lualamba withdrew,promising that a gang of at least fifty should be at the ruined temple--or whatever it was--"before the sun reached the top of the sky;" inother words, before noon. This promise was faithfully fulfilled, for ateleven o'clock the explorers saw the gang of labourers come filing inamong the ruins, armed with rude wooden mattocks and spades, andprovided with large baskets in which to convey away the soil as it wasdug out. They were as unprepossessing a lot of specimens of femalehumanity as could well be imagined. Naked, save for a filthy raggedskin petticoat round their waists and reaching to the knee, their faceswore, without exception, an expression of sullen stupidity, and theylooked as though they had never experienced a joyous moment in theirlives; but they were active and muscular, and soon showed that theythoroughly understood how to use their clumsy tools to the bestadvantage. They were led by and worked under the directorship of alean, shrunken, withered old grey-haired hag of superlative ugliness,who did no work herself, but went constantly back and forth along theline of workers, bearing in her hand a long thin pliant rattan, whichshe did not hesitate to smartly apply to the shoulders of those whoseemed to her to be doing less than their fair share of the work inhand. This bit of petty cruelty was, however, as a matter of course,promptly stopped by the professor, who thereby won for himself a look ofwithering scorn from the hag aforesaid, and glances of stupid wonder--inwhich in some cases could be also detected faint traces of an expressionof gratitude--from the unfortunate sisterhood who laboured under her.
The amount of work performed was, as might naturally be expected,nothing approaching to that which would have been accomplished in thesame time by the same number of white labourers; indeed, a gang of halfa dozen good honest hard-working English navvies would have accomplishedfully as much per diem as the fifty women who laboured among the ruins.But the explorers were quite satisfied; they were in no particularhurry; the climate was delightful; M'Bongwele was wonderfully civil,sending large supplies of provisions, fruit, and milk to the ship daily,accompanied by the most solicitous inquiries through Lualamba as towhether all things were going well with his visitors. There was noattempt whatever, so far as they could discover, to pry into theirdoings, not a single warrior, save Lualamba, having been seen by themsince the day of the king's visit, and everything seemed to befavourable to a thorough and leisurely execution of their purpose.
On the fourth day from the commencement of the excavation the explorerswere gratified by the uncovering of a yard or two of what appeared to bea magnificent tesselated pavement of white and variegated marble; and bythe end of a fortnight fully half of its supposed area was exposed,showing it to be of an entirely novel and exquisitely graceful design,the intricate outline of the pattern being emphasised by the insertionof plates of gold about a quarter of an inch wide between the tesserae.The pavement was smooth, level, and in perfect preservation, and theexplorers were in the very highest of spirits at their exceptional goodluck.
At the outset of the work the four friends had been in the habit ofreturning every day to the ship for luncheon, but as time passed on theyfelt that to do this in the very hottest part of the day was a whollyunnecessary waste of energy, and they accordingly transferred from theship to the scene of their operations a spacious umbrella-tent (that isto say, a tent with a top but no sides), together with a small table andfour chairs. And under the shadow of this tent they were wont topartake of the mid-day meal (usually a cold collation), which theygenerally finished off with a cup of chocolate or coffee and a cigar,the potables being prepared by a particular one of the women labourers,who speedily developed quite a special aptitude for the task, and who atlength fell into the habit of regularly bringing with her, every day,the milk needed for the purpose. The tent being pitched on a spot whichcommanded a full view of the operations in progress, the quartettegradually acquired the habit of lingering somewhat over their luncheon,and especially over the final coffee and cigar, the inevitable result ofwhich was that, for the next hour or two, they experienced a feeling ofdelicious languor and drowsiness, and an almost unconquerabledisinclination to exchange the grateful shade of the tent for thescorching heat of the afternoon sun. At first they struggled resolutelyand manfully against this overpowering temptation to idleness; butfinding, or fancying, that they could supervise the work as efficientlyfrom the tent as they could at a yard or two from its shelter, theygradually gave up the struggle, yielding day after day more completelyto the seductive feeling of lassitude which seemed to have laid holdupon them.
Finally, one hot afternoon, overcome by the drowsy influence of the warmperfumed air which played about their languid bodies, they all fellasleep.
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Unknown to and wholly unsuspected by them, the old crone who was incharge of the gang of female labourers had, for some days past, beenkeeping a sharply watchful eye upon the investigators, and upon the dayin question she had been, if possible, more sharply watchful than ever.So interested in them did she at last become that, turning her back uponthe women and leaving them to work or not as they saw fit, she advanceduntil she entered the shadow of the tent, where she paused, eagerlyscanning the features of the slumberers. For some ten minutes or so shestood motionless as a statue, her sunken glittering eyes turning fromone placid face to the other; then she stepped to the baronet's sideand, seizing him by the shoulder, shook him sharply. The sleeper mighthave been dead for all the consciousness which he exhibited at her rudetouch. Another and more violent shake proved equally unproductive ofresults. Then she passed on to the colonel, to Mildmay, and to theprofessor, experimenting in like manner with each. If she wished toarouse them, her efforts were useless; they were, one and all, lockedfast in the embrace of sleep--profound, unnatural, death-like sleep. Ascornful laugh grated harshly from her lips, and, wheeling sharply uponher heel, she rejoined the gang of excavators, exclaiming:
"Cease this useless labour; there is no further need of it. The witch-potion has done its work, and you may all return to the village. I goto summon the warriors."
The women, without further ado, gathered up their tools and baskets,and, breaking into a low monotonous song, to which their feet kept time,took the trail leading to the village, and soon disappeared among thescattered ruins and the bush which clustered thickly about them.
Ten minutes later a band of dusky warriors, fully armed and numberingabout a hundred, made their appearance, and, led by Lualamba, advancedto the tent, which they surrounded.
Four grass hammocks, each of whichwas stretched between two long bamboo poles, were then brought forward,and, by the directions of the chief, the unconscious white men werecarefully lifted from their seats and deposited at full length in them.The tent was then struck, and, with its simple furniture, taken incharge by certain members of the band told off for the purpose, wheneach of the hammocks, with its sleeping burden, was carefully raisedfrom the ground and shouldered by four savages, and, the remainder ofthe warriors forming round them as an escort, the band took the trail tothe village, and marched rapidly away.
On reaching their destination the prisoners (for such they evidentlywere) were carried to a new hut, which had all the appearance of havingbeen specially constructed for them, and, once inside, the poles of thehammocks were carefully laid in the forked ends of upright posts, firmlyfixed in the ground, the whole forming a sufficiently comfortable bed.Four young women then entered the building, and, taking their places,one at the head of each sleeper, proceeded, with the aid of largefeather fans, to protect their helpless charges from the attacks of themosquitoes and other insect torments with which the village swarmed;when the hammock-bearers filed out, and the white men were left to sleepoff, undisturbed, the effects of the potent drug which had been artfullymingled with the milk with which their coffee had that day beenprepared.
The hut in which our four friends were thus left had been erected in aspacious palisaded quadrangle which surrounded the king's palace, sothat M'Bongwele might, as it were, always have them under his own eye;and the fact that, having got them into his power, the king wasdetermined, if possible, to keep them there, was made manifest by thepresence of a strong cordon of guards, who, on the passage of theprisoners within the portal, immediately ranged themselves round the hutoutside. The hut was only some twelve feet square, and entirely open atone end, the open end being, however, protected from the sun by acontinuation of the roof in the form of a broad verandah supported atthe eaves upon two stout verandah-posts; and round this diminutivestructure were ranged twenty picked men, facing inward, fully armed withbow, spear, and shield; it was pretty evident, therefore, that, unlessthe prisoners had the power to render themselves invisible, or ofparalysing their guards, there was little probability of their effectingtheir escape.
The posting of the guard having been effected to Lualamba'ssatisfaction, he entered the palace to make his report to the king, whowas anxiously expecting him. M'Bongwele listened attentively to all thedetails of the capture, and, upon its completion, rose and, accompaniedby the chief, made his way to the hut, which he cautiously entered,placing himself at the foot of each hammock in succession, and long andanxiously regarding the countenances of the sleepers. He had beensuccessful in his bold enterprise beyond his most sanguine hopes; but itwas evident that even in the very moment of his triumph he was anxiousand disturbed in his mind. He trembled at the audacity which had ledhim to pit himself against these extraordinary beings, and the very easewith which he had accomplished his purpose frightened him. Had thesemen--if men they were--been encountered and overcome awake, and in thefull possession of their senses, he would have been happy, for he wouldthen have felt that his own power was superior to theirs. But they hadbeen surprised whilst under the influence of a subtle and potent drugprepared by the chief witch-doctor; and when they awoke and discoveredwhat had been done to them, what might not the consequence be? But whatwas done was done; he had now gone too far to retreat; besides which,his ambition overmastered his fears, and he determined to go on and riskthe consequences.
Having obtained possession of the persons of these formidable beings,obviously the next thing would be to secure that wonderful thing whichthey called a "ship;" and this M'Bongwele determined to do at once: whoknew but that its possession might give him a much-needed and decisivepower over its former owners? He accordingly retired from the prisonhut, and gave orders for the immediate assembling of all his availablecavalry; at the head of which he soon dashed off in the direction of theruins, leaving Lualamba in charge of the guard and of the prisoners, aposition of responsibility which that chief by no means coveted, andwhich he accepted with much inward perturbation.
Proceeding at a gallop, the impatient M'Bongwele and his troopers soonreached the _Flying Fish_, which they immediately surrounded. The kingthen dismounting, and summoning some fifty of his most famous braves tofollow him, cautiously approached the ship, with the purpose of boardingher. But the rope-ladder, by means of which he had on a former occasionaccomplished this feat, was no longer there; and, as he glanced upwardat the gleaming cylindrical sides of the towering structure, it began todawn upon him that the task he had undertaken was, after all, notwithout its difficulties. Presently, however, a brilliant idea occurredto him, and, selecting a dozen men, he gave them certain orders whichsent them scurrying off at a gallop. Half an hour later they returned,dragging behind them two long stout bamboos and a considerable quantityof tough pliant "monkey-rope" or creeper. With these materials the men,under M'Bongwele's instructions, proceeded to construct a ladder, which,when completed, they reared against the side of the ship; and by thismeans the king and his fifty chosen warriors ascended and triumphantlyreached the deck.
M'Bongwele now regarded himself as completely successful; he had gainedpossession of the wonderful structure; and all that remained was to makeuse of it in a similar manner to that of its former owners. Heaccordingly advanced pompously to the gangway, and ordered his troopersto first remove the ladder from the ship's side, and then return to thevillage with all speed, adding exultantly that he and those with him onthe "flying horse's back" would be there long before them.
Resolved to give the cavalcade a good start, he watched it disappear ina cloud of dust among the ruins, and then, assuming his most commandingattitude and manner, raised his right hand aloft and exclaimed:
"We will now return through the air to the village--keeping as close tothe ground as possible," he added with some trepidation as he nervouslygrasped the guard rail in anticipation of the expected movement.
The ship, however, remained motionless. Something was evidently wrong,but what it might be he could not imagine; surely he had not forgottenor misunderstood the formula as stated to him by Lualamba? He now mostheartily wished that he had brought that trusty chief with him, and soprovided against all possibility of error; however, the omission couldnot be helped, and he would try again, adopting a somewhat differentform of words. This time he stamped rather impatiently on the deck,exclaiming:
"Take us back to the village, good flying horse, but gently, and notvery far above the ground."
Still no movement. The king began to look puzzled, and to feel as vexedas he dared, with the consciousness weighing heavily upon him that hewas playing with frightfully keen edged tools. He did not know what tomake of this persistent immobility; it was uncanny, sinister,portentous, almost appalling. He would try again. He _did_ try again,not once but nearly a dozen times, varying the form of words, more orless, every time; and, of course, with the same ill success. At length,in chagrin and disgust, he gave up the attempt to move the ship, andturned his attention to an examination of her interior. He advanced tothe pilot-house, complacently reflecting that here, at least, he couldnot possibly be beaten; he had only to walk up to the door and enter.But here, again, surprise and confusion awaited him; for, after _twice_making the circuit of the building, he was unable to find a door; therewas no perceptible entrance anywhere excepting the circular windows,which, however, were all open. Summoning his followers to hisassistance, he made them give him a "back;" and, scrambling up on theirshoulders, he at length contrived to raise himself to the level of theseopenings and to look in. He saw a great many levers, and knobs, andbuttons, and short lengths of insulated wire; in fact, he got a glimpseof pretty nearly all the apparatus contained in the pilothouse; but thatdid not help him in the least, for he had not the most remote idea ofwhat all these things were for; and when he essayed an entrance by oneof the windows he was again fo
iled; it was much too small. At length,after a great deal of ineffectual wriggling and struggling--whichoccasioned serious inconvenience and anxiety to the human supports whowere with the utmost difficulty maintaining a state of very unstableequilibrium beneath his feet--his patience completely failed him, and,in a fit of childish anger and spite, he sent a series of truly blood-curdling yells echoing into the interior of the pilot-house. Thesecries were of course distinctly heard by George and the _chef_, but(acting upon a concise code of instructions furnished to them when theywere first engaged for the voyage, and which provided for almost everyconceivable emergency), neither of these individuals condescended totake any notice of them. Having thus given vent to a portion of hisspleen, king M'Bongwele, paying but scanty attention to the comfort ordignity of his supporters, scrambled down from his elevated position tothe deck, and sat down to reflect upon the next steps to be taken. Hewould gladly now have left the ship and made the best of his way back tothe village, even though the journey would have had to be performed onfoot; but the ladder had, by his own command, been removed, and hisretreat was thus effectually cut off, a drop of about forty feet fromthe bottom of the metal accommodation ladder to the ground being asomething not to be thought of.