The Treasure of the Lake
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THE TREASURE OF THE LAKE
ly, then give a message from me to one of whom I have spoken to you, which message shall be delivered to you, perhaps in the night hours when you are asleep. I do not ask you to lift your gun and shoot this rogue,” and he nodded towards Gaika, “because you are but one and would be overwhelmed with your servants. Nay, I only ask you to hearken to the message when it comes and to do what it bids you.”
Not knowing what to say I made no answer to this peculiar appeal, although Hans, to judge by his mumblings and fidgets, appeared to wish me to say something. As I still declined, with his usual impertinence he took it upon himself to act as my spokesmen, saying in his debased Arabic:
“The great lord, my master, bids me inform you, Kaneke, that he is sorry you are going to be killed. He tells me to say also that, if you are killed and become a spook, he begs that you will keep away from him, as spooks, especially of those who are magicians and have been put to death for their evil deeds, are not nice company for anyone.”
When I heard this, indignation took away my breath, but before I could speak a word Gaika addressed me fiercely, crying out:
“White Wanderer, we believe that you are in league with this evil-doer and plot mischief against us. Get out of our town at once, lest you share his fate.”
Now this unprovoked assault made me furious, and I answered in the first words that came to my tongue:
“Who are you that tell lies and dare to talk to me of Fate? Let my fate be, fellow, and have a care for your own, which perhaps is nearer than you think.”
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Little did I guess when I spoke thus, at hazard as it seemed, that very soon doom would overtake this ruffian, and by my hand. Are we sometimes filled with the spirit of prophecy, I wonder? Or do we, perhaps, know everything on our inmost souls whence now and again bursts a rush of buried truth?
After this the company broke up in confusion. Kaneke was hustled away by his guards; men who waved their spears in a threatening fashion advanced upon us and were so insolent that at last I looked round and lifted the rifle I carried – I remember that it was one of the first Winchester repeaters of a sort that carried five cartridges. Thereon they fell back and we were allowed to regain our huts in peace.
I did not stop there long. Nearly all our gear had been sent forward with the bearers; indeed, no more of it remained than the four of us could carry ourselves, although the arrangement was that some of Kaneke’s men should do us this service on the morrow. As this was now out of the question we loaded ourselves, also a donkey that I possessed, with blankets, guns, cooking-pots, ammunition, and I know not what besides, and started, I riding on the donkey and looking, as I have since reflected, like the White Knight in Alice in Wonderland.
Then, keeping clear of the town, we trekked for the place where our bearers were encamped, reaching it unmolested about an hour later. This spot, chosen by myself, was on the lowest slope of a steep hill covered with thorn trees, through which ran a little stream from a spring higher up the slope. The first thing I did was to cut down a number of these thorns and drag them together into a fence, making what is called a boma in that part of Africa, behind which we could protect
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ourselves if necessary. By the time that this was done and my tent was pitched, it was late in the afternoon. Feeling tired, more, I think, from anxiety than exertion, I lay down and after musing for a while upon the fate of the unfortunate Kaneke and wishing, much as I disliked the man, that I could save him from a doom I believed to be unjust, which seemed impossible, I fell asleep, as I can do at any time. In my sleep a curious dream came to me, which after all was not wonderful, seeing how my mind was occupied.
I dreamed that Kaneke spoke to me, though I could not see him, but distinctly I heard, or seemed to hear, his voice saying:
“Follow the woman. Do what the woman tells you, and you will save me.”
Twice I heard this, and then I do not know how long afterwards, I woke up, or rather was awakened by Hans setting some food upon the camp table near the tent. On going out I saw that it was night, for the full moon was just rising and already giving so clear a light in a cloudless sky, that I could see to eat without the aid of a lamp.
“Hans,” I said presently, “what did Kaneke mean when he talked of a great sickness that was about to smite the town?”
“The Baas observes little,” answered Hans. “Did he notice nothing among the people of that caravan which took away the ivory?”
“Yes, I noticed that they were a dirty lot and smelt so much that I kept clear of them.”
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“If the Baas had come a little closer, he would have seen that two or three of them had pimples coming all over their faces.”
“Small-pox?” I suggested.
“Yes, Baas, small-pox, for I have seen it before. Also, they had been mixing with the people of the town who have not had small-pox for many years, for Kaneke kept it away by his charms, or stopped it when it broke out. Baas, this time he did not keep it away, and quite a number of the townspeople, as I heard this morning, are feeling bad, with sore throats and headaches, Baas. Kaneke knew all this as well as I do and that is why he talked about a pestilence. It is easy to prophesy when one knows, Baas.”
“Is it easy to send dreams, Hans?” I asked; then before he could answer I told him of the words I had seemed to hear in my sleep.
For a moment I caught sight of a look of astonishment upon Hans’ wrinkled and impassive countenance. Then he answered in an unconcerned fashion:
“I dare say, Baas, if one knows how. Or perhaps Kaneke sent no dream. Perhaps the Baas heard me and the woman talking together, for she is here and waiting to see the Baas after he has eaten.”
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CHAPTER IV
WHITE-MOUSE
“A woman!” I said, springing up. “What woman?” “Kaneke’s jealous wife who likes me so much, she whom
they call White-Mouse because she is so quick and silent, I suppose. She has a plan to save that bull of a man, just as the dream said, or you overheard.”
“Then she must be fond of him after all, Hans.”
“I suppose so, Baas. Or perhaps she thinks she will get him back again now, because some other woman, of whom she is jealous, has got small-pox, of which she hopes that she will die, or become very ugly. At least that is her tale, Baas.”
“I will see her at once,” I said.
“Best eat your supper first, Baas; it is always wise to keep women waiting a while, for that makes them think more of you.”
Knowing that Hans always had a reason for what he said, even when he seemed to be talking the most arrant nonsense, I took his advice.
When I had finished my food he led me to a patch of bush that grew round a pool at the foot of the slope about two hundred yards from the camp. We entered and presently from be-
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neath a tree a little woman glided out so silently that she might have been a ghost, and stood still with the moonlight falling on her white robes. She threw back a hood that covered her head, revealing her face, which was refined and in its way very pretty; also so fair for an Arab that I thought she must have European blood in her. She looked at me a little while, searching my face with her dark, appealing eyes, then suddenly threw herself on her knees, took my hand, and kissed it.
“That will do,” I said, lifting her up. “What do you want with me?”
“Lord,” she said in Arabic, speaking in a low, impassioned voice, “I am that slave of Kaneke whom here they call WhiteMouse, though elsewhere I have another name. Although he has treated me badly, for he who loves a Shadow cares for no woman, his spell is still upon me. Therefore I would pray you to save him if you can.”
“Me!”
“Yes, Lord, you.” Then as I said nothing she went on quickly, “I know that you white men do not work without pay, and I have nothing to give you, except myself. I will be a good servant to you and Kaneke will not mind. He has told me to go where I will.”
“Don’t be frightened, Baas,” whispered Hans into my ear in Dutch. “When she says you – she must mean me.”
I hit him in the middle with the point of my elbow, which stopped his breath. Then I said:
“Set out your plan, White-Mouse, if you have one. But please understand that I do not want you as a servant.”
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“Then you can drive me away, Lord, for if you do my will, your slave I shall be till death. Only one thing do I ask, that you do not give me to that little yellow monkey, or to either of your hunters.”
“How well she acts!” grunted the unconquered Hans behind me.
“The plan, the plan,” I said.
“Lord, it is this: there is a path up the cliff on the crest of which is the house of Kaneke, wherein he lies bound awaiting death at the rising of the morrow’s sun. It is known to few; indeed only to Kaneke and myself. I will lead you with your two hunters and this yellow one up that path and into Kaneke’s house. There, if it be needful, you can deal with those who guard him – there are but three of them, for the rest watch without the fence – and get him away down the cliff.”
“This is nonsense,” I said. “I examined that cliff when I visited Kaneke. There is no fence upon its edge because it overhangs in such a fashion that without long ropes, such as we have not got, made fast above, it cannot be climbed or descended.”
“It seems to do so, Lord, but beneath its overhanging crest there is a hole, which hole leads into a tunnel. This tunnel ends beneath the pavement of Kaneke’s house just in front of where he sits to watch the stars. Do you understand, Lord?”
I nodded, for I knew that she meant the stoep where Kaneke and I had drunk brandy and water together.
“The pavement is solid,” I said. “How does one pass through
it?”
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“A block of the hard floor, which is made of lime and other things so that it is like stone, can be moved from beneath. I have its secret, Lord. That is all. Will you come with me now? The beginning of the gorge is not very far from this place which, as you know, by any other road is a long way from the town. Therefore we need not start yet because I do not wish to reach the house until two hours after midnight, when all men are asleep, except those who watch the sick in the town, where a pestilence has broken out, as Kaneke foretold, and these will take little heed if they hear a noise.”
“No, I won’t,” I answered firmly. “This is a mad business. Why should I give my life and those of my servants to try to save Kaneke, whom I have only known for a week or two and who may be all that his enemies say?”
She considered the point, then answered:
“Because he alone can guide you to that hidden place whither you wish to go.”
“I don’t wish to go anywhere in particular,” I replied testily; “unless it is back to Zanzibar.”
Again she considered, and said:
“Because you have taken Kaneke’s ivory and gold, Lord.” At this I winced a little and then replied:
“I took the ivory and gold in payment for services to be rendered to Kaneke, if he could accompany me upon a certain journey, and he paid, asking nothing in return if he could not do so. Through no fault of mine he is unable to come, and therefore the bargain is at an end.”
“That is well said, Lord, in the white man’s merchant-fash- ion. Now I have another reason to which I think any man will
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listen. You should help Kaneke because I, your slave, who am a woman young and fair, pray you to do so.”
“Ah! she is clever; she knows the Baas,” I heard Hans mutter reflectively, words that hardened my heart and caused me to reply:
“Not for the sake of any woman in Africa, nor of all of them put together, would I do what you ask, White-Mouse. Do you take me for a madman?”
She laughed a little in a dreary fashion and answered: “Indeed I do not, who see that it is I who am mad. Hear-
ken, Lord: like others I have heard tales of Macumazahn. I have heard that he is generous and great-hearted; one who never goes back upon his word, a staff to lean on in the hour of trouble, a man who does not refuse the prayer of those in distress; brave too, and a lover of adventure if a good cause may be served, a great one whom it pleases to pretend to be small. All these things I have heard from that yellow man, and others; yes, and from Kaneke himself, and watching from afar, although you never knew I did so, I have judged these stories to be true. Now I see that I am mistaken. This lord Macumazahn is as are other white traders, neither better nor worse. So it is finished. Unaided I am not able to save Kaneke, as by my spirit I have sworn that I would. Therefore I pray your pardon, Lord, who have put you to trouble, and here before your eyes will end all, that I may go to make report of this business to those I serve far away.”
While I stared at her, wondering what she meant, also how much truth there was in all this mysterious tale, suddenly she
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drew a knife from her girdle, and tearing open her robe, lifted it above her bared breast. I sprang and seized her wrist.
“You must love this man very much!” I exclaimed, more, I think, to myself than to her.
“You are mistaken, Lord,” she answered, with her strange little laugh. “I do not love him; indeed I think I hate him who have never found one whom I could love – as yet. Still, for a while he is my master, also I have sworn to hold him safe by certain oaths that may not be broken and – I keep my word, as I must do or perish everlastingly.”
For a little while there was silence between us. Never can I forget the strangeness of that scene. The patch of bush by the edge of the pool, the little open space where the bright moonlight fell, and standing full in that moonlight which shone upon the whiteness of her rounded breast, this small, elfinfaced woman with the dark eyes and curling hair, a knife in her raised right hand.
Then myself, much perplexed and agitated, rather a ridiculous figure, as I suspect, clasping her wrist to prevent that knife from falling; and in the background upon the edge of the shadow, sardonic, his face alight with the age-old wisdom of the wild man who had eaten of the tree of Knowledge, interested and yet indifferent, hideous and yet lovable – the Hottentot, Hans. And the look upon that beautiful woman’s face, for in its way it was beautiful, or at any rate most attractive, the inscrutable look, suggestive of secrets, of mysteries even – oh! I say I shall never forget it all.
As we stood thus facing each other like people in a scene of a play, a thought came to me, this thought – if that woman was
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