CHAPTER XIX
THE MAKER OF LAWS
The discovery made as to the source of Deadman's Pool gave a new interest to the valley, and the boys played the role of detectives under an arrangement to report the results of their investigations at night. Each spent a day of careful observation, and at the camp- fire each wore a look of preoccupation.
"Any success?"
They nodded their heads.
"I met the chief's mother at the council tree," said Mr. Hume, "and she said she would pay us a visit in the morning. She has been ill, or she would have come before."
"Well," said Venning, "I met a boy five minutes after I left the cave, and he stuck to me like a leech."
"One followed me also," muttered Compton.
"Seems to me we are under police inspection."
"Yes; there were boys everywhere."
"Anyway, I found a 'splash' beetle."
"Eh!"
"A beetle that has developed the protective instinct till it looks like a splash of white on a rock. Here it is;" and Venning displayed his find.
"Doesn't help us much."
"No; but when I took it off the rock I could hear a faint rumbling from below, over here to the left, between our gorge and the canon where the river disappears."
"Come, that's something."
"Yes; but as far as I could make out, there was not an opening in the cliff on that side big enough to hold a swallow's nest."
"Better luck to-morrow. Now, lads, if that old woman puts any leading questions about the pool, don't give yourselves away."
But when the chief's mother came up the next day, she never breathed a word about the pool. She talked of the "good white man" who had lived in the cave when Muata was a boy.
"Often have I sat here and talked with him, and well do I remember his teaching."
"Let us hear, mother," said Compton.
"He taught us how to till the land, so that it would produce other crops than manioc. The men he showed how to win iron from the rock, and how to forge the spear-heads and the hoes for the tilling. Medicine he made from the leaves and the juices of the trees, and he bade the women keep clean the huts and the place around the village. But the thing he said most was that living here in peace, in a place set aside for the weak, it was well we saw that no strangers who came in should ever leave. For, said he, the strong will take from the weak."
"This is a small place," said Venning—"too small for any people to fight over."
"I thought I heard the sound of battle in the valley but two days since."
"It might serve Hassan as a robber's den; but I spoke of other people—white men, mother."
"Since I had ears to hear the meaning of words," she said, "the talk was ever of white men, and one 'white man' warned us against those very men who eat up the land and the waters."
"But what use would this little spot be to them? In a short time it will be too small for your own people."
"When that day comes, O Spider, we would be free to go to the land of my fathers, where my son will find his kraal."
"You will want many canoes, mother, when that day comes."
"And they tell me," said the woman, with a keen glance, "that you white men are good boat-builders. Aye, I have seen your boats on the great river, with wings and with fire."
"Our boat—the one you sat in—the boat down in the pool, has wings," said Venning, innocently.
"Muata the chief tells me the boat has gone. Wow! The place is taboo; I knew the spirit people would take it; but you can build others."
"We have no tools."
"Wow! You could make them."
"We have no skill in such work."
The wise woman pondered. "He, the white man who lived here, consulted a familiar he carried much with him; he would find from it how to build boats and to forge iron."
Compton produced his log-book. "See, mother, was it like that?"
"Wow! It was like."
"Bring me the 'familiar' of the white man, for he was my father, as you know, and you will hear his voice again. Maybe we will learn from it how to make tools for the building of boats."
"I will search, O son of my white man."
She sat awhile, then produced a cob-pipe, and, after getting a fill of tobacco, went off smoking with the bowl against her cheek.
"Humph!" said Venning. "Wants to keep us as boat-builders. I bet she's taken the Okapi as the first of the fleet for the great exodus."
"And intends that we should be the navigators as well as the builders."
Mr. Hume was of the same opinion when he joined them later on and was in possession of the wise woman's remarks.
"She is the power behind the throne," he said musingly, "and I have been wondering for some time what was her object. Now I see. I have been giving my consent as chief to laws which are framed evidently to keep us here."
"Making laws?"
"Been doing nothing else. There was a law making it a crime for any man to leave the valley without the consent of the people. Another law calling on all—men as well as women—to work for the good of the clan. Another making it a crime to withhold knowledge that would be for the general good. There was another declaring that the vice- chief must have at least two wives."
"But you have not one wife."
"That is easily remedied," said the Hunter, with a groan.
"What do you mean, sir?"
"See that?" and Mr. Hume pointed at a spot in the valley where many women were at work.
"They are building a hut," said Venning.
"My hut!" Mr. Hume filled his pipe with great deliberation, took a coal from the fire, and stared at his two companions till his hand was scorched. "I am to be married at the full moon!"
Venning sniggered.
"You can't mean it, sir," said Compton.
"It's true enough," said the Hunter, solemnly. "I was passing the acts, as it were, without paying much attention when the women clapped their hands. 'What was that last law?' I said to the chief councillor, whose duty it is to keep the laws in his mind. 'The great chief,' he said, 'will take to himself two wives at the full moon.' 'I repeal that act,' I said; but they would not understand. A law was a law when it became a law, and no one could alter it, but considering my position they would build my hut for me. And, as you see, they are building it."
He stared gloomily down into the valley; while Venning and Compton made singular grimaces in the effort to keep becomingly grave.
"It is a great honour," said Compton, presently.
"And two of them!" said Venning. "I don't know, I'm sure. I'm no lawyer, but I rather think that you, as an Englishman, would not be allowed to take two. Polygamy would become bigamy."
"I never thought of that," said the Hunter, brightening up.
"On the other hand," went on Venning, with a judicial air, "as you have been sworn in as a member of the clan, you become of course amenable to the laws, and it may be that two wives will not meet the requirements of your exalted rank."
Mr. Hume leant forward, and caught Venning by the ear.
"It is no joking matter," he went on. "When will the moon be at the full?"
"In three weeks from to-day," said Compton, grinning.
"Then before that we must be well away, or we may find ourselves life prisoners. Have you made any discovery to-day?"
"None! We were 'shadowed,' as before, by boys."
"So. Well, I will take measures to-morrow to put an end to this spying. They have had their fun out of me as chief, but I will have my turn."
Next day the vice-chief had his turn. He declared the next three days to be a period of work. Some of the men were to build a boom across the river in the defile, others were to construct a stone wall across the gorge leading from the Deadman's Pool; while he started the women and children on a new set of huts, having condemned the old village as unfit for habitation. Further, he passed a law that any man, woman, or child found wandering about idle during the three days, would have to pass a night on the banks of the "tabooed" pool tied to a tree; and, finally, he appointed himself and the two sub-chiefs, the Young Lion and the Spider, as overseers, with right to appoint substitutes in their place.
"Those be the new laws," he said, in a roar, when the astounded council had listened to the end. "If any one disputes them, I will tie them head to heels and throw them into the river to learn wisdom."
No one so much as murmured, for they did not like the look of those yellow eyes.
"Then see that ye begin your appointed work at sunrise," he said, "for I will make medicine to see these laws are obeyed."
Then he returned to the ledge, and spent the afternoon with the two boys making rockets, using stout reeds as cases. In the dark these were fired off with great and awe-inspiring' effect on the villagers, who scuttled into their huts, and remained hid for the rest of the night, convinced that the "strong medicine" would indeed find them out if they did not obey this strange new law.
"I think I have fixed them for a time," said the Hunter, grimly, as he described his new feat as a lawmaker. "For three days we should have liberty to fully inspect the side of the valley above the pool."
In the morning, at sunrise, the entire clan started out promptly to their allotted tasks, and Mr. Hume inspected each gang. The women and children went to the far end of the valley, where the reeds grew, and the wise woman was appointed inspector.
"What is this new law, O great one?" she asked quietly, having been much subdued by the fiery rockets.
"You made the law, mother, that all should work, and I have honoured it. See that you honour it also."
"Yebo, great one. We women do not complain. It is a joy to us to see the men work also. Maybe in time," she added significantly, "the great one will do his turn also."
"Each in his turn, mother."
He went on up to the gorge, where Venning was on duty, remained a few minutes inspecting the work of wall-building, which should have been done before for defence, then appointed one of the headmen as overseer, and went on with Venning to the river outlet, where Compton was in charge. An overseer was appointed there, and Compton went on a tour of inspection from gang to gang, while the other two made a close investigation of the cliff for an entrance to the caves. The two following days they each in turn acted as general inspector of the works, while the two disengaged made a close inspection of the cliff; but at the end of the third day they had no success to report.
"The only thing to do now," said Mr. Hume, "is to visit the pool, and make a close examination of the walls."
"We could not examine the wall without swimming in the pool," said Venning, "and before I do that I am prepared to stay here a very long time."
"I cannot say I relish the idea myself, but I see no other way out of the mess. We must have the Okapi before the full moon. I will take a look at the pool alone to-morrow."