Chapter Eleven.
The Place of Red Stones.
The day was well advanced when at length Dick Maitland, weary and hungry, returned to his tent, where he found Grosvenor indulging in a bath and a change of clothing after a preliminary exploration of the ruins. “You seemed to be engaged busily upon affairs of state, and not likely to need me, so I trotted off to take a general look round,” he explained.
“Well,” demanded Dick, “and what do you think of them?”
“Awfully interesting!” answered Grosvenor. “Wonderful people they must have been who were responsible for the building of the city. People of refinement, don’t you know; fond of luxury, intensely artistic, and all that sort of thing. Some of the carvings—floreated capitals and, and what-d’ye-call-ems of that sort—are really splendid. And everything’s on such a grand scale, too; must have been immensely wealthy—those old johnnies. I’m only sorry now that I’m not an archaeologist; for if I were I might write a book about the place and become famous. But no, that wouldn’t do either, for Professor von Schalckenberg has already done that, so my book would only be a drug on the market. But I’ve taken some rattlin’ good photographs of the place, and I ought to be able to do something with them later on—eh, what?”
“Yes,” said Dick, “I dare say you will—if they come out right. Have you developed them yet?”
“No, not yet,” answered Grosvenor. “Waiting until it gets dark before I attempt anything of that sort. But I know that they’ll come out all right. Good light, correct exposure, isochromatic screen and films; bound to come out right, y’know. Found the place where the Professor and his pals had been digging. Must have done a lot of work, those johnnies; no end of soil turned over where they dug for pavements and—and—things. And, pray, what have you been about all day, old chap?”
Dick told him, pretty well in extenso, how he had passed the day, even going so far as to describe his hypnotic experiments—of which he had said nothing to Grosvenor thus far—with the result that the Mighty Hunter was rendered almost speechless with astonishment.
“Hypnotised ’em, eh?” he ejaculated. “Well, I’ll be shot! Thought hypnotism was all humbug and tommy rot, y’know. Collusion, and that sort of thing.”
“Yes,” agreed Dick, “there is no doubt that much of it is. But, nevertheless, hypnotism is a perfectly genuine science, and a tremendously powerful agent for good, if properly used. There is the well-known institution at Nancy, for instance, where several almost miraculous cures have been effected solely by the employment of hypnotism. Oh yes, hypnotism is genuine enough, make no mistake about that; and the hypnotic practitioner can do many wonderful things by its employment. For instance, do you suppose that old villain, Sekosini, would have revealed all the details of his precious plot to-day had I not hypnotised him?”
“No, I don’t suppose he would,” acknowledged Grosvenor. “But—er—I say, old chap, I’m just wondering whether it was quite playing the game—doin’ the square thing by the wizard and the other johnnies to make them give themselves away under the influence of hypnotism—eh, what?”
“Ah, now,” said Dick, “you raise a question of an exceedingly controversial character. I admit, of course, that at the first blush, and regarding the matter superficially—if I may say so—it certainly would seem that I had taken an unfair advantage of those fellows by compelling them to speak the truth, and so ‘give themselves away’, as you expressively put it. Yet why, I ask you, should they not be made to do so? Are evildoers to be permitted to shelter themselves from the consequences of their misdeeds behind a protective screen of lies? Is right to be handicapped in its battle with wrong by what, after all, seems to me an overstrained if not altogether false sense of justice? There can be little doubt that skilful criminals have escaped the just punishment of their crimes simply because they have refused to incriminate themselves. This, of course, is all right from the criminars point of view; but is it right from the point of view of the community, who look to the law to protect them from him? My own view—which I give for whatever it may be worth—is that the criminal has no right to be protected from himself. It is the interests of the community and not of the criminal that have to be considered. If by speaking the truth he furthers the ends of justice he ought to be allowed to do so, ay, or even compelled, where compulsion is possible, as in the case of these conspirators. Here we have certain men who, for their own selfish ends, deliberately planned to plunge this Makolo nation into all the horrors of civil war, and deluge it with the blood of its own people; also, in pursuance of their plans they foully and treacherously took the lives of six of the most important chiefs and endangered that of a seventh. Were they ‘playing the game’, or, in other words, were they acting openly and above-board? On the contrary, their acts were wrapped in secrecy, and were characterised by the vilest treachery; and they would have been successful but for my intervention. For it is certain that the facts could never have been brought to light, had I not compelled Sekosini to speak the truth. That being the case, how could their nefarious scheme have been defeated by our side playing the game, if by ‘playing the game’ you mean that we were not to compel, or even permit them to incriminate themselves? To me it seems to resolve itself into this—that if one side insists on playing the game while the other side refuses to do so, the first must always suffer defeat while the other triumphs; and where the side which insists on playing the game represents right and justice, law and order, and the other side represents evil and criminality, the result must be the triumph of the lawless over the lawabiding, which, as Euclid observes, is absurd. Q.E.D.”
“Yes,” agreed Grosvenor, “I suppose you are right, Dick. Put as you put it, it certainly does seem an absurd and fantastic distortion of our sense of fairness that in the ceaseless struggle between good and evil the latter should be helped and the former handicapped as much as possible; and at all events in the present case I think you have successfully demonstrated your right to act as you did. Now, having settled that point, I propose that we have dinner, which seems to be ready, if one may judge by the looks and actions of Ramoo Samee.”
The sun had barely risen on the following morning when Dick and Grosvenor received an invitation from the king to present themselves forthwith in the Great Place, where the conspirators were to be brought up for judgment to be pronounced upon them; and as such an invitation was tantamount to a command they hastily finished the breakfast upon which they were engaged when the message reached them, ordered their horses, and rode away toward the appointed spot.
Upon their arrival they found the chiefs who had been summoned, like themselves, to hear sentence pronounced, already assembling, while the king’s bodyguard, motionless as statues, were ranged in a semicircle round the throne that had been placed in position for the accommodation of the king. A stool stood on either side of the throne, and upon their arrival Dick and Grosvenor were at once conducted to these. Almost immediately afterward the king made his appearance, and approaching the throne seated himself thereon, while those present accorded him the royal salute, Dick and Grosvenor standing and saluting in military fashion. Then, at a sign from His Majesty, all who were entitled to sit did so, and the order was given to lead forward the prisoners.
Conducted by their guards, the eight prisoners, their faces set and expressionless as masks, ranged themselves in line before the king; then, for a full minute, there ensued a profound and impressive silence, which was at length broken by Lobelalatutu, who commanded, in a calm, stern voice:
“Sekosini, chief Witch Doctor, and you Mapela, Amakosa, N’Ampata, and Sekukuni, chiefs of the Makolo, stand forward and listen to your doom. Out of your own mouths have ye been convicted of conspiracy against me and the peace of the nation. You, Sekosini, Mapela, N’Ampata, and Amakosa, yesterday boldly and defiantly acknowledged your guilt, and had nothing to plead in extenuation of it; but you, Sekukuni, in addition to being a conspirator, have proved yourself liar (and) coward; for at your public trial, in the presence of those now assembled, you declared yourself to be, like Ingona, Lambati, and Moroosi, the victim of Sekosini’s wiles and serpent tongue; whereas afterward, when you were brought before me privately, and compelled by the Healer’s magic to speak the truth, you acknowledged that your former statement was false, made only in the hope of mitigation of your punishment, and that in your foul, guilty heart you thought as Sekosini, and would have fought against me to your last man in the attempt to overthrow and destroy me. To satisfy your unlawful ambition and greed of gain, you five men, all holding positions of high authority and trust, would have set callously tribe against tribe, regiment against regiment, and man against man, until the people had fallen and strewed the ground like leaves of autumn and the land was drenched in their blood. It is enough; you are a menace and danger to the nation, and you must die. In the old days of the reign of M’Bongwele—those days which you were so anxious to restore—your dying would have been a lingering, long-drawn-out, excruciating torment; but under the teaching of those who put me on this throne I have learned to be merciful, and my sentence is that you be led forth and hanged by the neck from the bough of the tree that ended M’Bongwele’s cruel and iniquitous life, and there left as an example and a warning to all who think such evil thoughts as yours. Bind them and take them away.”
In an instant the guards who had charge of the doomed men seized them, and proceeded to bind their hands behind them with thongs of hide, prior to leading them away to the place of execution. With one exception they submitted silently and without protest; Sekosini, however, the Witch Doctor, seemed determined not to go without firing a Parthian shot, for, fixing his eyes on Dick, he shouted in a high, piercing voice:
“Listen, O ’mlungu! It is through you and your accursed magic that I go forth this day to die the death of shame and ignominy; for, but for you, we should have kept our secret, our plans would have succeeded, and ours would have been the triumph. But though your magic triumphs now, it shall not always be so. I too have a potent magic, by means of which mine eyes can pierce the veil of the future and see many things that are to be. I see you and the other ’mlungu going hence through many dangers to a far country, where other dangers await you; and, mark you this, though both go, only one of you shall return! It is enough; I have said, and I am ready.”
So heavily charged with bitter hate and malignity were the tones of the witch doctors voice and the expression of his burning eyes that, despite his sober common sense, Dick could scarcely repress a shudder at the veiled threat conveyed by the man’s parting words; but his attention was quickly diverted by the voice of the king commanding Ingona, Lambati, and Moroosi to listen to him while he announced his decision concerning them.
“Attend to my words, O chiefs of the Makolo nation!” said Lobelalatutu, raising his voice so that all present might distinctly hear. “Ye were present yesterday when I summoned the eight conspirators before me to defend themselves; and ye heard Ingona, Lambati, Moroosi, and Sekukuni declare that there was no treason in their hearts, but that they had been bewitched and led astray by Sekosini. I was inclined to believe them, as doubtless ye all were, and it grieved me that I should be obliged to condemn to death those who had served me well in the past, and might perchance, if they spoke the truth, serve me well again in the future. Yet how was I to know that their words were in very deed the truth? I was perplexed and troubled, and in my perplexity I sought counsel from my friend the Healer. And the counsel that he gave me was good. He said: ‘Behold now, O Great One, thou shalt summon those men again before thee, and by the power of my magic I will cause them to speak the very truth to thee; thou shalt read the inmost secrets of their hearts, and thus shalt thou gauge the exact measure of their guilt in this matter.’ And as the Healer spoke, so was it; the three who stand before us had indeed been beguiled and led astray for a time from their fidelity by the wiles of Sekosini, but there was no treachery in their hearts; and they confessed that, had the conspiracy ripened, they would have arrayed themselves on my side, while Sekukuni confessed that he was indeed guilty of all that he had been charged with. Therefore, although they have sinned in conspiring against me, and must consequently be punished, yet their punishment shall not be death. My sentence upon you, O Ingona, Lambati, and Moroosi! is that ye be banished hence to the farthest confines of my kingdom, and be stationed at those points where the neighbouring nations are most aggressive. There ye shall be placed in command of the troops who guard the land; there ye shall find ample outlet for your warlike propensities; and there, if ye will, ye may atone for your fault by rendering me as good service in the future as ye have rendered in the past. I have said!”
As the last words passed the king’s lips a shout of irrepressible triumph and rejoicing went up from those present; for the three chiefs most intimately concerned had many friends, and were regarded by all with esteem and respect almost amounting to veneration. There is little doubt, therefore, that the king’s clemency in punishing their crime by banishment to points where their duties would not only be arduous, but also honourable, did much to strengthen his position and increase his popularity.
For several days following the conspiracy trial nothing of moment happened; the excitement which had been aroused by the somewhat sensational discovery of the plot and its sequel gradually subsided, until at length everybody was once more going about his business as calmly and quietly as though nothing abnormal had ever happened. Meanwhile Dick and Grosvenor diligently applied themselves to a systematic exploration of the ruins and the taking of many photographs; they were both highly skilled amateur photographers, and were also endowed with a considerable amount of artistic taste. Moreover, Grosvenor had devoted a considerable amount of time to the perfecting of himself in the science of photography in natural colours, and had provided himself with all the requisite apparatus needed. Consequently, by the time that they had completed their labours, they found themselves possessors not only of a large number of negatives of the highest value from the archaeologist’s point of view, but also of several exquisitely beautiful pictures in natural colours of the ruins as seen under various atmospheric effects, such as early morning, sunrise, and sunset, the latter being exceptionally fine because of the gorgeous hues of the sunsets which were characteristic of the place.
It was about a week after the trial of the conspirators, and the execution of the sentences passed upon them, that King Lobelalatutu sent for them both, and tendered his hearty thanks for the important service which Dick had rendered him in unravelling the details of the plot and bringing the plotters to trial, as well as for saving the life of the chief, ’Nkuni, who, under the Healer’s sedulous ministrations, was already up and about again. The king took some pains to make it perfectly clear that his gratitude was both deep and absolutely sincere, even going to the length of proposing that they should take up their permanent residence in the country, and promising that if they would do so he would make them chiefs. The offer was made in perfect good faith, and had of course to be treated with the utmost—apparent—seriousness; but Dick explained that, highly as they both appreciated His Majesty’s generosity, it was impossible for them to avail themselves of it for the simple reason that they had long ago made other arrangements to which they must adhere.
“Then,” said the king, “if ye will not remain with me and help me by your wisdom to govern this great people, say now in what way I may reward you for the great service that ye have done me.”
“There is a way,” answered Dick. “Ye may remember, O Great One, that on the day when we first came to you I said that I was a seeker of gold and the stones that glitter and shine, even such stones as those that shine red in the necklace which you wear; and you said that maybe you could help me in my search. If you will cause to be shown us the place where such stones are to be found, and will give us leave to take as many as we may desire, it will be reward enough.”
“Surely if that will content ye it is easily done,” answered the king. “I will give orders that men shall go to the place and dig up as many of the stones as ye desire, and ye shall take them away with you whither ye will. But that is a small thing, and it pleases me not that ye shall take so little; therefore, since your journey hence is to be a far one, I will give you out of mine own herd forty picked oxen, young and strong, to draw your wagon and to make good such loss as may happen through sickness or the attack of savage beasts; and I will also give orders that so long as your way lies within my borders ye shall be supplied with all that ye may require. Is it enough?”
“It is enough, O King, and we thank you,” answered Dick. “And now, behold, our work here is done; give us therefore a guide to the place of red stones, and send the diggers after us that we may be gone, for, as you have said, our journey is long, and we must hasten.”
“It shall be even as ye have said,” agreed the king. “When desire ye to leave me?”
“As soon as ye shall be able to provide us with a guide,” answered Dick.
“Then that is even now,” answered Lobelalatutu. “I grieve that ye are leaving me; but since I cannot persuade you to stay, I say: ‘Go in peace, and may the Spirits watch over you that your journey be prosperous. The Place of Red Stones is distant one day’s ox trek from here, therefore send forward your wagon at once with the guide whom I will give you, and ye shall follow on your horses. I know not whether we shall meet again, O Healer of Sickness and Mighty Hunter! but if ye return, the whole Makolo nation shall give you welcome. Farewell!’”
An hour later Dick and Grosvenor, having dispatched the wagon on ahead, and then gone round to bid farewell to the various chiefs, swung themselves into the saddle and, turning their backs regretfully upon the village and the ruins of Ophir, cantered off upon two magnificent horses which the king had, at the last moment, added to his gift of oxen. The animals were superb specimens of their kind, jet black without a white hair upon them, standing about fifteen-two in height, perfectly shaped, with fine, clean, sinewy legs not too long, splendid shoulders and haunches, skins like satin, perfect in temper, courageous as lions, speedy, easy-paced. They jumped like cats, and were tough as whipcord, as they found to their great satisfaction before many days were past; they were, in fact, perfect specimens of the exceptionally fine breed of horses peculiar to the Makolo country. Mounted on these magnificent animals, which seemed to carry them absolutely without effort, although neither of them was a light weight, the two riders soon overtook the slow-moving wagon, and then, carefully noting the instructions of the guide who was piloting the vehicle, passed on toward the sea that gleamed softly in the extreme distance.
A quiet, steady canter of some three hours’ duration, which left their new mounts apparently as fresh as they had been at the start, brought the horsemen out upon a long stretch of sandy beach upon which the swell of the Indian Ocean broke in long lines of diamond spray, with a never-ceasing roar of deep-toned thunder; and, with a sigh of relief at the grateful coolness of the sea breeze after the stifling heat of the plain which they had just crossed, they gladly swung themselves out of the saddle and, passing their arms through their bridles, proceeded to look about them.
The beach upon which they found themselves was a very ordinary, unpicturesque-looking stretch of brown sand running practically straight, and also practically north and south, as far as the eye could see in both directions. It averaged about one hundred and twenty yards in width, was very flat, and on its landward side was bounded by a bank of red earth ranging from ten to about fifty feet in height, cut into here and there by “dongas”, through one of which they had descended from the plain to the level of the sand. The ordinary high-water mark seemed nowhere to reach within less than thirty yards of the toe of the bank, but there were indications—in the shape of little patches of dry and crumbling seaweed and other ocean débris—that in stormy weather the breakers occasionally reached to the foot of the bank and in some places actually undermined it. At a distance of about half a mile to seaward a long line of white water betrayed the position of a reef.
“Um!” exclaimed Grosvenor, after he had allowed his gaze to travel over the prospect for several minutes; “this is a pretty desolate-looking spot, and no mistake; not at all the sort of place where you would expect to find precious stones, is it?”
“Why not?” retorted Dick, laughingly. “Gems are sometimes found in the most unlikely looking places. I did not expect the landscape to be distinguished by any unusual characteristics; did you?”
“’Pon my word I don’t know,” replied Grosvenor; “but somehow I expected it to look very different from this. After all, however, what does the beauty or otherwise of the landscape matter, so long as the rubies are really here? And I suppose they are here, somewhere, eh? We haven’t made a mistake and come out at the wrong spot, do you think?”
“Well,” admitted Dick, “we may not have hit the precise spot perhaps, but I think we cannot be more than half a mile from it. Perhaps the quickest way of finding it will be to search for it. Now, just let me think for a moment. Those Flying-Fish people started by searching the beach. The Professor, possessing superior knowledge to the others, searched the face of the cliff; and finally, when the precise locality of the mine had been discovered, they went to work with pickaxe and shovel and dug their way down to the level of the ‘pocket’. I think our best plan would be to search for that hole, which must still be conspicuous enough to admit of identification. Let us return, by way of the donga, to the top of the cliff, and, starting from there, ride along close to the cliff edge, you taking one direction and I the other. We ought to come across it within half a mile, or a mile at most.”
“Right you are, old chappie, come along,” answered Grosvenor, preparing to mount. As, however, he placed his left foot in the stirrup, and was about to spring into the saddle, Dick checked him.
“Hold on a moment, Phil,” he exclaimed, his eyes intently searching a certain part of the cliff about a quarter of a mile distant. “Do you see that notch in the line of the cliff, over there? From here it looks something like a ‘breakdown’, but it may be the very spot we want to find. Anyhow it is quite worth examining; and if it should prove not to be the mine we can at all events reach the top of the cliff by means of it, and can start our search from there. Come along.” The next moment the pair were up and cantering toward the spot.
At the point toward which they were riding the cliff was quite low, its crest being not more than some fifteen feet above the level of the beach; therefore, although the notch or gap was of but insignificant width, it reached from top to bottom of the cliff face, and offered a way, of sorts, from the beach to the level of the plain above; but as the horsemen drew near they saw that although it was a ‘breakdown’ or collapse of the cliff face, it was undoubtedly caused by an artificial excavation which had had its origin a few yards inland from the line of the crest. They rode right into it, and found themselves in a sort of basin-shaped pit, one side of which having broken away had left the gap through which they had entered. A single glance around sufficed to assure them that they had reached the place of which they were in search, and dismounting they flung their bridles over their horses’ heads to the ground, leaving them to stand, as they had been trained to do, while they proceeded at once to search the place for its precious contents.
They had not to look far. It was evident that time and weather had wrought some slight changes in the place since it had last been worked, the changes consisting chiefly of falls of earth from the sides, here and there; but pebbles, singly and in little groups of half a dozen or so, were plentifully strewed about the surface of the soil, and the very first one examined proved to be exactly similar in character to those of which the king’s necklace was composed. Such, however, was not invariably the case, many of the stones which the searchers picked up turning out to be quite worthless; nevertheless ten minutes sufficed to satisfy the prospectors that the source of boundless wealth lay practically within reach of their hands, for during that short period each of them had secured a dozen rubies of varying size, from that of a pea up to pebbles as large as a pigeon’s egg, while Grosvenor had been lucky enough to find a specimen as large as a duck’s egg. By the end of an hour they had more than doubled the amount of their find, and had filled their jacket pockets as full as it was prudent to load them; but it was evident that, profitable as this desultory, haphazard method of search had proved to be, much better results might be hoped for from systematic pick-and-shovel work; accordingly they agreed to suspend further operations until the arrival of the wagon, and the party of labourers which had been placed at their disposal by Lobelalatutu; they, therefore, scrambled out of the pit and set about searching for a suitable site for their camp, eventually pitching upon a spot about a quarter of a mile distant from the mine.
By the time that the wagon arrived and the tent had been pitched the day was too far advanced to make it worth while for work to be started. It was, therefore, decided to give the workers a good long night’s rest after their wearisome tramp from the king’s village, and an hour after sunset saw the entire party wrapped in profound sleep.
But with the appearance of the sun above the sea’s rim, on the following morning, everybody was once more astir; and after an early breakfast a general adjournment was made to the mine, where, under Dick Maitland’s superintendence, a dozen parties of the Makolo were soon actively engaged with their native mattocks and shovels in excavating the soil in search of the precious stones, one-half of each party being employed upon the work of digging, while the other half turned over the excavated soil and extracted from it all the stones which it happened to contain, Dick and Grosvenor employing themselves meanwhile in passing from party to party and sorting out the rubies from the worthless stones upturned. In this way considerable progress was made, and by midday a very handsome pile of rubies had been accumulated, consisting, however, for the most part of relatively small stones.
It was not, however, until late in the afternoon that their real good luck came to them, and then it came all in a moment. A party of the natives who had for some time been left to themselves had excavated quite a little cavern in the side of the pit, and, as might have been expected, this mode of working ultimately resulted in a “cave-in”. Fortunately for them, the workers who were responsible for it detected the signs of the approaching fall in time to avoid being buried by it; and when the dust-cloud occasioned by it presently subsided, and the new face thus laid bare came to be examined, it was discovered that a veritable “pocket” of rubies had been exposed, the stones—every one of them of large size and especially fine fire and colour—being so numerous that almost every shovelful of earth turned over contained one or more! They were all, without exception, so very much finer than the finest that had hitherto been found that the latter were there and then incontinently discarded, and a fresh collection was at once begun, the whole body of natives being concentrated upon this one spot. So enormously rich did this “pocket” prove to be that when at length the declining sun gave warning that the moment to cease work had arrived, Dick and Grosvenor were fain to acknowledge to each other that, eager as the former was to make his fortune, they had now collected sufficient rubies to constitute not one but two exceedingly handsome fortunes, and that in any case the quantity acquired was as great as it would be at all prudent to cumber themselves with in view of the long and arduous journey that still lay before them.