Max looked at the half-caste, and thought that never before had he set eyes upon so despicable an object. He looked like some mongrel cur. He was quite unable to look the young Englishman in the face, but under Max's glance dropped his eyes to the floor.
"And now," said Cæsar, "there is a hut where I keep my provisions, which I will place at your disposal."
At that he went outside, followed by the two Hardens. De Costa remained in the hut. Crouch was still asleep.
Cæsar called the Arab from the kitchen, and, assisted by this man and the five Fans, they set to work to remove a number of boxes from the hut in which it was proposed that the three Englishmen should sleep. Blankets were spread upon the ground. The tall Portuguese was most solicitous that his guests should want for nothing. He brought candles, a large mosquito-net, and even soap.
Supper that evening was the best meal which Max had eaten since he left the sea-going ship at Banana Point on the Congo. The Portuguese was well provided with stores. He produced several kinds of vegetables, which, he said, he grew at a little distance from the stockade. He had also a great store of spirits, being under the entirely false impression that in tropical regions stimulants maintain both health and physical strength.
After supper, Cæsar and Captain Crouch, who had entirely recovered from his faintness, played écarté with an exceedingly dirty pack of cards. And a strange picture they made, these two men, the one so small and wizened, the other so tall and black, each coatless, with their shirt-sleeves rolled to the elbow, fingering their cards in the flickering light of a tallow candle stuck in the neck of a bottle. Crouch knew it then--and perhaps Cæsar knew it, too--that they were rivals to the death, in a greater game than was ever played with cards.
They went early to bed, thanking Cæsar for his kindness. Before he left the hut, Edward Harden apologized for his rudeness in finding fault with the trader's method of obtaining ivory.
"It was no business of mine," said he. "I apologize for what I said."
No sooner were the three Englishmen in their hut, than Crouch seized each of his friends by an arm, and drew them close together.
"Here's the greatest devilry you ever heard of!" he exclaimed.