They drew up a memorandum on the subject there and then, in the form of a letter from the King of Okky to him of Great Britain. Carter suggested the British Foreign Secretary, but Kallee would not hear of it. He as a King, he said, was the equal of any other King. So on a sheet of damp, mildewed note-paper the message was written, and signed by the King in an Arabic scrawl.
And next day it travelled down to the Coast in state inside the battered remains of a once-yellow gladstone bag.
CHAPTER XVII
KATE SENDS A CABLEGRAM
Now to give Carter full due, his weaning of the King of Okky from the habit of human sacrifice had been brought about more by accident than design. By a further working of the law of chance, the circumstance brought him out of modest obscurity into a very strong notoriety in a little less than six short months.
"A private trader," so ran the gist of the newspaper leaders, "has brought to pass a thing which Government authorities, both civil and military, not to mention missionaries and miscellaneous philanthropists, have been trying for ineffectually ever since the British rule was set up in West Africa. Throughout all our possessions on that sickly Coast the natives have been addicted to human sacrifice; and when instances of this from time to time leak out, civilization is on each occasion chilled with a fresh douche of horror. The West African Kingdom of Okky, though little known for other qualities, has acquired a certain detestable celebrity for these red orgies.... Mr. Carter, though he was brought up in his father's vicarage in Wharfedale, has not been noted heretofore for any special benevolence in dealing with native questions. Those who know him describe him as essentially a strong man.... In fact, Mr. Carter, in his modesty, most emphatically disclaims any such high motives, and avers that he took his now celebrated journey into the bush merely for his own business purposes, and nothing beyond. On this subject we prefer to hold our own opinions. Explorers of his rare type—the almost unknown type that does not advertise—carry with them a modesty that delights in belittling its own triumphs. But even Mr. Carter's modesty cannot explain away certain cold facts. The King of Okky till recently had a most black reputation for human sacrifice. Many Europeans have gone up to his horrible city to expostulate. Some he has sent back; some have not been heard of again since they left the Coast, and one can only shudder and guess at their fates; but none have effected any change. The 'Customs,' as these orgies of slaughter are named locally, still endured: indeed, evidence clearly showed that they were increasing under the present reign of King Kallee both in frequency and importance. Nothing, it was said by those on the spot, but a British army, and a great outlay in life and treasure, could bring these horrors of the hinterland to a close. Mr. Carter, however, thought otherwise. He went up country practically unattended. He bearded the king in his own fetich grove, and he achieved what experts called the impossible. He has induced King Kallee to abandon human sacrifice now and for always.
"As will be seen by the two interviews which appear in our news columns, the information on these points did not come from Mr. Carter himself. Mr. Carter is that man so rare to find in these pushing days, a man who does not care one jot for anything the press can do towards his own self-advancement, a man, moreover, who does not mind saying so in strong, rude Anglo-Saxon. But fortunately we have another mine of information more easily tapped. The sensational rise into a new prosperity of the old West African firm of O'Neill and Craven has been one of the features of the year's finance, and it is now an open secret that the sole partner and manager of the 'firm' is a young, attractive, and unmarried lady. This Miss Kate O'Neill has so far evaded the interviewer, but on the Okky topic she has volunteered the fullest information. It is to her that we are indebted for our description of Mr. Carter and his great achievement."
On such lines ran the leaders in most of the great newspapers, though, of course, they varied in their facts and their point of view. They all paid graceful compliments to the pretty girl who had appeared of late with such success in the field of larger finance. One paper alone had the impudence to refer in cold print to a matter that the other newspaper men smiled over quietly in the privacy of their offices.
"We wish," wrote this sentimental journalist, "that we could indicate a romance that would finish up this episode fittingly. But truth compels us to record that Miss O'Neill, along with the rest of the biographical matter which she so kindly supplied, mentioned the detail of Mr. Carter's engagement to a Miss Laura Slade, who at present resides in Grand Canary. We understand that a marriage will shortly take place."
As it happened, this journal was the one of Mrs. Craven's daily reading. She indicated the paragraph with a prim forefinger, and called her niece to read it.