Springing to his feet in joyful haste, he quietly whispered to Grenville, “A friend at court! by Jove, old man! The note is from Uncle Sam’s own trusted correspondent in Salt Lake City. We’re in luck again,” and, indicating to the officer his willingness to comply with the instructions contained in the note, Kenyon quickly followed the man out of the hall.
To the astonishment of our friend, the fellow led him directly to the ancient Prophet’s room, where he found the old man very comfortably domiciled, and prepared to receive him most kindly, though still in a strictly business-like manner.
“Well, Mr Kenyon,” he said, “so in this out-of-the-way part of the world we meet at last, and I assure you that it gives me pleasure to know you personally. I am the man who wrote this note, and am also your regular and constant correspondent in Salt Lake City.
“Now, I want you just to tell me the whole history of this affair, and why I find you here at the ends of the earth, when I thought you in New York. Tell me all; for, I assure you, we are at our wits’ end to know how to deal with these English people, whom, particularly the woman and child, I rather shrink from slaying.”
Kenyon then gave him a full, true, and particular account of the whole expedition, adding that the presence of Lady Drelincourt in Equatoria was still an enigma to him, as he believed her dead in England, slain by Zero’s hand; but that the poor woman was still so weak and hysterical that they had not liked to question her, especially whilst her recovered husband hung between life and death. The detective also touched warily upon the destruction of East Utah by Grenville and his friends some years before, palliating their conduct there, by pointing out how very necessary it had seemed to them to rescue Miss Winfield and her father from their captors. To Kenyon’s surprise, however, the old Mormon frankly told him that Grenville had in this case, also, only anticipated the intentions of the Holy Three in Utah itself, where they had absolutely enrolled an army of the Saints to eat up the whole of this rebellious African community as soon as they could find out the precise whereabouts of East Utah—a task which had, however, proved too difficult for them; and Zero’s idea had been to found a colony of his own, supported by the abominable traffic in slaves, and, by drawing into it (under the name of Mormonism) all the cut-throats and scoundrels he could lay hands on, to make the community much too strong for even the Saints to overcome him or prevail against him, and eventually no doubt, by exercising the power of the enormous wealth which he had wrung from suffering flesh and blood, to usurp the supreme authority in Salt Lake City itself.
Far into the night this curious pair sat talking of matters vitally interesting to both, and though the old Prophet would not absolutely commit himself to any promise regarding Kenyon’s friends, he willingly undertook to do his best for them, adding that, so far as he was concerned, he rather liked them all, and should be glad to do the detective a good turn by setting them all free, but that there were many matters of policy to be considered by himself and his colleagues ere they could see their way to any definite decision upon this head.
In the morning, when Grenville and Kenyon were released from the room which they had been allotted, next to that occupied by the still unconscious Leigh and his anxious wife and child, they were surprised to notice the unusual quiet which overhung the place, but soon found that one of the old Mormon’s earliest measures of policy had consisted in starting off to the southward the whole of the female population of Equatoria at dawn, accompanied by their children, and convoyed by five hundred of his own well-armed band.
Immediately breakfast was over, every soul remaining in the town was summoned to another grand assembly, at which it was formally announced, to the astonishment and annoyance of everyone, that Zero had succeeded in filing through his fetters, and had decamped in the night, together with the Zulu Amaxosa and the Chieftain of the Stick, and, therefore, said the stern judges, when these men were recaptured, all three would be crucified without mercy, and Zero, for this additional offence, would be nailed head-downwards to the awful cross.
The prophet then proceeded to say that, after due and careful consideration of the whole peculiar circumstances of the case, the Holy Three had decided to give life and unconditional freedom to all the rest of the prisoners, both white and black, and to present them in addition with large and handsome rewards for the way in which they had acted, as there could be no doubt that the fearful slaughter inflicted by the English party upon the rebel crew, had alone saved the Mormon community from having to fight several severe battles, from losing very many lives of valued men, and perhaps, owing to their lack of knowledge of the district, failing, after all, to accomplish their desired object. For the gentle English lady, and for the injured “People of the Stick,” the Holy Three had nothing but sympathy, and had, therefore, decided to apportion the immense spoil taken from Zero—amounting to nearly a million of money—into three equal parts: one for the Mormon community, one for the Atagbondo—to enable them to rebuild their kraals, to buy new wives and weapons, and stock their enclosures with oxen and with goats—and the third share for the English-Zulu party, who had behaved so well and fought so grandly, and amongst whom was classed Detective Kenyon of Uncle Sam’s police.
It was a bold course to take, and the old Mormon had unquestionably done a wise thing when he weeded out, and started on the home journey in charge of the women and children of Equatoria, all the possible malcontents of his own band. Still, the Mormons had already seen such a lot of bloodshed that they probably thought the course adopted by their leaders to be the wisest; at all events, they raised no voice against it.