Before liberating the “big man fetish” himself, Kenyon closely questioned him, through the interpreter, regarding the drug which he had used for the purpose of stupefying the “People of the Stick,” and found that the feat was accomplished by steeping torches of fibrous bark in a compound made from bruised herbs, and which closely resembled chloroform in its effect, and of which, he added, he had often made quantities for Zero.
Asked if he knew how Zero used the drug, this man at once fully explained the whole “death,” stupefaction, and abduction of Lady Drelincourt and her child—a miserable aboriginal savage thus calmly elucidating a mystery which had proved altogether too much for the wisest doctors and keenest detectives in far-away and enlightened England.
Upon Kenyon, however, expressing the most utter disbelief of his statement, the “Fetish” boldly offered to exhibit the result of the experiment in his own proper person, provided the white men would give him some powder and a gun before they went away; and Kenyon having undertaken to make him happy with a flint-lock and six feet of superior English tower-marked “gas-pipe,” the man forthwith proceeded to demonstrate the truth of his curious tale.
First obtaining a small gourd of the drug referred to, he then took from a pouch at his side a beautiful little tame white monkey. Next picking a sharp thorn, he coated the point well with the nameless compound, and, giving the instrument to the monkey, pointed to himself. The little animal cunningly concealed the thorn within its palm, and then offered to shake hands with its master, and this ceremony having been performed, the old man held up his hand and exhibited a small red mark in the palm. He then explained that the properties of the drug were distinctly anaesthetic, and that he could not feel the puncture, which was painlessly made; but he would nevertheless shortly go to sleep for three or four days, and then wake up again, being quite recovered, and none the worse for the experiment.
The drug had no perceptible effect upon the man for several hours, but towards evening he began palpably to get very drowsy, and no power on earth could keep him awake. The suspicious Kenyon, however, was not to be “done,” and punched and kicked the old man unmercifully—an operation in which he was most ably seconded by Amaxosa, who beat the “cunning man of the witch-finders black and blue” with the handle of his spear, pausing only now and then to take a pinch of snuff. “Ow! my father,” he said at last, throwing down the spear in disgust—“Ow, my father, who can beat the life into a dead dog like this? What is gone is gone for ever, and the breath will never come again, so we had best throw this low fellow to the jackals; he is far too cunning to live with men.”
Kenyon, however, kept his man safely and watched him keenly; he found that during the continuance of the trance there was no perceptible pulse, nor was there any movement of the heart or respiratory organs; it was, in point of fact, an astonishing case of absolutely suspended animation. Everyone who examined the man insisted that he was an undoubted corpse, and ridiculed the very idea of his returning to life; and, to all appearance, he certainly was stone dead, and even Kenyon began to fear that the old fellow, in his eagerness to vindicate his reputation as a witch-doctor, had overdone the thing and settled himself once for all.
On the fifth night, however, the “fetish man” awoke, sat up, coolly asked for his powder and gun, and got both and a double allowance in exchange for his wonderful secret, which he imparted to the delighted Kenyon.
Lady Drelincourt confirmed all that the man had said. She perfectly remembered the pretty pet monkey, which had been brought round by Zero, who was himself disguised as an organ-grinder, and both she and her child had shaken hands with the little creature, and all the rest, of course, was simple to a man of Zero’s capabilities, to whom the work of a resurrectionist was an unconsidered trifle, and whose devilish cunning had rightly calculated that the old family doctor would say anything, or sign anything, to protect his friend from the grisly horrors attendant upon a post-mortem examination.
Of her removal by sea poor Dora knew nothing, and her first recollections were upon a steamer bound for Madagascar, some days out from France; and whenever she began to come out of her trance, Madame Zero would promptly renew the dose, and effectually prevent the poor girl from getting loose or making mischief, whilst she was given out on board as being a delicate lady with an extremely feeble mind.
Zero’s original intention had been to hold her for ransom, and apply to Leigh for an enormous sum of money; but his “wife” stopped this, feeling sure that it would bring upon the community the vengeance of the outraged English law.