CHAPTER XVII
THE DEATH OF MAVOOM
One more day's journeying brought the party to the ruined Settlement,which they found in much the same condition as the Arabs had left it afew weeks before. Fortunately the destruction was not nearly so greatas it appeared. The inside of the house, indeed, was burnt out, but itswalls still remained intact, also many of the huts of the natives werestill standing.
Messengers who left the canoes at dawn had spread the news of the rescueand return of the Shepherdess among the people of the neighbouringkraals, who flocked by scores to the landing-place. With these were atleast a hundred of Mr. Rodd's own people, who had escaped the clutchesof the slaver-traders by hiding, absence, and various other accidents,and now returned to greet his daughter and their own relatives as theywould have greeted one risen from the grave. Indeed the welcome accordedto Juanna was most touching. Men, women, and children ran to her, themen saluting her with guttural voices and uplifted arms, the women andchildren gesticulating, chattering, and kissing her dress and hand.
Waving them aside impatiently, Juanna asked the men if anything had beenseen or heard of her father. They answered, "No." Some of their numberhad started up the river to search for him on the same day when she wascaptured, but they had not returned, and no tidings had come from themor him.
"Do not be alarmed," said Leonard, seeing the distress and anxietywritten on her face; "doubtless he has gone further than he anticipated,and the men have not been able to find him."
"I fear that something has happened to him," she answered; "he shouldhave been back by now: he promised to return within the fortnight."
By this time the story of the capture and destruction of the slavecamp was spread abroad among the people by the rescued men, and theexcitement rose to its height. Otter, seeing a favourable opportunityto trumpet his master's fame, swaggered to and fro through the crowdshaking a spear and chanting Leonard's praises after the Zulu fashion.
"_Wow!_" he said, "_wow!_ Look at him, ye people, and be astonished.
"Look at him, the White Elephant, and hear his deeds.
"In the night he fell upon them.
"He fell upon them, the armed men in a fenced place.
"He did it alone: no one helped him but a black monkey and a woman witha shaking hand.
"He beguiled them with a tongue of honey, he smote them with a spear ofiron.
"He won the Shepherdess from the midst of them to be a wife to him.
"He satisfied the Yellow Devil, he satisfied him with gold.
"The praying man prayed over them, then strife arose.
"Their greatest warrior gave him battle, he broke him with his fist.
"Then the Monkey played his tricks, and the Shaking Hand made a greatnoise, a noise of thunder.
"They fell dead, they fell dead in heaps.
"The fire roared behind them, in front of them the bullets hailed.
"They cried like women, but the fire stayed not; it licked up theirstrength.
"Ashes are all that is left of them; they are dead, the armed men.
"No more shall they bring desolation; the day of slavery is gone by.
"Who did it? He did it, the terrible lion, the black-maned lion with thewhite face.
"He gave the slavers to the sword; he doomed their captain to death.
"He loosened the irons of the captives. Now they shall eat the bread offreedom.
"Praise him, ye people, who broke the strength of the oppressor.
"Praise him, the Shepherd of the Shepherdess, who led her from the houseof the wicked.
"Praise him, ye Children of Mavoom, in whose hands are death and life.
"No such deeds have been told of in the land. Praise him, the Deliverer,who gives you back your children!"
"Ay, praise him!" said Juanna, who was standing by. "Praise him,children of my father, since but for him none of us would see the lightto-day."
At this juncture Leonard himself arrived upon the scene, just in time tohear Juanna's words. All the people of the Settlement took up the cry,and hundreds of other natives collected there joined in it. They rushedtowards him shouting: "Praise to thee, Shepherd of the Shepherdess!Praise to thee, Deliverer!"
Then Leonard, in a fury, caught hold of Otter, vowing that if he daredto say another word he would instantly break his neck, and the tumultceased. But from that day forward he was known among the natives as "TheDeliverer," and by no other name.
That evening, as Leonard, Juanna, and the priest sat at meat within thewalls of the Settlement-house, with the plunder of the slave camp piledabout them, talking anxiously of the fate of Mr. Rodd and wondering ifanything could be done to discover his whereabouts, they heard a stiramong the natives without. At this moment Otter rushed in, crying:"Mavoom has come!"
Instantly they sprang to their feet and ran outside the house, headedby Juanna. There, borne on the shoulders of six travel-worn men, andfollowed by a crowd of natives, they saw a litter, upon which lay thefigure of a man covered with blankets.
"Oh! he is dead!" said Juanna, stopping suddenly, and pressing her handsto her heart.
For a moment Leonard thought that she was right. Before he could speak,however, they heard a feeble voice calling to the men who carried thelitter to be more careful in their movements, and once more Juannasprang forward, crying, "Father! Father!"
Then the bearers brought their burden into the house and set it downupon the floor. Leonard, looking, saw before him a tall and handsomeman of about fifty years of age, and saw also by many unmistakable signsthat he was at the point of death.
"Juanna," gasped her father, "is that you? Then you have escaped. ThankGod! Now I can die happy."
It would serve little purpose to set out in detail the brokenconversation which followed, but by degrees Leonard learnt the story. Itseemed that Mr. Rodd was disappointed in his purpose of purchasingthe hoard of ivory which he went out to seek, and, unwilling to returnempty-handed, pushed on up the river with the hope of obtaining more. Inthis he failed also, and had just begun his homeward journey when he wasmet by the party which Soa despatched, and heard the terrible tidingsof the abduction of his daughter by Pereira. It was nightfall when themessengers arrived, and too dark to travel.
For a while Mr. Rodd sat brooding over the news of this crushingdisaster, perhaps the most fearful that could come to a father's ears;then he did what he was but too prone to do--flew for refuge to thebottle.
When he had drunk enough to destroy his judgment, he rose, and insistedupon continuing their march through the inky darkness of the night. Invain did his men remonstrate, saying that the road was rocky and full ofdanger. He would take no denial; indeed, he vowed that if they refusedto come he would shoot them. So they started, Mr. Rodd leading the way,while his people stumbled after him through trees and over rocks as bestthey might.
The march was not a long one, however, for presently the men heard anoath and a crash, and their master vanished; nor could they find himtill the dawn came to give them light. Then they discovered that theyhad halted upon the edge of a small but precipitous cliff, and at thebottom of the donga beneath lay Mavoom--not dead, indeed, but senseless,and with three ribs and his right ankle broken. For some days theynursed him there, till at length he decided upon being carried forwardin a litter. So notwithstanding his sufferings, which were intense, theybore him homewards by short stages, till ultimately they reached theSettlement.
That night Leonard examined Mr. Rodd's injuries, and found that theywere fatal; indeed, mortification had already set in about the region ofthe broken ribs. Still he lived awhile.
On the following morning the dying man sent for Leonard. Enteringthe room, he found him lying on the floor, his head supported inhis daughter's lap, while the priest Francisco prayed beside him. Hesuffered no pain now, for when mortification begins pain passes, and hismind was quite clear.
"Mr. Outram," he said, "I have learnt all the story of the taking of theslave camp and your rescue of my daughter. It was
the pluckiest thingthat I ever heard of, and I only wish that I had been there to help init."
"Don't speak of it!" said Leonard. "Perhaps you have heard also that Idid it for a consideration."
"Yes, they told me that too, and small blame to you. If only that oldfool Soa had let me into the secret of those rubies, I would have hada try for them years ago, as of course you will when I am gone. Well,I hope that you may get them. But I have no time to talk of rubies, fordeath has caught me at last, through my own fault as usual. If you evertake a drop, Outram, be warned by me and give it up; but you don't lookas if you did; you look as I used to, before I learnt to tackle a bottleof rum at a sitting.
"Now listen, comrade, I am in a hole, not about myself, for that musthave come sooner or later, and it does not much matter when the worldis rid of a useless fellow like me; but about my girl here. What is tobecome of her? I have not got a cent; those cursed slavers have clearedme out, and she has no friend. How should she have, when I have beenthirty years away from England?
"Look here, I am going to do the only thing I can do. I am going toleave my daughter in your charge, though it is rough on you, and as youdeal with her, so may Heaven deal with you! I understand that there wassome ceremony of marriage between you down yonder. I don't know how youtake that, either of you, or how far the matter will go when I am dead.But if it goes any way at all, I trust to your honour, as an Englishgentleman, to repeat that ceremony the first time you come to acivilised country. If you do not care for each other, however, thenJuanna must shift, as other women have to do, poor things. She can lookafter herself, and I suppose that her face will help her to a husbandsome time. There is one thing: though she hasn't a pound, she is thebest girl that ever stepped, and of as good blood as you can be. Thereis no older family than the Rodds in Lincolnshire, and she is the lastof them that I know of; also, her mother was well-born, although she wasa Portugee.
"And now, do you accept the trust?"
"I would gladly," answered Leonard, "but how can I? I propose to goafter these rubies. Would it not be better that Father Francisco hereshould take your daughter to the coast? I have a little money which isat her disposal."
"No," answered the dying man with energy, "I will only trust her to you.If you want to search for these rubies, and you would be a fool not to,she must accompany you--that is all. I know that you will look afterher, and if the worst comes to the worst, she has a medicine to protectherself with, the same that she so nearly used in the slave camp. Now,what do you say?"
Leonard thought for a moment, while the dying man watched his faceanxiously.
"It is a heavy responsibility," he said, "and the circumstances make itan awkward one. But I accept it. I will take care of her as though shewere my wife, or--my daughter."
"Thank you for that," answered Rodd. "I believe you, and as to therelationship, you will settle that for yourselves. And now good-bye. Ilike you. I wish that we had known one another before I got into troubleat home, became a Zambesi trader, and--a drunkard."
Leonard took the hand which Mr. Rodd lifted with a visible effort, andwhen he released it, it fell heavily, like the hand of a dead man. Then,as he turned to go, he glanced at Juanna's face, but could make nothingof it, for it was as the face of a sphinx.
There the girl sat, her back resting against the wall, her dyingfather's head pillowed upon her knee, motionless as if carved in stone.She was staring straight before her with eyes wide open and curvedlips set apart, as though she were about to speak and suddenly had beenstricken to silence. So still was she that Leonard could scarcely noteany movement of her breast. Even her eyelids had ceased to quiver, andthe very pallor of her face seemed fixed like that of a waxen image. Hewondered what she was thinking of; but even had she been willing to bareher thoughts to him, it is doubtful whether she could have made themintelligible. Her mind was confused, but two things struggled oneagainst the other within it, the sense of loss and the sense of shame.
The father whom, notwithstanding his faults, she loved dearly, whoindeed had been her companion, her teacher, her playmate and her friend,the dearest she had known, lay dying before her eyes, and with his lastbreath he consigned her to the care of the man whom she loved, and fromwhom, as she believed, she was for ever separated. Would there, then, beno end to the obligations under which she laboured at the hands of thisstranger, who had suddenly taken possession of her life? And what fatewas on her that she should thus be forced into false positions, whencethere was no escape?
Did she wish to escape even? Juanna knew not; but as she sat therewith a sphinx-like face, trouble and doubt, and many another fear andfeeling, took so firm a hold of her that at length her mind, bewilderedwith its own tumult, lost its grip of present realities, and soughtrefuge in dreams which he could not disentangle. No wonder, then, thatLeonard failed to guess her thoughts, as she watched him go from thedeath-bed.
Mr. Rodd died peacefully that evening, and on the following afternoonthey buried him, Francisco performing the service. Three more dayspassed before Leonard had any conversation with Juanna, who moved aboutthe place, pale, self-contained, and silent. Nor would he have spoken toher then had she not taken the initiative.
"Mr. Outram," she said, "when do you propose to start upon thisjourney?"
"Really, I do not know. I am not sure that I shall start at all. Itdepends upon you. You see I am responsible for you now, and I canscarcely reconcile it with my conscience to take on you such awild-goose chase."
"Please do not talk like that," she answered. "If it will simplifymatters I may as well tell you at once that I have made up my mind togo."
"You cannot unless I go too," he answered smiling.
"You are wrong there," Juanna replied defiantly. "I can, and what ismore, I will, and Soa shall guide me. It is you who cannot go withoutme--that is, if Soa tells the truth.
"For good or evil we are yoked together in this matter, Mr. Outram, soit is useless for us to try to pull different ways. Before he died, mydear father told you his views plainly, and even if there were no otherconsiderations involved, such as that of the agreement--for, whateveryou may think to the contrary, woman have some sense of honour, Mr.Outram--I would not disregard his wishes. Besides, what else are we todo? We are both adventurers now, and both penniless, or prettynearly so. Perhaps if we succeed in finding this treasure, and it issufficiently large, you will be generous and give me a share of it, sayfive per cent., on which to support my declining years," and she turnedand left him.
"Beginning to show temper again," said Leonard to himself. "I will askFrancisco what he thinks of it."
Of late, things had gone a little better between Leonard and the priest.Not that the former had as yet any complete confidence in the latter.Still, he understood now that Francisco was a man of honest mind andgentle instincts, and naturally in this dilemma he turned to seek forcounsel to his only white companion. Francisco listened to the storyquietly; indeed, for the most part it was already known to him.
"Well," he said, when Leonard had finished, "I suppose that you must go.The Senora Juanna is not a young lady to change her mind when once shehas made it up, and if you were to refuse to start, mark my words, shewould make the expedition by herself, or try to do so. As to this storyof treasure, and the possibility of winning it, I can only say thatit seems strange enough to be true, and that the undertaking is soimpracticable that it will probably be successfully accomplished."
"Hum!" said Leonard, "sounds a little paradoxical, but after that slavecamp business, like you I am inclined to believe in paradoxes. And now,Father, what do you propose to do?"
"I? to accompany you, of course, if you will allow me. I am a priest andwill play the part of chaperon, if I can do nothing else," he added witha smile.
Leonard whistled and asked, "Why on earth do you mix yourself up in sucha doubtful business? You have all your life before you; you are able,and may make a career for yourself in religion; there is nothing for youto gain by this journey; on the contrary, it
may bring you death--or,"he added with meaning, "sorrow which cannot be forgotten."
"My life and death are in the hand of God," the priest answered humbly."He appointed the beginning and He will appoint the end. As for thatsorrow which cannot be forgotten, what if it is already with me?" And hetouched his breast and looked up.
The eyes of the two men met, and they understood each other.
"Why don't you go away and try to forget her?" said Leonard.
The speech was blunt, but Francisco did not resent it.
"I do not go," he answered, "because it would be useless. So far as I amconcerned the mischief is done; for her there is none to fear. While Istay it is possible that I may be able to do her some service, feeble asI am. I have sinned a great sin, but she does not know, and will neverknow it while I live, for you are a man of honour and will tell hernothing, and she has no eyes to see. What am I to her? I am a priest--noman. I am like a woman friend, and as such she is fond of me. No, I havesinned against Heaven, against myself, and her, and you. Alas! who couldhelp it? She was like an angel in that Inferno, so kind, so sweet, solovely, and the heart is evil."
"Why do you say that you sinned against me, Francisco? As to the rulesof your Church, I have my own opinion of them. Still, there they are,and perhaps they prick your conscience. But what harm have you done tome?"
"I told you," he answered, "on the second night after the slave campwas burnt, that I believed you to be man and wife. I believe it yet, andhave I not sinned doubly therefore in worshipping a woman who is wedded?Still, I pray that as you are one before Heaven and the Church, so youmay become one in heart and deed. And when this is so, as I think thatit will be, cherish her, Outram, for there is no such woman in theworld, and for you she will turn the earth to heaven."
"She might turn it to the other place; such things have happened," saidLeonard moodily. Then he stretched out his arm and grasped the priest'sdelicate hand. "You are a true gentleman," he added, "and I am a fool.I saw something of all this and I suspected you. As for the marriage,there is none, and the lady cares nothing for me; if anything, shedislikes me, and I do not wonder at it: most women would under thecircumstances. But whatever befalls, I honour you and always shallhonour you. I must go this journey, it is laid on me that I should, andshe insists upon going also, more from perversity than for any otherreason, I fancy. So you are coming too: well, we will do our best toprotect her, both of us, and the future must look to itself."
"Thank you for your words," Francisco answered gently, and turned away,understanding that Leonard thought himself his companion in misfortune.
When the Father had gone, Leonard stood for a while musing upon thecuriously tangled web in which he found himself involved. Here he was,committed to a strange and desperate enterprise. Nor was this all, forabout him were other complications, totally different from thosewhich might be expected in connection with such a mediaeval adventure,complications which, though they are frequent enough in the civilisedlife of men, were scarcely to be looked for in the wilds of Africa, andamidst savages. Among his companions were his ward, who chanced also tobe the lady whom he loved and desired to make his wife, but who, ashe thought, cared nothing for him; and a priest who was enamouredplatonically of the same lady, and yet wished, with rare self-sacrifice,to bring about her union with another man. Here were materials enoughfor a romance, leaving the journey and the fabled treasure out of it;only then the scene should be laid elsewhere.
Leonard laughed aloud as he thought of these things; it was so curiousthat all this should be heaped upon him at once, so inartistic and yetso like life, in which the great events are frequently crowded togetherwithout sense of distance or proportion.
But even as he laughed, he remembered that this was no joking matter foranybody concerned, unless it were Juanna. Alas! already she was more tohim than any treasure, and, as he thought, less attainable. Well, thereit was, he accepted it as it stood. She had entered into his life,whether for good or for evil remained to be seen. He had no desire torepeat the experiment of his youth--to wear out his heart and exhausthimself in efforts to attain happiness, which might after all turn towormwood on his lips. This time things should take their chance. Thebusiness of life remained to him, and he would follow it, for that isthe mission of man. Its happiness must look to itself, for that is thegift of Heaven, after which it is useless to seek and to strive.
Meantime he could find time to pity Francisco, the priest with so noblea heart.