Godfrey had a comfortable and a prosperous voyage, since it was almostbefore the days of submarines, at any rate so far as passenger steamerswere concerned, and they saw no enemy ships. Therefore, within littlemore than a month he landed on the hot shores of Mombasa, and couldcable to Isobel that he was safe and well and receive her loving answer.
His next business was to report himself in the proper quarter, which hedid. Those over him seemed quite bewildered as to what he had come foror what he was to do, and could only suggest that he should travel toNairobi and Uganda and put himself in touch with the civil authorities.This he did also and, as a result, formulated a certain scheme ofaction, to which his military superiors assented, intimating that hemight do as he liked, so long as he did not interfere with them.
What happened to him may be very briefly described. In the end hestarted to visit a great chief on the borders of German East Africa,but in British territory, a man whose loyalty was rumoured to bedoubtful. This chief, Jaga by name, was a professed Christian, and athis town there lived a missionary of the name of Tafelett, who hadbuilt a church there and was said to have much influence over him. Sowith the Reverend Mr. Tafelett Godfrey communicated by runners, sayingthat he was coming to visit him. Accordingly he started with a guard ofnative troops, a coloured interpreter and some servants, but withoutany white companion, since the attack on German territory was beginningand no one could be spared to go with him upon a diplomatic mission.
The journey was long and arduous, involving many days of marchingacross the East African veld and through its forests, where game of allsorts was extraordinarily plentiful, and at night they were surroundedby lions. At length, however, with the exception of one man whoremained with the lions, they arrived safely at the town of Jaga andwere met by Mr. Tafelett, who took Godfrey into his house, a neatthatched building with a wide verandah that stood by the church, whichwas a kind of whitewashed shed, also thatched.
Mr. Tafelett proved to be a clergyman of good birth and standing, oneof those earnest, saint-like souls who follow literally the scripturalinjunction and abandon all to advance the cause of their Master in thedark places of the earth. A tall, thin, nervous-looking man of not muchover thirty years of age; one, too, possessed of considerable privatemeans, he had some five years before given up a good living in Englandin order to obey what he considered to be his "call." Being sent tothis outlying post, he found it in a condition of the most completesavagery, and worked as few have done. He built the church with nativelabour, furnishing it beautifully inside, mostly at his own expense. Helearned the local languages, he started a school, he combated thewitch-doctors and medicine-men.
Finally he met with his reward in the conversion of the young chiefJaga, which was followed by that of a considerable portion of hispeople.
But here came the trouble. The bulk of the tribe, which was large andpowerful, did not share their chief's views. For instance, his uncle,Alulu, the head rain-maker and witch-doctor, differed from them veryemphatically. He was shrewd enough to see that the triumph ofChristianity meant his destruction, also the abandonment of all theirancient customs. He harangued the tribe in secret, asking them if theywished to bring upon themselves the vengeance of their ancestral andother spirits and to go through their days as the possessors of onlyone miserable wife, questions to which they answered that emphaticallythey did not. So the tribe was rent in two, and by far the smaller halfclung to Jaga, to whom the dim, turbulent heathen thousands beneath hisrule rendered but a lip service.
Then came the war, and Alulu and his great following saw theiropportunity. Why should they not be rid of Jaga and the Christianteacher with his new-fangled notions? If it could be done in no otherway, why should they not move across the border which was close by,into German territory? The Germans, at any rate, would not bother themabout such matters; under their rule they might live as theirforefathers had done from the beginning, and have as many wives as theychose without being called all sorts of ugly names.
This was the position when Godfrey arrived. His coming made a greatsensation. He was reported to be a very big lord indeed, as big, orbigger than the King's governor himself. Alulu put it about that he hadcome to make a soldier of every fit man and to enslave the women andthe elders to work on the roads or in dragging guns. The place seethedwith secret ferment.
Mr. Tafelett knew something of all this through Jaga, who was genuinelyfrightened, and communicated it to Godfrey. In the result a meeting ofall the headmen was held, which was attended by thousands of thepeople. Godfrey spoke through his interpreter, saying that in thisgreat war the King of England required their help, and generally setout the objects of his mission, remarks that were received inrespectful silence. Then Alulu spoke, devoting himself chiefly to anattack upon the Christian faith and on the interference of the whiteteacher with their customs, that, he observed, had resulted in theirancestral spirits cursing them with the worst drought they hadexperienced for years, which in the circumstances he, Alulu, could andwould do nothing to alleviate. How could they fight and work for theGreat King when their stomachs were pinched with hunger owing to thewitchcraft and magical rites which the white teacher celebrated in thechurch?
"How, indeed?" shouted the heathen section, although in fact theirseason had been very good; while the Christians, feeling themselves ina minority, were silent.
Then the Chief, Jaga, spoke. He traversed all the arguments of Alulu,whom he denounced in no measured terms, saying that he was plottingagainst him. Finally he came down heavily on the side of the British,remarking that he knew who were the would-be traitors and that theyshould suffer in due course.
"It has been whispered in my ears," he concluded, "that there is a plotafoot against my friend, the white Teacher, who has done us all so muchgood. It has even been whispered that there are those," here he lookedhard at Alulu, "who have declared that it would be well to kill thisgreat white Lord who is our guest," and he pointed to Godfrey with hislittle chief's staff, "so that he may not return to tell who are thetrue traitors among the people of Jaga. I say to you who have thoughtsuch things, that this Lord is the greatest of all lords, and as wellmight you lay hands on our father, the mighty King of England himself,as upon this his friend and counsellor. If a drop of his blood is shed,then surely the King's armies will come, and we shall die, every one ofus, the innocent and the guilty together. For terrible will be thevengeance of the King."
This outburst made a great impression, for all the multitude cried:
"It is so! We know that it is so," and Alulu interposed that he wouldas soon think of murdering his own mother (who, Mr. Tafelett whisperedto Godfrey, had been dead these many years) as of touching a hair ofthe great white chief's head. On the contrary, it was their desire todo everything that he ordered them. But concerning the matter of thenew custom of having one wife only, etc.
This brought Mr. Tafelett to his feet, for on monogamy he wasespecially strong, and the meeting ended on a theological discussionwhich nearly resulted in blows between the factions. Finally it wasadjourned for a week, when it was arranged that an answer should begiven to Godfrey's demands.
Three nights later an answer was given and one of a terrible sort.
Shortly after sundown Godfrey was sitting in the missionary's housewriting a report. Mr. Tafelett, it being Sunday, was holding an eveningservice in the church, at which Jaga and most of the Christians werepresent. Suddenly a tumult arose, and the air was rent with savageshouts and shrieks. Godfrey sprang up and snatched his revolver just assome of his servants arrived and announced that the people in thechurch were being killed. Acting on his first impulse, he ran to theplace, calling to his guard to follow him, which they did so tardilythat he entered it alone. Here a sight of horror met his eyes.
The building was full of dead and dying people. By the altar, dressedin his savage witch-doctor's gear, stood Alulu, a lamp in his hand,with which evidently he had been firing the church, for tongues offlame ran up the walls. On the altar itself was som
ething that had awhite cloth thrown over it, as do the sacred vessels. Catching sight ofGodfrey, with a yell the brute tore away the napkin, revealing thesevered head of Mr. Tafelett, whose surplice-draped body Godfrey nowdistinguished lying in the shadows on one side of the altar!
"Here is the white medicine-man's magic wine," he screamed, pointing tothe blood that ran down the broidered frontal. "Come, drink! come,drink!"
Godfrey ran forward up the church, his pistol in his hand. When hereached the chancel he stopped and fired at the mouthing, bedizeneddevil who was dancing hideously in front of the altar. The heavyservice-revolver bullet struck him in some mortal place, for he leaptinto the air, grabbed at the altar cloth and fell to the ground. Therehe lay still, covered by the cloth, with the massive brass crucifixresting face downwards on his breast and the murdered man's head lyingat his side--as though it were looking at him.
This was the last sight that Godfrey saw for many a day, for just thena spear pierced his breast, also something struck him on the temple. Acurious recollection rose in his mind of the head of a mummy after thePasteur had broken it off, rolling along the floor in the flat atLucerne. Then he thought he heard Madame Riennes laughing, after whichhe remembered no more; it might have been a thousand years, or it mighthave been a minute, for he had passed into a state that takes no reckof time.