"Doctor," said Oliver to me in a voice of studied nonchalance thatnight, as we were preparing to turn in, "did you notice anything in theVault of Kings this afternoon?"
"Oh, yes," I answered, "lots! Of course, myself, I am not given toarchaeology, like poor Higgs, but the sight struck me as absolutelyunique. If I were inclined to moralize, for instance, what a contrastbetween those dead rulers and their young and beautiful successor, fullof life and love"--here he looked at me sharply--"love of her people,such as I have no doubt in their day----"
"Oh, shut it, Adams! I don't want a philosophical lecture withhistorical comparisons. Did you notice anything except bones and goldwhen that unutterable ass, Quick, suddenly turned on the lights--I meanstruck the match which unfortunately he had with him."
Now I gave it up and faced the situation.
"Well, if you want the truth," I said, "not _very_ much myself, formy sight isn't as good as it used to be. But the Sergeant, who hasextraordinarily sharp eyes, thought that he saw you kissing Maqueda,a supposition that your relative attitudes seemed to confirm, whichexplains, moreover, some of the curious sounds we heard before he litthe torches. That's why he asked me to turn my back. But, of course, wemay have been mistaken. Do I understand you to say that the Sergeant wasmistaken?"
Oliver consigned the Sergeant's eyes to an ultimate fate worse thanthat which befell those of Peeping Tom; then, in a burst of candour, forsubterfuge never was his forte, owned up:
"You made no mistake," he said, "we love each other, and it came outsuddenly in the dark. I suppose that the unusual surroundings acted onour nerves."
"From a moral point of view I am glad that you love each other," Iremarked, "since embraces that are merely nervous cannot be commended.But from every other, in our circumstances the resulting situationstrikes me as a little short of awful, although Quick, a most observantman, warned me to expect it from the first."
"Curse Quick," said Oliver again, with the utmost energy. "I'll give hima month's notice this very night."
"Don't," I said, "for then you'll oblige him to take service withBarung, where he would be most dangerous. Look here, Orme, to dropchaff, this is a pretty mess."
"Why? What's wrong about it, Doctor?" he asked indignantly. "Of course,she's a Jew of some diluted sort or other, and I'm a Christian; butthose things adapt themselves. Of course, too, she's my superior, butafter all hers is a strictly local rank, and in Europe we should beon much the same footing. As for her being an Eastern, what does thatmatter? Surely it is not an objection which should have weight with_you_. And for the rest, did you ever see her equal?"
"Never, never, _never_!" I answered with enthusiasm. "The young ladyto whom any gentleman has just engaged himself is always absolutelyunequalled, and, let me admit at once that this is perhaps the mostoriginal and charming that I have ever met in all Central Africa. Only,whatever may be the case with you, I don't know whether this fact willconsole me and Quick when our throats are being cut. Look here, Orme," Iadded, "didn't I tell you long ago that the one thing you must _not_ dowas to make love to the Child of Kings?"
"Did you? Really, I forget; you told me such a lot of things, Doctor,"he answered coolly enough, only unfortunately the colour that rose inhis cheeks betrayed his lips.
At this moment, Quick, who had entered the room unobserved, gave a drycough, and remarked:
"Don't blame the Captain, Doctor, because he don't remember. There'snothing like shock from an explosion for upsetting the memory. I'veseen that often in the Boer war, when, after a big shell had gone offsomewhere near them, the very bravest soldiers would clean forget thatit was their duty to stand still and not run like rabbits; indeed, ithappened to me myself."
I laughed, and Oliver said something which I could not hear, but Quickwent on imperturbably:
"Still, truth is truth, and if the Captain has forgotten, the morereason that we should remind him. That evening at the Professor's housein London you did warn him, sir, and he answered that you needn't botheryour head about the fascinations of a nigger woman----"
"Nigger woman," broke out Oliver; "I never used such words; I nevereven thought them, and you are an impertinent fellow to put them into mymouth. Nigger woman! Good heavens! It's desecration."
"Very sorry, Captain, now I come to think of it, I believe you saidblack woman, speaking in your haste. Yes and I begged you not to brag,seeing that if you did we might live to see you crawling after her, withmyself, Samuel Quick bringing up the rear. Well, there it is we are, andthe worst of it is that I can't blame you, being as anticipated in theprophecy--for that's what it was though I didn't know it myself atthe time--exactly in the same state myself, though, of course, at adistance, bringing up the rear respectfully, as said."
"You don't mean that you are in love with the Child of Kings?" saidOliver, staring at the Sergeant's grim and battered figure.
"Begging your pardon, Captain, that is exactly what I do mean. If a catmay look at a queen, why mayn't a man love her? Howsoever, my kind oflove ain't likely to interfere with yours. My kind means sentry-go andperhaps a knife in my gizzard; yours--well, we saw what yours meansthis afternoon, though what it will all lead to we didn't see. Still,Captain, speaking as one who hasn't been keen on the sex heretofore,I say--sail in, since it's worth it, even if you've got to sinkafterwards, for this lady, although she is half a Jew, and I nevercould abide Jews, is the sweetest and the loveliest and the best and thebravest little woman that ever walked God's earth."
At this point Oliver seized his hand and shook it warmly, and I maymention that I think some report of Quick's summary of her charactermust have reached Maqueda's ears. At any rate, thenceforward until theend she always treated the old fellow with what the French call the"most distinguished consideration."
But, as I was not in love, no one shook my hand, so, leaving the othertwo to discuss the virtues and graces of the Child of Kings, I went offto bed filled with the gloomiest forbodings. What a fool I had been notto insist that whatever expert accompanied Higgs should be a marriedman. And yet, now when I came to think of it, that might not havebettered matters, and perhaps would only have added to the transactiona degree of moral turpitude which at present was lacking, since evenmarried men are sometimes weak.
The truth was that Maqueda's attractions were extraordinarily great. Toher remarkable beauty she added a wonderful charm of manner and forceof mind. Also her situation must touch the heart and pity of any man,so helpless was she in the midst of all her hollow grandeur, so lonelyamongst a nation of curs whom she strove in vain to save, and shouldshe escape destruction with them, doomed to so sad and repulsive a fate,namely to become the wife of a fat poltroon who was her own uncle. Well,we know to what emotion pity is akin, and the catastrophe had occurred alittle sooner than I had expected, that was all.
Doubtless to her, in comparison with the men to whom she was accustomedand allowed by etiquette to take as her associates, this brave andhandsome young Englishman, who had come into her care sick and shatteredafter the doing of a great deed, must have seemed a veritable fairyprince. And she had helped to nurse him, and he had shown himselfgrateful for her kindness and condescension, and--the rest followed, assurely as the day follows the night.
But how would it end? Sooner or later the secret must come out, foralready the Abati nobles, if I may call them so for want of a bettername, and especially Joshua, were bitterly jealous of the favour theirlady showed to the foreigner, and watched them both. Then what--whatwould happen? Under the Abati law it was death for any one outside ofthe permitted degree of relationship to tamper with the affections ofthe Child of Kings. Nor was this wonderful, since that person held herseat in virtue of her supposed direct descent from Solomon and the firstMaqueda, Queen of Sheba, and therefore the introduction of any alienblood could not be tolerated.
Moreover, Orme, having sworn an oath of allegiance, had become subjectto those laws. Lastly, I could not in the least hope from the characterof the pair concerned that this was but a pass
ing flirtation.
Oh! without a doubt these two had signed their own death-warrant yonderin the Cave of Death, and incidentally ours also. This must be the endof our adventure and my long search for the son whom I had lost.