The Romance of Golden Star ...

  CHAPTER XIII

  HOW DJAMA PAID HIS DEBT

  It is one of the mysteries of this lower life of ours that men, meaningto do good in all honesty of heart, may yet do evil in the doing of it,and it was thus with me in the hour of my first triumph and rejoicing.

  I had pondered long and deeply over the strange treachery of Djama, andI had talked of it with Francis Hartness and the professor until I hadcome to see that he was in truth sorely afflicted with that madnesswhich is born of the lust of gold, which, as they told me, is a diseaseof the soul that makes timid men rash and mild ones fierce and cunning,and may even turn the gentleness of woman into the pitiless rage ofbeasts of prey.

  It was through thinking of this that I came to see that I was by nomeans blameless myself for his madness and the treachery that had comefrom it.

  In my own days and among my own people gold was held precious only forits beauty and its usefulness. We had not learned the art of making itinto money and buying men's soul and bodies with it, but I had alreadylived enough of my new life to see that now, save for the few, gold wasall and honour nothing; and knowing this, I should also have known whatI was doing when I showed Djama the treasures in the Hall of Gold. Thesight of them had made him mad, and, as my hand had shown them to him,the blame of what he had done in his madness was in part mine.

  All this I remembered in the hour when my soul was filled with joy andmy heart warm with love, and I thought how great a pleasure I shouldgive to her who had given me the better part of my own joy if I lookedupon Djama with pity and forgiveness and did an act of mercy as thefirst deed of my new reign.

  So, when the ceremonial of my crowning was over, I bade Tupac take someof my body-guard and bring him before me from the place where he hadbeen lodged after his release from his golden cell, and at the same timeI quieted the fears of Joyful Star by telling her what was in my heartconcerning him.

  They brought him unbound, but well guarded by soldiers with bayonets ontheir rifles, up the broad avenue which the parted throng had madeacross the square in front of my throne.

  I saw him stare wildly about him as he came near, gazing at the splendidsun-lit pageant like a man in a dream, or one just awakened into anotherworld, as I had been after my long death-sleep. But when he came near,and saw me sitting in my royal state with Joyful Star on my right andGolden Star on my left, both robed as princesses of the Ancient Blood,his face grew dark with passion, and his eyes, losing their wonder,gazed in fixed and furious hate at me--the man who was going to give himhis life, and much more that he had coveted besides.

  They placed him between two soldiers before me at the foot of theterrace steps above which my throne had been set, and I was about tospeak and greet him kindly, when his anger already got the better ofhim, and, with a mocking smile on his lips, he said in a loud, roughvoice that was most unlike his own quiet, even tones,--

  'Well, your Majesty, as I suppose you think yourself for the present, Iexpected something like this--to be brought out into the midst of yourfellow-savages and sentenced like a felon before my own sister and thewoman who, like yourself, owes her life to me!'

  Then he laughed one of his strange, joyless laughs, and went on before Icould reply,--

  'Well, I suppose I mustn't grumble. You have won, and to the victor gothe spoils. Now that you have apparently bought the girl who was once mysister with your gold, and I have given you your own sister-wife back,you will be able to try an interesting experiment in your old form ofmatrimony--'

  I saw Joyful Star shrink back in her seat and turn her head away fromhim with a little cry as he said these evil words, and they angered meso, that--forgetting they were spoken by a man who stood helpless beforeme--I cried,--

  'Silence, liar and speaker of evil! or your next words shall be the lastthat human ears shall hear you speak. Are you still mad, or have youforgotten that you were once a man?'

  He smiled such a smile as you may have seen on the lips of one who hasdied in agony, and said with a swift change in his voice,--

  'I beg your Majesty's pardon, and--and the ladies' too. It was a mostungentlemanly thing to say, and one should not forget one's manners onthe threshold of the next world--if there is one. But come, yourMajesty, you are wasting your valuable time, and keeping all theseinteresting savages of yours waiting. You'll find I shall take itquietly enough. What do you propose that it shall be--something withboiling oil or red-hot pincers in it?'

  I knew that a man who could speak thus, believing that he was about todie, must be in a pitiful plight, and so I answered him sternly, and yetwithout anger,--

  'Laurens Djama, I have not brought you here to jest with you, nor yet,as you think, to condemn you to die, though your life is justly forfeitto me and my people, whom you would have betrayed again to theiroppressors. Now, listen! You brought me back from death to life, and formy life I will give you yours, and for Golden Star's I will pay you theprice agreed on and something more. It was by my foolish act that themadness of the gold-hunger came upon you, and for that I will give youyour freedom; but not now, for that would not be safe for me or mypeople, since you have betrayed us once, and, knowing what you do, mightdo so again. You shall be taken hence to a pleasant and fertile valley,where you shall have all freedom, save permission to leave it until thiswar is over and I am undisputed lord of the land of my fathers. Then youshall take the wealth that shall be yours and go to your own country,or wherever you please, so long as you do not remain in mine, for herethere is no place for you, since my people do not forgive as easily as Ido. Now I have spoken; if there is anything more that you can ask, and Ican give with safety, ask it.'

  Most men who had sinned as he had done would have very willingly takensuch forgiveness, and Laurens Djama might have taken it but for aseemingly small thing. While I was speaking to him his eyes had wanderedfrom mine and were looking into Golden Star's. As I ceased I felt herhands clasping my arm, and heard her voice say tremblingly in our owntongue,--

  'Save me, my lord and brother, save me! Evil Eyes is looking into myheart and turning it cold!'

  This Djama saw, though he did not understand her words, and the sightbrought the madness into his blood again. He shouted with a voice likethe cry of a wild beast in pain,--

  'Curse you! I will have neither life nor liberty from you, but I'll haveyour life for mine, and that will pay me better!'

  As the last word left his lips he made a movement so quick that my eyescould not follow it. The next instant he had wrenched the rifle fromthe hands of the soldier on his right hand and levelled it at me. Evenas he did so Joyful Star flung herself with a scream upon my breast andHartness sprang forward from behind my throne-seat.

  The rifle flashed. I heard a hissing sound close to my ear and a deepgroan and the fall of a body behind me. In the same moment Djama wasseized and flung to the ground, where he lay quite still and silent. Irose to my feet, clasping Joyful Star for the first time in my arms, andlooked round. Hartness stood beside me unharmed, but old Ullullo, thefirst friend that I had made in my new life among my own people, laydead behind my throne with a bullet through his forehead.

  I had not forgotten that old training which taught an Inca warrior tolook on near-approaching death with unmoved eyes and unshaken heart, andthis was only such a hazard as I had taken a score of times before. Ibade Hartness lead Ruth and Golden Star into the temple behind us, sothat they should not see what was about to be done. Then I took my placeon the throne again and ordered Djama to be raised and stood on hisfeet.

  He rose of himself, very pale but calm and strong in his own evilstrength, fearing nothing, as became a man for whom death had noterrors and, it might be, few secrets. We looked each other in the eyesin silence, and in the midst of an utter stillness that had fallen onthe vast throng, until Hartness came back. Then I said,--

  'That is enough, Laurens Djama. Choose now what death you will die, but,for your own sake and Joyful Star's, choose a quick one.'

  Although my voice was as the voice o
f doom to him, yet he did not quaileven then, for if his heart was black it was very strong, and fear hadnever entered into it. He drew himself up to the full height of hisstature and, looking me full in the eyes, he said as quietly as I hadever heard him speak,--

  'That choice is always mine, whether you give it to me or not. You havethreatened me with death before and I have told you that you could notkill me. Now watch and see if I spoke the truth.'

  Then, with a soldier holding each of his arms and two others graspinghis shoulders, he drew a quick, deep, gasping breath. The blood rushedinto his face till its pallor became purple. The next instant it becamedeathly white again. His jaw dropped, his eyes grew fixed and blindlystaring, and then his shape seemed to shrink together like an empty bag,and he sank down between those who were holding him.

  They pulled him upright again, and his head dropped forward on hisbreast. He was dead--dead as though the Llapa itself had struck him--andso Laurens Djama, master of the arts of life and death, passed out ofthe world of living men by the act of his own will, though not of hisown hand.