CHAPTER XXVII
AN ERROR OF JUDGMENT
Fort San Roque stood, as Father Tiebout sometimes said, on the vergeof extinction in the shadow of the debatable land, but its Commandantor Chefe, as he was usually termed, had become accustomed to the fact,and, if he did not forget it altogether, seldom took it into seriousconsideration. After all, the European only exists on sufferance inthe hotter parts of Africa, and as a rule, once he realizes it, ceasesto trouble himself about the matter and concentrates his attention onthe acquiring of riches by any means available. Dom Erminio was not anexception, and being by no means particular, endeavored to make themost of his opportunities, especially as his term of office was not along one. It was, perhaps, not astonishing that in his eagerness to doso he became to some extent oblivious of everything else, since thoseentrusted with authority over a discontented subject people have atother times and in other places acted as though they were a trifleblind to what was going on about them. Dom Erminio was cunning, but,as occasionally happens in the case of cunning men, he was alsoshort-sighted.
The evening meal had been cleared away when he lay in a canvas lounge,yellow in face, as white men often become in that part of Africa,with a cigar in his bony fingers. Darkness had just closed down on thelonely station, but the little rickety residency had lain for twelvehours under a burning sun, and now the big oil lamps raised thealready almost insupportable temperature. The Chefe, however, did notseem to feel it. He lay in his chair apparently languidly content, aspare figure in loose and somewhat soiled white uniform, looking athis Lieutenant, who was fingering a glass of red Canary wine. Neitherof them troubled themselves about the fact that there were men in thatcountry who regarded them with a vindictive hatred.
"I almost think we may as well call that man in," he said.
The Lieutenant Luiz glanced towards the veranda, where a negro waspatiently squatting, as he had, in fact, been doing for most of theday. He brought a message from a Headman of some importance in thevicinity, and there was no reason why he should not have been listenedto several hours earlier, except that Dom Erminio preferred to keephim waiting. It was in his opinion advisable that a negro should betaught humbly to await the white man's pleasure, which is a policythat has now and then brought trouble upon the white man. Dom Luiz,who understood his companion's views on that subject, smiled.
"He has, no doubt, complaints to make. They always have," he said."Considering everything, that is not astonishing. I wonder if theHeadman expects us to give them much consideration."
Dom Erminio spread his yellow hands out. "One would have thought wehad taught him to expect nothing. He is, it seems, a little slow tounderstand. Perhaps, we have not put the screw on quite hard enough. Ifancy another turn would make him restive."
He looked at his Lieutenant, and both of them laughed. Then the Chefemade a little sign.
"Bring him in," he said.
The negro came in, a big, heavily-built man, with an expressionlessface. When Dom Erminio made him a sign not to come too near hesquatted down, a huddled object with apathetic patience in its pose,until the Lieutenant signified that he might deliver his message.
"The Headman sends you greeting. He has a complaint to make," he said,and another dusky man who had slipped in softly made his observationsplain. "The soldiers have been beating the people in one of hisvillages, and carrying off things that did not belong to them again.The Headman asks for justice in this matter."
"He shall have it," said the Chefe. "His people have been insolent,and they are certainly getting lazy. We will send him a requisitionfor more provisions."
Nobody could have told whether the messenger felt any resentment, but,after all, very few white men ever quite understand what the Africanis thinking. He crouched impassively still, with the lamplight on hisheavy face and his oily skin gleaming softly over the great knottedmuscles of his splendid arms and shoulders. There was something in hisattitude which vaguely suggested dormant force that might spreaddestruction when it was unloosed, but that naturally did not occur tothe Chefe, who indicated by a little gesture that he might continue.
"There is another matter," said the negro. "The Headman can not sendin the rubber demanded. Already we have cleared the forest of half thetrees. One has to go a long way to find any more. He will do what hecan, but he asks that you will be content with a little less thanusual."
Dom Erminio shook his head reproachfully. "I have made this manconcessions, and this is the result," he said. "There are many dutiesI have released him from, and I only ask a little rubber and a fewother things for the favor."
Then he straightened himself in his chair. "Tell your Headman that nota load of rubber will be excused him, and he must restrain his peoplefrom provoking the soldiers. Also, the next time he has a complaint tomake let him come himself and lay it before me."
The man stood up, splendid in his animal muscularity, but there wasfor just a moment a little gleam in his eyes which suggested that hothuman passions were at work within him. The white men, however, asusual, did not notice it, and the black interpreter, whose opinion wasseldom invited, said nothing.
"I will tell him," said the messenger, and Dom Erminio looked at theLieutenant Luiz when he went out with the interpreter.
"I think," he said reflectively, "we will give the screw that otherturn. It is supposed that our new rulers down yonder"--and heapparently indicated the coast with a stretched out hand--"are infavor of a more conciliatory policy, which is not what we would wishfor just now."
"It is clearly out of the question," and Dom Luiz grinned. "I think itwould be advisable if I went out with a few files and made somefurther trifling requisition to-morrow."
"You will go, and do what appears desirable," said the Chefe, wholighted another cigar.
Dom Luiz set out on the morrow with a handful of dusky ruffians inuniform, and left rage and shame behind him in the villages hevisited, which, as it happened, had results neither he nor Dom Erminiohad anticipated. The Headman did not come to San Roque to make hishumble complaint, but he sent an urgent message to the Suzerain of thevillage Ormsgill was confined in, and at last one morning the old mansent for the latter.
"We march in a few hours, and as we can not leave you here you and theboys you asked me for will come with us," he said. "What our businessis does not concern you, and you will go with us as prisoners. Justnow I do not know what we will do with you afterwards. It willdepend"--and he looked at Ormsgill with a little grim smile--"a gooddeal upon your own behavior."
Ormsgill, who grasped the gist of what he said, could take a hint, andwent back to Nares. The latter listened quietly when he told him whathe had heard.
"I believe there is no other way. Their oppressors have brought itupon their own heads," he said.
His comrade noticed the curious hardness of his face, and the glint inhis eyes. It was very evident to him that Nares, who had been downagain with fever while they lay in the sweltering heat, had changed.He had borne many troubles uncomplainingly for several weary years,and, perhaps because of it, the events of the last few weeks had lefttheir mark on him. After all, there is a subtle concord between mindand body, and in that land, at least, the fever-shaken white man whopersists in staggering on under a burden greater than he canreasonably bear is apt to be suddenly crushed by it. Then his bodilystrength or mental faculties give way once for all beneath the strain.Ormsgill could not define the change in his companion, but herecognized it. It was a thing which he had seen happen to other men.
They started in the heat of that afternoon, and Ormsgill, marchingwith his boys, watched the long dusky column wind into the forest infront of him. There were men with Snider rifles, which they wereindifferently accustomed to, men with glinting matchets, and men withflintlock guns and spears, besides rows of plodding carriers. Theywere half-naked most of them, men of primitive passions and no greatintelligence, but they had risen at last in their desperation tostrike for freedom. Behind them rose a tumultuous uproar of barbaricmusic,
insistent and deafening, that floated far over the forest.Ormsgill smiled a little as it grew fainter.
"I'm not sure there will be any music when they come back again," hesaid. "Still, I almost think they will accomplish--something."
Nares looked straight in front of him as he plodded on, but there wasa curious gleam in his eyes.
"There is no other way," was all he said.
The long dusky column pushed on steadily through dim forest, widemorass, and tracts of hot white sand, and it happened one evening whenthe advance guard were a considerable distance ahead that Dom Erminiosat alone on the veranda at San Roque. It was then about eighto'clock, and the night was very dark and hot. Now and then a littlefitful breeze crept up the misty river, and filled the forest thatrose above it with mysterious noises. Then it dropped away again, andleft a silence the Chefe commenced to find oppressive behind it. Hecould hear the oily gurgle of sliding water, and at times a sharpcrackle in the crazy building behind him, out of which there drifted adamp mildewy smell, but that merely emphasized the almostdisconcerting absence of any other sound. Indeed, it was so still thatthe soft rustle his duck garments made as he moved jarred on him, andhe was glad when the little muggy breeze flowed into the verandaagain.
There was nothing in all this to trouble a man who was accustomed toit, but the Chefe was not quite at his ease. Dom Luiz, whom he hadsent out a few days earlier, should have been back that afternoon, butthere was no sign of him yet, nor had the three or four dusky soldierswho had gone out on some business of their own with his consent as yetmade an appearance. There were very few men in the fort, and when nineo'clock came Dom Erminio, who was quite aware that the natives had nogreat cause to love him, admitted that he was a trifle anxious. Still,he had, with what he considered a more sufficient reason, been anxiousrather frequently. It was a thing one became accustomed to in thedebatable land, and sitting still he lighted another cigar. He couldsee the mists that rolled up from the river, and the forest cuttingfaintly black against the sky, and wondered vaguely what was going onin it. That there was something going on in it he now felt tolerablycertain, though he did not exactly know why.
At last the hoarse cry of a sentry rose out of the night, and when itwas answered he went down to the gate of the stockade. It was not agate that opened in the usual fashion, but one that dropped, a stoutaffair of logs copied from the form adopted by the inhabitants of theplateaux to the south. When he reached it two or three black soldierswere heaving it up, and there was a patter of feet outside. Then aline of shadowy figures grew out of the darkness, and though there didnot seem to be as many as he had expected it was with a sense ofrelief he saw Dom Luiz come in through the gap. The logs clashed downbehind the last of his men, and Dom Erminio straightened himselfsuddenly when a sergeant came up with a lantern.
Two of the row of barefooted men appeared scarcely fit to stand. Theirgarments were rent to pieces, and there was blood and mire on them,while neither of them carried rifles. Dom Luiz saw the question in theChefe's eyes, and nodded.
"Yes," he said, "I should have been here earlier. It was these two whodetained me. I sent them on to the village in the thicker bush twodays ago, and they came back dragging themselves with difficulty--asyou see them. It seems the villagers had beaten them, and they did notknow what had become of their rifles."
Dom Erminio's face became suddenly intent. "Ah," he said, "they shallbe beaten again to-morrow. You will hand them to the guard. I supposeyou saw nothing of the Sergeant Orticho?"
"No," said Lieutenant Luiz, who was a trifle puzzled by the suddenchange in the Chefe's manner, "I saw no sign of him."
He called to his men, and as they filed by him loaded heavily withmiscellaneous sundries, Dom Erminio smiled significantly.
"They have, it seems, been successful, which is fortunate," he said."I almost think it will be some little time before they make any morerequisitions of the kind again."
He turned back towards the house, and was once more sitting on theveranda when the Lieutenant Luiz rejoined him.
"It would no doubt be advisable that I should set out again in themorning with a stronger party and chastise those villagers who havebeaten our men?" said the latter.
"No," said the Chefe dryly, "you will probably be busy here. When thenatives venture to beat our men it is, I think, wiser to keep everyman we have inside the fort."
"Ah," said his companion, "you believe they have courage enough to gofurther?"
Dom Erminio smiled. "I believe we both admitted that the natives mightresent our attitude. We were, I think, for several reasons notunwilling that they should do something to make their resentmentevident."
He stopped a moment, and the manner in which he spread out his yellowhands was very expressive. "Now I fancy we have got what we wishedfor--and, perhaps, a little more than could reasonably have beenexpected. It is rather a pity that we have lost several men withsickness lately."
Dom Luiz straightened himself in his chair. "There are very few of us,and I am not quite sure that one or two of the fresh draft could bedepended on. Still, Orticho has most of them well in hand."
Dom Erminio made a little gesture. "I think we can not count uponOrticho in this affair. It is scarcely likely that he and the men whowent out with him will come back again. What he has heard in the bushI do not know, but it is evident that he regards this thing very muchas I do. In fact, I fancy he is heading as fast as possible for thecoast by now."
"Ah," said Dom Luiz, and looked at his companion inquiringly.
"The business we have in hand is perfectly simple," said Dom Erminio."We were sent here to hold San Roque, and it must be done. When thesebushmen call upon us we shall be ready. With that in view you will setabout moving the quick-firing gun from where it is now, and when thatis done you will open a loophole for it at the rear of the stockade.It is not quite so strong at that point, and our friends, who knowwhere the gun stood, will probably attack us there. It would beadvisable to have it done before the dawn comes."
Dom Luiz rose and set about it. There was no uneasiness in hiscompanion's manner, but there was a look which had not been there forsome little time in his eyes. He was, perhaps, in several respects arogue, but, like other men of that kind, he had his strong points,too, and nobody had ever accused him of being deficient in manhood,which, unfortunately, is not always quite the same thing as humanity.He was also Chefe, Commandant and Administrator, which he neverforgot, and he sat on the veranda smoking cigarette after cigarettewhile Dom Luiz toiled for once very strenuously half the night. Itwas very dark and hot, the logs he handled were heavy, and the duskysoldiers seemed unusually slow at understanding. Still, when the dawnbroke the little quick-firing gun stood at the rear of the stockade,which had been strengthened wherever it was possible.