The League of the Leopard

by Harold Bindloss

  CHAPTER XII

  WEALTH IN SIGHT

  A stockade ran round the village, and rows of thatched roofs loomedabove the frowning wall of timber, but instead of the usual clamor,there was dead silence as, with some semblance of order, the footsoreand spiritless carriers limped in through the open gate. Nothing excepta few lizards stirred in the first sandy avenue, and the oppressivestillness remained unbroken by the voice of man or beast. The sun hunglow above the parched grass in the west, and crimson splendors blazedbehind the huts; but a strange musky odor replaced the pungent fragranceof burning wood which at that hour hangs over each African village.

  "The whole land seems dead," Dane said slowly, leaning heavily on hisrifle as he spoke. "There are times when one could almost fancy,Carsluith, that you and I were ghosts--indeed, at the present moment youdon't look unlike one; but what is the meaning of this latest riddle?This is the black headman's capital, isn't it?"

  Maxwell smiled mirthlessly, as he stood, with beaded forehead andshoulders bent, glancing toward the weary carriers. His face was wornand hollow, though his eyes were bright, and his clothing was droppingin tatters from his weary limbs. The glare behind him emphasized thelividness of his pallid skin.

  "It is one of them. I believe he has several," he said. "Whether hefears reprisals from some plundered neighbor, or pestilence, I naturallydon't know; but, as his absence will save us a good many presents andmuch loss of time, it is not material. Still, we might find some clue inone of these huts."

  Maxwell entered the nearest, then moved into another, and stayed theresome time, leaving Dane in the sandy avenue before it; the carriers wereresting at a distance. The sun dipped, and as Dane watched the nightcreep up swiftly from the east, it struck him that there was a curiousuncanny feeling about the place. It was a relief when his comradereturned, looking graver than ever.

  "Did you find any one inside?"

  "I did," was the answer. "Unfortunately the man, as well as the one inthe next hut, was dead, and had, I fancy, been so for some time. Heprobably died of a plague, which explains why the town is empty. We mayfind something more conclusive in one of the larger huts."

  Dane decided that the discovery of two dead Africans was sufficient, andsaid so; but Maxwell persisted, and it was almost dark when they haltedoutside what appeared to be the headman's dwelling. Nothing could bedistinguished in the interior, but Dane could hear creeping thingsrustle in the thatch, and the peculiar odor he already had noticeddrifted forth from the hut. This was all, but he felt an instinctiverepugnance to entering, and when Maxwell passed him, he caught him bythe shoulder to suggest that they should light a lantern first. Hardlyhad he done so than what appeared to be a puff of colder air sighedclose past his ear, and Maxwell, whipping out his revolver, hailed himto run round the hut as he leaped into the room. Dane did so, findinganother entrance at the rear, and a broad space between the dwelling andthe nearest hut. Nobody, he felt almost certain, would have hadsufficient time to cross it, but the space was empty. When he went inMaxwell had torn down and lighted strips of palm-leaf from the thatch,but the name that leaped up showed them no sign of living humanity.Maxwell's countenance was very grim.

  "You saw nobody outside there? I hardly thought you would," he said."Our animal instincts are sometimes more useful than our powers ofreasoning, Hilton. It is probable that if you had not checked me, Ishould now be on my way out of this land of surprises. What we heard wasa diminutive arrow, no doubt with the venom there's no cure for upon itspoint. It could not have been shot at us by either of the Africansyonder."

  Dane, glancing at the two awful huddled figures, swore softly andviciously.

  "It is time we struck back, Carsluith," he urged. "I'll call up our boysand surround the huts."

  "It would be useless," said Maxwell, shaking his head. "You have notrealized these fellows' ingenuity, even yet. Further, if the boys sawwhat we have seen it might be disastrous."

  A horror of the whole country where such things were possible came uponDane and he moistened his dry lips with his tongue.

  "I would give ten years of my life to stand face to face with the leaderof these devils."

  "Perhaps you will some day! I am puzzled among other things by theirpertinacity. The heathen is unstable, and one almost feels that theremust be something stronger than the native's spasmodic purpose behindwhat we have endured. In any case, it will be pleasanter to camp outsidethe town to-night."

  They had some trouble in inducing their followers to quit the promisedshelter, but both felt easier when they had repassed the stockade gate.That was apparently their enemies' last effort, for they were notmolested during the rest of their journey; and eventually Maxwell haltedhis worn-out men beside a shrunken river. It came down out of a chaos ofjungle-covered hills, rippling over sharp sand, with tall bluffs on theopposite side of it; and within five minutes every carrier was rollingand splashing in the lukewarm stream.

  Dane quivered with eagerness as he watched Maxwell, who, looking up froma paper in his hand, smiled inscrutably.

  "Yes. From Niven's description we have reached our goal at last. I wasalmost afraid his memory or imagination had betrayed him," he said."That must be the bluff he camped on, and this, according to hisassertion, the river which sprinkles its sand with gold. However, hehinted that it would pay better to prospect the higher pools. I want youto test his statement, Hilton. The result of the experiment promises tobe eventful."

  Maxwell's voice was slightly uneven, but his fingers seemed steady as helighted one of their few last cigars. Dane felt his own knees weakbeneath him, and his voice was hoarse when he hailed a carrier whoseload consisted of prospecting tools. Carrying a tin dish and a smallshovel, he waded into the shrunken river. There was a patch of sand nearits center from which he filled the metal basin, and then halted with acurious sickly feeling, afraid almost to test its contents. He had sunktoo much of his slender capital in the venture, and his future dependedupon that test. Its issues were prosperity and the realization of thehope that had sent him to Africa, or a weary struggle for daily bread;and the climate-weakened man felt that, after all they had dared andsuffered, he could hardly face failure. The perspiration trickled intohis eyes, and oozed from his hair, and he stood still, knee-deep in thenameless river, for the space of almost a minute.

  Then, stooping suddenly, he dipped the vessel and whirled it round andround until partly empty. There was a color about some of the particlesremaining that caught his attention; but he would not trust a partialtest, and continued the washing until, except for a very triflingresidue, the pan was empty. Still, Maxwell made no comment and asked noquestion, for, if one was now swift in action, the other was great insilence.

  Dane straightened himself, and waded back with dry lips and ticklingthroat, but with triumph in his eyes; and Maxwell laughed softly as hegrasped the hand he stretched out.

  "What have you found?" he asked.

  "Enough to prove your dead friend right, and encourage us to search forsomething better!" Dane spoke as calmly as he could. "It is only streamgold, and doubtless readily worked out, but heaven knows how much morethere may be up yonder where this came down from."

  "You think----"

  "That Niven was not mad, but eminently sane! I'm not a practical goldprospector, but I couldn't well help learning a little of the theorywhen working on the drawings of hydraulic mining machinery. It's aquestion of the velocity of the current and specific gravity--for evenwith a stream behind gold grains of any size don't travel far; and theirmatrix lies in yonder hills, or beyond them, somewhere."

  "We'll go on again to-morrow," said Maxwell quietly.

  For a week they hewed a way through the jungles on the hillside, orwaded up the bed of the river where it promised an easier road; andfinally, daring to penetrate no farther, they pitched camp on apalm-crested bluff overhanging a breadth of dry sand and a deep poolbeneath a fall. Since leaving Shaillu's stronghold they had neither beenfollowed by their persecutors nor seen anything with l
ife in it. Maxwellleft all operations to his friend's direction, and toiled beside him forseveral days like a galley slave, digging and blowing out withexplosives a new channel to empty the pool, besides hewing troughs tobring down the water from above the fall.

  Once more the burning day was drawing toward its close when, with theroar of the last shot rolling across the encircling forest and the waterfrothing muddily down its new outlet, Dane stood beside his comrade,leaning on a shovel, and wondering greatly that the latter could thinkof anything beyond the result of their experiment.

  "The jungle seems to mock us, does it not?" Maxwell remarked. "Alreadyits silence has swallowed the feeble din we made; and the next floodwill obliterate forever all traces of your workings."

  "Then you don't believe that this is the beginning of a new era, andthat those who follow us will change the future of this wilderness?"asked Dane with a show of incredulity.

  Maxwell pointed to the jungle fading into the dimness of the east.

  "I do not. Look at it," he said. "It has stood so from the beginning, aplace of everlasting shadow, for the naked bushmen to hunt each otherin; and it will be the same long centuries after you and I are gone. Itis too old and changeless for even the Briton to subdue. Phoenician,Roman, Arab, and Moor have all tackled this all-absorbing Africa; andwhile the brown men have left a plainer stamp on it than the white men,how much has any of them done? Still, all this is beside the question,isn't it? It will be enough for you and me if we can return home safelywith some small augmentation of our capital. Hadn't you better resumeyour digging, Hilton?"

  Dane did so, stripped to the waist; and great fires were blazing beforehe came up out of the river, exultant.

  "I can't promise a fortune, but there should be sufficient to pay us forall our toil," he said. "Those little grains will realize almost fourpounds an ounce."

  They set out a carefully treasured bottle of lukewarm wine that night inthe tent, and duly emptied it, though, perhaps for the same reason,neither of them ate much; and afterward they sat long talking under thesmoky lamp. It was a night to remember, for it is not often one enjoysthe same thrill of triumph twice in a lifetime. Maxwell was unusuallycommunicative; and long afterward Dane could remember how he leanedagainst a deal case, worn, thin, and haggard, but with a smile ofsatisfaction on his hollow face.

  "Success appears within sight at last, but it is well to take goodfortune soberly," he said. "I am, however, sensible of an insane desireto do something extravagant when I remember all that word implies. Youhave seen Culmeny, Hilton, but it is hardly possible that you canrealize the affection I have for the old place. It was fast falling intoruin before my father improved its finances a little by painful economy;and, because we generally fought and plotted for the losing side, thepoor acres about it have been starved overlong. Now, after many anarduous search for the wherewithal, I can hope it may be granted me torestore a measure of its former prosperity. The Culmeny mosses could beturned into plow-land and pasture with the aid of a little money."

  "You are a young man, Carsluith," Dane replied suggestively. "Beingmerely one of the swarming people, I don't know that love for--anancient dwelling--would have exacted so much from me. Drainage schemesare no doubt useful, but was the extension of them your only ambition?"

  Maxwell laughed good-humoredly, though a trace of shadow crept back intohis face.

  "No," he said slowly; "there was a time when they took a very secondaryplace. Every one has his weaknesses, and even now I have not quite gotover mine."

  The friendship between the two men had never been demonstrative, but itwas deep enough to make Dane's comment no liberty.

  "I can guess. The old story, no doubt. 'It was the woman who temptedme!' She treated you badly?"

  "No," Maxwell answered quietly, looking hard at his companion. "She--Godbless her--could treat no one harshly. It was my own folly to dream thatshe, with her fresh young beauty and the light-heartedness of innocence,could find anything congenial in such a taciturn, somber man as myself.Well, that romance is over, but it has left its mark; and now all that Ihope for is that Culmeny will flourish for a brief space under the lastof an unfortunate family."

  Now there are limits beyond which even one who has sickened and foughtand suffered beside a trusted comrade may hardly go, and Dane repressedthe question which trembled on his lips. Nevertheless, he afterwardfancied that if he had asked it then Maxwell would have answered him;and the revelation probably would have made a vast difference in thefuture of both of them. Dane did not, however, ask.

  He was partly dazed by his own good fortune, and, when at last theyceased from speech, he sat in contented silence conjuring up roseatevisions of the future. It was true that he had quarreled with Lilian, orshe had quarreled with him; but during the time of stress and strugglethe importance of the difference between them had--so it seemed to theman--steadily diminished. He could recall significant trifles whichsuggested that the time would come when the woman would no longerenforce the terms of their compact; and he felt that it was at leastpossible that, returning triumphant, he would find that she had alreadyforgiven his supposed offenses. So hope rose victorious over doubts anddejection; and Dane was nodding, dreaming, while still half-awake,golden dreams, when Maxwell's voice recalled him to the laboriouspresent.

  "It is past midnight, and the task before us will tax our uttermostenergies. Isn't it time to turn in, Hilton?"

  Dane nodded.

  "We will begin at sunrise," he said; "work every possible hour, andstart back for England whenever the yield falls off. It is better tomake sure of a portion than risk the whole by straining for too much;and fortune does not appear to favor white men overlong in this country.Even if we were but half satisfied, it should not be difficult to floata company."

  Maxwell shook his head.

  "Your first suggestion shows some discernment, Hilton; the second, less.Even a wildcat company promoter would fight shy of this mine; and it istolerably certain that we have both the cross-marked man and MonsieurVictor Rideau still to reckon with."

  Dane stretched himself out on some matting when Maxwell turned out thelamp, but he did not immediately sleep. The hot African darkness hemmedin the little tent, but he could see his comrade's figure dimly outlinedagainst it as he sat rigidly still in the entrance. Then it struck himthat they were very far away from all help from civilization, with asecret in their possession which already had cost the lives of othermen. The roseate visions faded, and a sense of impending troublepreceded slumber. It was significant that Dane's fingers sought thepistol that lay beside him.

  "Not asleep yet?" asked Maxwell. "What is troubling you?"

  "I don't quite know," Dane answered. "I was going to ask you the samething. Carsluith, if Rideau or the other rascal interferes with usfurther before I have won sufficient to float my patent, some of theparty won't go home again."

  The sun had just cleared the forest when, one morning soon after Danehad set his flume and washing gear to work, he sat at breakfast before aswinging table in their extemporized mess tent. Maxwell, who had justrisen, stood in the entrance, partly dazzled by the growing brightness.Suddenly some of the Krooboys commenced to chatter excitedly, and anegro's voice rose above the commotion:

  "White man lib for across the river!"

  Maxwell, springing into the tent, snatched up a pair of binoculars; andthe table overturned with a crash as Dane scrambled to his feet.

  "The devil!" he exclaimed, staring stupidly at the figure below whichsaluted them with uplifted arm.

  Maxwell frowned as he sharply closed the glasses.

  "No," he said, "not exactly. It is Monsieur Victor Rideau."

  Ten minutes had passed before the man Dane had seen at Castro's factorycame smiling into camp, and the miner glanced at him curiously. He wasshort, but somewhat burly and broad-chested for a man of pure Gallicdescent. His hair was very crisp and black, his face swarthy, and hisfingers suspiciously like those of the negro. He was, considering thecountry, neatly
arrayed in white duck and shoes with pointed toes.Monsieur Rideau had evidently traveled in a hammock.

  "Felicitations, camarades," he began, with, it seemed to one observer,an excess of amiability. "It please me greatly to meet the friend of myown color in this country of the devil, so I leave all my boy behindthere and push on with much expedition to salute you."

  "That was very kind," said Maxwell shortly, never moving his eyes fromhis enemy. "The eagerness was mutual. My friend here upset our breakfastequipage in his hurry to greet you. The cook, however, will get you somemore presently."

  Dane fancied he read satisfaction in his comrade's face when the otheranswered:

  "I have the breakfast already. You smoke now. I have these from Cuba--heis smuggle. No? That is the pity; but we talk at least. I have affaireof importance to discuss with you."

  "So I presumed," said Maxwell, with no excess of civility. "Our tent ishardly fit to enter, but there is still shade here. Please consider usattentive listeners."

  "_Bien!_" Rideau carefully laid a silk handkerchief on a fallencottonwood before he took his seat. "I come to search the gold mine, andfind two men of my own color have find her already. Me, I am not greedy.I say there is the plenty for three. So I make proposal. I go thepartner with you."

  "Suppose that does not suit us?" Dane broke in.

  Rideau lifted one shoulder and stretched out the other arm with an airthat was not wholly Gallic, but rather suggested the grimaces of anegro.

  "It would be the pity. You know how we say, '_J'y suis_----?' As anAmerican captain I have once small difference with tell me when heestablish himself all day on my veranda: 'I'm here, Mr. Shylocker, anduntil I get what I've come for I stop right where I am.' Shylocker, Itell him, is a compliment not comprehended of me. That was a man ofdetermination, but I vanquish him, my friends."

  Hitherto something in the speaker's fastidious neatness and excessivebonhommie had, because his welcome was the reverse of cordial, preventedDane from taking him seriously. Now there was a glint in his dark eyeswhich suggested that he might prove dangerous; and Dane surmised thatthe last sentence was meant as a warning. In any case, his blood tookfire at its veiled insolence.

  "It seems to me you could only have found your way here by means of amap stolen from me!" he said hotly, rising as he spoke.

  Maxwell silenced him with a gesture.

  "That is beside the question, Hilton. Monsieur Rideau is here, and, ashe informs us, here he means to stay. The first question is whether, ifwe do not wish it, he is able to."

  Rideau took up the challenge with outward good-humor.

  "I have of camp boy two, or perhaps three, for every one I see of you.Most he is also arm with the good rifle. If there is the badunderstanding, somebody is possibly get kill, which is distressing tome. Beside, the barbaric indigene he go chop us separables, as thenigger say. United we are invincibles, _voyez vous_?"

  "I believe I do," Maxwell answered, in a tone which suggested that hesaw considerably more than the other's words revealed; and Dane watchedthe pair, as for some seconds they lapsed into silence--the Britonmotionless and almost too rigid in bearing, with an expressionless face;the swarthy adventurer smiling out of shifty eyes, while his fingersbetrayed his impatience.

  Then Maxwell spoke abruptly.

  "Your proposal demands serious consideration. I would prefer to give youan answer this time to-morrow."

  "_Bien_," Rideau acquiesced; and after a detailed account of hisadventures, which Dane surmised was wholly fictitious, he took hisleave.

  "The savage has his virtues as well as his failings," said Maxwell,looking after him. "That man, however, is neither French nor negro, andsuch as he usually combine the vices of both sides of their ancestry.What do you think of his proposal, Hilton?"

  "I should have dismissed him with four expressive words. Why did youpromise to consider it at all?"

  Maxwell smiled dryly.

  "Because I intend to do so. I will give you my reasons this eveningwhen, after a day's consideration, I shall have them ready in a moredefinite shape. In the meantime, we had better continue the mining."