Queen Sheba's Ring

by H. Rider Haggard

  The lamp flame sank low. It flickered, once, twice, thrice, each timeshowing the pale, drawn faces of us six seated about it, like wizardsmaking an incantation, like corpses in a tomb.

  Then it went out.

  How long were we in that place after this? At least three whole days andnights, I believe, if not more, but of course we soon lost all count oftime. At first we suffered agonies from famine, which we strove in vainto assuage with great draughts of water. No doubt these kept us alive,but even Higgs, who it may be remembered was a teetotaller, afterwardsconfessed to me that he has loathed the sight and taste of water eversince. Indeed he now drinks beer and wine like other people. It wastorture; we could have eaten anything. In fact the Professor did manageto catch and eat a bat that got entangled in his red hair. He offered mea bite of it, I remember, and was most grateful when I declined.

  The worst of it was also that we had a little food, a few hard ship'sbiscuits, which we had saved up for a purpose, namely, to feed Maqueda.This was how we managed it. At certain intervals I would announce thatit was time to eat, and hand Maqueda her biscuit. Then we would allpretend to eat also, saying how much we felt refreshed by the food andhow we longed for more, smacking our lips and biting on a piece of woodso that she could not help hearing us.

  This piteous farce went on for forty-eight hours or more until atlast the wretched Japhet, who was quite demoralized and in no mood foracting, betrayed us, exactly how I cannot remember. After this Maquedawould touch nothing more, which did not greatly matter as there was onlyone biscuit left. I offered it to her, whereon she thanked me and allof us for our courtesy toward a woman, took the biscuit, and gave it toJaphet, who ate it like a wolf.

  It was some time after this incident that we discovered Japhet to bemissing; at least we could no longer touch him, nor did he answer whenwe called. Therefore, we concluded that he had crept away to die and,I am sorry to say, thought little more about it for, after all, what hesuffered, or had suffered, we suffered also.

  I recall that before we were overtaken by the last sleep, a strangefit came upon us. Our pangs passed away, much as the pain does whenmortification follows a wound, and with them that horrible craving fornutriment. We grew cheerful and talked a great deal. Thus Roderick gaveme the entire history of the Fung people and of his life among them andother savage tribes. Further, he explained every secret detail of theiridol worship to Higgs, who was enormously interested, and tried tomake some notes by the aid of our few remaining matches. When even thatsubject was exhausted, he sang to us in his beautiful voice--Englishhymns and Arab songs. Oliver and Maqueda also chatted together quitegaily, for I heard them laughing, and gathered that he was engaged intrying to teach her English.

  The last thing that I recollect is the scene as it was revealed by themomentary light of one of the last matches. Maqueda sat by Oliver. Hisarm was about her waist, her head rested upon his shoulder, her longhair flowed loose, her large and tender eyes stared from her white, wanface up toward his face, which was almost that of a mummy.

  Then on the other side stood my son, supporting himself against the wallof the room, and beyond him Higgs, a shadow of his former self, feeblywaving a pencil in the air and trying, apparently, to write a note uponhis Panama straw hat, which he held in his left hand, as I suppose,imagining it to be his pocket-book. The incongruity of that sun-hat ina place where no sun had ever come made me laugh, and as the match wentout I regretted that I had forgotten to look at his face to ascertainwhether he was still wearing his smoked spectacles.

  "What is the use of a straw hat and smoked spectacles in kingdom-come?"I kept repeating to myself, while Roderick, whose arm I knew was aboutme, seemed to answer:

  "The Fung wizards say that the sphinx Harmac once wore a hat, but, myfather, I do not know if he had spectacles."

  Then a sensation as of being whirled round and round in some vastmachine, down the sloping sides of which I sank at last into a vortex ofutter blackness, whereof I knew the name was death.

  Dimly, very dimly, I became aware that I was being carried. I heardvoices in my ears, but what they said I could not understand. Then afeeling of light struck upon my eyeballs which gave me great pain. Agonyran all through me as it does through the limbs of one who is beingbrought back from death by drowning. After this something warm waspoured down my throat, and I went to sleep.

  When I awoke again it was to find myself in a large room that I did notknow. I was lying on a bed, and by the light of sunrise which streamedthrough the window-places I saw the three others, my son Roderick, Ormeand Higgs lying on the other beds, but they were still asleep.

  Abati servants entered the room bringing food, a kind of rough soup withpieces of meat in it of which they gave me a portion in a wooden bowlthat I devoured greedily. Also they shook my companions until they awokeand almost automatically ate up the contents of similar bowls, afterwhich they went to sleep again, as I did, thanking heaven that we wereall still alive.

  Every few hours I had a vision of these men entering with the bowlsof soup or porridge, until at last life and reason came back to me inearnest, and I saw Higgs sitting up on the bed opposite and staring atme.

  "I say, old fellow," he said, "are we alive, or is this Hades?"

  "Can't be Hades," I answered, "because there are Abati here."

  "Quite right," he replied. "If the Abati go anywhere, it's to hell,where they haven't whitewashed walls and four-post beds. Oliver, wakeup. We are out of that cave, anyway."

  Orme raised himself on his hand and stared at us.

  "Where's Maqueda?" he asked, a question to which of course, we couldgive no answer, till presently Roderick woke also and said:

  "I remember something. They carried us all out of the cave; Japhet waswith them. They took the Child of Kings one way and us another, that isall I know."

  Shortly afterwards the Abati servants arrived, bearing food more solidthan the soup, and with them came one of their doctors, not that oldidiot of a court physician, who examined us, and announced thatwe should all recover, a fact which we knew already. We asked manyquestions of him and the servants, but could get no answer, forevidently they were sworn to silence. However, we persuaded them tobring us water to wash in. It came, and with it a polished piece ofmetal, such as the Abati use for a looking-glass, in which we saw ourfaces, the terrible, wasted faces of those who have gone within a hair'sbreadth of death by starvation in the dark.

  Yet although our gaolers would say nothing, something in their aspecttold us that we were in sore peril of our lives. They looked at ushungrily, as a terrier looks at rats in a wire cage of which the doorwill presently be opened. Moreover, Roderick, who, as I think I havesaid, has very quick ears, overheard one of the attendants whisper toanother:

  "When does our service on these hounds of Gentiles come to an end?" towhich his fellow answered, "The Council has not yet decided, but I thinkto-morrow or the next day, if they are strong enough. It will be a greatshow."

  Also that evening, about sunset, we heard a mob shouting outside thebarrack in which we were imprisoned, for that was its real use, "Give usthe Gentiles! Give us the Gentiles! We are tired of waiting," until atlength some soldiers drove them away.

  Well, we talked the thing over, only to conclude that there was nothingto be done. We had no friend in the place except Maqueda, and she,it appeared, was a prisoner like ourselves, and therefore could notcommunicate with us. Nor could we see the slightest possibility ofescape.

  "Out of the frying-pan into the fire," remarked Higgs gloomily. "I wishnow that they had let us die in the cave. It would have been better thanbeing baited to death by a mob of Abati."

  "Yes," answered Oliver with a sigh, for he was thinking of Maqueda, "butthat's why they saved us, the vindictive beasts, to kill us for whatthey are pleased to call high treason."

  "High treason!" exclaimed Higgs. "I hope to goodness their punishmentfor the offence is not that of mediaeval England; hanging is badenough--but the rest----!"

  "I don
't think the Abati study European history," I broke in; "but itis no use disguising from you that they have methods of their own. Lookhere, friends," I added, "I have kept something about me in casethe worst should come to the worst," and I produced a little bottlecontaining a particularly swift and deadly poison done up into tabloids,and gave one to each of them. "My advice is," I added, "that if you seewe are going to be exposed to torture or to any dreadful form of death,you should take one of these, as I mean to do, and cheat the Abati oftheir vengeance."

  "That is all very fine," said the Professor as he pocketed his tabloid,"but I never could swallow a pill without water at the best of times,and I don't believe those beasts will give one any. Well, I suppose Imust suck it, that's all. Oh! if only the luck would turn, if only theluck would turn!"

  Three more days went by without any sign of Higgs's aspiration beingfulfilled. On the contrary, except in one respect, the luck remainedsteadily against us. The exception was that we got plenty to eat andconsequently regained our normal state of health and strength morerapidly than might have been expected. With us it was literally a caseof "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

  Only somehow I don't think that any of us really believed that we shoulddie, though whether this was because we had all, except poor Quick,survived so much, or from a sneaking faith in Maqueda's optimisticdreams, I cannot say. At any rate we ate our food with appetite, tookexercise in an inner yard of the prison, and strove to grow as strong aswe could, feeling that soon we might need all our powers. Oliver was themost miserable among us, not for his own sake, but because, poor fellow,he was haunted with fears as to Maqueda and her fate, although of thesehe said little or nothing to us. On the other hand, my son Roderick wasby far the most cheerful. He had lived for so many years upon the brinkof death that this familiar gulf seemed to have no terrors for him.

  "All come right somehow, my father," he said airily. "Who can know whathappen? Perhaps Child of King drag us out of mud-hole, for after allshe was very strong cow, or what you call it, heifer, and I think tossJoshua if he drive her into corner. Or perhaps other thing occur."

  "What other thing, Roderick?" I asked.

  "Oh! don't know, can't say, but I think Fung thing. Believe we not donewith Fung yet, believe they not run far. Believe they take thought formorrow and come back again. Only," he added sadly, "hope my wife notcome back, for that old girl too full of lofty temper for me. Still,cheer up, not dead yet by long day's march, and meanwhile food goodand this very jolly rest after beastly underground city. Now I tellProfessor some more stories about Fung religion, den of lions, and soforth."

  On the morning after this conversation a crisis came. Just as we hadfinished breakfast the doors of our chamber were thrown open and inmarched a number of soldiers wearing Joshua's badge. They were headed byan officer of his household, who commanded us to rise and follow him.

  "Where to?" asked Orme.

  "To take your trial before the Child of Kings and her Council, Gentile,upon the charge of having murdered certain of her subjects," answeredthe officer sternly.

  "That's all right," said Higgs with a sigh of relief. "If Maqueda ischairman of the Bench we are pretty certain of an acquittal, for Orme'ssake if not for our own."

  "Don't you be too sure of that," I whispered into his ear. "Thecircumstances are peculiar, and women have been known to change theirminds."

  "Adams," he replied, glaring at me through his smoked spectacles, "Ifyou talk like that we shall quarrel. Maqueda change her mind indeed!Why, it is an insult to suggest such a thing, and if you take my adviceyou won't let Oliver hear you. Don't you remember, man, that she's inlove with him?"

  "Oh, yes," I answered, "but I remember also that Prince Joshua is inlove with her, and that she is his prisoner."