Harry Milvaine; Or, The Wanderings of a Wayward Boy

by Gordon Stables

he said mother.

  "You have a mother, Jack?"

  "No; no mother--a brother. See him; tell him how I died, how I lived.Tell him about heaven and all things good, as you have told me."

  "Raggy--he will miss poor Jack."

  There was a long interval of silence. Jack's eyes were closed now, andHarry thought he slept. But he opened them presently.

  Then he put his cold damp hand in Harry's. "Master," he said, "you havegiven me life."

  "Oh, Jack!" said Harry, "I fear it is far beyond my skill to give youlife."

  "But you have given me life--light and life. I was but a savage. Youhave told me of Him who can love even a savage."

  "Yes, yes, Jack; He loves you. He will receive you."

  "Say `The Vale,'" Jack murmured.

  Harry knew what he meant, and repeated a verse or two, in metre, of thatbeautiful psalm that has given comfort to many a soul in sorrow.

  The last verse that Jack could have heard was the fourth:

  "Yea, though I walk thro' death's dark vale, Yet will I fear none ill, For Thou art with me; and Thy rod And staff me comfort still."

  There were just a few long-drawn sobs at intervals, then Harry satwatching to see if he would sigh again.

  But a minute passed, and Jack sighed no more. Harry gently closed theeyes.

  Then he sat for a time, biting his lip till it almost bled; but all tono purpose, his sorrow _would_ find vent.

  And knowing all we do, can we wonder at Harry's grief?

  Can we wonder that he bent over that faithful Jack, and that thescalding tears fell from his eyes upon the poor dead face?

  Book 4--CHAPTER SEVEN.

  THE FIGHT ON THE HILL--REUNION--"THE GREATEST KING IN ALL THE WORLD"--HOME AGAIN.

  This is a busy, work-a-day world, events will not tarry, nor will dutywait even upon grief, and no sooner had Harry and his party dug a graveand laid poor Somali Jack to his long rest in a cotton-tree grove, thanhe had to hurry off to camp again.

  It was the morning of another day, a bright and beautiful day, birdssang in the bush, or went flitting from branch to branch, displayingtheir rainbow colours, as happy and careless as if there were no sorrowin the world.

  But other birds there were--kites and fierce-looking _corvidae_, withhorrid-looking vultures, that went sailing lazily round in the sky,alighting every moment on some dead body--to gorge. And gorge theywould, until unable either to walk, or fly.

  And what they leave of the corpses on the battlefield the ants, whosegreat hills and homes can be counted by the score, will speedily devour.

  At night, too, when the vultures have gone to roost on the scorched andblackened branches of the burned forest, wild dogs and hyaenas will comein crowds to the awful feast.

  Then rains and dews will fall and wash the bones, and the sun's brightbeams will bleach them, till in time nought will be left in the field ofthat fearful fight except blanched skulls and snow-white skeletons.

  Ah, boys! where is the glory of war when the fight is fought, when thebattle is over, and the victory won? Look upon that silent, bone-strewnplain and tell me where.

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  As naturally as if he had been voted into it, did Harry now quietly andcoolly assume command of the whole army, both Googagoo's and 'Ngaloo's.The latter king he could not respect, albeit it was through hisinstrumentality that they had all escaped utter annihilation. He triedto feel grateful to 'Ngaloo, but it was impossible, he really could nothelp observing that the great chief had a selfish, grasping, andgrovelling mind. There were times, indeed, that he could scarcely feelcivil to the savage.

  And no wonder. 'Ngaloo, after looking for a long time at Harry'sactions, and admiring his bustling but well-trained activity, came, andwith cool audacity made a proposition to him. It was couched in thefollowing terms:

  "We soon go back now to my beautiful land among the mountains. I am agreat king now. I have been a great king all my life. I am now twice agreat king, because I shall reign over all the rich land and woods of mydear brother King Kara-Kara, whose confounded dead nose I pulled on thebattlefield. So there is no king in the world so great now as 'Ngaloo.Come, then, and live with me. I will make of you a big chief. I willcut the head of my prime minister off, and you shall reign in his stead,and have all his wives as slaves--"

  It was precisely at this point that Harry interrupted the king'spoetical harangue.

  Harry simply said--

  "Bosh!"

  Very emphatically he said it, too. Then he wheeled right round andproceeded with his duty.

  'Ngaloo went away then, somewhat crestfallen; but he had a privatecommissariat of his own, and he found some rum there, so he consoledhimself with that.

  A few hours afterwards, 'Ngaloo might have been seen marching aboutamong Harry's troops, with a sottish kind of a smile on his face.

  'Ngaloo was taking lessons in modern warfare. He told Harry, when hemet him, that he meant to remodel his own army upon the principles ofGoogagoo's.

  The cross-bows greatly took his fancy. So did the amazons.

  He could not tire looking at them, and as soon as he got home, he said,he would arm and drill every one of his wives, and make amazons of them.

  "And if they do not be good soldiers," he added, "why, there is thetongs."

  He snapped that weapon as he spoke, and cackled and laughed as if he hadsaid something very clever and witty.

  The next stupid thing that 'Ngaloo did was to take Harry by the arm, andtell him with a burst of confidence, which was no doubt meant to be veryfriendly, that when they returned to King Kara-Kara's, and captured thewhite slaves, Harry should have no less than two of them, and that he,'Ngaloo, would only keep four to himself.

  Harry burst out laughing in the great king's face; but instead of beingoffended, 'Ngaloo was delighted, for he thought that Generalissimo HarryMilvaine was pleasedly acquiescing in his pretty little arrangement.

  'Ngaloo was so delighted that he must needs go and help himself toanother dose of his brain-devouring rum or fire-water.

  Then he turned his attentions towards Googagoo. He made this honestking a very long speech indeed, laudatory of his own exceedinggreatness, and of the comparative insignificance of every other king andchief in creation.

  To all of this Googagoo listened with the politeness and urbanityinseparable from his nature.

  But the king of the hundred islands, in a return speech, reminded'Ngaloo that however great and glorious we were in this world, we mustall die one day and go to another, where the Great Spirit would judge usaccording to the deeds done in the flesh, or forgive us if we trustedthe Son that He had long, long ago sent to save us.

  Alas! 'Ngaloo was not much impressed by the earnest words of Googagoo.He was silent for a short time, as if in deep thought; then he spoke tothe following effect:

  "Very likely all you say is true; but I suppose in the next world I willbe just as big a chief, and have more territory than I have in this.For," he added, "there is no getting over the greatness of 'Ngaloo."

  It took the united armies a whole week to reach King Kara-Kara'scountry.

  Harry had taken the precaution to keep his people quite separate andwell in advance of 'Ngaloo's, and gave strict orders to Walda and hisother officers to watch for the slightest signs of, treachery on thepart of 'Ngaloo.

  Our hero mistrusted him, and perhaps he had reason; but, on the otherhand, he need not have done so either, for "the greatest king in all theworld" was so frequently overcome by frequent applications to hisfire-water commissariat, that he had to be carried in a grass-clothhammock nearly all the way.

  It was forest land mostly which they traversed, woods filled withchattering monkeys and bright-winged silent birds, woods in which lionsroared and hyaenas laughed all night long, woods often dripping withdank dews, and at times so dark by day that it was difficult to find away through them.

  But anon they would come t
o open glades and glens among the hills andmountains, with clear streams rippling through them, in which many alusty trout gambolled and fed, with sweet bird-voices and the murmur ofinsect life, making music in the air, every creature happy and busy,because of the sunshine that gladdened all.

  They came at last to the foot of the mountain or conical hill, whereHarry's unhappy shipmates were imprisoned.

  Some slight show of resistance was made by those beneath, while those atthe top and on guard rolled down great stones and rocks upon them.

  But Harry's brave fellows, he himself at the head of them--he well knewhow to climb a hill--took the place with one wild determined rush.

  Many of the assaulters were wounded and some were killed with thedescending stones, so that their savage instincts got the better oftheir judgment, and in spite of all that Harry could do, an ugly sceneof carnage took place