by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER XXII THE QUEEN'S RUBY
Darkness had fallen as Curlie Carson, still following the trail of hisgood pal Johnny, and still urging his donkeys forward, approached themouth of the cave occupied by the bronze natives and the little doctor.Johnny, as you will know, had been gone from that place several hours. Hewas now well on his way back.
The black horde, had Curlie but known it, was but two hours behind him onthe trail. He did not know. All he knew was that his good pal was missingand that he had passed this way.
By great good fortune, the first person he met was the short broad man,the white doctor.
"Johnny?" the little doctor smiled in answer to Curlie's question. "Surewe had him. We let him go. But he'll be back; may be here at any time.Sit down and rest."
"Here, Beppo," he spoke to a bronze native, "bring us some of thatroasted guinea hen and boiled plantain."
When Curlie had eaten and had fed his donkeys from a bundle of wildgrass, the little doctor told him as much as he deemed best of Johnny'slatest adventure. He showed him the Magic Telescope and bade him makehimself at home.
Hardly had he finished speaking when a bronze native, panting and quitedone in by running, dropped at his feet. When this man found his breathhe told a startling tale of a black, ape-like horde of men, armed withclubs, machetes and rifles who were marching upon the cave.
"Now what?" said the doctor, turning to Curlie for an answer. "We are apeaceful people. Have you brought this mob to attack us?"
Curlie's eyes went wide with wonder. The whole affair was news to him. Afew well directed questions and he knew the worst. The leader of thisband was none other than Pluto, the bad black man whose shipload of armshe had sunk. The others were his followers. That they were bent onvengeance he did not doubt.
"There's no time for explaining now," he said springing to his feet andseizing a heavy hamper. "Those men are not my friends but my enemies. Ithink you may leave them to me. But if your men will carry all theseheavy hampers into the cave, it will help."
"'There is a destiny'," he quoted to himself, "'that shapes our ends'. Amoment ago I was thinking what a lot of wasted toil it had been, urgingthose stubborn donkeys up this trail. But now--"
Ten minutes later he found himself busy erecting in the mouth of the cavea figure that was as fear-inspiring to the timid bronze men as he hopedit might be to the black horde.
This figure it was that had absorbed so much of his thought and occupiedhis hours in his laboratory at the Citadel.
* * * * * * * *
At ten that night Johnny was still toiling up the trail. As he paused todrink deep of the cool night air, he caught the gleam of lightning andfelt some seconds later the shudder of the mountain as the thunder camerolling in.
"Going to storm," he told himself. "Wonder if we'll make it?"
Dot too heard the thunder. She too wondered. Her wonder was of adifferent sort. She was still imprisoned. Doris had gone for aid. She hadnot returned--might not return until morning.
"And if it storms." She shuddered anew at the thought. A severe tropicalstorm is not soon forgotten. Dot had passed through one. It had uprootedcentury old trees, brought great ships ashore to break them on the rocksand had changed the very aspect of the country.
That she might not lose her grip on her nerves, she began prowling aroundher prison. Nor did her search go unrewarded. Of a sudden, as she shother light in a dark hole behind a rock, she gave forth a low cry ofsurprise and fear. It seemed to her that a single fiery red eye wasgleaming up at her.
A second, a calmer look and she knew that she was gazing upon thelargest, most beautiful stone she had yet discovered, a huge ruby set ina circle of gold.
"It's the Queen's Ruby," she told herself, holding it up to the light.There is a legend that the black queen always wore at her throat agleaming solitary ruby.
"If only some one would come," she said to herself. "If they only would."
The answer was a second roll of thunder.
* * * * * * * *
In the meantime Johnny was making the best of his way up the mountain.Now he was two miles away, now only one. And now, as he paused once moreat the top of a steep climb he caught an odd confusion of noises. Hisguide too heard and at once became violently excited. He began dancingabout and howling in a strange manner.
"What's happened?" the boy asked, after he had seized him and forced himinto silence.
To this question the native made no reply.
"No use asking more," the boy told himself. "He doesn't understand a wordof English."
Immediately, upon being released, the fellow renewed his howling anddancing. In this manner he danced himself quite out of sight. That wasthe last seen of him.
But Johnny no longer needed a guide. The way was plain, straight aheadand up--up--up. He needed someone to explain the loud tum--tum--tum ofdrums, the wild screeching and screaming that came to him.
"The son of the bearer of the Magic Telescope is dead," he told himself."And this is the funeral chant. Or perhaps a witch doctor has arrived,some _Papa Lou_ who is trying out his incantations."
Coming at last upon a clump of tropical pines that shut the traveler offfrom a view of the cave's mouth, he drew a long breath, stepped boldlyforward, then stopped still to stare.
Before the cave, grotesquely lighted up by wavering torches, was thewildest, most terrible assembly of faces he had ever looked upon.
"It--it's like a moving picture scene taken from the Hunchback of NotreDame," he told himself. "How terrible they are! And how they howl. Whatcan it all mean?"
As he moved a few paces forward and to his right for a better view hisastonishment knew no bounds. For there in the mouth of the cave, facingthe angry mob of blacks, stood a gigantic solitary figure. Not a humanfigure was he, but like one. He had arms that now waved madly from sideto side and now shot outward and upward as if to rain blows upon anapproaching enemy. He had legs that now were motionless and now set himbobbing wildly up and down like an angry child. He had eyes that gleamednow green, now red, now blue, and jaws that from time to time snapped andcracked like the clamps of a steel trap.
"Of such things," said Johnny, "madness is made." He stepped back intothe shadows.
Unable to understand the least bit of this wild scene, he found onethought uppermost in his mind; he bore in a sack at his side the preciousmedicine that might mean life to a dying man. Somehow he must enter thecave. To pass through that angry mob was unthinkable--and impossible.
"There's a secret entrance over here to the right," he told himself. "Iwill go that way."
Turning, he wearily retraced his steps to approach the cave from adifferent angle. And still the flashes of light, green, red and blue,continued; so too did the screams and drum beats.
"What's to come of it all?" he asked himself, and found no answer.
Once more came the roar and shudder of thunder, this time louder and moreterrifying.
* * * * * * * *
Dot, still trapped among the rocky ruins, heard that thunder. She heardsomething more. That something set her heart beating wildly. It was thevoice of her cousin, calling: "Dot! Dot! Are you still there? Just think!I have found the King."
"The King. There is no King." Dot thought her cousin out of her senses.
"The Marine King of Manowa. He was coming to see about the revolution.And I found him."
"We'll have you out of there in two shakes," said the King. "Just sittight.
"Now where's that pole? Oh yes, here it is. Guess you're lucky. Going tobe a peach of a storm. Less than an hour. Now young lady, out on the endand down we go. Up goes the stone. No. She slipped. Let's heave her upagain. Now! Down we go. There you are. Crawl out. Double quick time.Trench duty with no frills. Hurray! Here she is laden with treasure andsafe as a buck private in the guard house."
It was with the greatest difficulty
that Dot restrained herself fromhugging the King as she tumbled off the pile of rocks. She did grip hisarm hard and tell him how very, very thankful she was that there was atleast one king left in the world.
"And now," said the King in very blunt language, "we've got to beat itand that all-fired fast!"