The Message

by Louis Tracy

  CHAPTER XIV

  THE DRUMS OF OKU

  Evelyn, ferried across the harbor by a boat's crew from the warship,boarded the _Estremadura_ in almost regal state. The vessel's cabinaccommodation was poor, but the English girl was given of its best. Notevery day does a small West African trader receive a passenger underthe escort of a peer of the realm and a Captain in the Royal Navy. Itwas an interesting moment when Rosamund Laing, accompanied by Figuero,came alongside. The Portuguese made off at once, but the lady, whenit was too late to retreat, affected a blank indifference to Evelyn'spresence that showed how conscious she was of it. She seldom appearedon deck, ate each meal in the seclusion of her cabin, and spoke noword, even to Lord Fairholme. On arriving at Lagos she hurried from theship, and Evelyn breathed a sigh of relief as she watched her enemy goashore.

  She did not carry her dislike of Mrs. Laing to the point of imaginingher to be in active co-operation with the plotters against Britishsupremacy in that quarter of the world. It was far more probable thata rich woman who drew some part of her revenues from factories on thecoast might be combining business with the desire to obtain news ofWarden at first hand. At any rate, the girl fondly hoped they mightnever meet again, and she trusted to the strength of her own story,supplemented by a letter from Captain Mortimer to the Governor, toplace her beyond the reach of misrepresentation.

  But her troubles, instead of diminishing, became even more pronouncedwhen she called at Government House. Both she and Lord Fairholme wereentirely ignorant of local conditions. Neither of them knew that Lagos,though the chief West African port, and practically the only safeharbor on the Guinea Coast, was the capital of an administration quiteseparate from that of North and of South Nigeria. To reach Old Calabar,the headquarters of Warden's service, they must take a long journeydown the coast and penetrate some forty miles into the Niger delta.Captain Mortimer, in all probability, thought she was aware of thisvital distinction, but, at the outset, Evelyn almost felt that she hadundertaken a useless task.

  Her manifest distress at an unpleasing discovery won her the sympathyof the deputy Governor of Lagos, his chief having crossed from theisland to the mainland only the day before. But sympathy could notaltogether cloak a skepticism that was galling in the extreme. Hewas fully acquainted with the position of affairs in the sisterprotectorate, he said. He appreciated Captain Mortimer's motives inwishing to acquaint the Government of Nigeria with certain curiouscircumstances which might or might not be connected with tribaluneasiness in the Benu? River districts, but the fact remained that allwas quiet now in that region.

  "Owing to Captain Warden's unfortunate disappearance," he went on,"another commissioner visited Oku. He found matters there in a fairlysettled state. The people were cultivating their lands with greaterassiduity than such semi-cannibals usually display, and this is a suresign of content in a West African community. Indeed, Captain Forbesis now about to return to headquarters. A few companies of Hausaconstabulary, who were moved to more convenient centers in case astrong column was required for an expedition to the Benu?, are goingback to their original cantonments. The incident is ended."

  The official tone was blandly disconcerting. Evelyn was aware thatthe deputy Governor looked on her somewhat in the light of a runawayschoolgirl, who had no reason whatever to bother her pretty head aboutthe business of a prosperous and thriving colony.

  "You seem to imply that the Home authorities acted in a panic," shesaid, wondering if it were really true that Warden and the men he hadseen in London were laboring under a delusion.

  "No. They misread the motives of the Nigeria administration incurtailing Captain Warden's furlough--that is all. There undoubtedlywere rumors of some border disturbances. The people in that regionhinted that the Oku men were arranging what they term a Long Ju-ju.There was also a trading activity on the part of our neighborsthat gave rise to unpleasant suspicions. To be forewarned is to beforearmed, and His Excellency the Governor regarded Captain Warden asthe man who could best deal with and remove any causes of discontent.Within the last two months, however, all unfavorable symptoms havevanished, and Oku is now as quiet as Old Calabar, or Lagos itself."

  "I am glad of it," she said earnestly. "It is far from my wish tofigure as a messenger of strife. May I revert to a more personalmatter? If Captain Warden has succeeded in crossing the Sahara, whenand where may I reasonably expect to hear of him?"

  The deputy Governor stroked his chin. He was a kind-hearted man, andcircumstances had prepared him for that question.

  "It is hard to say," he answered, "Assuming he reaches Timbuktu insafety, he can follow that course of the Upper Niger, through what isknown as the Dahomey hinterland, until he arrives at Ilo, the firsttown in the British sphere of influence in that direction. Thenceto the sea, at this season, the river is navigable. If he makes forLagos--having been ordered here in the first instance--he might strikeoverland from Jebbu to the railhead at Ibadan, but if he sticks to theriver and goes to his own headquarters, by remaining here you shouldobtain telegraphic information of his arrival at a town called Lokoja,situated at the junction of the Niger and the Benu?."

  He paused. His brief review conveyed no hint to his hearer of thetremendous difficulties any man must overcome ere he reached thecomparative civilization of the telegraph, and he flinched from thetask of enlightening her.

  "Is it quite certain," he asked, "that Captain Warden went ashore atRabat?"

  The astonishment in Evelyn's face was almost sufficient answer.

  "Unless every one in some Government department in London has gone mad,it is quite certain," she cried. "Did not an officer from Nigeria go tomeet him at Cape Coast Castle, and is it not evident that he went toHassan's Tower to obtain the ruby I have told you of?"

  The official smiled. He had effectually distracted her thoughts fromthe far more embarrassing topic of Warden's chances of reaching Nigeriaalive.

  "One learns to distrust circumstantial evidence, Miss Dane. Have youheard that the passenger on the _Water Witch_ was known as Mr. AlfredWilliams? Yes? Well, we do not know Captain Warden. We have no meanshere of identifying the baggage landed by the captain of the _WaterWitch_ when he reported the Rabat incident. Could you recognize any ofCaptain Warden's belongings?"

  "No," said Evelyn blankly--"that is, I fear not."

  "You mentioned a gourd. I have not seen the thing myself, but one of myassistants says that a most remarkable object of that nature was foundin one of the missing man's boxes."

  "Ah, I should know that anywhere," and she shuddered at therecollection of the evil face whose appearance had so strangelysynchronized with the stormy events of her recent life.

  "Well, have you any objection to examining the gourd now? If it is theundoubted article you picked up in the Solent, it goes far to provethat Captain Warden did really take passage on the _Water Witch_."

  "I cannot imagine how you can think otherwise," she declared. "Ofcourse it was he!"

  "There is no harm in making sure," he said, having already decided toentrust to his wife the trying duty of making known to this charminggirl the almost certain fact that her lover was long since dead.

  The calabash was brought and taken from its canvas wrapper. Oddlyenough, mildew had formed on its bright lacquer, and the sheen of themosaic eyes was dulled. It had lost some of its artistic power, and wasfar from being the terrifying creation that scared her so badly whenfirst she saw it on the deck of the _Nancy_.

  "Yes, that is it," she said. "You see, this crown is really a lid, andthe piece of vellum, or parchment, was hidden inside. It is not therenow, yet it is more than likely that Captain Warden kept them bothtogether."

  The servant who had brought the calabash was sent back to search forthe tattooed skin. He soon returned with it, and the deputy Governorexamined the two curios with manifest interest.

  "It is not native work," he said. "I have never seen anything just likeit, even in museums at home."

  Moved by an impulse which she could never afterwards
explain, Evelynasked if both the gourd and the parchment might be given to her.

  "They are really mine," she explained sadly. "Captain Warden askedme to accept the carved head, as it was I who discovered it. But Iwas afraid of it then. Now, I should be pleased to have it in mypossession. It brought us together in the first instance. Perhaps itmay do the same thing a second time."

  "Nigeria is the home of the ju-ju--may this fetish prove a lucky one!"said the official gravely. "Take it, by all means, Miss Dane, but letno native see it, or you will attract a notoriety that I am sure youwould dislike. Meanwhile, I shall telegraph to Old Calabar asking fornews, though I should certainly have heard if Warden had turned upalready."

  That same afternoon the deputy Governor's wife called on Evelyn, andinvited her to come and stay at her house, urging that she would findresidence in a private family vastly preferable to the hotel in whichshe had passed the previous night. For fully three weeks she livedwith this most friendly and hospitable lady. By degrees, as theybecame more intimate, her new acquaintance gathered the threads of theunusual story in which the girl figured so prominently. Similarly, asEvelyn gained more knowledge of African affairs, she could not helpbut discover that it would be nothing less than a miracle if Wardenever reached Nigeria. The difficulties facing even a well-equippedexpedition on the desert route were so great that all but the mostenthusiastic explorers shrank from them. How, then, could one whiteman, accompanied by a solitary Hausa, hope to overcome them? The deputyGovernor scouted the idea that Warden could raise a caravan at BelAbbas. He was dubious about the incidents reported from Lektawa, buthe made no secret of the utter improbability that Warden would havethe means of buying camels and hiring men for the dangerous journeyoutlined by Captain Mortimer. And, to complete Evelyn's dismay, theSouthern Nigeria administration sent the most positive assurances thatWarden had not been heard of in the upper river districts.

  She learned incidentally that Mrs. Laing had gone to Lokoja in a riversteamer. Her hostess believed that Rosamund had found out the latestversion of Warden's adventures, and cherished a faint hope that evenyet she might forestall Evelyn. No small consideration would take herso far into the interior, especially as the journey was both risky anduseless.

  "But that need not trouble you at all, my dear," said her outspokenfriend. "If Captain Warden lives, you can rest assured that my husbandwill hear of him long before Mrs. Laing hears. I am afraid that if newscomes at all, it will reach us in the form of a native rumor that awhite man died of fever away up there beyond the hills. It is alwaysfever--never a spear thrust or a quantity of powdered glass mixedwith a man's food. The natives are loyal enough to each other in thatrespect. Even when they know the truth, it is almost impossible to getthem to tell it."

  So now it was death, and not life, that was talked of, and Evelyn livedon in dry-eyed misery until Fairholme hinted one day that she ought toreturn home, as the climate was beginning to affect her health.

  There were not lacking indications that the merry-souled little peerhad quickly reconciled himself to the loss of Mrs. Laing. He was themost popular man in Lagos, and he hardly ever visited Evelyn when hedid not assure her that he was "havin' a giddy time with the deargirls." Yet she knew that he was only waiting until the last hope ofWarden's escape from the desert must be abandoned. When that hour came,and she was prepared to take ship for England, Fairholme would ask herto marry him.

  The belief became an obsession. To get away from it, to cut herselfwholly adrift from painful associations, she offered her help toan American Baptist missionary and his wife who were going up theBenu?. They tried to dissuade her, pointing out the hardships andpositive dangers of the undertaking and the humdrum nature of thenursing, teaching, and doctoring that constituted the lot of a medicalmissionary in West Africa. Finally, they consented, but stipulated thatshe should give her new career a six months' trial.

  Fairholme protested, and stormed, and was only prevented from proposingon the spot by Evelyn's placid statement that no matter what the futuremight decide, she should not be happy unless she had visited thelittle-known land to which her lover had given the best years of hislife.

  The reference to Warden effectually sealed his lips. He hastened to theclub, asked a man to dine with him, drank the larger part of a bottleof champagne, and mournfully informed his friends that he had neverenjoyed a moment's real fun since he ceased to be hard up.

  So Evelyn said good-by to the hospitable people who entertained herat Lagos, and made the long voyage up the great river that perplexedmankind during so many centuries. Even yet its whole course has notbeen surveyed, and it has important tributaries that are unknown beyondtheir confluence with the main stream. But the river steamer followedthe established trade route through Old Calabar and Asabao and Idahto Lokoja; thence a steam launch took the small party of Europeans upthe Benu? to Ibi, and they completed the journey in a roofed boat ofshallow draft manned by krooboys.

  The girl seemed now to have left behind the cares and troubles ofthe outer world. Busying herself with the daily life of the missioncompound--once a stockaded trading-station and noted center for thedistribution of gin, but now a peaceful hive of simple tuition andindustry--she soon experienced a calm sense of duty accomplished thathad certainly been denied her in the Baumgartner household. At Lagosshe had received one letter from Beryl, who complained bitterly of her"desertion." A police patrol-boat brought her a letter from home, inwhich her stepmother expressed the strongest disapproval of her newdeparture as announced by a hurried note sent from Lagos. And that wasall. The links that bound her with England were completely snapped.She might almost be the kidnapped Domenico Garcia, of whom she thoughtoccasionally when some chance aspect of a negro's face startled her byits close resemblance to the black mask on the calabash.

  Mindful of the Lagos official's warning, she never showed the carvedhead to any one. Not even Mr. and Mrs. Hume, the mission couple, knewthat it was in her possession.

  She had been nearly two months in Kadana, as the group of houses andhuts in the clearing by the side of the yellow Benu? was called, whenan apparently trivial incident upset the placid routine of the mission.One evening, just before sunset, a ju-ju man, fearsomely bedaubed,and decked with an amazing headdress and skirt of scarlet feathers,came into the native section of the compound. He cut off the head ofan unhappy fowl that he carried with him, sprinkled its warm blood ina circle on the ground, chanted some hoarse incantation, and vanishedinto the bush.

  The white people saw him from a distance. They happened to be standingon the veranda of an old factory used as a schoolhouse and dwelling,and Mr. Hume was greatly annoyed by the witch-doctor's visit.

  "This will unsettle every native for a week or two," he said, eyingthe man's antics with evident disfavor. "Those fellows are a farmore enduring curse to Africa than the gin traffic. Governments canlegislate gin out of existence, but they cannot touch ju-ju."

  "We are doing something in that direction here," said Evelyn, glancingover her shoulder at the rows of woolly-headed little black figures inthe class-room.

  "Yes, we are educating the children, but their parents will undoto-night all that we have accomplished since our return. Look atBambuk. He has mixed with Europeans during the past ten years, yet heis white with terror."

  It was an odd phrase to use with regard to a negro, but it was quiteaccurate. Bambuk, interpreter, head servant, and factotum-in-chief tothe mission, who was peering through the doorway at the proceedings ofthe ju-ju man, showed every sign of alarm when he saw the fowl-killingceremony. His ebony face, usually shining and jovial looking, becamelivid and drawn. His eyes glistened like those of a frightened animal.

  Turning for a second to make sure that the children were not listening,he drew near and whispered:

  "Oku man make war ju-ju. Him say all black people lib for bush, or demKing of Oku nail ebery one to tree w'en he burn mission."

  Bambuk could speak far better English than that. The fact that he hadreverted so thoroughly t
o the jargon of the krooboy proved the extentof his fear.

  Hume affected to make light of the witch-doctor and his threats.

  "Go and tell him to stop his nonsense", he said. "Say I have a bale ofcotton here which I brought especially from Lagos as a present for KingM'Wanga."

  But before Bambuk could descend the broad flight of steps leading fromthe veranda, the fetish performance was at an end and its chief actorhad rushed off among the trees.

  Evelyn felt a chill run through her body, though the air was hot andvapor-laden.

  "Is M'Wagna the name of the King of Oku?" she asked.

  "I believe so. I have been absent nearly eight months, as you areaware, but I haven't heard of any change in the local dynasty."

  "Do you think it likely that he has ever visited England?"

  "Most improbable," said Hume. "He is an absolute savage. I have seenhim only once, and I should be sorry to think that my life depended onhis good will. But why did you imagine he might have been in England?"

  "Because a native of that name came there with two others last August."

  "We have been visited by ju-ju men before, Charles," put in Mrs. Hume.

  "Yes. Generally they come begging for something they want--usuallydrugs--which they pretend to concoct themselves out of a snake's liveror the gizzard of a bird. Don't lay too much stress on Bambuk's fright.He is a chicken-hearted fellow at the best. If there is really anylikelihood of a native disturbance I shall send him with you and MissDane down the river----"

  "I shall not go without you, dear," said Mrs. Hume.

  "Nor I--unless both of you come," answered Evelyn.

  Hume laughed constrainedly.

  "You will both obey orders, I hope," he said, but he did not urge thematter further at the moment.

  They were eating their evening meal when the distant tapping of a drumcaught their ears. It was not the rhythmical beating of a tom-tom bysome musically-inclined bushman. It much more closely resembled thedot and dash code of the Morse alphabet, or that variant of it whichPrivate Thomas Atkins, in a spasm of genius, christened "Umty-iddy."Heard in the stillness of the forest, with not a breath of air stirringthe leaves of the tallest trees, and even the tawny river murmuringin so low a note that it was inaudible from the mission-house, thisirregular drum-beating had a depressing, almost a sinister effect.It jarred on the nerves. It suggested the unseen and therefore theterrible. At all costs they must find out what it signified.

  Bambuk was summoned. He was even more distraught than during thefetish performance of two hours earlier.

  "Dem Oku drum play Custom tune," he explained. "Dem Custom mean----"

  "Do you savvy what they are saying?" broke in Hume sharply. He did notimagine that his wife had discussed the habits of native potentateswith her youthful helper, and even she herself did not know the fullextent of the excesses, the sheer lust of bloodshed, hidden under aharmless-sounding word.

  "Savvy plenty. Dem drum made of monkey-skin--p'haps other kind ofskin--an' dem ju-ju man say: 'Come, come! Make sharp dem knife! Come!Load dem gun! Come, den, come! Dem ribber (river) run red wid blood!'Den dey nail some men to tree an' make dance."

  The missionary did not check his assistant's recital. It was best thatthe women should at least understand the peril in which they wereplaced. The compound held not more than fifty able-bodied men, andthe only arms they possessed were native weapons. Hume's influencedepended wholly on his skill in treating the ailments of the peopleand his patience in teaching their children not only the rudimentsof English but the simpler forms of handicraft. His experience asan African missioner was not of long standing, but from the outsethe had consistently refused to own any firearm more deadly than ashotgun. Hitherto he had regarded the Upper Benu? region as a settledand fairly prosperous one. His cherished day-dream was that beforehe died he might see the pioneer settlement at Kadana transmuted intoa well-equipped college and training school, whence Christianity andscience might spread their light throughout that part of Africa. Itshocked him now to think that all his work might be submerged undera wave of fanaticism, yet he clung to the hope that the warlikepreparations of the men of Oku might mean nothing more serious than atribal quarrel. This had happened once before, and he stepped in asarbitrator. By a liberal distribution of presents, including the wholeof the mission stock of wine and brandy, he sent away both partieshighly gratified with both his award and his method of arriving at it.

  "There are war-drums beating in more than one place," said Evelyn, whowas listening in silence to the spasmodic tap-tap, tap-tap-tap, tap,that voiced the dirge translated by Bambuk.

  "Ah, you have hit on my unspoken thought," cried Hume. "Come, now,Bambuk, are you not enlarging your story somewhat? Two chiefs makewar-palaver; isn't that the explanation?"

  "Dem Oku drum," repeated the native, "all Oku drum. Dey call for Customto-night."

  "What exactly _is_ Custom, Charles?" said Mrs. Hume.

  "Unfortunately, it means in this instance an offering of humansacrifice."

  He saw no help for it. They must know, sooner or later, and his soulturned sick at the thought of his wife and this gentle girl whohad thrown in her lot with theirs falling into the clutches of thefetish-maddened bushmen. Each minute he grew more assured that someunusual movement was taking place among the surrounding tribes. Evento his untutored ear there was a marked similarity in the drumming,and he determined that the two women should go down the river in themission canoe as soon as the moon rose. A crew of eight men could takethem to the nearest constabulary post, and within twenty-four hours asteam launch would bring back an armed body of Hausas officered by anEnglishman. Till then, he would trust to Providence for the safety ofthe people under his care. That he himself could desert the missionnever entered his mind. Not only would the settlement break up indirest confusion the moment his back was turned, but the society'shouses and stores would be looted and destroyed, and the work of yearsswept away in a single night.

  He was considering what excuse would serve to get the women on boardthe canoe, when the splash of paddles close at hand stirred all four tosudden excitement. It was Bambuk who read instantly the meaning of thisunexpected sound. He rushed out, yelling words that proved how soon theveneer of civilization can wear off the West African negro. Soon hecame back, looking sick with fear.

  "Dem dam pagan nigger make off in dem canoe," he almost screamed. "Deysavvy plenty too much bushman lib. We all be killed one-time."

  Even Evelyn, new to the country and its ways, realized what this meant.The river was their only highway. There were native tracks in plentythrough the dense forest, but to march along any one of them whilea hostile force was lying across every path was to court immediatedisaster. By running away from a peril which was only passive as yet,they made it active. On the river they might escape; in the bush theycould not travel a mile except on native sufferance.

  Hume tried bravely to minimize the force of this unlooked-for blow.It was true the fugitives might be expected to carry the alarm to thepolice post, but until the following night it was quite impossible forsuccor to reach Kadana. And now they must all stand or fall by themission.

  "I did not think any of our men would be such cowards," he said withquiet sadness. "Let us go and pacify the others. When all is said anddone, we have harmed no one in Oku territory, but given relief to manywho were in pain. I still believe that this scare is unwarranted, andour presence among our people will tend to calm them."

  A minute later he was sorry he had not gone alone. Every hut in thecompound was empty. Nearly two hundred men, women, and children hadfled into the bush, preferring to obey the order of the ju-ju manrather than defy him by remaining in the mission. Bambuk had notbeen taken into their confidence because he was originally a FoulahMohammedan. The colony at Kadana was precisely what Bambuk had calledits members in his rage, for the Mohammedan negro looks down upon his"pagan" brethren with supreme contempt. In a crisis such as that whichnow threatened to engulf the mission, these nice distin
ctions of classand creed are apt to spring into startling prominence.

  Hume faced the situation gallantly.

  "Another illusion shattered," he sighed. "Most certainly I did notexpect that all my people would desert me at the first hint of danger.But we must make the best of it. Even now I cannot believe that theking of Oku--if it really is he who has created this disturbance--cancontemplate an attack on Europeans. He has many faults, but he is nota fool, and he knows quite well how swift and complete would be hispunishment if he interfered with us."

  Mrs. Hume accepted her husband's views, and tried to look at matterswith the same optimism. Evelyn, curiously enough, was better informedthan even their native companion as to the serious nature of theoutbreak. She was convinced that Warden's theory was correct. Somestronger influence than a mere tribal _?meute_ lay behind thosehorrible drumbeats. The authorities had been completely hoodwinked. Inher heart of hearts she feared that Kadana shared its deadly peril thatnight with many a stronger trading-post and station down the river.

  Bambuk, quieting down from his earlier paroxysms of fear, seemed toawait his certain doom with a dignified fatalism. Even when he heardthe thud of paddles on the sluggish waters of the river he announcedthe fact laconically.

  "Bush man lib!" he muttered.

  Perhaps the white faces blanched somewhat, and hearts beat a triflefaster, but Hume alone spoke.

  "Where?" he asked.

  "On ribber--in dem war canoe."

  They strained their ears, and soon caught the measured plashing. ThenMrs Hume began to weep. Evelyn knelt by her side in mute sympathy. Shewas too dazed to find relief in tears. For the moment she seemed tobe passing through a torturing dream from which she would soon awake.Hume, who had gone to the door, came to his wife.

  "Don't cry, Mary," he said. "That does no good--and--it breaks myheart. I have not abandoned hope. God can save us even yet. Be notafraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more thatthey can do."

  His voice was strong and self-reliant. Even Bambuk glanced at him witha kind of awe, and thought, it may be, that the creed he had trieddimly to understand was nobler than the mere stoicism that was thenatural outcome of his own fantastic beliefs. The negro was stupid withterror, or he could not have failed to distinguish the steady hum of anengine running at half speed.

  And so they waited, while the thud of the paddles came nearer, until atlast the bow of a heavy craft crashed into the foliage overhanging thebank, and they were rapt into a heaven of relief by hearing an Englishvoice.

  "Hello, there!" it shouted. "Is this the Kadana Mission?"

  Mrs. Hume straightway fainted, but Evelyn was there to tend her, andHume rushed down to the landing-place. The gleam of a moon risingover some low hills was beginning to make luminous the river mist. Hewas able dimly to note the difference between the pith hats of twoEuropeans and the smart round caps of a number of Hausa policemen. And,though a man of peace, he found the glint of rifle barrels singularlycomforting.

  "Who are you?" he asked.

  "Well," said he who had spoken in the first instance, "I am LieutenantColville of the constabulary, but I have brought with me the Earl ofFairholme. Have you a lady named Dane, Miss Evelyn Dane, staying withyou?"

  Hume, who wanted to fall on his knees and offer thanks to Providence,managed to say that Evelyn Dane was certainly at Kadana at that moment.

  "Ah, that's the ticket!" said another voice. "I suppose you can put usup for the night? Any sort of shake-down will do, so long as we getaway from this beastly river. Sleepin' on board gives one the jim-jams,eh, what?"